Category Archives: Catholic Church

by | March 21, 2014 · 7:07 am

A Century of Trial

In 1982, Mirjana (one of the seers at Medjugorje) reported that the Blessed Mother had told her:

“You must realize that Satan exists. One day he appeared before the throne of God and asked permission to submit the Church to a period of trial. God gave him permission to try the Church for one century. This century is under the power of the devil; but when the secrets confided to you come to pass, his power will be destroyed.”

This wasn’t the first time we were given a message from God that Satan would be permitted up to a century to test the church. On October 13, 1884, just after Mass, Pope Leo XIII suddenly stopped at the foot of the altar and stood, as if in a trance, for about 10 minutes, his face ashen white. Immediately after, he went to his office and composed the Prayer to St. Michael.

Prayer to St Michael the Archangel

When asked what had happened, Pope Leo explained that he heard two voices – one kind and gentle, the other guttural and harsh. They seemed to come from near the tabernacle. As he listened, he heard the following conversation:

  • The guttural voice, the voice of Satan in his pride, boasted to Our Lord: I can destroy your Church.
  • The gentle voice of Our Lord: You can? Then go ahead and do so.
  • Satan: To do so, I need more time and more power.
  • Our Lord: How much time? How much power?
  • Satan: Seventy-five to 100 years, and a greater power over those who will give themselves over to my service.
  • Our Lord: You have the time; you will have the power. Do with them what you will.

It’s a lot like what happened in the story of Job. Satan asked for authority to try to destroy Job’s faith and God gave him the right to take everything from Job except his life. In short order, Job lost his property, his wife, his children and his health. But even when his so-called friends came to play Blame The Victim, Job refused to give up his faith. In the end, God restored Job’s health and wealth, then gave him a new wife and family.

“After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; and he saw his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-grandchildren. Then Job died, old and full of years.” (Job 42:16-17)

I’ve pondered a lot about when Satan’s century began; I’ve found a whole lot of evidence for 1917.

October 13, 1917: The Miracle of the Sun at Fatima.

Exactly 33 years after Pope Leo XIII’s vision, extraordinary solar activity was witnessed by tens of thousands of people not only at the site of the Marian apparitions at Fátima, Portugal, but also miles away. Jesus was 33 years old when he was crucified and rose again.

1917: Russian Revolutions 1 and 2

One of the greatest tests the church has ever faced has been the rise of Atheistic Communism. As I explained in my blog “Vladimir Lenin and Our Lady of Fátima”, the timing of the Fatima apparitions coincides in an extraordinary way with the timing of the activities of Lenin and the German high command, activities that led directly to the takeover of Russia by Atheistic Communism.

In the 8th century before Christ, the prophet Isaiah prophesied about the coming of the Messiah. In particular, he predicted that the Jewish people would be regathered to their homeland.

“The Lord shall again take it in hand to reclaim the remnant of his people … and gather the outcasts of Israel. The dispersed of Judah he shall assemble from the four corners of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:11-12)

The worldwide regathering of the Jewish people to their homeland and the reestablishment of their state began in 1917.

November 2, 1917:  Five days before Lenin would lead the Bolshevik revolt, Great Britain announced in the Balfour Declaration that it intended to establish in Palestine “a national home for the Jewish people.” (N.b., Russia was still using the Julian Calendar at the time, so Russian references often date the revolution at October 25th, but in the west, that date was November 7, 1917.)

December 11, 1917: General Edmund Allenby liberated the city of Jerusalem from 400 years of Turkish rule.

If I’ve got this right, then the extra power Satan was granted to try to destroy the church will be taken away again in 2017.

Sources:

2 Comments

Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity, Prayer

by | March 6, 2014 · 2:38 pm

Lenten Journey: March 6

Comments Off on Lenten Journey: March 6

Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity, Timothy Dolan

by | March 6, 2014 · 9:27 am

“Society has turned its back on Christ,” says this former Neo-Nazi

This man’s testimony is amazing! He has some really great insights about today’s cultural decay. The video portion is just two guys talking, so you can just listen while you get dumb stuff done.

The Journey Home – 2014-2-3- Joseph Pearce [56:11]

 

4 Comments

Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity

by | March 4, 2014 · 10:45 am

Really GOOD stuff here for Catholic and Non-Catholic Christians

I love God, my church and my fellow non-Catholic Christians. My point here is not to convince or convert anyone to Catholic doctrine. However, I am very interested in reducing anti-Catholic prejudice. I’ve had some experience with this and I’ve found it is entirely possible for non-Catholic Christians to come to understand and accept that Catholic doctrine is biblical, even if it isn’t what they themselves believe. That’s all I’m hoping for here.

