Why Australia (and Canada too) is better off with a Monarchy

This Essay was published earlier by Charles Coulombe and it contains an apologia for Monarchy. It attempts to awaken an appreciation for its deeper religious significance and therefore, it's importance for society as a whole, even a society dominated by republican sentiments and political mechanisms as the Commonwealth is.

"Whereas the People of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established."

By Charles Coulombe

The character of Kings is sacred: their persons are inviolable; they are the anointed of the Lord, if not with sacred oil, at least by virtue of their office. Their power is broad - based upon the Will of God, and not on the shifting sands of the people's Will ... They will be spoken of with becoming reverence, instead of being in public estimation fitting butts for all foul tongues. It becomes a sacrilege to violate their persons, and every indignity offered to them in word or act, becomes an indignity offered to God Himself. It is this view of Kingly rule that alone can keep alive in a scoffing and licentious age the spirit of ancient loyalty, that spirit begotten of faith, combining in itself obedience, reverence, and love for the majesty of Kings which was at once a bond of social union, an incentive to noble daring, and a salt to purify the heart from its grosser tendencies, preserving it from all that is mean, selfish, and contemptible. (P J Joyce, John Healy, pp 68-69).

Read further...

Irish Bishops Conference gets Environmental

Wanting to engage the liberal politics of environmentalism, the Irish Bishops give a lending hand to the social engineering implicit in such arrangements. These environmental programs are of dubious value, but contain the seeds of increasing the power of central government and legistlating the false morality of collectivist progressivism. Just who's running these Bishop's conferences anyway?

Archbishop Dermot Clifford, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, today launched The Cry of the Earth, a pastoral reflection on climate change from the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The launch took place in St Francis of Assisi Primary School in Belmayne, Dublin, beside Father Collins Park, Ireland's first wholly sustainable park.

Launching The Cry of the Earth Archbishop Clifford said: “We are all stewards of God’s creation. As political leaders from around the globe meet in Copenhagen next month for the UN Framework Conference on Climate Change to decide on a new global climate change deal, the Bishops of Ireland wish to raise awareness of our vital responsibility toward sustaining the environment. We need to protect the environment today and on behalf of future generations. Our response needs to be at an individual, community and governmental level.

“The Cry of the Earth, with an accompanying DVD, has been sent to all parishes and is available on: www.catholicbishops.ie. It reflects on our Christian responsibility towards the environment and outlines the scientific analysis of climate change, the theological and ethical principles as to why we as Christians have a duty to respond, and practical advice as to how we can act now to sustain the environment.”

Archbishop Clifford continued: “When the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, published his encyclical Caritas in Veritate in July, he reminded us that the ‘environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole … The Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere.’”

Read further...

Maoists Rally in Kathmandu

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal's former Maoist rebels, waving hammer-and-sickle flags, blocked roads to the capital on Tuesday in protest at the reinstatement of the army chief, the first time they have taken such action since the end of the civil war three years ago.

The Maoist-led government fired the army chief, General Rookmangud Kawatal, in May saying he had refused to take orders. But the move was reversed by the president, prompting the Maoists to quit the government and plunging the country into crisis.

Maoist activists danced on the roads, or sat in front of vehicles, in a protest that may damage the tourism-dependent economy and has raised fears about Nepal's fragile peace.

Read further...

A royal chapel for Roman Catholics

Christopher Howse at the Guardian is hoping against hope, perhaps, that the next King and Queen of England will be Anglicans and that the Act of Settlement 1701 will be in place.


The Queen's Chapel is a mysterious place. To be sure, it is open for services, but these take place only on Sundays between Easter and the end of July. It is locked the rest of the time.

A remarkable claim in a new book by David Baldwin is that the monarch can turn it over to the ministrations of the Roman Catholic Church for any members of the Royal family who care to receive them.

One might have thought such provisions would have been quashed by the Act of Settlement of 1701, which forbade heirs to the Crown to marry Catholics. But in Royal Prayer (Continuum, £16.99), Mr Baldwin demonstrates that the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1661 is still in force and kicking.

Read more...

