Today’s Martyrology

Season of Lent

Memento, homo quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris

The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Home ... the One, True, Holy, Catholic Church

“That understanding of its sacred dogmas must be perpetually retained, which Holy Mother Church once declared; and there must never be a recession from that meaning under the specious name of a deeper understanding”
(Blessed Pope Pius IX, 1st Vatican Council, S.3, C.2 on Revelation, 1870 ex cathedra)

____________________________________________________________

Looking for Catholic Prayers in Latin and English?

Mary, Conceived without Sin, Pray for us who have Recourse to Thee

Mary, Conceived without Sin,

pray for us who have recourse to Thee

At every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass let us utter, ex toto corde,

“I die with Thee, O Christ — on Calvary!”
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

How do I become Holy?

Let us begin anew with the most pertinent question of our lives. Everything else is either within it or worthless. “How do I become holy? — can I become holy?

Dare I presume to become holy, for to be holy is to be like unto God!”

Tonight, this night, we have asked the question.

Holiness is simply this: perfect conformity to the will of God in all things, at all times, and in all places.

It is to will what God wills.

It is to act as God would have you act.

It is the perfect correspondence between who and what you are, and who and what God wants you to be.

It is that simple.

“Be you therefore perfect …”

“Estote ergo vos perfecti, sicut et Pater vester Caelestis perfectus est” “Be you therefore perfect, as also your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (St. Matthew 5.48)

“And He said to all: If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (St. Luke 9.23)

Attending a seminary will not make you holy — although if you are a straight, heterosexual male who possesses clear masculine attributes, it is likely that you will never be permitted to be ordained: that is reserved for the effeminate or homosexual male only. While this is not Catholic policy (and in fact is contradictory to, and in open defiance of very clear Church teaching), it is nevertheless the actual state of affairs.

One does not take “courses” or “sign up for workshops” in being holy — although there are many good books that will help lead you into holiness — and virtually all of them were published prior to 1960. After the decadent 1960s and the cataclysmic collapse of the Church following Vatican II within that same decade, quite nearly everything published under the auspices of the title “Catholic” — was not.

The self-inflicted wound that came to be called “Ecumenism” simply meant repudiating, renouncing, and even vilifying what is authentically, historically, and uniquely Catholic in a failed effort to assuage the animus of those hostile to us — or, as happened more often, simply to apostatize to religious indifferentism (all religions are equally good and all lead to the same God) … and eventually came to mean little more than a thinly veiled pantheism. ¹ In effect, we became “them” who refused to become “us”.

Tearing Christ from the Cross — the New Imperative of “Horizontal Worship”

In other words, following Vatican II, Christ was torn from the Cross and for Modernist Catholics the Cross became a token of shame — an embarrassing vestige of their once thoroughly supernatural religion which has been “corrected and rehabilitated” by “enlightened” and Modernist theologians, bishops, priests, and Religious — eminent among which is the present pontiff. Religion is now far more, and often exclusively, horizontal (pertaining to people, politics, economies, and the new goddess of environmentalism, Mother Earth) — than it is vertical (pertaining to worshipping, loving, and serving God alone — supremely, which is to say, above all else).

The reality is that what we now construe as worthy of worship is not God at all, but a simulacrum: a secularized worship best realized and achieved by the apotheosis of man through focusing on the socio-sexual, economic, and political “needs” of others and ourselves — not by (vertically — and exclusively) worshipping God in Himself as we had done for over 2000 years preceding the “enlightened” Aggiornamento of Vatican II in 1963.

To be a traditional Catholic (that is to say, one faithful to the historical Magisterium and teaching of the Catholic Church) is to be “intolerant” — although this intolerance oddly does not extend to Judaism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam (none of which accept or tolerate most Catholic dogma, let alone the tenets of other religions) — or even to Atheism and Militant Secularism . Only Catholics, apparently, have the capacity for, and the propensity toward, “intolerance”.

Others, of course, may hold fast to mutually contradictory teachings, doctrines, or dogmas — none of which accept as licit anything to the contrary and who vigorously oppose what conflicts with their respective accepted teachings — strangely do not incur the animus reserved for Catholics alone: intolerance!

The impediment of logic

Even logic itself is tossed aside as an impediment to the countless irreconcilable contradictions inherent in Ecumenism. To wit, the Law of the non-contradition holds that two things cannot both be and not be at one and the same time. You are reading this column or you are not reading this column. You cannot be both reading and not reading this column. It is an inescapable contradiction. “The Holy Eucharist is really and truly the Body and Blood of Christ ” and “The Holy Eucharist is not really and truly the Body and Blood of Christ” are reciprocally contradictory and mutually exclusive statements (and beliefs). It either is, or it is not, really and truly the Body and Blood of Christ. It logically (and even existentially) cannot be both. Perhaps logic itself was the first casualty of Vatican II and Ecumenism.

Capitalists, as another example, have very distinct and differing concepts of economies from Communists. Each will argue that its own ideology is incompatible with and contradictory to the others’. Ideologically there can be no Capitalist Communists, or Communist Capitalists. They are not just different, or even contrasting, but opposing ideologies.

Pro-Lifers and Pro-Abortionists also have distinct and differing concepts that logically conflict with one another. Ideologically there can be no Pro-life Pro-Abortionists, or Pro-Abortion Pro-Lifers. Once again, they are not just different, but opposing ideologies. Each is subtended by differing and opposite views on life, conception, death, and murder.

