Vasectomy, not God’s Plan

https://rcspirituality.org/ask_a_priest/ask-a-priest-was-my-husbands-vasectomy-ok/

“Ask a Priest: Was My Husband’s Vasectomy OK?”

View all Ask a Priest February 1, 2019

Q: My husband had a vasectomy two years ago. He decided that because, despite having a healthy daughter, I was not able to give birth to a second child. I would get pregnant and everything would look fine until the babies suddenly die inside of me. Since the babies were already big every time that happened, I had to go through a C-section surgery. We went through a lot of emotional pain, including our daughter, every time. No medical explanation. The last time the doctor said it was dangerous for me to go through it again and recommended a definitive method. My husband didn’t want me to go through that again, and he decided to get a vasectomy. I didn’t agree at first, but I didn’t stop him either because it was too much pain to see my children die and my daughter suffering. I asked God to stop him if we were offending him. My question is, given the circumstances, is this a sin? He says he doesn’t regret it because that’s what God wanted, based on everything we went through. What do we need to do to be in peace with God and our faith? – K.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC

A: I am sorry to hear about the medical problems you have had, and the babies you lost. Our Lord has allowed a heavy cross in the life of your family.

Ideally you should have resorted to natural family planning, which is highly effective for the avoidance of pregnancy.

NFP does no damage to the integrity of the marriage and is often an opportunity for the love of spouses to deepen. It requires discipline, yes, but it also helps couples to grow in unity since husbands have to be especially attentive to their wives’ bodily cycles.

Certainly it sounds as though your husband is very dedicated to you.

Nonetheless, a vasectomy is a form of mutilation that is motivated by the intention to contracept. As such, it is not morally permissible, whatever the reasons.

A basic norm of moral theology is that we cannot do evil in order to achieve a good ends. If that were the case, anything could be justified.

But what is done is done. Perhaps there is a need for a good confession to be made. The Holy Spirit wouldn’t have sanctioned the vasectomy while at the same time inspiring the Church to teach something different. God simply doesn’t work that way.

Perhaps now the best way forward is to recognize that the procedure wasn’t sanctioned by God. But the task of helping your family get to heaven remains ahead of you. With lots of prayer and sacrifices and recourse to the sacraments and the grace of God, all this is possible. And wouldn’t it be nice to be reunited with your lost babies someday?

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Poverty Is Not What You Think It Is

Austin Ruse

Poverty fell off a cliff after the Second World War. It fell like a stone, including for American blacks. The economy was booming and everyone benefited. The poverty rate dropped from 35 percent in 1950 to less than 20 percent when President Lyndon Johnson, nonetheless, announced his War on Poverty.

By the time the War on Poverty kicked into gear in 1967, the poverty rate had fallen to 14 percent. After the implementation of the War on Poverty, poverty eradication ground to a halt. While it has ticked up and down a few points since that time, today it stands roughly where it stood back in 1967.

The War on Poverty has been witheringly expensive. From 1967 to today we have spent 22 trillion in 2012 dollars on poverty relief. Today the U.S. government runs more than eighty means-tested welfare programs, including cash, food, housing, medical care, and other social services. A whopping hundred million Americans get some kind of aid. That is a third of the population.

Heritage Foundation scholar Robert Rector says, “Adjusted for inflation, this spending (which does not include Social Security or Medicare) is three times the cost of all military wars in US history since the American revolution.” You could say that the War on Poverty has been the least successful and the most expensive war in our history.

What has happened is that we have created what seems to be a permanent underclass and destroyed the main engine of poverty relief, the family.

We are told by the political left in the Church that our adherence to Catholic Social Teaching is tied directly to our support for more federal and state tax dollars thrown at poverty relief. It is always more, never less, no matter how ineffective or even harmful those dollars may be.

How could it be that after such massive government spending we are at the same poverty level as when we started 50 years ago? Well, like in a lot of fake science, there is a bit of a shell game going on. For one, when calculating poverty, the federal government excludes almost all government benefits from the calculation.

In 2014 the New York Times reported the situation of one Anthony Goytia, a Southern California Wal-Mart night-shift worker who said he was reliant on payday loans to pay his bills. The Times reported he was a father of four making “about $16,000 a year.” What the Times did not report is the amount of federal and state benefits he and his family received. He would certainly qualify for assistance, but such benefits are not mentioned. They never are.

Using Department of Labor statistics, Robert Rector of Heritage calculates that “poor families spend $2.40 for every $1.00 of their reported income. If public housing benefits are added to the tally, the ratio of consumption to income rose to $2.60 for every $1.00. In other words, the ‘income’ figures that the Census uses to calculate poverty dramatically undercounts the economic resources available to lower income households.”

So just how poor are America’s poor? Many live lives the middle class of only a few years ago would envy.

In 1967 only 12 percent of all households owned an air-conditioner. Today, 80 percent own one. According to the U.S. Census almost 75 percent of poor households own a car or truck. Thirty percent own more than one. Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite television. Keep in mind how expensive cable is: upwards of $150 per month. Forty percent own a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV. Fifty percent own a personal computer. Twenty-five percent own a digital recorder. Ninety-two percent own a microwave oven.

