Back in 1969 theologian Joseph Ratzinger made some comments about our Catholic future. They were included in his Faith and the Future published by Ignatius Press in 2009.
“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.
She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes . . . she will lose many of her social privileges. . . As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members….
It will be hard-going for the Church, for the process of crystallization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek . . . The process will be long and wearisome as was the road from the false progressivism on the eve of the French Revolution — when a bishop might be thought smart if he made fun of dogmas and even insinuated that the existence of God was by no means certain . . . But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.
And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.”
From http://www.knightsofdivinemercy.com/2012/03/15/cardinal-ratzinger-the-church-will-become-small-and-will-have-to-start-afresh-more-or-less-from-the-beginning/
Please watch this wonderful interview of our dear Bishop Schneider! This has warmed my heart as the faithful Bishops are speaking out and showing true leadership in our precious Catholic church!
We are the Body of Christ, and when there is an illness, an error, that threatens the survival of the church, it is necessary that the others, especially those in leadership positions, become the “white blood cells” that heal the church. Bishop Schneider, who has always been a faithful Shepherd of the Catholic flock, has done this.
His Holy Spirit guided solution is a relief to faithful Catholics, and it makes a lot of sense.
Watch the video and tell me if you feel the same. If you are unable to leave a comment, please email me at ispottedhim@gmail.com. **
I would propose that this principle not only applies to the problem of clerical error, but also to other glaring problems within the Church.
Here are two more situations in which this approach is necessary:
As our dear Cardinal Zen waits for his trial for charges that amount to being a true, faithful Catholic in a Communist country that hates Catholics and has tried every way possible to persecute and destroy them, he has received no answer nor support from the Vatican regarding the plight of his people. In fact, a deal was made early in PF’s papacy that involved the underground Catholic church (which was thriving) having to report to their CCP persecutors much of their activities. I will explain a little more on this later.
But I believe that Bishop Schneider’s approach fits like a glove to this situation. One does not have to obey a sinful order. The only benefit of this agreement, which requires submission to persecutors of the church, is to crush the Catholic church in China and subject faithful Catholics to severe persecution and perhaps even death. That is unequivocally a sin. And no one is obligated to obey an order to commit a sin. In fact, the opposite is required.
Here is a little bit of history in brief on the situation. Communist China had tried for years to destroy Christianity, which worships a different “god” than the state. There were many martyrs, many priests and bishops who went to prison and were tortured and killed because they were faithful to their flocks and to the church. I remember one of the imprisoned, Bishop Ma Daquin. But despite the effort to destroy Christianity, or perhaps as a result of it, as Tertullian said, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith,” and the torture and persecution just caused the church to grow exponentially.
So, the CCP took a different tack. Look, they said, you can legally be Catholic! There may be pictures of Xi on the walls of your church rather than the saints, and forced abortions, slavery and Communism will be perfectly acceptable to you, but we will offer you all of the trappings of your church without persecuting you and killing you. What a deal!
So, there were two churches in China: the underground, true Catholic church and the fake CCP one.
A decade or so ago, Bishop Ma Daquin was nominated to be the head of both in a large public ceremony in a beautiful Shanghai church filled with people. In what was supposed to be his acceptance speech, with his characteristic lighthearted humor, he said— essentially—“there’s a lot going on”—too much to be the head of both. So, he rejected being head of the CCP church and accepted being the head of the underground Catholic church.
There is a video long ago censored and probably gone by now that showed the incredible scene as the entire church erupted in cheers and applause! It was a bold, brave move, a move that he probably knew would subject him to persecution just like so many other faithful Catholic priests. And it was a pivotal moment in a church that broke through the persecution to flourish despite the cruelty of the Communists who tried to crush it. The moment brought tears to my eyes!
But like Herod when the Wise Men chose a different route to go, the CCP lashed out angrily. Daquin was whisked away that evening and the beautiful church was destroyed, razed to the ground. Throughout his persecution and imprisonment many followed his letters. In one he recounted a “little encounter with a centipede” that caused problems, most likely a torture that included unthinkable horror.
The official propaganda stated that he was sent away to think about his error. I imagine that he was significantly subject to “reeducation.” I am amazed that he was still alive years later.
But he suffered something much worse later on, when PF took over from our dear PB who had asked for prayers that he “not flee for fear of the wolves.”
One of the first projects of PF’s administration was to take alleged pe***phile, Cardinal McCarrick, off of the sidelines. Pope Benedict had responded to the credible allegations by keeping him from doing harm and setting him aside.
McCarrick’s first job was to make a deal with the CCP regarding the official relationship between the CCP “Catholic” church and the true Catholic underground church. Though the agreement was a secret, it basically gave the CCP church full control over the underground church. In order to follow the orders of the Vatican, the underground church must report its activities to the CCP church. The churches were officially combined.
