Thursday, April 4, 2013

Ugandan Bishop Suspends Dissident Priest

Edit: no muss no fuss.

The Priest Anthony Musaal has  addressed a letter on March 12th to the Bishop, clergy and laity of Uganda, demanding the rectification of the alleged gap between the ideal and reality of priestly celibacy in black Africa, through the lifting of celibacy. Archbishop Cyprian Kisito Lwanga of Kampala has suspended the priest because he has discredited the Church and the clergy.

Link to katholisches…

His Facebook even shows support for abbero-marriage:





  1. Anthony Musaala commented on a link.
    You are very courageous. Love is its own blessing, love covers a multitude of sins, love knows no law. Love and do as you will. As for those who condemn you, they will be judged with the same measure...
    96Like ·  · 

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Irish Government to Confiscate Catholic Schools

Ed: the title of the Socialist anti-Catholic BBC reads, "Irish bishops may be asked to hand over Catholic schools”. It’s not a question of if, but when. Some may recall how this sort of oppressive behavior is proceeded by a hate campaign against the Church, in order to justify the confiscation of the Church’s wealth, and the diminishment of Its position in society. This tactic was also undertaken by the Nazis in the 30s as Goebels used charges of sexual indecency and child molestation against the Catholic Clergy then to build public support for closing Catholic Schools. The Irish State is using the same playbook here, which is not to say that they are Nazis, per se. Just goes to show that you really can’t trust Republicans no matter how Catholic they pretend to be.

Of course, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin hasn’t been much help here. He’s basically helping the other side achieve their goals.

[BBC}The government would like schools to be ready for transfer in six months.

An Irish government report has recommended Catholic bishops release school buildings to allow for the creation of non-denominational schools.

The department of education report calls for the establishment of 23 new multi-denominational primary schools to meet parental demand.

It follows surveys of parents of more than 20,000 primary-age children.

The report recommends bishops be asked to reconfigure their schools to free up buildings.

In some cases this would mean the amalgamation of a girls school and a boys school to allow the return of one of the buildings to government control.

The Irish minister for education, Ruairi Quinn, says he would like to see buildings ready for transfer to the multi-denominational sector within six months.

Link to BBC...

The Chinese Patriotic Church and the Heresy of Americanism

Edit: it’s wonderful that others are noticing and pointing out, the similarity between the Chinese Patriotic Church which is hostile to Rome, the US Catholic Bishops and the “phantom heresy” Americanism.  Americanism was called the phantom heresy, because all the Bishops in the United States told the Nuncio they didn’t have any problems with it, with a wink.


 No one should doubt that the institutional hostility to Michael Voris lies primarily with the fact that he points these things out rather than that he is “uncharitable”,  “wears a toupee”,  or is “strident”.  We’ve never seen him strident and we sometimes think he’s too soft on people who’ll never give him credit for it anyway.  Really, it’s just an attempt to discredit one of the few voices in the wilderness calling attention to some serious problems in the modern Church.


It’s kind of like some of the crusaders for niceness attacking Rorate Caeli lately.  They’ve never been anything but cautious and measured.  What they reported about Pope Francis in his Diocese in Buenos Aires, among other things, was 100% true.


Ultimately, this just boils down to the official "Patriotic” Catholics attacking the Catholics who are faithful.  You can also see wedges being driving between faithful Catholics and so-called Traditionalist Catholics too, by the way.

Berlin Cardinal Wants More Socialism and Women Cardinals

Since Pope Francis sees himself as the “Pope of the Poor”,  the clergy is lined up “stirred and uncertain in a good sense”.  Cardinal Woelki:  “In Germany we will make it clear, what Church is really about:  That we won’t live any more for money and status, rather more for social justice and more on love, which are those things which are priceless.”

Taxation of Disposession

In a discussion with the Berlin “Tagespiegel” on Easter Sunday 2013,  Cardinal Woelki endorsed a stronger taxation of estates, explicitly the increase of inheritance taxes for a more equitable distribution between rich and poor.

Number of Hartz-IV Receivers Remains Constant

In the same breath the Berlin Cardinal wants to increase the length of unemployment benefits.  The number of unemployed has dropped, yet the number of Hartz-IV receivers has not sunk.

A connection with (unwilling) willingness to work in parts of the Hartz-IV recipients is not something Cardinal Woelki sees.  Cardinal Woelki also doesn’t betray us, since he wishes to reduce the number of Hartz-IV recipients.  Mandatory resocialization courses for Berlin-Kreuzberg dwellers?

