Sunday Sermon: “Life is Passing”

“Life is passing.” The days chase one another; time is flying. Childhood has become a distant memory. Perhaps youth and manhood have also passed and gone and we find ourselves on the threshold of old age. All those days, months and years that have passed were gifts of God. He gave them to us for our benefit and sanctification. But what use have we made of them? Have we laid up treasure for eternal life? And if we have not done so up to now, for what are we waiting? Let us remember the old saying that we should never put off till tomorrow what we can do today. Today there is still time to turn from sin, regain sanctifying grace, and lead a life of Christian perfection. But tomorrow? What do we know about tomorrow? Tomorrow is in the hands of the Lord and we do not know if the Lord will grant us further time to make amends. Do not say, therefore, that you will change tomorrow, that tomorrow you will turn away from the path of sin and begin to lead a holy life. For not alone does time pass, but it often betrays us. Our Lord tells us that the judgment will come at a time when we least expect it. The time that is gone will never return; the future is uncertain; there remains only the present. But the present is equally uncertain; it is something that passes, and every moment could be the last of our lives. How many whom we have known were taken away suddenly in the flower of their youth… Is that not a warning to us? Let us do good while we have time; let us gain merit now for eternal life. “Death is approaching.” How many years have we left? How many months? How many hours? We do not know. Perhaps this could be the last day or the last hour of our lives, and if that were true, in what state would we appear before the majesty of God? How terrible if we were in mortal sin; we would be damned for all eternity! But even if we find ourselves in the state of grace, what merits have we to present to the eternal Judge? What sacrifices have we made to prove our love for Him? What mortifications and penances have we voluntarily undertaken to purify ourselves of our sins? What good works have we done, what alms have we given, what prayers have we said? We may have to admit that we have wasted most of the time which God has given us in useless or even sinful occupations. Let us treasure at least the years, days, or hours which God still wills to grant us for our full conversion and for our spiritual perfection. “Eternity lies ahead.” Where the tree falls, there it will remain. So it will be with us. If we have to our credit works of virtue and of apostolic labour, death will be for us, as it was for St. Francis of Assisi, the good sister who will release us from the bonds which tie us to this earth so that the soul can soar to its longed-for haven of everlasting joy in the company of God. But if we are so unfortunate at this last moment as to find ourselves in mortal sin, we shall be deprived forever of the sight of God and, as a result, of every happiness. We shall be hurled into the eternal abyss where there is no light nor hope and where torments will have no end.  

While there is still time, let us meditate on these truths.

- Meditation of Antonio Cardinal Bacci

 

My latest column: “Pope Francis Should Just ‘Move On’”

 Pope Francis answers questions from journalists aboard his flight back to Rome from Lisbon, Portugal, Aug. 6, 2023, after his participation in World Youth Day. (CNS photo/kLola Gomez)

By Father Kevin M Cusick

Pope Francis said, “Move on.” I say he might want to follow his own advice.

Those were his words after he learned that some American Catholics reacted with dismay when he criticized, condemned and cursed them on the international stage provided him by one of his in-flight press conferences that have become a regular feature of his international travel on return legs to Rome. See https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pope-keen-move-on-after-criticism-us-catholic-church-2023-08-31/)

Faithful Catholics in the Synodal Church need to just “move on”, while those who defy settled matters of faith and morals are given red-carpet and “Who am I to judge” carte blanche treatment. Bizarre to say the least. Just another in the long series of inversions under which Catholics have had to suffer in this nightmare “porntificate”.

Yes: Pope Francis, for his own spiritual health as well as ours, needs to follow his own spiritual counsel and just “move on”. Any spiritual director will tell you that his words and actions have consistently betrayed a spiritual sickness or ill health of some nature. He calls for gentleness and mercy while beating up on the Catholics who are most faithful to what being Catholic actually means.

What gave rise to all this? A Portuguese Jesuit brought upthe subject of American Catholics in conversation with the Pope, providing yet another opportunity for papal target practice.

What do we know? The perpetual need for straw men is a common technique for those who feel the need to hide their true agenda. Make someone else the bad guy to get yourself off the hook lest somebody discover your own misdeeds. A common recourse for the corrupt.

I experienced this gaslighting and projection under corrupt commands in the military. Place a young Catholic priest in an environment already predisposed to anti-Catholic prejudice, as is the Navy, and you have the perfect distraction. One chaplain superior is shopping the crew for husband number three while plotting her second divorce and another is hitting it off in the gym with her on-board girlfriend. Fraternization, anyone? Both need to protect their career and pensions while pursuing their sexual peccadilloes. The Catholic chaplain is the perfect foil. The technique? Magnify his least shortfalls, of which regulation-heavy military life aboard ship at close quarters is rife, and thus employ projection and distraction to keep prying eyes far away from personal infractions of a far more serious nature.

