Once more, this papacy has caused scandal to the faithful
(and by “faithful” I mean devout practicing Catholics who accept Church teaching)
by giving a dissenting group of homosexual activists a VIP seat in St. Peter’s
Square during a papal audience with the “Who am I to judge” Pope Francis.
Quote: A prominent American Catholic gay rights group was given VIP treatment for the first time at an audience with Pope Francis on Wednesday, a move members saw as a sign of change in the Roman Catholic Church.“This is a sign of movement that’s due to the Francis effect,” said Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, which ministers to homosexual Catholics and promotes gay rights in the 1.2 billion-member Church.Gramick and executive director Francis DeBernardo led a pilgrimage of 50 homosexual Catholics to the audience in St. Peter’s Square.They told Reuters in an interview afterwards that when the group came to Rome on Catholic pilgrimages during the papacies of Francis’s predecessors John Paul and Benedict, “they just ignored us”.This time, a U.S. bishop and a top Vatican official backed their request and they sat in a front section with dignitaries and special Catholic groups. As the pope passed, they sang “All Are Welcome,” a hymn symbolising their desire for a more inclusive Church.
How nice (not!) that a U.S. Bishop and top Vatican official
(would like to know who that is) supported the request to give dissenting
Catholics who support mortal sin and flaunt it (sin of scandal) a special VIP
place at the Vatican.
And these dissenting ‘catholics’ sing a protestant song (“All
are welcome” see link below for more on that little gem) to push their desire for the Church to welcome mortal sin and
redefine it.
Clearly, some Bishops and “top Vatican officials” DO support mortal sin and we’ve learned from the Synod on the family last fall that there is a deep evil desire within the Church to do just that-redefine what is and isn’t sin. Thank our dear Lord that He sent the Holy Spirit to protect the Church from not only the evil outside the Church, but also the evil disgusting men inside the Church who work to destroy Her from the inside. They will not succeed in destroying the Church, so there NEVER any need for Catholics to run out of the Church Jesus Christ founded for something else that “looks” like His Bride. Christ wasn’t a polygamist- he has only One Bride.
Clearly, some Bishops and “top Vatican officials” DO support mortal sin and we’ve learned from the Synod on the family last fall that there is a deep evil desire within the Church to do just that-redefine what is and isn’t sin. Thank our dear Lord that He sent the Holy Spirit to protect the Church from not only the evil outside the Church, but also the evil disgusting men inside the Church who work to destroy Her from the inside. They will not succeed in destroying the Church, so there NEVER any need for Catholics to run out of the Church Jesus Christ founded for something else that “looks” like His Bride. Christ wasn’t a polygamist- he has only One Bride.
I am a big fan of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich and have
been for many years. I think she would completely understand what devout Catholics today are suffering because of the current state of the Church:
Our Lord gave Emmerich a lifetime of amazing visisions and among those visions include the attempted destruction and then restoration of the Church. I thought I would share today, one of Emmerich’s visions for two reasons 1) I am reading Emmerich again as part of my Lenten plan (I always make a Lenten plan) and 2) because I think some might find comfort in this vision- especially those who are considering leaving the Church for something else that merely resembles the Church.
Quote: Sister Emmerich lived during one of the saddest and least glorious periods of the Church's history, when revolution triumphed, impiety flourished, and several of the fairest provinces of its domain were overrun by infidels and cast into such ruinous condition that the Faith seemed about to be completely extinguished. Her mission in part seems to have been by her prayers and sufferings to aid in restoring Church discipline, especially in Westphalia, and at the same time to strengthen at least the little ones of the flock in their belief. Besides all this she saved many souls and recalled to the Christian world that the supernatural is around about it to a degree sometimes forgotten. A rumour that the body was stolen caused her grave to be opened six weeks after her death. The body was found fresh, without any sign of corruption. In 1892 the process of her beatification was introduced by the Bishop of Münster.
Our Lord gave Emmerich a lifetime of amazing visisions and among those visions include the attempted destruction and then restoration of the Church. I thought I would share today, one of Emmerich’s visions for two reasons 1) I am reading Emmerich again as part of my Lenten plan (I always make a Lenten plan) and 2) because I think some might find comfort in this vision- especially those who are considering leaving the Church for something else that merely resembles the Church.
“[Dec. 27th] I saw St. Peter’s. A great crowd of men were trying to pull it down whilst others constantly built it up again. Lines connected these men one with another and with others throughout the world. I was amazed at their perfect understanding. The demolishers, mostly apostates and members of different sects, broke off whole pieces and worked according to rules and instructions. They wore white aprons bound with blue riband. In them were pockets and they had trowels stuck in their belts. The costumes of the others were various. There were among the demolishers distinguished men wearing uniforms and crosses. They did not work themselves, but they marked out on the wall with a trowel where and how it should be torn down. To my horror, I saw among them Catholic priests.
Whenever the workmen did not know how to go on, they went to a certain one in their party. He had a large book, which seemed to contain the whole plan of the building and the way to destroy it. They marked out exactly with a trowel the parts to be attacked, and they soon came down. They worked quietly and confidently, but slyly, furtively, and warily.
I saw the Pope praying, surrounded by false friends who often did the very opposite of what he had ordered, and I saw a little black fellow (a laic) laboring actively against the Church. Whilst it was thus being pulled down on one side, it was rebuilt on the other, but not very zealously.
I saw many clergy whom I knew. The Vicar-General gives me great joy. He went to and fro, coolly giving orders for the repairing of the injured parts. I saw my confessor dragging a huge stone by a roundabout way. I saw others carelessly saying their breviary and, now and then, bringing a little stone under their cloaks or giving it to another as asomething very rare. They seemed to have neither confidence, earnestness, nor method. They hardly knew what was going on. It was lamentable!