The Journey Home – 2014-3-3 – Gary Michuta

The host of EWTN’s “The Journey Home” is a former Presbyterian minister who converted to Catholicism. This week’s guest is a lifelong lukewarm Catholic who woke up to the faith he was born into by the questions of an anti-Catholic co-worker. Their first half hour of discussion is really interesting and should be informative without ruffling any feathers regardless of your denominational background.

The second half hour gets into why Catholics reject Sola Scriptura, why our Bible has more books, and some other good stuff. If that’s going to piss you off, just listen to the first half. If you are a Catholic who doesn’t know and/or a Protestant who would be interested in understanding our beliefs on these topics, I hope you’ll find time to listen. These two guys are very gentle, intelligent and faith-filled people who know their stuff.

2 Comments

Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity

by | February 27, 2014 · 4:10 am

Catholic Teaching on Private Revelation

“Extinguish not the spirit. Despise not prophecies. But prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” (1 Thes 5:19-21)

The Catholic teaching on private revelation boils down to these basic points:

All that the Father desired to reveal for our salvation has been revealed in His Word, Jesus Christ. This is known as the Deposit of Faith. Private revelations do not belong to the Deposit of Faith.

Private revelation may help us live more fully by Christ’s Revelation during a certain period of history, but must never presume to alter Christ’s definitive Revelation.

The Catholic Church investigates private revelations that gain enough of a following to become potentially problematic for the faithful. Three outcomes are possible:

1. The Church will withhold judgment.

E.g., Medjugorje, which is still on-going, is in this area. While the Church has not condemned the visions or suppressed discussion of Medjugorje, recent statements from the Vatican have been highly cautionary, not because there has been anything problematic to the Deposit of Faith, but because none of the events has risen to the very high level of “definitely supernatural AND from God” which is required by the Church.

Colin B. Donovan, STL, writes that as of 2013: “Catholics on both sides of the issue should exercise prudence and charity in speaking of it. Medjugorje is not a litmus test of orthodoxy, though every Catholic will have a moral obligation to accept the judgment of Rome when it is rendered.”

2. The Church will condemn the revelation.

An example of such a condemnation comes from the Bishop of Brooklyn concerning the alleged apparitions at Bayside: “A thorough investigation revealed that the alleged ‘visions of Bayside’ completely lacked authenticity. … The ‘messages’ and other related propaganda contain statements which, among other things, are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, undermine the legitimate authority of bishops and councils and instill doubts in the minds of the faithful, for example, by claiming that, for years, an ‘imposter (sic) Pope’ governed the Catholic Church in place of Paul VI.”

3. The Church will declare the revelation “worthy of belief.”

For example, the visions of Fatima, Portugal, were declared worthy of belief in October 1930 by the Bishop of Leiria-Fátima. Approved private revelations do not become a part of the Deposit of Faith, thus Catholics are not bound to believe in them. However, such refusal must be done with proper modesty, for good reasons, and without the intention of setting oneself up as a superior.

Sources:

EXCELLENT overview: “Apparitions/Private Revelations” article by Colin B. Donovan, STL, at EWTN @ https://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/apparitions.htm

Catholic Catechism on Private Revelation @ http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a1.htm

Dei Verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation) @ http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651118_dei-verbum_en.html

Declaration concerning the “Bayside Movement” by Bishop Francis Mugavero of Brooklyn- November 4, 1986 @ http://www.ewtn.com/library/newage/mugabay.txt

Official position of the Catholic Church on the Fatima apparitions @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_F%C3%A1tima#Official_position_of_the_Catholic_Church

Historical overview of the Catholic Church’s evolving position on Medjugorje apparitions by Colin B. Donovan, STL @ https://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/medjugorje.htm

3 Comments

Filed under Catholic Church

by | February 10, 2014 · 11:46 am

Happy Monday to my fellow Conservative Catholics!

2014_02 07 Chaput announcement

Source:

Pope Francis and the Chaput Shocker

2 Comments

Filed under Catholic Church

by | February 8, 2014 · 2:36 pm

UN committee tells Pope, “Change Catholic doctrine.”

2014_01 31 UN tells RCC to CHANGE DOCTRINE

The Vatican told the UN in the nicest possible way to go suck an egg.

Meanwhile, President Obama showed himself to be right in line with the United Nation’s hypocritical agenda.

  • At the February 6, 2014 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, he praised freedom of religion and called “killing the innocent” the “ultimate betrayal.”
  • Then he went back to the White House to put some more time into praising Planned Parenthood and persecuting Catholics.

