Vatican denies Pope Francis is suffering from a brain tumor!

Vatican denies Pope Francis is suffering from a brain tumor after Italian newspaper claims doctors had found ‘a dark small spot’ on a scan!

• Italian paper claims Pope Francis has been diagnosed with a brain tumor

• It was reported the small dark spot could be cured without surgery

• But the Vatican has refuted the report as ‘unfounded’ and ‘irresponsible’

The Vatican has denied claims Pope Francis is suffering from a small but curable brain tumour after a doctor found a ‘dark spot’.

It was claimed the pope had recently travelled secretly by helicopter to the San Rossore di Barbaricina clinic, in Tuscany, to visit Japanese specialist Dr Takanori Fukushima.

There the doctor determined the small dark spot on Francis’s brain could be cured without surgery, Quotidiano Nazionale reported.

An Italian newspaper has claimed Pope Francis has a small but curable tumour on his brain

However, the Vatican has moved quickly to refute the claims, labeling them ‘unfounded and seriously irresponsible’.

The Reverend Federico Lombardi said the pope ‘is carrying out as always with his intense activities’.

The newspaper’s editor, Andrea Cangini, said it expected the denial but stood by its story.

Fears for the health of Pope Francis resurfaced several months ago when he told parishioners that he is ‘a bit old and a bit sick’.

During a visit to the seaside town of Ostia in May, the pope asked a group of elderly and disabled people to pray for him, warning that he was also suffering from heath problems.

He said: ‘I thank God that in this community the old and the ill are cared for. When the old and ill are not looked after there something wrong with the community.’

He added: ‘I ask you to pray for me – I am a bit old and a bit sick.’ He then reassured them: ‘But it’s not too bad.’

Fears for the health of Pope Francis resurfaced several months ago when he asked a group of elderly and disabled people to pray for him during a visit to the town of Ostia (pictured)

The Vatican has denied the reports, describing them as ‘unfounded and seriously irresponsible’

Previously Francis has insisted that he expects to live only two or three years. He told journalists on the papal plane last year he would only be in power ‘a short time’.

‘Two or three years and then I’ll be off to the Father’s house,’ he said.

The pope has some underlying health problems, including sciatica and had part of one of his lungs removed in his youth.

Some observers claim that he has gained weight since his election and is having difficulty breathing, which they say could be a sign of a heart condition. 

Read more:

• Il Papa ha un tumore al cervello. Ma i medici dicono che è curabile – QuotidianoNet – Notizie in tempo reale

Daily Mail

PETER THE ROMAN: reminds the bishops that the synod operates “not only with Peter, but also under Peter!!”

Peter the Roman, a.k.a Pope Francis in our midst… Bergoglio throwing his weight around again…

Synod operates “not only with Peter, but also under Peter!!”

In those days Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor, but a Destroyer.”

POPE FRANCIS ASSERTS AUTHORITY OF THE PAPACY AT SYNOD OF BISHOPS!

In his most important address yet to the bishops gathered for the Vatican Synod on the Family, Pope Francis reasserted his authority Saturday, reminding the bishops that the synod operates “not only with Peter, but also under Peter.”

“The synodal path culminates in listening to the Bishop of Rome,” Francis said, who is “called to teach as ‘Pastor and Teacher of all Christians,’ not from his own personal convictions, but as supreme witness of the faith of the whole Church.”

Although the Pope gave a nod to proposals of his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI for a rethinking of the exercise of the papacy, he left no doubt regarding who is calling the shots.

The pope, Francis said, guarantees “the obedience and the conformity of the Church to the will of God, the Gospel of Christ and the Church’s tradition.”

“The fact that the synod always operates with Peter and under Peter—thus, not only with Peter but also under Peter—is not a limitation of freedom but a guarantee of unity,” Francis said.

“In fact, by the Lord’s will, the pope is the perpetual and visible sign and foundation of the unity, both of the bishops and the multitude of the faithful,” he said. So the bishops are united to the Bishop of Rome through episcopal communion, “and at the same time hierarchically subject to him as Head of the College,” he added.

At the same time, Francis said, this hierarchy, unlike that of the powerful of this world, must be understood as an “upside-down pyramid,” with the vertex at the bottom rather than the top. Those who exercise authority are called “ministers” because, according to the original meaning of the word, “they are the smallest of all,” he said.

And just as Jesus washed His disciples’ feet at the Last Supper, Francis said, “the successor of Peter himself is nothing but the servant of the servants of God (servus servorum Dei).”

For the disciples of Jesus, Francis insisted, “the only authority is the authority of service, and the only power is the power of the cross.”

And so, he continued, in a “synodal Church,” the Pope “is not by himself above the Church, but within her as a baptized member among the baptized” and “a bishop among the bishops.”

And yet he is also called as Peter’s successor “to guide the Church of Rome that presides in love over all the Churches.”

As the Bishop of Rome, I know well that Christ ardently desires the full and visible communion of all Christians, he said. “I am convinced that in this, I have a particular responsibility” and must seek “a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation,” he said, quoting Pope John Paul II.

Despite his forceful reaffirmations of the centrality of the role of the Pope in the Church, Francis also spoke of a need for greater “decentralization” and an increased role for ecclesiastical provinces and regions, special councils, and especially episcopal conferences in the governance of the Church.

In a synodal Church, he said, “it is not appropriate for the pope to replace the local episcopates in the discernment of all the problems that lie ahead in their territories. In this sense, I feel the need to proceed in a healthy ‘decentralization.'”

Source

Pope Francis on alien life possibility: Let’s ‘stick’ to what scientists say but at the same time keep faith in God!

Pope Francis has said that he would be willing to baptize aliens if they came to the Vatican, asking “who are we to close doors” to anyone…

Pope Francis on alien life possibility: Let’s ‘stick’ to what scientists say.

