A Catholic convert theologian writes about faith, love, death, God and “other stuff”

My first glimpse of God was the love which my parents shared with one another. It was a life-giving love centered upon a common faith that despite all the challenges of living out a common life together, they could entrust themselves to one another and find a path to their salvation through one another.

The true character of this love was revealed most poignantly to me when my mother was on her deathbed, emaciated and disfigured by the effects of aggressive cancer treatment. As the options dwindled, my father became more and more desperate, trying every possible medical and spiritual avenue to avoid losing my mom.

One afternoon, as he was venting his frustrations to God before a simple wooden crucifix, he heard God interrupt his stream of thoughts almost as if he were speaking audibly: “Do you trust me?” was the simple question posed to him.

Later, closer to the time of her death, my dad was able to look down at my mother’s unconscious face, and say “I have never loved your mother more than I do right now.” It is an inestimable blessing to be able to root one’s analogical appeal to God as “Father” in that kind of experience.

Hospitality and community were also key parts of my religious formation.

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Shameless popery: Faithful Catholics beware. The days of nuance are over!

We have entered a new phase in the post-conciliar destruction of the Church. The days of pretense and nuance are over. The quaint little idea of “continuity” is now passé; open season on tradition and those who love it is in full swing.

John XXIII, whose elevation to the papacy officially inaugurated the active onset of the rebellion, felt compelled to walk a fine line in order to keep up traditional appearances so as not to unduly create unrest among the masses.

Francis, on the other hand, makes no attempt whatsoever to mask his unbridled ambivalence toward the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine, and it is precisely this in-your-face disregard for the Church’s venerable traditions and immutable teachings that the heretics, atheists and members of the mainstream media find so entirely “refreshing.”

While some may reasonably wonder what precisely has changed since the early days of the rebellion and today, the answer seems obvious enough:

All indications are that Pope Francis and the cardinals who elected him are quite convinced that the takeover has finally reached critical mass, wherein both clergy and laity who prefer “the church of man” over the Church of Christ are now comfortably in the majority. I, for one, would have to say that they are correct.

As far as Francis is concerned, therefore, it is time to set forth the humanist agenda without apology.

“Smart” Francis corrects “Stupid” Francis

Giotto’s fresco depicting St. Francis’ Trial by Fire.

The musloids are on the left, slinking away.

Apparently this was all a terrible mistake on St. Francis’ part. He should have merely “encountered” the musloids in a spirit of “dialogue” and listened to their lies and then declared that they should all engage in good works and “meet each other there”.

Because, you know, there isn’t a “Catholic God”, and the god the musloids believe in is the same as the Triune Godhead, or something.

And God Himself being Goodness Itself, and good and evil being whatever the individual “conceives” them as being, “God” is whoever or whatever the individual says He, She or It is.

Thank “god” we have Smart Francis today, to correct all of the errors of “stupid” St. Francis of Assisi.

Read more from Ann Barnhardt

A colossal Catholic Church failure of such massive proportions, it boggles the mind!

Upside-down flag as a distress signal

by Doug Lawrence

Reminiscing about going to Catholic school in the 1950’s and 60’s in Chicago, when the post-war baby boomers swelled the ranks of the student body by a factor of two or three, we remembered the wonderful, Jesus-centered teaching Sisters who somehow managed to maintain control of their classrooms, in spite of having over fifty young children in their charge. They even managed to do it with a certain dignity, grace (and yes, even serenity) that’s seldom seen in this day and age!

Monthly tuition was generally less than $5 per student ($45 per school year) – with substantial discounts available for families with several children – and the quality of the education was unsurpassed!

It wasn’t uncommon to have three or more classes per grade level, with fifty or more children in each – all of them good little Catholic saints-in-training.

Thanks to the dedicated sisters and the Baltimore Catechism, the children actually knew all of the basic Catholic prayers – as well as who made the world, who God is, who man is, why God made them – and many other critically important Catholic concepts and truths!

