"Holy" Father On Fake News

The sentence below is quoted from an article published by Vatican News  dated January 24, 2018 [1]:

The Holy Father explores what makes fake news ‘fake’, how to recognize it, truth as an antidote, and how a “journalism for peace” takes people as its focus.

The sentence quoted above is itself fake news, using the title "Holy Father" to address the decidedly unholy papal occupant.  Is this not the height of hypocrisy?  And why should it be a shock since the heart of the Vatican is no longer centered on Christ?

It is no surprise that Bergoglio had wasted his time on the topic of news and the ways news are being reported since he is a newsmaker who relishes being in the news.  It is to his benefit when news are reported in ways that put him in a favorable light, and there are many news outlets that do just that with reporters who are obsequious, so much so that they worship every word Bergoglio utters as if he were infallible; whereas when there are news stories that report on the truth, showing him to be the hypocrite that he is, Bergoglio puts on a dour-looking face, becomes bitter and vengeful.

Bergoglio is becoming bolder and bolder in his capacity as Satan's secular minion in the Vatican, taking advantage of bible passages to advance his secular agenda rather than to inspire people to praise and glorify God; yet, he continues to pretend to be Christ's representative by hiding in plain sight.

In general, the best place for an unidentified suspect to hide is to head an investigative team assigned to gather information to uncover the identity of the culprit.  Similarly, the best position for someone who pretends to be holy is to be in the Vatican who speaks as if he were holy, while at the same time accusing his enemies of wrongdoing (usually by relying on innuendos) and if they happen to be the media, accusing them bluntly as deceivers and manipulators, and disseminators of fake news.  This accuser happens to be the chief Vatican distorter of Christ's Truths and contradictor of Christ teachings.

With what is happening, this blogger's tone with regard to the Vatican is becoming more and more pointed and the choice of words are increasingly harsh.  Writing this way is not fun, but staying silent in light of what this blogger sees as evil is not an option.  The opinions expressed in this blog could be very wrong and if they are, not much harm is done due to a very small number of individuals who actually read them, assuming there are any who do.  It is unlikely that Satan would care to waste time occupying this lowly seat that has neither power nor influence.

One's position in the world does not matter when it comes to battling Satan since each one is called personally to stand up to it, and this blog is a place where this blogger makes his stand.  This is a place of peace and Satan is not invited and not welcomed, even though it always hangs around shamelessly, disturbing interior peace, troubling the mind, waiting to attack.  Battles will be lost here and there, but with faith in God, and a bit of grace from saying prayers daily, this blogger is determined to win his personal war against Evil.



[1] http://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-01/pope-world-communications-day-message-2018-truth-journalism-fake.html

Salus Populi Romani Icon

From Google Images

"Built by order of Paul V to house the image of the Madonna Salus Populi Romani [above], the [Borghese] chapel was designed by Flaminio Ponzio (1560-1618) between the years 1606 and 1612." [1]  "The icon of the Salus Populi Romani, recounted by pious tradition to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist, welcomes all who come before her with her maternal gaze." [2]  Her gaze has changed and it was not a miracle.  See the updated image below.

An article published by the University of Dayton, Ohio, stated that the:

Salus Populi Romani  is one of the so-called "Luke images." There are many throughout the world which are attributed to Saint Luke. The origin of "Luke images" is unknown, but a charming legend has prevailed through the ages. It reveals that after the Crucifixion, when Our Lady moved to the home of St. John, she took with her a few personal belongings – among which was a table built by the Redeemer in the workshop of St. Joseph. When pious virgins of Jerusalem prevailed upon St. Luke to paint a portrait of the Mother of God, it was the top of this table that was used to memorialize her image. While applying his brush and paints, St. Luke listened carefully as the Mother of Jesus spoke of the life of her son, facts which the Evangelist later recorded in his Gospel. [3]

As reported by La Stampa (as translated by Google), Bergoglio "will celebrate next Sunday, January 28th, at 9am, in the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for the celebration of the 'Salus Populi Romani' translation, the restored version of the Marian icon will be exhibited." [4]  This restored image bears no resemblance to the original, in particular the eyes of the Blessed Mother and Her Son, not to mention the colors on their faces which reminds this blogger of death:

"The restored version of the "Salus Populi Romani" (as translated by Google)

Death is what Bergoglio ought to be terrified of, for his eternity may not be what he looks forward to, and the Mass he plans to celebrate on "January 28th, at 9am, in the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for the celebration of the 'Salus Populi Romani'" [5] may as well be a Requiem Mass for the death of the original icon, or perhaps a "black mass" for Satanists.

The restoration of this icon (one that could very possibly had been painted by the hands of Saint Luke the Evangelist in the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary) ordered by this pope is nothing short of evil, in this blogger's opinion.

How crass can Bergoglio be?  One does not "restore" something that is original and turn it into something that looks rather ordinary, like a reproduction that had gone terribly wrong.  This is not a restoration, but more like an alteration, better yet, a change, and it is not better.  The direction of any change proceeding from what possibly could originate from holiness can only be toward unholiness.  Therefore, this restoration of the Salus Populi Romani icon is equivalent to the defacing of an image that could very well be holy.

Since the restoration of the Salus Populi Romani icon ordered by this crass pope cannot be undone, returning it to its original condition, it may as well be a desecration.  This desecration is symbolic of what this pope is doing to the Catholic Church systematically.  Therefore, true Catholics should not fear that certain extremists may wish to destroy the Catholic Church from without when already it is being taken apart, piece by piece, by the Destroyer within, and reformed into something hardly recognizable.  By the time the Destroyer completes its reformation of the Church, it will have been so corrupted that it will bear no resemblance to the Church Christ Himself had purchased with His blood.

This transformation has already begun and the end will arrive soon enough.  The anti-Christ will then reveal itself.  Its power to draw one's soul to the dark side will be nearly irresistible; its reasoning will be nearly flawless assisted by Satan's artful deceit that confounds the mind and troubles the heart; its palpable and seemingly infinite energy will be nearly unrepellable.

However, it is not a moment too soon for one to begin strengthening one's soul.  Like starting an exercise program that focuses on endurance training, one should try one's best to live an entire day with a clean conscience and in holiness, then as many consecutive days as possible until one can do so continuously.

Whenever one is unsure whether an action one chooses to perform strengthens or weakens the soul's defense against pure Evil, one could ask this simple question: does the action that is desired glorify God?  Alternatively, one could ask: if after completing the intended action, would one be in a state of grace before God?

Easy questions to ask, but not so easy admitting the unvarnished truth to oneself.  Even more difficult is to do what God expects, especially when Satan is interfering so that one is unable to think and see clearly.  This is especially true when what is so clearly wrong seems so clearly right, when the restoration of what could have been the work of Saint Luke the Evangelist seems to be an act out of love, even when the act actually defiles.  This is how deceitful Satan can be.  When one has fallen into its traps, one will no longer able to distinguish right from wrong and will always choose to do wrong believing it to be absolutely right with no sense of compunction.

Can this malady be healed?  Certainly.  Satan may be winning but it has not won so long as one still has enough breath to seek humility before God.  Bergoglio has not yet shown any sign of humility.  He seems to believe that he is infallible even though he might have said otherwise.

Pride is a sin so addictive so that whoever is addicted to it and who is standing at the precipice of eternity would continue to believe that the prospect of Hell is merely a scare tactic, thinking that God's mercy is a net that catches all the souls Satan has ruined successfully, preventing them from falling.  This imaginary net of mercy is Satan's creation that has been placed in the hearts of those that it has possessed, giving those who believe in its existence a false sense of security from which they, and those who would come to believe in the same, would not easily awaken.

