Catholic Church Closures

With so many Catholic church closures underway, what comes to mind is where will the Eucharist be housed for the local parishioners?  Should a gathering place that allows for people to experience the presence of Christ be sold to the highest bidder for money?  Is monetizing the land on which a place of worship sits something the Vatican approves of tacitly?  How about putting up for auction a few of the Vatican Museum's art works to keep the local parishes around the world open for those who are unable to travel far and wide in order to go to a place where the living body of Christ can be received?  Is not every soul worth saving?

Church closures are a result of many factors, such as the dwindling number of priests and parishioners in a secular world, the high costs of maintaining old buildings and bringing them up to modern safety standards, but the single most significant factor, at least in the United States, could very well be the amount of damages paid to settle lawsuits brought by victims of pedophiliac priests, bankrupting dioceses and causing many to file for protection under bankruptcy laws. [1]

Closures can take place anywhere with a history of clerical sex abuse.  In the United States, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia are among the big cities that have been affected. [2]  A church in the Town of Scituate, Massachusetts, is also one of the targeted closures. [3]

For some eleven years, the parishioners of St. Frances X. Cabrini Church in Scituate had resisted closure.  The timeline of events can be accessed here [4].  How long this citation will remain available online is uncertain.  When administrative appeals within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church were exhausted, a lawsuit was filed by the Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini, Inc., with the Norfolk Superior Court in Massachusetts which, "in May 2015 issued an injunction evicting the Friends from the St. Frances X. Cabrini property in Hood Road." [5]  In October, 2015, the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed the decision. [6]  On December 3, 2015, "[t]he Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied the Friends Application for Further Appellate Review." [7]

Unwilling to give up, Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini, Inc., on March 1, 2016, filed a petition for writ of certiorari [8] with the Clerk of the United States Supreme Court, but in May, 2016, the Supreme Court denied the appellant its request for a hearing. [9]

Church closures are not limited to the United States.  A third of the Catholic churches in Wales are also slated for closure. Sixty-two churches will be whittled down to 40 if Bishop Brignall of Wrexham can have his way. [10]  Ireland is also closing its churches, stemming from low church attendance and not enough young men willing to join the priesthood that is perhaps irreparably tarnished by sex scandals. [11]

This is not a comprehensive review of Catholic church closures worldwide.  Hopefully, those who are faithful would not be deterred by the Vatican's shameful decision to allow the disappearances of churches to continue.  Not even government sanctioned crackdowns in China are able to close down churches with such effectiveness.  The Vatican ought to step up and take responsibility for its own failure to inspire all peoples of the world to reach deep into their hearts to find God, rather than asking the faithful to reach deep into their pockets for financial support so that Catholic churches can continue have both presence and relevance in today's world.  In this blogger's opinion, the throne of Peter has been corroded and corrupted by the passage of time to the point that the task of its upkeep has been taken over by Satan and its pawns.


[1] "The Associated Press estimated the total from settlements of sex-abuse cases from 1950-2007 to be more than $2 billion.  BishopAccountability reports that figure reached more than $3 billion in 2012."  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases_in_the_United_States  These figures account for settlements only in the United States.  Other countries are likely not as litigious as the United States, and settlement payouts, if any, would not be nearly as large.
[2] http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160408/NEWS07/160409846/catholic-churchs-financial-woes-consolidations-arent-new
[3] http://www.lowellsun.com/backtalk/ci_29953276/parishioners-leave-closed-church-after-11-year-protest
[4] http://stfrancesxcabriniscituate.org/timeline.html
[5] http://scituate.wickedlocal.com/article/20160304/NEWS/160307544
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/docs/pdfs/certinfosheet.pdf
[9] http://nypost.com/2016/06/05/is-this-the-end-of-catholicism/
[10] http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/04/22/a-third-of-catholic-churches-across-north-wales-are-to-close/
[11] http://www.independent.ie/life/vanishing-catholic-church-seeks-salvation-can-it-reinvigorate-itself-34237641.html

Satan Is Everywhere

Satan is in the angry, the manipulative and the envious, and it is in the thoughts that enter the mind when one is at prayer.  The more one is in tune with the Mother and the Son of God, the more road blocks Satan puts up to annoy and to distract, to distance one from Them and to replace one's inner peace with thoughts that are menial at best and unforgiving at worst.  In order to save oneself from the snares of the Devil, one must do what It hates most, ordering It to leave and doubling down on one's devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to Her Son by Whose humility in life and love of humanity at death triumphed over the ever vindictive, calculating and wrathful Satan.