Cheap Apartments in Kurfurstendamm?

Even the homelessness is very closely connected.  In Berlin there are 350,000 residences at moderate addresses.  373,000 Hartz-IV households and a further 500,000 low income households compete for these.

Cardinal Woelki sees a great danger that “many in the center will be pushed to the margins of the city, as is also the case with other large European cities”.

In a (system Cardinal Woelki describes as a “good system”)  free market economy, the centrally located real estate is even more highly valued than would be encountered in the (industrial and trade ) peripheral areas.  As if that weren’t enough, the rents and sales prices are higher.

Nazi-Church Tax is a “protected system"

The Church-tax which was directed to the dispossession of the Church is defended by Cardinal Woelki:  “It is a protected system, through which the church members make contributions for the maintenance of ecclesiastical commitment.  Through that they also do something for the common good.”

Cardinal Woelki: Women as Cardinals

As regards the false content of the commentary of the “Tagespiegels” (Claudia Keller and Rainer Woratschka): “In canon law it may even be possible, to name women as Cardinals” to which the Cardinal answered “somewhat” surprisingly: “You are right.”

And also:  “Even at the level of the Universal Church women must be more significantly connected to responsible positions.  The Pope needs good advice and one should be well consider, how the advisory boards in the Vatican should be occupied.  We were very pressed just days before the conclave, to get to know each other for the first time.”

The erroneousness of the Cardinal, who “isn’t one of the narrow minded"

If Cardinal Woelki had now explored the theological and canonical foundations for his positive answer to “Cardinaltrixes”,  we would have been grateful.

Already on Katholikentag in Mannheim the Cardinal dumbfounded with a private theory on homo-depravity: “I consider it as conceivable, that there, where people are acting responsibly for one another, where they live in a stable homosexual relationship, that it can be regarded in a same manner as heterosexual partnerships.”

“kreuz.net”: “Homo-Kardinal"

The Catholic internet site has dubbed Cardinal Woelki for that reason with the honorary title of “Homo-Kardinal”. (previously even borrowed from Cardinal Schonborn)

For the adoption of a “distinction”, the gay homo-lobby decisive but really not courageous enough:  “For such implicitness he can’t distinguish himself."

2012 no Priestly Ordinations in Berlin

Thus he was named as the Archbishop of Berlin and had been created by Benedict XVI. as a Cardinal with a productive mission: the growth of priestly vocations.  In the year 2012 there hasn’t been a single priestly ordination.

Link to kreuz.net….



Tuesday, April 2, 2013

I was a Freemason -- The Destructive Effects of Masonic Brothers: The Pope is Enemy #1



(Paris), the French physician and author Maurice Caillet, a former Freemason and Worshipful Master, who converted to Christianity, was interviewed on 20 February Internet Radio Culturacattolica.it  about Freemasonry, its subversive work and his conversion.
Caillet, son of atheist parents and an  avowed enemy of the Church from youth was entered into a Lodge of Grande Orient of France in 1969 at the age of 35 years in Rennes.   It is one of the oldest and most powerful Lodges. He remained there until the 18 Degree of the Rosicrucians. He was then given access to the higher degrees of the Scottish Rite, which are unknown to  most Masonic brethren of lower grades.  Caillet was interested in the occult, white magic and divination. He was among the French pioneers of family planning in the 70s, and fought for the distribution of artificial contraceptives and the legalization of the killing of unborn children. As a member of the Socialist party and friend of President Mitterand as chair he experienced as master of his lodge an explosive interest in lodge membership after his election. It was also possible for the aspiring master to experience first hand the influence of the Lodge brothers in politics, media, business and public service.
In 1984 he accompanied his sick wife to Lourdes where his life took a radical turn. When he  first witnessed a Mass in his life,  he heard a "soft voice calling me, and not the voice of my conscience, it was still an outer voice. The voice called me by my name and said to me: It is good that you ask me to cure your wife. But what you have to offer me?” At that moment, he offered himself to himself. "It was everything I had to offer. Not a little to be an atheist, who was for 40 years a Church and priest-hater,“ said Caillet in one of his books was about the event at the beginning of his conversion.  Today, he is an honorary member of the Alliance Vita, which advocates for the protection of unborn life.  Caillet committed today are active against divorce, gay marriage, euthanasia, and the lethal drug injection,  because he “is to defend the perfect order of God, against the destructive plans of Freemasonry."
Caillets books are in French, Italian, appeared Spanish, Portuguese and Polish. In German translation, they are not available. On the subject of Freemasonry, he wrote, among other things: The Secret of the Lodges in the Light of Christ (1998), Hedonism and Christianity (2001), With God Nothing is Impossible. The Gift of Healing (2002), Freemasonry: Sin against the Spirit? (2002), the Occult and Christianity. Distinctive Aids (2005), A Catholic and a Mason: is it possible?(2008)
What is Freemasonry?
Freemasonry is nebulous. The people you come in from a variety of motives, such as the purpose of their membership is diverse. What does it claim to be? Officially to the good will and to improve the human race. Human reason with its projections and their justifications is a kind of deity for the Masons.
How it came about?
The legend holds that speculative Freemasonry in the 18th Century was caused by an evolution of the so-called "operational" Freemasonry. The myth claims (but there are various) that modern Freemasonry is the heir of the medieval builders of cathedrals. Therefore, the Masons claim to have exchanged the construction of buildings for the "edification of the world." And by ideas, not practical knowledge.
Is it true that Freemasonry is connected to Judaism?
It depends. It is not easy to say that. It is true that in the interior of the lodge, a certain "compatibility" exists between the Jewish-Hebrew ideology. An entirely heavenly hope and the Masonic ideology, which represents an entirely earthly hope For Christians, this is different. 

