Praise God with Lyre and Harp

Early in the morning, I stood outside in the wind coming off the English Channel, in temperatures hovering about 37 degrees Fahrenheit, I saw five meteors in Lyra. The Lyrids peaked a few days ago, when the clouds of France blew over the skies of Kent. Therefore, I missed the greatest sight of hundreds of meteors of the Lyrids. But, I saw five brilliant meteors last night in the northeast area, the quadrant where the small constellation could be seen. In 45 minutes, I only saw five, but all were unique and bright. One was a blue explosion, almost like a strobe light. One was fireball, red and orange with a long tail. One was dropping in the opposite direction of the others, like a toddler running out of his family unit, running across the grass until caught in laughter and joy.

Another one arched the constellation, like a bow. However, the night was too cold and windy, and I did not bring my winter clothes to my little vacation spot in Kent. Then, the clouds came in and covered the stars. That I saw five meteors, or shooting stars, was a treat.

Arise, my glory; arise, psaltery and harp: I will arise in the morning early. Psalm 108:2

Revisiting Newman's Grammar of Assent

As one who has always mistrusted the emotions, I have relied on my good, scholastic training. However, we are all limited in our imaginations, pure or not so.

I have been  thinking about the way we all think. We use our reason, sadly, less and less, and one reason why I enjoyed teaching logic at the university level was that I could help students learn how to think. I did the same in a history of ideas course, and in other classes when I could implement the Socratic Method. Reasoning, or rational discourse, is a lost art.

We are come to decisions by intuition and the heart. Now, some people call intuition a gut feeling. We just know something is right or wrong, stupid or smart, sensible or foolish.


Some of us have more intuition than others. Some of us work on the rational level more easily and comfortably than others. But, what about thinking or decision making from the heart? This is more tricky. For a more scientific view of intuition, check this out.

In my generation, the good nuns told us that the emotions were like the caboose on the end of the train. The engine was our reasoning faculties, including spiritual knowledge, such as the teachings of the Church. The emotions were to be dragged along by reason, and would never be able to drive the train to safety, or to any place, for that matter. Reason pulled the emotions into order, not the other way around.

Intuition is a word which has been co-opted by the New Agers....and this is sad. Intuition may be closer to Newman's illative sense than to Deepak Chopra's New Age, relativistic, syncretic bases for intuition. Intuition could be like Newman's informal inference, or better yet, the illative sense, which, if informed by Faith and holiness, can bridge reason and assent, or conclusion. Newman's assent is important, as it involves a moral choice as well. I have re-started a study of The Grammar of Assent, which I put down many, many years ago. Now than ever, understanding our thought processes which lead to decision-making, especially with regard to religion and the conscience, seems more important than in previous years.

Aging hones one's priorities.

But, in matters of the heart, such as love, intuition may or may not be valid. Experience can help one decide on the reality of love or the nature of that love, but intuition may not help with decision making. Thankfully, we Christians have the virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude, the Four Cardinal Virtues, to help us out in making decisions.I thank the wiki writer for this quotation from St. Augustine found here.


For these four virtues (would that all felt their influence in their minds as they have their names in their mouths!), I should have no hesitation in defining them: that temperance is love giving itself entirely to that which is loved; fortitude is love readily bearing all things for the sake of the loved object; justice is love serving only the loved object, and therefore ruling rightly; prudence is love distinguishing with sagacity between what hinders it and what helps it.

If one has a great sense of intuition, one must use the virtues to curb one's enthusiasm and passions. To follow the heart is a grave decision. If one has the Indwelling of the Trinity, is living in grace, one has the advantage of the Gifts of the Spirit as well in thinking, determining, deciding.... 


I found a reference to the Maltese Cross, noting that the four arms represent the Four Cardinal Virtues, and the eight points are the Eight Beatitudes. There are no coincidences in God..... Like climbing a long set of steps to find a church hidden in a side street, we need purpose, perseverance and direction. Sometimes that direction is in ourselves and in our life-time of experiences. Sometimes, we need wise friends. To Be Continued.

Breast cancer divided into ten types

I have never used this blog for medical posts, but I want to give this link on new discoveries on breast cancer, reiterating something I have said that not all women who have endured this disease have practiced birth control or had abortions. Here is the link.

To Date: French Election Results

Upate from France24 Live Blog:

10:32

According to second round voting intentions, 54% of people will vote for Hollande and 46% for Sarkozy (Ipso).

