How Catholic Bloggers and Their Followers Put Themselves in Eternal Peril

Source

I, for the most part, no longer read "catholic" blogs and websites.  Far too many "catholic" blogs are filled with self-righteous hatred, anger, vitriol and condemnation of anyone who does not agree with them.  The main target of these blogs is the hierarchy of the Catholic Church - the Church they claim to love and support.  The biggest target of all is the earthly head of the Catholic Church - Pope Francis.  I have written many times on this blog about the horrific attacks and hate directed at Pope Francis by self-identifying "catholic" bloggers.  

Is Hell Just a Figment of God's Imagination?

Valerie Harper with Mary Tyler Moore
in the days of the "Mary Tyler Moore Show"

Valerie Harper, who in the 1970's played Rhoda Morgenstern on the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" just announced that she has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and has been told she has three months to live. I've never met her, but I was a huge fan of the "Mary Tyler Moore" show and have never stopped watching it over the years. So even though I don't personally know Valerie Harper, it still sort of feels like losing a friend.

A true personal friend did die very suddenly a few weeks ago. She was a co-worker whom I had sat next to for several years. She wasn't feeling well and went to the doctor in January. He found an enlarged liver and immediately sent her to the hospital. She walked into the hospital for tests, and never walked out, dying less than 3 weeks later of a very aggressive cancer.

Psalm 90:10 says, "The length of our days is seventy years--or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.."  One of the best interpretations of this verse is from Woody Allen in the movie, "Annie Hall":

There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.

Death is our enemy. It will eventually take from us everyone we love, and one day we too will succumb. And none of us knows when death will strike. None of us have a guarantee when we get up in the morning that we will be alive by the evening.

But what happens when we die?

Fr. Steven Scheier

There is a very interesting video on Youtube about a priest, Father Steven Scheier, who was involved in a near-deadly car accident in 1985 and had what we call an out-of-body experience. At that time he had been a priest for 11 years. You can watch the Youtube video here in which he describes his experience. He was also on Mother Angelica's show, which you can watch here.

National Catholic Register also had an article on Father Scheier's experience entitled "Wake Up Call Changes Priest":

Father Steven Scheier should have died on Oct. 18, 1985, in a collision while traveling back to his parish in the Diocese of Wichita, Kan. He suffered a major concussion and fractured vertebrae of the neck. Doctors gave him little chance to survive.

But he did.

Shortly after returning to his parish, as he read the Gospel of Luke about the unproductive fig tree, the page illuminated, enlarged and moved toward him from the Lectionary. Shaken after Mass, he remembered that after his accident he found himself before the judgment seat of Jesus.

Our Lord went through his whole life, showing him sins unconfessed and unforgiven since his last confession.

Father Scheier could only answer, “Yes, Lord.” Although a priest, he admittedly was not very spiritual and had practically no prayer life.

The judgment was hell, to which Father Scheier agreed. He said the Lord was merely “honoring his choice.” But then he heard a woman’s voice pleading to spare his soul. He knew it the Blessed Mother.

He heard Jesus say: “Mother, he has been a priest for 12 years for himself and not for me; let him reap the punishment he deserves.” Our Lady responded, “But Son, what if we give him special graces and strengths and then see if he bears fruit? If not, your will be done.” Jesus replied, “Mother, he’s yours.”

Since then, he has been hers. That extreme wake-up call with its eternal consequences has made all the difference in Father Scheier’s life and priesthood. Moreover, he wants it to make a difference in the lives of others. In the 1990s, he appeared as a guest on Mother Angelica’s EWTN show to recount his experiences.

There are a lot of stories out there from people who have died, experienced heaven and then come back to their bodies to tell us all about it.  I dismiss most of these stories because they are not in agreement with Catholic doctrine.

Father Scheier's experience is the only one I know of where the person involved does not tell us about lights and angels, etc. but just about hearing two voices. Further, Father Scheier's story is the only one which speaks of hell. There is nothing flashy or overly dramatic in his story, and for that reason it rings 100% true. He also has not written any books, been on innumerable talk shows or tried to capitalize on his experience in any way. To this day, he is a working parish priest serving the people of God, delivering a very sobering message to anyone who will listen to him.

Three children of Fatima

We have had many accounts of hell from different saints. Hell is one of the secrets of Fatima, when Our Lady opened up the earth and showed hell to the three children. Sister Lucy wrote about this in her memoirs:

She opened Her hands once more, as She had done the two previous months. The rays [of light] appeared to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls [of the damned]. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke.

Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons were distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals.

That vision only lasted for a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother, Who at the first apparition had promised to take us to Heaven. Without that, I think that we would have died of terror and fear.

St. Faustina wrote of her experience with hell in her Diary:

"I, Sister Faustina Kowalska, by the order of God, have visited the Abysses of Hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence...the devils were full of hatred for me, but they had to obey me at the command of God, What I have written is but a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I noticed one thing: That most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell." (Diary 741)

"Today, I was led by an angel to the Chasms of Hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw:

The First Torture that constitutes hell is: The loss of God.

The Second is: Perpetual remorse of conscience.

The Third is That one's condition will never change.

The Fourth is: The fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it. A terrible suffering since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God's anger.

The Fifth Torture is: Continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own.

The Sixth Torture is: The constant company of Satan.

The Seventh Torture is:  Horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies.

The messages of Fatima and St. Faustina are just two of those given to us in the 20th Century regarding hell. St. Padre Pio, another saint of the 20th Century, gave a very succinct answer to the question of the existence of hell. As Fr. Longenecker posted on his blog:

Padre Pio was asked what he thought about modern people who didn’t believe in hell.

“They’ll believe in hell when they get there.” he replied.

Take particular note of the statement by St Faustina: "But I noticed one thing: That most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell."  I find it quite disconcerting that a good majority of Catholics no longer believe in hell. They feel that God is love and mercy and wants everyone with Him in heaven, which is all very true. But people seem to forget that when we are born, our default destination is not heaven but hell because we belong to the devil. We are redeemed, or bought back from the devil, through Christ's sacrifice which then gives us the ability to choose. But as our Lord Himself said, "Many are called, but few are chosen" (Matt. 22:14).  Most Catholics these days either forget or ignore this verse.

Unfortunately, many of our priests today no longer preach or believe in hell. I recently was at a funeral in which the priest informed us that there are two main reasons for a Catholic funeral: 1) to give comfort to the living so that they may mourn their loss, and 2) to explain the teaching of the Catholic Church that the dead are with God. It never occurred to this priest that a funeral is a time to pray for the dead. I know that this particular priest believes in universal salvation, so it is only logical that he sees no need to pray for the dead.

Another very popular priest who comes perilously close to preaching universal salvation is Father Robert Barron, a celebrity priest out of Chicago who is a millionaire off the profits of his media company, Word on Fire. Below is a video in which Fr. Barron explains his views on hell and salvation:

I personally find this video extremely disturbing in its implications and the message it gives. In this video, Fr. Barron admits that the biblical figure who talks most of hell and warns of it is Jesus Christ. Yet, Fr. Barron spends the rest of the video assuring us that we can "reasonably hope" that no one has ever gone to hell or will ever go to hell. Father admits that we can't be 100% sure that all people are saved, but he admits that he is "pretty much" convinced that there is universal salvation. He bases this belief on "God's desire for all people to be saved" and that "God has gone to the limits of Godforsakeness to effect this salvation." Fr. Barron admits that we can resist the Divine Love of God and that is why "we must hold to the existence of hell, at least as a possibility."

Fr. Barron goes on to define hell as a "spacial and visual metaphor" of a "state of deep loneliness that comes from having rejected the Divine Love." This does not seem to match the description of hell given to us by the the children of Fatima or St. Faustina or Our Lord Himself. You can read here the visions of hell by St. Catherine of Siena, which are very similar to those reported by St. Faustina. These visions involve a lot more than "a state of deep loneliness."

Father Barron says in this video that we don't know if there are any human beings actually in hell. It is true that the Church has never declared any individual as condemned by God, but at the same time, we do know that hell is not empty. Father Barron does mention the parable of Matthew 25, but he gives us no specifics from this parable. It should be noted that in Matthew 25, Christ says that in the final judgment he will say to the condemned, "Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." I find it interesting that in all of this talk of hell, Fr. Barron never once mentions Satan and his demonic spirits who are condemned to hell. They seem to play no part in Father Barron's theological beliefs.

Father Barron says that if there is any soul who might actually go to hell. such a soul is one who has "slunked into the corner and refused to join the party, and has locked himself into this dark and sad and lonely place, not so much sent there by an avenging God, but a self-imposed exile." "Self imposed exile" is partially true - hell is a choice we make - but as our Lord says, hell is also the sentence the wicked will receive from Him as quoted above.