Following the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s discovery of an exoplanet very similar to Earth, many have pondered the possibility of alien life if not civilisation, and its impact on mankind.

Even the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, was recently confronted with the question on the potential existence of intelligent alien life, and his answer is straightforward: Let scientists find answers, but let’s keep faith in God.

In an interview with French journalist Caroline Pigozzi of Paris Match, the Pope was asked if he believes there could be other thinking beings in outer space, given the recent discovery of the new planet, Kepler 452 B, which has striking similarities to Earth.

To answer the question, the pontiff acknowledged that he does not have sufficient scientific background to give a response.

He conceded though that things that seem impossible now maybe discovered in the future.

“Honestly I wouldn’t know how to answer. Until America was discovered we thought it didn’t exist, and instead it existed,” he said.

Nevertheless, the Roman Catholic Church leader said that science and religion need not clash on the matter of alien life.

“But in every case I think that we should stick to what the scientists tell us, still aware that the Creator is infinitely greater than our knowledge,” the Pope said.

He added that one thing is certain about the universe: that it “is not the result of chance or chaos,” but rather of divine intelligence.

Pope Francis further said that the universe is the result “of the love of God who loves us, who created us, who desired us and never leaves us alone.”

In the same interview, the Pope also tackled the issue of climate change, which he already discussed in detail in an encyclical he released earlier this year.

Pope Francis maintained that “the current world system in unsustainable.” He also called on world leaders who will attend the climate change talks in Paris this November to “contribute to a concrete choice, shared and farsighted, for the common good.”

Source

Bergoglio: Religion Isn’t an Insurance Agency!

Pope’s Morning Homily: Religion Isn’t an Insurance Agency

At Casa Santa Marta, Says We Can’t Put Our Security in Wealth

Jesus is not against wealth, says Pope Francis, but he warns against putting one’s security in money, and trying to make of religion an “insurance agency.”

This was the theme of the Pope’s homily this morning at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta, reported Vatican Radio.

We cannot serve two masters, the Holy Father reminded. Either a person serves God, or he serves money, Francis said and, drawing from the Gospel reading, he lamented that attachment to wealth is divisive.

“Let us consider how many families we know, whose members have fought, who are fighting, who don’t [even] say ‘Hello!’ to each other, who hate each other – all for an inheritance.”

In these cases, he said, “the love of family, love of children, siblings, parents – none of these is the most important thing – no, it’s money – and this destroys … even wars, wars that we see today: yes, sure there is an ideal [over which people fight], but behind that, there is money; money for arms dealers, the money of those who profit from the war.”

The Pope reflected that all of us likely know a family divided over money.

“Jesus is clear,” he said. “‘Be careful and stay away from all kinds of greed: it is dangerous.’”

Greed, he said, “gives us a security that is not true.”

Jesus tells the parable of a rich man, “a good entrepreneur,” whose “fields had yielded an abundant harvest,” and who was “full of riches,” and, “instead of thinking: ‘But I will share this with my workers, with my employees, that they also might have a little more for their families,’ thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, seeing that I have nowhere to put my crops? Ah, so I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones.’ More and more: the thirst that comes from attachment to riches never ends. If you have your heart attached to wealth – when you have so much – you want more. This is the god of the person who is attached to riches.”

Pope Francis went on to say that the road that leads to salvation is that of the Beatitudes. “The first is poverty of spirit,” he said, saying that if one has riches, he musn’t be attached to them, but place them at the service of others, “to share, to help many people to make their way.”

The sign that tells us we have not fallen into “this sin of idolatry” is almsgiving, giving to those in need – and not giving merely of our abundance, but giving until it costs me “some privation” perhaps because “it is necessary for me.”

“That’s a good sign: it means that one’s love for God is greater than one’s attachment to wealth.” The Pope proposed that there are three questions that we can ask ourselves:

“First question: ‘Do I give?’

“Second: ‘How much do I give?’

“Third question: ‘How do I give?’ Do I give as Jesus gives, with the caress of love, or as one who pays a tax? How do I give?

“‘But Father, what do you mean by that?’

“When you help someone, do you look that person in the eye? Do you touch that person’s hand? Theirs is Christ’s own flesh, that person is your brother, your sister. At that moment you are like the Father who does not leave the birds of the air to go without food. With what love the Father gives! Let us ask God for the grace to be free of this idolatry, the attachment to wealth:

let us ask the grace to look at Him, so rich in His love and so rich in generosity, in His mercy; and let us ask the grace to help others with the exercise of almsgiving, but as He does it. ‘But, Father, He has not let Himself be deprived of anything!’ Jesus Christ, being equal to God, deprived Himself of this: He lowered Himself, He made Himself nothing – [yes,] He too deprived Himself of something.”

Zenit

NEW BOOK REVEALS VATICAN PLOT TO ASSASSINATE HITLER!!

Although many people have come to swallow the caricature of Pope Pius XII as “Hitler’s Pope,” after the malicious smear campaign by John Cornwell, the facts now seem overwhelmingly to reveal the opposite: not only was Pius adamantly opposed to the Führer’s policies; he actively sought to have him assassinated!

A fascinating new book by intelligence expert Mark Riebling, Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler, offers a compelling narrative of the actions taken by Pope Pius to stop Hitler from carrying out his campaign of world domination and ethnic cleansing.

Backed by a mass of carefully compiled documentation, Riebling shows that Pius cooperated in a variety of plots, initiated by patriotic, anti-Nazi Germans, to assassinate Hitler and replace the National Socialist regime with a government that would make peace with the West.

The Nazis, in fact, were deeply disturbed by the election of Pius XII in 1939, well aware of Pacelli’s many anti-Nazi statements and actions. They commissioned an assessment of the situation from Albert Hartl, a former Catholic priest, who warned that the Catholic Church would prove a serious threat to the Third Reich.