Now, at just after seven-thirty British Summer Time, the French seem to be voting in the first election, very closely for the socialists, and Sarkozy. The problem is that the communists have at this writing 11.4% of the vote as well, making the far-left over 40%. The results will be coming in until 11:00 and I shall be checking the results later. Results here are exit polls.

Ms. Marine Le Pen has 20% of the vote, as she has softened the image of her father, and she appeals to the youth as well. One sees the youth vote divided between the far-left and the far-right, which is very interesting, and perhaps, not unusual. The problem with Melenchon, is that he is calling for a negative vote, against Sarkozy, instead of a positive vote. But, this is typical of communists, who are using the problems of the moment for the old, Marxist agenda. More later. Our Lady of Lords, pray for France.

Every major question in history is a religious question. It has more effect in molding life than nationalism or a common language. Belloc

What Americans do not realize is the real fight between far-left and either moderate or far-right politics in Europe. More money was just give last week to help the still-floundering Euro. But, what is more crucial is the spiritual soul of Europe, which has been weakened by years of Catholics not understanding the dangers of the materialist, as in Modernist heresy, philosophy completely taking over the thought of Europe. Church teaching seems to be completely ignored in the far-left, so-called Catholic commentators here. How France goes, except for Germany, there goes Europe.

Excessive debt is being backed by those who want the ruin of conservative values.

In the Autumn, I was amazed at the Italian commentators referring to the syndicalist movement, which many Americans have never studied, as a movement alive and well in Italy. I had studied the syndicalist movement when looking at Italian history and the notebooks of Gramsci. That these movements, including anarchy, which are alive and well as movements which are basically anti-political process, have gained ground among the youth  in Europe. Sadly, these people are being used by other groups to break down Europe as a civilization.

Americans cannot see that the same thing is happening in America. Slowly, but surely, those who do not want the traditions of Christian culture, Christian family life, even Christian business, are winning the media battle here in Europe.

If Sarkozy, who has not been the best leader at all, loses out to the more radical groups, all of Europe is affected. What I see is envy (against, believe it or not, Germany and those nations who bailed out the more socialist nations) and the use of the European crisis as an excuse to get rid of conservatives. The Marxist language of class struggle. a language based on false premises of materialism and utopianism. 44.5 million people could vote today, and, at noon, only 28% of those who can vote have done so.

The far-left are pushing for the civil unions of homosexuals and weak immigration legislation. This is against the possibly most unpopular president to seek re-election in this first round.

Pray for France, Today, Please

I shall post later today, after news of the French elections come online and on the telly. This will be after 5:00 French time. That the Euro had a bad week does not help. That only the present president has spoken out against immigration in order to conserve European France has been obvious on French television interviews. Sadly, the lack of liberty for Christianity, as in the States, seems to be determined by the far-left, in the name of tolerance.

Catholics, Pray for the French Elections

Pray for France today and tomorrow. I am very concerned. Read this, please. These are dangerous and crucial times. There is a strange coalition of socialists and Islamists, who want to forever change the culture and Catholic heritage of France.

I want France to remain free and return to its Catholic roots. The eldest daughter of the Church may disappear, may be kidnapped, as so many Catholics cannot think in terms of Catholic political realities. Pray to Our Lady, please.

Prayer for Priests

Even though we are not close to the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, or the Birth of St. John, both unusually feasts, pointing to the importance of this saint, I want to invoke his intercession for all priests today. The role of the prophet in our society is a complex one, with such men as Michael Voris, Father Pavone, and even Rick Santorum, showing us the way of a prophetic vision for the nation. Prophets are, of course, not liked by most people, who are in error, as they have to face their sins. Some priests are called to be prophets, and perhaps, now, all are in some way. Even saying the rosary outside an abortion clinic is a prophetic role. Writing a blog for a priest can be a prophetic action. Living the celibate life is prophecy-the sign of contradiction in the world.

St. John the Baptist provides us with several qualities of the perfect prophet. One, he loves God and God's Law above all else; two, he speaks the Truth without compromise; three, he show passion or zeal for and in his message; four, he lives a simple, austere life, fasting and praying; five, he calls all to repentance and shows them the way to purity of heart and body. But, lastly, he is, in his person, a prophetic word preparing the world for the Word of God.

In Europe, there are few prophets in the media or even in the local churches. Years of both secularism and persecution have resulted in a quieter, perhaps fearful, approach to issues, such as abortion. Very few priests, for example, pray outside clinics, and very few speak of pro-life issues from the pulpit. With regard to civil marriages, this is changing, however, at least in Britain, where the Catholic clergy is taking a lead in the defense of marriage. Looking at history, one does see some prophetic saints, and the martyrs, in the line of St. John, lived and died prophets.

