One may say, "Francis. Why are you picking on the Episcopal Church?" Well, Francis is not picking on the Epicopal Church. The Episcopal Church has done what many of the liberal, Catholic groups want to occur within the Catholic Church:
- Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church (ARCC)
- Call To Action
- Catholics For A Free Choice
- Catholics for the Spirit of Vatican II
- Catholics Speak Out
- FutureChurch
- Save Our Sacrament (SOS):
- Reform of Annulment & Respondent Support
- Spiritus Christi
- Women's Ordination Conference
- We Are Church
- The Church from Below Initiative
Another is that it is easier to find on the internet due to the occurances of the recent past, whereas if you perform a search with the word "Catholic" in it, you will be at the computer from now until dooms day sorting through the garbage.
What started this issue of "Catholics in the Know" stemmed from a conversation with a co-worker. In conversation, I found out that she was an obedient Episcopal. I mentioned the name, Bishop Spong" and her eyes rolled up to the back of her head and she started shaking her head indicating total disapprovement. I mentioned the 12 thesis of Bishop Spong and asked was he the source of the issues in their church today. She said, "NO. It began with 'PIKE'" "Bishop James Pike was the source of the dissent, and the snowball started rolling.", she said. So I did a search on "Bishop Pike" and variations thereof, and had to wade through through the praise of him, and through the many personal web pages. I tried to stay with mainstream sites. The consistent theme found was Arianism, Pelagianism, Rationalism, Nestorianism, Theological Liberalism, Modernism, and Americanism. Where are the teachings of the early church fathers; or are they just a forgotten mote in the eye of time?
"This secularist world view stands in stark opposition to the Catholic world view of what constitutes human freedom. Catholic Christianity strongly asserts that true human freedom doesn't reside in doing anything we want, any time we want to do it, but rather in the free human choice of moral truths, community values, religious faith and social obligation. These humane and communal loyalties are derived from a whole network of religious commitments, political tradition, shared friendships and family ties."
Secularist World View
- Fuller Seminary ? Exhibit A
- Episcopal Justice and Mr. Spong: There IS a Way!
- Fifty Years Of Anglican Liberalism
- Rationalism, or the Rejection of the Principle of Authority, the Heresy of Modern Times
- Father John Hardon The Crisis of Faith
Closing prayer by Father Hardon
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you foretold that your Church would suffer opposition and persecution, even as you did. You declared that, so far from being anxious or worried, we should actually rejoice when the world hates us and says all manner of evil against us, for your Name. Give us the courage we need to resist the onslaught of seductive untruth. Above all, give us the confidence to realize that the trials of this life are a prelude to the glory that waits us, provided we have remained unshaken in our allegiance to you and your spouse, the Holy Catholic Church, of which you are the Teacher and the Guide. Amen.
The first six links are about the same story. Each is the same, but different. Note the same facts, and then note the differences. Compile the likes and the differences and then you will have a more complete picture, but whether or not it is the complete truth, that will have to wait until more information presents itself. Your mission, if you accept it is to do this.
From the Star Trek movie: The Wrath of Kahn, the starship enterprise finds herself in a delicate position. The stardrive engines are off line and someone has to get the engines back online to save the lives of the crew. Logically, it would be Mr. Spock. He entires the chamber with absolute minimal protection and proceeds to do what today is unthought of.
As Spock is dying and blind, from the effects of the radiation, fighting the effects of the deadly radiation Spock rasps, "It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." KIrk retorts, "finishing the statement for his friend, "Or the one." Is this same logic not present in GOD's Holy Word? Take Mark 10, verse 45, "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
What is unique of this is that in a politically correct, misguided society, Spock's statement is now spoken as, "It is illogical, the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the few, or the many." What of Isaiah 53, the suffering servant: theme?
Isaiah 53
- 1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
- 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
- 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
- 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
- 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
- 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
- 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
- 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
- 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
- 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
- 12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
- Vatican Aghast at School Crucifix Ruling
- But the cross as a sign of salvation we will not let them take
- Storm of Debate and recrimination in Italy.
- President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi...the cross represents Italian values.