For those who have not yet been ensnared by Satan's deceitful fantasies, imagining one's eternal destination, either Heaven or Hell, before exercising one's Free Will, may help with making the right choice, one which may appear difficult relative to Satan's temptations.  Can one choose not to do what is difficult?  Of course, but know that doing what is wholesome and holy, even though difficult, is for the salvation of one's soul.  When it comes to one's eternity, it is advisable to know Satan well and acknowledge its very real presence (perhaps with a greeting, a wave, if that helps) before acting.


[1] http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/sm_maggiore/en/storia/cappella_borghese.htm
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/s/salus-populi-romani.php
[4] http://www.lastampa.it/2018/01/24/vaticaninsider/ita/news/a-santa-maria-maggiore-la-versione-restaurata-della-salus-populi-romani-4i6FEHOw9kRZp9BvFoJuPN/pagina.html
[5] Ibid.

Breviarium Romanum - Roman Breviary

Those who wish to pray the Roman Breviary can visit http://divinumofficium.com/ [1]:

This website was created and designed by the late Laszlo Kiss. Mr. Kiss, longtime resident of Forrest Lake, Illinois, died suddenly at his home on Monday, 11 July 2011, shortly after returning from a walk with his wife Marta. He was three days shy of his 73rd birthday. Mr. Kiss was born in Budapest, Hungary, on 14 July 1938, and married Marta Noske on 31 January 1968. He worked in Budapest as a computer engineer until emigrating to the United States of America in 1982. In 1983, he developed “Image,” one of the first computer-controlled manufacturing systems in the world (still in use to this day). He retired in 2000, and, among other things, selflessly devoted hundreds of hours to creating the website divinumofficium.com, which provides free access to many different versions of the Divine Office (or breviary), the traditional daily prayer book of the Roman Catholic Church. His funeral was held at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Volo, Illinois, on the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (16 July). Mr. Kiss is survived by three brothers in Hungary, and in the States by his loving wife Marta (of forty-three years), their two sons Zoltan and Chaba, and their two grandchildren Sophie and Ryan.

On Monday, August 15, 2011, the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, The Divinum Officium Project was founded, with the permission of Laszlo's son Chaba, to preserve and further Laszlo's work and to promote the worship of the Triune God through the Divine Office. Currently, The Divinum Officium Project consists of a diocesan priest as well as three software developers who maintain the site and ensure its accuracy.

As of this date, the website does not require a subscription and has no advertisements, and is comprehensive with many versions:

1. pre Trident Monastic
2. Trident 1570
3. Trident 1910
4. Divino Afflatu
5. Reduced 1955
6. Rubics 1960
7. 1960 Newcalender

The section below explains the different versions, quoted without bullet points and hyperlinks from
http://divinumofficium.com/www/horas/Help/versions.html [2]:

Historical versions of the Divinum Officium

The Divinum Officium was the official prayer of the Roman Catholic Church for at least 1500 years, until 1 November 1970, when it was significantly changed to The Liturgy of the Hours by the Apostolic Constitution of Paul VI Laudis canticum. This programlet, as conceived by Laszlo Kiss, is partially a device enabling one to pray the Office easily, and partially a historical document to visually show the changes in the last few hundred years. These purposes are maintained by The Divinum Officium Project since August 2011, with the intent that the website should be usable and historically accurate. This project shows how the daily Office was collected from the same psalms, lections, hymns, versicles and responsories for the different versions:

The pre-Tridentine Monastic version is an attempt to illustrate the Benedictine Breviary, as it is described in the Regula of St. Benedict, with the exception that, for lack of resources, only 9 lessons are included for Sundays and Feasts, instead of 12 lessons. See details below.

The version ordered after the Council of Trent by Pope St. Pius V, which, except for the ever increasing number of feasts in the Proprium Sanctorum, was virtually unchanged until the 20th Century. This Tridentine version was based essentially on the Roman Rite in use at this time. Therefore, the majority of psalms were prayed in Matins, Lauds, and Vespers. The little hours contained the same Psalm 118 everyday, which was memorized by heart and could be prayed without a book, at the little hours. Sunday Matins contained 18 psalms, and the weekday Matins contained 12 psalms. Lauds and Vespers were considerably longer, due to the length of of the psalm and their suffragia. The Feasts of Saints offered some relief in the number of psalms. Those Matins consisted of 9 psalms only, which broke the rule of the required 150 psalms a week. The number of Festive Offices came to exceed the number of ferial Sunday Offices, when more than two thirds of the days were Festive Offices.

The Trident 1570 version uses the original 1570 calendar, the Trident 1910 version uses the permanent calendar from the 1888 Pustet edition Hiemalis volume. The two differ only in the calendars. Missing offices are updated as sources allow. Both the 1570 & 1910 versions use the Clementine psalter, as well as the same rubrics. We are seeking to add the pre-Urban VIII hymnody for the Monastic and 1570 hours, and as an option for the other forms. Please help. See details below.

The Divino Afflatu version is named from the Encyclical of St. Pius X, and was the Official version from 1911 to 1960. St. Pius X formulated two main changes:

The version uses the ferial psalms for the festive offices except for the 1st and 2nd class feasts, and for a few others which antiphons are used for a feast. The Tridentine version "Seasonal" mode is an attempt to show the effect of this change without the change of the Psalter.

Also, psalms are divided into a weekly cycle without significant repetition of the psalms (9 psalms for Matins, 5 each for the major hours, 3 each for the minor hours). The encyclical also shortened significantly the suffragia, and other parts of the office, reducing the time at prayer by about 20%.

The Divino Afflatu version uses the permanent calendar from the printed 1943 Pustet edition, Hiemalis volume.

The version Reduced 1955 is based on Cum Nostra Hac aetate decree.

The version Rubrics 1960 ordered by the Motu Proprio Rubricarum Instructum 1960 of John XXIII. These changes further shortened the prayer time by an additional 5% and 15% respectively. This version uses the permanent calendar from the 1960 Codex Rubricarum. See details below.

The 1960 New Calendar version implements the 2009 Ordinary Form calendar. It uses the 1960 rubrics, which is now the Extraordinary Form of the office. It is merely an experiment, on the idea that this form should be the living prayer of the Church. See details below.

"Laszlo prayed the Divino Afflatu version personally, but the main point of this project was and is to show that the changes published in 1955 and 1960 are not more than the changes which were made in 1911 by Divino Afflatu. In all changes, the reason was to simplify and shorten the Office." [3]

The pre-Trident monastic version is a personal preference.  Thank you, Mr. Laszlo Kiss, for your gift to the world.


[1] http://divinumofficium.com/
[2] http://divinumofficium.com/www/horas/Help/versions.html
[3] Ibid.

Mid-air Marriage

The paragraphs below on "the celebration of marriage" are quoted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church  without hyperlinks, references and footnotes [1]:

II. THE CELEBRATION OF MARRIAGE 

1621 In the Latin Rite the celebration of marriage between two Catholic faithful normally takes place during Holy Mass, because of the connection of all the sacraments with the Paschal mystery of Christ. In the Eucharist the memorial of the New Covenant is realized, the New Covenant in which Christ has united himself for ever to the Church, his beloved bride for whom he gave himself up. It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that, communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but "one body" in Christ.

1622 "Inasmuch as it is a sacramental action of sanctification, the liturgical celebration of marriage . . . must be, per se, valid, worthy, and fruitful." It is therefore appropriate for the bride and groom to prepare themselves for the celebration of their marriage by receiving the sacrament of penance.

1623 According to Latin tradition, the spouses as ministers of Christ's grace mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church. In the tradition of the Eastern Churches, the priests (bishops or presbyters) are witnesses to the mutual consent given by the spouses, but for the validity of the sacrament their blessing is also necessary.

1624 The various liturgies abound in prayers of blessing and epiclesis asking God's grace and blessing on the new couple, especially the bride. In the epiclesis of this sacrament the spouses receive the Holy Spirit as the communion of love of Christ and the Church. The Holy Spirit is the seal of their covenant, the ever available source of their love and the strength to renew their fidelity.