Common sense tells us that such a huge wave
of well trained, superbly disciplined Catholic children
should have soon blossomed into the mainstream world,
profoundly and permanently changing things for the better,
elevating the public status of the Catholic Church to new heights
and attracting a virtual flood of new converts.

Only that’s not what happened.

You see – somebody came up with the idea to call a Church Council – and to use that Council to introduce strange, radical changes – supposedly intended to reinvigorate the decrepit, crumbling and hopelessly out of date Catholic Church of the Ages.

This would almost certainly usher in a “New Springtime” for the Church and initiate an era of growth, peace and unity never before seen by mankind.

Yeah … right!

What we got instead was a Catholic Church in apostasy and chaos, dominated by radicals and wackos who held distinct Protestant, Communist and yes, even Masonic ideologies.

For a time, it became a “know-nothing” church – where you couldn’t get a straight answer about anything. It was also seriously divided along secular political lines. Because of all this, and despite the misleading public facade, the Catholic Church was able to function at only a very minimal level.

A mere shadow of its former self, the “new” Church, for a time, was of little practical use to anyone – except for a precious few of God’s very elect – and of course – for many of the incompetents, homosexual pederasts, clericalists, heretics and careerists who remained (and unfortunately, still remain) in power.

When chaos reigns, almost anything goes!

This is what we baby boomer Catholics were faced with, as we went out to make our way in the world. Our “train” had wrecked and we found ourselves wandering alone, through an unknown spiritual landscape that was fraught with unparalleled confusion, corruption and ruin.

When we eventually managed to make our way back and reestablish contact with Holy Mother Church, we found that she had become almost unrecognizable!

Mark H. – one of our regular readers and frequent commenters – recently pointed out the type of damage that can occur when unelected liberal elitists who happen to be in charge of things, band together to arbitrarily recreate a community, in their own tragically flawed image and likeness.

For the Catholic Church, it meant the spiritual abortion
of nearly an entire generation of faithful Catholics.

For the world at large, it would soon mean
the literal abortion of millions of innocent babies,
along with the normalization
of many other abominable forms of moral apostasy.

This was, without a doubt, one of the most colossal failures
of moral leadership in the history of the modern world.

It should be noteworthy that it was the leadership
of the Catholic Church which was the first to fall,
opening the gates for all that would later come to pass.  

This “Mystery of Iniquity” is one of the reasons I keep coming back to 2nd Thessalonians 2:1-17:

(1) And we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and of our gathering together unto him:
(2) That you be not easily moved from your sense nor be terrified, neither by spirit nor by word nor by epistle. as sent from us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand.
(3) Let no man deceive you by any means: for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition
(4) Who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God.
(5) Remember you not that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
(6) And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time.
(7) For the mystery of iniquity already worketh: only that he who now holdeth do hold, until he be taken out of the way.
(8) And then that wicked one shall be revealed: whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: him
(9) Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power and signs and lying wonders:
(10) And in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish: because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
(11) Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying:
(12) That all may be judged who have not believed the truth but have consented to iniquity.
(13) But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of God, for that God hath chosen you firstfruits unto salvation, in sanctification of the spirit and faith of the truth:
(14) Whereunto also he hath called you by our gospel, unto the purchasing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(15) Therefore, brethren, stand fast: and hold the traditions, which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle.
(16) Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God and our Father, who hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope in grace,
(17) Exhort your hearts and confirm you in every good work and word.

*****

The violence – both spiritual and physical – continues unabated, to this day – and we Catholics have recently been advised by our Pope to stop obsessing about it.

Make of that whatever you like!

Miraculous survival, guardian angels and saintly relatives who have gone to their eternal reward

by Doug Lawrence

There is a horrific accident. Some people die. Some are spared.

Is it just a random game of numbers, or is there more to this than meets the eye?

Catholics and even some non-Catholic Christians will tell you about their guardian angels – powerful, pure spirit beings, personally assigned by God almighty, to keep us safe from harm.

Even less understood and appreciated are the “Kinsman Redeemers” who step forward to right wrongs and save their people from poverty, starvation, death – and worse.

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, made man, is the ultimate Kinsman Redeemer, but the Bible shows us many more.