I think PF called it unity or something like that. But what it did to Bishop Ma Daquin showed the true consequence of the decision.
Bishop Ma Daquin was brought out immediately afterwards and reversed his stance on the CCP church. Admitting his “error” he said that he just “misunderstood.”
It takes a special kind of evil to crush the spirit of a martyr.
Think about the implications of this. One suffers deeply for the faith and the church betrays him.
The beautiful Chinese Catholic church was thrown into turmoil after this and the CCP, now empowered, ramped up its cruelty against Catholics. The persecution continued as the CCP began attacking the Catholic Church in Hong Kong and its beloved Cardinal, Cardinal Zen.
Cardinal Zen has been trying to talk to PF for years about the unjust agreement and PF has ignored him. The only comment he made recently regarding Cardinal Zen’s recent arrest by the CCP was basically that it was a consequence of speaking out, of being a troublemaker for standing up for the welfare of his people.
“Cardinal Zen is going to trial these days, I think. And he says what he feels, and you can see that there are some limitations there,” PF said.
The betrayal was the first thing that PF did. He later crushed Saint Pope John Paul’s Pontifical Academy for Life and has replaced the members, some of them pro-abortionists. He has done much more, but in short, there is reason to suspect error. He needs to be treated with respect and prayed for, says Bishop Schneider. But he is not a king but a brother. It is important to preserve the good and to revive our precious church, even if that means speaking up and standing up for what is right in order to heal the damage done to Catholicism. Even if that means addressing the error and refusing to participate in it.
I mentioned two things where Bishop Schneider’s guidance should be followed. Not requiring the persecuted church to report to its persecutors was the first, now on to the second.
This is merely a hunch, a prediction that I hope does not come true, but in light of what happened with Covid, and with PF’s alignment with the wealthy WEF, and in light of the evil within the goals of new colonialists’ AKA WEF Globalists’ Great Reset/Agenda 2030, I’d like to recommend this.
If there is an order to cancel Masses and shut down due to “Climate Change,” that too does not have to be obeyed. I am not talking about a-local hurricane or forest fire or something like that, but using up too many “carbon credits” as allotted by the globalists once they have control–that is not a reason to shut down Masses or even to miss Mass. The right to worship does not require the permission of these people. And it is a sin to miss Mass.
Our cars and bank accounts may be shut down for a social credit score violations (I’ll provide links below), or for some such nonsense coming from the World Economic Forum. But there is no legitimate excuse to shut down Masses.
This too would be error, a sin, an order that should not be “obeyed.”
We are —as many people know — going through a very difficult time right now. This is not an accident, but results from an attack on our society and our church that we didn’t realize was happening for years. I’ll say more later on, but for now, Jesus is still Lord. The Catholic church is still the Church of Christ and consists not only of this moment but of 2000+ years of holiness, doctrine and wisdom. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, of saints and martyrs through the ages who are with us. God is in control, and His Kingship has not changed. We must follow Him, follow the truth, follow His Holy Spirit Who will guide us through this time.
He has put us here for a reason, in this place at this time and He knows what we are experiencing. Our duty may be to suffer for our Church, for Christianity. It may be to speak out and be the “troublemakers” who stand up for the oppressed, who restore and heal our church. The world will not like this. But God will give us the strength to do what is right. We just have to follow Him and pray to do His will.
Bishop Schneider and many others in the church are leading the way to healing. And I am very grateful for their guidance and holiness.
Here are a few great links to explain what the Great Reset really is and where we are headed if the New World Order globalists get their way:
*Below—In case the Wiki information changes, here is the part I am referring to on Bishop Ma Daquin:
St. Ignatius Cathedral, Xujiahui, Shanghai. Ma was ordained a bishop here on 7 July 2012, and thereafter was taken into custody.
In 1951, the Chinese government severed formal ties with the Vatican, and by Chinese law Catholic worship is only permitted in government-controlled churches. Many of China’s estimated 10 million Catholics are believed to have remained loyal to the Pope, gathering in underground churches.[4] The Chinese government claims the authority to approve and appoint bishops.