The only person I can speak of with complete assurance is myself.  I spent 38 years away from the Church, and there is not one doubt in my mind that if I had not returned to the Church, I would have been condemned to hell.  I have not literally seen my place in hell as St. Teresa of Avila saw the place in hell reserved for her, but the more I look back on my life, the more I realize there could not have been any other judgment for me.  Even now, I still fight myself, just as St. Paul said he did, "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."  (I Corinthians 9:27)

I find the theology of Fr. Robert Barron and others who think like him to be very dangerous to souls. Our God is a God of unlimited mercy and love, more than our finite human minds can take in. But He is also a God of justice, and if we persist in rebellion against Him, we will reap our just reward in hell, just as Fr. Steven Scheier was shown and as has been shown to many of the saints down through the ages.

Father Barron would do himself and all of his followers a great service if he would listen to the words of our Lady of Fatima:

You have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If people do what I am going to tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.

The Message of Fatima and the Year of Faith: I Am My Brother's Keeper

Our Lady of Fatima

We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete. Here there takes on new life the plan of God which asks humanity from the beginning: “Where is your brother Abel […] Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!” (Gen 4:9). Mankind has succeeded in unleashing a cycle of death and terror, but failed in bringing it to an end… In sacred Scripture we often find that God seeks righteous men and women in order to save the city of man and he does the same here, in Fatima, when Our Lady asks: “Do you want to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the sufferings which he will send you, in an act of reparation for the sins by which he is offended and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?”
Pope Benedict XVI  
May 13, 2010

Today is the 95th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, Portugal.  It was on October 13, 1917, when Mary, the Mother of God, appeared for the last time at Fatima, Portugal to three small shepherd children, Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia.  Our Lady first began to appear to the children in May of 1917, giving them messages that resonate to our day and, in fact, are more relevant to our time than when she first appeared at Fatima.  Many at that time began to believe in the apparitions, but there were still many skeptics.  Our Lady promised the children that there were would be a great miracle to prove that she was appearing to them.  True to her promise, the Sun "danced in the sky" on October 13, 1917 at noon time, the day and time she predicted, in front of 70,000 people who had gathered at the apparition site.  From Mystics of the Church:

On October 13th a crowd of 70,000 gathered at the Cova da Iria in response to the children’s claim that a miracle would occur on that day “so that all may believe.” At the appointed time, in the middle of a rainstorm the clouds broke up and the sun was seen as a disk spinning in the sky, throwing off great rays of fantastic colours. As one columnist reported, “Before the astonished eyes of the crowd the sun trembled and danced.” Suddenly it seemed to fall until it almost reached the earth, but then it stopped, slowly making its way back into the sky. Many of those present “wept and prayed” in recognition of the miracle they had awaited. The phenomenon was witnessed by people 40 kilometres away, proving that mass hysteria could not be held responsible.

Fatima, Portugal on October 13, 1917

Our Lady of Fatima said the following to the shepherd children at this final apparition:  "I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day."  She also warned us, "Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended."  If our Lord was much offended in 1917 when much of the world still believed in God and at the very least recognized His laws and authority in their lives, how much more offended must our Lord be now when we condone homosexuality, promote same sex "marriage", legalize the killing of our unborn children and sick and elderly, promote artificial birth control and fill our entertainment with lewd and immoral images?  And that's just for starters on how evil and godless our world has become.

The World's Answer to God

The message of our Lady of Fatima was all about bringing people back to God through penance and reparations.  At one point Our Lady showed the children a vision of hell and said many poor sinners go there because they have no one to pray for them.  She told us that our prayers are not just for ourselves but for others as well.  Our Blessed Lady told us that we are our brother's keeper.  Part of the blame for the evil in the world must be laid at the feet of those of us who were given the great gift of faith at our baptism, but like the worthless servant spoken of by Christ, we buried this gift instead of using it to help others.  The result is the evil world we see around us.

Below is a clip from the movie, "The 13th Day" which explains the prophecies given by our Lady of Fatima and the consequences of rejecting our Lord:


Here in the United States, our own government feels free to tell the Catholic Church how to practice their religion. The government is forcing Catholics to promote the use of artificial contraception, and the Church rightly rejects this and fights against it. But at the same time most Catholics, in direct disobedience to the Church, use this same contraception.  We were told back in 1968 by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae:

Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.