The story of Ruth and Boaz is probably the next most significant, since through their timely meeting and subsequent marriage, the sacred blood line of the coming Messiah was preserved. (See 4:22, below.) 

Ruth 4:9-22
(9) And he said to the ancients, and to all the people: You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and Chelion’s, and Mahalon’s, of the hand of Noemi:
(10) And have taken to wife Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of Mahalon, to raise up the name of the deceased in his inheritance lest his name be cut off, from among his family and his brethren and his people. You, I say, are witnesses of this thing.
(11) Then all the people that were in the gate, and the ancients, answered: We are witnesses: The Lord make this woman who cometh into thy house, like Rachel, and Lia, who built up the house of Israel: that she may be an example of virtue in Ephrata, and may have a famous name in Bethlehem:
(12) And that the house may be, as the house of Phares, whom Thamar bore unto Juda, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman.
(13) Boaz therefore took Ruth, and married her: and went in unto her, and the Lord gave her to conceive, and to bear a son.
(14) And the women said to Noemi: Blessed be the Lord, who hath not suffered thy family to want a successor: that his name should be preserved in Israel.
(15) And thou shouldst have one to comfort thy soul, and cherish thy old age. For he is born of thy daughter in law: who loveth thee: and is much better to thee, than if thou hadst seven sons.
(16) And Noemi taking the child, laid it in her bosom, and she carried it, and was a nurse unto it.
(17) And the women, her neighbours, congratulating with her, and saying, There is a son born to Noemi, called his name Obed: he is the father of Isai, the father of David.
(18) These are the generations of Phares: Phares begot Esron,
(19) Esron begot Aram, Aram begot Aminadab,
(20) Aminadab begot Nahasson, Nahasson begot Salmon,
(21) Salmon begot Booz, Booz begot Obed,
(22) Obed begot Isai (Jessie), Isai (Jessie) begot David.

Nor are Kinsman Redeemers required to be presently alive, here on earth. Catholics will explain the concept of the Communion of Saints – that great cloud of faithful witnesses who have gone before us – now in Heaven – eternally perfected in God’s power, grace and mercy.

These holy souls have the right to approach the throne of the Most High God with their petitions – hopefully, interceding with him for us – their beloved progeny and “kin”.

This goes much, much further and it is much more powerful than we might imagine – since by virtue of our baptism, we are all adopted children of God – brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ – with his mother – the Blessed Virgin Mary, also ours.

Saint Paul sums things up quite nicely:

Romans 8:28-39
(28) And we know that to them that love God all things work together unto good: to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.
(29) For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be made conformable to the image of his Son: that he might be the Firstborn amongst many brethren.
(30) And whom he predestined, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified.
(31) What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who is against us?
(32) He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things?
(33) Who shall accuse against the elect of God? God is he that justifieth:
(34) Who is he that shall condemn? Christ Jesus that died: yea that is risen also again, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
(35) Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword?
(36) (As it is written: For thy sake, we are put to death all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.)
(37) But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us.
(38) For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might,
(39) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So, the next time things turn out miraculously better than you might ever have expected, don’t forget to thank God, thank your guardian angel, and thank your “extended family” in Heaven. (But why wait? Take a moment to give God thanks and praise, right now!)

The article that inspired this post:

Toddler cheats death after car crashes into buggy and crushes it against wall

“Zombie” Catholicism: Pope Francis breathes new life into Cardinal Bernardin’s legacy.

While there is no indication that Francis knows the writings of Bernardin, who died in 1996, many say the pope’s remarks repeatedly evoke Bernardin’s signature teachings on the “consistent ethic of life” – the view that church doctrine champions the poor and vulnerable from womb to tomb – and on finding “common ground” to heal divisions in the church.

Ironically, the re-emergence of Bernardin — a man who was admired by a young Chicago organizer named Barack Obama — is exposing the very rifts he sought to bridge, especially among conservatives who thought his broad view of Catholicism was buried with him in Mount Carmel Cemetery, outside Chicago.

