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The Novus Ordo Files:
NEWS ARCHIVE for FEBRUARY, 2008

If you benefit from this web site, please...

Novus Ordo Watch is not responsible for, nor necessarily endorsing, the content of linked web pages.
Links are mainly posted for educational purposes.

This section revised March 2
 Studies in implementing the motu proprio
 Latin Mass 'indefinitely postponed,' then okayed until???
 "At the end of January, Bishop [Thomas] McMahon 'indefinitely postponed' the Mass while he explored the provision of the traditional liturgy in his diocese. Hmm. I don’t recall anything in Summorum Pontificum about bishops being able to cancel Latin Masses arranged by a parish. In fact, removing their power to do so was the whole point of the Pope’s apostolic letter."
 

NOW Comments: Of course, this is the bait of the motu proprio. Traditionally-minded readers like the above writer, Damian Thompson of London's Daily Telegraph, don't see anything in it that permits "bishops" to have the ability" to cancel Latin Masses arranged by a parish." And that's exactly the impression Ratzinger gives in Summorum Pontificum, but with his background as one of the chief Modernist periti at Vatican II, he knows more than a little about crafting rhetorical vagaries. There is nothing in the motu proprio and the equally important "explanatory letter" accompanying it that add up to a Magna Carta for the Latin Mass, though there is much in the language of those documents that suggest as much. Since translations of both can be found in the above link, we will not go into great detail here, but note the following few representative declarations made by "Pope" Benedict about how the "bishops" are to implement Summorum Pontificum.

First, let's look at a key points from the motu itself:

1. The first limitation is placed on the declaration by Ratzinger himself in Article 1: "It is, therefore, permissible to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass following the typical edition of the Roman Missal promulgated by Bl. John XXIII [sic--NOW] in 1962 and never abrogated, as an extraordinary form of the Liturgy of the Church." So, the traditionally-minded members of the Conciliar Church don't have a choice as to which missal they can use if they are going to toe the line set down here, despite the fact that any number of missals published prior to "Pope" Roncalli's election have worked perfectly well for countless Catholics and seemingly ought to be included. Of course, one traditional group, the Society of St. Pius X, uses the '62 missal and it seems to be Ratzinger's primary target, as it is the largest and most influential group (though not always the one with the soundest positions). Of course, implicit in him only mentioning the Bugnini/Roncalli adulterated missal is the overarching (though usually unspoken) raison d'ętre of the counterfeit church: The Church began with Vatican II.  In any case, here is a stricture that Benedict XVI hands over to the "bishops" from the get-go: The only option specifically mentioned for those seeking to have "approved" Latin Masses is to use the 1962 missal.

2. In Articles 2 and 4, Ratzinger declares that no permission at all is needed for a priest to offer the Mass from the 1962 missal if offered in private. Article 3 addresses religious communities and congregations, and there the "Pope" says "the decision must be taken by the Superiors Major, in accordance with the law and following their own specific decrees and statues," so very clearly such priests do need permission.

3. In Articles 5 to 8, which is where we get into the situation described above by Thompson and of most concern to many readers, Ratzinger, while seeming to give an open playing field over which to run for the motu crowd, has strewn the way with some very nasty booby traps that give considerable discretionary power for "Bp." McMahon  (photo, right) and other obstructionists to meddle, while never saying it in so many words. He writes that if "a stable group of faithful" wants to have the "extraordinary" [sic] form of liturgy, "a pastor should willingly accept their requests.…" Now, that sounds good until we look for details. What, for example, does the term stable group of faithful mean? Is he talking about a certain number of people who want '62 missal? Or perhaps how many people regularly will attend such a Mass? Perhaps stable doesn't refer to numbers at all, but requires the group to be unswervingly loyal to the Novus Ordo "hierarchy," to accept the "validity" and "holiness" of the 1970 "mass" and to acknowledge the supposed force and authority of Vatican II's decrees and declarations (such points are actually alluded to in the letter). Good questions all, but nowhere is the term actually defined, so here's the first wiggle point: "Stable group" is an ambiguous term that gives a "pastor" (and hence, necessarily, a "bishop") the call on whether or not a group qualifies as stable based on his own interpretive prejudices.

4. Also, in the spirit of "collegiality" pastors are not commanded to accede to such requests, as we'd expect to see in any pre-conciliar papal document (for example, "All these things we will and order to be sanctioned and established by our apostolic authority, aught to the contrary notwithstanding." —Pope St. Pius X, Motu Proprio, Praestantia Scripturae), but rather it is recommended that they should honor such desires. Nothing binding them at all. At the same time Ratzinger express his concern that the motu crowd's "welfare" be watched over, and urges the pastor to see that his care for them "harmonizes" with the usual care of the parish, while "avoiding discord and favoring the unity of the whole Church." All this is to be done "under the guidance of the bishop." [emphasis added] But what if the "ordinary" deems that the best attempts to integrate the 1962 chapel haven't worked and that its continued presence is creating discord? Does he not also need to see that the "unity of the whole Church" be preserved? How could this not be, if it's entrusted to his guidance? This being the case, he would certainly have the delegated authority to pull the plug on the '62ers, if he believed them to be a disruptive force. Of course, this is reading it a certain way, since nothing is ever spelled out. But, now, only six months since the motu's promulgation and four months since its implementation, experience is already showing in instances like Brentwood above, that Modernist Rome is giving it's "bishops" considerable leeway in interpreting Summorum Pontificum, and the bottom line is that if your group's local "ordinary" is a liberal and doesn't really want any Latin Masses going on, then he's probably going to find something to use in the language of the motu proprio/letter as an excuse to shoot down your request or make life miserable for you (just like with "indult Masses" before the motu).

5. Near the end of Article 5, Ratzinger states that any priest wishing to offer Mass using the 1962 Missal "must be qualified to do so and not juridically impeded." More booby traps. Presumably, the "ordinary" has a major say in whether or not someone is qualified, and can create make the requirements steep if he wants to keep it out of his "diocese." As for juridically impeded, you don't imagine he had the SSPX in mind, now, do you?! — LOL

6. Suppose, however, that the local motu crowd can't get anywhere with their pastor. Article 7 "solves" the problem this way: "If a group of lay faithful, as mentioned in art. 5 ő 1, has not obtained satisfaction to their requests from the pastor, they should inform the diocesan bishop. The bishop is strongly requested to satisfy their wishes. If he cannot arrange for such celebration to take place, the matter should be referred to the Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei.'" Okay, so must the "bishop" grant their request? No. He's only "strongly requested" to do so. And if he can't arrange it for them, then the matter "should be referred" to Ecclesia Dei. (This is essentially repeated in Article 8.) Well, "collegiality" strikes again. The request should be referred to that commission, but Ratzinger doesn't say it must be. In fact, he doesn't even so much as say it needs to be processed in a timely fashion. (We can well imagine a "progressive" Novus Ordo "bishop" sitting behind his desk with a copy of the request on his desk thinking to himself: "Hmm, let's see. The rest of this week doesn't look so good. Thursday night I've got the Bishops for Obama rally to attend and I'll need to conserve all of my energy for that one, so no lifting any heavy objects such as stamps and envelopes. Tomorrow, I've got the luncheon where the guy from PETA is going to make us all feel guilty about leather shoes and belts and roast beef, but he's pretty funny so I can handle it. Well, maybe in the afternoon. No wait, not then, I've got the steering committee meeting concerning Amnesty for Illegal Aliens on Death Row. Too important to miss. Okay, Saturday, yeah, maybe Saturday I'll send that request over to Rome. Oops, forgot. Saturday we've got the annual Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence picnic and that's always a real wild time. And it gives me a chance to see some guys from back at the seminary I haven't seen in years. Ah, you know what? There's nothing wrong with those fanatics going to the regular liturgy for a while longer; hey, if it's good enough for Papa Ratzi, it's good enough for them! I'll send that request when I feel like it…if I send it, of course. Hey, and that's a really big "if.")

