Friday, 7 February 2014

Three re-post re-posts...

Is anyone listening?

Monday, 2 December 2013

It all started with a marriage once before......

Posted by 
Thomas Cromwell made all this possible: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Monasteries
A list of the acts of Parliament leading up to the Age of Martyrs in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland
 can show us how "legal" rulings incrementally persecuted the Church.

Many readers make comments which indicate that they are not preparing for persecution. Daily decisions bring 
us to the end decision. Such a decision as to stand for Our Beloved Lord, Jesus Christ, does not happen automatically.

We are prepared for such. Those Catholics who support ssm and abortion are no different than those who sided 
with Henry, Elizabeth, and others against their former brothers and sisters in Christ.

Those Catholics who changed sides, left the Pope of Rome for the religious governance of Henry and Elizabeth, 
did so for many reasons. The two greatest were status (titles) and money (bribes even from the throne).

The so-called enemy of the realm held on to the Truth of Scripture and Tradition. Those who left the Church, the majority, took their own immortal souls into their own hands.

Thanks to Wiki for the short list. I have left on the links for your perusal.

Statute in Restraint of Appeals of 1533, forbidding all appeals to the Pope.

Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534

Act for the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries and Dissolution of Lesser Monasteries Act, 1535
which suppressed all the houses which did not agree to the marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn.
  1. An act for the Dissolution of the lesser Monasteries at tudorplace.com.ar
  2. Act for the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries, full text at freeuk.net


Act of Supremacy 1558, making Elizabeth head of the church.

Act of Uniformity of 1559 which made it a crime not to attend Anglican services.

January 10, 1581, "recalling Her Majesty's subjects which under pretense of studies do live beyond the seas both contrary to the laws of God and of the realm, and against such as do receive or retain Jesuits and massing priests, sowers of sedition and of other treasonable attempts." 

By this proclamation the relatives of seminarists had to recall them, or lose all civil rights. It was illegal to send 
them any supplies. Jesuits and priests must be surrendered; anyone knowingly harboring them was guilty of 

From then on, it was illegal for a Catholic priest or seminarian to be in England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland. 
It was illegal for the family of these men to help them.

All these persecuting laws were legal in the land, according to Parliament or royal decree.

If readers cannot see the parallels coming, I cannot help them more than to point out the historical precedence. 
Some readers believe this will never happen. It has already started happening.

A couple had to close their bakery business and pay fines...

A young photographer had to pay fines....

A bed and breakfast couple had to pay fines and sell their house/business...

Teachers, who are faithful, are leaving the profession so as not to teach serious error...

An Anglican priest is being taken to court in the Hague for refusing to witness a ssm....

A new curriculum will make students learn ssm is ok......here, in America.....in England....

It was a false marriage which brought down the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church in England, and 
it looks as if false, same-sex so-called marriages will do the same. But, this time, England will not be the 
only country to persecute the real Church.



Tuesday, 30 April 2013

A Prediction Concerning Catholic Marriages



The new laws in Europe, and soon to be in Great Britain, concerning civil marriages for "gays" 
will not only affect teachers and registrars who may have to leave their jobs, but the very 
institution of Catholic marriage.
Catholics "marry" twice-one getting a civil marriage license, or registrar's "marriage" 
and the sacrament of Matrimony. The Church may be forced into a position wherein she no
longer can accept civil unions at all. Why?
To avoid any sham sacramental marriage, the Church may have to reject civil marriages across 
the board.
What this would mean for Catholic sacramental marriages could be a series of losses of marriage 
legal status, rights, tax breaks, allowances, etc.
I think Catholic marriages will be forced to go underground 0r without legal definition or legal protection. 
One of the possibilities, that once civil unions are legal, the Catholic Church will have to leave the 
business of accepting civil status and only accept sacramental status. In other words, the Church 
may be put in a position where she only recognizes sacramental marriages, which means, that 
Catholic married couples will be seen by the State as merely living in concubinage and therefore, 
without any civil or tax rights.
This has already happened here, in England under the persecutions, when Catholic marriages 
were not seen as valid by the State, as only Anglican ones were. I predict this will happen both in 
America and in England, as the only way the Church will be able to avoid gay marriages. That is, 
no civil involvement at all.
Therefore, Catholic married people will not be recognized by the State as married and will not 
benefit from marriage tax breaks, etc. If you do not think this is a possibility, I suggest a careful
reading of the history of marriage in England. Before 1836, everyone except Jews and Quakers 
had to get an Anglican license, that is, be married in the Anglican Church in order to be recognized.  
See the pattern? Parliament decides the process, not the churches. Also, after 1836, with the new registry 
laws, the license costs as much as 250 pound sterling in today's money, which would have been 
very difficult for some people, including Catholics. Here is a short quotation from a site here 
which is not exhaustive but interesting.