How does this help shed light on the current malaise in the Church? When Archbishop Fernandez, an old Argentinian papal crony and new Vatican doctrinal czar, shortly to be made a prince of the Church, verbalizes such mental castles in the air as blessing same-sex marital simulation and proceeds to connect them with a “living and active gift” of the pope which he calls the “doctrine of Pope Francis”we are fairly warned. When he proceeds to ominously threaten those who may be contemplating any words which can be characterized as “judging” the “doctrine of the Holy Father”, we ain't seen nothin’ yet.

The foretaste and promise of yet another inquisition which threatens to put Savanarola to shame. The gaslighting that accompanies such  childish fantasies accuses bishops who dare to question such tripe as guilty of claiming to have the special “inspiration of the Holy Spirit”. All of which is irrelevant. The simple faith of a young home-schooled Catholic is enough to disprove such an imposture.

When we speak of the competency of the pope, we concern ourselves with matters of faith and morals spelled out for all in the Catechism. Yes, the pope can deepen our understanding of such by declaring infallibly what we already know to be true. Two cases of such extraordinary exercise of infallibility, a concept defined by Vatican I, are the papal declarations of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Our Lady. These were consonant with Scripture and Tradition, already “true”, and later given greater prominence among the articles of belief necessary for salvation.

The Assumption and Immaculate Conception did not contradict any matters in the Catholic Deposit of Faith already universally accepted as true, as does the attempt to approve sacrilege with Amoris Laetitiae, calling as it does for Communion for adulterers and other souls in mortal sin without benefit of repentance and absolution. It serves not at all as a pattern for the nonsense of “blessing” sin, about which Fernandez publicly fantasizesin a number of his many interviews given after the shock of his poor qualifications for the new position dawned on already shell-shocked Catholics.

There are plenty of indications that the Rome October Synod will further seek to concretize these and other inversions of settled moral and sacramental teaching. This while Francis meets with cronies in the Vatican to deliberate the possibility of demanding the resignation of an outspoken and beleaguered Bishop Strickland.

We suppress incredulous laughter as we learn, reportedly, that the courageous behavior of the Tyler, Texas, prelate is to be characterized a “scandal”; this after the many missteps of a pope who says and does things a pope should never say and do, a true continuing scandal with no course corrections in sight. If that becomes yet another decapitation in a pattern of such attacks on local churches it will serve merely as the tip of the iceberg in the systematic dismantling of yet another orthodox and burgeoning local church.

So what do we do? When I am asked by Catholics suffering “heresy PTSD” I always counsel they focus first on their own vocation to marriage and family life, and see first and most importantly to their responsibility for forming their children as saints. This is our daily work and calls for our utmost efforts. At the same time, do not let Pope Francis and Roman synodal fantasies distract from this one task about which the Lord will ask you at your final judgement.

What did I do about the shipboard gaslighting and projection back in my three years aboard the aircraft carrier? I took my orders from Christ and blithely and confidently did the work for which the Lord sent me to the ship. On the many good days I focused on the spiritual care of the many sincere Catholic believers on board. I never truly felt alone, no matter the sometimes thinly veiled jealousy and spite among fellow chaplains and departmental staff. We always without fail had real pastoral work to do as the true Church of Christ, always present among ships’ company. The Lord consoled me greatly in those days and my Catholic flock reminded me daily of the unimportance of the passing vanity of vanities which obsess the corrupt, who will always surround us in this vale of tears and sometimes, also, even aboard the barque of Peter.

We pray, worship and love as the Lord commands, though we smile or weep as history and fortunes material or spiritual rise or fall with the passing of years. We will never fail to feel His comforting hand upon our shoulders as we move always forward in Him, refusing the vanity of distractions which will always accompany us as we remain faithful in the big and the little ways. If we listen even with the simple faith of a child we always hear His voice encouraging and strengthening us for the journey, no matter how brief or how long in duration. We will never trade the inheritance of faith and morals for a mess of pottage no matter the credentials of those who seek to disserve our salvation.

Yes, Pope Francis should just “move on”. And we welcome him along on the journey. “Excelsior”. Onward and upward.

Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.

apriestlife.blogspot.com

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Why does Pope Francis care whether rapist Rupnik’s Rome Aletti Center lives or dies?

Why is Pope Francis using his worldwide spiritual and moral authority to rehabilitate an accused rapist who has already been judged guilty of the charges? Curious.

Ivan Rupnik, artist and founder of the Aletti Center in Rome serially abused women sexually, spiritually and psychologically for years using his disguise as a Jesuit priest to gain access to and authority over them. Their accusations have already led to his expulsion from the Jesuits and a rapidly lifted excommunication by the Pope.