- Vatican rips removal of cross from school
- Vatican criticizes crucifix removal
More examples of the needs of the few outweighing the needs of the many:
- America is Deceived About Islam
- UNICEF was founded in 1946 to help starving children after World War II. Over the past couple of decades, UNICEF has changed direction promoting population control and children’s sexual and reproductive rights (read that abortion and contraception), including promotion of so-called emergency contraception (early abortion) for adolescents and children as young as 10 years of age.
- Men Praying the Rosary Attacked
Some good news
A Prayer to Redeem Lost Time, by St. Teresa of Avila
O my God! Source of all mercy! I acknowledge Your sovereign power. While recalling the wasted years that are past, I believe that You, Lord, can in an instant turn this loss to gain. Miserable as I am, yet I firmly believe that You can do all things. Please restore to me the time lost, giving me Your grace, both now and in the future, that I may appear before You in "wedding garments." Amen.
Well, it is slowly turning into Fall here in the Ozarks of North - Central Arkansas. The forecast for tonight is Mostly clear. Patchy frost. Lows in the mid 30s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.
The bird feeders are becoming ignored; the humming bird feeder will be cleansed and put up for next year. The Red Bud and Walnut trees have no leaves; the Maples have and are turning; the Oaks are beginning to turn and there will be one more grass cutting before putting all the gardening and lawn tools to rest.
God grants our lands a jubilee every year to rest and replenish, but the World denies his wisdom; the world denies his paternal love for his children.
The following articles are links to news items that will make you sad, sick, and open your eyes, and to create the will to stand up and speak the truth. Speak the truth that the Holy Word of GOD commands us to.
Too often, many of us have the incorrect understanding of judgment. As Christians, we are commanded to make a judgment of an action if it goes contrary to law of GOD. Judging The act of judging; the operation of the mind, involving comparison and discrimination, by which a knowledge of the values and relations of thins, whether of moral qualities, intellectual concepts, logical propositions, or material facts, is obtained; as, by careful judgment he avoided the peril; by a series of wrong judgments he forfeited confidence. What does the Catechism of the Catholic Churchsay of this, in comparison to the previous secular meaning?
- III. TO CHOOSE IN ACCORD WITH CONSCIENCE
- 1786 Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an erroneous judgment that departs from them.
- 1787 Man is sometimes confronted by situations that make moral judgments less assured and decision difficult. But he must always seriously seek what is right and good and discern the will of God expressed in divine law.
- 1788 To this purpose, man strives to interpret the data of experience and the signs of the times assisted by the virtue of prudence, by the advice of competent people, and by the help of the Holy Spirit and his gifts.
- 1789 Some rules apply in every case:
- - One may never do evil so that good may result from it;
- - the Golden Rule: "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them."56
- - charity always proceeds by way of respect for one's neighbor and his conscience: "Thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience . . . you sin against Christ."57 Therefore "it is right not to . . . do anything that makes your brother stumble."58
- 1787 Man is sometimes confronted by situations that make moral judgments less assured and decision difficult. But he must always seriously seek what is right and good and discern the will of God expressed in divine law.
- IV. ERRONEOUS JUDGMENT
- 1790 A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.
- 1791 This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin."59 In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.
- 1792 Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church's authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment in moral conduct.
- 1793 If - on the contrary - the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience.
- 1794 A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for charity proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith."60
- 1791 This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin."59 In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.
None here are listed to stir up anger and hate. Peter Kreeft's explanation of hate, in Christian terms, is the best,
From Chapter Ten of "Back to Virtue" "The emotion of anger is made the sin of anger by the involvement of the will and it must be wrong, irrational and too strong for the occaision or the person we are angry at..." "Anger becomes a mortal sin if through the fierceness of his anger a man fall away from the love of GOD and his neighbor'(Aquinas)...""Satan is pure hatred, as GOD is pure love.'(Aquinas)...hatred wills evil to its object, while anger sometimes wills good." "Hatred,...it is not the source of further sins because it is as bad as you can get; it is the last stage of sin, the satanic stage." --"Hatred's completest expression is "Damn You!"
Hate Raymond A. Franklin, author of The Hate Directory, focuses on groups that "advocate violence against, separation from, defamation of, deception about, or hostility towards others based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation."
Webster 1913 Hate, n. [OE. hate, hete, AS. hete; akin to D. haat, G. hass, Icel. hatr, SW. hat, Dan. had, Goth. hatis. Cf. Hate, v.] Strong aversion coupled with desire that evil should befall the person toward whom the feeling is directed; as exercised toward things, intense dislike; hatred; detestation; -- opposed to love.