Link

Editor’s note: Pope Francis’ ill considered rhetoric has already alienated a good part – the most consistently faithful part – of the Catholic Church.

No “seamless garment” is going to be able to patch that up.

At least the late Cardinal Bernadin (who was my archbishop, as well as a working associate of Barack Obama/Barry Sotero) managed to conduct his nefarious business without insulting huge numbers of Catholics and that’s probably why he was such a remarkably effective operator.

Thank God he died before they could elect him pope!

Pope Francis appears to be worried about the wrong things

Is Pope Francis afraid of Cardinal Lefebre’s ghost?

The Pope expressed his respect for a mission his predecessors has entrusted to a religious family with which there had been differences in the past. These differences came up in Francis’ speech to members of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), during their meeting at the Centre for Studies at Sumaré, in Rio de Janeiro.

In his message, the Pope spoke about the ideological temptation of Christians he described as “Pelagianism”, which apparently manifests itself in the idea of “restorationism”. “In dealing with the Church’s problems, a purely disciplinary solution is sought, through the restoration of outdated manners and forms which, even on the cultural level, are no longer meaningful,” he added.

Bergoglio warned bishops: “In Latin America it is usually to be found in small groups, in some new religious congregations, in (exaggerated) tendencies to doctrinal or disciplinary “safety”.”

The Pope was not hesitant in admitting that this scared him.

In an off-the-cuff comment, Francis added: “In the first year of Benedict XVI’s pontificate I had to personally intervene in a case involving the founder of a movement who was linked to this apocalyptic viewpoint.”

Editor’s note: Pope Francis seems to be a bit too old to be afraid of imaginary bogeymen. Maybe he needs to change hotel rooms.

He ought to be afraid of radical theologians and heretical priests and bishops. But no – only traditional Catholics pose any real threat to the rapidly fading and hugely scandalous post-Vatican II revolution.

As for exaggerated tendencies – how about that “New Springtime” we Catholics have been hearing about, for the last fifty years? No sign of that yet!

Perhaps the pope’s definition of the word “disaster” is different than what’s commonly accepted. In that case, I wish he would provide specifics.

This is getting very old!

One of the recurring misconceptions that other Christian sects have about Catholicism is that the Catholic Mass is not biblical and Catholics do not read the Bible.

Let’s take the Mass, for instance.

Scott Hahn, a world-renowned Catholic theologian converted from evangelical Calvinism, surreptitiously attended a Catholic Mass in Wisconsin in the early 1980s before his conversion. Bible in hand, he began to follow this “strange” liturgy in an attempt to take notes and return to his students to show how the Catholic Mass was the ultimate sacrilege.

Long story short, Hahn states that “something hit me.” He realized that the words on the liturgy of the Mass were coming from the open Bible beside him. A line from Isaiah, another from Paul, another from a psalm.

Hahn learned later that during the Liturgy of the Word, Catholics, over a three-year period, hear the Scriptures proclaimed from the Old and New Testaments and the four Gospels. Furthermore, Hahn points out, during the Eucharistic Liturgy part of the Mass, the believer is drawn not only into the Last Supper but also into the glorious New Heavenly Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation with all its hymns and praises.

A few handy excerpts from the old, Penny Catechism

---

FAITH

Faith in God

1. Who made you?

God made me.

2. Why did God make you?

God made me to know him, love him and serve him in this world, and to be happy with him for ever in the next.

3. To whose image and likeness did God make you?

God made me to his own image and likeness.

4. Is this likeness to God in your body, or in your soul?

This likeness to God is chiefly in my soul.

5. How is your soul like to God?

My soul is like to God because it is a spirit, and is immortal.

6. What do you mean when you say that your soul is immortal?

When I say my soul is immortal, I mean that my soul can never die.

7. Of which must you take more care, of your body or of your soul?

I must take more care of my soul; for Christ has said, ‘What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul?’ (Matt. 16:26)

8. What must you do to save your soul?

To save my soul I must worship God by Faith, Hope and Charity; that is, I must believe in him, I must hope in him, and I must love him with my whole heart.