Next, let's turn briefly to the letter sent to all of his "bishops" that accompanied the motu. There, Benedict generally becomes more explicit in his language, especially when he discusses their duties is carrying out the implementation of the "universal indult." He reassures them that "these new norms do not in any way lessen your own authority and responsibility, either for the liturgy or for the pastoral care of your faithful. Each Bishop, in fact, is the moderator of the liturgy in his own Diocese…" [emphasis added] This is pretty strong evidence that yes, a bishop still can make or break the indult in his own "diocese," just as before Summorum Pontificum. The following paragraph in the letter is the concluding statement on the duties of the "bishop":

Nothing is taken away, then, from the authority of the Bishop, whose role remains that of being watchful that all is done in peace and serenity. Should some problem arise which the parish priest cannot resolve, the local Ordinary will always be able to intervene, in full harmony, however, with all that has been laid down by the new norms of the Motu Proprio. [emphasis added throughout]

Papa DeviousThe ambiguity in determining precisely what are to be considered the parameters of new norms is what makes this a classic Novus Ordo ploy, one that's been played out repeatedly over the conciliar decades. The sequencing of events goes something like this: 1. A policy is established by Modernist Rome that seeming favors a "conservative" individual or groups, only to be roundly ignored at the "diocesan" level; 2. Believing that an injustice is happening, the offended parties complain that the relevant authority "isn't being obedient to the Holy Father"; 3. The victims send a letter or petition to the "Pope" in hope of getting satisfaction for their grievance. 4. Nothing is done by Modernist Rome (in fact, sometimes the offending "bishop" may be promoted, even given a cushy job at the Vatican); 5. Believing that the letter/petition was prevented by hostile forces from reaching the "Pope's" desk (giving them an excuse for his inaction), the victims continue to suffer the same injustices and when they soon become systemic, refer to them as "abuses"; and 6. Meanwhile, the perpetrators are interpreting the same policy in a different light, one that is equally plausible, given the intentional vagueness (we say intentional because the same "abuses" go on for years or decades with little or no effort to clarify the policy, stop the "abuse" and bring the "wayward bishop" into compliance). So, this latest motu mess isn't anything out of the ordinary in conciliar circles, but, given the unstinting enthusiasm displayed by many for the motu so far, a refinement of earlier stratagems: Ratzinger simply eems to have built a much better mousetrap. (Above left, Papa Devious in all his conniving "glory")
 

Modernist Rome calls for his release
Gunmen abduct Iraqi 'archbishop'
"AsiaNews reported that Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho had just left Mosul's Holy Spirit Cathedral when he was kidnapped in the al-Nour district in the eastern section of the city. Three people who accompanied him were killed."

Background link:
 Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul

Group offered $2M to buy another church
 Bid to save Ontario church rejected by 'diocese'
"Despite outrage from parishioners, a lawsuit threat and an opportunity to make $2 million by selling another Windsor church, the Roman Catholic Diocese of London says it will still close St. Rose of Lima church this summer and put it up for sale."

Apostasy in the guise of 'inter-religious dialogue'
Malta's 'archbishop prays toward Mecca in a mosque
"The importance of inter-religious dialogue was yesterday highlighted by Malta's Archbishop who prayed side by side with the Muslim Imam at the Corradino Mosque. Standing barefoot in the carpeted Mosque, Archbishop Paul Cremona and Imam Mohamed El Sadi faced Mecca when they immersed themselves in a few moments of silent prayer."

LEST WE FORGET
HERE CREMONA'S MENTOR
PRAYS AT THE BLUE MOSQUE

CALLED A FRIEND OF TRADITION,
 BUT WHICH TRADITION! 

Culture war update
Prayer warriors at 'gay' fest on trial
"A trial is scheduled to begin today in Elmira, N.Y., and lawyers for the defendants say it will be a test of whether the First Amendment affirmations of freedom of speech and freedom of religion still are valid in the United States. 'Choosing to exercise your First Amendment rights in a public place is not a crime,' Joel Oster, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund said. 'The government has no right to arrest citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights in public.'"

NOW Comment: Liberal bigotry in action. These closet Marxists literal want to destroy free speech in this country for anyone who has traditional values. If they're allowed to succeed with their evil plan and kill free speech, then they'll march in to our churches and shut them down for preaching and teaching Jesus Christ. We need to stand up to them and fight!

True colors come through…surprised?
 Colorado 'bishops' backstab personhood amendment
"The Colorado Catholic Conference said it has not endorsed a Colorado ballot measure that would grant personhood and constitutional rights to humans from the moment of conception. The conference, which speaks for the state's three Catholic bishops, issued a statement Thursday contradicting the petitioners — Colorado for Equal Rights — which claimed Wednesday that the church's state leaders are on board."

NOW Comments: It makes perfect sense. These hirelings essentially distort St. Paul's comment that he "became all things to all men, that I might save all (1 Cor. 9:22)" so they won't alienate pro-death Democratic candidates and fundraisers. (Hey, kind of tough to rub elbows with Obama or Hillary at $1000 a plate fundraiser if you've come out officially taking a tough pro-life stand, huh?  "It's a political, gutless position," said Judie Brown, president of the American Life League of such betrayals, which began earlier in the month when Georgia "bishops'"

Marxist thugs run amok
Protestors storm 'chancery' in Caracas
"The Archdiocese of Caracas was taken hostage for several hours by supporters of Venezuela President Hugo Chavez who staged a protest against the Church. Catholic News Agency reports the group of 15 Chavistas violently took over the chancery of the Archdiocese of Caracas, expelling the officials working inside, including Bishop Jesús González de Zárate."

Planned promiscuity = big $$$ for abortion/contraception providers
 Politicians call for defunding Planned Parenthood after reports of pornography promotion
"Following recent revelations that a Planned Parenthood youth site has been promoting pornography to teenagers, three House representatives have called for the termination of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding, Cybercast News Service reports. A 2007 article on the Planned Parenthood-sponsored Teenwire.com website advised pornography use as a “lower-risk form of outercourse.' 'Many couples can read or watch sexy stories or pictures together,' the article stated. 'They can also share or act out sex fantasies.'”

 Related link:
 Planned Parenthood teen site encourages pornography as 'harmless fun'

 VIDEO/TEXT
Culture of abortion pervades British medical profession, say English pro-lifers
"A British proposal to limit further the circumstances in which abortion can be performed has won acclaim from some in the British pro-life movement. However, pro-life leaders also lamented the British medical establishment’s support for loose abortion regulations as the new embryo research and fertilization bill nears a vote."

Some clear thinking in the Society
 SSPX priest on Motu: Under appearance of good, Devil poses as angel of light
"Therefore, the declaration by Benedict XVI affirming that the true Mass was never abolished appears, at first sight, to be a victory. However, after closer examination of the declaration, one perceives both the subtlety and the intelligence of this action. Benedict XVI is attempting by an audacious and effective way to accomplish his most profound and desired goal according to his Modernistic mindset, so that many critics of Modernism have not been able to appreciate fully the vastness of his aims or the subtlety of his strategy.