In 2012, Ma received the approval of both Beijing and the Holy See for appointment as an Auxiliary Bishop of Shanghai.[4] On 7 July 2012 was consecrated a bishop.[1] In Shanghai’s St. Ignatius Cathedral, in front of a congregation which included Communist Party officials, Ma used his ordination speech to announce his resignation from the Catholic Patriotic Association.[5]
Ordination as Auxiliary Bishop and House Arrest
Catholic priests and nuns had gathered outside the Cathedral in protest at the participation of Vincent Zhan Silu in the ceremony. Zhan had been appointed “bishop” without the approval of the Vatican, and was loyal to the Patriotic Association. Bishop Jin and two other Vatican affirmed bishops performed the “laying on of hands” ritual to invoke the Holy Spirit during the ceremony. Zhan and two other bishops were also supposed to perform the ritual, but, according to Reuters, Ma “prevented them from putting their hands on his head by rising from his knees and hugging the three bishops instead.”[6]
Speaking from the pulpit, Ma then acknowledged the presence of the priests and nuns outside the cathedral, before speaking of the need for him to now focus on the pastoral duties of bishop rather than the bureaucratic duties of a Patriotic Association bishop: “Therefore, starting from this day of consecration, I will no longer find it convenient to be a member of the Patriotic Association,” he said.[7] He also refused to share a chalice with a bishop who has been excommunicated by the Roman Church.[6]
Ma’s words drew loud applause from the 1,000-member congregation, but was seen by the government as a challenge to state control of Catholic churches and clergy.[8] According to Reuters, Ma soon disappeared from public view, “instructed by the late bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian to move to a mountainside seminary outside Shanghai, where he has been confined… He was stripped of his new title, questioned by officials for weeks and required to attend communist indoctrination classes.”[7]Appointment as Bishop of Shanghai
In December 2013, the BBC reported that Bishop Ma had not seen in public for almost 18 months and that during his confinement at Sheshan Seminary, he was being given “political lessons – communist indoctrination by any other name – three times a week”.[5]
Upon the death of Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang on 16 March 2014, the Holy See recognized Bishop Ma as the Bishop of the Diocese of Shanghai.[9] That month Reuters reported that Ma remained at the Sheshan Seminary, regularly posting blog items for the faithful: “mostly excerpts from scripture and greetings to his flock.” After the death of Nelson Mandela, Ma cited one of the anti-Apartheid leader’s most famous quotes: “Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all my people were the chains on me.”[7]
On commenting: **
I have been having problems with spam and have put some restrictions in the comment section. I always appreciate your opinion and the thoughts of anyone who is not merely writing to try to sell Viagra! :-)
“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got til its gone…..”
I remember reading an article about Lawrence Lader, one of the architects of the diabolical pro-abortion movement which has killed over 60-million people since 1974, a death toll that is right up there with Communism in its genocidal impact. Lader may have loved killing small children, but the thing he hated most, his arch-enemy, was the Catholic church.
It made me proud to be a Catholic. The Catholic church is the most beautiful gift to mankind — continuity since Jesus Christ founded her thousands of years ago, the communion of the most incredible Saints, and most of all, Communion with Jesus Christ Himself at the Mass. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a precious gift that I have always taken for granted, a gift that boggles my mind in its generosity, its beauty, in its lavish bestowal of Divine Love for humanity.
It stands to reason that the one institution that could stand up to the princes and principalities of darkness would be the Catholic church. It is a sign of real goodness to be hated by evil.
So it was, and so, I thought, it always would be. There were so many things to a kid growing up in America that seemed so solid, so unchangeable, so permanent. Yet one bioweapon assault later, the world seems to be standing on shifting sand, and everything appears to be falling apart.
It is not the fault of the church, nor did any of this happen overnight. And I will not go into the details of what is wrong, nor will I leave this beautiful church. I feel very sad that I didn’t see the infiltration into so many institutions through the years, nor was aware—or perhaps I should say, awake—to the subterfuge of so much good.
But I am aware now. And I know on the human level who to trust and who not to trust. The book of John is very instructive on “what Jesus would do” when confronted by false shepherds within the church.
People are human, and sometimes good countries have bad leaders, just as good churches have bad leaders. But that does not make the countries nor the churches bad themselves.
I expect much worse in the future. No one who could betray the poor martyrs for Christ in China, who could openly wield a stang and call it a cross, who could preach about the poor but align with the handful of super-rich who are attempting the ultimate colonialist coup, intending to impoverish and control the whole world, and the one who could turn a blind eye to the murders of little children by promoting those who openly and brazenly orchestrate their deaths could be up to any good.
I see where all of this is going, and I do not expect to like it. Nor do I expect to believe those who try to appear benign. Matt. 10:28. You may kill my body, but I will keep my soul, thank you very much. As the world is swimming in 1984-style propaganda, people are beginning to become propaganda weary. Those who love the truth still love the truth, and the more that it is being crushed by those at the top, the more precious the truth has become to the people who love her. The more that evil tries to crush truth, the more that the truth grows. Just as the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith, the proliferation of evil results in the triumph of good. The light shines best in the darkness
Just one more thought. God wins. Remember the moment that Satan thought he had destroyed Jesus—the moment he thought that he had finally conquered God once and for all? That was actually the moment that Satan lost it all, everything and death lost its sting forever. God wins. God always wins.