9. What is faith?

Faith is a supernatural gift of God, which enables us to believe without doubting whatever God has revealed.

10. Why must you believe whatever God has revealed?

I must believe whatever God has revealed because God is the very truth, and can neither deceive nor be deceived.

11. How are you to know what God has revealed?

I am to know what God has revealed by the testimony, teaching, and authority of the Catholic Church.

12. Who gave the Catholic Church divine authority to teach?

Jesus Christ gave the Catholic Church divine authority to teach, when he said, ‘Go therefore, make disciples of all the nations’. (Matt. 28:19)

Worth Remembering: Fathers Are The Priests Of The Home!

The Ten Commandments For A Husband And Father

I. Develop an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus, allowing Him to forgive you of your past, to talk to you, to heal you and to guide you. Then, trust the Holy Spirit in all things. Trust Him to provide everything you need, including financial help.

II. Get your priorities in order: Jesus first, your wife second, your children third, your work fourth, etc. Develop a weekly schedule, blocking out quality time for the Lord, your wife, each child and the family as a whole. A husband’s most important time during any given day is the first five minutes when he gets home from work and the love and attention he shows his wife and children at that time. Remember that your human fatherhood is rooted in the Divine Fatherhood of Almighty God (cf. Ephesians 3:14-15; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2214).

III. Realize that you are the “priest” of the home. It is your primary responsibility to oversee the TV and its influence, the internet and its influence, as well as the books and magazines that enter into your home. You must stand firmly against all evil influences, asking constantly for God’s strength and guidance to lead your family in living a pure, holy and non-violent lifestyle. Esto vir! (Be a man!). A father fosters moral virtue within his home first and foremost by example. Get into the habit of blessing your children – both alone and with your wife – before they go to sleep at night or before they leave the house in the morning.

PRAYER FOR OUR FAMILY Heavenly Father, most good and gracious God, sustain our family in Your love. Make our family home a place where holiness and love abound. In our daily actions, help each one of us to learn to be more like Jesus. Aid our family to imitate the Holy Family of Nazareth: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Help our family to learn from the good example of those families that especially please You in their way of life. May our family members learn to give good example always by living lives in true Christian faith, hope and love. Assist our family in learning to bear pain and suffering as Jesus did. Aid our family members, too, in overcoming difficulties and carrying their crosses. Help our family life to lead to Jesus Christ, the Source of all Truth and happiness. We ask this through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. AMEN.

FAMILY PRAYER TO OUR BLESSED MOTHER, MARY Holy Mary, Virgin Mother of God, we seek your patronage and we invoke you under your title “Queen of Families.” O Blessed Mother, you were conceived without sin. May every family choose you this day as the model for their household, along with St. Joseph, your most loving, chaste and caring spouse. Through your Immaculate Conception, preserve all families from every disaster, from all violence and from every misfortune. O Holy Virgin, bless and protect all families, strengthen them in trial and keep them from every evil. AMEN.

Submitted by Robert K.

Shocking revelations: How German radicals and other modernist heretics hijacked the 2nd Vatican Council, from the outset

….We all know there is a liberal narrative of the Council, what Benedict called the “Council of the Media”; but there is also a conservative narrative, one which tries to absolve the Council itself of all possible wrongdoing and place the blame squarely on post-Conciliar innovations. That narrative is no longer plausible after reading this book.

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Editor’s note: And just a few short years later, radical hippies similarly hijacked the Democratic Party of the United States.

Unexpected resistance to “The New Evangelization”

Once upon a time on a sunny Saturday afternoon during the New Springtime following the Second Vatican Council, a well-meaning Catholic man worked up the courage to invite his Methodist neighbor to join him for Holy Mass.

After Mass the following morning, while enjoying coffee and donuts in the multi-purpose room (sponsored by the Knights of Columbus), the Methodist talked about how at home he felt and how comfortable the entire “service” was for him.