Ignoring Catholic Church doctrine, Bergoglio married a civilly-married husband and wife with two daughters on a domestic flight within Chile [2].  The Irish Times article entitled Pope performs impromptu mid-flight marriage ceremony  dated January 18, 2018, stated that "[t]he Catholic church’s view that civil wedding ceremonies are not valid, and therefore the couple’s two children, Rafaella, six, and Isabella, three, were born out of wedlock, appears to have been glossed over." [3]  Along these similar lines, Crux  quoted a tweet in its article entitled Conservatives criticize pope’s impromptu airborne wedding  dated January 20, 2018, [4]:

“Do you know what’s a ‘marriage’ ripe for annulment?” tweeted the traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli. “One celebrated apparently on a whim in an airplane whose celebrant cannot even be sure if parties are validly baptized.”

Is the tweet a criticism, or is it a statement of truth in the form of a riddle?  If it can be deemed as a criticism, is it limited only to "conservatives," thereby precluding any possibility that those who consider themselves to be "liberals" from voicing their opinions differently on the tweet?  Is there a "liberal god" who can speak on behalf of all liberals at all times on all issues, taking away their Free Will to be able to arrive at their own individual conclusions?  If there is, then is this "liberal god" a "Satanic god" that wants to destroy man, God's creation, and Free Will, God's gift to man, since "man" cannot be without his Free Will?

An element that is missing from both articles is any mention of the absence of Christ in the marriage, repeating the words from the Catechism of the Catholic Church  quoted above: "In the Eucharist the memorial of the New Covenant is realized, the New Covenant in which Christ has united himself for ever to the Church, his beloved bride for whom he gave himself up. It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that, communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but "one body" in Christ." [5] [Emphasis added.]

Where is the Eucharist in this mid-air wedding?  The only way that this wedding can be deemed as a union before God would be a wedding before the Son of God, Christ Himself.  This did not take place, of course; however, as this blogger sees it, Bergoglio has consistently put himself in the place of Christ, acting as if he were a god but he is acting rather on behalf of Satan, putting aside God.



[1] http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm
[2] https://www.irishtimes.com/news/offbeat/pope-performs-impromptu-mid-flight-marriage-ceremony-1.3360159
[3] Ibid.
[4] https://cruxnow.com/pope-in-chile-and-peru/2018/01/20/conservatives-criticize-popes-airborne-shotgun-nuptials/
[5] http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm

A Voice For The Catholic Church

The following photograph of Bishop Athanasius Schneider is from an article written by Edward Pentin for the National Catholic Register  entitled How Bishop Athanasius Schneider Became a Leading Voice for Catholic Truth  published on January 17, 2018 [1]:

"Bishop Athanasius Schneider (Edward Pentin photo)"

God is not about to hand over to Satan the Catholic Church Christ had died to raise up. [2]  "[T]he Mystical Body of Christ...is the [Catholic] Church," [3] "[the] Church which Christ purchased with His own Blood." [4]  "That the Church is a body is frequently asserted in the Sacred Scriptures. 'Christ,' says the Apostle, 'is the Head of the Body of the Church.'  If the Church is a body, it must be an unbroken unity, according to those words of Paul: 'Though many we are one body in Christ.'" [5]

The Catholic Church that is the Mystical Body of Christ can only be whole and unbroken when it is returned to its original form from its transformed state which is no longer recognizable as the Mystical Body of Christ, as if Christ is even part of Bergoglio's and his demonic team's collective consciousness as they work to secularize the Church at a rapid pace.  A glance at Bergoglio's 2018 agenda gives credence to the foregoing statement, one which includes the"gathering [of] opinions from thousands of people, whether Catholic or not, [Satanic or not]" "to search for ways to help young people practice the faith." [6]

Yet, in the midst of a whirlwind of demonic plans and activities, a voice speaks with clarity, bringing to the forefront what is largely absent from and forgotten by this papacy--the real presence of Christ [7]:

As [Bishop Athanasius Schneider] has long stressed, the Most Holy Sacrament must be treated with the utmost reverence, especially in the liturgy, and he sees this lost sense of the Real Presence as the cause of a “conformation to the world” stemming from an “anthropocentrism” that poses “the greatest spiritual danger.”

“The remedy,” he told the Register, “is to break with the complex of inferiority toward the world, to put Christ really in the center of every detail in the liturgy of the Mass, to proclaim Christ truly incarnated, Christ crucified, Christ living and reigning in his hidden Divine Majesty in the Eucharist, Christ the King of every man and of every human society.”

The article from which the above paragraphs were quoted is a worthwhile read.  This blogger believes that Bishop Athanasius Schneider will be a light that will in time rise and shine brightly as the Catholic Church continue its decline into darkness under Bergoglio.  The following paragraphs are also quoted from the same source which show that Bishop Athanasius was only a boy (named Anton) when he seemed to have been chosen to do what may lie ahead [8]:

In 1973, shortly after [young Anton Schneider received] his first Holy Communion in secret, the Estonian government allowed the Schneiders to move to the Baden-Württemberg region of West Germany. 

They were imbued with such a reverence for the Eucharist that when they came to Germany, they were appalled to see Holy Communion received in the hand and standing up. As a family, they unilaterally knelt to receive the Eucharist, and other families soon followed suit. 

Bishop Schneider told the Register that he sees Communion in the hand, which he says was invented by Calvinist communities, as a “banalization that borders on profanation.” [The Schneiders] never imagined that the “Eucharistic Lord, the Holy of Holies, could be treated in such a banal manner.” 

Since the age of 12, he said he has “carried this pain in my soul,” and it prompted him to write his 2009 book on the Eucharist, Dominus Est (It Is the Lord).

This blogger believes that Bishop Athanasius Schneider is one of God's chosen shepherds who will save many innocent sheep that have been deceived and swept inside the demonic vortex spiraling downward into darkness and return home with them together with those with awareness yet wandering about to the once-upon-a-time stable in Bethlehem in which Christ was born to become the Mystical Body of the Catholic Church.



[1] http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/how-bishop-athanasius-schneider-became-a-leading-voice-for-catholic-truth
[2] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/2, at 19.
[3] http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_29061943_mystici-corporis-christi.html, quoted from the first paragraph of MYSTICI CORPORIS CHRISTI,
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XII ON THE MISTICAL BODY OF CHRIST
[4] Ibid., quoted from Paragraph 2 without footnote 2.
[5] Ibid., quoted from Paragraph 14 without footnotes and references to footnotes.
[6] https://www.romereports.com/en/2018/01/01/pope-francis-and-vaticans-challenges-in-2018/
[7] http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/how-bishop-athanasius-schneider-became-a-leading-voice-for-catholic-truth
[8] Ibid, quoted without hyperlink.

Vatican's Excuse, Denial And Rationalization

When the Vatican has to come up with the following excuse, denial and rationalization that it is not tacitly siding with abortionists is a sign that Satan is firmly in charge.  Andrea Gagliarducci, writing for Catholic News Agency  in an article dated January 16, 2018, entitled Award to pro-abortion politician a matter of protocol, Vatican says  reported as follows, quoted in part [1]:

The conferral of the Vatican’s Order of St. Gregory the Great to Dutch politician and pro-abortion activist Liliane Ploumen was part of an ordinary diplomatic exchange of honorific titles, and does not mean that the Vatican supports Ploumen’s abortion campaigns, a Vatican spokesperson explained Jan. 15.

Responding to requests of clarification, Paloma Garcia-Ovejero, deputy director of the Holy See Press Office, said that “the honorific of the St. Gregory the Great Pontifical Order that Liliane Ploumen, then Minister for Development received in June 2017, during the visit of the Dutch Royals to the Holy Father, is part of the diplomatic praxis of the exchange of decorations among delegations during official visits between heads of state and government to the Vatican.”