"Benedict XVI, who has a keen and penetrating intellect, intends to legitimize the New Mass by attempting to portray it as a legitimate and faithful development of the ancient Roman rite. To be successful, he had to heal the rupture created by the attempted suppression of the Traditional Mass, first by denying that the Traditional Mass had been abolished. For the Traditional Mass was the faithful expression of the ancient Roman Mass, both in its historical development and in its dogmatic content, promulgated in perpetuity. " [see Feb. 27 entry]

Related commentaries:
 High church, Low church
 "One and the Same Rite": How Benedict XVI tries to destroy the Traditional Mass

THE ULTIMATE GOAL: A HYBRID MASS
Background quote:

“I believe that in the long term the Roman Church must have a single Roman Rite…The Roman Rite of the future should be a single rite, celebrated in Latin or in vernacular, but standing completely in the tradition of the rite that has been handed down…”

"Cardinal" Joseph Ratzinger (The Tablet, February 16, 2008, p. 36). Cited,  Heading to a Hybrid Mass

Tainted results for previous test?
 New tests for Shroud of Turin at Oxford
"The Oxford laboratory that declared the Turin Shroud to be a medieval fake 20 years ago is investigating claims that its findings were wrong. The head of the world-renowned laboratory has admitted that carbon dating tests it carried out on Christendom's most famous relic may be inaccurate. Professor Christopher Ramsey, the director of the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, said he was treating seriously a new theory suggesting that contamination had skewed the results."
 

Related link:
 Shroud of Turin on Wikipedia (additional links included)

"For those who believe, no proof is necessary; for those who don't believe, no amount of proof is sufficient."

— St. Ignatius of Loyola

Gee, is there a section on global warming?
 Third encyclical to cover modern 'social issues'
 "Pope Benedict will soon finish his encyclical on social issues, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has confirmed."

 'An enemy has done this' [Matt. 13:28]
Freemasonic table replaces altar in Irish church

Openly gay ambassador given 'Catholic' award in India
 "Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, the immediate past President of CBCI, presented the first Blessed Mother Teresa International Humanitarian Awards to Dr. Peter Piot and Ambassador Mark R. Dybul (in absentia) on Feb. 26 at the Taj Hotel, New Delhi."

 Not that his exorcisms would do any good anyway
 Aussie 'archbishop' rejects claims of exorcism increase 
"Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby has debunked claims of a spike in exorcisms in Queensland. The Catholic Leader reports Archbishop Bathersby said the claims of an increase of demonic possession were a 'complete surprise' to him."

Related features:
 The new rite of exorcism critiqued
 Possession epidemic in Indonesia (Okay, what about these, "Archbishop?")
From our 'A world gone insane' department
 Legal expert claims that unborn babies are really chimpanzees
"A former attorney general and human rights commission chairman is claiming that unborn children in the earliest stages of development are not human, and are in fact chimpanzees. Dr. Jorge Carpizo McGregor claims that "for the topic of abortion, there are very important scientific advances that prove that the DNA of chimpanzees is 99 percent identical to that of a human being. The difference between ourselves and chimpanzees is one percent, this quantity that makes the difference is the central nervous system."

Dwindling attendance cited as reason for closing
Vatican high court rejects latest effort to save 132-year-old Buffalo church
"For the second time, the Vatican has upheld a decision by Bishop Edward U. Kmiec to close St. Adalbert Catholic Church in the Broadway-Fillmore area. "

'Death of Communism' update
'Cardinal' Bertone and Raul Castro conclude meeting with hopes for better ties
"The historic meeting between Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, and the new president of Cuba, Raul Castro, came to an end on Tuesday with the hope of better relations between the Catholic Church in Cuba and the Communist government, although without concrete promises."

Background link:
 The Real Cuba (a site that exposes what the news media is silent about)

NOW Comments:
All this amounts to is a great propaganda coup for the Communists in Cuba. Raul Castro is another dictator with the misleading title of "president," who was put into power not by an democratic election, but by the the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. Reality check: This is Fidel's brother we're talking about, who's been a professed Communist all of his adult life, participated in a bloody revolution that persecuted and martyred Catholics, and has been his ruthless sibling's right-hand during nearly 30 years in power. The only change going on, aside from the transition of power being relinquished by a charismatic tyrant and turned over to a nondescript one, is one in the perception of the gullible that is being assiduously advanced by the news media at every turn that there is the possibility of real reform. (A link on the Real Cuba site shows that Raul's second-in-command is regarded as a hardliner, a Stalinist.) Our only question is whether Bertone is merely a useful idiot of the Communists or a sympathizer. (And if Barack Obama isn't secretly a card-carrying Communist, then he's cheating the CPUSA out of membership dues. It has now been revealed that his great friend and political influence, someone he's simply identified publicly as "Frank," was literally a card-carrying member! See Obama mentor identified as communist)

23% of 'Catholics' are divorced and 11% also remarried
 USCCB Poll: Those who attend 'Mass' less likely to divorce
"A poll commissioned by the USCCB Subcommittee on Marriage and the Family Life and conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate has found that Catholics who attend Mass frequently are less likely to get divorced and are more likely to have large families, reports Lifesite News."

NOW Comments:
Before anyone try toot the horn for the "new Mass," it is noteworthy that the report states: "Older Catholics, especially those who came of age prior to Vatican II, are typically more involved in Church life and more frequently attend Mass than younger generations of Catholics." We submit that such couples simply retained what they had been taught in the pre-Vatican II Church about the sanctity of the Sacrament of Matrimony and also retained something of their worship habits, albeit not all of them, as they compromised their faith by falling away from the true Mass. Still, most of these aren't the sort of Novus Ordo churchgoers we'd typically expect would attend a "clown mass" or "gay mass." 

Apology rings hollow to successor
'Priest' stole money for secret family
"A retired Catholic priest will serve 63 months behind bars for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars to support his secret family in the Philippines. AP reports Rodney Rodis, 51, plead guilty to money laundering and mail frauds for theft of more than $650,000 from St Jude Church and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Virginia, United States between 2002 and 2006.

Liberal rabbi plays 'guilt' card
 Revised Good Friday prayer fuels Jewish walkout of German 'Catholic' meeting
"The new Catholic Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews has now affected the upcoming German Catholic Church Congress. The representative of the World Union for Progressive Judaism in Germany, Walter Homolka, has cancelled his participation in the Christian meeting in Osnabrück in May. The Catholic prayer for 'enlightenment of the Jews,' after the guilt of the Catholic Church 'in the history of their relationship with the Jews' and most recently in the time of National Socialism, is 'totally inappropriate' and "should be rejected in the strongest terms,' he said on Monday in Potsdam."

NOW Comments:
Well, we guess those Jews won't be converting anytime soon.— LOL Not that they had anything to fear along that line from their Novus Ordo partners in dialogue. What sticks in the craw is Homolka's ignorant calumny that the Church's traditional prayer for Jewish conversion can be linked in any manner to Nazism. Nothing short of an acknowledgement of the supposed absolute equality between Catholicism and Judaism, between church and synagogue will suit such a one!