Soon the whole front of the Church was down; the sanctuary alone stood. I was very much troubled and kept thinking, “Where is the man with the red mantle and white banner whom I used to see standing on the Church to protect it?” [Interesting to note: earlier in her writings Emmerich identifies this “man with the red mantle” as St. Michael the Archangel- some suggest he is no longer seen atop the Church because the St. Michael prayer is no longer said at the end of Mass, in Emmerich’s vision of December 30, right after this vision of the Church being restored by a new pope, she once more sees Michael atop the Church]
Then I saw a most majestic lady floating over the great square before the Church. Her wide mantle fell over her arms as she arose gently on high, until she stood upon the cupola and spread it over the Church like golden rays. The destroyers were taking a short repose, and when they returned they could in no way approach the space covered by the mantle.
On the opposite side, the repairs progressed with incrediable activity. There came men, old, crippled, long-forgotten, followed by vigorous young people, men, women, children, ecclesiastic and lay, and the edifice was soon restored.
Then I saw a new Pope coming in procession, younger and far sterner looking than his predecessor. He was received with pomp! He appeared about to consecrate the church. But I heard a voice proclaiming it unnecessary as the Blessed Sacrament had not been disturbed.
The same voice said that they should solemnly celebrate a double feast, a universal jubilee and the restoration of the Church.
The Pope, before the feast began instructed his officers to drive out from the assembled faithful a crowd of the clergy both high and low, and then I saw them going out, scolding and grumbling. Then the Holy Father took into his service others, ecclesiastic and lay. Now commenced the grand solemnity in St. Peter’s. The men in white aprons worked on when they thought themselves unobserved, silently, cunningly, though rather timidly.” [Quote from ‘The Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich” by the Very Reverend Carl. E. Schomoger, C.SS.R., Volume I, pages 564-566]
Again I say, stick with the ONLY Church Jesus Christ created
on earth no matter who the pope is or what evil the clergy are doing. The Church belongs to Christ and He will
sustain Her through all attacks- inside and outside the Church. We are called “the faithful” IF and when
we actually REMAIN faithful to Her.
“To whom shall we go Lord?
You have the words of eternal life.” asked Saint Peter in John 6, and
Jesus answered “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.”
There were devils in the Church when Christ founded Her, and
there are devils in the Church now.
To whom shall we go?
There is nowhere else but Christ’s Holy Catholic Church. Remain faithful by remaining in Her through
all Her tribulations. Don’t let evil men
inside the Church chase you out- that’s the devils hope and plan for you. He delights when people leave Christ’s
Church. Be faithful! Remain inside Christ's Church.
In Christ,
Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner
Link to Bishop’s letter on “All Are Welcome” protestant hymn:
http://www.madisoncatholicherald.org/bishopscolumns/2596-the-beauty-of-our-worship-in-the-liturgy.html
Emmerich Book: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/231230868914?lpid=82&chn=ps
Anne Catherine Emmerich: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05406b.htm
Anne Catherine Emmerich: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05406b.htm
Julie, wonderful post and yet your speaking up against a misguided hierarchy is precisely what others have been doing all along - the very same you would castigate and declare schismatic, even though you do not have the lawful authority to do so. That too could be misconstrued as a prideful rebellion and lack of submission....if not gross presumption.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, there is only One Church, and She is comprised of those who keep the Faith despite the persecution of being deemed in an irregular situation. (Even M. Voris states that one must remain in union with a dastardly evil, etc, etc Bishop so long as what he states is in line with the magisterium. That last qualifier is the key point. And it is precisely those whom he now unfairly calumniates and allows others on his program to judge that are aiding in his Bishop's making allowance for the TLM Michael and his compatriots enjoy.)
"...Often, too, divine providence permits even good men to be driven from the congregation of Christ by the turbulent seditions of carnal men. When for the sake of the peace of the Church they patiently endure that insult or injury, and attempt no novelties in the way of heresy or schism, they will teach men how God is to be served with a true disposition and with great and sincere charity. The intention of such men is to return when the tumult has subsided. But if that is not permitted because the storm continues or because a fiercer one might be stirred up by their return, they hold fast to their purpose to look to the good even of those responsible for the tumults and commotions that drove them out. They form no separate conventicles of their own, but defend to the death and assist by their testimony the faith which they know is preached in the Catholic Church. These the Father who seeth in secret crowns secretly. It appears that this is a rare kind of Christian, but examples are not lacking. Indeed, there are more than can be believed. So divine providence uses all kinds of men as examples for the oversight of souls and for the building up of his spiritual people. (De vera religione, in Augustine: Earlier Writings, translated by John H. S. Burleigh [Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1953], 231.)
So please, while calling out that which is rightfully scandalous and damaging to souls, don't look a gift horse in the mouth and negate the means God has chosen to aid those in 'full communion' to regain the fullness of Faith that is our birthright. To do so is an utter lack of true charity.
Sorry Patty, but who is in "prideful rebellion"?? The gay lobby? Yes, I agree!
ReplyDeleteIf you are going back to my earlier post about the SSPX I would again refer you to the document written by Pope Benedict on the subject:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/letters/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20090310_remissione-scomunica.html
In Christ,
Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner
Julie, thank you for this post.
ReplyDeleteI, too, am reading Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich for Lent. I akready finished the "Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary" [an amazingly beautiful read] and am almost at the end of the first volume of the 3-volume "Life of Our Lord and Saviour."
Bl. ACE's is simply astonishing.
Have a blessed Triduum.