The great cathedral in Valletta, Malta is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. That cathedral is most likely the most beautiful church in the world. The great painting of Caravaggio, The Beheading of St. John, patron of the Knights of Malta, is one of the world's greatest paintings. Let us pray to St. John for our priests, bishops, cardinals, and the Pope himself.

This is an old prayer to St. John the Baptist, especially today for monks, as he is one of the patrons of monastic life.

O God, You raised up St. John the Baptist to prepare a perfect people for Christ.  Fill Your people with the joy of possessing His grace, and direct the minds of all the faithful in the way of peace and salvation.

Grant that as St. John was martyred for truth and justice, so we may energetically profess our Faith in You, and lead others to the Way, the Truth, and Eternal Life.

Amen.

In matters of Faith, Morals, and Religious Freedom, the Catholic Church determines the boundaries of any State, not the other way around.

Fascinating that Gramsci and others who did not want the authority and influence of the Church in Europe, South America, and North America understood what most of our priests do not understand about a cohesive, comprehensive approach to Church-State relations. Here is Gramsci in Notebook 5, written in 1930-1931:

The position of the church (referring to the Concordat) is based on the following grounds, which  were accepted, necessarily , with the acceptance of two distinct instruments-the treaty and the concordat-in (establishing) the relations between church and State: the treaty determines the relations between two states; the concordat determines the relations between two sovereignties with the "same state". In other words, it is conceded that withing the same state there are two sovereignties, since they deal with each other on equal footing (each within its own sphere). Naturally, the church maintains that there is no confusion of sovereignties, but it does so because it maintains that in the  "spiritual" sphere the state has no competence to exercise sovereignty, and should it arrogate such a competence unto itself, it would be guilty of usurpation. Furthermore, the  church also maintains that there cannot be a dual sovereignty within the same sphere of purposes, but it does so precisely because it upholds the distinction between ultimate purposes, and it declares itself the sole sovereign of the spiritual realm.

Yes, and this is what so many Americanist bishops and priests, who have fallen into a false idea of the role of the Church is society cannot verbalize or even conceptualize. It is the duty of the State to protect the Church in areas of Faith and Morals. This is much larger than an issue of "religious liberty" or the American Constitution, although the written Constitution is a great help. 

Until seminaries teach the Catholic political philosophy and not socialism or communism, which is done in some cases, until priests and bishops learn to articulate the Catholic position of the Church as being a sovereignty in Her own right, as the Institution created by Christ on earth for order and spiritual growth, the conversation and activity of bishops is merely putting out fires, such as "civil unions" and "abortion" or "contraception", instead of a united, institutional stand. I have heard one priest in a seminarian refer to the Church as the "invisible Church", which is Protestant heresy and not Church teaching. We are not only visible, but an institution.

Too many bishops in both Europe and America have sold out to the idea that the Church needs the existing political parties to enunciate the Catholic position. NOT so. The Church must not rely on the socialists or communists, the Democrats or the Republicans to uphold the Teaching Magisterium in the world. The Catholic Church in America has been too influenced by Protestantism, which insists on a complete separation of Church and State, and the Church in Europe is too influenced by socialism and communism.

These situations mean that the Church has been terribly weakened in the political and social spheres. That the teaching of the Church gives certain rights and sovereignty to the various States, be they monarchies, democracies or whatever, is a practical solution to the end of Christendom. 

However, the Church must never back down when facing opposition and fall into a siege mentality, when the Truth is on Her side, as it were. In fact, the definition of the State comes from Catholic teaching; that is, the Church determines the boundaries of any State, not the other way around.

Our seminaries in the States have become too anti-intellectual, too individualized, too un-spiritual and too psychological in formation and training. One only has to look at what the required courses are and what the electives are to see the problems. My two friends, one a transitional deacon, and one who will be ordained a transitional deacon next year, have NEVER had a course on either the History of the Catholic Church, or an entire course on the Church's social teaching, the latter which was only a small section of a larger course, emphasizing only the pastoral aspects and not the doctrinal ones. 

This is unbelievably stupid! Without an understanding of the Church's teaching on Church-State relationships, the priests will fall into individual, ad hoc, ideals. And, with the majority of South American and Central American seminaries being sold on Liberation Theology to this day, as I have discovered when teaching young men from those seminaries, what chance is there for a Catholic view of politics entering the level of parish catechesis? 