More reading on the Coronation Oath, here.

Kennedy gets Catechism Lesson after insulting Bishop Tobin.

By Richard C. Dujardin

link...

PROVIDENCE –– Even as they agreed to postpone a planned face-to-face meeting that had been set for Thursday, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin turned up the heat Monday on U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy over his “rejection” of church teaching on abortion, calling on him to enter into a process of conversion and repentance.

In a letter to Kennedy posted Monday on the Web site of the Diocese of Providence’s weekly newspaper, the bishop disputes Kennedy’s assertion that his disagreement with the hierarchy “on some issues” including abortion did not make him any less of a Catholic.

“Well, in fact, Congressman, in a way it does,” the bishop said in a letter issued just two days after Kennedy was among a group of minority lawmakers who attempted to block tough new restrictions on abortion that were added Saturday to the House’s health-care reform legislation.

“Although I wouldn’t chose those particular words, when someone rejects the teachings of the Church, especially on a grave matter, a life-and-death issue like abortion, it certainly does diminish their ecclesial communion,” the bishop declared.

Kennedy’s office did not respond yesterday to phone and e-mail requests for an interview on the bishop’s letter.

Bishop Tobin raised the question: What makes Kennedy think he’s Catholic? “Your baptism as an infant? Your family ties? Your cultural heritage?”

Being Catholic involves much more, he said, including acceptance of essential church teachings on matters of faith and morals, belonging to a parish community, weekly attendance at Mass and regular reception of the sacraments.

And support for abortion rights is not in the same category of those who struggle with sins of anger, pride, greed, impurity or dishonesty and then fail, the bishop declared.

“Your rejection of the Church’s teaching on abortion falls into a different category — it’s a deliberate and obstinate act of the will, a conscious decision that you’ve reaffirmed on many occasions. [wow]

“Sorry, you can’t chalk it up to ‘an imperfect humanity.’ Your position is unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members. It absolutely diminishes your communion with the church….

“I write these words not to embarrass you or to judge the state of your conscience or soul. That’s ultimately between you and God.

“But your description of your relationship with the Church is now a matter of public record and it needs to be challenged. I invite you, as your bishop and brother in Christ, to enter into a sincere process of discernment, conversion and repentance. It’s not too late to repair your relationship with the church, redeem your public image and emerge as an authentic ‘profile in courage,’ especially by defending the sanctity of human life for all people, including unborn children.”

Michael Guilfoyle, director of communications for the diocese, said the planned meeting between the bishop and congressman, originally set for Thursday, was postponed by mutual agreement after their staffs agreed that the meeting was not as urgent now that the House voted on the abortion provision in the health-care legislation. He said Bishop Tobin still looks forward to a meeting with Kennedy in the near future.

The abortion provision, which prohibits women insured under the public option or who obtain federal health insurance tax credits from purchasing abortion insurance, passed the House Saturday on a 240 to 194 vote. Rhode Island’s other Democratic congressman, U.S. Rep. James Langevin, voted for the amendment and Kennedy voted against it.

The health-care bill passed on a 220-215 vote.

rdujardi@projo.com

Archbishop Burke's Influence set to Grow (NCR)

John Allen of NCR has just commented about Archbishop Burke's appointment. He is confirming speculation elsewhere that his appointment to Rome to the Apostolic Signatura, and now, to the Congregation of Bishops as the fifth American along with the likes of Cardinals Law, Francis Stafford, Justin Rigali and Levada will put him in a position to be very influential indeed, given time, when it comes to appointing new Bishops since his confreres are not typically conservative.

We've already noticed a conservative trend in the appointments of Bishops like the failed attempt to appoint Msgr Wagner of Linz, and two other conservative appointments like Bishop Sirba of Duluth, Minnesota and Bishop Lavoir to New Ulm, Minnesota much earlier this year.