What else do the American poor own? This will surprise you, but the poor own houses. As I show in my book, Fake Science, the poverty industry wants you to believe the poor live in dire circumstances: ramshackle homes, crammed ten to a room in cold-water flats, rundown trailers at the end of Tobacco Road. Nothing could be further from the truth. Forty-two percent of poor families own their own homes, and the average home owned by a poor family has three bedrooms, one and a half baths, a garage, and patio or porch. Only 9.5 percent live in mobile homes.

This will surprise you, too. The typical poor person in America has more living space than the typical person living in every European country except Luxembourg. The square footage of the typical poor household in the United States was 1,400 feet in 2005. The non-poor in Austria had 1,060 square feet; Denmark, 1,231 square feet; Germany, 968 square feet. Only Luxembourgers live in larger homes than poor Americans, but only 37 square feet more.

There is so much more. For instance, there is no evidence of malnutrition in America. Nutrient density (amount of vitamins, minerals, and protein per kilocalorie of food) does not vary by income class, according to Robert Rector. Low-income and middle-income people have the same high fat intake. Nutrient intake for well-off preschoolers is the same as that among poor preschoolers. The typical poor person consumes roughly the same amount of nutriment as someone from the middle class. Children below the poverty line actually eat more meat than children from the upper middle class. Poor kids consume protein well above the amount recommended by the government.

One could go on and on with how poverty is not what you think it is, not what you have been led to believe. It is as if the political left has a vested interest in clouding the issue so they can keep the money flowing, both to themselves and to poverty programs. I pointed out two weeks ago that the Feeding America CEO brings in $2 billion a year by scaring folks that starvation stalks our land. He also makes $650,000 per year for himself.

All of this would be threatened if it got out that America’s poor are not as poor as you think. As J.D. Vance explored in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy about growing up in strained circumstances, the real poverty of the poor is spiritual rather than material. Fixing that would require judgements over personal behavior, particularly drug use, alcoholism, sex, violence, and many more pathologies.

Any criticism of federal programs for the poor is met by the political left in the Church with charges of “hating the poor” and that you have committed a mortal sin for supposedly opposing the teachings of the Church. Such charges in this case would be false and defamatory. Rather, this should be read as a call for a realistic view of poverty in America. The poor deserve our love and support. 

But, in order to alleviate poverty, one must begin with a true picture, and what we have been given to believe is to a large extent fake science.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2017/poverty-not-think

Editor’s note: In a famous photo-op, President Johnson visits the home of Tom Fletcher, father of eight in eastern Kentucky, who told LBJ that he had been out of work for two years. (Photo credit: AP)

Year of Mercy Makes Sense Only if You Haven’t Lost the Sense of Sin

During his 2013 interview returning home from World Youth Day Rio — hijacked by the famously taken-out-of-context “Who am I to judge?” remark — Pope Francis made an observation overlooked by the media. The Holy Father mentioned the importance of a “theology of sin” to understanding the truth about God’s mercy.

His recently published book-length interview with journalist Andrea Tornielli, The Name of God Is Mercy, gives insight into Pope Francis’ theology of sin — which provides us, in turn, with an invaluable resource to help us observe this special Jubilee of Divine Mercy.

Pope Francis highlights the difficulty facing pastors and people when discussing the reality of sin and God’s merciful offer of forgiveness. In particular, he talks about two types of people — those who’ve lost the sense of sin and those who’ve lost a sense of God’s mercy. Both attitudes are harmful because they stop us from encountering the healing grace of God’s merciful forgiveness.

Early in his interview with Tornielli, Pope Francis refers to a fundamental problem that has been identified and considered by many popes since Venerable Pope Pius XII — the crisis of the loss of a sense of sin. Pope Francis says: “Pius XII, more than half a century ago, said that the tragedy of our age was that it had lost its sense of sin, the awareness of sin.”

Pope Francis also shares Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI’s concern about the influence of relativism on our sense of sin: “Relativism wounds people too: All things seem equal; all things appear the same.” In a homily, Pope Francis has said the devil seeks to deaden our consciences so we can’t tell right from wrong, which is the hallmark of relativism:

“The man ends up destroyed by the well-mannered method the devil uses, by the way the devil convinces him to do things, with relativism: ‘But it is not ... but it is not much ... no; relax; be calm.’”

Furthermore, Pope Francis — again, like his immediate predecessors — warns about the disastrous influence of this loss of the sense of sin in the Church. He distinguishes between sinners, who retain a deep sense of sin, and the corrupt, who have lost their sense of sin.

The corrupt are those individuals who arrogantly deny or reject their need for repentance and God’s forgiveness and who make their sin a habit and way of life. The corrupt mistake their sin for “true treasure,” justifying themselves and their behavior. They pretend to be Christian, masking their vices with “good manners, always managing to keep up appearances,” leading double lives. Pope Francis gives a shocking example of this:

“We cannot be arrogant. It reminds me of a story I heard from a person I used to know, a manager in Argentina. This man had a colleague who seemed to be very committed to a Christian life: He recited the Rosary, he read spiritual writings and so on. One day, the colleague confided, en passant, as if it were of no consequence, that he was having a relationship with his maid. He made it clear that he thought it was something entirely normal. He said that ‘these people’ — and by that he meant maids — were there ‘for that, too.’ My friend was shocked; his colleague was practically telling him that he believed in the existence of superior and inferior human beings, with the latter destined to be taken advantage of and used, like the maid. I was stunned by that example; despite all my friend’s objections, the colleague remained firm and didn’t budge an inch. And he continued to consider himself a good Christian because he prayed, he read his spiritual writings every day, and he went to Mass on Sundays. This is arrogance.”