AP reports:

“The center has long stood by Rupnik, with current leader Maria Campatelli saying in June that the claims against him were “defamatory and unproven” and amounted to a form of mediatic “lynching” against the Slovene priest and his art center.

“Francis last week had a well-publicized, private audience with Campatelli, and photographs distributed by the Vatican showed them sitting together at the pope’s desk in his formal library in the Apostolic Palace, a place reserved for his official audiences.”

Makes one wonder. Usually when power is used to protect corruption it means the powerful are also corrupt.

Why would Pope Francis risk the possibility of public wonderment and conjecture in this regard? We have here a very curious case of high risk danger of appearing morally compromised in some way. Not a good look for a pope.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/vatican-jesuit-abuse-artist-marko-ivan-rupnik-2bc494b3c624cb3a657ba0598c8a29ee

An effort to exonerate or whitewash the lifting of Rupnik’s excommunication by Pope Francis may be involved here:

“The influential Vatican-watch website Il Sismografo published an editorial on Monday accusing the vicariate of “unbearable and untruthful verbal acrobatics” by referring to Rupnik’s canonical process and punishment as a “request for excommunication” instead of acknowledging that the penalty was imposed by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

“The site’s editors argued that the vicariate’s intention was “to exonerate Pope Francis from the fact of having canceled the excommunication of Father Marko Rupnik.”

More from Pillar Catholic here: https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/the-diocese-of-romes-rupnik-problem

Cardinal Grech wants Synod on Synodality formally blessed at Sunday Masses

 

Bishop Schneider: “There is no authority to declare or consider an elected and generally accepted Pope as an invalid Pope.”

Although not by name, Bishop Schneider here responds to recent claims that Pope Francis is neither Catholic nor the pope, led most publicly by Fr Altman.

On the Validity of the Pontificate of Pope Francis

By:   + Athanasius Schneider 

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There is no authority to declare or consider an elected and generally accepted Pope as an invalid Pope. The constant practice of the Church makes it evident that even in the case of an invalid election this invalid election will be de facto healed through the general acceptance of the new elected by the overwhelming majority of the cardinals and bishops.

 

Even in the case of a heretical pope he will not lose his office automatically and there is no body within the Church to declare him deposed because of heresy. Such actions would come close to a kind of a heresy of conciliarism or episcopalism. The heresy of conciliarism or episcopalism says basically that there is a body within the Church (Ecumenical Council, Synod, College of Cardinals, College of Bishops), which can issue a legally binding judgment over the Pope.

The theory of the automatic loss of the papacy due to heresy remains only an opinion, and even St. Robert Bellarmin noticed this and did not present it as a teaching of the Magisterium itself. The perennial papal Magisterium never taught such an option. In 1917, when the Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici) came into force, the Magisterium of the Church eliminated from the new legislation the remark of the Decretum Gratiani in the old Corpus Iuris Canonici, which stated, that a Pope, who deviates from right doctrine, can be deposed. Never in history the Magisterium of the Church did admit any canonical procedures of deposition of a heretical pope. The Church has no power over the pope formally or judicially.

The surer Catholic tradition says, that in the case of a heretical pope, the members of the Church can avoid him, resist him, refuse to obey him, all of which can be done without requiring a theory or opinion, that says that a heretical pope automatically loses his office or can be deposed consequently.

The surer Catholic tradition says, that in the case of a heretical pope, the members of the Church can avoid him, resist him, refuse to obey him, all of which can be done without requiring a theory or opinion, that says that a heretical pope automatically loses his office or can be deposed consequently.

Therefore being it so, we must follow the surer way (via tutior) and abstain from defending the merely opinion of theologians (even be them Saints like St. Robert Bellarmin), which says that a heretical pope automatically loses his office or can be deposed by the Church therefore.

Entire text of letter here: https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/6815-about-the-validity-of-the-pontificate-of-pope-francis

Thought for the day: love of neighbor has bounds, love of God boundless

“ We must know that as every garment is woven upon two beams, an upper and a lower, so love is bound unto two commandments, the one bidding us to love God, and the other to love our neighbour. For thus is it written "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets." Matth. xxii. 37-39- 

“In the which we are to see that bounds are set to that love wherewith we are to love our neighbour, for it is said " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." But to the love wherewith we are to love God are set no bounds, for it is said "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." A man is not commanded to what point he is to love God, but from what point, even as it is said, "with all" for he only truly loveth God, who leaveth nothing for himself. We are behoven therefore to keep two commandments touching love, if we would be seen at the marriage with a wedding-garment.”

Pope S Gregory the Great 

Clothing ceremony for Brother Stephen Krautle