From two excellent sites--persecution watch again, again, again

EU requested to establish national surveillance units to monitor citizens suspected of “intolerance”

BY DEACON NICK DONNELLY, ON OCTOBER 17TH, 2013

The European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR), comprising former heads of state and government leaders, has requested that the EU establishes national surveillance units to monitor citizens suspected of “intolerance”. The ECTR called its proposal the ‘Framework National Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance’.

European Dignity Watch, a civil rights watchdog group based in Brussels, has warned that this directive “aims to impose governmental control over the social and economic behavior of citizens in the widest possible sense.” The group says that the ECTR Framework’s basic principles are flawed and that it “interferes in an unprecedented manner with citizens’ freedom and rights” and “distorts the concepts of ‘justice’ and ‘equality’.” Through “a reversal of the burden of proof,” the proposal “encourages frivolous litigation” and will lead to “institutionalized public control” of private opinion and thought. Sophia Kuby, spokesman for European Dignity Watch said:

“Faith-based groups and schools, adherents of a particular religion or even just parents who want to teach their children certain moral values would all be put under general suspicion of being intolerant.” “Even worse,” she said, this language “could lead to the possibility that charges are brought on unclear or even without legal grounds.” She said it would “be a significant step backward,” and “would certainly be a dark day for European democracy.”

The surveillance proposals include the following chilling statements:

• There is no need to be tolerant to the intolerant especially as far as freedom of expression is concerned.
• “Members of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups” it adds, “are entitled to a special protection” in addition to the normal legal protections afforded by the state. This “special protection…may imply a preferential treatment” for those identified as “vulnerable”.
• “It is important to stress that tolerance must be practised not only by Governmental bodies but equally by individuals, including members of one group vis-à-vis another.” It adds that the “guarantee of tolerance must be understood not only as a vertical relationship (Government-to-individuals) but also as a horizontal relationship (group-to-group and person-to-person).
   
  It is the obligation of the Government to ensure that intolerance is not practised either in vertical or in horizontal relationships.”

Protect the Pope comment: This sinister proposal to establish national surveillance units to monitor citizens suspected of “intolerance” has to be considered a serious threat to our freedom of religion and freedom of expression because it comes from former heads of state and government leaders and not some fringe extremist group of gay and secular lobbyists. If these proposals become law in the European Union then Catholics who uphold the teachings of the Church about the family and sexuality would be unjustly branded as ‘intolerant’ and subject to surveillance and punitive action by the state. Protect the Pope looks forward to reading the Conference of European Bishops response to this unprecedented threat to the Faith in Europe.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/former-heads-of-state-call-on-eu-to-set-up-state-surveillance-of-intolerant?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=dc544bae0b-LifeSiteNews_com_Intl_Headlines_06_19_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0caba610ac-dc544bae0b-326240826

 

Posts on the signs of the times

Some re-posts of mine from another blog.

Read and ponder, please.

http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-time-machine-back-to-1581-death-of.html


This will happen in Great Britain, America, Canada and most of the Western World. Catholics now have to prepare themselves for persecution, and follow the stages of such, which I have highlighted on my blog here. Some of us have seen this coming for over thirty years. And, many seminarians in the States and some in Great Britain, are prepared for martyrdom. I have been writing about Catholics with their heads in the sand about the reality of the tyranny of relativism since 2007. Some are waking up and listening. Most think that they can dialogue with the world. We are here to convert the world, not to dialogue with evil.

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn said years ago that good cannot dialogue with evil. That is what has happened to bring us in the Church to this spreading and planned persecution of Truth.

As Christ said, "He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth."

We need to make choices now either to stand with Truth or not.

Also, read...

http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-prediction-concerning-catholic.html

http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.com/2013/03/on-rational-discourse-and-blogging.html

http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.com/2013/07/stages-of-persecution.html

http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.com/2013/08/rethinking-new-evangelization.html

http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-rational-catholicneeded.html

A Reminder from The Great Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

from http://www.alor.org/Library/LegacyofTerror.htm

Marxism has always opposed freedom. I will quote just a few words from the founding fathers of communism, Marx and Engels
(I quote from the first Soviet edition of 1929)
"Reforms are a sign of weakness" (vol. 23, p. 339); 
"Democracy is more to be feared than monarchy and aristocracy," (vol. 2, p. 369);
"Political liberty is a false liberty, worse than the most abject slavery" (vol. 2, p. 394). 

In their correspondence Marx and Engels frequently said that after achieving power, terror would be indispensable, that "it will be necessary to repeat the year 1793. After achieving power, we'll be considered monsters, but we couldn't care less" (vol. 25, p. 187). 

Communism has never concealed the fact that it rejects all absolute concepts of morality. It scoffs at any consideration of "good" and "evil" as indisputable categories. Communism considers morality to be relative, to be a class matter. Depending upon circumstances and the political situation, any act, including murder, even the killing of thousands, could be good or could be bad. It all depends upon class ideology. 