Garcia-Ovejero said that the decoration “cannot be by any way considered an endorsement to the pro-abortion and birth control politics advocated by Mrs. Ploumen.”

...

In some cases, the Vatican can ask not to proceed with an exchange of awards or honors, especially when some of the members of the other delegations can be controversial, a source close to the Vatican diplomatic service told CNA Jan. 15.

However, the exchange of decorations took place during the Dutch visit.

The presence of Ploumen in the Dutch delegation has sparked controversies because she is an abortion advocate.

In 2017, Ploumen launched an international campaign to support abortion, designed to counter the Trump administration’s decision to cut off funds for NGOs that facilitate abortion. Ploumen’s organization, named “She Decides,” collected nearly $400 million.

However, news of her award did not grab any headlines until Ploumen herself showed off the medal in a recent interview to the Dutch television BNR. 

In the interview, the Dutch politician presented the decoration as a personal award, and said that while her the pro-abortion campaign ““was not mentioned” as the reason for the decoration, but, she said, “the Vatican knows that I founded ‘She decides’, but this did not prevent them from awarding me.” 

“It is interesting,” she added.

The honorific was apparently given without significant previous consultation. In a statement released Jan. 15, Cardinal Wilhelm Ejik, Archbishop of Utrecht and Primate of the Netherlands, stressed that he “was not involved” in the process that decided “to give the decoration of Commander of the Pontifical Equestrian Order St. Gregory the Great, which the former minister Ploumen received last year.”

Cardinal Ejik said that he had not initially been aware that the decoration had been given to the minister.

This horrific act is so intrinsically evil that even a Cardinal distanced himself from the Satan-orchestrated event.  The pope has remained silent so far, and will likely not comment.  His excuse can be that he is presently traveling around Chile, where is not well-liked ("[w]hen recently asked to evaluate Pope Francis on a scale of 0 to 10, Chileans gave him a score of 5.3, the lowest ranking for any Pope" [2]).  Bergoglio only points and screams, politically yet figuratively, when things are not to his liking.


[1] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/award-to-pro-abortion-politician-a-matter-of-protocol-vatican-says-73221
[2] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42698564

Love, Penance And The Pardon Of Sins

"God is love" [1] and based on this Truth, many think and lead others to believe that God is abound with unconditional love and therefore there is no wrong one can commit that God will not pardon.  If this were true, Satan could retire from its 24 hours, 7 days a week job seeking the ruin of souls since every soul, no matter how sinful, would be forgiven based on God's "mercy," borrowing a word favored by Bergoglio who knows Satan well.  He said, "'With Satan you can't argue.'" [2]  Did Satan tell him that?  Certainly, these words were not spoken by Christ.

One who follows Satan's dictates of course wants everyone to believe that these words are to live by, to not argue with Satan but follow blindly, but for those who are not yet under its dictates, there is at least some back and forth, much like the conversation the Serpent and Eve had before she succumbed under its temptational power.  Satan did not just tell Eve to eat the apple and Eve ate it without initially putting up a defense, telling it that she was not to touch it let alone eat it [3].  That is not what Bergoglio wants.  He does not people to argue to Satan but to be like him, to let Satan be the boss.

As the Gospel of John had already pointed out long ago, that "every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God.  This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world." [4]  And in the Vatican.  Even Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's "chief exorcist 'who banished 70,000 demons'" who died in 2016 at the age of 91 [5] had in 2010 said that "'[t]he Devil resides in the Vatican and you can see the consequences,'... and [who had] been the Holy See's chief exorcist for 25 years." [6]  This blogger believes that Satan's power has grown since 2010 and is now the dominant force in the Vatican, quite possibly occupying the papacy.

As an aside, a blog with the name The Eponymous Flower  on November 4, 2016, published a post stating that "[o]n September 16, [after] the internationally known exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth, died[, h]is successor complains that there are hardly any young priests who are ready to act as exorcists," and that "[o]n 18 October the BBC reported on another exorcist. What Father Amorth was on an international level, Father Vincenzo Taraborelli is at the Italian level.  Father Taraborelli had been an exorcist of the Diocese of Rome along with Father Amorth.  He has now followed Amorth's footsteps as a de facto chief priest of the Pope's diocese." [7]  The Eponymous Flower  further published as follows [8]:

"Padre Amorth lived to 91. Perhaps I will be so old, and may still have something to do." The words are not conceited. He has a concrete reason. In the BBC report, Father Taraborelli complained that there was no growth of  new exorcists. "Exorcism in Italy is a frightening job for young priests," the BBC said. "The exorcist of Rome, who does not have a successor," is the title of the Spanish BBC program. The young priests show little interest in the service of the exorcist, at any rate in Italy. "Young priests are not particularly attracted by the prospect of spending hours in windowless rooms to read the prayers of the exorcism ritual for those affected," said BBC.

Father Taraborelli says, "I have told the [auxiliary] bishop that I can not find anyone who is ready to take over. Many of them are afraid. Even priests can be afraid. It's a hard life. "

In this respect, the pope does not seem to care.  Why should he?  Exorcists only get in the way of what the Devil wants to do through its representatives on earth and in the Vatican.  Despite not having an upcoming replacement, "Father Taraborelli is always active, and he is already 79 years old." [9]

Many commented after reading the post, not liking Bergoglio.  One comment in particular that was unabashedly apt was left by Karl who wrote: "Who would want to be an exorcist when your boss adores Lucifer? Not me!"  This was dated "November 5, 2016 at 4:41 PM" during Bergoglio's papacy.

With Satan's unmistakable presence occupying the papal throne, a good antidote against Satan's influence is love, not God's love for man but love going the other way: man's love for God.  One has to love God to guard against Satan.  The Gospel of John said, "God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him." [10]  In other words, whoever does not remain in love and in God has no God and becomes vulnerable.  With God's constant protection and occasional admonishments, one can be sure that one would not be an easy prey for Satan, even though one would still likely fall for Satan's temptations from time to time.  In acknowledging past transgressions and possibly preventing future ones, doing penance would help.

Man's love for God must precede penance for what is the point of doing penance if it is done out of a sense of obligation, perhaps with even a slight tinge of resentment or rebelliousness within?  Penance is not a duty but rather a privilege so that when completed, one's past sins can be cleansed and pardoned.  In other words, penance is done for the love of God, for the renewal of one's spirit troubled and weighed down by deliberate sins so that one is able to face God with cleanliness of conscience, lightness of spirit and joy emanating from the heart with openness and transparency.  It is this absence of shamefulness before God, Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary and all of God's angels and saints that allows one to gain a small sense of what being in Heaven could be like.

It would be Heaven on earth if everyone is no longer a slave to sin and if everyone can consistently argue vehemently with and ultimately say no to Satan in contradiction to what Bergoglio wants, to say "yes" to Satan without argument, even when Satan puts into the mind all kinds of excuses, denials and rationalizations that would lead to deliberate sin which would please Satan and this present (and likely the last) pope [11], a mercy-without-penance pope [12], a "daily-moment-of-silence-with-God" pope [13], a political and secular pope, and getting close to becoming the anti-Christ pope if he is not already it.

[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/1john/4, at 8
[2] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-satan-devil-person-argue-smart-tv2000-catholic-broadcasting-network-a8110621.html
[3] http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/3, 1-6.
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/1john/4, at 3, quoted without footnotes.
[5] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/popes-chief-exorcist-who-banished-8871079
[6] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7416458/Chief-exorcist-says-Devil-is-in-Vatican.html
[7] http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2016/11/romes-new-exorcist-complains-few-young.html
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] http://www.usccb.org/bible/1john/4, at 16.
[11] See The Last Pope - Saint Malachy - Petrus Romanus - Peter The Roman Documentary  at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynitZR6NbtM
[12] http://www.thedivinemercy.org/news/Top-10-Mercy-Quotes-of-Pope-Francis-5380
[13] https://www.roundnews.com/world/international/6931-pope-francis-recommends-a-daily-moment-of-silence-to-be-with-god.html, and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/01/pope-francis-urges-world-jettison-banality-consumerism-avoid/,  keeping in mind that "moment" is defined as "an indefinitely short period of time; instant" by dictionary.com  at http://www.dictionary.com/browse/moment.