However, even though such individuals have hardened their hearts, Pope Francis doesn’t consider the corrupt beyond the mercy of God. Though they are ordinarily immune to contrition and remorse, the Holy Father has observed that God attempts to save them through “life’s great ordeals,” which break their hard hearts, opening them to God’s grace.

The other group particularly identified by Pope Francis is made up of Christians who don’t seek God’s mercy even though, unlike the corrupt, they have a painful awareness of their sin and woundedness. These all share in common the failure to seek God’s mercy due to losing touch with the true Christian sense of God’s merciful love for sinners.

According to Pope Francis, there are Christians who don’t want God’s mercy because they suffer from a “narcissistic illness,” clinging to their woundedness because it gives them the unhealthy pleasure of bitterness:

“Or maybe you prefer your wounds, the wounds of sin, and you behave like a dog, licking your wounds with your tongue. This is a narcissistic illness that makes people bitter. There is pleasure in feeling bitter, an unhealthy pleasure.”

Another group of Christians don’t seek God’s mercy because they make the error of believing their sins are so evil God will not forgive them: “Today we add further to the tragedy by considering our illness, our sins, to be incurable, things that cannot be healed or forgiven.” Pope Francis refers to these people as those who have come to the erroneous conclusion that they are too great of sinners to encounter Jesus.

One of the key messages of Pope Francis’ The Name of God Is Mercy is there is no sin, there is no habit of sin, and there is no relapse into sin that is beyond the mercy of God:

“There are no situations we cannot get out of; we are not condemned to sink into quicksand, in which the more we move the deeper we sink. Jesus is there, his hand extended, ready to reach out to us and pull us out of the mud, out of sin, out of the abyss of evil into which we have fallen. We need only be conscious of our state, be honest with ourselves, and not lick our wounds. We need to ask for the grace to recognize ourselves as sinners.”

Another theme that runs throughout The Name of God Is Mercy is Pope Francis’ candid admission that he is a sinner. From the beginning of his pontificate, when he was asked, “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?”  by Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro in an interview, Pope Francis hasn’t been shy about identifying himself as a sinner:

“I do not know what might be the most fitting description. ... I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.”

The Holy Father encourages us — sometimes gently, sometime forcefully — to seek the grace to make the same honest and frank admission, because he knows from personal experience that knowing and admitting we are sinners will liberate and transform our lives.

In answer to Andrea Tornielli’s question, “How do we recognize that we ourselves are sinners? What would you say to someone who doesn’t feel like one?” Pope Francis answered:

“I would advise him to ask for the grace of feeling like one! Yes, because even recognizing oneself as a sinner is a grace. It is a grace that is granted to you. Without that grace, the most one can say is: I am limited; I have my limits; these are my mistakes. But recognizing oneself as a sinner is something else. It means standing in front of God, who is our everything, and presenting him with ourselves, which are our nothing — our miseries, our sins. What we need to ask for is truly an act of grace” (p. 30).

Sinners are those individuals who have the humility and sense of woundedness to admit they are weak and in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. Pope Francis believes one can be a great sinner but not fall into corruption. Pointing to the examples of Zacchaeus, Matthew, the Samaritan Woman at the Well and Nicodemus, the Holy Father says their sinful hearts were open to God’s mercy:

“Their sinful hearts all had something that saved them from corruption. They were open to forgiveness, their hearts felt their own weakness, and that small opening allowed the strength of God to enter. When a sinner recognizes himself as such, he admits in some way that what he was attached to, clings to, is false.”

In order to place us in a position to admit our attachment to what is false, Pope Francis undertakes a basic catechesis on the nature of sin. This is urgently needed in Western culture — so heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to be in a state of denial about the objective reality of sin and dangerously attracted to embracing the demonic shadow.

It shouldn’t surprise us that as a consequence of his formation as a Jesuit, Pope Francis has no problem talking in stark and explicit terms about the evil represented by our sins.  The first week of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises commences with a meditation on the catastrophic damage caused by angelic and human sin. Pope Francis, likewise, wants us to truly look at the dark reality of sin in the light of God’s mercy, because without God’s mercy such knowledge would be overwhelmingly harmful. He wants us to take responsibility for our sin.

When asked why we are sinners, Pope Francis answers very simply: “Because of original sin,” our nature “is wounded by original sin”:

“It’s something we know from experience. Our humanity is wounded; we know how to distinguish between good and evil, we know what is evil, we try to follow the path of goodness, but we often fall because of our weaknesses and choose evil. This is a consequence of original sin ... something that actually happened at the origins of mankind.”

