Thursday, July 19, 2012

Persecution and Martyrdom of the Catholic Church in America

I have stated on this blog more than once that the Catholic Church in America is headed for some very tumultuous times of persecution, and I feel very firmly that the Church itself will be forced to go underground as it will be outlawed by the United States government.  Michael Voris, formerly realcatholictv.com and now churchmilitant.tv, just did an excellent Vortex episode in which he spells out the dangers to the Catholic Church in America in great detail and why we are headed there. Below is the video from the Vortex.  I have also copied the script below, which I think bears a close reading (with my own comments, of course)



Catholic or Patriot?

vort-2012-07-19  
Hello everyone and welcome to The Vortex where lies and falsehoods are trapped and exposed. I’m Michael Voris coming to you the heart of Catholicism .. Rome .. St. Peter’s Square.  
All over the world .. at least the western world .. there is a growing unease that soon and very soon .. Catholics may have to make a choice between their Catholic faith and their country. Between their faith and their patriotism. As Providence plays out .. it would appear that center stage of this tragedy is the United States of America. All the stars are aligning against the Church and don’t let lawsuits filed by the bishops and Catholic colleges fool you.


The clouds are gathering quickly and darkening for the Church in the US. The American civilization has launched a culture war against faithful Catholics .. just as Otto von Bismarck did in the mid to late 19th century in Germany .. and the French government in the 18th century and the English government did in the 16th and 17th centuries. Martyrs were born of those oppressive and tyrannical governments. And martyrs will be born of the American government’s tyranny.  [This is not hyperbole.  This is real.  The Church will be labeled by our government as an evil organization that promotes hatred and bigotry, and there will be violence against Catholics.  And sad to say, some of that very persecution will come from those who call themselves "Catholic."]

This is a burned out church in Indonesia.
Is this what we will be seeing soon in the USA?
When will Catholics wake up and realize that what is working behind the scenes is a battle between Heaven and Hell .. between St. Michael and Lucifer. [And might I add, between Satan and the Queen of the angels and of heaven and earth - Mary, who is Satan's most hated enemy.]  Satan .. being defeated in eternity .. still retains his angelic powers to wage war against the Church in time. And until time comes to an end and human history has played itself out .. Satan will continue to assail the Church .. personally established by Our Blessed Lord on St. Peter .. whom he renamed .. Rock.  

Mary crushing the serpent
Once again .. the bastard destroyer has seized hold of the powers of the state and is bringing them to bear on the faithful. [Take note - Satan is waging war on the faithful, not on "faux" Catholics.]  There are still unresolved matters left to be worked out .. details really .. in Obama’s diabolical health care law. But at the White House .. Obama and Catholic traitors are in full scale advance .. putting in place their view of the world in which the Catholic Church has no part .. the authentic Catholic Church that is. One day .. and soon .. Catholics in America .. who have been lulled into a false notion that you can be both a good American and a good Catholic .. are going to have to choose between their Church and their country.

We have reached this point for many reasons .. but one that cannot be overlooked is how Church leadership rushed headlong and continues to do so .. into a vision that a government which promotes a vast array of evil can AT THE SAME TIME .. be reasoned with to reach consensus on other questions of morality.  
When a man named Obama stood at center stage of the US Catholic world in May 2009 and declared to raucous cheers from Notre Dame graduates, parents and faculty .. that common ground needed to be reached on questions of abortion and freedom of conscience .. he was lying through his teeth and he knew it. He used the softened up Catholic mind .. the Church of Nice .. to present a soft side of evil .. a side designed to be swallowed hook line and sinker by spineless and delusional leaders who TO THIS DAY .. still actively promote some of his legislation .. suffering under an ignorant and less than fully informed understanding of Catholic social doctrine.  [I think that Michael Voris is actually being kind here, giving the benefit of the doubt to these leaders that they actually don't know they are making a pact with the devil.  I'm not sure I would be that kind.]

These enemies of the faith .. like Obama .. but certainly not just him .. Pelosi .. Biden Kennedy and hundreds of others come to mind .. these enemies of the faith have been allowed to carry out their assaults against the common good of the culture PRECISELY because so many Catholic bishops and lay staff around the country for decades now have refused to stare down evil and call it out for what it is. They have refused to decry a law because it is intrinsically evil .. meaning rotten to the core JUST BECAUSE of WHAT IT IS.