However … and oddly enough, only Pro-life advocates are “intolerant”, while Pro-Abortion advocates are not … hmmmm….

But to return to holiness: as we have seen, Christ calls us to perfection, and this entails denying oneself daily (very difficult, but doable), taking up the Cross (not a very pleasant thing to do) and following Him (the success of which alone is only afforded by both Sanctifying Grace and Actual Grace — century-old terms no longer used because they are no longer taught or understood).

The hard work of holiness

This is the work of holiness, of personal sanctification — and there is no more urgent need in our lives.

Forget about:

“oppressive and sinful ‘structures’ in the world”

“inclusivism”

feminist “language neutering”

“structural sin"

“collaborative ministry”

“oppressive patriarchal structures”

“social justice” (this comes with holiness, not before it)

“social and political “activism'”

This is the language of the world, of liberal academia, of militant feminism — not of Christ. It is the language of those who detest the Church but remain within her for “a living”; it is the childish and neologistic ravings of dissident theologians and radical feminists (also making a living off the Church). They are “catholic” in being “universally” contemptible of the Church and Her teachings. They have left being “Catholic” long ago.

None of this will lead you to holiness. None of it.

Only Christ can. And He does:

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (St. Luke 9.23)

“Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.” (St. Matthew 5.48)

An intimate affair

Holiness is an intimate affair — between you and God.

He does not ask you, anywhere in the Gospels, to change the world … but to change yourself — to take up your Cross and to follow Him ... not the world. ²

He is our paradigm of Holiness ... as is His Holy Mother Mary who gave us that beautiful, immemorial utterance, "Be it done to me according to thy word." (St. Luke 1.37) In other words, as we said earlier, only conformity to the will of God — not the world — is the essence of holiness.

Imitate them. Not the world, just as Saint Paul did: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”³

Please God, let us now also say with Saint Paul, “I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me.” ⁴

Saint John, perhaps, sums it up best:

“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof: but he that doth the will of God, abideth for ever. (1 John 2.15-17)

Whom and what, then, will you follow if you seek to be holy? Christ or the world? It is absolutely clear that you cannot follow both. Each path diverges totally from the other, and the longer you remain on one path the farther you will be from the other.

ADDENDUM

Further consider this:

Ostensibly, most of us esteem ourselves neither holy nor wise. Indeed, we are much more likely to say, “I am a sinner”, than, “I am holy.”

We recognize a terrible presumption in the latter statement, and the even greater likelihood that our uttering this would be a clear sign that we, indeed, are not holy – even as we secretly relish what we publicly repudiate: being esteemed holy. We are so clever, so subtle in our pretensions that we ourselves inwardly hold it to be true — by virtue of our repudiating it. By denying what we affirm, we affirm what we deny:

Truly holy people do not deem themselves holy

I do not deem myself holy

Therefore I must be truly holy

It is logic itself — in its most seductive ... and subreptive ... form. This form of reasoning is called Modus Ponens. The problem with this type argument, however, is that while the form is indeed valid, it does not, simply for this reason, give us warrant to hold that the statements within it are necessarily true. In this case, the form of the argument is completely valid — it is sound reasoning. However, while it is the case that the first premise is true, it is also the case that the conclusion is false.

The argument presented above is really a paradigm for Catholics. And the great deception within it is not so much that we succeed in deceiving others, but that we succeed in deceiving ourselves.

Now, we must think on that a moment. We deceive ourselves. It is almost an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. How can we succeed in deceiving ourselves? One cannot deceive without being aware of the deceit ... right? This is the great deception. We deceptively deceive ourselves. It is, in other words, deception as a duplexity: it is a double negative, a negation of a negation – which is always its opposite: an affirmation. “I am not “not-X” – which is to say, “I am X”. It is a false negation. It is the mere appearance of a negation, and that is why it is the greater deception. It is not that we simply deceive others by appearances (in this case, in the the form of words), but by another and involuted turn of appearances we attempt to deceive ourselves.

Of course, it never comes off. It remains an oxymoron. While we may have succeeded in our attempt to deceive others, we also recognize that we have attempted – and failed – to deceive ourselves. We believe ourselves holy although we are not. In fact, we sometimes even honestly strive to believe that we are not holy ... but even that effort itself only serves to reinforce our belief that we are holy. After all, who but one holy, would seek to think themselves otherwise? One who is holy. It is circular, and because it is, truth cannot enter into the closed confines circumscribed by that self-perpetuating circle of deception.

We nevertheless ascribe holiness to others (and deem this a virtue, a kind of largesse) — but in reality do not, or seldom, sincerely believe it. We are reluctant to concede to others what we do not possess ourselves. The circle of deception grows wider, consuming others in that incessant consumption of itself. “So and so is holy ... but ...” We distrust holiness because we are not genuinely acquainted with it.

The real question involves the question itself. Why. Why are we asking the question of others, or more importantly, why are we asking it of ourselves? Something is amiss.

God alone is holy

It is worth repeating: God alone is holy.

Only inasmuch as we participate in God Himself, do we participate in holiness. We do not possess it. Another does not possess it. Neither ever will. Only God does. We can only participate in that holiness that is pre-eminently God.