If we had listened to the message of our Lady of Fatima and had been praying the Rosary daily and making reparations, our government would have never felt empowered to move against the Church as it has done.  But in the last 50 years, Marian devotion in general and the practice of regularly praying the Rosary in particular have fallen significantly in the Church. The Rosary has been forgotten by the vast majority of Catholics, as shown in the poll taken by Georgetown in 2008:

Eight percent of Catholics report that they pray the rosary at least once a week.

Another 8 percent of Catholics pray the rosary at least once a month, but less than weekly. One in five do so a few times a year and about one in six (16 percent) do so less than once a year.

Nearly half of Catholics (48 percent) report that they rarely or never pray the rosary. In a 2001 CARA poll, more than four-tenths of Catholics (44 percent) reported that they pray the rosary at least a few times a year. This compares to 36 percent in the present survey.

Our Lady asked us to pray the Rosary daily, and only 8 percent of Catholics pray it even weekly.  Is it just coincidence that at the same time as devotion to our Blessed Mother has faded, the faith of many Catholics has grown either lukewarm or completely died?   It is through her that Christ first came to earth, and it is through her that we must go to Christ. There can be no renewal of faith without the Blessed Mother, and now our Holy Father seeks to remind us of that.

Pope Benedict has declared October 2012 through November 2013 to be the Year of Faith.  The Holy Father is encouraging all Catholics to use this year to rediscover and deepen our faith and to share our faith with others.  This is desperately needed as only 20% of Catholics in the United States attend weekly Mass, and the numbers are dismally lower in Europe and Britain.  Far too many Catholics are woefully ignorant of the teachings of their own Church.  Pope Benedict XVI seems to be trying to remedy this tragic development with the The Year of Faith, which is all about renewing and revitalizing the faith of Catholics, and I find it highly significant that he is putting our Blessed Mother at the center of this.

This past Sunday, on the Feast of our Lady of Victory, Pope Benedict XVI, in his Angelus address after Mass, urged us, in connection with the Year of Faith, to dedicate ourselves to "renew the prayer of the Rosary".

Vatican News gives us the transcript of the Pope's remarks:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We now turn in prayer to Mary, whom we venerate today as Queen of the Holy Rosary. At this time, at the Shrine of Pompeii [see below], the traditional "Supplication"  is being elevated to which countless people throughout the world are joined [this prayer is traditionally said at the Shrine and around the world right at the time the Pope was speaking.  Click on link for prayer]. While we associate ourselves spiritually in this choral prayer, I would like to suggest to everyone to renew the prayer of the Rosary in the upcoming Year of Faith. With the Rosary, we allow ourselves to be guided by Mary, model of faith, in meditating on the mysteries of Christ, and day after day we are helped to assimilate the Gospel, so that it shapes all our lives. Therefore, in the wake of my predecessors, especially the Blessed John Paul II, who ten years ago gave us the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, I invite you to pray the Rosary personally, in the family and in the community, learning at the school of Mary, which leads us to Christ, the living centre of our faith.

The icon of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii 

presents the image of the Madonna with 

Jesus in her arms, and at her feet are

St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena

Mentioning the Shrine of Pompeii shows even further the emphasis that our Holy Father is placing upon the importance of the Blessed Mother in the renewal of faith.  The Shrine of Pompeii is considered the most important Marian shrine in Italy, visited by four million people every year.  From Wikipedia:

Bartolo Longo started restoring a church in disrepair in October 1873 and promoted a festival in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary. In 1875, Longo obtained a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary from a convent in Naples and raised funds to restore the image so as to locate it in the church.

Miracles began to be reported and pilgrims began flocking in droves to the church. Bartolo Longo was encouraged by Giuseppe Formisano,Bishop of Nola, to begin the construction of a larger church—the cornerstone being laid on the 8 May 1876. The church was consecrated on the 7 May 1891 by Cardinal Raffaele Monaco La Valletta, representing Pope Leo XIII.

Notice, too, that the Pope is not talking about only individual prayer but prayer with others "in the family and in the community". The Rosary can bring us together and revitalize our faith. No one has ever gone astray when they draw close to our Blessed Mother. From the time of her Immaculate Conception she has been at one with the Holy Trinity. We can always find our Lord when we find Mary. Her motherly love for us is all about bringing us to her Son.

Below are the 15 promises given to us by our Blessed Mother if we will regularly and consistently pray the Rosary. Each and every promise made here will change the world, driving out the evil that surrounds us:

1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.

2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.

3. The Rosary will be a powerful armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.

4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.

5. Those who recommend themselves to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.

6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.