Sources:

13 Comments

Filed under Abortion, Barack Obama, Catholic Church, Life Issues, Planned Parenthood, United Nations

by | January 28, 2014 · 9:29 am

Worst argument for abortion EVER

The New York Times published a piece by a Notre Dame philosophy professor that calls on the pope to “liberalize” the church’s unequivocal opposition to abortion.

Before I parse his deeply flawed argument, let me just pause for a big WTF moment over a Notre Dame philosophy professor who doesn’t seem to have a clue that Catholic doctrines like “abortion is murder” are based on divine revelation, that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and therefore doctrine is not subject to “liberalizing.”

Jeremiah 1-5 I knew you before

According to this man’s so-called reasoning, “an early-stage embryo may be biologically human but still lack the main features — consciousness, self-awareness, an interest in the future — that underlie most moral considerations. An organism may be human by purely biological criteria, but still merely potentially human in the full moral sense.”

Apparently, this “philosopher” is saying he believes it’s okay to kill little human beings as long as they’re less than eight weeks old. This would cover mini-dose birth control pills and IUDs (which allow conception, but prevent implantation), as well as the morning after pill (which also prevents implantation) and suction abortions up to 8 weeks gestation (when the embryo becomes a fetus). N.b., first trimester suction abortions are routinely done up to 12 weeks gestation (aka, 14 weeks pregnant).

Embryo becomes fetus

I get the “consciousness” or “self-awareness” thing, but not how he manages to differentiate embryos from fetuses.  Who the heck knows how “self-aware” an unborn baby is?! My gut tells me that the real reason he draws his line where he does is that he and his kind want to have sex without consequences, but are grossed out about killing anything that looks like a baby.

What this man sorely needs is to catch a clue. Catholic doctrine on abortion is not based on the biologically humanity of the unborn life, but on our belief that God gives an immortal soul to each and every human being at conception. Philosopher guy also needs to brush up on developmental psychology, logic and slippery slopes cuz boy howdy, if you take that whole “full moral sense” thing seriously, it opens up a big, ugly can of Nazi worms.

Did you know that it has long been the teaching of the Catholic Church that a human being is not capable of making ethical or moral decisions much before the age of seven years after birth?  Think how convenient it would be if you could off any kid who didn’t meet a minimum set of requirements before age seven. I bet Obamacare would even pay for it, you know? Save the taxpayers a bundle on remedial education and whatnot.

Developmental psychologists go even further than the Catholic Church in identifying at least half a dozen increasingly sophisticated moral and ethical stages that humans progress through. They also know that many people get stuck at some point along the way and never achieve the highest level at all. Wow … talk about convenient!  We could push that okay-to-kill thing up to include anyone who hasn’t made it to Stage 6, then Democrats could by-pass all that tedious harassing by the IRS and go straight to “aborting” Tea Partiers for failing to “take the views of others into account.”

Stages of Morality

Whatchawannabet the author of this so-called argument for the morality of early abortion considers himself a fully potentialized and deeply moral human and not … you know … an embryonic Nazi?

Sources:

1 Comment

Filed under Abortion, Catholic Church, Christianity, Life Issues

by | January 24, 2014 · 1:01 am

The days when a real Catholic could be a Democrat are OVER

2014_01 22 Pope Francis tweets

2014_01 22 Pres Obama tweets

The Republican Party’s 2012 platform calls for a ban on abortion, but is silent on exceptions, leaving that decision up to Congress and the states.

The Democrat Party’s 2012 platform calls for unlimited abortion, regardless of ability to pay.

30 pieces of silver for Catholics for Obama

2014_01 22 Coexist sign at Life March

Sources:

14 Comments

Filed under Abortion, Barack Obama, Catholic Church, Democrats, Life Issues, Pope Francis, Republicans

by | January 14, 2014 · 11:11 am

Feed them

Jan 13, 2014: Pope Francis: Baptism is the long chain of faith [1:19]

Pope Francis formally welcomed 32 babies into the Catholic church, pouring water from a shell-shaped dish over their heads and pronouncing their names one by one, as beaming parents held their children, dressed in white satin or silk gowns and other finery, in the chapel whose ceiling was frescoed by Michelangelo.

“If they are hungry, mothers, feed them, without thinking twice. Because they are the most important people here,” he said in the same chapel where he was elected as the first Latin American pope.

In his homily, Pope Francis emphasized the greatest and most important legacy that parents should leave to their children is the faith, following the unbroken chain of tradition begun by Jesus Himself.

Although He “had no need of being baptized,” Jesus, “with His body, with His Divinity, in Baptism blessed all the waters, so that water might have the ability to give Baptism.”

The first baptisms by the new pontiff occurred on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord.

H/t LW

Comments Off on Feed them

Filed under Catholic Church, Pope Francis