Unfortunately, Archbishop Burke will have to contend with the Papal Nuncio, Cardinal Piero Sambi who has frowned himself on the Archbishop's pugnacious statements, according to Allen. Cardinal Samebi is problematic also for other reasons in that he has presided over many awful appointments in the past, relying not so much on knowledge and prudence so much as unduly trusting liberal prelates in the countries where he has worked as Nuncio, especially retarding Ecumenism in England by appointing Bishops especially hostile to an influx of conservative Anglicans by Bishop Hollis of Portmouth. (See, Bishops, Nuncios and Delators, Oxford Review) Fortunately, Arcbishop Samebi is due to submit his resignation in four years time when he reaches the age of 75.

Book on Traditional Liturgy Best Seller in Italy

Orbis Catholicus has reported that a new book on the traditional liturgy is a best seller in Italy.

ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS for Anglicans has been Published

APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS PROVIDING FOR PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICANS ENTERING INTO FULL COMMUNION WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Commentary from EWTN

The Vatican: Apostolic Constitution: Anglicanorum Coetibus
Monday, November 9, 2009 • 7:41 am

Damian Thompson, here.

Virtue Online, and Anglo-Catholic voice in Union with Rome, with exhaustive commentary, here.

Thinking Anglicans, here.

Whispers in the Loggia, here.

Catholic Online, here.

And don't we just know that the New York Times will have something to say, here.

New Architectural Appeal to the Holy Father

Appeal to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the return to an authentically Catholic sacred Art

Veni, Creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita
Imple superna gratia
quae tu creasti pectora

Art is an inexhaustible and incredible treasure of catechesis. For us it is also a
duty to know and understand well. Not as sometimes art historians do,
interpreting it only formally, according to the artistic technique. Rather, we must
enter into the content and revive the content that inspired this great art. It seems
really a duty - also in the formation of future priests - to become familiar with
these treasures and have the ability to transform them into a living catechesis that
is present in them and speak to us today.
(Benedict XVI - Holy Father's meeting with the parish priests and
clergy of the Diocese of Rome - February 22nd 2007)

Hat tip to beloblog, Link with some commentary

The link to the proposal is here.

Vatican Holds Line of Celibacy for Anglican Rebels

by Ruth Gledhill

The Vatican today held the line on priestly celibacy as it published the document which opens the door for hundreds of thousands of disaffected Anglicans to become Roman Catholics.

Pope Benedict XVI has made it as easy as possible for traditional and “continuing” Anglicans to convert to Catholicism while retaining key elements of their ecclesiastical heritage, observers commented.

The Apostolic Constitution even allows for married Anglican bishops to be granted the status of retired Catholic bishops, to become members of the local Catholic bishops’ conference and to be granted permission to use the “insignia” of episcopal office, such as the mitre, pectoral cross and staff, by the Holy See in Rome.

But after a hard-fought battle within the Holy See former Catholic priests who left the Church to marry and subsequently became Anglican clergy will not be permitted to return.


Read further...

Randall Balmer, Episcopalian, says Vatican "Opportunistic" (Poll)

| Randall Balmer, Episcopal priest, washingtonpost.com.

NO: The Vatican’s sudden overture to disaffected Anglicans strikes me as both cynical and opportunistic.

Cynical in that the concession to effectively allow congregations to continue using Anglican hymns and liturgies seems to undermine decades of ecumenical discussions. [Wow, sounds just like a Jesuit.]

The move is opportunistic in that Rome is making the overture at what might be viewed as a moment of crisis or weakness in the Anglican Communion. The Vatican apparently is seeking to harvest those disaffected by the ordination of women and gays and by support for same-sex unions. [No, they're doing their job.]

A cynical action calls for a cynical interpretation: [Sounds like projection to me. There's nothing about this that's cynical, unless you read into it things which aren't there and attribute wicked motives] Perhaps the Vatican is hoping to lure Anglican parishes — and their property — to compensate for its financial losses in the priestly pedophilia scandals. [Anglicans are actually worse on that score]

I have no doubt that some disaffected Anglicans will see this as an attractive offer. At the same time, I wasn’t aware that Christians opposed to homosexuality or to women’s ordination were underserved in the religious marketplace. [If it were a marketplace. I'm afraid you're the cynical one, sir.]

Read entire article...