In reality, it is important to emphasize the ideological impulse comes from the naturalism of Freemasonry, of the natural law philosophy, nominalism and also from Protestantism. The truth is that Freemasonry aims to enforce a universal religion, Judaism a universal God. Also in this respect there is a certain compatibility.
How can you recognize a Freemason? Is it true that there is recognition among characters?
Yes, there are signs. But it is also true that there is a duty of confidentiality. Therefore it is very careful to use these labels over unknowns. I learned, for example, more often, someone that is Freemasonry, because he told me, as a recognition by strange gestures.
How did you leave the Freemasons?
1984. I was with my very ill wife, Lourdes. Since I could not be with her in the pool, I accidentally went into a crypt. I experienced Holy Mass there for the first time in my life. And I suddenly heard himself called by Christ. Then - still I can not explain even these little moments - I went to the pastor after Mass and asked for baptism.
How did the Lodge to which you belonged take your conversion?
As I announced at the meeting (such in each Lodge occurs  every 15 days ), ... very bad, really bad. Nobody looked at me any more. They did not know what to say. The “tolerance” I once knew that  freemasonry has written so large on their banners, the parades they constantly going on, for Catholics, it does not apply. But I had been expecting this: The Pope is the number one enemy of the Masons.
Does France Catholics who are Masons?
Yes, there are Catholics who are Masons ...
Even priests and bishops?
Whether there are Masonic bishops, I do not know for sure. But I know that there are bishops who - you may forgive me the expression - are flirting with Freemasonry and are talking to her. I do not understand ... what the intent of what the aim should be...
What are the things that Freemasonry gives the most attention?
To influence public opinion. Especially on the subject, which carries forward the Freemasonry at the political level and it may deem important to their plans. 

Abortion: the time when the law was discussed had exercised enormous pressure on the media to steer the opinion of the masses, but even more pressure was put on the politicians of the rights,  that in 1974 it was then not actually resisted  with determination, so that the law went through without problems. 
Today, the topics: gay marriage, relativism, libertinism, contraception, divorce, hedonism, self-indulgence, the rejection of suffering. 
Man must be free to indulge in the pleasure. This is the betterment of humanity, to the aims of Freemasonry.
What is the role occultism, esotericism, magic?
Freemasonry would not exist without mysticism, it is a form of esotericism. 
And their rituals have to do with all the magic, with the invocation of obscure forces, beginning with the initiation.