Liberalism infected the Church a long time ago. The effects in Europe, perhaps, are more obvious than in America. However, the naivete of the seminary training and the lack of obedience in not applying the Oath and Promise of Blessed John Paul II and the implementation of  Ex Corde Ecclesiae in the seminaries will have serious consequence for the Church in America, as well as in Europe. I have put the link to the CDF's document many times on this blog. Here is it again.

Not only should instructors and pastoral care assistants, such as psychologists and counselors need to be under these documents, but the boards and administrators as well. Disobedience is a sign of both Americanism and other modernist heresies in a seminary.

That most governments have now become so secularized, become socialist, or even communist in philosophy indicates that the Church must be on the offensive, not the defensive. That most adult Catholics themselves cannot think outside the materialist philosophical systems shows how far the rot of bad or absent catechesis has set in. If the laity do not insist on good teaching, it may not happen. 

Last year's huge kerfuffle over the unapproved economic document released from the Vatican, shows how far the Church has been lax in the area of political and economic intellectual life. We have become so protestant that we cannot see how Reason has been thrown out the door for an emphasis on personal, experiential religion, which ignores political philosophy and social doctrines. I partly blame the charismatic movements in the States for this anti-intellectualism, and mostly the seminaries, who no longer teach leadership training or even push for high standards of academic success.

St. Anselm, we need one reformer of the seminaries like you now. St. Pius IX, we need you now to inspire Catholic politicians and bishops to understand their own Faith.

I am so happy...

I am finally on Fr. Z's bloglist. Sigh. Now, if I could only earn a gold star once on his blog. But, I do not have the right kind of a sense of humor, or the brilliance of many of his stalwart followers. One can dream.

Another posting on kulturkampf

I find it disturbing, yet have some thankfulness, that more and more Catholic writers are using the word, kulturkmapf, which those of us who had real Catholic education learned in Catholic World History over 50 years ago. The Popes of the 19^th century fought against the Bismarck movement to change social and political life, partly by emphasizing Thomism in the face of the other isms which grew up after the Reformation: godless republicanism a la the French Revolution, socialism, communism, relativism, secularism, and so on. I remember studying the great year of revolution, 1848, as a disaster for the Church, not something to celebrate. That the uprisings petered out is a lie, as the movements, in a mercurial manner, just changed and went, in some cases, underground, until a mere decade or so later. One only needs to remember when Marx' work was published, February 21, 1848, to realize how quickly the Church responded through the Popes. de Tocqueville, who we all studied in the old days of Classical Education based on Christianity, wrote of those times. That there was a certain respite for Catholicism in some countries did not change the movement away from Faith and Reason to one of relativism and secularism.

That we Catholics have seen at least one-hundred and fifty years of systematic erosion of a Catholic political and societal philosophy from which to work is dawning on more and more writers.

Those of us who saw this, primarily educators, in the 1970s, created the homeschooling movement and the movement of Classical Education, lost in kulturkampf in the States and sadly, in Europe, including Great Britain. One must be honest and state that the earliest Republicanism in Ireland was not Catholic in philosophy, but secular and liberal. When one weeps at the demise of religion in Ireland, one has to be honest and state that this is not a new thing, at least in the approach to politics.

Americanism was highly supported as a heresy by the Irish clergy, including bishops, in the States. That republicanism was associated with some Modernist heresies cannot be denied.

Kulturkampf is being discussed because it has succeeded. Catholics no longer think like Catholics nor can they criticize intellectual and political discussions which are not Catholic, such as the separation of Church and State position of the Church which is not the same as that believed by most American Catholics.

One writes and talks about problems when the time to change is long gone. We have had almost 200 years to create leaders in the Church who see clearly the dangers of materialism, pragmatism, even the pantheism of our times. That the educational systems and especially the history books ignore these issues indicates that the enemy has won the day in kulturkampf.

I have been looking at the GCSE history books which hardly touch on such issues, and ignore religion entirely, including barely a reference to the Holocaust. Without a religious viewpoint or a Western philosophy based on Christianity, anything goes, all ideas are equal and the socialist and communist agendas are considered as plausible alternatives to any other economic and societal systems. The great Popes of the 19^th century warned us but who was paying attention?

Social engineering has worked in Europe and I am sure in most places in America. We only write and discuss what is obvious unless we are either philosophers, intellectuals, or revolutionaries.

I pray that it is not too late to create an intellectual class of Catholics who understand politics from the viewpoint of Catholic social teaching and not either communism or socialism.

The pastoral experts in the Church began to talk about community after it had disappeared. Now we are discussing the destruction of Western culture in the wake of its demise.