The Holy Father doesn’t pull his punches about the evil nature of our sin compared to the goodness of God. Our sins not only wound us and damage our relationships — our sins also “displease God,” and we should be displeased with what displeases God. Quoting the Church Fathers, Pope Francis writes that knowing our sins displease God should shatter our hearts:

“The Church Fathers teach us that a shattered heart is most pleasing to God. It is the sign that we are conscious of our sins, of the evil we have done, of our wretchedness and of our need for forgiveness and mercy.”

This is why Pope Francis views our sin from the perspective of the ancient tradition of the Easter Exultet, with its shocking praise of Adam and Eve’s catastrophic sin as a felix culpa (“happy fault”). The Holy Father knows that an honest knowledge of our sin and our need for God’s mercy will lead us to experience the love of “so great, so glorious a Redeemer.”

Deacon Nick Donnelly is a contributor to EWTN Radio’s Celtic Connections program.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/year-of-mercy-makes-sense-only-if-you-havent-lost-the-sense-of-sin

Pope Francis: Loss of the Sense of Sin Leads to ‘Christian Mediocrity’

January 31, 2014

Reflects on Those Who Suffer the Consequences of Other’s Sins

Losing the sense of sin causes others to pay for our “Christian mediocrity.” This was the central point of Pope Francis’ homily today at Casa Santa Marta.

The Holy Father reflected on the first reading which spoke of David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba which led to the murder of her husband, Uriah. David, he said, rather than seeing his adultery as a grave sin, sees it as a problem that needs to be resolved.

“This thing can happen to all of us,” he said. “We are all sinners and we are all tempted and temptation is our daily bread. If one of us said: ‘I never had a temptation’, either you’re a cherubim or a bit stupid, no?”

“Struggle is normal in life and the devil is never calm, he wants his victory. But the problem – the most serious problem in this passage – is not so much temptation and the sin against the 9th commandment, but how David behaves. And David here does not speak of sin, he speaks of a problem that he needs to resolve. This is a sign! When the Kingdom of God is lessened, when the Kingdom of God decreases, one of the signs is that the sense of sin is lost.”

The Holy Father went on to say that in praying the Our Father, we pray for God’s kingdom to come, meaning “thy Kingdom grow.” When the sense of sin is lost, so is the sense of the Kingdom of God lost. In its place, he said, “emerges a very powerful anthropological vision, in which ‘I can do anything.’”

“The power of man in place of the glory of God! This is the daily bread. For this [reason] the everyday prayer to God ‘Your kingdom come, your kingdom grow’ [is important], because salvation does not come from our cleverness, our astuteness, in our intelligence in doing business. Salvation comes from the grace of God and from the daily training that we do with this grace in Christian life.”

Referring to Pius XII’s assertion that “the sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin”, the Pope reflected on Uriah, who represents the innocent victims who suffer as consequence of our sins.

“I must confess, when I see these injustices, this human pride, also when I see the danger that would happen to me, the danger of losing the sense of sin, it does me well to think of the many Uriahs in history, the many Uriahs who even today suffer from our Christian mediocrity, when we lose the sense of sin, when we let the Kingdom of God fall.

Concluding his homily, Pope Francis called on the faithful to take a moment to “pray for ourselves so that the Lord give us always the grace to not lose the sense of sin, so that the Kingdom does not fall from within us.”

https://zenit.org/articles/pope-francis-loss-of-the-sense-of-sin-leads-to-christian-mediocrity/

Greatest sin today -- Loss of the Sense of Sin

Loss of the Sense of Sin

September 11, 2015

Sin is a rupture in our relationship with Christ, who is the source of our eternal beatitude. God offers us a relationship with him as a freely given gift. That is why this relationship is called grace. It is also why sin is the principal obstacle to grace and beatitude, as it distances us from relationships key to our happiness.

Recent popes have identified another obstacle to grace: “The greatest sin today is that men have lost the sense of sin.” Pope Pius XII said this in the wake of the horrors of World War II and John Paul II, Benedict and Francis have all repeated it. It express what is now common to think: “How can something be a sin if doesn’t hurt anybody?” Or: “How can it be a sin if it is done in the privacy of my own bedroom?” Or: “Everybody is doing it.”

So, instead of admitting our sins—that have damaged or killed our relationship with God and others—and then confessing them and reconciling ourselves with God, people now-a-days go to therapy instead. A therapist can be good to help heal emotional wounds and reactions—especially those produced by trauma, such as uncontrollable anger, fear of commitment, etc.—but we can also use this as a therapeutic crutch to escape the personal responsibility for our actions.

We may also look to science to excuse our behavior: if there is any evidence of a genetic component to alcoholism, homosexuality, or even violent crime, then a person wouldn’t be responsible for decisions he makes that are detrimental to his family or to others… so they think: How can there be any sin where biology has predetermined our fate?

These ways of thinking change our way of speaking about sin. Instead of talking admitting to having an adulterous affair, we learned to say that s/he is no longer “in love” with her/his spouse and is now “in love” with someone else: how can s/he be responsible for the pain and hurt inflicted on her/his spouse and children (and extended family)—as well as for breaking his covenant commitment with God!—if morality is only about “chemistry” in one’s relationships? Concupinage is now just called “living together” and homosexual activity is now called “an alternative lifestyle”; neither are considered sinful because “we are not hurting anybody” or because “we were born that way” or because “everybody is doing it.”