Cultural Marxist Theologian as America's Ambassador to the Vatican

An effeminate and slippery Miguel Diaz was chosen by the President to be America's ambassador to the Holy See. This was not a felicitous or friendly choice, perhaps more like sending David Duke to be our Ambassador to Israel. Miguel Diaz hails from one of the most theologically metastasizing institutions in the United States and it's a place that teaches that indeterminacy both moral and dogmatic, should reign to identify an all-inclusive, social justice Catholicism on one hand, and the neo-Marxism of the Democratic party on the other, while completely excluding the legitimate voice of Catholic tradition.

He bewails his role in dealing with conservative Catholics who have a voice in American politics over the issue of abortion, and insists, impossibly, that one can disagree or ignore the question and still call one's self a Catholic.

"As a person of faith, I am stunned by any effort that seeks to divide us," Diaz said in a phone interview from Rome with the Star Tribune. "One of the things I have embraced from this presidency is the effort to bring various persons together to engage in conversations even when we disagree."

It's part of the praxis of Marxism to engage in consensus building in order to forge an imaginary enclosure fit to include as many as possible in a misguided belief of the necessity for social engineering programs like "Health Care Reform" and "Global Warming". It's a dialogue designed to isolate dissenters and cement predesigned programs by, to borrow from Comrade Noam Chomsky, manufacturing consent, thereby undermining the significance of the individual and welding all into a slavish collectivist mentality.

George Weigel, correctly, is certain that this is an attempt to isolate conservative Catholics and drive a wedge in what he describes as the "Catholic Community" in the USA.

The Ambassador's home University at Collegeville is also the home of coven of pederasts, and is noted for the unexplained disappearance of a young, star student, Josh Guimond.

The Red Star article here...

The Scottish Bishops' New Website and Frankfurt School

Thanks to our confreres in Scotland at Catholic Truth, he invites comments on the new site of the Scotish Catholic Bishop's Conference. It's not very Catholic looking, the packaging is more redolent of car sales than of something distinctly Catholic. The content matches the packaging, unfortunately. Would that at least the content was Catholic.

In a related sense we bring you Eleison Comments, Bishop Williamson's blog which goes into the subject of the Frankfuhrt School which migrated to the United States and enjoyed a tremendous amount of sway and influence over Catholic education, eventually spilling over into things Catholic as well. We believe it's especially noticeable in the Scotish Conference's website.

By Bishop Richard Williamson


Valuable lessons for all friends or lovers of "Western civilisation" are to be culled from an analysis of the USA's leftwards lurch in the 1960's by a Californian Professor of Psychology, accessible at their website. Professor Kevin MacDonald is there reviewing the critique of mass culture in a book on "The Frankfurt School in Exile".

The Frankfurt School needs to be much better known. It was a small but highly influential group of non-Christian intellectuals who, when Hitler came to power, fled from Germany to the USA, where in conjunction with a like-minded group of New York Trotskyists they continued to exert an influence out of all proportion to their numbers. Feeling a profound alienation from the "traditional Anglo-American culture", says MacDonald, they made war on it by promoting the individual against the family, multi-culture against White leadership, and modernism against tradition in all domains, especially the arts. "Theodor Adorno's desire for a socialist revolution led him to favour Modernist music that left the listener feeling unsatisfied and dislocated - music that consciously avoided harmony and predictability". The Frankfurt School wanted "the end of the order that bore the sonata".

The Frankfurt School scorned the American people's lack of desire for Revolution, and they blamed it on the people's "passivity, escapism and conformism", says the Professor, and on "late capitalist" control of the mass culture by, for instance, conservative organisations imposing moral standards on Hollywood. Yet when in the 1960's they themselves gained control of the media, universities and politics, they exploited to the full the mass culture and Hollywood and the people's on-going sleep-like condition to swing them to the left. The Professor laments the resulting vicious attack upon "White interests", "White identity" and the "traditional people and culture of the West".