7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.

8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death, the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.

9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.

10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.

11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.

12. All those who propagate the holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.

13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.

14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only son, Jesus Christ.

15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

We are all wringing our hands and wondering what to do about the oppressive government in our country.  The answer will not be found in politics or science or the humanities.  With all due respect to our bishops, the answer is not even in campaigns about "religious freedom."  Three small children at Fatima knew the answer that the best minds of our time haven't been able to figure out.  We are our brother's keeper. It is our Christian duty to pray for others and do penances and reparations on the part of others.  That is what the "community of saints" is all about.  Our Blessed Mother holds her loving arms out to us and longs to give us the answer if we will only turn to her.  The Vicar of Christ has pointed the way to her.  Let us turn to her in prayer and supplication and allow her to lead us to her Son.

Below is the trailer to the movie, "The 13th Day" about the story of Fatima.  I think this trailer speaks volumes about the answers to the evil we face in this world.

Snoopy Dance: Bishop Urges Faithful to Turn to Blessed Mother for Protection

I have tended to be rather critical on this blog of the Catholic bishops, upset with them for not upholding and promoting the teachings of the Church strongly enough. The "Fortnight of Freedom" campaign run by the Bishops was, IMHO, tragic and laughable at the same time.  The Church is up against an administration that basically wants to wipe them out, forcing the Church to go against her own teachings and promote contraception, which the Church denounces as evil.  But the Bishops, instead of coming right out and denouncing the actions of the Obama administration as evil and using it as a tool to teach her plain and clear dogma and why it is dogma of the church, chose instead to make this an issue of "religious freedom", a sure way to lose this battle.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC

But I ran across the following  which tells us that Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC of the diocese of Peoria, Illinois, has made a bold move in calling for those in his diocese to increase their devotion to Mary, our Blessed Mother and to consecrate their schools and their parishes to Our Lady.  He makes this request so that his diocese can counter the evil that is rampant all around us.  As His Excellency says, "I feel it very important that we turn to our Lady to help us and our country during these coming months. We can take comfort that her Immaculate Heart will triumph!"  This is a message right out of Fatima, which is the key to all that is happening in our world.  Our Lady is the one whom God has chosen to defeat the devil and the evil he brings upon the world.  The Trinity has chosen to work through Her Immaculate Heart, and unless we go through her, we cannot triumph.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Our Lady of Fatima told the three shepherd children that "In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph."  From the website, salvemariaregina.info:

 This is the promise Our Blessed Mother made to us, Her children, at Fatima. This, Her promise of final triumph, is our shining hope; it is the ray of light that penetrates the gathering clouds of darkness hovering over the earth. For it is only by living in union with Mary's Immaculate Heart that we can find sustenance and strength as the powers of Hell spread across the face of the earth, luring men into the "peace and brotherhood" of the kingdom of the Antichrist.

We have found in  Bishop Daniel R. Jenky a good and holy shepherd of the flock.  Let us pray for him as he will no doubt endure much persecution for his decision to follow the message of Fatima, and let us pray that many other bishops will follow his beautiful example.

Our Lady appearing to the three children of Fatima

Here is Bishop Jenky's letter released to his diocese:

Turn to Virgin Mary for protection of nation, urges bishop

Saying “the attacks of the world, the flesh, and the devil seem particularly ferocious in this current moment,” Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, has called on Catholics of the Diocese of Peoria to increase their devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“We turn to her to protect our country, to guide our leaders, and to turn our hearts to her Son,” said the bishop in a letter released in mid-August.

He specifically suggests that parishes, schools, and families consider a 30-day Marian Consecration as outlined in a book by Father Michael Gaitly, MIC. The book, "33 Days to Morning Glory," is being made available free of charge to parishes and schools while supplies last through the generosity of a donor.

Following is the full text of Bishop Jenky's letter:

-----

To the Priests, Deacons, Religious Educators, Pastoral Leaders and Faithful of the Diocese of Peoria:

My Dear Brothers and Sisters:

"Say the Rosary every day to
bring peace to the world and end the war"
Fatima 6-13-1917

I hope that over my 10 years as your bishop, my love for Our Lady, as has yours, has been abundantly clear: I have convoked a number of Rosary Congresses, declared a Year of the Rosary, dedicated a Festival Letter to our Lady as well as countless homilies and talks, I asked that her image as our Mother of Perpetual Help be enshrined in our parishes and schools, even as I re-consecrated our entire diocese to her patronage when I solemnly enthroned her icon in our Cathedral.  [God bless this holy bishop!]