Catholicism became more and more anti-intellectual in the last sixty years. I partly blame the charismatic movement and other movements which have underestimated the need for a Faith corresponding to Reason. That our present Pope has stressed this is still being ignored. Too many of the faithful simply do not want to bother to learn how to think.....one of the themes of this blog.

Catholics have ignore and now lost the great intellectual tradition which the Church created.

A Reminder--Freedom Is Not Free

"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?" -Thomas Jefferson

How to learn not to think, or, why were most Catholics sleeping while their children were being indoctrinated?

Bismarck in Germany, Croce in Italy (according to some), Dewey in America, Lenin in Russia (although he never wrote an article on pedagogy), Rousseau in France, and many others, changed the education systems to the new liberalism, which was both atheistic and humanistic in nature.  That the State could determine what a "good citizen" would study, was the agenda of the military strategist or the philosophical pragmatist, who denied the spiritual soul and the life of religion in the cultural, social and political sphere.

We see the results in all the countries of the world, and I burst out laughing when an Englishman, who is a teacher, complained that the Finnish system was successful because it is socialist. The British system has failed because it is socialist.j If Ronald Reagan had succeeded in either reining in or destroying the federal Department of Education, we would not be in quite the mess we are as a Nation.

But, as St. Anselm knew, whose feast day is coming up next week, an educated clergy needed Classical Education; that is the study of the greatest minds of the Classical World,  along with religion, philosophy, logic, astronomy, grammar, history, even manners. He invented a system of Classical Education spread through-out the world by the Benedictines until recent times, when they, too, feel into the trap of Bismarckian "gymnasium" and not the "academy".

The Trivium and Quadrivium are not merely quaint educational methodologies, but the basis for Western Education. Without a philosophy of education which is rooted in the soul and spirit of humankind, which has a goal of eternal Truth and Life, education becomes a tool in the hand of those in power, creating a lackluster citizenry easy to overpower. Classical Education created thinkers, a real threat to those who idolize the State.

This is the new slavery and we see it now. Children cannot take control of their own destinies, nor make choices for noble causes, unless they are exceptionally holy. Adults in the West have become mere emotional responders to whatever crisis is at hand, be it economic or social.

The syndicalists, anarchists, communists and socialists have won in many countries in Europe. Watch the elections in France...

Almost ninety years ago, Gramsci wrote the phrase, "the crisis of the West". How is it that Catholics, who created Western Civilization in the Greco-Roman tradition, along with Revelation and the Tradition of the Catholic Church, missed this crisis?

It has been a long time brewing....

Still hopeful--the time is now for unity

Some bloggers are more cautious than I am about the SSPX news. I am very hopeful and read these statements as moves to get the SSPX members into the mindset of reunion. Some hard-liners will not come into a private  or personal prelature, or whatever organization that would be set up, but many would.

This step means that the doors of communication are open. The SSPX members need time to adjust their "outsider" thinking to "insider" thinking. The political climate of Europe which is moving both far-left and far-right quickly (watch the French elections this weekend) will help those who have felt comfortable see the need for a unified Church against both communism and fascism. These are realities which help those who are spiritual see the need for the Institutional Church founded by Christ.

Prayers needed, still. But, hope and pray.

4-18-2012

The media are announcing that Bishop Bernard Fellay has sent a “positive response” to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and that consequently the doctrinal question between the Holy See and the Society of St. Pius X is now resolved.

The reality is different.

In a letter dated April 17, 2012, the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X responded to the request for clarification that had been made to him on March 16 by Cardinal William Levada concerning the Doctrinal Preamble delivered on September 14, 2011. As the press release dated today from theEcclesia Dei Commission indicates, the text of this response “will be examined by the dicastery (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) then submitted to the Holy Father for his judgment”.

This is therefore a stage and not a conclusion.

Menzingen, April 18, 2012.

read at DICI >

Communiqué from the General House of the Society of Saint Pius X (April 18, 2012)

18-04-2012  
Filed under From Rome, From Tradition, News

The media are announcing that Bishop Bernard Fellay has sent a “positive response” to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and that consequently the doctrinal question between the Holy See and the Society of Saint Pius X is now resolved.

The reality is different.

In a letter dated April 17, 2012, the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X responded to the request for clarification that had been made to him on March 16 by Cardinal William Levada concerning the Doctrinal Preamble delivered on September 14, 2011.  As the press release dated today from the Ecclesia Dei Commission indicates, the text of this response “will be examined by the dicastery (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) then submitted to the Holy Father for his judgement”.

This is therefore a stage and not a conclusion.