Perhaps an analogy will suffice:

We are not what we participate in. It is distinct from us even as we participate in it. A golfer is one who participates in golf, in the activity of golfing. But he is not “golf”. We may even understand his identity as a golfer as descriptive of who he is, and even what he is. To some extent this is true. He is a golfer: that is to say, the “what” and the “who” of the golfer is, to a greater or lesser degree, tethered to the activity in which he participates. But remove the ball and the club and he is no longer a golfer. Whatever else he is, he is not a golfer because he no longer participates in golf. While it is an activity into which he enters, in which he participates, the activity is not the man.

In much the same way it is absurd of us to conceive of holiness as a possession, as something which can be predicated of us in an ontological sense, that is to say, in and of ourselves, or, for some, through meritorious association. We cannot secretly pride ourselves on our holiness (which, notwithstanding, we methodologically deny). We have none. None of our own. We can no more pride ourselves in its possession, than disdain another for lacking it. It is not ours. It is not theirs. It is God's. And He participates it to Whom He wills – and even then ... even then, it is not their possession.

Participating in God’s Holiness

We participate in God’s Holiness – and only insofar as we participate in God Himself.

This frightful arrogance that presumes to judge of itself and others – this audacity to impute holiness to oneself or to others as something commendatory – as though it were rigorously acquired and assimilated, much as we acquire and assimilate learning – as though it were possessed in part from a greater whole to which it either measurably contributes or from which it substantivally derives – this immense hubris goes beyond deception, and encroaches on something ancient and evil.

How often Jesus admonishes us not to judge! Of ourselves or others! Nor does He delimit the terms, confining them to pronouncements of perdition only. We have no credentials to judge whatever ... on any terms! Not concerning others. And not concerning ourselves. But most especially not concerning ourselves – and eminently concerning our own presumed holiness.

The Publican had it right. He had nothing and he knew it. The Pharisee judged both the publican and himself and found himself wrong before God on both counts. He thought he knew what was holy and believing himself to possess it, set the benchmark for sanctity before which the Publican fell woefully short ...

If it is your wish to make pronouncements on holiness then go to Him Alone Who Is Holy. But do not be hasty. Those eager to be magistrates in the Courts of the Almighty must themselves pass through the dock before they go to the bench ...

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¹ http://www.dioceseofraleigh.org/news/view.aspx?id=1289
“Pope Benedict XVI leads an interfaith peace meeting in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 27. Pictured, from left, are: Archbishop Norvan Zakarian of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Pope Benedict, Rabbi David Rosen, representing the chief rabbinate of Israel; Wande Abimbola, president of a Nigerian institute that promotes the study of the culture and traditional religion of the Yoruba people; and Shrivatsa Goswami, a Hindu delegate”.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/27/rainbow-religious-leaders-join-pope-for-peace/
“ASSISI, Italy (AP) – “Pope Benedict XVI joined Buddhist monks, Islamic scholars, Yoruba leaders and a handful of agnostics in making a communal call for peace Thursday, insisting that religion must never be used as a pretext for war or terrorism. Benedict welcomed some 300 leaders representing a rainbow of faiths to the hilltop Italian town of Assisi to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a daylong prayer for peace here called by Pope John Paul II in 1986 amid Cold War conflicts.

Standing on the altar of St. Mary of the Angels basilica, Wande Abimbola of Nigeria, representing Africa's traditional Yoruba religion, sang and shook a percussion instrument as he told the delegates that peace can only come with greater respect for indigenous religions.

“We must always remember that our own religion, along with the religions practiced by other people, are valid and precious in the eyes of the Almighty, who created all of us with such plural and different ways of life and belief systems,” he said.

http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/sant-egidio-founder-on-1986-assisi-meeting-of-religious-leaders
Blessed John Paul II, on the contrary, intuited the public force of religions, despite secularization. He knew that religions could be attractive to war-like passions. Worried about the cold war, he invited leaders of Christian religions and other world religions to Assisi.

____________________________

² St. Matthew 4.8; St. Mark 4.19; St. Luke 4.5, 12.30; St. John 7.7, 14.17, 15.19, 16.33, 17.9, 17.14, 17.16; Gal. 6.14; Colossians 2.8, 2.20; 2 St. Peter 1.4, 2.20; 1 St. John 2.15-17
³ I Cor. 11
⁴ Gal. 2.20

Editor
Boston Catholic Journal

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Comments? Write us: editor@boston-catholic-journal.com

It’s Snowing Babies!!

Why do we not hear this from every priest and in every parish?

“Salus Animarum”

the Salvation of Souls

Hell — from Dante's Inferno

Whatever became of this

most

Fundamental

Imperative

that is nothing less

than the very reason

CHRIST ESTABLISHED HIS CHURCH?

It is unlikely that the vast, indeed, the overwhelming majority of today’s Catholics have not so much as heard of this phrase as old as the Church itself; certainty, not in English — and with greater certainty still, not from the pulpit.

The very concept of “the salvation of the soul” appears to have been non grata in homiletics for quite nearly 60 years (corresponding, unsurprisingly, to the implementation of Vatican II) — despite the fact that the imperative itself is clearly and unambiguously codified as the supremus lex (the supreme law) of the Roman Catholic Church in (Canon Law 1752):

“Salus animarum supremus lex esto” — “the salvation of souls … must be the supreme law in the Church.”

It is nothing less than the sole reason for the Incarnation … the Suffering, Crucifixion, Death, and Resurrection … of Christ: the salvation of souls!