A Marian Apparition In Argentina

In San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Argentina (approximately 238.3 kilometers northwest of Buenos Aires per Google), the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus appeared to a housewife named Gladys Herminia Quiroga de Motta ["Gladys"] from October 13, 1983, to February 11, 1990. [1]

The apparitions were declared official by Bishop Hector Cardelli on May 22, 2016. [2]

"Notice [October 13 is] the anniversary of the last vision at Fatima and [February 11] is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes." [3]  It was on October 13, 1983, that the Blessed Virgin Mary first spoke to Gladys even though She first appeared to Gladys on September 25, 1983. [4]

"The basic message of the apparitions is the same as every other Marian apparition--repent, pray, be obedient to Christ and follow His will." [5]  However, there are likely some words that are unique to every apparition.  This blogger has not read every word of the Blessed Virgin Mary had said in Her apparitions, but these, among many quoted in the article cited, resonate with him more than the others: "'My daughter,' Mary said, 'when a heart opens to the heart of the mother, it stays there.  When a heart abandons itself to the heart of a mother, she will shape it and guide it to her Son.  In this heart will be found purity, love, humility...'" [6]

And these:  "'The soul must unite itself to Christ each day, and for that, there is nothing better than Holy Communion: the Food of the soul for life.'" [7]

And of course these:  "'God gives complete freedom and he allows each one...to make his own choice: to purify oneself or to live in sin, grow in Christ or be annihilated.'" And in Jesus' own words, these: "'My heart wishes the salvation of all souls and loves them, even those who are in sin.'" [8], [9]


[1] http://www.ncregister.com/blog/joseph-pronechen/its-official-major-apparitions-of-mary-are-approved
[2] http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/a-marian-apparition-has-been-approved-in-argentina---and-its-a-big-deal-31979/
[3] http://www.ncregister.com/blog/joseph-pronechen/its-official-major-apparitions-of-mary-are-approved
[4] Ibid.
[5] http://fathert.blogspot.com/2011/01/appeal-from-mary-in-argentina.html
[6] http://www.ncregister.com/blog/joseph-pronechen/its-official-major-apparitions-of-mary-are-approved
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] The words of Jesus: "My heart wishes the salvation of all souls" are consistent with God's gift of Free Will.  The gift of Free Will is, in this blogger's opinion, the greatest act of humility because it requires infinite restraint for someone who has the power to do anything to stand by and watch so many unconditionally loved sons and daughters, one by one, to fall freely and permanently into sin and beyond the grasp of salvation, to reject God and stand with Satan willingly.

Intercessory Prayer

Intercessory prayer is defined below by Robert Longman as follows:

"Intercessory prayer is not the same as prayers for yourself, or for 'enlightenment', or for spiritual gifts, or for guidance, or any personal matter, or any glittering generality. Intercession is not just praying for someone else's needs. Intercession is praying with the real hope and real intent that God would step in and act for the positive advancement of some specific other person(s) or other entity.  It is trusting God to act, even if it's not in the manner or timing we seek." [1]

The intercessor must have absolute  faith in God.  Absolute faith is faith with zero  doubt.  The intercessor must also have genuine  love for others.  Genuine love is love with zero self interest.  An intercessory prayer is said without the recipient beneficiary(ies)'s knowledge.  The appeal(s) can be made directly to God or the Son of God and indirectly to Them through the Mother of God.

One might ask why should one go through the Blessed Virgin Mary if the appeal(s) can be made directly to God or the Son of God?  This is not a question that necessary has an answer but if an answer must be had, it is this: the Blessed Virgin Mary is the  constant Intercessor in Heaven.  Having Her assistance in interceding is much more effective than without it.  After all, as the Immaculate Conception and Queen of Heaven and Earth, and in Her dual role as God's Spouse and the Mother of Jesus, is it not reasonable to assume that the Blessed Virgin Mary will have the ears of God and Her Son sooner and more directly than just someone calling out to Heaven for help?  Is it also not reasonable to assume that They would act quicker on Her appeals than any of the petitions coming from sinners on earth?

Furthermore, there is no rule that limits an intercessory appeal (or any prayer for that matter) to either God, the Son of God or the Blessed Virgin Mary.  If there are rules, either stated or unstated, they ought to be: pray to all of Them, and pray often; intercede when compelled to and as needed for people one knows and for strangers as well.