I again turn to her and I ask you to do the same.

It has never been easy to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. In fact, our Savior warns that the world will hate us if we love Him. The attacks of this world, the flesh and devil seem particularly ferocious in this current moment. Several months ago, I asked that we not lose sight of the spiritual nature of this battle when I directed that the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel should be invoked at every Sunday Mass for the protection of the Catholic Church in America.  [Is there any way that we can clone this wonderful bishop?]

I now ask us to re-double our spiritual efforts through devotion to the Blessed Virgin.  [This is the answer to all of the problems in the Church and the entire world.  If we would all do this, we would see wonderful miracles happen throughout the world and much of the evil that surrounds us would be wiped out.]

The Immaculate Mother of God is the Patroness of the United States and our own Local Church. The Pope has personally consecrated the world to her protection [Our Lady requested that the Holy Father and the Bishops consecrate Russia, not the world, to her Immaculate Heart.  This holy bishop, by his careful choice of words, is confirming that this has not been done], and that invocation has been renewed by the bishops of our country, as I have done as well for our diocese following the example of Archbishop Schlarman. I encourage each of our parishes, schools, and families to consider a similar devotion to Our Lady. We turn to her to protect our country, to guide our leaders, and to turn our hearts to her Son.

There are many ways to grow in devotion to our Lady. The scriptural meditation of the Rosary is perhaps the finest. [Snoopy is dancing up a storm at these wonderful, wonderful words!]

Likewise, there are many methods of Marian Consecration. Through a generous donor [God bless this person!], I am happy to make available copies of “33 Days to Morning Glory” [Get it on Amazon by clicking on the link] by Father Michael Gaitly, MIC, to our parishes, schools, CCD and adult education programs. These books are free but supplies are limited and are available “first come.” I have asked the sisters in the diocesan museum and the Sheen Foundation to coordinate distribution. You may pick up the books anytime during office hours after Aug. 16. The traditional 30-day consecration could very appropriately begin in our schools and families in early September in order to culminate on the Feast of the Holy Rosary on Oct. 5.  [If you would prefer, you can always do the 33-day Consecration by St. Louis de Montfort.  You can go here to do the de Montfort consecration.]

But no matter what book or formula may be used, I feel it very important that we turn to our Lady to help us and our country during these coming months. We can take comfort that her Immaculate Heart will triumph!  [Again, this message is right out of Fatima.]

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, CSC
Bishop of Peoria

Knowing that there are such good and holy men as Bishop Jenky in the leadership of the Church reminds me that we must never despair, no matter how bleak things may look.  Yes, we are surrounded by evil on every side, and even evil within the church herself.  We are in tumultuous times that are only destined to become much worse.  But Our Lady assures us that her Immaculate Heart will triumph.  Our goal is to make sure that we are on the right side, on the side that will triumph in the end.  As long as we stay close to our Lady using the methods given to us by Bishop Jenky, we will triumph as well.

(St. Louis De Montfort's Consecration)

I, (Name), a faithless sinner - renew and ratify today in thy hands, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism;

I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before.

In the presence of all the heavenly court I choose thee this day, for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity. Amen.

No Refuge, No Salvation in Politics

I have posted here that we cannot expect Romney to repeal the evil law known as Obamacare, recently upheld by the US Supreme Court as constitutional, should he be elected president.  Romney instituted the first healthcare law in the US when he was governor of Massachusetts, and it was the blueprint for Obamacare.  This is a law he obviously believes in, all of his rhetoric notwithstanding.

Well, the former Massachusetts governor confirmed as much in a news conference after the Supreme Court ruling. Check out this video.



We have no choice in this election, or any other election, for that matter. Our candidates have been picked for us, and chosen by the same group of people.  There is no salvation in politics or in any politician.  The only salvation is divine.  Pray to the Blessed Mother that she will petition her Son on our behalf.  Pray that America somehow wakes up and repents of the evil course she has taken, e.g., abortion, homosexuality and same sex marriage, secularism, rejection of traditional moral values. 

The answer we are looking for was given to us in a small city in Portugal in 1917 to three small shepherd children.  These are the words of our Lady of Fatima to the shepherd children:

"No, my daughter. Are you suffering a great deal? Don't lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God."

"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war [WWI] is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI [WWII in 1939]. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.

"To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world."

The Immaculate Heart of Mary -
the Refuge given to us by Her Son