Christ as Savior, Christ as Redeemer, cannot be understood apart from this most fundamental and utterly simple concept: He came to save souls — not to heal bodies (although He did), not to rectify injustices, not to rehabilitate politics, not to instruct us on economics, and certainly not “save the Environment” — which, sadly, appear to be the principal if not the sole concerns of the present pontiff, who, sadly, is more an emissary of the United Nations and Globalist Ideology than the Vicar of Jesus Christ on Earth. Certainly an indifferentist (every religion is sufficient to salvation) and most definitely a heretic, he is nothing remotely proximate to his putative job description.

Jesus Christ, on the other hand, came with only two purposes that are really one:

To do the will of the Father
Which is: to save souls for all eternity in Heaven (and in so doing, to deliver them from Hell).

It is really that simple; in fact, so simple that it eludes us in our worldliness, in our pretensions to sophistication, and our penchant for sophistry and correctitude.

For 2000 years the mission of the Church (and its raison d’etre , the very reason for its being) could be summed up in two words instantiating that same beautiful simplicity: “Salus animarum — the Salvation of souls”. Through Christ in the Sacraments this is its sole mission.

No other Mandate

The Church has no other mandate from Christ. Even healing the sick, raising the dead, delivering men from demonic possession, and all that He taught in the Sermon on the Mount were means only to the principle end: the salvation of the soul. Christ Himself emphatically asks:

“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (St. Matthew 16.26).

The purpose of all that He said and did was always eschatological, that is to say, pertaining to the Four Last Things:

Death
Judgment
Heaven
Hell

Everything else pales in significance. Two come once only, and two are everlasting.

To pretend that we really do not fully understand what Christ was talking about, and which He proclaimed in the clearest terms, is just that: pretension. We know very well what Christ said and did — but to our own devious and often deviant ends, we assume an air of erudite perplexity concerning them:

“Despite what He appears to say; indeed actually says, this is what He really means …”

And our own interpretation only accords with what we wish He had said, for this would provide us with excuses for our sins or alternatives for His extremely unsettling pronouncements. We go from the reality of: “This is what Christ said …” to the fiction: “This is what we wish Christ had said” … because I am much more comfortable with this interpretation — which, rather coincidentally, allows me to continue in sin.” In short, it is nothing more than wishful thinking because they cannot be both true.

However contradictory to what Jesus and His Apostles really said and taught, we choose to believe another narrative, however factitious; a simulacrum that borrows the vocabulary of the real but with connotations utterly incongruous with it. It is disingenuous, a sham. There is a pathos of similitude but the depiction is counterfeit. We have not entered the mythical: we have fabricated it. Shamelessly. It pleases us … and this is the first clue that it is deceptive. We have both an aversion and an affinity for the truth. It is the patrimony of our broken heritage from the beginning. We ineluctably desire the true, but when it indicts us we demur from it; unable to accommodate both we resort to dissimilation, to a semblance of the real that is, despite our collusion with pretensions, a defection from it. Hence our penchant for comfortable and spurious “interpretations”.

For all our carefully fabricated allusions to what Christ really said and meant, we know the truth — because He is the Truth Who does not deceive nor can be deceived. We are not pleased with all He said, especially concerning things that frighten us because they describe us … and convict us — and we know it!

Despite this, we insist that so many vitally important things that Jesus clearly uttered are nevertheless not true — because they are not “inclusive” and do not accord with our delicate post-modern sensitivities that any real deity would surely ascribe to. That some, perhaps many, are left in “outer darkness", excluded from Heaven because of their depravity and perversion, their penchant for sin and their obstinate predilection for evil, is unacceptable to our presently enlightened humanity. The list of our objections would be too long to enumerate and ultimately too tedious. Let us be satisfied with a few:

The Short List:

Not everyone goes to Heaven (St. Matthew 7:14)
People — indeed, many people — go to Hell (St. Matthew 7:14)
Hell is a real place of punishment, torment, and eternal suffering beyond our comprehension. It is the abode of the devil and demons. It is eternal and eternally devoid of any hope. (St. Matthew 5.29-10; Luke 16:19-31, 13.42; 25.41; St. Mark 9:42-44 etc.)
No one “goes to the Father” — enters Heaven — except though Christ (St. John 14:6)
If you deny Him before men on earth, He will deny you before His Father in Heaven (St. Matthew 10:33)
Not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven (St. Matthew 7:21)
Not any and every religion will bring you to Heaven (St. John 6.26-70)
Being a “nice person” does not suffice to bring you to Heaven or exempt you from Hell (St. Matthew 5.20; St. Mark 16.15-16)

Such pernicious nonsense has no place in our mythologized concept of God. We will have Heaven … “dammit” ... but on our terms — despite what Jesus Christ says … much to our consternation, and quite likely to our damnation. We prefer other interpretations; more comfortable and convenient exegeses ... and sadly they abound.

Would that we had a Pontiff for whom the very concept of “The Salvation of Souls” was more than an antiquated and parenthetical aside — and who actually understood it as his fundamental job description. Jorge Bergoglio (Francis) will no doubt continue to sweep aside every obstacle to the “wide and easy”^* path he has chosen — but we must not follow him: we must follow Christ, even though the way to which He calls us is “narrow and hard”.^*It leads not to the hollow and funereal halls of the U.N. — but to Heaven itself!

Is there any other place that you would rather be ?

For my part, fool that I am, I will take Christ at His word. In fact, I stake my life on it.