Even now .. this ridiculous idea of challenging the health care contraception mandate because it infringes on religious freedom is patently absurd. The law is evil .. NOT JUST UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Who cares if it’s unconstitutional?!? It’s evil because it promotes an evil; namely contraception. That’s why the law is bad – not because it may (OR MAY NOT) violate some arcane clause in a 200+ year old document that only means what a majority of nine judges say it means.  [The Fortnight of Freedom was wrong and even laughable because it was about the wrong issue.  As Michael Voris says, this is not about freedom or the constitution, this is about good versus evil.]

This obfuscates the issue. It's not about
freedom - this is about good versus evil,
and the bishops will never win until they admit this fact.
Here’s the reality .. whether most bishops say it clearly or not.  American Catholics will soon be facing a decision whether to cooperate with the state or stand by their faith and pay the consequences. We have come to this because too many leaders have betrayed their high calling to preach unabashedly and untiringly the unalterable truths of Christ. And even now .. they still refuse to make pubic profession of their full guilt and do something about it.  [This is one of the most important statements Catholics today, especially in the United States, can hear.  We must be prepared to literally lay down our lives for what we believe in, because that time is coming, and very soon.]

So it is now up to the laity .. the few who may still have some touchstone to the faith to stand before judges and courts and bureaucrats and pay the price for Christ. Catholics in America may soon have to discover another way to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave .. something America has not been since it unleashed the slaughter of tens of millions of pre-born fellow citizens. Make no mistake .. the diabolical has control of the halls of government and is waiting for the opportunity to reveal itself fully.

At the rate things are progressing .. we shouldn’t have to wait too long. Its time to prepare ourselves my fellow Catholics. Immerse yourself in the faith, the sacraments, mind and soul so that when your time comes to choose .. you will choose the way of martyrdom .. however it comes to you and me. GOD Love you, I’m Michael Voris

We are living in the most serious of times, when it is not only a matter of physical life and death, but of even more importance, our eternity.  As Michael Voris said, we need to immerse ourselves in the Catholic faith, partake of the sacraments as often as possible, LEARN what our faith teaches so we can stand up to those who wish to destroy us.  The Catholic Church is the ark of salvation to the world, we are the only place that truth and life can be found.  We must turn to our Lord and to our Lady for the strength to survive the evil assault that we are now experiencing, and the much greater assault that awaits us in the near future. 

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Looks Can Be Deceiving

I am reading a book at the moment entitled "End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life" by Fr. Charles Arminjon and published in the 1880's.  St. Therese of Liseux read this book when she was 14 years old and said that it changed her life.  The first section of the book deals with the end of the world and the Anti Christ.  The next section deals with the resurrection of the body.  At one point, Fr. Arminjon discusses our inability to judge one another, and that we are often misled by each other.  From the book:
Most men, even the wisest and most enlightened, are easily outwitted and deceived by others. They do not discern the innermost depths of souls, and cannot reach what is secret and interior in them; hence, it happens that they generally form their judgments on appearances, on what is visible and exterior. Again, it follows that good men are often treated with undeserved severity, that they are unappreciated and injured in their reputation. On the other hand, the wickedness of a large number of men remains unknown, they everywhere enjoy public esteem and trust, and the world accords them that consideration and praise which is due to the just alone. So a judgment is necessary that exposes every pretense, unmasks all hypocrisy, and lays bare hidden ruses and all false and base virtues.

In our world today, things are often not as they seem.   Certainly that is true in movies and entertainment, where nothing is real except the heartache and misery that is the lives of far too many in that industry.  Politicians are always deceiving us, pretending to be something they're not, keeping their true nature hidden, as in the case of former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, who presented himself as a fine upstanding young man when the truth was, while he was in his congressional office, he was exchanging pornographic text messages and tweets with young women despite the fact that he was a married man.  He is only one of literally hundreds of politicians down through the decades who were not the person they presented to their constituents.  We think of President Bill Clinton and his affair with a young intern in the oval office, or Gov. Elliot Spitzer of New York who fought against "corruption" as he saw it, yet at the same time was deeply involved in using prostitutes and even using government resources to procure their services.  The list is never ending.