“The Catholic Church fundamentally claims for itself the right to depose heads of state,” Hartl wrote, “and down to the present time it has also achieved this claim several times.” This statement seemed to embolden disaffected German officers who were seeking assistance to overthrow Hitler.

In 1938, several high-ranking German officers began turning against Hitler, for fear he would lead the country into a devastating war. One of these, General Ludwig Beck, was joined in this endeavor by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr (Germany’s intelligence agency), and his deputy, Colonel Hans Oster.

After the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, the German military conspirators sought to reach out to their adversaries, especially the British, to seek aid in overthrowing Hitler. In order to do this, they needed a person who could serve as an intermediary and vouch for their integrity, and so they approached Pius XII, who was highly regarded in Britain.

They asked the pope’s top assistants to ask Pius one critical question: Would he be willing to contact the British government and receive guarantees that it would back the German Resistance if Hitler was overthrown? Pius XII replied that he was willing do so, declaring, “The German Opposition must be heard.”

What followed was a series of gripping events, leading to repeated efforts to depose Hitler, all of which were foiled by unexpected turns, deceit, bombs that failed to detonate, and ones that did go off, only to miss their target. In their quest, the anti-Nazi officers received crucial moral and logistical support from Pius XII, as well as from his closest aides.

This isn’t the first scholarly work to exonerate Pius XII from vicious attacks by his detractors. Rabbi David G. Dalin argued persuasively in his 2005 book, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: Pope Pius XII And His Secret War Against Nazi Germany, that Pius worked tirelessly to save the Jews from the Nazis. Cornwell’s book, Dalin asserted, not only rewrote history, denied the testimony of Holocaust survivors, and hijacked the Holocaust for unseemly political ends. It also got the story backwards by ignoring the real threat to the Jewish people: the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. The grand mufti, Dalin wrote, became a steadfast ally of Hitler as well as an active promoter of the Holocaust, calling for the Jews’ extermination.

Dalin contended that the real agenda of Cornwell and his fellow myth-makers was to attack the very idea of the papacy, especially the papacy of the late Pope John Paul II, as well as Christianity and traditional religion as a whole.

A British scholar by the name of Gordon Thomas, a Protestant, has also unearthed extensive material in the Vatican archives that purports to restore Pius XII’s reputation, by revealing the significant part that he played in saving Jewish lives and opposing Nazism.

The Pope’s Jews depicts Pius XII as a somewhat cleverer and more successful Oskar Schindler, saving the lives of countless Jews through ingenious means. Pius gave his blessing to the establishment of safe houses in the Vatican, for example, as well as overseeing a secret operation with code names and fake documents for priests who risked their lives to shelter Jews, some of whom were even made Vatican citizens.

Thomas reports that priests were instructed to issue baptism certificates to hundreds of Jews hidden in Genoa, Rome and elsewhere in Italy. More than 2,000 Hungarian Jews were brought to Rome, after having been given fabricated Vatican documents identifying them as Catholics. Meanwhile, more than 4,000 Jews were hidden in convents and monasteries across Italy.

Hopes for a full rehabilitation of Pope Pius have been stoked during the papacy of Francis, who reportedly is favorable to opening the Vatican archives dealing with the war years. Rabbi Abraham Skorka, a friend of Francis’, said he has discussed the role of Pius XII at length with the Pope, remarking that “I have no doubt that he will move to open the archives.”

For now, we have news of the Pope’s conspiring to assassinate the Führer, which definitely puts to rest any doubts of where his allegiance lay.

      Ven. Pope Pius XII, ora pro nobis!

Source: Breitbart

Trial of St. Joan of Arc: History brings clarity with what’s happening at the Synod!

Synod of Filth…

The following is a sermon delivered today, on the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, by a traditional mission priest. We provide you with the text of the sermon below, and you may click here to listen to the audio.

“… this second synod broke nearly every law known at the time, both canonical and civil, on how trials are conducted. Methods used against Joan included among other things, packing the court, confusion tactics and false contradicting statements, as well as a sort of shadow synod.”

“There was a man in the land of Hus, whose name was Job, simple and upright and fearing God; whom Satan besought that he might tempt: and power was given him from the Lord over his possessions and his flesh; and he destroyed all his substance and his children, and wounded his flesh also with a grievous ulcer”— Offertory Antiphon

There was a man named Job. St. Zeno of Verona (d. 380) and other fathers say Job is a type of Christ. St. Gregory the Great goes one step further in stating: “Holy Job is a type of the Church.” In other words, Job acts as a prefigurement of the future Passion of the Christ as well as His Mystical Body, the Church. We are now in one of the Job-moments of our Holy Mother, the Church.

Recall that a TYPE is a historical person, thing or event that really happened, but, at the same time, mysteriously prefigures a future reality that is bigger than itself. Our God is the Lord and Master of all History. Only He can work things out at one moment in time… such that it foreshadows another later moment. This is especially seen in the link between the Old and New Testaments. Listen to the Church Father St. Melito of Sardis: “It is [Christ] who endured every kind of suffering in all those who foreshadowed Him. In Abel He was slain, in Isaac bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was sacrificed in the Passover Lamb, persecuted in David, dishonored in the prophets.” And so on with the entire Old Testament. (By the way, there are no such types to be found in any other writings. They are not in the Koran… nor in the book of Mormon. What does this mean? We are in the right place!)