What is happening now, I don’t understand. But I do understand that Jesus Christ is Lord over all. I do understand that our future is in God’s hands and He always takes what is bad and brings good out of it. We were meant for this time, made for this time, and our only mission in life is to do the will of God—to follow Him completely. I trust in Jesus, I trust in God. And whatever else happens, all will be well in the end.
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!
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
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.
“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.
Papa Benedict, your own words speak to me today as I read “Joseph Ratzinger Collected Works: Theology of the Liturgy.” You help to explain what is happening in the Catholic church today. It is an answer to my prayer from yesterday.*
The three books that we will begin with in our little online book club will include your book on the Liturgy. The other two will be St. Louis de Montfort’s “True Devotion to Mary,” and Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s “Christus Vincit.” I will also add Malcolm Muggeridge’s works, including his brilliant book about Communist Russia, “Winter in Moscow.” And last but not least, I will write about the saintly Archbishop Fulton Sheen, whose ideas about Communism are the reason why his beatification has been stalled.
*How to Save the World, God’s Way – A Reflection on a Liturgical Teaching of Pope Benedict – Community in Mission http://blog.adw.org/2015/02/how-to-save-the-world-gods-way-a-reflection-on-a-liturgical-teaching-of-pope-benedict/
Papa Benedict, you said to proclaim the Gospel –to “go forth and blog.” And so, now I will do my part; I will begin blogging.
I don’t know where you are exactly, or what is happening to you. But our beautiful holy Church is in crisis. You—and St. Pope John Paul II—have set down the rules to follow. Gratefully, there is a Catechism. And gratefully there are courageous priests, bishops and even lay people who are willing to be faithful to the Bride of Christ—to the true Catholic Church. It would be nice if you could come out as well and assist, but if you cannot, that is all right. Our Lady will help us.
Our greatest hope is in prayer, our greatest weapon against evil is the rosary. And we will pray. And we will fast. And we will ask for and hopefully have the courage to stand up for what is right, to remain true to the Catholic Church, the Church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Papa Benedict, we will also go forth and blog.
Papa Benedict, Papa St. John Paul II, please pray for us!
Psalm 69: “Oh God, come to my assistance, O Lord, make haste to help me Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek my soul. Let them be turned backward and blush for shame, that desire evils to me. Let them be presently turned away blushing for shame that say to me: ‘T is well, ‘t is well. Let all that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee. And let such as love Thy salvation say always: The Lord be magnified.
But I am needy and poor; Oh God, help me. Thou art my helper and my deliverer. Oh Lord make no delay.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and very shall be, world without end. Amen.
The Memorare
Remember, O most Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or south thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence I fly unto thee O Virgin of virgins, my mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.
Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Aparecida, Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, help us now. Crush the serpent, confirm your Son as Christ the King, as the One True God, the Son of the Living God. Help us to be strong. Please pray for us and guide us all and our beautiful Church back Home and into the arms of your Divine Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
I just went to see a wonderful film called “God’s Not Dead.” The story is about a young College Freshman, Josh Wheaton (played by Shane Harper), who is majoring in Pre-law–in other words, he has a lot at stake when it comes to getting good grades.
Nonetheless, he finds himself in a class with a staunch atheist teacher, Professor Radisson played by Kevin Sorbo, who wants all of his students on the first day to write “God is dead” on a piece of paper and sign it. Completing that “assignment” is a huge part of the semester grade, and the argumentative Professor won’t accept any alternative views by his students.
Josh, a devout Christian, could not deny his faith by writing the words. And so, throwing down the gauntlet to a Freshie whom he was sure he could argue circles around, the atheist Professor gives him 3 20 minute sessions to prove the existence of God.
With the students who had all written “God is dead” on their papers as the jury, the Josh takes on the challenge, despite numerous obstacles, including risking his future career and closest relationships.
We see other characters in the movie, also modern day Christians, who face difficult challenges to practicing their faith as well.
It’s an engaging tale, and very well done. The acting is marvelous. And the ending had me in tears — it was really touching.
After the mega-doses of atheism we’ve had to endure in modern entertainment, not just the obvious propaganda, but others — some disguised as science as in the recent tv documentary* “Cosmos,” it’s refreshing to find a movie like this. And it’s even more inspiring that the premise is not based upon some far out theory, but is grounded in experiences by many a Christian and numerous Christian groups who all bravely fight the good fight, finish the race and keep their faith despite it all.
*(The new Cosmos was funded by Family Guy’s Seth McFarland and written and produced by Ann Druyan, who won the 2004 Richard Dawkins Award from the Atheist Alliance International Society and who was inspired to pursue science due to her fascination with Karl Marx.) (See Ann Druyan Wikipedia page)
Back in 1969 theologian Joseph Ratzinger made some comments about our Catholic future. They were included in his Faith and the Future published by Ignatius Press in 2009.