_____________________________

^* Saint Matthew 7.13-14

Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal

February 10, 2021

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The Scandal of Nominal - “Catholics”

(whose mothers chose NOT to abort them):

The Scandal of Nominal - “Catholics” (whose mothers chose NOT to abort them)

More than half of U.S. Catholics find infanticide/murder acceptable

Vatican II:

the Great Apostasy

and

The Myth called Ecumenism

Speed Praying: Saying as much in as Little Time Possible

You have heard it at every Mass

Indeed, it is very likely that you do it yourself.

It is even more likely that you do it praying the Holy Rosary.

Let us take one very, very, common example: The Apostles Creed:

“I-believe-in-God-the-Father-Almighty-Creator-of-Heaven-and-earth-
and-in-Jesus Christ-His-only-Son-Our Lord-Who-was-conceived-by-
the-Holy-Spirit-born-of the-Virgin-Mary-suffered-under-Pontius-Pilate
-was-crucified-died-and-was-buried-He-descended-into-Hell-the-third-
day-He-rose-again-from-the-dead-He-ascended-into-Heaven-and-sitteth
-at-the-righ-hand-of-God-the-Father-almighty-from-thence-He-shall-
come-to-judge-the-living-and-the-dead-I-believe-in-the-Holy-Spirit-the-
holy-Catholic-Church-the-Communion-of-Saints-the-forgiveness-of-
sins-the-resurrection-of-the-body-and-life-everlasting-Amen.”

All spoken as one sentence as quickly as possible — to get through it.

Worse still is the prayer to the very Mother of God, Mary Most Holy, ESPECIALLY as it is “recited” — rather than “prayed” in that beautiful prayer called the Angelic Salutation, but better known simply as the Hail Mary:

“HailMaryfullofgracetheLordiswiththeeblessedartthouamongstwomen
andblessedisthefruitofthywombJesusHolyMaryMotherofGodprayforus
sinnersnowandatthehourofourdeathAmen.”

Within 14 seconds flat! … and ten times between each sacred Mystery!

REALLY?

When the Shepherd Strikes the Sheep

“It is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.” (Saint Matthew 26.31)

“I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.”¹ We have often heard this. It pertains to the imminent Passion of Jesus Christ on the very night before He was betrayed into the hands of sinful men. He, the Good Shepherd, would be struck (in fact, repeatedly ...) and the Apostles, the Disciples, and the Faithful would be scattered — they would abandon Him, flee for their lives, and their unity in Him would be broken. Their Shepherd, in Whose fold they were one flock, had been struck! What the will become of the sheep? How much anxiety rends them!

But now, in some incomprehensible and ghastly apocalyptic narrative unfolding before our very eyes, the shepherd himself strikes the sheep — and they are scattered! Unfaithful to his trust and careless of the sheep entrusted to him, the shepherd not only abandons them to the wolves who have prowled the fences for 500 years … but he himself strikes them so that they are forced to leave the sheepfold; with his staff he strikes the necks and the backs of the defenseless sheep — not even sparing the Little Lambs — who cry out in their pain as they flee, seeking a fold where they will find pasture and protection. They are confused and frightened, and no other shepherd seems to have the courage to gather the lost and the scattered — not one other shepherd! Homeless and shelterless they are prey to wolves — wolves even more remorseless than the wolves who drove them from the sheepfold.

The REAL Goal

of the LGBT Movement is DIABOLICAL:

Why?

Just as Satan cannot create, but only mimic, imitate, in the LGBT Movement we find his (Satan’s) effort to contrive a spurious — a completely counterfeit and totally perverse mockery — of the genuine family. It is a diabolical attempt to pass off what is a fiction for what is real — with the willing collaboration of a profoundly sexually and militantly perverse community.

But there is an impediment to this epic exploit in Western culture as it devolves into de-civilization and debauchery: the family.

As long as the nuclear family of husband, wife and children still remains intact, it is an indictment of the sterile sexual perversity that the LGBT fascists embrace and promote. It stands as an unassailable reproach to the counterfeit, for it is genuinely procreative and naturally perpetuates itself — as every other species has from the dawn of creation.

The Face

And the Offspring

of Vatican II

Look carefully at this emblematic vision of Vatican II in the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall.
It is, for want of any other aesthetic description, demonic and blasphemous, hideous and frightening — a sign of times to come — that are now here.

60 Years After its Defection from Catholicism

and its Conversion to the World

Hideous — is it not?

It has not changed much — apart from its growing defection from what the Holy Catholic Church taught for 2000 years before that most pernicious council.

It is increasingly elderly, gray, and disheveled. Its children — fewer and fewer every year — are largely the children of the world, checking off the boxes branded on their young minds by a perverse generation that has lost its Catholic Faith and Identity: for Abortion (yes), Homosexuality (yes), Lesbianism (yes), Transgenderism (yes), Gender Identity Choices (yes), Gender Re-assignment (yes), Euthanasia (yes), Cremation (yes), Pre-Marital Sex (yes), Co-Habitation (yes), “Social Justice” Issues (yes!) — the proper formation of a Catholic Conscience (NO!), Chastity (NO!) Virginity until Marriage (NO!) Sanctity (NO), learning the most fundamental aspects of the Catholic Religion into which they were summarily Baptized (NO!) the Priesthood (NO!), Religious Life (NO!) — Missionary zeal and the conversion of sinners and those who do not know Christ — which Francis (perhaps heretically) calls “solemn nonsense.” (NO!) When they look about them at their fellow “Catholics” and” Priests”, “Nuns” and “Religious” — even the papacy of Francis and the current Episcopacy (bishops and cardinals) — who can blame them? The Faith is not even authentically lived out by the highest prelates — and sadly enough by Francis himself who gives scandal on a routine basis.