The motto of Freemasonry is liberté, égalité, fraternité, it should look familiar. The interpretation of this motto is nothing other than a form of imitation of Christianity. 
Even then I wondered sometimes if the devil is present in Freemasonry. 
Yes, he is.  I myself have at the moment, get out when I wanted to feel this presence.
Can there be reconciliation between Catholics and Masons?
It is difficult. Even more serious, however, is that the Catholics are not aware of exactly why their membership in the Masons is a grave sin. Many simply do not know. Many say that the Church has not taken further action since 1983 and that the excommunication had been lifted. There is no clarity.
Freemasonry accepts the atheists?
It depends on: The Grand Orient of France, in theory yes. The National Grand Lodge of France, in theory no. But even where this Great Architect of the Universe is, or where some form of belief in God is required, in fact, God plays no role. Deism perhaps.
One speaks in Freemasonry of "lower levels" and "high levels", but also by a marked similarity among the Masonic brethren. What about it?
It's very complicated. The majority of those who enter into Freemasonry have not the slightest idea of ​​what it really is.You just do not know in what they throw themselves into it. 
Freemasonry divided humanity into two groups: the initiates, so the learned and the ignorant. In Masonic and non-Masonic. 
Who but the low levels, especially the first three degrees has belonged. Not the slightest idea of ​​what is happening in the high degrees
An apprentice does not know what the fellows, the fellows do not know what the master knows. Therefore, those who belong to the lower degrees, are not much more than instruments for superiors. What happens in the "Ateliers de perfectionnement"? An apprentice does not know. 
What happens in the "Blue Lodge", in the "Johannesloge", in the "Grundloge". Few people know what is happening. The difference is enormous. 
I had it until 18 Degree achieved. Of the high degrees, I know that from the 30th Required degree, that one has to kick the "Tiara of the Popes" with his feet. 
The Pope is the number-one enemy. Everyone knows this in reality, even those who do not say it. The Catholic Church is universal, has a Pope who defends the integrity of the faith.  A faith that "defies the world" itself.  The Catholic Church is the enemy of Freemasonry.
What about the claim that Masonic rites are  scientific?
I was a surgeon, a doctor, and I can say that from a scientific standpoint, the Masonic rites are just absurd.
How close is the connection Freemasonry policy?
Since the Second World War we have had in France at least 50 ministers who were members of the Grand Orient. The current Socialist government, for example, is Masonic, very much. 
We live in a society based on a Masonic, secular basis, one or two enlightened intellectuals is proposing to convert Christmas into a "Festival of Freedom" or a "Celebration of Children". The Freemasonry is also behind such plans? Oh yes.  Just as in  my time it was behind the plans to legalize abortion. I myself have performed abortions in Brittany.  Actually I was the first one there, and helped to spread this model of "progress and tolerance." And today, the themes are those that we see every day.
Is it true that you pray for the conversion of the Freemasons?
Every day. Many Masons are men who have lost their way. 
You got lost looking for answers about life and fate. You know nothing of Jesus. In France today, only a few know about Jesus, as I knew nothing of him, and as I do a lot of land in the boxes. I pray for them.
Translation: Giuseppe Nardi 
Bild: Corrispondenza Romana
Edit: this is a translation from the German which was a translation from French.

Robert Spaemann: Pope Francis Defends Catholic Tradition and Orthodoxy


Philosopher Robert Spaemann pins great hopes on the new Pope, criticized "modernists" in the church and welcomed people leaving the church, who reject the Catholic doctrine 


Berlin (kath.net) The well-known philosopher Robert Spaemann has warned in a recent interview with the "Junge Freiheit” of  an impending  church revolt and a split from Rome that is reminiscent of the historic anti-Roman affect which recalls the dualism of the Emperor and the Pope. "The secularization trend is worldwide, but where there is such a thing as the Central Committee of German Catholics, which is financed from church taxes? Fact is that in a Curia Bishop or private secretary of Pope hardly has the chance that a German cathedral would accept him as diocesan bishop" says Spaemann.  For him  it is also clear that the de-Catholicisation is a result of de-Christianization and that Protestantism will erode faster.

Surprising the process was not. The philosopher remembered this referring to the letter to Timothy, in which the "great apostasy" was the speech and of times when the people will not endure sound doctrine. "The people want a 'Wellness' religion." But, as CS Lewis says, if the question is, which religion is the most pleasant, he would not recommend Christianity. And he adds, that can be accomplished 'also a by bottle of port,’" says Spaemann.

Secession from Rome is still nothing better than an evaporation of Christianity. He himself, however, considers that "gradual erosion” is more likely, as a schism will probably be prevented by the church tax system. “The “modernists" in the Church who have already left are specifically continuing in the way of the Evangelical Church (Protestant Church in Germany). Because there you can find almost all of their demands fulfilled already. But they do not want to leave," said Spaemann. The reason is that we would not even now like to leave the fleshpots of Egypt. "More precisely, these groups represent in the Catholic Church which is something that they could no longer represent if they were Protestant and they benefit from the church tax, since they are funded by the official Church. '." He personally welcome the release of people who reject the Catholic doctrine and can have nothing to do with the Catholic Church.