A Suffering Love: The Wordless Language Of Heaven

From the Gospel of John: "Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love." [1]  Also, "God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him." [2]  "In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him." [3]  And this too: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love." [4]

Few are perfect in love.  According to the Gospel above, those who are perfect in love do not fear death.  Those who are ready for and welcome death speak the language of love. Just saying that one does not fear death is not enough, for when faced with death and given the choice between life and death, life is usually the preferred choice.  When death is knocking at one's door and is not going away, it can be scary.

Those who voluntarily choose death by own their will over life dislike life.  They do not know God and do not know love, yet they are the ones who have much to fear, not so much this life which is temporary but in the life after which is eternal.  When the Apostle John spoke of God and that God is love, he was speaking to the living, not the dead.  To know love is to know God and the time to know and love God is during one's lifetime.

The Gospel does not offer any practical advice how to love those who are difficult to love.  Ideally, one can love like Christ Who loved every sinner even though no sinner is easy to love.  Perhaps it is sufficient to love those difficult to love from a distance by praying for them just as one is able to love God from a distance by prayer and supplication, or not? Perhaps one just need to do one's best, even though one's best falls far short of God's expectations.  Perhaps with daily prayer, one can receive the grace to learn to love ever so gradually the way God loves.

To know how deeply one must love one has to imagine the depth of God's love for each and every sinner.  Repeating the quote from the Gospel of John: "In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him." [5]  Can any one imagine sending one's only beloved son to suffer and be crucified for the sake of sinners in order that reparation of Eve and Adam's Sin can be effective against Satan?  Probably it is difficult to imagine since it is difficult to know the depth and the pains of God's unrequited love.

Perhaps God's love has no perfect equivalent on earth, but perhaps certain moments of love can come close.  Life's vicissitudes can sometimes bring deep pain, and from the depths of sorrow love that is close to God's love may be experienced, and it is also this love that can ease the deep sorrow that is born of out of  love.  This is a love that is alive in the very young all the way to the very old.  The love that aches with this kind of suffering is not foreign to the Son of God Who was betrayed by one of His own, Who had to watch His Mother suffer as He was suffering, nor is this aching love foreign to the Mother of God Who had to suffer Her seven sorrows. [6]  Those who felt similar have no need for words; for those who have not, words are meaningless.



[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/1john/4, 8.
[2] Ibid., 16.
[3] Ibid., 9.
[4] Ibid., 18.
[5] Ibid., 9.
[6] https://www.olrl.org/pray/msorrows.shtml

Why Not Appoint A Woman To The College Of Cardinals?

"In an interview with the New York Times's left-wing columnist Nicholas Kristof, the head of the archdiocese of Newark, N.J., Cardinal Joseph Tobin, said he saw no reason why Pope Francis could not name a woman as a Cardinal of the Catholic Church, something that has never happened in the 2,000-year history of the Church." [1]

This blogger agrees.  There is no reason why a pope "could not name a woman as a Cardinal of the Catholic Church," especially this pope who acts as if he were a dictator and who has been poisoning the minds of Catholics around the world that God is all about mercy without suffering, and not been putting responsibility upon the individual in making the right choices in accordance with the teachings of Christ.  Moreover, this pope is already doing whatever he wants to do in the most insidious ways and appointing anyone he wants to the college of Cardinals would not be outside of his modus operandi.

If a woman can be appointed as a Cardinal, then why not a transgender male who has completed a sex reassignment surgery?  Would he not then be a woman?  Would he not then satisfy the established criterion that a Cardinal be a male, yet also satisfy Cardinal Joseph Tobin's desire to have a woman be a Cardinal?  Perhaps Cardinal Joseph Tobin ought to undergo transgender surgery himself which then would not necessitate the radical appointment of a woman as a Cardinal since he is already a Cardinal.  That, in this blogger's opinion, would be the optimum way to satisfy Cardinal Joseph Tobin's wish--having a woman Cardinal in the Catholic Church, a transgender creature notwithstanding.

For cardinals such as Cardinal Joseph Tobin to poison the minds of Catholics in this way, denying the fact that the disciples of Christ are all men and disregarding the Vatican's position of apostolic succession [2], is this not apostasy?  This should hardly be a surprise since the Catholic Church is undergoing unprecedented and insidious changes from within the Vatican.  "In that sense one may have the feeling that the Church gives the appearance of being unwilling to obey the mandates of Our Lord. Then perhaps we have arrived at the End Times." [3]  If these words of Cardinal Raymond Burke are correct, that means the presence of Satan in the Vatican is becoming more and more apparent and its influence more and more widespread, signs that the spiritually blind are unable to see.



[1] https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/nj-cardinal-tobin-no-theological-reason-why-pope-couldnt-name-woman-cardinal, quoted without hyperlinks.
[2] http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_1973_successione-apostolica_en.html
[3] http://catholicherald.co.uk/issues/december-1st-2017/perhaps-we-have-arrived-at-the-end-times-an-interview-with-cardinal-burke/

Original Sin - Not A Reason To Continuing Sinning

Death is the consequence of Original Sin. [1]  Perhaps with the exception of aging which leads to death, there is no other consequence.  People sometimes say that "we are all sinners." This is true because everyone who is born with Original Sin dies.  What is not true is the underlying assumption that some people tend to make is that because of Original Sin, sinning is therefore normal.

Sinning is not normal.  Breathing is normal.  A newborn baby breathes but does not sin.

Sinning is a deliberate act.  It requires an affirmative exercise of one's Free Will.  Free Will is a power of God that God has given to Adam and Eve who continued to retain it after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.  It is neutral and is part of every individual ever lived.  Free Will neither compels nor predispose one to sin.  No one ever sins automatically or accidentally, and no one is ever forced to commit a sin, not even when one is placed under the threat of torture and death.

Therefore, Original Sin is not to be blamed for the continuous commission of the many sins that follow it, nor is Satan, the one putting in front of man a delectable plethora of sins to choose from with free unlimited refills, to be blamed.  Man, himself, is the one who must accept full responsibility for every single choice he makes.  Whether good or bad, a choice is a deliberate act whether or not it is made after pondering, for whether or not to ponder is itself a deliberate choice however fast one makes it.

Unlike deliberate choice, one's immune system, when functioning properly in accordance with nature, heals the body.  It is automatic.  It knows what needs to be done and when for the good of the body.  It is smarter than the brain and makes the right choices.  The body's power to heal itself, like life and Free Will, is given to man by God.  Imagine having to decide what the body has to do every time it needs to heal a minor cut or bruise.  God could not leave up to man's deliberate choices to ruin God's gift of life because man will first go to the buffet table set by Satan to choose what may or may not be necessary to feel better based on the condition he is in.  Driven by gluttony, avarice, pride and/or lust, he can easily make the wrong choices and make his body worse if not killing it.  God did not give the gift of life just so than man can by his choices kill it, but killing it man sometimes does nonetheless by abusing his body, the "temple of the [H]oly Spirit." [2]

Driven by such desires, a man who is whole and well would at times choose to engage in perversions and/or excite his senses.  Sometimes, this does not only harm the life of one, but lives of others as well.  An example is surrogacy.  It terminates the natural and loving birth mother-child bond before it even has a chance to thrive [3] and the harm may not end there since the children would grow up without a biological mother.  They (and the surrogate mothers) would never know what they have missed after the unrecoverable passage of time that would have fostered a unique mother-child bond that is not severable even when the umbilical cord is cut.