The Vatican II meltdown continues
 Pennsylvania  'diocese' to shutter four churches, last school
"Four of the five Roman Catholic churches in Johnstown’s historic Cambria City section will close next year, and the last remaining Catholic school in the neighborhood is shutting in June. The announcement of the closings, made by Bishop Joseph Adamec late Monday after word leaked during the weekend, rocked the neighborhood best known for its annual church-based ethnic festival.…Adamec also stressed that church closings have been taking place since 1994 'as the result of a declining number of priests and a dwindling population in the area.'" (Click here for a photo of one of the doomed churches.)

 School suspends teens for wearing crucifixes
Bringing about 'the social transformation that Roe began'
 Pro-Abortion 'Catholics for Free Choice' endorses subversive Obama
"Not all pro-abortion feminists from the heyday of the Sexual Revolution are behind Hillary Clinton as their abortion candidate. Frances Kissling, former president of the abortion advocacy group, Catholics for Choice, has instead come out swinging for Barack Obama, whom she believes is the best abortion candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.…'It is no longer about winning the culture war. It is about completing the social transformation that Roe began but did not solidify,' Kissling concluded. 'That task, I believe, will best be accomplished by a president who sees her or his role as calling us to greatness ... I think Barack Obama is the person who can do that.'"

 VIDEO
Liturgical dance by conciliar 'Benedictines'
We can well imagine what St. Scholastica would say about these women posing as her spiritual daughters—and it wouldn't be very pleasant!

The revision of the revision
Genuflecting to the Jews
"In fact it is not a prayer for the conversion of any Jews, since it does not speak to of the abandonment of unbelief and their entering the Church. It should not be forgotten that in the Novus Ordo theology the Jews have their own covenant with God, still valid despite their rejection of Christ, which covenant will bring them to salvation."

Related article:
 'End of the JP2 era': Benedict's revised prayer attacked at Seton Hall (Here is the kind of attack that allows Ratzinger to position himself falsely as a friend of tradition.)

It doesn't get any lower than this
 Loyola Marymount film attempts 'multi-part rebuttal' of Biblical strictures against homosexuality

 He says he's being libeled
 Murphy-O'Connor's aide 'was behind this abortion'
"The ex-lover of a former spokesman for the Catholic Church was rushed into an abortion by the man and his mother, the High Court was told yesterday. Moyra Bremner, a writer, said she was 'horrified' to return from a holiday to India in 1989 and hear that her daughter, Siobhan, then aged 26, who had become pregnant by Austen Ivereigh, had gone through with the abortion.

'New springtime' update
 Irish directory shows Ireland heading toward major priest shortage
Correction: Ireland already has a severe priest shortage; what it's heading toward is a "priest" shortage.

Caught in another heresy
 Benedict XVI: Catholics in communion with Lutherans
 See entry for February 27th. (If the link has been changed when you read this, it will be necessary to look for the week in question either at Some of the Recent Feature Articles page or The Heresy of the Week Archive for those from years back.)

Related link:
 Kasper to participate in anniversary of Lutheran school of theology

Fostering 'ethical and religious values'…yeah, right
 'Jesuit' University to host obscene rapper Ludacris
"A Jesuit University has invited the rapper Ludacris to perform at a campus concert, despite the rapper's very obscene, violent and sexually explicit lyrics.…Fairfield University in Connecticut, which claims to foster 'ethical and religious values and a sense of social responsibility' in its mission statement, invited Ludacris to perform a concert on February 15. The university promised $85,500 to bring Ludacris to campus, despite the fact that the university has an official concert budget of only $33,000."

NOW Comments:
Can anyone seriously maintain that Fairfield University a Catholic institution of higher learning in anything but name? Quite plainly, for parents to knowingly send their children to a school that throws its students into harm's way like this (not to mention the myriad heresies and other errors they teach while misappropriating the name Catholic) are necessarily committing mortal sin.

'New springtime' update
 Religion in America poll: Novus Ordo sect suffers most defections
"While those Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular religion have seen the greatest growth in numbers as a result of changes in affiliation, Catholicism has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes. While nearly one-in-three Americans (31%) were raised in the Catholic faith, today fewer than one-in-four (24%) describe themselves as Catholic. These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration.…"

Related link:
 One in ten, three out of ten

NOW Comments:
Ever wonder what is behind the fanatical support of the U.S. "bishops" for the invasion of illegal aliens into the country? Wonder no more. Gullible replacements are needed to help replenish the collection baskets made bare through graft, child abuse payouts and the ever-emptying pews. 

Yes, it's sad, however…
 Colorado faithful grieve over church closures
"For more than 50 years, Lucy Martinez has been a faithful parishioner at Bessemer's Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church. 'All five of my kids made their First Communion and were confirmed there,' she said.…In five weeks, Martinez and hundreds of other parishioners of Assumption and nearby St. Patrick's Church (photo, left, in better times)  will be forced to leave their longtime parishes - where many have worshipped for decades - when the Diocese of Pueblo closes their doors for good on March 30."

 Related article:
 Catholic diocese to close two parishes in Pueblo

NOW Comments:
It's easy to sympathize at a certain level with these people (who number so many), but when we read of someone like Lucy Martinez, who started attending church there in 1957when Pope Pius XII still reigned, we need to recall that she was a young mother at the time, so she clearly knew what worship and Catholic life was like well before all of the destructive changes of the ensuing decades. Yet she embraced those changes, and apparently still embraces them. While like many Catholics, she quite possibly was lulled to accept them through the gradualism with which they were introduced in the early-to-mid-1960s (and to a degree before 1960), later to be crystallized in Vatican II revolution and Bugnini/Montini's liturgical monster, the "new Mass." Perhaps Our Lady of the Assumption was one of the more "conservative" churches, so she didn't have a steady stream of "abuses" to suffer, but the "non-abuses" of a "mainstream, middle of the road" church are still quite significant. They could include (but not limited to): the "table," no tabernacle, no altar rail, no ladies' head coverings, casual dress, throwaway missalettes instead of missals, elimination of Rosaries and other traditional devotions, the Sacred Heart being replaced with representations of Sr. Faustina's Divine Mercy devotion, crucifixes and/or statues removed (and perhaps destroyed), these being replaced with largely undecipherable modernistic "art," pop music replacing chant, polyphony and other appropriate hymns, lay lectors, pastors giving insipid (at best) "homilies" and promoting questionable causes, communion received in hand, communion received standing, communion received from an "extraordinary eucharistic minister, etc.…not to mention, of course, the biggest "non-abuse" of them all—the Novus Ordo Missae itself. Anyone of these examples taken alone should be a red flag and a few going simultaneously a real cause for concern. But when they're taken en mass, and the irreverence becomes pervasive, then the only thing left for a Catholic who values his or her Faith to do is rise up from the pew and dragging the family along, and head for the closest exit. And like Lot and his daughters leaving Sodom, they must leave and not look back at the destruction. And so Lucy Martinez and others in her situation need to think and act.  Church closings are but more of the rotten fruit produced by the counterfeit church. Just like the seemingly never ending string of sex abuse scandals, wreckovations, ecumenical get-togethers, dying religious orders, heresies, malfeasances and so forth, each church closing is another bright neon sign with twenty-foot-high flashing letters that spell out: "WE'RE NOT CATHOLIC!" The time is long overdue that the Lucy Martinezes of the world to stop the whining, wipe away their tears, abandon the sinking ship and see that such crises ought to be considered as wakeup calls, opportunities to return to the Catholic traditions in which they once took part. The bottom line is that everywhere we turn we see the same thing taking place around the world: The counterfeit conciliar church is dying and it's dying because as an imposture it does not have the divine grace granted to the true Catholic Church, which down the centuries has enabled her to overcome the failings of her members and ever rebuild herself and replenish her children. For it is only to the Catholic Church that Christ has promised through His Apostle: "Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." [Matt 16:18]

While flunking their own liturgical history quiz
Rebel Catholics say Vatican caved on Latin prayer
"The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which was expelled from the Church in 1988, denounced the change in a Good Friday prayer that it said was one of the oldest in Christianity, dating back to the third century."