The Catholic wasted little time in seizing the opportunity to suggest that perhaps his neighbor might wish to avail himself of the unity for which Our Lord prayed by converting to the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

The Methodist, unfazed, wiped a dollop of Bavarian cream from his chin and replied, “Thanks for the offer, friend, but as you know, I am validly baptized. In other words, I received the Holy Spirit just as you did in your baptism, and it’s the Spirit that brings us into intimate union with Christ, so that He is the principle of the Church’s unity. Clearly I am not lacking in unity!”

Disarmed but not discouraged, the new evangelist laid hold of the big guns, firing back, “Yes, but the Catholic Church is the solitary means of salvation established by Christ.”

Albigensians: A tight little group that was obviously way ahead of its time

The Albigensians, or Catharists, were neo-Manicheans, regarding material creation as an evil and viewing all of existence as a conflict between evil matter and good spirit—but O’Brien says it was much more.

Like all Gnostics, of which Manicheanism was a branch, they believed themselves to be the only “pure” ones and the only ones to have the truth. They were certainly a forerunner of Protestantism and even more specifically of the most ardent of contemporary fundamentalists, with their complete rejection of the Real Presence, transubstantiation, the Eucharist, and the Mass, and their belief that the pope was the Antichrist.

Their teaching and practice, however, had enormous implications for marriage, sexual morality, and social and political life.

The parallels to the present are almost uncanny. While hatred for the Church is nothing new, the visceral character of the Albigensians’ hatred bears a resemblance to the ugliest side of the Reformation and today’s assaults on religion.

For example, O’Brien tells us how the Albigensians were known for indiscriminately chopping down crosses and stamping on them.

In America today, we see the relentless efforts by rabid, uncompromising church-state separationist groups to remove all religious symbols from public places and the heightened vandalism of crosses and other Christian monuments.

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How a Nun Turned a Monastery Garage into the EWTN Global Catholic Network

In March of 1978, a 55-year-old cloistered nun named Mother Angelica went to Chicago. She was there to give workshops to supporters who would distribute her Catholic books and tapes.

She had started making spiritual recordings in 1962, after one of the nuns in her community suggested she “record a ‘little heart to heart talk.’”

The sisters sold the records to help pay the bills at their Franciscan monastery in Irondale, Alabama.

While in Chicago, Mother Angelica visited a Baptist-run television station, and reportedly said, “Lord, I gotta have one of those.”

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The Catholic Church has no “small-minded rules – but rather an abundance of small-minded clerics.

Lessons the Coca-Cola Company Promptly Learned
That Catholic Clerics Never Have   

by Doug Lawrence

It is a form of blasphemy to blame God’s Holy Church for what some choose to term “small-minded” rules, since the Church belongs to God – and God is utterly incapable of any type of error.

Rather, let’s look at those clerics – at every level – who have led the Church in more worldly directions – imprudent directions that were  often contrary to the laws of God and detrimental to the care of souls.

I’m not going to attempt to list all of the official sins of the clerical leadership of the Catholic Church, nor is such a thing necessary, since unlike Church teachings, the bulk of those offenses are indeed known and essentially understood by all.

The small-minded truth of the matter is the sheer audacity and unmitigated gall of those liberal, modernist clerics who thought themselves smarter than God and who decided that everything needed to change – and who discarded 2000 years of accumulated wisdom and tradition, in favor of their own, flavor-of-the-week, untested novelties.

When the managers of the Coca-Cola Company got caught up in the very same obtuse spirit of “novelty for the sake of novelty” they too summarily discontinued a tried and true, proven “product” in favor of an all-new replacement which they deemed to be more in tune with modern  times and tastes.

They were wrong – and “New Coke” turned out to be a total, unmitigated disaster – that without prompt corrective action  might  have spelled the end of the company.

So, motivated by economic factors and the desire to survive – within a period of about six months – original Coca-Cola was back – renamed “Classic Coke” – and “New Coke” was on its way out!

You can’t even buy the stuff, today – not that anyone ever really wanted to!

Now, back to us poor, old, Catholics …

Fifty years later, we’re still being set upon by maladjusted incompetents who – having tried everything they could think of to “sell” us what is clearly an inferior “product” – now resort to media events, insults and guilting – in order to cajole the faithful into accepting their damaged and often distasteful spiritual “wares”.