Sometimes one is compelled to intercede for another out of pure love on the one hand and pure turmoil on the other. Whatever force that is driving one to say intercessory prayers are forces of good.  Robert Longman put it this way: "If God's love is at work in you, you will care about others, and your love for them will lead you to take it to the ultimate Source of strength, healing, and love." [2]

Robert Longman also made this interesting observation which is beyond this blogger's other-worldly experiences: "It is best to always be aware that you never really pray alone. For when the honest love in you for other people causes you to ask God to act to strengthen, heal, defend, change, or bless them, there is someone else praying with you: the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit is leading you to pray." [3]  Perhaps the feeling of  turmoil is one of the forces of the Holy Spirit that compels one to act for the benefit of the one compelled, in the quelling of the turmoil, and for the benefit of the recipient of the intercessory prayers, in bringing a healing to the soul, the body and the mind, the result of which is a new person who is more like the Christ than before the suffering.

                                                                                                                

[1] http://www.spirithome.com/intercessory-prayer.html
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.

Yet Another Alarm on Secularism

CNSNews.com reported that a book entitled Hating Jesus: American's Left War On Christianity  was written.  The author of the book said, "God's natural created order, His immutable, scientific and transcendent moral precepts, as well as the very lives and livelihoods of Christian Americans, are under vicious attack today at a level unprecedented in American history."  As a result, he "had to sound the alarm." [1]

In addition, he said, "[t]he secular left doesn't merely have a disagreement with Christianity.  These are not people with whom one may reason, compromise or even disagree.  They are dedicated to evil.  They demand nothing less than the abolition of the biblical worldview and the destruction of Christ's followers right along with it." [2]

It is important to note that CNSnews.com is Cybercast New Service [3] -- not Catholic News Service which is CNS [4]. This blogger mistook one for the other.  Having stumbled on the article quoted above, he has this observation:

The alarm on secularism had already gone off eight years earlier in April, 2008, when Pope Benedict XVI (now Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI) wrote and the Vatican published RESPONSES OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO THE QUESTIONS POSED BY THE BISHOPS [5].

The manner in which Pope Benedict XVI treated the subject matter was delicate, studied and eloquent.  In this blogger's opinion, his four paragraphs [6] are a work of art.  The Pope's polished writing style contrasts well with that of the book's author.

This blogger prefers the Pope's sophisticated approach rather than a more direct one, which is what this blogger resorts to using in his entries, for a learned scholar and a writer this blogger is not.

In a crude manner, this blogger had attempted to address secularism many times in the past.  He is fairly certain that he had not written his last entry on the subject matter and predicts with a smidgen of confidence that this book on secularism would not be the last of its kind, despite the fact that it is not selling all that well on amazon.com as of this date.


[1] http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/j-matt-barber/hating-jesus-liberals-declare-spiritual-warfare
[2] Ibid.
[3] http://www.cnsnews.com/history
[4] http://www.catholicnews.com/index.cfm
[5] https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2008/april/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080416_response-bishops.html
[6] Ibid:

1. The Holy Father is asked to give his assessment of the challenge of increasing secularism in public life and relativism in intellectual life, and his advice on how to confront these challenges pastorally and evangelize more effectively.

I touched upon this theme briefly in my address. It strikes me as significant that here in America, unlike many places in Europe, the secular mentality has not been intrinsically opposed to religion. Within the context of the separation of Church and State, American society has always been marked by a fundamental respect for religion and its public role, and, if polls are to be believed, the American people are deeply religious. But it is not enough to count on this traditional religiosity and go about business as usual, even as its foundations are being slowly undermined. A serious commitment to evangelization cannot prescind from a profound diagnosis of the real challenges the Gospel encounters in contemporary American culture.

Of course, what is essential is a correct understanding of the just autonomy of the secular order, an autonomy which cannot be divorced from God the Creator and his saving plan (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 36). Perhaps America’s brand of secularism poses a particular problem: it allows for professing belief in God, and respects the public role of religion and the Churches, but at the same time it can subtly reduce religious belief to a lowest common denominator. Faith becomes a passive acceptance that certain things “out there” are true, but without practical relevance for everyday life. The result is a growing separation of faith from life: living “as if God did not exist”. This is aggravated by an individualistic and eclectic approach to faith and religion: far from a Catholic approach to “thinking with the Church”, each person believes he or she has a right to pick and choose, maintaining external social bonds but without an integral, interior conversion to the law of Christ. Consequently, rather than being transformed and renewed in mind, Christians are easily tempted to conform themselves to the spirit of this age (cf. Rom 12:3). We have seen this emerge in an acute way in the scandal given by Catholics who promote an alleged right to abortion.