Surrogacy is an example of a compound sin.  For purposes of this entry, a sin is compounded when its commission harms the lives of others.  Eve committed a grave sin the moment she bit into the apple.  It became compound when she offered the forbidden apple to Adam.  Death that became the consequence [4] was eternal until it was overcome by the resurrection of Christ.  Those who would like to make reparations for Eve and Adam's Sin (not loving God enough and disobeying God) will have to do the opposite, by choosing not to sin deliberately, by following Christ, by keeping the "temple of the Holy Spirit" clean, by being humble, by loving God and neighbor. [5]  Those who can actually live up to these ideals and choose consistently not to sin are probably far and few in between and this blogger would like to learn from them, if they exist.

Having asserted that Original Sin is not an excuse to continue sinning, one has to wonder how strong must one's will be to choose not to sin every time?  From this perspective, one can appreciate how strong-willed Christ was as man in overcoming Satan's temptations and how strong-willed the Blessed Virgin Mary was in rejecting them too, and realize how pure both their love is in loving each and every sinner.  Because the draw of sin is so forceful, refusing it deliberately requires the strength of will that can only be had with the grace of God, and one must supplicate before God to have it for the alternative is untenable on the Day of Judgment, having knowingly made repeated deals with the Devil for temporal pleasure and satisfaction in exchange for eternal fulfillment and joy that can only be regretted without penance and pardon.


[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis3:27, 2-4.
[2] http://www.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/6, at 19.
[3] In a previous post some time ago, the blogger made the mistake comparing the birth of Christ from the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a surrogacy.  He no longer agrees with this comparison and wants this mention to be a confession, a retraction and a reparation.  The Blessed Virgin Mother is the Mother of God.  She is not a surrogate.  The Mother-Child relationship began the moment the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and it continued on through life on earth and is continuing on in eternity in Heaven.
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis3:27, 2-4.
[5]  http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/12, 28-31; http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22:1517, 34-40; http://www.usccb.org/bible/lk/10:52, 25-28.

Juxtaposing Two Architectural Catholic Deaths In The Last Quarter Of 2017

Two unrelated events occurred in two countries separated by culture, language and ethnicity seemed to unite under a common fate: the destructive force of secularism.

In reverse chronological order,  Asianews.it  reported on October 28, 2017, that "[t]he only Catholic church in Zhifang, a village in the Huyi District, near Xi’an (Shaanxi [province, near where the terra cotta army is located] [1]), was demolished by force and without any reason." [2]  "Built almost 20 years ago, the simple and plain building...[had] been used for worship by local Catholics since 1999." [3]  This physical destruction of the Catholic Church was an action taken by the government authorities.  Below is a photograph of the church prior to being leveled:

From Google Images

However, for some reason, another Catholic church in the area, The St. Francis Cathedral of Xi'an, is allowed to remain standing. Below is a photograph:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Cathedral,_Xi%27an#/media/File:St._Francis_cathedral_of_Xi%27an_1.jpg

Going back in time, Vatican Radio  on October 14, 2017, reported that "[a] Cistercian monastery that's existed for almost 900 years in what is now western Germany is closing down for good, due in part to a shortage of monks." [4] Although it is on terra firma politically, it nonetheless has been abandoned, voluntarily, a symbolic death for "[t]he Himmerod Abbey [that] was founded in 1134 by the French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux." [5]  Below is a photograph of the monastery:

From Google Images

"It had just six resident monks before the closure that was decided this week. That's down from about 30 monks in the 1970s....Despite the latest closure, there are still more than 160 Trappist monasteries in the world, with over 2,000 Trappist monks and roughly 1800 Trappist nuns" [6] in a world with about 7.6 billion people. [7]

As the world becomes more and more secular, perhaps Catholic churches and monasteries will eventually succumb to a certain death over time with or without actual demolition.  A quick search on the Internet reveals a number of monasteries are listed for sale currently in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Is the Vatican not concerned with this ominous development? Apparently not since the pope is far more interested in social concerns of the day than with the lack of interest in monasticism; even though it is having fervent interest in prayerful monasticism among Catholics that will set an example for other Christians and those in every other religion of the world to be holy so that the world will become a less self-centered and power-hungry place.  To achieve this, the Catholic Church must take the lead but the direction it is now headed is not toward God but toward secularism, paying only lip-service every so often to the teachings of Christ.


[1] http://www.history.com/news/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-terra-cotta-army
[2] http://www.asianews.it/news-en/-Catholic-church-in-Xian-diocese-forcibly-demolished-42693.html
[3] http://www.asianews.it/news-en/-Catholic-church-in-Xian-diocese-forcibly-demolished-42693.html
[4] http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/10/14/german_cistercian_monastery_closing_after_900_years_/1343096
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

Merry Christmas To All Orthodox And Coptic Catholics - 7 January 2018!

Close-up image of Theotokos (Mother of God) of Vladimir at the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

May the Joy of Christmas be with everyone, always!

Words From The Title Of An Opinion Piece: "'Eerie and ominous'"

An article entitled ‘Eerie and ominous’ sign appears as Pope Francis visits Vatican Nativity  written by Anthony H. Wagner for LifeSiteNews  dated January 2, 2018, is quoted below in its entirety with one photograph but without the other and without hyperlinks [1]:

ROME, January 2, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — Would Pope Francis say anything about this year’s Vatican nativity scene — which was so clearly meant as a nod to the LGBT lobby — when he paid it a visit on New Year’s Eve?

He spoke not a word of course, but instead blessed it and chuckled as a few dignitaries, responsible for what some have called a “hideous” and “sacrilegious” crèche, gave him a guided tour.

And yet something very eerie and ominous happened that evening.

At exactly the same time as the Pope left St. Peter’s Basilica and walked to the crèche in St. Peter’s Square, a squabble of about 500 seagulls suddenly flew up from behind the basilica and circled around the crèche.

They swarmed above the nativity scene, squawking and squealing for about the exact time it took for the Pope to walk from the basilica to the crèche. They then disappeared into a night sky lit up by an almost full moon.

Seagulls flying above the Vatican Nativity

Many had been wondering what the Pope might say about the nativity scene. Facebook had banned users posting the figure of a naked man in the crèche, and when LifeSite revealed its creators came from Montevergine, a town with close links to Italy’s LGBT community, its sordid nature became clear.

The naked, athletic figure was ostensibly meant to be a poor man, showing one of the seven corporal works of mercy (clothing the naked) while other disturbing figures, in what is normally a scene of holy innocence and purity, showed a dead man covered in a blanket (burying the dead) and what looked like a decapitated head behind iron bars (visiting prisoners).

That the Pope should remain silent about the crèche, which even the Italian police in the square disliked and thought “strange,” is not surprising as he had seen the plans for the crèche weeks ago and had given it his approval.

Also the timely appearance of the seagulls, who scavenge on any filth they can find, is actually not new to St. Peter’s Square during this pontificate.

In the adjoining piazza and around the colonnade, passers-by have been shocked at the degradation and squalor that emerges there at night. The seagulls descend on the headquarters of the Church and pick at rubbish bins, leaving debris strewn across the sidewalks and roads.

The homeless are allowed to bed down under main thoroughfares and archways, on the outskirts of the colonnade and in front of the Holy See press office. Often they are drunk and disorderly, sometimes threatening passing tourists hoping to get a shot of the basilica.

For all of the Pope’s worthy outreach to the poor and the homeless, he hasn’t lifted them up and off the streets, but instead created a culture of homelessness around the Vatican.

Some have called the miserable scene “apocalyptic.”

And yet the general waste and degeneration, the screaming, scavenging birds circling over the Vatican like a dead carcass, is perhaps highly symbolic of this pontificate, one that many see leading the Church in the direction of a kind of death.

And all the time that the degradation and squalor continue in the Church — both physically and morally — no one is really speaking up and coming to her rescue.