Whenever I use a word definition, I try to use the early 20th century definitions, for they have not changed. Too many times the word hate is used in error. when the user is actually trying to express this, "1. To shrink back with shuddering from; to regard with horror or detestation; to feel excessive repugnance toward; to detest to extremity; to loathe., " which is the verb abhor.
- Chief Justice Scalia Ridicules Court's Gay Sex Ruling
- ParishCelebrating Halloween During Mass
- Schindler Family Statement In Response To Michael Schiavo Statement
- Knights of Columbus Criticized For Inviting Area Congresswoman
- Fatah GangsVow to Kill Palestinians Selling Land to Jews
- Afghans Aim to 'banish the gun'
- Artificial Blood
- Crime StatisticsFall in Iraq
- Secularism Challenges Church in England and Wales, John Paul II Says
- Catholic bishops of Massachusetts
- Arab Christian Shares Perspective on Islamic Threat to America
A Father's Prayers of Petition
As the guardian of my family, that I constantly instill Catholic values, I pray to the Lord.
When I am discouraged and weary, give me the grace to be strong, I pray to the Lord.
To be a source of patience, understanding and love to my family, I pray to the Lord.
To teach my children always to do Your will, using the Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph as examples, I pray to the Lord.
Help me willingly and joyfully to accept the sacrifices I must make for the common good of my family, I pray to the Lord.
Help me to instill in my children a love for Jesus and His Church so that they will be witness to others, I pray to the Lord.
AMEN
Fifth Centenary Prayer
Your Word of Life, O God, reached these lands five centuries ago, and calls us still to proclaim the saving message of Christ. We pray today for a dawn of a new evangelization in these lands. Send us out to draw others to You, into your peace, into the Church, into lives dedicated to the Gospel. As people of many cultures and races, may our voices speak together of hope and welcome to all. May our hands lift high the torch of new life and solidarity. May our hearts years for justice and truth. Renew in us the courage and strength to reach out to the neediest in our midst. United in faith and prayer, with Mary, Virgin Mother of the Americas, keep us ever steadfast in your love as we strive for your vision of a world renewed. We ask this through Christ, Our Lord.
Amen.
Glorious Saint Michael, guardian and defender of the Church of Jesus Christ, come to the assistance of His followers, against whom the powers of hell are unchained. Guard with special care our Holy Father, the Pope, and our bishops, priests, all our religious and lay people, and especially the children.
Saint Michael, watch over us during life, defend us against the assaults of the demon, and assist us especially at the hour of death. Help us achieve the happiness of beholding God face to face for all eternity. Amen.
- By Freely Choosing Priestly Celibacy
- Misericordias Domini In Aeternum Cantabo
- A Witch Comes to Christ
- A Bishop Is Neither an Organizer Nor a Bureaucra
- Gay Canon Feels 'God Approved' Promotion
God therefore allowed them to go their own way, until they ended up as victims of their own dishonourable passions. Their women substituted unnatural intercourse with each other for natural intercourse with men. In the same way, men abandoned natural intercourse with women, and were inflamed with passion for each other. Men perpetrated shameless things with men, and brought on themselves the inevitable consequences which such misguided conduct was bound to bring. - Romans 1:26-27
"Woe to those who call evil 'good' and good 'evil'." - Isaiah 5: 20
- quote from, "A Call for a New Reformation"
- Theism, as a way of defining God, is dead. So most theological God-talk is today meaningless. A new way to speak of God must be found.
- Since God can no longer be conceived in theistic terms, it becomes nonsensical to seek to understand Jesus as the incarnation of the theistic deity. So the Christology of the ages is bankrupt.
- 3. The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell into sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense.
- 4. The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ's divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible.
- The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity.
- The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is abarbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.
- Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history.
- The story of the Ascension assumed a three-tiered universe and is therefore not capable of being translated into the concepts of a post-Copernican space age.
- There is no external, objective, revealed standard writ in scripture or on tablets of stone that will govern our ethical behavior for all time.
- Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way.
- The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior.
- All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one's being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.