Menzingen, April 18, 2012  

http://sspx.org/theological_commission/fr_lombardi_comments_on_bp_fellays_response_4-18-2012.htm

Check out that link.....
It is almost like a betrothal, where the big family gets involved and scares the couple into not sharing all the details and wanting space. I am guilty of passing on publicity as well. But, one does get excited at the possibilities.

The Ordinariate progress was extremely quiet until people actually started coming in. Amazing. But, the Church is a family and we do love, or at least, I love the idea of an SSPX reconciliation. 

Persecution towards the Church in Spain from LifeSiteNews Online Yesterday

Brave Bishop in Spain under Attack for the Truth 

Liberal outrage in Spain: Homosexual groups seek prosecution of bishop over sermon on homosexuality Matthew Cullinan Hoffman[Image]Wed Apr 18 18:45 EST Faith April 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Homosexual groups are seeking the prosecution of a Spanish bishop after he gave a sermon repeating the Catholic Church’s teaching associating the gay lifestyle with the suffering of hell, and then. an interview in which he endorsed psychological treatment for homosexual behavior.Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Plà of the diocese of Alcalá de Henares began the brouhaha on Good Friday earlier this month, when he gave a sermon on the death of the soul as a result of sin.Referring to various kinds of sinful behavior, including adultery, theft, and failure to pay wages to workers, Reig Plà added homosexual behavior to the list as well. With regard to each example of sin, the bishop spoke of the act itself, and the resulting destruction of the soul.With regard to homosexual behavior, Reig Plà said: “One must not corrupt people, not even with false messages. I would like to say a word to those people carried away by so many ideologies that end up failing to properly guide human sexuality. They think that since their childhood they have had an attraction to people of their same sex and, sometimes, to prove it they become corrupt and prostitute themselves or go to homosexual nightclubs. I assure you that (there) they find hell.”After expressions of outrage regarding the bishop’s statement, which reflects the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church on sexual deviance, Reig Plà gave an interview to the Internet news service Religion en Libertad (Religion in Liberty), in which he explained his statement in more detail, and added that homosexual tendencies can be cured through therapy.In contemporary society, we are confronted with “a program of calculated ‘deconstruction’ that is tolerated in every setting (in education from the earliest stages of childhood, in part of the media, in work and leisure, etc.) which additionally includes the promotion and protection of a great number of evil laws and some powerful lobbying groups that determine what is politically correct, and therefore, socially acceptable,” said the bishop.“Based on these factors, many children, adolescents, and adults are increasingly invited to question their sexual identity, and eventually they are urged to ‘verify and prove’ their ‘sexual preferences’, and some fall into the trap,” he added.“Those of us priests who know about the private lives of people, listening to and helping those faithful who request it, know that the consequences for many people are suffering and destruction, coloquially speaking a ‘hell’ in their lives.”Forgiveness and therapy for those who suffer homosexual tendenciesThe bishop pointed out that those who are entangled in the homosexual lifestyle and other forms of sin are not without hope, and can find spiritual healing in the sacraments and teachings of the Catholic Church.  Moreover, psychological therapy is available to those who suffer from homosexual tendencies.“Always with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, who proceeds us in everything, it is possible to initiate the journey of return to the House of the Father,” said Reig Plà. “The Church makes available to all the treasures that Christ has deposited in her: the word of God, the sacraments (in particular those of Penance and the Eucharist), prayer, etc.”“With the help of the grace of God and accompanied by priests, counselors, and catechists, and in some cases, by professionals, people with SSA (Same Sex Attraction) can live in chastity (dominion over one’s self); not without combat, but the life of every Christian who wants to live according to the will of God includes fighting against temptation until the very day of death,” he said.Reig Plà noted that both the assessment of homosexual attraction as “intrinsically disordered” and homosexual behavior as “intrinsically evil,” as well as the possibility of therapy for homosexuals, are upheld by the documents of the Catholic Church.“I have to humbly say that everything that I explained in my homily responds to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church,” said the bishop, who noted that the Catechism of the Catholic Church requires that people with homosexual attractions should “be received with respect, compassion, and delicacy” and that “All trace of unjust discrimination regarding them is to be avoided”.However, he noted, the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, under the the then-Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, stated in 1986 that such attractions represent “a tendency, more or less strong, towards a behavior that is intrinsically evil from the moral point of view” and are therefore “objectively disordered.” The Catechism, he added, states that homosexual acts “do not proceed from a true affective and sexual complementarity” and “they cannot receive approval in any case.”Quoting another Vatican document, entitled Human Sexuality: Truth and Meaning, Reig Plà agreed that “parents, for their part, when they notice in their children, at the stage of childhood or adolescence, some manifestation of said tendency or such behavior, should seek out the help of people with expertise and qualifications to give him all possible help” and that “many cases, especially if the practice of homosexual acts has not become deep-rooted, can be positively resolved with appropriate therapy.”