Sin is real. Choices we make do impact our relationships. If you make a lifetime commitment to another person before God then you are committed to avoid any situations—“occasions of sin”—contrary to that commitment, whether or not you still feel “in love.” Infidelity to this commitment is a sin and “kills” our relationship with God and with others.

Likewise, we may have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. But that does not excuse our personal responsibility to avoid situations with alcohol if they would lead to drunkenness and physical or verbal abuse of a spouse, children, or others. We make a choice when we walk down that street with the bar on the corner although the ability to choose disappears when we walked in the door. Our choices impact our relationships and thus have moral implications.

So, just because all one’s peers are having sex, doing drugs, using birth control, or have had an abortion doesn’t mean that these things are OK and not sins. Such thoughts may ease feelings of guilt but they don’t take away our moral responsibility for the choices we have made. We will have to answer to God for them. Our consciences need to recover the “sense of sin” so that we can take responsibility for our moral decisions, seeking God’s mercy now in the confessional rather than having to face his justice before the Judgment Seat.

Fr. John R. Waiss

Online: http://sma-church.org/motherofpurelove

http://sma-church.org/uncategorized/loss-of-the-sense-of-sin/

What is Truth?

What is Truth?

WHAT is truth? That was the question Pontius Pilate posed after Jesus said to him:

For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. (John 18:37)

Pilate’s question is the turning point, the hinge on which the door to Christ’s final passion was to be opened. Until that point, Pilate resisted handing Jesus over to death. But after Jesus identified Himself as the source of truth, Pilate caves into the pressure—to the alternate "truths" about the Lord—and decides to leave Christ’s fate to the people. Pilate washed his hands of Truth itself.

If the body of Christ is to follow its Head in its own passion, what the Catechism calls "a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers" (CCC 675), then we too will see a time when our persecutors will ask "What is truth?"  When the world will also wash its hands of the "sacrament of truth," the Church itself.

Tell me brothers and sisters, has this not already begun to be the case in our day?

TRUTH… UP FOR GRABS

The past four hundred years has seen the development of humanist philosophical structures and satanic ideologies that have laid a foundation for a new world without God (see Living the Book of Revelation). If the Church has laid the foundations of truth, then the dragon’s aim has been a long process of laying a foundation of "anti-truth." This is precisely the danger pointed out by the modern popes, that a human society not firmly rooted in truth risks becoming inhuman:

… ideological rejection of God and an atheism of indifference, oblivious to the Creator and at risk of becoming equally oblivious to human values, constitute some of the chief obstacles to development today. A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, n. 78

This is no doubt the result of a massive "confusion" in our times:

This struggle parallels the apocalyptic combat described in [Rev 11:19-12:1-6, 10 on the battle between" the woman clothed with the sun" and the "dragon"]. Death battles against Life: a “culture of death” seeks to impose itself on our desire to live, and live to the full… Vast sectors of society are confused about what is right and what is wrong, and are at the mercy of those with the power to "create" opinion and impose it on others.  —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Cherry Creek State Park Homily, Denver, Colorado, 1993

The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin. —POPE PIUS XII, Radio Address to the United States Catechetical Congress held in Boston; 26 Oct., 1946: AAS Discorsi e Radiomessaggi, VIII (1946), 288

This loss of the sense of sin has further cultivated a moral relativism that, while appearing to "free" a soul, actually leads to an internal, if not external, slavery to sin. This in turn can leave a soul incapable of hearing of the voice of the Shepherd, leading one to despair. 

There is also something sinister which stems from the fact that freedom  and tolerance are so often separated from truth. This is fuelled by the notion, widely held today, that there are no absolute truths to guide our lives. Relativism, by indiscriminately giving value to practically everything, has made “experience” all-important. Yet, experiences, detached from any consideration of what is good or true, can lead, not to genuine freedom, but to moral or intellectual confusion, to a lowering of standards, to a loss of self-respect, and even to despair. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, opening address at World Youth Day, 2008, Sydney, Australia

Ultimately, moral relativism leads to a rejection of anyone or any institution that would impose moral absolutes. That is, it leads to a "dictatorship of relativism" as Benedict XVI put it—a dictatorship that will likely dictate the terms on which the Church can or cannot exist. 

REACHING CRITICAL MASS

Yet, it is hidden from many eyes. Others refuse to see it. And still others simply deny it: the Church is entering a universal phase of persecution. It is being propelled in part by a Deluge of False Prophets who are casting doubt not only on the Catholic faith, but in the very existence of God. In his new book, The Godless Delusion-A Catholic Challenge to Modern Atheism, Catholic apologist Patrick Madrid and co-author Kenneth Hensley point out the real danger facing our generation as it pursues a path without the light of truth:

…the West has, for some time now, been sliding steadily down the escarpment of the Culture of Doubt toward the precipice of atheism, beyond which lies only the abyss of godlessness and all the horrors contained within it. Just consider notable modern mass-murdering atheists such as Stalin, Mao, Planned Parenthood, and Pol Pot (and some heavily influenced by atheism, such as Hitler). Worse yet, there are fewer and fewer "speed bumps" in our culture formidable enough to slow this descent into darkness. —The Godless Delusion-A Catholic Challenge to Modern Atheism, p. 14 