History lesson:
Ah, no, the change made by Benedict XVI was most emphatically not to a prayer dating from the third century, but to a revised version of it appearing in the adulterated 1962 Bugnini/Roncalli Missal. Big difference!

 PHOTOS  Niederauer is going to be sooo jealous
 Church welcomes British 'gay pride parade'

But we're paranoid to think the North American Union on the way?
 N. American Army created without okay by Congress—US and Canada ink deal
"In a ceremony that received virtually no attention in the American media, the United States and Canada signed a military agreement Feb. 14 allowing the armed forces from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a domestic civil emergency, even one that does not involve a cross-border crisis."

Lawmaker: Still need time to think about it (too bad threatened unborn don't have that luxury!)
 'Human life' amendment tabled in Georgia, thanks in part  to NRL, NO 'bishops'
"Chairman Rep. Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, advised House members to simply put down the broad-reaching legislation. He said it could tie legislators’ hands in the future when deciding specific issues ranging from fertility counseling to birth control to medical treatments. 'I am concerned about a culture of death, but we’re best off giving the Legislature flexibility to work through these thorny issues,' Rep. Lindsey said. 'More thought is needed.' He pointed out that abortion opponents such as the National Right to Life organization and Georgia’s two Catholic bishops have come out against the proposed amendment because they don’t think it offers a viable way to challenge Roe v. Wade. That Supreme Court precedent would need to be overturned to ban abortion in any state.

Related columns:
 Wanted: pro-life integrity
The Legacy of Judas: National Right to Life's betrayal of the unborn

Source: Vatican has long known married men already getting ordained there
Brazilian presiders ask Benedict XII to waive celibacy requirement
"Brazilian priests have spoken directly to Pope Benedict XVI to ask him for a revision of the canonical law obliging celibacy for those carrying out priestly functions. The decision appeared in the final document of the 12th National Meeting of Priests, which ended on Tuesday in the Itaici monastery in the Indaiatuba municipality (in the state of Sao Paulo)."

An evil compounded
 Artist aborts twins, hangs self
"Emma Beck hung herself in Helston, Cornwall after aborting twins. Her note read: 'I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum. I told everyone I didn't want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does.'"

'Lavender Mafia' victim?
Remembering Father Kunz
"On March 4, it will be ten years since the murder of Father Alfred Kunz. The case remains unsolved."

Background link:
 Lavender Mafia

Guess that sort of think didn't end with JP2 after all
 Indigenous women to share WYD stage with Modernist #1
"An Indigenous women's singing group from Tiwi Island will be making the exciting journey to Sydney to sing for the Pope during World Youth Day."

Entire text of Fr. Fahey's  study now online
 The Kingship of Christ and the Conversion of the Jewish Nation
"The annual celebration of the Feast of Christ the King is meant to lead men 'to reflect on the Last Judgment, in which Christ, who has been cast out of public life, despised, neglected and ignored, will severely avenge such insults.' Our Lord Jesus Christ came down to proclaim His Father’s program for the restoration of ordered life in the world and died proclaiming it. After Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus had catalogued modern errors against the order of society demanded by the infinite dignity of the Life of Sanctifying Grace, restored through the foundation of the Mystical Body on Calvary, Popes Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI and Pius XII have set forth in their Encyclicals the Positive program for order enjoined upon us by Christ Our Head, Priest and King. In this series of books I am endeavoring to make known that positive program to as many as possible, so that they may have a thorough knowledge of the order of the world they should stand for as members of Christ. The series is placed under the patronage of St. Joan of Arc. At the beatification of that lovely saint in 1908, Blessed Pius X sadly reminded members of Christ that: 'All the strength of Satan’s reign is due to the easy-going weakness of Catholics.'”

Related links:
 Quas Primas (Encyclical on the Kingship of Jesus Christ of Pope Pius XI [December 11, 1925]
About the author of The Kingship of Christ & the Conversion of the Jewish Nation: Fr. Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp.

To promote lots of 'understanding' and 'community building'
'Catholic' University announces Gay-Straight Partnership
"The University of Portland, run by the Holy Cross Fathers, has recognized a club that seeks to build community and understanding between students who are heterosexual and those with a homosexual orientation."

 PHOTOS
Stealth priestess sighting in Austria

Still in good standing with 'Pope' Ratzinger
Head of German 'bishops' stirs controversy with comments
"Barely a week since taking office, the head of the German Catholic Church, Robert Zollitsch, has raised eyebrows with comments that clerical celibacy is not 'theologically necessary.'"

Niederauer's haunt lives again in infamy
 Notorious SF church holds award ceremony for gays
"A 'coalition of eight leather- and motorcycle-oriented clubs in the South-of-Market Area gay and lesbian community' held its annual community awards Feb. 16 at Most Holy Redeemer parish’s Ellard Hall in the Castro District of San Francisco. Most Holy Redeemer is well known as a 'gay-friendly' Catholic parish."

They would have to kill preborn babies or make referrals
 NY legislation would force abortion on religious hospitals
"Under legislation sitting in the New York Assembly, religious hospitals and social service agencies in the state would be required to perform abortions or refer women to an abortionist."


 …and to deceive the elect?
'Pope' Benedict XVI changes Good Friday prayer to appease Jews
"Pope Benedict XVI has changed a traditional Good Friday prayer which called for the conversion of Jews by removing references to the 'blindness' in their hearts. In recent years, only the traditional Latin mass has used the Good Friday prayer. Members of both the Jewish and Catholic communities have already condemned the alteration.

"The new translation of the Good Friday prayer has removed mention of 'blindness,' a 'veil' or 'darkness' in reference to those of the Jewish faith.…

 "After the publication of the Motu, which re-introduced the pre-Conciliation Mass, many in the Hebrew world were concerned. The Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and spiritual guides of the Sephardic and Aschenazi communities wrote to Pope Benedict XVI to ask that the Good Friday prayer be altered."
 

An unofficial translation of the changed prayer written by Benedict XVI to replace the version in the 1962 Missal:

Let us pray, and also for the Jews.

May our God and Lord enlighten their hearts, so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, savior of all men.
Let us pray.
Let us kneel.
Arise.