The Catholic philosopher criticized then the usual “Liberal reform agenda”.  In this, the issue of the Christian faith, doesn’t even enter into it. Instead, it is about sexuality, "gender", ecumenism, democratization etc. "It may not be a trivial question, but it certainly is not the last question." Who talks about these, must be bored by most of the demands for reform. So it is with the questions of the relationship with God, to intellect, salvation, hope, salvation, eternal life, eternal death." A Catholic liberalism doesn’t attract the intellect, though he find pertinent applause. "Martin Mosebach writes that in his youth, in the society of his parents, a reform of the Liturgy of the Mass - the abolition of the Latin, etc. -. seemed absolutely imperative.  But then there was no longer a reason to go to Mass," said the philosopher. Reform of the Church had to be spiritual in nature. It must lead you to be more needful of it.

Robert Spaemann declared at the end of the interview that he also had high hopes for the new Pope Francis.  Spaemann writes to the "Junge Freiheit” in his own words: "On the one hand is a pope in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi, who cares so particularly about nature and the poor and at the same time defends the Catholic tradition and orthodoxy, it is not as easy to disparage as "reactionary", as was the case with the thinker Benedict XVI.  unfortunately.

Incidentally, the "Cardinal of the poor", as he was called in Buenos Aires, was no friend at all the so-called Liberation Theology. And: It is perhaps little known that St. Francis in his Testament, the priests of the Church  are ranged higher than the angels, which requires unconditional respect for them, as well as the greatest treasure being the place where the Eucharist is kept. From the shift to the poor a revival of spiritual perspective can be made, the perspective that is directed towards eternal life. “ 

Monday, April 1, 2013

Pope Investigated and Possibly Confirmed a Eucharistic Miracle

Edit: a friend sent a link to this Liturgical design blog  which reports the possibility of a Eucharistic miracle in Argentina, which Pope Francis, then Cardinal Bergoglio, investigated to reveal that the Host which did not disintegrate, was possibly human heart tissue.  A similar occurrence took place in St. Paul Minnesota in June of 2011.  It’s interesting to note the contrast in the way the way the investigation was handled in the two respective locations.  In the case of Cardinal Bergoglio’s instigation, he seems to have been more directly involved and kept the possible miracle secret while he immediately investigated it, while in the case in St. Paul, the event received immediate publication.  When the St. Paul Archdiocese eventually engaged lab tests, they determined that it wasn’t even Serratia Macescens, but a “fungus”.  The Diocese did not comment on what the “fungus” was, and it was unclear whether the sample is still extant, for more testing.

In any case, this is much more encouraging and miraculous.  It’s even more interesting because of the current Pope’s involvement with it.  This is from a website by a Fr. M. Piotrowski, SChr.


A consecrated Host becomes flesh and blood

At seven o’clock in the evening on August 18, 1996, Fr. Alejandro Pezet was saying Holy Mass at a Catholic church in the commercial center of Buenos Aires. As he was finishing distributing Holy Communion, a woman came up to tell him that she had found a discarded host on a candleholder at the back of the church. On going to the spot indicated, Fr. Alejandro saw the defiled Host. Since he was unable to consume it, he placed it in a container of water and put it away in the tabernacle of the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.

On Monday, August 26, upon opening the tabernacle, he saw to his amazement that the Host had turned into a bloody substance. He informed Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who gave instructions that the Host be professionally photographed. The photos were taken on September 6. They clearly show that the Host, which had become a fragment of bloodied flesh, had grown significantly in size. For several years the Host remained in the tabernacle, the whole affair being kept a strict secret. Since the Host suffered no visible decomposition, Cardinal Bergoglio decided to have it scientifically analyzed.