We are all guilty of hypocrisy to one degree or another.  It is a part of the fallen human condition.  We even lie to ourselves in refusing to look honestly at who and what we are.  That is one of the reasons why Examination of Conscience and the Sacrament of Confession are so important.  We use God's Law and the teachings of the Church as a mirror and hold this up to ourselves.  Anything in us that is not in conformity to God's Law and the teachings of the church is sin.  We do not go by the standards of what the world defines as "good", because that will lead us off the track every time.

The readings from today's Traditional Latin Mass, the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, put the fear of God into me and made me realize just how easy it is to deceive others and even ourselves as to our true spiritual condition.  We must be fighting every moment against our fallen nature and never let pride enter in.  Pride is the most poisonous spiritual weapon in Satan's arsenal.  Pride means we start looking at ourselves and saying, you know, I'm not so bad.  In fact, I'm pretty good.  Pride is the original sin of Satan when he said, "Non Serviam" (I will not serve).  Pride is saying to God, I don't need you, I can do this on my own.  We may actually fool ourselves and others into believing we are something we aren't, but we are not fooling our Creator, and someday we will have to come to terms before the throne of Christ with who and what we truly are and face the sin we refused to acknowledge during our time on this earth. 



Below is the Epistle for the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost

Rom. 6 : 19-23 - Brethren: I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
To be a part of the sinful world around us means to  be in servitude to Satan.  Satan lures us in by appealing to our pride and desire to feel good about ourselves, and he will give immediate satisfaction in following him.  With Christ's way, as he told us, "narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and few there be who find it."  We must always remember the sin we came out of and the deadness of soul that we experienced before receiving the saving grace of Jesus Christ.



The gospel is Matthew 7:15-21
At that time: Jesus spake unto his disciples: Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
The words that pierced my heart are "Not every one that saith until me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."  We must never assume we have it made and that we are on the sure road to heaven.  As a very wise priest once said to me, Satan is rarely in the problem.  He is almost always in the solution.  Satan doesn't care what your problem is.  His tactic is to lead you to the wrong solution, and one very wrong solution is to think that while still here on this earth, we are assured of our place in heaven.  Be always mindful of your fallen human nature, which will be with you until the day that you die.  Constantly cry out to our Lord and to our Blessed Mother to keep you on that straight and narrow path which leads to heaven.  Don't ever think for one moment that you can make it on your own strength.  As the Apostle Paul said, "Pray without ceasing."  (I Thes. 5:17)


From the Breviary Readings today:

A Homily by St. Hilary the Bishop

The Lord warneth us that we must rate the worth of flattering words and seeming meekness, by the fruits which they that manifest such things bring forth in their works ; in other words, that we should look, in order to see what a man is, not at his professions, but at his deeds. For there are many whose sheep's clothing is but a disguise of wolfish ravening. And so the Lord asketh : Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. In which words the Lord teacheth us that men are a like case ; evil men bring not forth good fruits, and hereby are we to know them. Lip-service alone winneth not the kingdom of heaven, nor is everyone that saith unto Christ, Lord, Lord, an heir thereof.

What use is there in thus calling the Lord by his title Lord? Would he not be Lord of all the same, whether or not we called him so? What holiness is there in this ascription of a name, when the true way to enter into the kingdom of heaven is to do the will of our Father, who is in heaven? Saith the Lord Christ : Many will say to me in that day : Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy Name? Already here doth the Lord rebuke the deceit of the false prophets, and the feigning of the hypocrites, who take glory to themselves because of the power of their words, or their prophesying in teaching, or their casting out of devils, or such-like mighty works.
Because of all these things they promise unto themselves the kingdom of heaven, as though in their words and works any good thing were their own and not rather the mighty working of that God upon whom they call; for it is reading that bringeth knowledge of doctrine, and the Name of Christ that driveth out devils. That which is needed on our part to win that blessed eternity, that of our own which we must give, is to will to do right, to turn away from all evil. to obey with our whole heart the commandments laid on us from heaven, and so to become the friends of God. It should be ours, rather to do God's will, than to boast of God's power. And we must put off from us, and thrust away, such as are by their wicked works already estranged from his friendship.


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