Martyrology for Today

PV2 = Enrolled prior to Vatican II and deleted after Vatican II

ROMAN MARTYROLOGY

Wednesday March 3rd In the Year of Grace 2021

Season of Lent

This Day, the Third Day of March

At Caesarea, in Palestine, during the persecution of Valerian, the holy martyrs Marinus, soldier, and Asterius, senator. The former was examined by the judge on the charge laid against him by his fellow-soldiers of being a Christian, and as he admitted the accusation in no uncertain tone, he was beheaded and thus received the crown of martyrdom. His mutilated body was taken up by Asterius on his shoulders, and wrapped in the garment which he himself wore. This service gained for Asterius immediately the palm of martyrdom as a reward for the honors which he had given to a martyr.

In Spain, the birthday of the holy martyrs Hermiterius and Cheledonius, soldiers in the army at Leon, a city of Galicia. On the approach of a persecution they went to Calahorra, in order to confess the name of Christ, and after enduring many torments there, they were crowned with martyrdom.

The same day, the passion of the Saints Felix, Luciolus, Fortunatus, Marcia, and their companions.

Also, the holy soldiers Cleonicus, Eutropius, and Basiliscus, who gloriously triumphed by the death of the cross under the governor Asclepiades during the persecution of Maximian.

At Brescia, St.Titian, bishop and confessor.

At Bamberg, the empress St. Cunegundes, who preserved her virginity with the consent of her husband, the emperor Henry I. She terminated a life rich in meritorious good deeds with a holy death and worked many miracles afterward.

And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.

Omnes sancti Mártyres, oráte pro nobis. ("All ye Holy Martyrs, pray for us", from the Litaniae Sanctorum, the Litany of the Saints)

Response: Thanks be to God.

Roman Martyrology by Month

January	February	March	April	May	June
July	August	September	October	November	December

New: the Roman Martyrology can now be downloaded entirely as either a PDF file or as a Microsoft Word File

Why the Martyrs Matter

Each day we bring you a calendar, a list really, of the holy Martyrs who had suffered and died for Christ, for His Bride the Church, and for our holy Catholic Faith; men and women for whom — and well they knew — their Profession of Faith would cost them their lives.

They could have repudiated all three (Christ, Church, and Catholic Faith) and kept their lives for a short time longer (even the lapsi only postponed their death — and at so great a cost!).¹

What would motivate men, women, even children and entire families to willingly undergo the most evil and painfully devised tortures; to suffer death rather than denial?

Why did they not renounce their Catholic Faith when the first flame licked at their feet, after the first eye was plucked out, or after they were “baptized” in mockery by boiling water or molten lead poured over their heads? Why did they not flee to offer incense to the pagan gods since such a ritual concession would be merely perfunctory, having been done, after all, under duress, exacted by the compulsion of the state? What is a little burned incense and a few words uttered without conviction, compared to your own life and the lives of those you love? Surely God knows that you are merely placating the state with empty gestures …

Did they love their wives, husbands, children — their mothers, fathers and friends less than we do? Did they value their own lives less? Were they less sensitive to pain than we are? In a word, what did they possess that we do not?

Nothing. They possessed what we ourselves are given in the Sacrament of Confirmation — but cleaved to it in far greater measure than we do: Faith and faithfulness; fortitude and valor, uncompromising belief in the invincible reality of God, of life eternal in Him for the faithful, of damnation everlasting apart from Him for the unfaithful; of the ephemerality of this passing world and all within it, and lives lived in total accord with that adamant belief.

We are the Martyrs to come. What made them so will make us so. What they suffered we will suffer. What they died for, we will die for. If only we will! For most us, life will be a bloodless martyrdom, a suffering for Christ, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the Church in a thousand ways outside the arena. The road to Heaven is lined on both sides with Crosses, and upon the Crosses people, people who suffered unknown to the world, but known to God. Catholics living in partibus infidelium, under the scourge of Islam. Loveless marriages. Injustices on all sides. Poverty. Illness. Old age. Dependency. They are the cruciform! Those whose lives became Crosses because they would not flee God, the Church, the call to, the demand for, holiness in the most ordinary things of life made extraordinary through the grace of God. The Martyrology we celebrate each day is just a vignette, a small, immeasurably small, sampling of the martyrdom that has been the lives of countless men and women whom Christ and the Angels know, but whom the world does not know.

“Exemplum enim dedi vobis”, Christ said to His Apostles: “I have given you an example.” And His Martyrs give one to us — and that is why the Martyrs matter.

Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Boston Catholic Journal

Note: We suggest that you explore our newly edited and revised “De SS. Martyrum Cruciatibus — The Torments and Tortures of the Christian Martyrs” for an in-depth historical account of the sufferings of the Martyrs.