The Professor is right on several counts. For instance, the war is not mainly between capitalism and communism, as the leftists originally thought, and as many Americans still think. Material comfort has lulled the American people to sleep, after the 1960's as before them. Also, on or off the leash, Hollywood and culture play a huge part in moulding minds and masses (which is why "Eleison Comments" often treat of cultural topics). Also, there does exist a small group, conscious and resolute, of highly influential enemies of "traditional Western culture".

However, to defend "White interests" the Professor needs to go well beyond White interests as such. The real problem is religious. Why did White Europeans ever have so much to give ? Because for centuries and centuries they co-operated with God's grace to profit best by the Catholic Faith. Why does this small group of leftists so hate "Western culture" ? Because it is the lingering remains of that Faith. And why did the small group become so powerful from the 1960's onwards ? Because at Vatican II the same "Whites" were mainly responsible for the Catholic officials' betrayal of the Faith which took place at that Council. Today's triumph of the leftists is no more nor less than a just punishment from God.

Professor, you are not asleep. Now pick up a Rosary !

Kyrie eleison.

London, England

France's Institute of the Good Shepherd is coming to the USA

The Catholic Caveman says that the Institute of the Good Shepherd is thinking about sending priests to the United States.

According to their facebook site they say:

After our third anniversary, the IGS is considering to send priests in the USA for apostolate. One of them Fr Beaugrand have made many contacts since he's frequently travelling to the USA but still looking for help!

Archbishop of Galveston thinks even less of Catholicism than of Jews

This Archbishop must think the Catholic laity is stupid and will simply keep on shelling out the contributions, supporting his liberal resolutions and even buying him dinner once in awhile for the sake of his jolly company.

Reminiscing like a battle hardened journalist, the Bishop of Galveston talks about how far we've come from those times when we actually thought the Catholic Church was important enough that we actually took the Gospels seriously when reading the Great Commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations (including the Jews). The Archbishop confidently contradicts all of this, heretically, and of course, since most people are aware that he knows his religious beliefs are tin plated but committed to the same ideas of liberalism he's committed to, they aren't going to be rude enough to point out to him that he's just contradicted the prophetic and integral portion of the Catholic religion.

We have no doubts he will never convert a Jew. Like Cardinal Cushing of Boston, he'll probably never convert anyone, because he has nothing to give.

Nostra Aetate implicitly acknowledged that Israel remains in a covenant with God, and later Pope John Paul II made it explicit that Jews are “the people of God of the Old Covenant, never revoked by God.”

Article here...

Nuns Complain bitterly about Vatican Investigation

Liberal nuns make their thoughts known about the Vatican investigation. Some say that the Vatican is using it to cover up sex-abuse, another one is saying that surgery was banned by the Church.

Vatican investigation into compliance of U.S. Sisters to Catholic doctrine should not impact members of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Agnes.

"And hopefully, it will not impact our university," said Sister Mary Mollison, acting president at Marian University.

She addressed Catholic religious women gathered Thursday at the Stayer Center about tension and rising polarization in the church.

Issues reportedly being investigated include the acceptance of gays and lesbians, the Catholic path as an exclusive path to redemption, and the return of habits. Vatican concerns have also focused on the declining numbers of religious vocations in Western cultures.

"Our freedom is part of the tension going on," Mollison confirmed.

Cardinal Franc Rode' said he requested the three-year study in response to concerns expressed by American Catholics — religious, laity, clergy and hierarchy — about the welfare of religious women and consecrated life in general, according to the National Catholic Reporter. Rhode heads the Vatican office overseeing religious orders.

Assessment of "women religious," as they are referred to in the Catholic Church, could include whether or not those speaking for an order support the idea of women priests, or gay marriage, or whether they believe there can be salvation outside the Catholic church, Mollison said.

Read further...

Leftists Gather to Comemorate Slain Jesuits from El Salvador

Six Jesuit priests killed in El Salvador are to be honored this November 16Th as the 20Th anniversary of their deaths at 28 Jesuit Colleges to include figures like Noam Chomsky, Liberation theologian Rodolfo Cardenal, pro-choice leftist Congressman from Massachusetts, James McGovern.

Link here...