John Henry Newman with keen insight observed the deeper nature of types for all time, teaching: “In truth every event in the world is a type of those that follow, history proceeding forward as a circle ever enlarging… For every age presents its own picture of those future events which alone are the real fulfillment of the prophecy which stands at the head of them all” (The Antichrist, Miceli, p. 106). What prophecy is that? The end! This amazing insight explains why the saints could see the connectivity of all time! Starting with the Apostles themselves, the saints considered their own day to be those of the end time. Why so? They could see, taste and smell the “mystery of iniquity” that will come to its culmination in the last days … they could see it already at work before their very eyes by way of types. E.g., St. Thomas More considered Martin Luther to be the antichrist or least his prophet. This means all the “revolutionary men” … heretics, apostates, tyrants, traitors, godless men of all time act as types of the antichrist… some more so than others. So, history is connected by way of types from beginning to the very end.

This is important because the faithful living at the latter moments will find comfort in how the former saints passed through their trials. If they could do it, so can we. If God was there for them, He will be here for us too!! Also, no matter how strange or new something may seem in the present, we have somehow been here before somewhere along the line in a type.

Using this most valuable insight of how God arranges the train of history,  let us go back in time to find comfort, hope, and even reasons for rejoicing at this trying moment. One place we find a clear type of our time is in the life and death of St. Joan of Arc.

This young virginal woman typified the virginal Bride of Christ, Who is without spot or wrinkle. Like Her Lord and His Church, Joan rose up out of the backwaters of her kingdom, from a border area whence no one expected anything good. Joan the leader of armies, the deliverer of France, trained by St. Michael Himself, shows forth the Church Militant. Still a teen, she wondrously raised up a king. The girl from Domremy, the town named after the bishop St. Remigius, who baptized Clovis, the first Catholic King of France, along with 3000 of his men (making France the Church’s eldest daughter), … this little girl lifted the despairing siege of Orleans in the length of a novena, blazed a trail to Rheims to crown the dauphin Charles VII in a matter of months. His father had fallen into madness, his Bavarian queen mother disowned him and sold him for a worldly political alliance. Through a woman France was betrayed. This all too familiar type of Adam and Eve would not be allowed to remain. And so, through a virgin, God would save His eldest daughter. With Joan the tides of the 100 years war suddenly reversed.

As everyone knows, after St. Joan performed her duties, those loyal to the English cause, namely the Burgundians, most especially the bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon, cried out, “We will not have this man rule over us!” Before long, Joan was betrayed at Compiegne and sold for a king’s ransom, being more valued by her enemies than her friends.

It is important to recall that before Joan could carry out her saving work, she was examined by a council or synod of bishops and priests and found to be pure, spotless, and holy. They sent her back to the King as one whose help should not be despised. After her capture, as everyone knows, she was again put on trial by a second synod of bishops and priests who had already concluded ahead of time that she and her king were schismatic, heretical and of the devil. A fait accompli, this second synod dismissed the findings of the first, pressured its participants to go along or else,  and exiled others. Synod against synod, council against council, Cardinals against Cardinals, bishops against bishops. Hmmm.

What is more, this second synod broke nearly every law known at the time, both canonical and civil, on how trials are conducted. Methods used against Joan included among other things, packing the court, confusion tactics and false contradicting statements, as well as a sort of shadow synod. In the end, unable to make anything of substance really stick, they finally just ordered her to be killed. Joan died without an official judgment being declared or read aloud.

As she was consumed by fire, she spoke the Holy Name of Jesus with such fervor that nearly everyone, both friend and foe alike wept, walking away beating their breasts. When the executioner came to dispose of the ashes he found her heart unburned and still bleeding. Because of the work of St. Joan, most especially this her Passion, some 20 years later the 100 years war came to an end in 1453… the very year the Muslim Turks captured Constantinople. Not long afterward, the English fell into schism and heresy over the Sacrament of Marriage, unwilling to allow Christ the King to rule over them.

We are now drawing neigh to the end of another 100 years war between heaven and hell requested by the devil within the hearing of Pope Leo XIII. Satan has been unleashed and permitted to do to the Church what He did to Job and to Joan. It is not just the Sacrament of Marriage that is on trial at this second synod going on in Rome. Rather this is just one of the more recent battles for the Church as a whole. Like Joan, no final judgment will be easily reached… but they will order Her to be done away with regardless. This moment is not only a Job moment, it is also a Joan moment.

What should also be of interest to us today is this: the armies sent against Joan were supposed to go on Crusade against the Muslim Turks and heretical Hussites. Instead they fought fellow Christians in France, thereby allowing the Muslims to overthrow Constantinople. There is more than one reason why the Muslims are beginning to rise up in force once again.

But we must take heart. Just as the passion of Joan ultimately saved France, so the Passion of the Church will deliver the world. Come what may, like Job and Joan, the Mystical Body cannot be totally destroyed… Her heart will remain, bleeding out blood and water… such that She will rise up again… victorious when the chalice has been filled.

Let us end today with this very important point of hope for our present crisis. In the official statement referring to Joan’s rehabilitation, after considering all the collected data in toto, we find these edifying words in regards to the trial, judgments and final demise of St. Joan which surely typify a future truly Catholic council that will rule definitively on what is taking place at this moment.

“We declare, that on certain points the truth of [Joan’s] confessions has been passed over in silence; that on other points her confessions have been falsely translated—a double unfaithfulness…

“We declare, that even the form of certain words has been altered, in such manner as to change the substance [of their meaning]. [mercy, love, marriage, spouse, natural law…]

“For the which, these same Articles, as falsely, calumniously, and deceitfully extracted, and as contrary even to the Confessions of the Accused, we break, annihilate, and annul; and, … we ordain, by this present judgment, that they be torn up.

“We say, pronounce, decree, and declare, the said Processes and Sentences full of cozenage (trickery and deceit), iniquity, inconsequences, and manifest errors, in fact as well as in law; We say that they have been, are, and shall be… null, non-existent, without value or effect.

“we break them, annihilate them, annul them, and declare them void of effect; and we declare that the said Jeanne and her relatives… have not, on account of the said Trial, contracted nor incurred any mark or stigma of infamy; we declare them quit and purged of all the consequences of these same Processes…” (cf. Jeanne D’Arc: Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France, ed. By T. Douglas Murray, pp 303-307).