So I set these theses today before the Christian world and I stand ready to debate each of them as we prepare to enter the third millennium. - 15 June 1998; The Rt. Reverend John S. Spong, Bishop of Newark
Please go here, "Terri Schindler-Schiavo".
Again you will read me stressing OBEDIENCE. As Christians it is of prime importance, "What destroys obedience? Look at the first man and you will see the cause which destroyed the obedience imposed on him by Me, the Eternal Father. It was pride..." St Catherine of Siena
THE CONCEPTS OF "I AM CHURCH", "I AM MY OWN MINISTER", "I DO NOT NEED ANYONE TO TELL ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE.", "I DO NOT NEED TO GO TO CHURCH, I CAN GO TO CHURCH BY STEPPING OUT INTO MY BACKYARD, AS GOD IS EVERYWHERE." LEAD TO ERROR AS WE ARE NOT COMMUNING WITH GOD ON HIS TERMS, WE ARE TRYING TO FORCE GOD TO COMMUNE WITH US ON OUR TERMS, ERGO, PRIDE.
- The Theology of Kneeling
- Global survey reveals religion a bigger priority than politics
- Denied Last Rites
- Cremated on Husband's Orders
- A TREATISE OF OBEDIENCE
Parting thoughts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
154 Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to "yield by faith the full submission of. . . intellect and will to God who reveals", and to share in an interior communion with him.
155 In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace."
Eternal Father, I desire to rest in Your Heart this night. I make the intention of offering to Thee every beat of my heart, joining to them as many acts of love and desire. I pray that even while I am asleep, I will bring back to Thee the souls that offend Thee. I ask forgiveness for the whole world, especially for those who know You and yet sin. I offer Thee my every breath and heart beat as a prayer of reparation. Amen. Attributed to St. Josefa Menendez
Say one "Our Father"
Say one Hail Mary"
Say one "Glory Be"
Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel, by Pope Leo XIII
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray.
And do you, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen
Nowdays if a Church takes a moral stand or a social justice stand, not a politically correct stand or a secular humanist stand, the jouranlists involved are like a snapping turtle (not letting go until they hear a thunder clap). They go on, and on, and on, ad infintum. I would like to quote the last paragraph of the article of the first link,
"The dishonesty, hypocrisy and arrogance that is prevalent throughout America's news media poses a serious danger to our country's future. A nation like ours needs a free press that is willing and able to present its citizens with an honest and unbiased picture of the world around it. There is no way that today's American news media, which is so dishonest, hypocritical and arrogant, can fulfill that role."
1. What's Wrong With The American News Media?
Article Two is about marriage as GOD ordained. Someone may say this is biased, and it is; biased to the truth. Again, let me quote the closing, summation paragraph,
"As long as they are living apart from God's laws, people will always feel threatened by, and try to extinguish, everything that reminds them of their sins. And there is no more spiritual, wholesome and ennobling – and therefore threatening – institution on the face of the earth than marriage.
2. Marriages made in heaven – and in hell
Article Three is about Christianity being treated as a cancer.
"Editor's Note:..."Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity," the latest book by the author of "Absolute Power." David Limbaugh exposes the farce of leftist "tolerance" and reveals the true agenda of "liberals" who abuse the law to force Christianity out of the public square..."
3. Limbaugh: Leftists Treat Christianity as 'Cancer'
Article Four, well make your own decision.
4. Catholic prep school alumni hosts pro-abortion candidate fundraiser
Let me close with two quotes;
"A saint is a sworn enemy of the world, the flesh and the devil. He is locked in mortal combat with principalities and powers. A saint is also a friend and lover of the world. He kisses this sin-cancered world with the tender lips of the God of John 3:16. A saint declares God’s war on this world, sinking the cross into the enemy occupied earth like a sword, the hilt held by heaven. At the same time he stretches his arms out on that very cross as if to say, “See? This is how wide my love is for you!” --Peter Kreeft
""In realms above it may be otherwise, but here below, to live is to change and to be perfect is to change often."--John Cardinal Henry Newman."
Closing Prayer:
WE give Thee thanks, O most merciful Lord and Redeemer of our souls, for this day Thou hast made us worthy by means of these immortal and heavenly mysteries. Direct our way; keep us in fear of Thee; guard our lives; and make our steps firm through the prayers and intercessions of the glorious and holy Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary. Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and above all the earth, Thy glory, now and forever and ever. Amen.