USCCB Endorses still more Liberal Social Change

Some are insisting that the USCCB's unfortunate love affair with collectivism is an example of Bishops being incapable of talking outside of spiritual affairs. If they actually referred to Church teachings on subsidiarity and considered the cancerous relationship they maintain as lapdogs of collectivism and the price to integrity they pay when they align themselves with liberal platforms, no doubt, they'd be well within the bounds of their spiritual and temporal authority. No doubt, many of the Bishops do appeal to a kind of backwater, Jim Jones style spirituality when they support Democratic National Committee talking points.

It's fair to say that the USCCB is in many respects politically liberal and that they've always failed to maintain an independent voice with respect to economics and politics, as when they drafted a letter against Nuclear Armament with the now disgraced perjuring embezzler Archbishop Rembert Weakland and Cardinal Bernardin or when earlier in the century, the liberal Archbishop Ireland supported American Imperialism in the Spanish American War and the temperance movement. This demonstrates a clear history [George Weigel, Wanderer] of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States historical committment to liberalism in opposition to actual Church teaching in this regard.

The opposition of the Bishops to so-called Health care Reform has hinged primarily upon the issue Abortion, and now, with some last minute concessions by their Democratic masters, many of them will acquiesce and endorse the rest of the bill. Of course, the concessions will be ineffective in the long run and will no-doubt include concerns about the health and welfare of the mother and cases of rape or incest.

The American Catholic leadership, which has always had a subservient role to American Government, have a long way to go before they cut the purse strings that make them little more than puppets of an increasingly national Catholic Church.

See Bishops Back Abortion Compromise...

According to Lifesite News, Archbishop Rigali has only praised the Stupchak amendment to the Bill, disincluding abortion coverage and supporting the unborn. However, the Secretary of the USCCB for pro-life secretariat says he still insists that they are for "Healthcare Reform".

Link here...

Arms merchant's wife, Nancy Lugosi-Pelosi wants access to your Children

Most people wouldn't trust this woman to watch their children. Don't allow the government to turn your community into a medical petri dish.

During the 90s, Harvard Medical School was using the Austian National Health Service as a source of medical experiments for proceedures as part of a study to get them approved in the United States; some patients lived, others died.

This is the kind of high-handed contempt that awaits us at the hands of mad scientists looking to patent new proceedures and make some lucre.

Link to Catholic Family News...

Increasing numbers of Traditionalist Clergy point to Restoration underway in France [Pastor in Valle]

This article on Pastor in Valle cites some of the stats for the declining number of priests in France and the increasing number of Traditional priests. He speculates that the number of Traditional seminarians would be greater if they had the benefit of Diocesan structures.

Asphyxia on its way

1. The number of French diocesan priests working in France is fewer than 9000. For a number of dioceses, (Digne, 25 priests, Nevers, 38, Auch, Saint-Claude, Gap, Digne, Viviers, Verdun, Pamiers, Langres, etc) in ten years time the number of priests in active ministry will be ten at the most. In Bishop Gueneley’s diocese of Langres, the most liberal of French dioceses, one frequently finds one sole priest for 60 churches.

2. The number of seminarians has now fallen below the mark of 750 (740 in 2008, and this number includes a good hundred seminarians from non-diocesan communities). Pamiers, Belfort, Agen, Perpignan, &c, have no seminarians.

3. The number of ordinations remains fewer than 100 (90 in 2009—Paris, which is one of the best situated, had 10, 2 for the Emmanuel Community; 7 are predicted for 2010, and 4 for 2011)

4. 120 vocations have been declared for the class beginning in 2009.

The conclusion is dramatic: a third of French dioceses will cease to exist but will have to regroup within the coming 15 years.

Yet the majority of bishops, above all Archbishop Vingt-Trois, do not despair. Despite everything, the Church remains visible; she remains alive despite appearences. Archbishop Vingt-Trois has given a marvellous example of ‘visibility’ which was heard on Radio Notre-Dame (interview of 5th November): in a parish without a priest, the laity got themselves together to say the Rosary in a village hall: there they also had the idea of cleaning the church to recite the rosary in; so, nothing is lost; this church will live again…

Entire article...