Almighty and everlasting God, who desirest that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of truth, mercifully grant that, as the fullness of the Gentiles enters into Thy Church, all Israel may be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

NOW Comments:
 Besides removing divinely-inspired words of scripture to describe the rejection by the Jews of their Messiah, "Pope" Ratzinger has done very little to the prayer in terms of achieving any appeasement, were that his principal aim. The problem lies squarely language that petitions God that He "enlighten [Jewish] hearts, so they may acknowledge Jesus Christ…," which implies that the Jews suffer from a darkened heart, something that was a bone of contention in the first place, and that they should be converted to Christ. For some Jews, this is made to out to be an insult, even tantamount to anti-Semitism. For example, Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, called the revision "troubling" and a potential stumbling block to improved relations between Jews and Modernist Rome. Of course, a real pope wouldn't allow non-Catholics to dictate to him how the prayers of the Church are to be worded—the very thought of such a thing would at once be absurd and a betrayal of Christ. According to John L. Allen Jr., writing for the National Catholic Reporter, there are some liturgists who believe Ratzinger took such a step to send a message to tradition Catholics:

As The New York Times noted, some Catholic traditionalists are disturbed - if not by the content of the new prayer itself, then by the precedent that the old Mass can be bowdlerized in response to external pressure. (Some liturgical experts, by the way, think this may be the lasting significance of the pope's decision. As one put it to me this week, "It shows that the '62 missal can be reformed, that it's not inviolable or frozen in time.") (Synod of Bishops on the Bible already causing ferment; Good Friday prayer revised) In other words, such a move can have a radicalizing effect on the faithful, which we maintain was the intention.)

But for Traditional Catholics there are equally disturbing aspects to this new prayer. Firstly, there's the phrase, "savior of all men," which can easily be read as an affirmation of the universal salvation error. And this is obviously a very serious concern. Yet there is still something that may in a sense be more dangerous than any point raised so far, and that is the fact that the revision was made in the first place, because it is a move that targets no one but those who use the 1962 Missal. Here's where Ratzinger the Modernist emerges with all his deviousness, because here, just over six months from the day he issued the "motu proprio" Summorum Pontificum, the document allegedly "liberating the Traditional Latin Mass," he's made the first bold move to restricting that Missal, or rather refashioning it a way that will lead to a melding of the 1962 liturgy with the Novus Ordo Missae. He did this with a rather obvious slight-of-hand that nevertheless very few observers seem to have picked up on: A peculiar stipulation of the motu is that any priest who wishes to offer the Mass from the 1962 Missal may do so throughout the year with the exception of the Holy Triduum, for which he must say the 1970 "Mass"; now, of course Holy Triduum includes Good Friday, which means the Prayer for the Jews from '62 Missal isn't even going to be prayed at all! As we've already shown quite conclusively, back in July Benedict had stated quite clearly that the 1962 Missal would be altered with prayers and feast days from the "new Mass." So, this modified Good Friday prayer can be seen as something of a trial balloon, to see who is credulous enough to buy into the fraud. (He already has a taker, or rather a group of them, as can be seen here .) It is time for Catholics to see through this deceit, and realize that it's only a lure for their own destruction.

'New springtime' update
 Steep drop in numbers at Polish seminaries
"The bishop in charge of recruitment for Poland's Roman Catholic clergy says he does not believe recent scandals are to blame for a sharp fall in vocations, after the church noted a 24 percent reduction in admissions to the country's 84 Catholic seminaries."

Alas, more pedophile crimes in the shadows
Irish 'cardinal' withdraws legal challenge on documents
"Former archbishop of Dublin Cardinal Desmond Connell, has withdrawn an attempt to stop documents handed over by his successor from being considered by the Government's inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese."

 VIDEO/TEXT   Gynecologists push for lethal injection!
In one year 66 babies survive abortions in UK and are left to die
"A government report in the UK has revealed that babies who survive abortions are refused medical treatment and often left to die. According to Lifesite News, at least 66 infants survived abortions in one year alone. Thirty-three of the survivors lived for an hour while one struggled for life for 10 hours."

 Hindu-'Catholic' wedding

Miter against miter
 VT 'bishop': Indiana 'diocese' partially responsible in molestation
"Vermont's Roman Catholic bishop considered suing an Indiana Roman Catholic diocese to make it pay part of a court settlement in a priest molestation case in Vermont. Bishop Salvatore Matano said that the Indiana church withheld information about the priest when he was hired in Vermont and therefore should pay some of the $965,000 settlement."

With the blessing of the USCCB!
 Novus Ordo groups fund projects with hardcore pornography
"Five hundred years ago the Catholic Church was laid low for selling indulgences. Six years ago the Church was rocked by news of bishops covering up the sexual misdeeds of their fellow priests. Today hundreds of Catholic groups -- dioceses, archdioceses, and religious orders -- help fund their work through the sale of sex. Not sex per se, but the graphic depiction of sex found in hardcore pornography. Yes, the seamiest and steamiest hardcore porn films are brought into our living rooms and hotel rooms everyday through the investments of a veritable who's who of Catholic religious groups."

'Death of Communism' update
 Moscow warns of a 'looming war of civilizations'
"Moscow is warning that U.S. 'attempts to dictate its rules and laws to others" has led to a 'looming war of civilizations.' America's emphasis on human rights must be balanced by 'the rights of peoples, countries, and historical religious, cultural, or other [identities],' according to Moscow. The statements were made on the Voice of Russia World Service, an official broadcasting service of the Russian Federation."

Related article:
 Self-deception and the train from China
 Olympians forced to sign contract prohibiting criticism of Red China

Novus Ordo Watch Special Report:
 Exposing the "Communism is Dead" Myth

Only Chris changed
 Ferrara contra Ferrara
"That is amazing insight into the methods of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI--that he tears down even as he creates the appearance of building up. What has changed since 2005 when Christopher Ferrara wrote those words and now? Ratzinger's phony conservatism? H---, no. But something has changed in Ferrara's thinking. Witness the amazing transmutation--as Ferrara is transformed from the prosecuting lawyer in 2005 to the defense lawyer in 2008, watch how the image of the same Joseph Ratzinger is transformed accordingly.…"

A mess, indeed!
Makeshift 'Motu Mass'
 This photo was taken during an indult "Mass" in a Salt Lake City church. Novus Ordo chasuble, Novus Ordo wooden table, in a Novus Ordo church, with no doubt Novus Ordo hosts! (The word Mass is qualified here because of the possibly doubtful validity of the celebrant.)

Village of the damned?
 Novus Ordo officials plan 'exorcism center' in Poland
"A retreat center that some have billed as Europe’s only center dedicated to performing exorcisms is being planned to be built in a village in the northwest of Poland, the Washington Post reports. Father Andrzej Trojanowski, the priest leading the project, says he plans to build a 'spiritual oasis.'”

Conversion? What's that?
'Catholic' author urges Muslims to return to their roots
"Retrieval and development, rather than rupture and revolution: Is this a model that might be attractive to serious Muslims who want to do something positive to resolve the intra-Islamic civil war that has spilled out from the House of Islam and now affects all world politics – most lethally, through jihadist terrorism?"

'New springtime' update
 Conciliar religious orders suffer sharp decline
"The number of Catholic religious belonging to Orders has dramatically dropped bringing the total number to under one million. The BBC reports recent statistics show a drop of 10 percent between 2005 and 2006."

What are we to think of these troubling remarks?!
 Cardinal Ottaviani praises the UN and a Universal Republic
"It is necessary to make the decisions of established international organs—such as the International Court of Justice in The Hague [Netherlands] and the United Nations—more binding in order to resolve international controversies.…The Council should express the desire that all the nations of the world participate in a single Universal Republic, which transcends the individual characteristics of nations, so that the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ will become a reality."