What a great opinion piece, and so well-written--if only this blogger can write half as well, that would be a miracle; actually, it is already a miracle that he can write at these mid-competency levels.  The part that this blogger has a partial disagreement with is in the last paragraph.  It is not that "no one is really speaking up and coming to her rescue," [2] since I (a rare use of this personal pronoun) am speaking up but then I am a nobody and do not know how to rescue the Church.  Therefore, Anthony H. Wagner's conclusion is correct: "no one is really speaking up and coming to her rescue." [3], [4]


[1] https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/eerie-and-ominous-sign-appears-as-pope-francis-visits-vatican-nativity
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] God willing, this blogger's plan to start something new [5] and begin a new life will come to pass.  It will not be easy, and he may ultimately fail.  The most challenging part of this endeavor is to be able to master and adhere to without fail all  "[t]he Seven Contrary Virtues which are specific opposites to the Seven Deadly Sins: Humility against pride, Kindness against envy, Abstinence against gluttony, Chastity against lust, Patience against anger, Liberality against greed, and Diligence against sloth." See http://changingminds.org/explanations/values/seven_virtues.htm. [Updated January 5, 2018.]
[5] A new decentralized monastic order (unified under Christ's teachings and by common purposes and attire) perhaps, with local meetings quarterly and a worldwide meeting annually, or not?  Any one with ideas are most welcome!

Vatican's New Year Resolution For 2018

The way this blogger sees it, the Vatican has only one new year's resolution for 2018: it is the rapid secularization of the Catholic Church.  This conclusion is based on two published articles.  The first is entitled Pope Francis urges world to jettison 'banality of consumerism' and avoid 'empty chatter' in New Year's Day message  published by The Telegraph on January 1, 2018, quoted in part [1]:

Pope Francis has recommended jettisoning life's "useless baggage" in 2018, including what he called "empty chatter" and banal consumerism, and focusing instead on building a peaceful and welcoming world, particularly for refugees and migrants. 

... 

His advice included setting aside a moment of silence daily to be with God. Doing so would help "keep our freedom from being corroded by the banality of consumerism, the blare of commercials, the stream of empty words and the overpowering waves of empty chatter and loud shouting," Francis said.

This blogger's translation follows:

The first part of the quoted paragraph above sounds like good advice from a sage, and a most sagacious politician he is, speaking the language of the secular but not of the Catholic faithful.  The latter part of the same paragraph pivots to matters that are in this blogger opinion, "empty chatter," resorting to trite phrases in describing the building of "a peaceful and welcoming world" from the perspective of a social charitable institution, "for refugees and migrants."  Migrants and refugees are not the only ones suffering, even though their sufferings are visible and palpable; those who are truly suffering are those whose faith in Christ remain shallow and uncertain, and at worst, non-existent and hypocritical.

Even so translated, the first quoted paragraph appears fine.  It is harmless enough on its face but deceitful in truth.  It sets up a person's expectation that the speaker is speaking the words of Christ but in actuality they are not, not the words of Christ in this blogger's opinion.  His opinion is confirmed by the second paragraph quoted above, which states that "[h]is advice included setting aside a moment of silence daily to be with God."  The operative words here are "setting aside a moment of silence daily to be with God." [Emphasis added.]

Is spending "a moment of silence daily" with God enough?  What happened to the prayers of the Rosary?  Quoting in part from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops quoting another source: "'With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.'" [2]

To be sure, this was what Bergoglio had done and he had done it craftily and nearly imperceptibly: he replaced the graces of saying the Rosary with his own "secular graces" [3] which are as empty as Satan's promises by having people perform his recommended daily moment of silence with God.  People who are fans and supporters of Bergoglio, including all his appointed cardinals, ought to try his daily moment of silence every day for at least a full year (365 days consecutively) to see if his promise of "secular graces" are reliable to the degree that Satan's promise to Eve was not: "'You certainly will not die!'" [4]

It would be difficult to believe that anyone would actually do this for even a week without skipping a day, let alone every single day for a year or longer.  If nobody is actually going to do this, then is this daily moment of silence Bergoglio talked about merely a symbolic and an empty gesture, and his mention of it a "useless baggage" with no value whatsoever?

Will this daily moment of silence satisfy Christ and His Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary?  Did any of the visionaries who saw apparitions of the Blessed Mother and Her Son who had received the Vatican stamp of approval ever reported that they had been told that a moment of silence daily with God is enough?  If so, please educate this ignorant blogger.

Even if Bergoglio's fans and supporters were to set aside this daily "moment" consistently to be with God, it seems to this blogger that it could be a "pretend" moment of silence with God when the mind can easily draw an absolute blank, a silent meditational moment without the presence of God anywhere.  If this is so and if it suffices for Bergoglio's purposes, then does this silent "moment" become a paganistic ritual, and would this not be plain heresy?  If it is not, then what is?  Perhaps it is not heresy, perhaps it is only a "stream of empty words" and  part of an "overpowering wave of empty chatter," "shouted out loud" by Bergoglio for which he himself had created an antidote: a daily moment of silence, one which perhaps God would attend every time, for a moment, every day.

What is a moment?  Dictionary.com  defines a moment to be "an indefinitely short period of time; instant." [5]  Based on this definition, spending a moment with God once a day is certainly appealing to the busy "faithful" masses who would occupy their many other hours that would be left (24 hours minus "a moment" to be exact) with politics and technologies of the day, food, drinks and entertainment, and other repetitive routines, vices and deliberate sins in addition to work, rest, friends and family.

The trend toward secularization does not end here.

The second article being relied upon for the conclusion that the Catholic Church is rapidly secularizing was published on January 1, 2018, by RomeReports  entitled Pope Francis and Vatican's challenges in 2018.  It is quoted below in its entirety [6] :

A crucial year begins for the Holy Father, who will celebrate his fifth year as pope in March.

In the coming months, apart from the surprises, he will need a big energy boost to face these five looming issues.

WORLD PEACE

The pope is worried about the increase in worldwide tension, especially in Korea and the Middle East.

Without a doubt, Pope Francis will have to make an extra effort to propose solutions, build bridges and avoid conflicts.

PAPAL TRIPS

In January, the pope will travel to Chile and Peru; and in August, to Ireland, where he will not have it easy. The Catholic Church there finds itself plagued by a string of abuse scandals.

In addition, Pope Francis may travel to the Baltic countries and India this year.

SYNOD ON YOUTH

In October, bishops from around the world met at the Vatican to search for ways to help young people practice the faith.

To develop a plan, bishops in Rome and throughout the globe are gathering opinions from thousands of people, whether Catholic or not.

CURIA REFORM

In 2018, the pope could finish the new constitution on Vatican Curia reform, which he has been working on since the first months of his papacy.

The reorganization intends to make the structure more simple and allow the voices of those far from Rome to be heard.

BENEDICT XVI'S HEALTH

February 11 marks five years since the announcement of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, who will turn 91 in April.

Despite being reasonably healthy and continuing to welcome daily visitors, he appears frail in photos from recent months.

Thus, his health will continue to be a topic in the news and one that causes rumors.

On "WORLD PEACE," the one effective thing that a pope can do is to ask all the Catholics around the world to pray for world peace, to say the Rosary daily, not for a moment, but for as long as it takes to pray and say the Rosary with devotion and without distraction.  All the worldly things that Bergoglio thinks he can do to bring about world peace are in totality "excess baggage" that is useless, amounting to "idle chatter" that is a waste of time and completely ineffective, except to bring attention to himself upon the world political stage.  In this respect, Bergoglio excels.

On "PAPAL TRIPS," if they are going to be as productive as his 2017 trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh to help the Rohingya refugees (since his departure "[c]onditions in the camps of Cox’s Bazar [are] continu[ing] to deteriorate as more Rohingya arrive" [7]), he may as well stay in bed, rest, eat well and be served to preserve his longevity, and from time to time, assume the role of pope within the walls of the Vatican for which he was elected and is expected to do.