Rorate Caeli

Eleison Comments by Mgr. Williamson – Number CDXXXI (431), CDXXX (430)

Father’s Distress

A family father knows not where to turn?
Dear Dad, Our Lord will never crash or burn!

Your Excellency,

I am sorry to bother you, but I am a father responsible for getting many little souls that God has entrusted me with to Heaven and I’ve never been so lost or confused about how to do it as I am now. I am trying not to feel hopeless as I see both my Catholic world and the rest of the world in a tail-spin, about ready to crash and burn. A clerk in today’s United States gets sent to jail if they refuse to issue a license for a same-sex marriage. What next? But I do go on hoping because God has given us many children, and another is on its way. Why is God allowing us to bring more children into this world when it seems as if it’s about to end? Should my wife and I be preparing ourselves to see them martyred? I have not up till now found devotion to Our Lady too easy, but now even I find myself turning to her.

The immediate problem is what we have found to be happening with our local Traditional Catholic parish. We moved here to guarantee for the children especially, but also for ourselves, the true Mass and a Catholic formation. Alas, many things have come to light that have left us shocked, confused and feeling defeated. There seem to be demonic influences at work, and we have had to wonder if even the priests are not under their evil grip, because they are not the same priests we knew a year ago. For the past year we have done our best to help, but to no avail. We have continued to attend Mass there, all the while praying, fasting and doing Novenas in the hope that things would change. We have “watched and prayed,” and like the spouse of an alcoholic we have made excuses for them for as long as we could. But finally things have occurred which are driving us to look elsewhere if we do not want our children to be confused about their faith.

So where do we go from here? Obviously I want the children to have the Sacraments and to continue to grow in the faith by attending a valid Mass, so long as it is there. To raise these children’s souls for Christ my wife and I also have an essential need of the graces of the Mass. We want to stay away from major cities. My work situation is such that I could seek work anywhere in the United States. Where do we go?

Dear Father of a large family,

First and foremost, as I read everything you write, let me advise you to count your blessings. Almighty God is not making things easy for you, but nor did he do so for his own Son on earth. This is a “valley of tears,” but amid the tears, God is giving to you and to your family many graces. You are keeping the faith, you have been given to see the need for true Tradition, and your making it your first priority to get your family to Heaven is another huge grace. The Devil may have thrown quite an obstacle in your way, but you have seen it was him. Count on it, there will be many more such obstacles before this crisis is over, and the worst of them a re liable to come from the priests (“We carry our treasure in vessels of clay,” says St Paul). Never be surprised by evil today, the Devil is running wild. Therefore above all, keep well in mind how much God is doing for you, as he did for the Holy Family, despite all the apparent hardships. That will put them in the right perspective. And do not be surprised if as the man of the family, God wants you to take some manly decisions for its future. He is not going to take these decisions for you.

Alright, you say, but the question remains, where do we go? Answer, wherever you are sure of finding firstly, work for yourself and secondly, the true Mass, in that order, because the family cannot survive without a breadwinner. As for the Mass, 20 years ago one might not have hesitated to say, it must be a Society of St Pius X Mass. Today, that is no longer so sure. I would say, go rather by the priest than by his Congregation, or label. Expect failures and betrayals. We are all adrift in a sea of apostasy. But have a boundless, a boundless confidence in Our Lord and his Mother. They will never let you go unless you want to be let go. Have compassion on your fellow human beings. And God bless you.

Kyrie eleison.

Eleison Comments” by Mgr. Williamson – Number CDXXX (430)

Positive Advice

We are not left with nothing we can do.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way to see this through.

Americans have an expression, “To think outside the box.” It means to think outside of one’s usual way of thinking. If ever there was a time for “thinking outside the box,” that time is now. For six or seven hundred years mankind has been turning away from God, in a process which it has freely chosen and which God does not intervene to stop, as he could easily do, because he does not give us men our free-will to take it away again. Also, if he is now allowing this process to be reaching in our own time its logical conclusion, he must be hoping that as the crisis deepens and the pressures increase, so there will be more and more souls driven to think outside the box of their materialism, and by so doing get back on the road to Heaven.

Now how the next few years unfold remains God’s secret, especially the calendar. However, it seems highly probable that the suburban and urban areas where most of us live will be seriously destabilized, firstly because these areas are largely immersed in materialism and “happily” living without God, which must call down his wrath, and secondly because these areas are as intrinsically unstable as they are cut off from nature and artificial, depending more and more on the fragile system of supermarkets for sustenance and survival, on the under-manned police forces for any peace and order, on the Internet’s vulnerable satellites for their information and communications, on the villainous banks for the roof over their heads.

In fact only when the crisis really hits will we truly realise how fragile was our environment that seemed as natural as nature. Therefore for subsistence and survival it surely makes sense to lay in a stock of food and water; for information and guidance to lay in a battery-operated radio (with batteries); for law and order to lay in some physical means of self-defence, and to make contact with one’s immediate neighbours, however little one may have chosen them, because friends in need will be friends indeed; and for the roof over one’s head, to get as far as one can, as soon as one can, out of debt and out of the clutches of the bankers, although we are late in the day for that.

A Catholic reader goes further by suggesting that Catholics in a given area band together to set up Catholic refuges, even material as well as spiritual, invisible as such from the outside, but where the joy of the Faith will reign on the inside. That seems a strange thought. It is certainly “outside the box.” It depends upon a number of Catholics living close to one another who share the same sense of urgency as to imminent events, but it is an idea whose time may come. Also some ‘student’ should make good use of his time at ‘university’ by doing a thesis on how Catholics kept the Faith under brutal Communist repression. Globalism is not yet physically brutal, but that can make it all the more dangerous for souls.