Perhaps Cardinal Ratzinger hinted at what the very last "speed bump" would be before the wholesale acceptance of a godless culture—or at least, a wholesale enforcement of one:

Abraham, the father of faith, is by his faith the rock that holds back chaos, the onrushing primordial flood of destruction, and thus sustains creation. Simon, the first to confess Jesus as the Christ… now becomes by virtue of his Abrahamic faith, which is renewed in Christ, the rock that stands against the impure tide of unbelief and its destruction of man. —Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, (POPE BENEDICT XVI), Called to Communion, Understanding the Church Today, Adrian Walker, Tr., p. 55-56 

It wasn’t until Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was struck, that the sheep were scattered and the passion of Our Lord began. It was Jesus who told Judas to go do what he must, resulting in the Lord’s arrest. So too, the Holy Father will likely draw a final line in the sand that will ultimately result in the terrestrial shepherd of the Church being struck, and the persecution of the faithful taken to the next level.

I saw one of my successors taking to flight over the bodies of his brethren. He will take refuge in disguise somewhere; after a short retirement [exile] he will die a cruel death. The present wickedness of the world is only the beginning of the sorrows which must take place before the end of the world. —POPE PIUS X, Catholic Prophecy, p. 22

TOWARD TOTALITARIANISM

In a talk given by Fr. Joseph Esper, he outlines the stages of persecution:

Experts agree that five stages of a coming persecution can be identified: 

1. The targeted group is stigmatized; its reputation is attacked, possibly by mocking it and rejecting its values. 
2. Then the group is marginalized, or pushed out of the mainstream of society, with deliberate efforts to limit and undo its influence. 
3. The third stage is to vilify the group, viciously attacking it and blaming it for many of society’s problems. 
4. Next, the group is criminalized, with increasing restrictions placed on its activities and eventually even its existence.
5. The final stage is one of outright persecution. 

Many commentators believe the United States is now in stage three, and moving into stage four. —www.stedwardonthelake.com

In our current state of affairs, an outright persecution of the Church is unlikely. But a collapse of the global economy, a war in the East coupled perhaps with a pandemic, food shortage, or some other crisis, would be enough to throw much of the Western World into a revolution that would profoundly affect every nation on the globe. Interesting it is that after Pontius Pilate posed that infamous question, the people chose not to embrace the Truth that would set them free, but a revolutionary:

They cried out again, "Not this one but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a revolutionary. (John 18:40)

The warning from the Holy Fathers is absolutely clear. Unless we embrace Jesus Christ, the author of creation and redeemer of mankind who came to "testify to the truth", we risk falling into a godless revolution that will result not only in the Passion of the Church, but in the vast destruction of the planet by a godless "global force": 

…without the guidance of charity in truth, this global force could cause unprecedented damage and create new divisions within the human family… humanity runs new risks of enslavement and manipulation… —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, n.33, 26

If this all sounds too incredible, too much of an exaggeration, we need only turn on the news and watch what is unfolding daily. That, and above all, turn to the voice of the Good Shepherd who continues to speak through his vicars on earth:

We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and for Christ. Through your prayers and mine, it is possible to alleviate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because it is only in this way that the Church can be effectively renewed. How many times, indeed, has the renewal of the Church been effected in blood? This time, again, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong, we must prepare ourselves, we must entrust ourselves to Christ and to His Mother, and we must be attentive, very attentive, to the prayer of the Rosary. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, interview with Catholics at Fulda, Germany, Nov. 1980; www.ewtn.com

Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not undergo the test. (Luke 22:46)  

RELATED READING

Deluge of False Prophets – Part II

Fullness of Sin

Benedict and the New World Order

The Restrainer

Can an atheist be "good"? The Good Atheist

Atheism and science: A Painful Irony

Atheists attempt to prove God’s existence: Measuring God 

God in creation: In All of Creation 

Jesus the Myth 

A Scandalous Catholic Funeral?

A Scandalous Funeral?

My Dear People,

Scandal From The Grave

Do “Catholic” Politicians Deserve a Catholic Funeral?

There is an accountability for every one of our sins; even sins confessed and absolved. Impossible for us to achieve, Jesus is the only one who can save us from our sins. Mark’s Gospel reminds us that giving scandal is a very serious sin, especially public scandal. Politicians who are Catholic, and support abortion, cloning, and so called “mercy killing” of the elderly, commit grave public sin and grave public scandal. Archbishop Burke recently reminded all bishops that politicians who have given such scandal, without the benefit of “public conversion and penance” should not receive a Catholic burial; so serious is the sin.

Condoning this sin through such a public display, gives the faithful grave scandal on the part of the clergy. Sin is sin. God’s forgiveness is real and needed, but we should never condone public sin directly or indirectly. It is God’s Law, not man’s. Pray for all of our politicians who daily give scandal to the Catholic Church by their direct support and funding of abortion, cloning and mercy killing of the elderly. We live in very dark times. This does not excuse us from being accountable to one another, no matter what our place and status is in this world.

Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark

http://www.courageouspriest.com

The Deceiver by LIVIO FANZAGA***

Satan seduces, but you are the one who decides. Even though his seduction is very powerful, he can not bend your will to do evil. Even though the tempest of thoughts, desires, resentment, and hatred he stirs in your heart is overwhelming, there is no sin without your free and conscious consent. Eve sinned because she wanted to sin. God has put our will exclusively in our hands.

The Corruption**

There are apostles of evil. They are people who besides ruining themselves drag along other souls also. They have perverted themselves into becoming demons, as Saint Catherine of Siena asserted, and thus "fulfill the office of the demons," inducing others to sin. It is truly said that one never sins alone. Our sin is negatively reflected in our neighbors. If we do not repent quickly and return to God the heart is hardened and, almost to reassure ourselves, we drag others along the way of ruin.

Eve was so possessed by evil that she did not hesitate to entice Adam also. "She also gave some to her husband, and he ate" (Gen 3:6). When you examine your life, remember all the times that by your words, evil example, and complicity you have pushed your neighbor into the arms of the evil one. Think of all those souls that are lost in sin because of you. Repent before God, repair the damages you have caused, and make yourself an apostle of good.

The corruptors of souls are the great strength of the demon. In the contemporary world, they occupy very significant and visible positions in various fields such as culture, science, politics or economics, including the realm of the mass media. They have learned the vernacular of flattery and lies from their teacher. Despising truth and exalting error, they disparage good and virtue while exalting evil and vice. They are the faithful servants of Satan, and they will go with him to his kingdom of death in recompense.

Watch out for such people, even if they are very close to you and united to you by bonds of affection. You show your worthiness as a human being by saying no to evil, even if the one who proposes it is most dear to you. If Adam had said no to Eve, he would have undoubtedly saved himself and perhaps even her. No human respect, no bond of friendship, no reason of human nature, nor any interest must ever cause you stay with anyone who proposes evil. It is much better to lose a friend or family member than to lose God for all of eternity.

Nevertheless, Adam took the fruit Eve offered him without argument, and he ate it. He blindly followed his wife, even when fell into the abyss. How many behave like this! Like leaves in the wind, they are dragged where the world wants, and Satan rejoices over the spoils obtained so cheaply. The law of the herd, public opinion polls, and social brainwashing dominate the modern world. You, however, must be very attentive to the voice of God. Keep your conscience illuminated by the Church and never stray from her, no matter what others think, even if they are those whom you love the most.

From Disillusionment to Illusion**

When man commits evil, he is inevitably degraded. He then opens his eyes and all that before seemed beautiful and desirable, afterwards entirely loses its attractiveness. First evil attracts you, then it poisons you. From the illusion of obtaining much happiness follows both disillusionment and disappointment. Once the fruit was eaten "the eyes of both were opened." Adam and Eve had deluded themselves into thinking that they could become "like God" but found themselves deprived of divinity and its gifts. The conscience begins to feel remorse. That God Whom you have driven from your heart by sinning does not abandon you. In His goodness He makes you hear His voice in the depths of your being. It is a voice that disapproves of the evil you have committed and at the same time is an invitation to return to the straight way.

OUR LADY OF GRACE

Consider this great grace that opens the eyes after the satanic temptation. It is the moment in which, if you are honest with yourself, you realize that Satan has deceived you. With all that he has offered you he has succeeded in destroying your dignity, morality and your soul. He has given you something, but he himself has taken your heart. You, like Adam and Eve, realize your nakedness. You have been stripped of sanctifying grace and of the gifts of spiritual beauty and wisdom that adorned you: now you see yourself in your misery.

The disillusionment that comes after every sin, with the verification of the deception, the remorse of conscience, and the consciousness of the damages you have suffered, constitutes a moment of great grace, even though in the context of a spiritual catastrophe. After every sin, the Divine Wisdom opens our eyes so that we see the despicable face of evil. This always happens unless a person, persevering on the way of ruin, suffocates his conscience and hardens his heart.

Adam and Eve, having realized the lie of the tempter and the existential catastrophe into which they had fallen, would have been able and should have cried out to God from the depths of their misery. The Creator in His goodness would have listened to them and would have come to their aid. So we, dear friend, have at the moment of the grace of disillusionment the possibility of a ready rehabilitation, if we turn humbly and contritely to that God Whom we have foolishly abandoned.

Unfortunately, this happens all too rarely. More often, man falls again into that satanic deception, desiring to try again the fruit which has proven to be so untrustworthy and poisonous. The disillusionment is followed by a new illusion, and this process continues, so that man enters into a deadly mechanism that crushes the soul, driving it to blindness and to total death.

Many men waste their lives following illusions which are followed immediately by disillusionment. "Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again," declare Jesus (Jn 4:13). Only the mercy of God can break this satanic chain which renders us slaves, but you must cooperate with the grace which opens your eyes every time you do evil. Think of the last sin you committed. Were you happy to place your trust in the demon? Didn't you become disillusioned, saddened, and degraded? Why then do you wish to repeat the same experience, believing again and again the allurements of the tempter?

There may come a time in which, having sinned, your eyes are no longer opened. It is a very alarming signal, because it means you are entering the spiritual status of impenitence. This happens when you advance unperturbed along the way of perversion and our conscience is finally snuffed out completely. Then the worst crimes can be committed without your feeling remorse. How many souls move in this level of deep darkness, in which they have given their unconditional consent to Satan and to his kingdom of perdition! Only a great grace, with the awakening of conscience, could now save them.  
I WOULD SAY IT WOULD BE OUR LADY OF GRACE.