Homosexual and socialist groups seek prosecutionFor his statements upholdingCatholic teaching on the immorality of homosexual acts, a number of homosexual and socialist organizations are denouncing Reig Plà and calling for his prosecution, for “homophobia” and “inciting hate.”The Spanish Confederation of Associations of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transsexuals (COLEGAS) has already presented a formal accusation with Spain’s General Prosecutor, and the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (FELGTB), with the Gay Collectives of Madrid, have said they also plan to file charges with the Provincial Prosecutor of Madrid for “inciting discrimination and hate,” according to the leftist Spanish newspaper El Pais.COLEGAS additionally claims that therapy for homosexuals “applied generally in the United States as well as in certain European countries, constitute a clear violation of the charter of the Rights of the Child, as well as the most elemental culture of respect for diversity” and asserts that “the Catholic Church cannot continue using the protection of the Constitution as a permanent defense that permits it to promote segregation and discrimination based on positions abandoned long ago by society.”The bishop has received support, however, from Catholic organizations, including the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC), pro-life and pro-family groups such as Spain’s influential Hazte Oir (Make Yourself Heard), and the Catholic blogosphere.For his part, Bishop Reig Plà says he is not backing down.“I don’t want to offend anyone, but I won’t renounce speaking the truth in charity,” he told Religion in Liberty.

New Age is not the only New Gnosticism. Another post on the dangers of private revelation

St. John of the Cross wrote several poems on the Love of God based on the Song of Songs. Many Catholics have read these poems and wondered how a man can experience the type of almost erotic, but totally pure and exalting in the Goodness of God. Many people misunderstand the intensity of the love which St. John experienced in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. St.  John's  path to purgatorial suffering and ultimate perfection happened on earth. Like other mystics, he was taken up into the Love Who is God.

Many great writers already quoted on this blog, including Garrigou-Lagrange, believe this is not a call only for those special mystics who are obviously given such graces, but for all Catholics. I say Catholics, as one cannot pursue holiness and the type of purity extended by God unless one is grounded in sound doctrine.

This is a huge misunderstanding of our times. Most Catholics I have met in recent years do not understand that assent to the Teachings of the Catholic Church is the essential ground for the flower of holiness to grow. One who holds heretical ideas, even though the person may not realize his or her errors, cannot move into the life of the virtues and the life of perfection.

There are always a few exceptions, but one reason why the Catholic Church does not canonize men, women and children who are Protestant and "holy", is that their faith was deficient.

In this age of false ecumenism, people, even priests, do not want to accept the fact that heresy, that is the protestant position on anything, means that a person is in need of purgation, of purification in the mind and the imagination, as well as the soul.

If one believes, for example. that one can be absolved from sin merely by talking to Jesus in a room by one's self, there is a serious misunderstanding of the need for the Sacrament of Confession and the role of the Church, through St. Peter, in the forgiveness of sins.

Two ladies in Ireland asked me to help them critique a seer who claims to be seeing Jesus and Mary. I found in a very short period of time, less than an hour, twenty errors of doctrine in the supposed words of Jesus and Mary. The seer repeats doctrines condemned by the Church in the Council of Trent and even before that seminal Council. The seer contradicts some of the encyclicals against Modernist heresies. And yet, even after I shared these errors with four people, the seer was accepted by them as a holy person worthy to be read.

This is Gnosticism, one of the greatest heresies to attack the Church from the earliest days. Gnostics are especially found in Ireland and England, a country where so many Catholics seem to need private revelation instead of a solid course on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I have written earlier on this blog on the dangers of false seers. I warn all who read this blog that one can lose one's soul by following false prophets. We only need to look at history to see the damage done by those who claimed to have revelation from the Holy Ghost outside the Church. Luther, Zwingli, Knox, Mary Baker Eddy, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Leonardo Boff, Jeremiah Wright, Christina Gallagher,  Veronica Leuken and others. Gnosticism is a temptation for those who do not want to study their own faith, the doctrines of the Church and want either a quick way to truth and mystical experiences, or who want to believe they have private knowledge, not given to all.


Dangerous.