And finally a priest makes a few classic suggestions for spiritual means to meet the present spiritual needs, which are urgent enough, even without grave events being imminent.

The full 15-Mystery Rosary every day has Heaven’s guarantee for its efficacy. A 24-hour fast on bread and water can obtain miracles. A corporal work of mercy, e.g. real alms to a real beggar (more difficult than writing a cheque) pulls down grace. So does a spiritual work of mercy, like giving a Catholic leaflet or a Miraculous Medal to non-Catholics. Total abstinence from the Internet for one or several days can put a brake on habits of wasting time, and it can make half an hour available to meditate instead on the Passion of Our Lord, who is only waiting and longing for us to make use of all that He suffered.

Kyrie eleison.

St. Luke the Evangelist – Mass Propers

           October 18

St. Luke the Evangelist

St. Luke, a physician at Antioch, and a painter, became a convert of St. Paul, and afterwards his fellow laborer. He is best known to us as the historian of the New Testament. Though not an eye-witness of Our Lord‘s life, the Evangelist diligently gathered information from the lips of the apostles, and wrote, as he tells us, all things in order. The Acts of the Apostles were written by this Evangelist as a sequel to his Gospel, bringing the history of the Church down to the first imprisonment of St. Paul at Rome. The humble historian never names himself, but by his occasional use of “we” for “they” we are able to detect his presence in the scenes which he describes. We thus find that he sailed with St. Paul and Silas from Troas to Macedonia; stayed behind apparently for seven years at Philippi, and, lastly, shared the shipwreck and perils of the memorable voyage to Rome. Here his own narrative ends, but from St. Paul’s Epistles we learn that St. Luke was his faithful companion to the end. He died a martyr’s death some time afterwards in Achaia.

The Roman Breviary – Matins

Luke was a physician of Antioch, who, as appeareth from his writings, knew the Greek language. He was a follower of the Apostle Paul, and his fellow traveller in all his wanderings. He wrote a Gospel, whereof the same Paul saith We have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches 2 Cor. viii. 18.Of him, he writeth unto the Colossians, iv. 14: Luke, the beloved physician, greeteth you. And again, unto Timothy, II. iv. 11: Only Luke is with me. He also published another excellent book entitled The Acts of the Apostles, wherein the history is brought down to Paul’s two years sojourn at Rome, that is to say, until the fourth year of Nero, from which we gather that it was at Rome that the said book was composed.

The silence of Luke is one of the reasons why we reckon among Apocryphal books The Acts of Paul and Thecla, and the whole story about the baptism of Leo. For why should the fellow traveller of the Apostle, who knew other things, be ignorant only of this? At the same time there is against these documents the statement of Tertullian, almost a contemporary writer, that the Apostle John convicted a certain Priest in Asia, who was a great admirer of the Apostle Paul, of having written them, and that the said Priest owned that he had been induced to compose them through his admiration for Paul, and that he was deposed in consequence. There are some persons who suspect that when Paul in his Epistles useth the phrase: “According to my Gospel” Rom. ii. 16, Tim. ii. 8,he meaneth the Gospel written by Luke.

However, Luke learned his Gospel not from the Apostle Paul only, who had not companied with the Lord in the flesh, but also from other Apostles, as himself declareth at the beginning of his work, where he saith: “They delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” i. 2. According to what he had heard, therefore, did he write his Gospel. As to the Acts of the Apostles, he composed them from his own personal knowledge. He was never married. He lived eighty-four years. He is buried at Constantinople, whither his bones were brought from Achaia in the twentieth year of Constantine, together with the relics of the Apostle Andrew.

Feast of St. Luke – Evangelist and Martyr

Double of the Second Class

Red Vestments

Missa – ‘Mihi autem nimis’

INTROIT – Psalm 138: 17

Mihi autem nimis honoráti sunt amíci tui, Deus: nimis confortátus est principátus eórum. Ps. Dómine, probásti me, et cognovísti me: tu cognovísti sessiónem meam, et resurrectiónem meam. Gloria Patri.

Thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened. Ps. Lord, Thou hast proved me, and known me: Thou hast known my sitting down, and my rising up. Glory be to the Father.

COLLECT

May Luke, Thy holy Evangelist, O Lord, we beseech Thee, intercede in our behalf, who for the honour of Thy name bore continually in his body the mortification of the cross. Through our Lord.

EPISTLE  – II  Corinthians 8: 16-24

Brethren, I give thanks to God, Who hath given the same carefulness for you in the heart of Titus, for indeed he accepted the exhortation; but being more careful, of his own will he went unto you. We have sent also with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel through all the churches; and not that only, but he was also ordained by the churches companion of our travels for this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the Lord and our determined will: avoiding this, lest any man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us; for we forecast what may be good, not only before God, but also before men. And we have sent with them our brother also, whom we have proved diligent in many things; but now much more diligent, with much confidence in you, either for Titus, who is my companion and fellow-labourer toward you, or our brethren the apostles of the churches, the glory of Christ. Wherefore show ye to them, in the sight of the churches, the evidence of your charity, and of our boasting on your behalf.

GRADUAL – Psalm 18: 5, 2

Their sound went forth into all the earth; and their words to the ends of the world. The heavens show forth the glory of God; and the firmament declareth the work of His hands.

ALLELUIA -John 15: 16

Alleluia, alleluia. I have chosen you out of the world, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain. Alleluia.