And who defines class ideology? The whole class cannot get together to pass judgment. A handful of people determine what is good and what is bad. But I must say that in this very respect communism has been most successful. It has infected the whole world with the belief in the relativity of good and evil. Many people besides the Communists are carried away by this idea today. 

Among enlightened people it is considered rather awkward to use seriously such words as "good" and '"evil." Communism has managed to instill in all of us that these concepts are old-fashioned concepts and laughable. But if we are to be deprived of the concepts of good and evil, what will be left? Nothing but the manipulation of one another. We will decline to the status of animals. Both the theory and practice of communism are completely inhuman for that reason. 

Persecution Watch

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/17/house-stenographer-sent-mental-exam-after-floor-ra/

NAPCIS and others......pay attention, parents

As a person with a Master's Teacher Certification from NAPCIS, I want to alert parents in America to the coming conference against the new Common Core Curriculum. Please pay attention to this.

Here are two links and when the conference gets a website up, I shall share this.

http://napcis.org/2013/09/09/common-core-conference-to-be-joined-by-bishop-murry/

http://napcis.org/2013/08/31/common-core-conference-announced/

The Merit of the Catholic Church

I have been talking with Protestants and other non-Catholics about the Merit of the Catholic Church and how all Christians and even some other good people, if they are saved, are saved through the Merits of the Catholic Church.

This discussion has revealed three sad aspects which I think I need to share with you.

First, the merits are diminishing, as good Catholics are diminishing. The grace which was increasingly strong under persecution of the martyrs and the great prayers of the Church is now not affecting the culture and our families.

Those orthodox Catholics who are still going to daily Mass, praying the rosary, fasting and doing other penances, add to the flow of grace. Are you adding to this grace which could convert the world, but is not?

Second,  Protestants, honestly, have become so worldly and compromising the Gospel, they are no longer Christians, but either practical pagans or practical atheists. If one is trying to evangelize Protestants or pagans, these worldly aspects, such as the acceptance of the idolatry of money, the institutionalization of greed, the acceptance of contraception and abortion, the total breaking away of the ideas of personal and final judgement, including the reality of hell and purgatory, and the relativism or acceptance of all religions as valid. These are times when one cannot fudge the Gospel message and the Apostolic Tradition of the Church.

Third, know that you will lose friends and family support, as I have, by holding on to orthodox positions regarding the Merit of the Catholic Church.  The idea that there is only one, true Church and that this Church has grace to bring to the world is no longer believed by the vast majority of Catholics. Relativism has placed a dam on the flow of graces going into the world. With the weaknesses of families, parents, with the teaching of bad priests, and the compromises of weak bishops, we are seeing the Merit of the Church basically weakened to the point of not being able to reach out to the world in order to convert it. And, because too many families want to dialogue with the world, especially as many siblings and even grandparents have left the Church, the idea that salvation comes through the Catholic Church is no longer believed by those closest to you.

The sadness of losing family support is a great suffering which I can share with many.

Think about the dwindling merit found in the Church. This is not like banking, by the way, but like a Light, which has been dimmed by the lack of the pursuit of holiness among the members of the Church.

A Letter to Parents

Dear Catholic Parents,

The time has come when you must take over the entire religious education of your children. This education includes faith and virtue formation. One cannot allow the schools, colleges, and universities now mostly run by Modernist Heretics to form your children. You have no choice but to find orthodox, Catholic schools, or to home school.

The souls of your children are your responsibility until they are adults and on their own. Your children owe you obedience while they are under your roof, including attending Church and living the Catholic lifestyles. If you allow them to live outside the Church while they are under your roof, you have abdicated your role as a father or mother.

Catholic Parents, if you do not take the responsibility of passing on the Faith to your children, the Church may die in your area. Catholic leadership has never been more necessary. And, most importantly, your children must, like you, become perfect, even as Our Heavenly Father is perfect.

The personal salvation of each one of us is in our own hands. Think like a Catholic, pray like a Catholic, and live daily life in the counter-culture which is true Catholicism.

God gave us His Son, Who established the Church on earth to help us in our salvation. Do not waste this great grace.

God bless you, fellow parents. Be clear and be strong. If you allow your children to conform to the world, God will judge you accordingly at the end of your life. To be a parent is a huge responsibility, not only in providing physical needs, but spiritual needs.

As I heard from God so clearly when my son was only 9 hours old, "When you die, I shall ask you one question. Did you pass your Faith on to your son?"


Supertradmum

Gossip and News

Thanks to wiki  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_ancient_Greece

First... a rant on selling gossip

Do we really need to know nasty things about famous people? Biographies about the living or the dead have increasingly become merely sensational books slandering people with talking over coffee tidbits.

I do not think this is useful for history or for our souls. I have stopped reading anything but highly scholarly biographies, and then, even some of them, fall into the titillation mode.

Why do we need all the sexual details of John Maynard Keynes, Oscar Wilde, or Steve Jobs?

I find that those who indulge in such things merely add to a general negativity about life, the universe and everything. Cynicism is a sin, and for those reading one after another of the biographies of politicians or the rich and famous can so easily fall into cynicism.

Second...a rant on news.