On a deeper level, secularism challenges the Church to reaffirm and to pursue more actively her mission in and to the world. As the Council made clear, the lay faithful have a particular responsibility in this regard. What is needed, I am convinced, is a greater sense of the intrinsic relationship between the Gospel and the natural law on the one hand, and, on the other, the pursuit of authentic human good, as embodied in civil law and in personal moral decisions. In a society that rightly values personal liberty, the Church needs to promote at every level of her teaching – in catechesis, preaching, seminary and university instruction – an apologetics aimed at affirming the truth of Christian revelation, the harmony of faith and reason, and a sound understanding of freedom, seen in positive terms as a liberation both from the limitations of sin and for an authentic and fulfilling life. In a word, the Gospel has to be preached and taught as an integral way of life, offering an attractive and true answer, intellectually and practically, to real human problems. The “dictatorship of relativism”, in the end, is nothing less than a threat to genuine human freedom, which only matures in generosity and fidelity to the truth.

Much more, of course, could be said on this subject: let me conclude, though, by saying that I believe that the Church in America, at this point in her history, is faced with the challenge of recapturing the Catholic vision of reality and presenting it, in an engaging and imaginative way, to a society which markets any number of recipes for human fulfillment. I think in particular of our need to speak to the hearts of young people, who, despite their constant exposure to messages contrary to the Gospel, continue to thirst for authenticity, goodness and truth. Much remains to be done, particularly on the level of preaching and catechesis in parishes and schools, if the new evangelization is to bear fruit for the renewal of ecclesial life in America.

Healing The Wounds Of Acedia (Sloth) - An Unexpected Conclusion

After spending some time making refinements to the last entry on acedia this morning, this blogger was so troubled that he did not quite know what to do with himself.  For the first time in months, he felt the urge to attend Mass, but instead of getting himself ready, he searched online for the next Mass.  By the time he was done, all of the morning Masses were over or in progress.  There was only one church that had a 1 p.m. Mass and a few with evening Masses.  This blogger ruled out all the evening Masses because he did not feel like attending one.  In the back of his mind, he knew that if he did not attend the 1 p.m. Mass, he would inadvertently miss all of the evening Masses.

His inexplicable inner turmoil drove him into action even as he thought that it was too early for him to take a first step in confronting his acedia, and that it was fine for him to miss the 1 p.m. Mass for there was always next Sunday.  The forces that compelled him to leave his home apparently had a different idea.  He was there about 20 minutes before Mass began, hoping to make a confession, but there was nobody in any of the six confessionals even though the church's website indicated that confessions were available prior to each Mass.

For a while he stood around and waited.  When it was clear to him that nobody was going to show up, he entered one of the pews and knelt down.  He reflected on what just happened, or rather what did not happen.  He did not enter the church with any sense of awe or any degree of reverence; he did not feel inner peace's welcoming and unconditional embrace; and nothing entered into his heart to heal the wounds of acedia.  He continued kneeling.  When his mind went blank, he sat down until Mass began.

When the priest reached the alter, he stood and announced to the congregation that today was the Feast of Corpus Christi but the name was changed to include not just the body of Christ but also the blood of Christ.  The new name is now the Feast of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The priest told the congregants that on this special occasion, they can receive both the Body and  the Blood of Christ.

Upon hearing this announcement, this blogger knew why he was being pushed out the door by some invisible force -- the inexplicable inner turmoil -- to go to Mass this  Sunday, not next, for next Sunday he would have missed the Feast Day which the Blood of Christ was also dispensed along with the Body of Christ, and he would not have even known about it.

To partake in the Lord's Supper properly, one must have confessed one's sins.  Since no one was available for this blogger to confess to, he was hoping that the priest would have everyone say the Confiteor:

I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God. [1]

That did not happen, so this blogger said it in his heart because he had gone to Mass specifically to receive the healing Body of Christ; moreover, to be able to have the Blood of Christ on this special Sunday, the Feast of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, was particularly important to this blogger since his sins of sloth needed to be forgiven by the Most Holy Blood of Christ. [2]

If saying the Confiteor was an insufficient preparation for this blogger to receive the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the tears that flowed down this blogger's cheeks when he joined in the singing of one of the hymns had sufficiently opened the wounds in his heart for healing and forgiveness to enter simultaneously.  Toward the end of the hymn when he was overcome by his urge to cry and could no longer sing, he felt cleansed and he felt whole, and that was before he received the Holy Communion and the Blood of Christ.

