Month: January 2020

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I Cannot Keep Silent

Papa Benedict and dear Cardinal Sarah have come out with a new book, available on January 15th, 2020 entitled, “From the Depths of Our Hearts.” The first release on 1/15 will be in French. Hopefully an English translation will soon follow.

Thank you, Papa Benedict, for your courage! Please continue to speak out. You are very important to all of us and we need you at this difficult time in the Catholic church.

Why don’t they speak? someone asked.  Why don’t the good Priests and Bishops speak out against the problems in our church right now?

I believe there are a number of reasons.

One of them is explained in this article, remarkably originally written in 1987!

The Contemporary Catholic Crisis in its Historical Perspective: Ariani – Angelus Press
https://angeluspress.org/blogs/blog/the-contemporary-catholic-crisis-in-its-historical-perspective-arianism

A second reason is fear.  Last Christmas, at Christmastime no less, a number of people were demoted, kicked out of church groups and even excommunicated for daring to criticize the hierarchy of the church. You would think that something like this only occurs in cults, and the Catholic church is not a cult! But apparently some in the Vatican want to operate the church that way with anyone who dares to question their judgment.  I do know that people have been pressured by their Bishops to remain silent, although some terrible things have been happening, too much to say here right now, but suffice it to say that the long-used nickname “mafia” applies quite well to some of the “wolves” within the church hierarchy.

In addition, there is some confusion about how to go about this situation, as we all want to be obedient to the Church and also faithful to Christ and His Bride, the true magisterium of our beautiful Catholic Church that has been lovingly created on earth through the last 2,000 years.

Some wonderful insights of what the laity can do may be found here and here.

To keep informed about what is happening, go  here, or here or here or here or here.

And we need to have courage.

We have a beautiful example of courage in Bishop St. Athanasius, who was excommunicated for refusing to sign on to a heresy in the fourth century (but was later obviously reinstated and declared a saint by the church).  Other brave people who stood up for Christ at that time and were persecuted by the church for their faith were St. Basil, who said during the Arian heresy of the 4th century that threatened to swallow up the church:

“Religious people keep silence, but every blaspheming tongue is let loose…….Only one offense is vigorously punished; an accurate observance of our fathers’ traditions. For this cause the pious are driven from their countries, and transported into deserts.”

As St. Basil stood his ground, he was threatened with the loss of everything.  “Are you mad, that you resist the will (of the emperor) before which the whole world bows?” said the prefect. “Do you not dread the wrath of the emperor, nor exile, nor death?”

“No,” said Basil calmly, “he who has nothing to lose need not dread loss of goods; you cannot exile me, for the whole earth is my home; as for death, it would be the greatest kindness you could bestow upon me; torments cannot harm me; one blow would end my frail life and my sufferings together…..”

A Picture of a Strong Bishop in the Face of Suffering – Community in Mission

https://blog.adw.org/2020/01/a-picture-of-a-strong-bishop-in-the-face-of-suffering/

It is said that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” And Christians have often been martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. We know that we can’t go wrong as long as we are faithful to Him, as long as we make Him the center of our lives and our faith.

 

 

 

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Where is Bishop Ma Daquin?

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” wrote Tertullian in the second century A.D.

Although Christians were horribly martyred at that time, the early Christian author noted that not only did martyrdom not deter people from becoming Christian, but it actually increased the faith of the followers of Jesus Christ exponentially.

Why?  Because the light shines in the darkness, and ultimately, the darkness does not overcome it. When one suffers for what is good, good becomes an obvious contrast to evil. When people are murdered for their faith, it is very clarifying–the murderers are transparently evil, and those willing to suffer for good are the great lights, shining examples for others to follow. And so many people do.

In Communist China, faith, especially Christian faith, has grown mightily in the wake of the terrible suffering caused by Communist persecution. The evil are easy to see—the murderous Communists will allow no god but the state, and are a stark contrast to the good people who follow Christ even if it means torture and death. Many priests and others have been martyred for being faithful to Jesus Christ by the Communists there.

Because of this, the true Catholic church, the underground church in China, grew.  There were such a large number of Catholics in the underground church that the Communists realized that they were fighting a losing battle. So they tried a different tactic.

“Infiltration.  It’s a version of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” but the Communist (Gramsci) propaganda tactic is just a little bit different.

The plan? “Join” them by calling yourself Catholic (even though you are nothing of the sort and believe in murdering small children in their terrified mothers’ wombs, the abolition of Christmas, the demolition of churches and that the state is god). Then say, “hey, you don’t have to be tortured to be Catholic—just join OUR “Catholic” church.”