Enough, already! The only reason the post-Vatican II Catholic Church hasn’t already totally gone out of business is the awesome power and the tender mercies of God Almighty – who has obviously taken pity on the remnant of faithful Catholics – those who have patiently born the trials and tribulations of “New Church” – remaining zealous and doing penance – solely for the glory of God and his Kingdom.

“New Church” never tasted right – and it’s not getting any better with age. Waiting more than 50 years to get rid of what should have been immediately recognizable and apparent to all, constitutes an abject failure of Church leadership and a willful denial of the direct advocacy of the Holy Spirit.

This is not only a travesty – it’s a sin!

We Catholics are the victims of incompetent bishops, corrupt lay administrators and a cadre of ill-trained and poorly managed priests and deacons.

Our once great system of catechetical training and Catholic education has become a stumbling block for the faithful and a safe haven for heretics and fools, while at the same time, by virtually every measure, what today passes for the Catholic Church is almost everywhere in sharp decline.

We even have a third world, South American, Jesuit-Contra, community organizer, “water down the dogma” pope who can’t seem to make up his mind about things (other than not liking traditionalists.)

Jesus knew exactly what to do with this type of foul-tasting stuff:

Revelation 3:16-19 But because you art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth.

Because you say: I am rich and made wealthy and have need of nothing: and know not that you art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

I counsel thee to buy of me gold, fire tried, that you may be made rich and may be clothed in white garments: and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear.

And anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise.

Be zealous therefore and do penance.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx seems to have some strange ideas about God and his mercy

The Cardinal explains, “Unfortunately, the church is often still accused of wanting to steer people in directions they did not want to take. It would have to ask itself whether it hadn’t set the wrong priorities when proclaiming the Gospel message.”

“Many older people have grown up with the idea that the church is a moral institution and that God is only a merciful God if we keep his commandments. But God doesn’t say, ‘If you’re good, then I’ll also be good to you.’ Jesus proclaims a God who says, ‘I love you — so live,’ and thus gives us the freedom to decide whether we want to accept and return his love.”

Editor’s note: Yes, Marx is a Catholic Cardinal – although his thinking on sin and mercy are much more in tune with the Lutherans.

“Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly.” ― Martin Luther

Does God really give us license to sin? I doubt it! And why does the Cardinal make no mention of the necessity of contrition and repentance – or are those outmoded theological concepts, as well? More importantly, we have to wonder if this an example of Pope Francis’ thinking on these matters.

How’s this for Gospel, your eminence?:

“If you love me, keep my commandments.” ― Jesus Christ

Knowing Enough History to Defend It: Catholic History and Apologetics

Catholics should be prepared with at least a brief reply to commonly cited events and issues in the Church’s two millennia past.

In the words of Blessed John Henry Newman, we need to be Catholics “who know so much of history that (we) can defend it.”

We might not be able to change someone’s mind when she asks us about why the Church was so mean to Galileo, but at least we can demonstrate that we know our history.

If she’s not willing to listen to a dissertation-length explanation, a few points might help her understand better. The fact that we know may impress her, open the door to more friendly conversation, and grant an opportunity to witness the reason for our joy in being Catholic.

This article offers some guidelines and hints for answering these historical questions.

One advantage any Catholic starts with when discussing our history is the position of the Catholic Church as a historic, unique institution. Our Founder entered human history at a definite place and time, established his Church upon St. Peter and the Apostles, and promised to protect and guide it until the end of time, when he returns.

With the Father, he sent the Holy Spirit to inspire it; yet he left imperfect humans to lead it as his representatives on earth. St. Peter had denied him thrice before his death on the cross; all but St. John had abandoned him during his Passion. Upon them, he founded the Church and gave them authority.

So the Church is distinctive among institutions in the history of mankind: it is human and yet divine; perfect, yet in need of reform; holy, yet made up of sinners; infallible, yet led by fallen, fallible humans.