On October 5, 1999, in the presence of the Cardinal’s representatives, Dr. Ricardo Castañón Gomez ("Castanon", sic throughout) took a sample of the bloody fragment and sent it to New York for analysis. Since he did not wish to prejudice the study, he purposely did not inform the team of scientists of its provenance. One of these scientists was Dr. Frederick Zugibe, ("Zugiba", sic throughout) the well-known cardiologist and forensic pathologist. He determined that the analyzed substance was real flesh and blood containing human DNA. Zugiba testified that, “the analyzed material is a fragment of the heart muscle found in the wall of the left ventricle close to the valves. This muscle is responsible for the contraction of the heart. It should be borne in mind that the left cardiac ventricle pumps blood to all parts of the body. The heart muscle is in an inflammatory condition and contains a large number of white blood cells. This indicates that the heart was alive at the time the sample was taken. It is my contention that the heart was alive, since white blood cells die outside a living organism. They require a living organism to sustain them. Thus, their presence indicates that the heart was alive when the sample was taken. What is more, these white blood cells had penetrated the tissue, which further indicates that the heart had been under severe stress, as if the owner had been beaten severely about the chest.”

Two Australians, journalist Mike Willesee and lawyer Ron Tesoriero, witnessed these tests. Knowing where sample had come from, they were dumbfounded by Dr. Zugiba’s testimony. Mike Willesee asked the scientist how long the white blood cells would have remained alive if they had come from a piece of human tissue, which had been kept in water. They would have ceased to exist in a matter of minutes, Dr. Zugiba replied. The journalist then told the doctor that the source of the sample had first been kept in ordinary water for a month and then for another three years in a container of distilled water; only then had the sample been taken for analysis. Dr. Zugiba’s was at a loss to account for this fact. There was no way of explaining it scientifically, he stated. Only then did Mike Willesee inform Dr. Zugiba that the analyzed sample came from a consecrated Host (white, unleavened bread) that had mysteriously turned into bloody human flesh. Amazed by this information, Dr. Zugiba replied, “How and why a consecrated Host would change its character and become living human flesh and blood will remain an inexplicable mystery to science—a mystery totally beyond her competence.”

Only faith in the extraordinary action of a God provides the reasonable answer—faith in a God, who wants to make us aware that He is truly present in the mystery of the Eucharist.

The Eucharistic miracle in Buenos Aires is an extraordinary sign attested to by science. Through it Jesus desires to arouse in us a lively faith in His real presence in the Eucharist. He reminds us that His presence is real, and not symbolic. Only with the eyes of faith do we see Him under appearance of the consecrated bread and wine. We do not see Him with our bodily eyes, since He is present in His glorified humanity. In the Eucharist Jesus sees and loves us and desires to save us.

In collaboration with Ron Tesoriero, Mike Willesee, one of Australia’s best-known journalists (he converted to Catholicism after working on the documents of another Eucharistic miracle) wrote a book entitled Reason to Believe. In it they present documented facts of Eucharistic miracles and other signs calling people to faith in Christ who abides and teaches in the Catholic Church. They have also made a documentary film on the Eucharist—based largely on the scientific discoveries associated with the miraculous Host in Buenos Aires. Their aim was to give a clear presentation of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the subject of the Eucharist. They screened the film in numerous Australian cities. The showing at Adelaide drew a crowd of two thousand viewers. During the commentary and question period that followed a visibly moved man stood up announcing that he was blind. Having learned that this was an exceptional film, he had very much wanted to see it. Just before the screening, he prayed fervently to Jesus for the grace to see the film. At once his sight was restored to him, but only for the thirty-minute duration of the film. Upon its conclusion, he again lost the ability to see. He confirmed this by describing in minute detail certain scenes of the film. It was an incredible event that moved those present to the core of their being.

Through such wondrous signs God calls souls to conversion. If Jesus causes the Host to become visible flesh and blood, a muscle that is responsible for the contraction of a human heart—a heart that suffers like that of someone who has been beaten severely about the chest, if He does such things, it is in order to arouse and quicken our faith in His real presence in the Eucharist. He thus enables us to see that Holy Mass is a re-presentation (i.e. a making present) of the entire drama of our salvation: Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. Jesus says to his disciples, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (Jn 4: 48). There is no need to actively seek out wondrous signs. But if Jesus chooses to give them to us, then it behooves us to accept them with meekness and seek to understand what He desires to tell us by them. Thanks to these signs, many people have discovered faith in God—the One God in the Holy Trinity, who reveals His Son to us: Jesus Christ, who abides in the sacraments and teaches us through Holy Scripture and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

A mystery that surpasses our understanding

The Eucharist—the actual presence of the risen person of Jesus under the appearances of bread and wine—is one of the most important and most difficult truths revealed to us by Christ. Eucharistic miracles are merely visible confirmations of what He tells us about Himself; namely, that He really does give us His glorified body and blood as spiritual food and drink. Jesus established the Eucharist on the eve of His passion, death, and resurrection. During the Last Supper, He “took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, gave thanks,and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Mat 26: 26-28). When Jesus took and gave the apostles the bread and wine, He said, “this is my body….this is my blood” by which He clearly meant that the bread and wine which He gave them to eat and drink really was His body and blood, and not some sort of symbol.