St. John of the Cross understood that his experience of Christ as All-Consuming Love was and is available to all, not merely to a chosen few. He knew and taught that the way to Truth and Love was through honesty, humility, complete obedience to the Church, suffering and the denial of self.


The denial of self involves being obedient at all times.


Those good Catholics who follow either those seers already condemned by the Church, or those who are not teaching Church doctrine need to be aware that their own souls are in danger of perdition.

For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Matthew 14:24, D-R.


There are excellent Catholic people, even those who attend daily Mass and go to weekly Adoration, and frequent Confession, who are wrapped up in false prophecy. My advice is and always will be, compare all things with the Teaching of the Catholic Church and when in doubt, chose the Church's teachings, which are from God, from Christ, and protected by the Holy Spirit. Some of my good Catholic friends are tempted into feeling safe in their salvation and the anxieties of daily life by following these false seers.

Gnostic tendencies in a soul are based on pride and ignorance. We do not have to feel or be special to enter Heaven. We only need to be obedient, humble members of the One, True, Holy and Apostolic Church.

The Gnostic psychology involves following a person who seems to have special knowledge from God. There is such a Person and He is Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who instituted His Church on earth in order to carry on His Truth and Mandate to teach all nations. Only  in Christ, through Peter and the successors of Peter, can we be saved. No other special, arcane knowledge will save us, but instead, do the opposite and take us away from the Truth.

Any visionary which adds to Revelation is in error. Revelation ended with the Book of Revelations. An visionary who undermines the Sacraments or the Priesthood is in error. Any visionary who claims private knowledge outside of the teachings of the Catholic Church is in error. Any visionary who takes money or makes money from his or her followers is a false prophet. Any visionary who contradicts a bishop or a priest, or even the Pope, is in error. And, suffering is not an automatic sign of holiness. It can be rooted in pride.

St. John of the Cross was persecuted by his own order, by his own fellow religious. He never left the Church. He stayed close to the Scriptures and the Tradition of the Catholic Church. He is our example to follow to the experiences of Love. He leads us back to Christ. He is firmly within the Church. Such are the saints....

There are reasons for the canonization process and the process of reading the works of those who seem holy. There are reasons why we must obey a bishop or a tribunal, even if we may disagree with the findings. Disagreement should cause the lay person to pray and study, especially study the Scriptures and the Teachings of the Church. Too many Catholics, both liberal and Gnostic claim they do not have to believe either "trad" bishops or "liberal bishops". Obedience is the key to all other virtues. Without obedience, one cannot even start the long road to holiness. Anything less than understanding and accepting Church doctrine is willful disobedience. Read, study, pray....

On Reverence in Church and Catholic Maturity

I am totally sick of older men and women talking in Church before, during, and after Mass. I have come to several conclusions concerning this lack of respect and reverence for God. The icon which comes to my mind is the Burning Bush. Moses heard God and took off his sandals as he was on holy ground. Moses knew that God was the Almighty, the All Holy. He responded as an adult to the anxiety of being a human in the Face of the Living God. The response is one of awe and silence. If God is present, one should only feel gratitude. Only in our nakedness before God can we really be respectful.

Why so many adults talk in Church, (and gossip, that is talk about other people's business), is that they have not grown up into the virtuous life. Why do so many adults fight the normal process of spiritual maturation? They want to make God into their own image and likeness. They do not want to encounter the Other. St. Augustine said, "Let me know myself, God and I will know You."

This lack of self-knowledge shows a lack of repentance and reflection. Also, the basics of the faith need to be learned by the adult community.

I am not sure I can continue to go to some Novus Ordo Masses where the priests allow and even encourage talking before and after Mass. The Presence of God demands our reverence.

More links from Fr. Z on Fellay Today

And, from Fr Z. of course, http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/04/sspxholy-see-pont-comm-ecclesia-dei-issues-a-statement-vatican-radio-chimes-in/#comment-335576

the latest from Vatican Radio and http://press.catholica.va/news_services/bulletin/news/29078.php?index=29078&lang=it

and

http://www.news.va/en/news/sspx-response-received-by-vatican

Exciting and very hopeful.

On the French SSPX site

http://laportelatine.org/accueil/accueil.php

On the French SSPX site.

And from DICI on the CDF and Fellay Today

Press the Mother House of the Society of St. Pius X (April 18, 2012)

18-04-2012  
Filed under News , Rome , Tradition

The press announced that Bishop Bernard Fellay sent a "positive response" to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and therefore the doctrinal issue is now resolved between the Holy See and the Fraternity of Saint Pius X.
The reality is another.
In a letter dated April 17, 2012, the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X [...]