INTRODUCTION TO THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY

By J. Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop Baltimore

THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY is an official and accredited record, on the pages of which are set forth in simple and brief, but impressive words, the glorious deeds of the Soldiers of Christ in all ages of the Church; of the illustrious Heroes and Heroines of the Cross, whom her solemn verdict has beatified or canonized. In making up this long roll of honor, the Church has been actuated by that instinctive wisdom with which the Spirit of God, who abides in her and teaches her all truth, has endowed her, and which permeates through and guides all her actions. She is the Spouse of Christ, without spot or wrinkle or blemish, wholly glorious and undefiled, whom He loved, for whom He died, and to whom He promised the Spirit of Truth, to comfort her in her dreary pilgrimage through this valley of tears, and to abide with her forever. She is one with Him in Spirit and in love, she is subject to Him in all things; she loves what He loves, she teaches and practices what He commands.

If the world has its “Legions of Honor”, why should not also the Church of the Living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth? If men who have been stained with blood, and women who have been tainted with vice, have had their memory consecrated in prose and in verse, and monuments erected to their memory, because they exhibited extraordinary talents, achieved great success, or were, to a greater or less extent, benefactors of their race in the temporal order, which passeth away, why should not the true Heroes and Heroines of Jesus, who, imitating His example, have overcome themselves, risen superior to and trampled upon the world, have aspired, in all their thoughts, words, and actions, to a heavenly crown, and have moreover labored with disinterested zeal and self-forgetting love for the good of their fellow-men, have their memories likewise consecrated and embalmed in the minds and hearts of the people of God? If time have its heroes, why should not eternity; if man, why should not God? “Thy friends, O Lord, are exceedingly honored; their principality is exceedingly exalted.” Whom His Father so dearly loved, the world crucified; whom the world neglects, despises, and crucifies, God, through His Church, exceedingly honors and exalts. Their praises are sung forth, with jubilation of heart, in the Church of God for ages on ages.

The wisdom of the Church of God in honoring her Saints is equaled only by the great utility of the practice thus consecrated. The Saints are not merely heroes; they are models. Christ lived in them, and Christ yet speaks through them. They were the living temples of the Holy Ghost, in whose mortal bodies dwelt all the riches of His wisdom and grace. They were in life consecrated human exemplars of divine excellence and perfection. Their example still appeals to our minds and to our hearts, more eloquently even than did their words to the men of their own generation, while they were in the tabernacle of the flesh. Though dead, they still speak. Their relics are instinct with sanctity, and through them they continue to breathe forth the sweet odor of Christ. The immortality into which they have entered still lingers in their bones, and seems to breathe in their mortal remains. As many an ardent spirit has been induced to rush to the cannon's mouth by reading the exploits of earthly heroes, so many a generous Christian soul has been fired with heavenly ardor, and been impelled to rush to the crown of martyrdom, by reading the lives and heroic achievements of the Saints and Martyrs of Christ. Example, in its silent appeal, is more potent in its influence on the human heart and conduct than are words in their most eloquent utterances.

The Church knows and feels all this, in the Spirit of God with whom she is replenished; and hence she sets forth, with holy joy and exultant hope, her bright and ever-increasing Calendar of Sanctity of just men and women made perfect and rendered glorious, under her unearthly and sublime teachings. In reading this roll of consecrated holiness, our instinctive conclusion is, precisely that which the great soul of St. Augustine reached at the very crisis of his life, the moment of his conversion “If other men like me have attained to such sanctity, why not I? Shall the poor, the afflicted, the despised of the World, bear away the palm of victory, the crown of immortality, while I lie buried in my sloth and dead in my sins, and thus lose the brilliant and glorious mansion already prepared for me in Heaven? Shall all the gifts, which God has lavished upon me, be ingloriously spent and foolishly wasted, in the petty contest for this world's evanescent honors and riches, while the poor and contemned lay up treasures in Heaven, and secure the prize of immortal glory? Shall others be the friends of God, whom He delights to honor, while I alone remain His enemy, and an alien from His blessed Kingdom?”

It is a consoling evidence of progress in the spiritual life in this country to find the Martyrology here published, for the first time, in English, and thereby made accessible, in its rich treasures of Sanctity, to all classes of our population. It will prove highly edifying and useful, not only to the members of our numerous religious Communities of both sexes, but also to the laity generally. Every day has here its record of Sanctity; and there is scarcely a Christian, no matter how lowly or how much occupied, who may not be able to daily peruse, with faith and with great profit, the brief page of each day's models of Holiness. These belong to all classes and callings of life; from the throne to the hovel, from the Pontiff to the lowest cleric, from the philosopher to the peasant, from the busy walks of life to the dreary wastes of the desert.

Let all, then, procure and read daily the appropriate portions of this Martyrology. Its daily and pious perusal will console us in affliction, will animate us in despondency, will make our souls glow with the love of God in coldness, and will lift up our minds and hearts from this dull and ever-changing earth to the bright and everlasting mansions prepared for us in Heaven!

Imprimatur, J. Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop Baltimore, Maryland 1916
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THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION

“QUO PRIMUM ”

(and what “Forever” really means)

Pope Pius V Catechism of Trent

“From the very first, upon Our elevation to the chief Apostleship, We gladly turned our mind and energies and directed all out thoughts to those matters which concerned the preservation of a pure liturgy, and We strove with God's help, by every means in our power, to accomplish this purpose. For, besides other decrees of the sacred Council of Trent, there were stipulations for Us to revise and re-edit the sacred books: the Catechism, the Missal and the Breviary. With the Catechism published for the instruction of the faithful, by God's help, and the Breviary thoroughly revised for the worthy praise of God, in order that the Missal and Breviary may be in perfect harmony, as fitting and proper — for it is most becoming that there be in the Church only one appropriate manner of reciting the Psalms and only one rite for the celebration of Mass — We deemed it necessary to give our immediate attention to what still remained to be done, viz, the re-editing of the Missal as soon as possible.