GOSPEL – Luke 10: 1-9

At that time, the Lord appointed also other seventy-two; and He sent them two and two before His face into every city and place whither He Himself was to come. And He said to them: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send labourers into His harvest. Go, behold I send you as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and salute no man by the way. Into whatsoever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house: and if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him: but if not, it shall return to you. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they have: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Remove not from house to house. And into what city soever you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you; and heal the sick that are therein; and say to them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

Homily by Pope St Gregory the Great

Dearly beloved brethren, our Lord and Saviour doth sometimes admonish us by words, and sometimes by works. Yea, His very works do themselves teach us for that which He doth silently His example still moveth us to copy. Behold how He sendeth forth His disciples to preach by two and two since there are two commandments to love, that is, a commandment to love God, and a commandment to love our neighbour and where there are not two, the one, being alone, hath not whereon to do the Lord’s commandment. And no man can properly be said to love himself: for love tendeth outward toward our neighbour, if it be the love whereto the Gospel doth oblige us.

Behold, the Lord sendeth forth His disciples to preach by two and two and thus doing, He doth silently teach us that whosoever loveth not his neighbour, such an one it behoveth not to take upon him the office of a preacher. Well also is it said that He sent them before His face into every city and place whither He Himself would come. The Lord followeth His preachers first cometh preaching, and then the Lord Himself cometh to the house of our mind, whither the word of exhortation hath come before and so cometh the truth into our mind.

OFFERTORY – Psalm 138: 17

To me Thy friends, O God, are exceedingly honourable; their principality is exceedingly strengthened.

SECRET

By Thy celestial gifts grant us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to serve Thee with willing hearts, that the offerings we bring may, through the intercession of blessed Luke, Thine Evangelist, procure for us both our healing and our glory. Through our Lord.

PREFACE OF THE APOSTLES

It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, to entreat Thee humbly, O Lord, that Thou wouldst not desert Thy flock. O everlasting Shepherd; but through Thy blessed Apostles, wouldst keep it under Thy constant protection; that it may be governed by those same rulers, whom as vicars of Thy work, Thou didst set over it to be its pastors. And therefore with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominations, and with all the hosts of the heavenly army, we sing the hymn of The glory, evermore saying…

SANCTUS

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dóminus Deus Sábaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra glória tua. Hosánna in excélsis. Benedíctus qui venit in nómine Dómini. Hosánna in excélsis.

COMMUNION – Matthew 19: 28

You that have followed me shall sit upon seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

St. Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Virgin by Rogier van der Weyden – 1435–1440

POSTCOMMUNION

Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that what we have received from Thy holy altar may, by the prayers of Thy blessed Evangelist, Luke, sanctify our souls, whereby we may be made secure. Through our Lord.

Playing God: Faith-healing couple who prayed and rubbed oil on their dying baby instead of calling 911 WILL go to prison for killing their newborn!!

Of physicians and medicines: what is to be done in sickness…

Honour the physician for the need thou hast of him: for the most High hath created him.  For all healing is from God, and he shall receive gifts of the king.  The skill of the physician shall lift up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be praised.  The most High hath created medicines out of the earth., and a wise man will not abhor them.

Give place to the physician. For the Lord created him: and let him not depart from thee, for his works are necessary. For there is a time when thou must fall into their hands: And they shall beseech the Lord, that he would prosper what they give for ease and remedy.                               Ecclesiasticus 38: 1- 4, 12 -14 (DRB)

Faith-healing couple who prayed and rubbed oil on their dying baby instead of calling 911 WILL go to prison for killing the newborn.

Dale and Shannon Hickman were found guilty of manslaughter in 2011

They were members of a controversial faith-healing church in Oregon

Their son David was born two months premature in 2009

He died hours after a home birth when couple refused to go to hospital

Their conviction was upheld last week by the state’s Supreme Court

They will serve six years each in prison

An Oregon couple who prayed and rubbed olive on their dying son following a home birth rather than call 911 and seek help will continue to serve six years in prison each after a judge upheld their manslaughter conviction.

Dale and Shannon Hickman, both 30, were both convicted in 2011 of second-degree manslaughter for the death of their son, David, who died nine hours after his home birth in 2009.

David was born two months early at his grandmother’s home with undeveloped lungs, and died after having trouble breathing and turning blue.

The Hickman’s – members of a controversial faith-healing church in Oregon – had appealed their conviction, on the grounds that the prosecution had the burden to prove the couple knew their religious beliefs would cause the death of their child, The New York Daily News reported.

But the plea was rejected by the Oregon Supreme Court last week.

Last week a judge rejected an appeal made by the couple and reiterated that they could have done more to try and save their son.

                              

To prison: Shannon(left) and Dale Hickman (right), both 30, were both convicted of second-degree manslaughter for the death of their son, David, in 2009, and last week a judge rejected their appeal and upheld that conviction. The two are pictured here during their trial in 2011

Guilty: During their trial in 2011, the Hickmans that ‘they would not have done anything differently’

Avoidable: David’s official cause of death was staphylococcus pneumonia, which could have been treated. Doctors said there was a ’99 percent chance’ he would have survived if the parents had called 911

During the 2011 trial, a doctor had testified that David would have had a ’99 percent chance’ of surviving had the couple called 911.

The baby officially died of staphylococcus pneumonia, which could have been treated. 

‘As the evidence unfolded and the witnesses testified, it became evident to me and certainly to the jury … that this death just simply did not need to occur,’ Judge Robert Herndon said.

Prosecutors explained during the trial that David was born with a bacterial infection and underdeveloped lungs. Mr Hickman said he didn’t call 911 because he was praying. The couple never considered taking the baby to the hospital, prosecutors said.

Shannon Hickman said that she must defer to her husband because of church rules.

‘I think it’s God’s will whatever happens,’ she testified. (!!)

The baby boy died quickly and there was no evidence that medical care would have saved him, Mark Cogan, defending, told the court.

Shannon (left) and dale Hickman (right) were convicted of second-degree manslaughter in 2011 and were sentenced to six years in prison

 

The Hickmans – members of the Followers of Christ Church – believe that the power of prayer and the laying of hands – where ministers lay their hands on believers while praying – can cure illnesses

The Followers of Christ Church has a history of rejecting medical care for children and relying on as prayer and anointing the sick with oils. Five other church members have been convicted in Clackamas County for crimes related to the rejection of medical care for their children.