Earlier, in the famous Eucharistic sermon recorded by St. John the Evangelist, Jesus said to the Jews: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (Jn 6: 53-56). Shocked by Jesus’ words, the Jews said, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (Jn 6: 52). Many of Jesus’ disciples were also scandalized. “This saying is hard,” they objected, “who can accept it?” Knowing that the truth of the Eucharist was a shock and a scandal to many of His listeners, Jesus responded not by retracting His words, but by raising the stakes: “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life”” (Jn 6: 62-63). Here Jesus goes to the heart of the mystery by anticipating the glorification of His humanity through His death, resurrection, and ascension. He will give His flesh and blood as food and drink after the Ascension; that is, when His flesh and blood have been glorified and divinized, for, unglorified, “flesh” is indeed “of no avail.”

Not all Jesus’ listeners accepted His teaching of the Eucharist. Thus He turned to them, saying, “‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him” (Jn 6: 65). Judas’ betrayal began with his rejection of Jesus’ teaching about His real presence in the Eucharist. In confirmation of this fact, Jesus said, “‘Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?’ He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve” (Jn 6: 70-71). The Eucharist is the Risen Jesus Himself in His glorified, and thus invisible, humanity. This is the essence of His teaching of the Eucharist (Jn 6: 62-63). By its death and resurrection, the humanity of Jesus takes on a divine nature; it assumes a new order of existence: “For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity, bodily” (Col 2: 9). In His glorified humanity, the Risen Jesus, becoming omnipresent, gives of Himself in the gift of the Eucharist. He shares with us His resurrected life and love that we may even here on earth experience the reality of heaven and partake of the life of the Holy Trinity.

Confronting the mystery of the Eucharist, human reason feels its impotence and limitations. In his encyclical devoted this sacrament, John Paul II writes: “‘The consecration of the bread and wine effects the change of the whole substance of the bead into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. And the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called this change transubstantiation.’ Truly the Eucharist is a mysterium fidei, a mystery which surpasses our understanding and can only be received in faith, as is often brought out in the catechesis of the Church Fathers regarding this divine sacrament: ‘Do not see—Saint Cyril of Jerusalem exhorts—in the bread and wine merely natural elements, because the Lord has expressly said that they are his body and his blood: faith assures you of this, though your senses suggest otherwise’” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 15).

The Eucharist is Christ’s supreme gift and miracle, for in it He gives us Himself and engages us in His work of salvation. He enables us to participate in His victory over death, sin, and Satan, share in the divine nature, and partake of the life of the Holy Trinity. In the Eucharist we receive “the medicine of immortality, the antidote to death” (EE, 18). For this reason, Mother Church holds that every deliberate and freely willed absence from Holy Mass on Sunday is an irretrievable spiritual loss, a sign of loss of faith, and hence a serious sin. Let us also remember that if “a Christian’s conscience is burdened by serious sin, then the path of penance through the sacrament of Reconciliation becomes necessary for full participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice” (EE, 37).

Fr. M. Piotrowski SChr

There will be further report on the validity of this.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Islamics Attack Marian Procession on Good Friday

(Melilla) in the Spanish enclave of Melilla on the North African coast, the traditional liturgical celebrations on the night of Good Friday were overshadowed by a clash between Christians and Muslims.  Drunken Muslims insulted the procession from the terrace of a restaurant.  The procession carried through the streets a statue of the Virgin Mary, who is particularly revered in Melilla in the miraculous image of the Virgin of Solitude.
Shortly after the statue of the Virgen de la Soledad was carried  out of the Sacred Heart Church in procession, there were  obscene insults on the Mother of God by drunken Muslims from the roadside. When they were asked by the Christians to stop, the Muslims reacted violently, throwing bottles, plates, chairs and tables on the Catholic procession participants and with palpable results. It broke panic among the faithful.  As a result, there was a fierce fight until the police arrived. Four Muslims were arrested and four injured who had to be patched up.
The procession was to be continued after the interruption. The incident was captured on video.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Commission of Melilla distanced itself from the provocateurs.