For the first time in four years, I have seen CNN on the television here in Malta and I am shocked at the lack of news and lack of objectivity. CNN is into brainwashing, period. I did not see one objective news program in two sessions of sitting down with a friend. This group cannot calls itself a professional set of journalists.

The entire three shows I watched were not only of a low standard of reporting, using emotive, "yellow journalism" language, but also, repetitious interviews which "signified nothing".

Rants over....

What do you think of this?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/17/uk-gchq-nsa-surveillance-inquiry-snowden?CMP=twt_gu

...a spokesperson for the Guardian said: "The prime minister is wrong to say the Guardian destroyed computer files because we agreed our reporting was damaging.

"We destroyed the computers because the government said it would use the full force of the law to prevent a newspaper from publishing anything about the NSA or GCHQ.

A Vision To Share

A friend of mine shared a little vision of those who are trying to pursue perfection. He saw people in separate little cells in a desert country praying and becoming perfect through suffering and self-denial.

Can you see yourself in this little vision? I have written in the past about St. Catherine of Siena's making a cell in one's mind....Can you do this, not only for your own protection, but for the building of the Church?

 "Build a cell inside your mind, from which you can never flee."  St. Catherine of Siena

On Humility, again....

Of course, humility is the answer. Here is long section from the great Garrigou-Lagrange. The boldface type is what I chose as particularly beautiful sections.

But there is first a similar purification of humility. Humility is commonly said to be the fundamental virtue which removes pride, the source of every sin. St. Augustine and St. Thomas for this reason compare it to the excavation that must be dug for the construction of a building, an excavation that needs to be so much deeper as the building is to be higher. Consequently, to deepen humility it does not suffice to scratch the soil a little, it is not sufficient that we ourselves dig, as we do in a thorough examination of conscience. To drive out pride, the Lord Himself must intervene through the special inspirations of the gifts of knowledge and understanding. He then shows the soul the hitherto unsuspected degree of its profound indigence and wretchedness and throws light on the hidden folds of conscience in which lie the seeds of death. Thus a ray of sunlight shining into a dark room shows all the dust, held in suspension in the air and previously imperceptible. Under the purifying divine light, as under a powerful projector, the soul sees in itself a multitude of defects it had never noticed; confounded by the sight, it cannot bear this light. It sees at times that by its repeated sins it has placed itself in a miserable state, a state of abjection. St. Paul, strongly tempted, felt his frailty keenly. Blessed Angela of Foligno seemed to herself an abyss of sin and wished to declare her state to everyone. St. Benedict Joseph Labre one day began his confession by saying: "Have pity on me, Father, I am a great sinner." The confessor, finding nothing seriously reprehensible in his accusation, said to him: "I see that you do not know how to go to confession." He then questioned the saint on the grossest sins, but obtained such humble answers so full of the spirit of faith, that he understood that his penitent, who confessed in this manner, was a saint.

Such is indeed the purification of humility, which is no longer only exterior, no longer the pouting or sad humility of one who holds aloof because people do not approve of him. It becomes true humility of heart, which loves to be nothing that God may be all; it bows profoundly before the infinite majesty of the Most High and before what is divine in every creature.

And, here is the great prayer of Our Lord in Humility.

Kontakion 1

Plagal of Fourth Tone

To You, the Champion Leader and Lord, the Vanquisher of Hades, I, Your creature and servant, offer a song of praise, for You have delivered me from eternal death. But as You have ineffable loving-kindness, deliver me from all dangers, that I may cry to You:

Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me.

Be ready to stand up for your faith; be ready not to compromise

We cannot merely be good. We must be excellent.  This is one thing Garrigou-Lagrange notes is that God is constantly giving us many graces to which we can respond.  I have had a wonderful meditation on the varied levels of meaning of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. One is covered here by Garrigou-Lagrange. He notes that although Christ has come for all, many will fall into unbelief and rejection of Him personally.

Here is a snippet. I shall write more on the Presentation later.

...there are other collective trials which demand great uprightness of will: for example, when in the society in which we live some exceptional event occurs that obliges us, though at the cost of great sacrifices, to declare ourselves for God. Such events are visits from the Lord; in them are distinguished His true servants, who, instead of being merely good, must become excellent. With this meaning, the aged Simeon said of the coming of the Child Jesus into the world: "Behold this Child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; . . . that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed." (3) In other words, Christ, who had come for the salvation of all, was to be an occasion of fall for many. Refusing to recognize the Savior in Him, they have fallen into infidelity. Thus the secret thoughts of the Pharisees were revealed, whereas they would have remained partly hidden had the Pharisees lived two centuries earlier. Something similar occurs when there is a great supernatural event, like the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes, an event about which the good and the bad are divided. There is, as Pascal says, sufficient light for those who wish to see and sufficient obscurity for those who do not wish to see. These great events, persecutions, or exceptional visits of the Lord, on the occasion of which the good and the tepid are profoundly divided, throw light on what we are saying here of the passive purification of the soul. In periods when the life of society is not marked by anything exceptionally bad or good, no less a purification is needed to reach sanctity than in periods of social upheaval.