The Hickmans’ conviction on second-degree manslaughter charges typically requires a mandatory minimum sentence of six years in prison. But many feared that, because of a religious exemption in state law at time of the crime, they might have received just 18 months in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In response to deaths among Followers of Christ members, state lawmakers removed the religious defences from criminal laws this year. Those exemptions had made it tougher to convict parents shunning a child’s medical care for religious reasons instead of neglect. The change will allow prosecutors to seek stiffer manslaughter or murder charges in faith-healing cases.

On Monday, Prosecutor Mike Regan said a message needed to be sent to the church that child abuse for any motive is still child abuse.

Under-fire: The Followers of Christ Church has a history of rejecting medical care for children and relying on as prayer and anointing the sick with oils

He said: ‘These generally are good, decent, law-abiding folks, except in this one narrow area of their lives. One (area) where they have told us stubbornly – and arrogantly, if I may – that ‘We are not going to change.’‘The law of civil society demands that they change. It demands that we sent a message to all of them that whether you believe this or not in Oregon, you cannot act upon that belief.’

Two other parents from the church were convicted earlier this year for failing to seek medical care for their infant daughter. She had a growth that could have left her blind in one eye – and they were sentenced to three months in jail. 

 Daily Mail

Read more:

• www.nydailynews….
• KATU.com – Portland News, Sports, Traffic Weather and Breaking News – Portland, Oregon

Three things you need to know about Pope Francis and the cardinal disgraced in a sex abuse scandal!

This picture of Pope Francis apparently talking to retired Belgian cardinal Godfried Danneels at the Synod on the Family, which began this week, is circulating on Twitter and disturbing many Catholics. This is what you need to know:

1. Five years ago, Cardinal Danneels tried to cover up a revolting case of family sex abuse.

As the National Catholic Reporter revealed on August 30, 2010:

Audio recordings leaked to the Belgian media this weekend reveal Belgium’s Cardinal Godfried Danneels urging a sex abuse victim not to make public that his abuser was his uncle Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges, Belgium. The recordings show Danneels pressuring the young man not to force Vangheluwe to resign.

The transcript quoted by the newspaper is chilling:

Cardinal Danneels asks if the nephew wants Vangheluwe to resign and adds: ‘But that is his decision. I can mention it but that’s all. You expect me to do something that I cannot do. I don’t know what more to do. Or perhaps I have to find some other way to bring this to a satisfactory conclusion.’

When the nephew stresses that the cardinal must speak to pope and that Vangeluwe must be sanctioned by the church, Cardinal Danneels responds ‘Yes but… You can also ask forgiveness and, well, you can also acknowledge your own guilt.’

Nephew: ‘Whose forgiveness do I have to seek? I am not the one to ask for forgiveness.’

Danneels: ‘He can do that. That’s correct.’

Later, Cardinal Danneels asks that the conversation not be made public and suggests to the nephew: ‘You can figure that he will resign next year and that he agrees to make no more appearances on television, that sort of thing, and before you know it a year has gone by.’

Nephew: ‘No! I am putting this in your hands and the two of you have to make a decision.’

[Danneels replies] ‘So you can grab us and try to blackmail us, huh, and say: ‘you have to do something!’

Confronted by the tape-recording, Danneels – who had recently stepped down as archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels – waffled unconvincingly about wanting to resolve a dispute in the bishop’s family. He had been ‘improvising’, he said. Vangheluwe, inevitably, had to resign immediately in disgrace. But Danneels was also disgraced by the revelations, first carried by the Belgian newspaper De Standaard. Not only did he try to arrange a temporary cover-up of the bishop’s molestation of his nephew, but he also suggested that the victim should seek forgiveness – and accused the man of attempted blackmail when he demanded that Danneels should tell Pope Benedict XVI about the abuse.

2. Knowing about the sex abuse scandal, Pope Francis has given Danneels a place of honour at the Synod on the Family

The 279 ‘Synod Fathers’ debating the most sensitive issues of family and sexuality include 45 personally chosen by Francis. They are dominated by senior clergy whose voices he wanted heard at the synod but who did not automatically qualify for membership. Here is a screenshot of the top of the list on the Vatican website:

The placing of Danneels’ name second on the list suggests the strong approval of the Pope, despite the Belgian’s ultra-radical views, which include support for a church-recognised ‘sort of marriage’ for gay couples. This dismays senior cardinals – but they are far more worried by the sex-abuse matter. Francis knew before he made the appointment that Danneels had tried to engage in a cover-up. Yet he went ahead.

3. Cardinal Danneels has been boasting that he helped elect Francis as pope

At the launch of his authorised biography in Brussels last month, Danneels claimed to have been part of a ‘mafia club’ of senior cardinals opposed to Benedict XVI who wanted to ensure that a liberal pope succeeded Benedict XVI. Jorge Bergoglio was their favourite candidate. Perhaps we shouldn’t read too much in to this – the papacy was hardly in the club’s gift. But when I asked a senior Vatican source this week why Francis had invited Danneels to the synod – on the face of it, a grotesquely inappropriate move – he replied: ‘As a thank-you for the votes he helped deliver.’ That is guesswork, and assumes a degree of cynical calculation that we don’t associate with Francis. I mention it because this explanation is taken seriously at such a high level within conservative circles in the Vatican.

I’ve touched on the Danneels scandal briefly in my article on the synod for this week’s magazine. Now the matter needs to be properly investigated. Pope Francis must explain why a man who tried to conceal sex abuse within a family is a leading participant in a synod discussing the pastoral care of families.

So far, the media have shown no interest in this story. That wouldn’t be the case if Benedict XVI were still pope.

Source