Hence, We decided to entrust this work to learned men of our selection. They very carefully collated all their work with the ancient codices in Our Vatican Library and with reliable, preserved or emended codices from elsewhere. Besides this, these men consulted the works of ancient and approved authors concerning the same sacred rites; and thus they have restored the Missal itself to the original form and rite of the holy Fathers. When this work has been gone over numerous times and further emended, after serious study and reflection, We commanded that the finished product be printed and published as soon as possible, so that all might enjoy the fruits of this labor; and thus, priests would know which prayers to use and which rites and ceremonies they were required to observe from now on in the celebration of Masses.

Let all everywhere adopt and observe what has been handed down by the Holy Roman Church, the Mother and Teacher of the other churches, and let Masses not be sung or read according to any other formula than that of this Missal published by Us. This ordinance applies henceforth, now, and forever, throughout all the provinces of the Christian world, to all patriarchs, cathedral churches, collegiate and parish churches, be they secular or religious, both of men and of women — even of military orders — and of churches or chapels without a specific congregation in which conventual Masses are sung aloud in choir or read privately in accord with the rites and customs of the Roman Church. This Missal is to be used by all churches, even by those which in their authorization are made exempt, whether by Apostolic indult, custom, or privilege, or even if by oath or official confirmation of the Holy See, or have their rights and faculties guaranteed to them by any other manner whatsoever.

This new rite alone is to be used unless approval of the practice of saying Mass differently was given at the very time of the institution and confirmation of the church by Apostolic See at least 200 years ago, or unless there has prevailed a custom of a similar kind which has been continuously followed for a period of not less than 200 years, in which most cases We in no wise rescind their above-mentioned prerogative or custom. However, if this Missal, which we have seen fit to publish, be more agreeable to these latter, We grant them permission to celebrate Mass according to its rite, provided they have the consent of their bishop or prelate or of their whole Chapter, everything else to the contrary notwithstanding.

All other of the churches referred to above, however, are hereby denied the use of other missals, which are to be discontinued entirely and absolutely; whereas, by this present Constitution, which will be valid henceforth, now, and forever, We order and enjoin that nothing must be added to Our recently published Missal, nothing omitted from it, nor anything whatsoever be changed within it under the penalty of Our displeasure.

We specifically command each and every patriarch, administrator, and all other persons or whatever ecclesiastical dignity they may be, be they even cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, or possessed of any other rank or pre-eminence, and We order them in virtue of holy obedience to chant or to read the Mass according to the rite and manner and norm herewith laid down by Us and, hereafter, to discontinue and completely discard all other rubrics and rites of other missals, however ancient, which they have customarily followed; and they must not in celebrating Mass presume to introduce any ceremonies or recite any prayers other than those contained in this Missal.

Furthermore, by these presents [this law], in virtue of Our Apostolic authority, We grant and concede in perpetuity that, for the chanting or reading of the Mass in any church whatsoever, this Missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used. Nor are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare and ordain that no one whosoever is forced or coerced to alter this Missal, and that this present document cannot be revoked or modified, but remains always valid and retain its full force notwithstanding the previous constitutions and decrees of the Holy See, as well as any general or special constitutions or edicts of provincial or synodal councils, and notwithstanding the practice and custom of the aforesaid churches, established by long and immemorial prescription — except, however, if more than two hundred years’ standing.

It is Our will, therefore, and by the same authority, We decree that, after We publish this constitution and the edition of the Missal, the priests of the Roman Curia are, after thirty days, obliged to chant or read the Mass according to it; all others south of the Alps, after three months; and those beyond the Alps either within six months or whenever the Missal is available for sale. Wherefore, in order that the Missal be preserved incorrupt throughout the whole world and kept free of flaws and errors, the penalty for nonobservance for printers, whether mediately or immediately subject to Our dominion, and that of the Holy Roman Church, will be the forfeiting of their books and a fine of one hundred gold ducats, payable ipso facto to the Apostolic Treasury. Further, as for those located in other parts of the world, the penalty is excommunication latae sententiae, and such other penalties as may in Our judgment be imposed; and We decree by this law that they must not dare or presume either to print or to publish or to sell, or in any way to accept books of this nature without Our approval and consent, or without the express consent of the Apostolic Commissaries of those places, who will be appointed by Us. Said printer must receive a standard Missal and agree faithfully with it and in no wise vary from the Roman Missal of the large type (secundum magnum impressionem).

Accordingly, since it would be difficult for this present pronouncement to be sent to all parts of the Christian world and simultaneously come to light everywhere, We direct that it be, as usual, posted and published at the doors of the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles, also at the Apostolic Chancery, and on the street at Campo Flora; furthermore, We direct that printed copies of this same edict signed by a notary public and made official by an ecclesiastical dignitary possess the same indubitable validity everywhere and in every nation, as if Our manuscript were shown there. Therefore, no one whosoever is permitted to alter this notice of Our permission, statute, ordinance, command, precept, grant, indult, declaration, will, decree, and prohibition. Should anyone dare to contravene it, know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.”

Given at St. Peter’s in the year of the Lord's Incarnation, 1570, on the 14th of July of the Fifth year of Our Pontificate.

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