Report: Facebook, Google, Apple censor religious speech :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Report: Facebook, Google, Apple censor religious speech :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Nashville, Tenn., Oct 4, 2011 / 06:15 am (CNA).- Major internet media platforms and service providers have policies that hinder Christian evangelization and censor speech on controversial issues of the day like abortion and marriage, a new report says.

“Christian ideas and other religious content face a clear and present danger of censorship on web-based communication platforms,” said the National Religious Broadcasters’ report “True Liberty in a New Media Age.”

If Christian content is “censored” by new media platforms like the iTunes App Store, Facebook, Google, or internet service providers, “the Good News of the Gospel could become one more casualty of institutionalized religious discrimination,” the broadcaster organization’s president Frank Wright said in the report’s foreword.

The National Religious Broadcasters was founded in 1944 to oppose government regulations and policy decisions by major broadcast networks which impeded the ability of evangelical ministers to buy radio airtime.

Some new media companies have banned Christian content, while others have public positions that make censorship “all but inevitable.”

Except for the microblogging service Twitter, all the new media platforms and services examined have policies “clearly inconsistent with the free speech values of the U.S. Constitution,” the report said.

New media companies are responsive to “market forces” and the demands by “pressure groups calling for censorship” of otherwise lawful viewpoints.

As examples of “anti-Christian censorship,” the report cited the Apple iTunes App Store’s removal of the Manhattan Declaration app that defended traditional marriage. The store also removed an app from Exodus International that said that homosexuality is inappropriate conduct which can be changed through a spiritual transformation.

Internet search engine giant Google refused to accept a pro-life advertisement from a Christian organization in England and its China-based internet service has blacklisted some religious terminology. The company’s advertising guidelines explicitly bar the phrase “abortion is murder” on the grounds it is “gruesome language.”

The report also cited Facebook and other outlets for a policy that bars ads for “politically religious agendas.”

Meanwhile, Facebook has partnered with gay rights advocates to halt “anti-homosexual” content and it is participating in gay-awareness programs. This suggests that Christian content critical of homosexuality, “gay marriage” or other practices will be at risk of censorship.

Apple, Facebook, MySpace, Google, Comcast, AT&T and Verizon all prohibit “hate speech,” which the National Religious Broadcasters report called a “dangerously undefined and political correct term” that is often applied to “stifle” Christian communicators.

“The ongoing technological convergence of these various new media platforms suggests that these free speech-inhibiting practices and unconscionable policies will be further entrenched unless corrective action is taken immediately,” the report said.

The report suggested that companies should follow a “free speech paradigm” guided by the basic First Amendment rules, even where those do not strictly apply to private businesses. It also suggested federal legislation or regulation to forbid “viewpoint censorship.”

“When we started our John Milton Project for Religious Free Speech, I sensed a gathering storm building, with 'new media' companies like Apple, Facebook and Google considering the option of censoring Christian content off their sites,” National Religious Broadcasters’ senior vice president Craig Parshall said on Sept. 13.

“Now, a little more than a year later, after finishing our extensive study, I am convinced that religious free speech rights will face a First Amendment hurricane if action is not taken immediately.”

Beheading of, St. John the Baptizer

Monday, August 29, 2011, Beheading of, St. John the Baptizer

Jeremiah 1:17-19, Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17, Mark 6:17-29

Link to Readings --> http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082911.cfm

HEAD-LINES

"Stand up and tell them all that I command you." -Jeremiah 1:17

John the Baptizer called the religious leaders of his time a "brood of vipers" (Mt 3:7). He said they would "burn in unquenchable fire" if they did not repent (Mt 3:12). John was the greatest prophet who had ever lived (Mt 11:11). He uncompromisingly preached a baptism in repentance (Lk 3:3). Nevertheless, John was tolerated until he "told Herod, 'It is not right for you to live with your brother's wife' " (Mk 6:18). When John condemned sexual sin, it was: "Off with his head."

Likewise, when Pope Paul VI repeated the Church's traditional condemnation of artificial birth control, he was virtually beheaded. The Vatican said that those involved in homosexual activity have the right to be loved and respected, but not the right to pervert society by their sin. When that memo was publicized, it triggered widespread Catholic-bashing and Pope-bashing. The Herods and Herodiases of the world also feel compelled to behead any Christian who opposes condoms and/or abortions. The world refuses to tolerate the truth about sex. Nevertheless, speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15), even if you may be beheaded.

"Do not deceive yourselves: no fornicators, idolaters, or adulterers, no sodomites, thieves, misers, or drunkards, no slanderers or robbers will inherit God's kingdom. And such were some of you; but you have been washed, consecrated, justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor 6:9-11).

Prayer: Father, may I love people enough to let them behead me.

Promise: "They will fight against you, but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." -Jer 1:19

Praise: St. John prophesied: "All mankind shall see the salvation of God" (Lk 3:6).

Cathedral of St. Jon the Baptist, Russia

(For a related teaching, order our leaflet "The Truth Will Set You Free".)