So in China, in addition to the true Catholics of the underground church there is a “patriotic” church, that is, a Communist church that is anti-Catholic, anti-Christ, and anti-God.

And it was floundering badly—-maybe 12 priests in that “church” as compared to the hundreds of clergy and possibly even millions of faithful in the true church.

So this is how the Communists tried to crush Catholicism in China.

Bishop Ma Daquin was appointed as a Bishop of both the underground church and the “patriotic” church.

But, a hero to the Catholic faith and the Catholic faithful, he publicly declined the appointment to the “patriotic” church. As he made his announcement, people in the large congregation cheered and were touched to the core, many in grateful tears.  But the brutal Communists were not amused.   The good Bishop was subsequently whisked away and sent to a secluded Communist “re-education” seminary,  tortured for years.

This occurred in 2012.  For many years Bishop Daquin was, though still in a terrible situation and thought dead at one point, a light to the people, a beacon of hope, and revered for his courage.

But in 2016, he began to reverse course, at least, in a letter that was supposedly sent by him.  He began to praise the Communists who have been torturing him for so many years and seemed to want a union between the “patriotic” church and the true underground church in China.

So, if that letter was really penned by him, what happened? Hmmm………I wonder.

Who was Pope in 2016?

What could have been so soul-crushing that it made poor Bishop Daquin give in to the tyranny?

Look to Cardinal Zen for the mind-boggling truth.  The good Cardinal has revealed what has happened to his beloved country.  Under the well-connected-Communist Cardinal, Cardinal Parolin, in a “secret” agreement, the Vatican sold out the poor Catholic martyrs in China, betraying them to the core, persecuting them with a torture that the Devil himself could only dream of inflicting on the true body of Christ.

“Obey the Patriotic (Communist, evil, torturous) Church in China,” ordered the Vatican.

And who do you think this order was given to first? Yes, of course, to Bishop Ma Daquin, the champion of the true church in China, despite his sufferings. It is perfectly logical that this is what crushed his spirit and reversed his course in 2016.

Think of it. You are not allowed to even be a priest or attend the funeral of those whom you love. You are given “re-education” courses, a la 1984. You are suffering mightily. And you are doing it as a martyr for Christ. So many before you have suffered and died for the faith, and you are determined to be faithful to Christ, to the true Catholic faith.

And then, the church that you are giving up everything for tells you to obey your captors, your torturers, the ones with a “doctrine” that is everything that you know to be evil.  And it comes from an authority that is supposed to be infallible, that you are supposed to be able to trust. It supposedly comes from the Pope himself.

So what are you going to do? What are you going to feel? How would that affect your faith, your hope, your view of everything related to the Catholic church?

It would be devastating. It would be worse than being martyred. When you are martyred, you know that what you are dying for is good and is worth the pain. Now you don’t even know what it is you are living for. What do you do? What do you feel? Whom do you believe? It is soul-crushing.

Since the “agreement,” the Communists have gone all out to forbid Catholic worship, to burn churches, and to increase their torture and harassment of the faithful a hundredfold. Things have gone from bad to worse because of what was done by the Vatican to the  poor martyrs in China.

And of course, seeing the devastating result of their actions, the Vatican……does nothing. Says nothing. All we hear are crickets from the Vatican about the suffering of these poor people. Even Cardinal Zen has not received a reply to his desperate Dubia.

The current administration has dug in to its untenable position with no explanation or apology.  No words of comfort or aid.  Nothing but stone cold silence, nothing but deference to Communism, an ideology that has killed a hundred million people in the last century and has starved and persecuted more, an ideology that has only ever resulted in misery and tyranny wherever and whenever it has been tried.

Their silence speaks volumes about them.

Dante’s 9th circle of Hell, the one with Satan and Judas in it, is for the betrayers of the ones who trust them. For shepherds who betray their sheep. For the treacherous and the traitors. It is the lowest level of the Inferno, and for good reason.

This is why.

We are all wondering what is going on right now in the church. But we can do so from the comfort of our own homes and are not being tortured as we try to make sense of the strange things going on at the Vatican right now.

God bless Bishop Ma Daquin! God help him and the poor Chinese Catholics who are trying to make sense of this travesty of justice! We need to pray for them and for our Church, as inexplicable things like this have been happening a lot lately, and we struggle to find an explanation for it all.

We pray to God for help.

And Papa Benedict, please understand that if there is something that you are not telling us, the truth will set us all free. We need you to show courage right now.  You are more important than you realize to all of us. We are praying for you.