There are apparently many ways and many points in time for a healing to take place.  Today, in a very different way and at a very different time than expected, a healing took place. The one imagined by this blogger in his last entry did not work for him.  Something else did.  This evening, he is at peace.



[1] http://www.diocesefwsb.org/Data/Resources/6663dac75f6f855c122a9e90bdc5b35e-Article-3-Confiteor.pdf
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Matthew%2026%3A28

Healing The Wounds Of Acedia (Sloth)

Recalling a past dream in the last entry has brought to light an awareness of the dreamer's current tenuous spiritual connection with the Almighty One.  Although love is still present, it has lost part of its fervor.  When indifference begins to fill the cracks of a broken love, the relationship is no longer a fulfilling one.  As God retreats further and further into the distance, the emptiness within becomes more and more prominent.

Unfulfillment is a dreaded pain, and is often masked by denial, pretense, sarcasm, envy, jealousy and rage and the like on the one hand, and addictions to work, shopping, possessions, food, sex, drugs, alcohol, politics, amusements and myriad other forms of consumption on the other.  Living a cocktail of such actions seems to lead one to think that one is content but in actuality, the interior peace that comes with true fulfillment remains elusive to the soul.

A loss of connection between man and the Prince of Peace is often overlooked as the cause of upheavals in one's life and turmoils in the world.  As man assiduously looks for worldly means to quell stresses in his life and unrests in society, he is doing exactly what a sloth does spiritually--nothing.

In the words of Kathleen Norris, who was mentioned in an article written in the Los Angeles Times, "'We appear to be anything but slothful, yet that is exactly what we are, as we do more and care less, and feel pressured to do still more.'" [1]

Similarly, Catholic Online had this to say: "Sloth can masquerade as tolerance.  It can also be very busy, but the activity of the slothful leads nowhere, simply marking time in a life that has no ultimate purpose.  Many of the slothful end up in despair, a hopelessness that is distinct from clinical depression requiring medical attention." [2]

The Los Angeles Times article continued to quote Norris: "'I would suggest that while depression is an illness treatable by counseling and medication, acedia is a vice that is best countered by spiritual practice and the discipline of prayer."' [3]

Catholic Online agreed.  "The darkest side of sloth...is its distaste for worship and prayer.  Sometimes this aversion strikes at a very advanced stage of the spiritual life, but for most of us, it shows itself early on, after the euphoria of conversion or the sweetness of prayer wears off." [4]  Or, when ennui sets in from time to time in the way one's spiritual life ebbs and flows.

In order to overcome acedia, Catholic Online recommended "spend[ing] time in prayer, at least a half an hour every day." [5] And, "[a]bove all, do not skip Mass or forsake the Sacrament of Confession.  It is precisely these life-giving Sacraments that sloth most tempts us to abandon." [6]

This blogger agrees, and adds that acedia can be healed only when one is still in the flesh, and that the cure begins first in the mind where one's imagination resides.  To clear away the clutter that is clogging free-flowing channels to and from Heaven through which communication can be frequent and instantaneous, it is necessary to step back in time, not in the physical sense but in one's imagination.

Since every one's imagination is ageless, it is never too late to be young and innocent again.  All it takes is for one to want to start over, to walk into a church as if it were the first time every time  and re-live the moment of awe and reverence, and let go of the indifference and receive again inner peace's welcoming and unconditional embrace, leading in turn to the opening of the wounds of love for the living Christ in the Eucharist to enter, in that they can be healed for the love of God to once again thrive, and the fervor to love God in return to rekindle.

Knowing the formula to treat acedia does not mean it is simple to do.  If acedia can be eliminated this easily, it would not be classified as one of the seven deadly sins [7].  It is a deadly sin precisely because it cannot be excised without spiritual determination, persistence of prayer and divine assistance for Satan has already entered those who are slothful.  It will take a miracle for this blogger to be released from sloth's stranglehold except that the strength of the miracle needed is being slowly attenuated by the increasing distance sloth is placing between him and the Church, the confessional and the Eucharist. [8]


[1] http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-kathleen-norris21-2008sep21-story.html
[2] http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/story.php?id=32656
[3] http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-kathleen-norris21-2008sep21-story.html
[4] http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/story.php?id=32656
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] http://www.deadlysins.com/sloth/
[8] The hypocrisy of the Catholic church certainly does not make it easy for a sheep that has strayed to return to many of its similarly hypocritical shepherd priests.  In the interim, while this blogger struggles with his acedia, the recitation of the rosary will hopefully mitigate against its dreadful consequences.