That’s a hard concept to express to someone outside the Church—sometimes it’s hard for us inside the Church to remember it.

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All that post-Vatican II happy talk and non-judgmentalism had been a façade concealing what then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — later Pope Benedict XVI — would call the “filth” in the Church.

It wasn’t the crimes that did it as much as the bishops’ unwillingness to repent, and the Vatican’s disinterest in holding them to account.

If the church’s hierarchy cannot commit itself credibly to justice and mercy to the victims of its own clergy and bishops, I thought, do they really believe in the doctrines they teach?

All this put the moral unseriousness of the American church in a certain light.

As the scandal raged, one Ash Wednesday, I attended mass at my comfortable suburban parish and heard the priest deliver a sermon describing Lent as a time when we should all come to love ourselves more.

If I had to pinpoint a single moment at which I ceased to be a Roman Catholic, it would have been that one.

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Editor’s note: This is the chief problem with what is termed  “The New Evangelism” – poor catechesis and even poorer inspiration, coupled with thoroughly lukewarm, “happy talk” Catholic parishes.

Thanks to the modernist/ideologue/liberal elitists who run the place, there’s very little “sizzle” remaining in the Catholic “steak”  – and not much else to help “anchor” a normal person’s budding faith, either.

Comrade Lenin couldn’t have done a better job of wrecking things, himself!

It’s interesting that the writer fled to the Russian Orthodox Church in order to help maintain his sanity and his faith – since as of late – Russian President Vladimir Putin has been sounding more authentically Catholic than has Pope Francis.

Yet, I suspect that both are in fact, lying!

Still and all – there’s no substitute for fervent prayer and study, along with full, faithful and active participation in all the work, worship, sacraments and devotions of the Holy Catholic Church – even though such a thing is lately, getting much more difficult to accomplish – and to “stomach”.

But we also know that God’s grace is sufficient. So, there’s that!

A woman is trapped in the wreckage of a horrific car crash. Then a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him, arrived.

“He came up and approached the patient, and offered a prayer,” New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed told KHQA-TV. “It was a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him. A sense of calmness came over her, and it did us as well.”

Considering how many people were at the scene and interacting with the mystery faith leader, the story is a fascinating one.

“I can’t be for certain how it was said, but myself and another firefighter, we very plainly heard that we should remain calm, that our tools would now work and that we would get her out of that vehicle,” the firefighter added.

Now here’s where things get weird.

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Editor’s note: These things happen way more often than most people think. Here’s another short, illustrated, real-life, personal story.

God loves you. God will provide – and that often means answering frantic prayers with just the right person, for the job. All we can do in the mean time, is try not to mess things up too badly – and/or too often – since God’s ways are not our ways – and it’s never wise to act recklessly or presumptuously.

It’s also always a good idea to say a quick prayer for anyone who you might notice, happens to be in distress, may have been injured, may be very near death, or has recently died.

One more thing … thank God for priests. The vast majority of priests are nice guys who are just trying to do God’s work, under what usually turns out to be very difficult circumstances. Priests are at their best – and are most appreciated  – when they are attending to the souls of those who are literally, staring death in the face. Those who have been there will, I am sure, agree.

James 5:14-15 Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. (15) And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man. And the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Additional related links:

A last chance for lost souls

Anointing of the Sick, Last Sacraments, and the Apostolic Pardon

What Are “Last Rites”?

Priest’s Heroic Battle Action

Priests Prevented From Anointing Boston Marathon Bombing Victims

Three kinds of holy oil/chrism

Saint Padre Pio and the Angels

According to a new study, the more intelligent a person is, the more likely he/she would be turn away from religion.

Study: “Most extant explanations (of a negative relation) share one central theme —the premise that religious beliefs are irrational, not anchored in science, not testable and, therefore, unappealing to intelligent people…”

Editor’s note: All of this actually goes to prove the eminent practicality of Catholicism, which is based on Jesus Christ – an actual historical person – plus faith and reason – including the entirely logical premise that anyone who claims to be God and subsequently raises himself from the dead in order to prove it – most likely IS precisely who he claims to be!