NOW Comments:
For the second week in a row, the Tradition in Action [TIA] website has used its "Progressivist Document of the Week" section to present disturbing statements from Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, a prelate generally viewed as a hero by traditional Catholics, especially for his courageous condemnation of the "new Mass." In those rather vague comments, Ottaviani voiced reluctant acceptance of Vatican II "reforms" and a commitment to the "new laws," but the above linked quotes are far more problematic, since he is urging more power for groups that included Communists and other anti-Catholics, so the world government he's advocating necessarily does not recognize the social kingship of Christ, and that in the case of many member nations strongly oppose it. So it isn't a new Holy Rome Empire being proposed, comprised of Catholic nations, however much he may have ardently hoped that it would become that; instead, we're talking about a body that had a distinctly secularist, even Communist direction. The Catholic voice there was almost nil, even at the time.

Considering that the above-cited section routinely exposes the agenda of "Progressivists" (that is, Modernists) since the council, we expressed our surprise and concern that Cardinal Ottaviani would suddenly be a target. Now, we feel obliged to do so again, though this time, the cardinal does not get off so lightly in our minds. It is a fact that the conciliar "popes" to legitimize the drive for world government and even to an extent merge the Vatican and other captive Catholic institutions into it. John XXIII warmly praised the United Nations in 1963 with Pacem in Terris, which was two years after he ignored a "plea to the moral conscience of the world" to denounce horrendous atrocities that were being committed by U.N. "peacekeeping" forces in the Congo. Paul VI took this a step further by addressing delegates at U.N. headquarters, where he spoke of the organization as "the world's greatest hope." The late Fr. Francis Fenton, one of the great figures in the traditional movement, once responded to this quote by saying that the Catholic Church was the great hope of humanity! (John Paul II would later visit the United Nations himself, and up the ante by using the buzz phrase for world government when he called for a new world order based on the principles of the United Nations.)

Given this backdrop, particularly in light of the shady personages behind the founding of the organization, not to mention the butchery of perpetrated by the U.N. in the Congo, crimes against humanity which occurred a year before the beginning of Vatican II, it's difficult to fathom how Cardinal Ottaviani could have thrown his support behind such an group. While not seeking to totally exonerate him, a few things need to be kept in mind to give a balanced view of the matter. It should first be recalled that Ottaviani, who was born in Rome in 1890, as an adult witnessed firsthand the bloodshed of the two most horrible wars in history. In particular, he lived through the advent of "terror bombings" used by both the Allied and Axis forces in World War II, culminating in the atomic devastation visited upon Japan at the war's end. Pope Pius XII condemned such conduct as opposed to what is required for a just war.

As a consequence many, including Pius himself, embraced the idea of an international organization that would devote itself to preserving peace among nations. It should be remembered in this context, however, that at the time the U.N. had not shown its true colors as it would during John XXIII's disastrous reign. (Though it is also true that some in the know had already begun warning about the group.) It is well known that Cardinal Ottaviani was committed to advancing what Pius XII had taught about just war and how waging such a war has become more and more difficult with technological advances (see his article linked below), and he made such an impassioned plea at the Council. His promotion of the U.N. surely was based on this, as is clear from what Tradition in Action quotes.

Still, in addition to the history of the United Nations noted above, there is that disturbing quote from Pope Benedict XV in 1920 that bears an even more ominous profile in our time:

The advent of a Universal Republic, which is longed for by all the worst elements of disorder, and confidently expected by them, is an idea which is now ripe for execution. From this republic, based on the principles of absolute equality of men and community of possessions, would be banished all national distinctions, nor in it would the authority of the father over his children, or of the public power over the citizens, or of God over human society, be any longer acknowledged. If these ideas are put into practice, there will inevitably follow a reign of unheard-of terror.
(Emphasis added. Curiously, the motu proprio in which this passage is found, Bonum Sane, is conspicuous in its by its absence on the Vatican's presumably "complete" list of that pontiff's motu proprios: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xv/motu_proprio/index_en.htm)

Now, compare this to Ottaviani's advocacy at Vatican II of an international government, where "all the nations of the world participate in a single Universal Republic, which transcends the individual characteristics of nations (emphasis added) …." This is certainly a much more difficult thing to excuse than the rest, especially as he uses nearly the precise terminology that Benedict XV employed in condemning something profoundly evil. And, too, it is a secular, non-Catholic world government about which is being spoken. While Cardinal Ottaviani may well have meant something more benign, as we suggested at the start, the use of "Universal Republic" continues to be troubling and something that bears further scrutiny.   

Background reading:
Cardinal Ottaviani on The future of offensive war

Niederauer's boys back in action
 S.F. sodomite-friendly church rents hall to "gay" bridge club
"In October 2006, the Archdiocese of San Francisco ordered “gay-friendly” Most Holy Redeemer parish to stop leasing its parish hall to the infamous Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for their monthly bingo games. But it didn’t take long for the parish to find a replacement, according to the Bay Area Reporter."

You can't make this stuff up!
 Cigarette sin: A social justice issue
Sure. It ranks right up there with "homophobia," triumphalism and rainforest deforestation as a very big no-no in the Novus Ordo sect, don't you know!

2008 Dr. Frankenstein Award winner
 Three parents produce one embryo
"Human embryos with three parents have been created by British scientists. In a world first procedure, IVF embryos each containing DNA from one man and two women were produced as part of a medical research project on serious inheritable diseases by a team at Newcastle University."

More rotten fruit of Vatican II
 Spain turning its back on Catholic past
"A generation ago, traditional families were sacred in Spain. Gen. Francisco Franco liked them big and Catholic, and gave hefty cash prizes to parents with the most copious broods. These days, a civics course in Spain's public schools teaches that modern families can be quite different - single parents with kids, or same-sex couples raising adopted children."

 'Brokeback' Harry Forbes is at it again
 USCCB's Ebert-wannabe gives thumbs up for more immoral films
"Harry Forbes, the Director of the USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting, who provoked disbelief from U.S. Catholics when he praised both Brokeback Mountain and the explicitly anti-Catholic The Golden Compass, has again endorsed movies rife with explicit sexuality and extreme violence, this time in the USCCB's just released yearly top-10 movie listing."

 'Apostolic administrator' for Shreveport presides over Mardi Gras festivities
"Monsignor" Earl Provenza is dressed in a way that would make him feel right at home visiting Germany's "Cardinals" Meisner and Lehmann! (Warning: Immodest attire shown in some of the photos.)

Implementing Ratzinger's stratagem
 Modernist Rome's 'curia' wakes up and strikes three blows
Thanks to a few carefully chosen changes in the Vatican offices, Benedict XVI is getting what he wants. The proof is in three recent decisions by officials for the clergy, the causes of saints, and the liturgy.

NOW Comments: As with the motu proprio, here are grand, seemingly Tradition-oriented gestures designed to disarm the opposition.


Hasidic Jew Buber a preferred author; St. Thomas deemed 'impersonal'!
The Memories of a Destructive Mind: Joseph 'Cardinal' Ratzinger's Milestones
"The cultural interests pursued at the seminary of Freising were joined to the study of a theology infected by existentialism, beginning with the writings of Romano Guardini. Among the authors preferred by Ratzinger was the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. Ratzinger loved St. Augustine, but never St. Thomas Aquinas: 'By contrast, I had difficulties in penetrating the thought of Thomas Aquinas, whose crystal-clear logic seemed to be too closed in on itself, too impersonal and ready-made.' This aversion was mainly due to the professor of philosophy at the seminary, who 'presented us with a rigid, neo-scholastic Thomism that was simply too far afield from my own questions.'