 The Ecclesiastical Courts Act 1855, the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857,  and the Ecclesiastical Courts 
Jurisdiction Act 1860 gradually moved marriage regulation into the hands of the State.







Tuesday, 26 February 2013

A Time-Machine Back to 1581: the Death of an Enlightenment Democratic Monarchy


In this day and age of relativism, camps of opinion arise like midges on a hike in Alaska. One brushes away 
one set of  "arguments", only to find dozens flying into one's face. The media frenzy over the events of the 
past three weeks is not going to subside. On the contrary, we Catholics are entering into a new era of 
Church-bashing which will not go away.

The days of toleration for differing religious opinions, or at least, Catholic teaching, is over.

I watched two days of the Parliament hearings of witnesses regarding the civil union or rather 
same-sex-marriage act. I usually do not watch television, but I was visiting a friend who wanted to 
watch this swarm of opinions based on sola fide, sola scriptura; each man and woman on the panel proved 
to be his or her own pope.

The Church of England witnesses, as they were called, had eloquent and keen questions and answers. 
So did Archbishop Peter Smith and his legal team. I was impressed by the firm and clear positions given by 
these two groups.

Not so other groups, like the Church of Wales representatives, who waffled.

What did astound me was the out and out rudeness of some of the questioners, all of them MPs,
 not to be named here. One can look at my blog for names. I merely want to point out the lack of respect
 towards those representatives of organized religion. At several places in the presentation of answers 
by Archbishop Peter Smith, some members laughed out loud in derision for the Catholic position on marriage,
 pre-marital sex, and our anti-contraception, anti-abortion positions.

What came to my mind was that I could have been in a time-machine, taken back to the interrogations of 
Edmund Campion, Ralph Sherwin, or Robert Southwell et al.

The entire meeting of this Parliament panel on both days was a sham. The smug hypocritical statements
 of the members of Parliament shone out like words of old transcripts in a history of Recusant trials.

Parliament determines moral and religious policy in Britain, not the churches.

Parliament in 2013 mirrors Parliament in 1581, or 1585 or 1681, this last the year of the martyrdom of 
St. Oliver Plunkett. I have seen his head in St. Peter's Church, Drogheda. His face is peaceful, but reveals pain.

We honour martyrs in the Catholic Church almost daily. We of this Guild honour Titus Brandsma, 
who was martyred and is a Blessed. But, do we really want martyrs in 2013? Do we feel uncomfortable 
watching Peter Smith being derided? Do we want our leaders to stand firm on the ancient teachings of the 
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church?

I hope we feel proud and strengthened by the witness of Truth.

I hope we stand with our leaders.

I hope we can see clearly that the actions of Parliament will lead to the type of society created under
 Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, where those who kept the Faith were fined, suffered financial loss, ruin, 
disgrace, if not martyrdom. Catholics will not be able to be registrars or superintendents of registrars. 
Catholics may not be able to be teachers in some schools. The Catholic priests may be in a position of 
disobedience to certain laws after judicial decisions.

Parliament acts just as it has since the Protestant Revolt. Parliament was given powers over the 
private consciences of the people of Britain and it will take those powers and use those again and 
again and again. Five hundred years of practice makes this pattern of oppression all too easy. 
There are precedences. 

We are witnessing the death of the modern Enlightenment democracy as a philosophy of governance. 
We are witnessing the sliding back to a time when religions were not allowed to stand in the marketplace 
and speak Truth.

The powers that be have not changed their philosophies. They have renewed an older pattern of intolerance 
which is wedded to the very power of Parliament.

The Catholic Church has not changed Her Truths, Revelation and Tradition.

We are, again, Non-Conformists, and as in the past, consequences will follow strongly held beliefs.

I hope those who belong to the Guild of the martyr Titus Brandsma know how to stand firm in the storms 
that will blow across Great Britain. We have an excellent example. Brandsma upheld the bishops' decisions 
and the clarity of teaching that Catholicism and Nazism clashed. Catholicism will always clash with falsehood.

As Catholic journalists, we of this Guild can follow our patron to whatever consequences may follow.

I, for one, will write as long as I can for Christ and His Church.
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