On "SYNOD ON YOUTH," "bishops in Rome and throughout the globe are gathering opinions from thousands of people, whether Catholic or not" [8] "to search for ways to help young people practice the faith." [9]  Is Christ no longer the sole and central authority in the ways His disciples ought to "practice the faith"?  Is every Catholic not a disciple of Christ?  Is the gathering of opinions by bishops in Rome and around the world from "thousands of people whether Catholic or not" (which means "whether atheistic or not" and "whether Satanic or not") a step toward or away from God?  Does this mean that Christ's delegation of authority to Peter's successors to lead His flock has been annulled (just as a marriage entered into before God can be annulled) and is no longer relevant?

On "CURIA REFORM," it will be interesting to see what this reform will look like after it has been finalized.  Making the structure "more simple" is a lie.  What can be simpler than to follow the footsteps of Christ?  He already walked the path.  All one needs to do is to step on his lasting footprints.   To be sure, "the new constitution" will not be a shock; it will be more secular than what has been established, and if Catholicism continues to be a religion, it will likely be a very different one from before when it was under Bergoglio's predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

On "BENEDICT XVI'S HEALTH," while this blogger misses Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI even though he is part of and a pillar upholding the not-so-holy establishment, it is not his health that is of note but the health of the Catholic Church that has been overcome by the disease of secularization that is spreading rapidly worldwide and the spiritual health of those who profess to be faithful Catholics who may not have absolute faith in Christ or at all that are of concern.



[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/01/pope-francis-urges-world-jettison-banality-consumerism-avoid/
[2] http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers-and-devotions/rosaries/
[3] Bergoglio's "secular graces" arise from "'setting aside a moment of silence daily to be with God," which permits one to be free "from being corroded by the banality of consumerism, the blare of commercials, the stream of empty words and the overpowering waves of empty chatter and loud shouting.'"  See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/01/pope-francis-urges-world-jettison-banality-consumerism-avoid/
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/3, at 4.
[5] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/moment
[6] https://www.romereports.com/en/2018/01/01/pope-francis-and-vaticans-challenges-in-2018/
[7] See article by Independent  entitled Rohingya Muslim refugees face fresh misery as Bangladesh welcome runs out  at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/rohingya-muslims-myanmar-burma-bangladesh-refugees-local-clashes-workers-food-border-a8121231.html, published on December 30, 2017.
[8] https://www.romereports.com/en/2018/01/01/pope-francis-and-vaticans-challenges-in-2018/
[9] Ibid.

Seeing the truth

In this blog, truths with a small "t" are individual truths.  Truths with a capital "T" are God's Truths.  God's Truths are eternal and they will always lead to God.  Human truths can change as circumstances and mores of the time change, and often wrapped inside them are deceptions, rationalizations and omissions, leading many astray and their originators closer and closer toward Satan.

Being able to see human truths cannot a blessing, for ignorance is bliss, words that have withstood the test of time and likewise these words as well: the ugly truth.  Individual truths can make a person ugly, very ugly.  To be able see individual human truths clearly all the time is to see all the ugliness in the faces of people around without pause (including the ugliness of those who on the surface appear to be the dearest and the most caring when they are most dear to themselves and most caring of themselves, which is self-centered pride wrapped in deceit).  Ugliness overwhelms and obliterates all that is and could be beautiful.  Living a life seeing every person's beauty destroyed by individual sinful truths is not easy, one that Christ must have led.

Not only did Christ see; He foresaw and foresees.  From His perspective, therefore, humanity ought to be a lump of indistinguishable ugliness festering in Satan's wasteland of sins, yet He chooses to overlook sins' deadly venom covering the ugly sinner.  What Christ must see is the potential beauty that is within each of God's creation, and it is this pure beauty that each person carries within the interior that Christ became man to save by becoming physically ugly Himself, by carrying upon his entire body from head to toe painful and open wounds, one that was also bruised and swollen by the stoning and the falling as He was lifting up and walking with the weight of humanity's sins in the shape of a cross, only to be nailed to it when He reached Golgotha.

Christ died while nailed to the cross of humanity's sins.  This was not just a crucifixion of a body.  This was the permanent attachment of sins committed from the time of Adam and Eve to the end of the world to sinless living flesh.  Only the living flesh of Christ is able to absorb sins of man; only by dying sinlessly on the cross of sins can humanity's sins drop off like parasites upon a host; and only by rising from the dead and entering into Heaven can sins no longer seek out their hosts and continue their parasitic existences, on earth and in Hell.

As imagined by this blogger, sins that dropped off the flesh after a sinner dies attach themselves to the soul of the sinner unless the soul of the sinner is saved by the inner beauty that was revealed while the soul and the body were still one in the world.  Inner beauty reveals itself in humility and manifests fully in sacrificial love.  Only souls that had revealed at least once its complete inner beauty and displayed sacrificial love fully when they were still connected to the flesh can enter Heaven.  In Heaven, there is no ugliness, only beauty.  One who refuses to reveal one's inner beauty that leads to sacrificial love in life will not be able to enter Heaven.  This is analogous to not being able to play in an orchestra without ever touching a musical instrument.

How much of one's potential inner beauty has been revealed despite one's continuous acts of sin in life, and how much effort has one willed to avoid deliberate sin may work to limit one's life tribulations and may after death reduce the soul's time in Purgatory and the severity of the cleansing necessary to be purified before entering Heaven.  Saint "Augustine [said] in a sermon (xli De Sanctis): 'This fire of Purgatory will be more severe than any pain that can be felt, seen or conceived in this world.'" [1]  This Saint Augustine is the same Augustine of Hippo who was an erstwhile fornicator, who "had contracted an illicit relationship with an unnamed woman and, from this union, came a son." [2]  Of the many saints, Augustine ought to know about the severity of the fire of Purgatory based on his past sins.

Supposedly there are ways to avoid Purgatory.  They are listed under this title: HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY  written by Fr. Paul O'Sullivan.  It is quite long and is available to read at http://www.theworkofgod.org/how_to_avoid_purgatory.htm or https://www.ewtn.com/library/spirit/avoidprg.txt.  As comprehensive as the publication seems to be, it appears to miss this one way that is without reference to Holy Souls under Fr. Paul O'Sullivan's Chapter 14, quoted below without hyperlink [3]:

Fifteen  Promises of Our Lady to those who pray the Holy Rosary, Given to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan de La Roche [:]
1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the rosary, shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the rosary.
3. The rosary shall be a powerful armour against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the rosary, shall not perish.
6. Whoever shall recite the rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the rosary.  [Emphasis original.]
10. The faithful children of the rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the rosary.
12. All those who propagate the holy rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
14. All who recite the rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only son Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion of my rosary is a great sign of predestination

These promises, given directly by the Blessed Virgin Mary to Saint Dominic and Blessed Alan de La Roche, are in this blogger's opinion carry far greater weight than the multitude of ways any sinner, priest or not, can dream up, however sensible and correct they may be, not that they are wrong or entirely ineffective in any way, in avoiding Purgatory.  Simple recitation of prayers over a certain period, a lifetime or what seems to be a lifetime, appears to be preferable for the Blessed Mother and Her Son in order for one to avoid Purgatory.  See also St. Bridget's 7 prayers for 12 years, 15 prayers for one year and rosary of 7 sorrows in addition to "A true letter from Our Savior Jesus Christ." [4]

Heaven is about simplicity whereas humans love complexity.  It is therefore best to stay simple, humble and true.  With that, perhaps every sinner will be less ugly before Christ even though He can see and foresee the ugliness of every individual's sin, great and small, especially Satan's favorite, pride, the one most easily camouflaged and most difficult to recognize.



[1] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Summa_Theologiae/Appendix/Question_2
[2] http://newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2013/08/st-augustines-mistress-and-son-and.html
[3] http://www.theworkofgod.org/avoid_purgatory.htm
[4] Ibid.