 "According to Cardinal Ratzinger, whose current opinions appear unchanged from those he held as a seminarian, the thought of Aquinas was 'too closed in on itself, too impersonal and ready-made,' and was unable to respond to the personal questions of the faithful. This opinion is enunciated by a prince of the Church whose function it is to safeguard the purity of the doctrine of the Faith!

"Why, then, should anyone be surprised at the current disastrous crisis of Catholicism, or seek to attribute it to the world, when those who should be the defenders of the Faith, and hence of genuine Catholic thought, are like sewers drinking in the filth, or like gardeners who cut down a tree they are supposed to be nurturing? What can it mean to stigmatize St. Thomas as having a 'too impersonal and ready-made' logic? Is logic 'personal?' These assertions reveal, in the person who makes them, a typically Protestant, pietist attitude, like that found in those who seek the rule of faith in personal interior sentiment."

 Part II: The Memories of a Destructive Mind: Joseph 'Cardinal' Ratzinger's Milestones

Related link:
 'Pope' rewrites prayer following Jewish protest

NOW Comments:
The above two-part article appeared in the "Si si no no" section of the March and May 1999 issues of The Angelus, a magazine closely associated with the Society of St. Pius X in the United States. It reviews Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977, a book consists of interviews made by in 1996 when "Cardinal" Ratzinger was serving as the head of the Novus Ordo Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul II.

In the article one finds a good deal of information damning to the reputation Benedict XII has acquired undeservedly in some circles as a friend of tradition, who is determined to turn back the agents of revolution that have held captive the outer structures of the Catholic Church since Vatican II. Truly, in "Memories of a Destructive Mind" it becomes evident that Ratzinger himself was one of the destructive agents, and he was regarded as such long before the convening of the Council in 1962.

Discussing his student days at Freising, the article goes into a major red flag concerning his orthodoxy, namely his doctoral dissertation in 1957:

What especially interests us is the reason for the opposition he encountered from the competent professor, Professor Michael Schmaus. The work by Ratzinger on the concept of revelation as it occurs in the works of St. Bonaventure and the interpretation of this concept were accused of being unfaithful to the texts as well as manifesting 'a dangerous modernism that had to lead to the subjectivization of the concept of revelation.' The charge was serious: the subjectivist concept of revelation was typical of modernists. Effectively, Joseph Ratzinger was being accused of having heretical tendencies.

The Holy See under Pope Pius XII undoubtedly received word of Ratzinger's unorthodox views and duly noted them, for when Paul VI tabbed him for a position on a post-conciliar theological commission, the following was revealed about him:

Joseph RATZINGER: German, age 45, dogmatic theology, ecumenism; previously suspect [of heresy] by the Holy Office; member of the Faith and Ecumenism Commission; outstanding work (sic) in collaboration with Karl Rahner: Primacy and Episcopate. (See Fr. Ratzinger was under suspicion of heresy by the Holy Office)

The Rahner connection involved the Modernist takeover of the Second Vatican Council, in which Ratzinger was a key figure as the peritus attached to the liberal Josef Cardinal Frings of Cologne.

O Estado de Sao Paulo - What are the more significant differences between the Ratzinger of Vatican II and the Ratzinger of today? Who changed more: you or the Church?

'Cardinal' Ratzinger – I do not see a real, profound difference between my work at Vatican Council II and my present day work. While preparing this course for Bishops, I went to review a course of ecclesiology that I taught for the first time in 1956. Naturally, I found elements that needed to be updated. But as for the fundamental vision, I found a profound similarity. What I proposed to the Bishops in Rio de Janeiro (in this trip) was the same fundamental vision that I set out (then). (See Card. Ratzinger: There is no difference between my work at Vatican II and now)

In the second part of "Memories of a Destructive Mind" it is revealed that "Cardinal" Ratzinger in no way repudiated the Vatican II, as has been claimed by some of his neo-traditional apologists, nor did he renounce any of his unorthodox views, as is also evident in the above quote. Leftist "Cardinal" Leo Suenens, echoing comments of Freemasons (into whose ranks he was said to have initiated on June 15, 1967), approvingly declared that "Vatican II is the French Revolution of the Church," a opinion elaborated on by "Si si no no" in relation to Modernist factions led by Küng and Ratzinger at the council:

Some commentators have compared the Second Vatican Council to the Estates General of the French Revolution. Developing the analogy, one might say that Cardinal Ratzinger is a Girondist. The members of that faction were certainly more politically moderate than were the Jacobins, and especially their left wing (to which, in theology, we could compare the Küngs, Drewermanns, etc.), but they were no less revolutionary. They wanted to accomplish the same objectives, only in a more gradual, pragmatic manner. Their vision of the world, though, was identical: human reason exalted and placed in the center of the universe, democracy, bourgeois individualism; identical, too, was their hatred of Christianity, their desire to confiscate the goods of the Church, etc.

In other words, Ratzinger has every been as much the revolutionary as Küng, but less overtly so, which is why he has been able to deceive so many more people. It was our awareness of this deception that caused us to warn Catholics immediately after his election as head of the Novus Ordo sect. (See "What to Expect of Benedict XVI") The idea that people believing themselves to be conservative, even traditional, Catholics are actually looking at this man as some savior of Tradition, despite the many, many "papal" proofs of his continuing zealous pursuit of Modernist goals (to name a few: attending service in a Cologne synagogue, praying in a Turkish mosque like a Muslim, failing to discipline—severely or otherwise—openly pro-homosexual San Francisco "Archbishop" George Niederauer (Benedict XVI's own appointment), for having over the past year: a) supported sodomite adoptions through a Novus Ordo charity, b) allowed BBC-TV to broadcast worldwide a "gay Mass," c) permitted homophilic Most Holy Redeemer Church to host transvestite activities, and 4) given communion to members of the blasphemous transvestite troupe, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, while they were dressed in costumes openly mocking traditional Catholic nuns), is extremely distressing.

What such false hope entails is deception on Ratzinger's part, yes, but much more disturbing, a fundamental loss of any sense of discernment on the part of these people as to what it means to profess and defend the Catholic Faith. And the genesis of such confusion is the revolutionary and unorthodox reshaping of every aspect of what it means to be Catholic that followed the council. This significant destruction of Catholicism can be laid at the doorstep of Ratzinger and other Modernist periti who dominated Vatican II. Benedict XVI's refusal to acknowledge any wrongdoing (rather, an admission that he hasn't changed his "vision" from those days) or harm that came out of it clearly shows him to be the same revolutionary with the same destructive mind. For those who feel themselves being drawn in by the motu proprio on the 1962 Missal and other seeming traditional gestures of his, we reiterate our warning: Do not be deceived, this man is not a friend to you or to other any Catholic worthy of the name!

 

Let's see, where's the recipe section?
Vatican paper goes 'mod' with color photos, more articles by women
"It may not seem like much of a publishing upheaval, but the Vatican newspaper's switch to color pictures is part of a quiet media revolution for the conservative institution.…Other changes include more articles by women - a specific request by the Pope - more international cover, and a more reader-friendly layout and typeface."

 A different sort of pro-life story
Unborn twins save mom's life, kick loose deadly tumor from cervix
"Like any thrilled mother to be, Michelle Stepney cherished the first kicks she could feel from her unborn babies. But her lively twin girls were doing more than simply making their presence felt. Each little kick was saving their mother's life."

Broken vows across the board
 Husband slams love-cheat 'priest'
"A love rat monsignor advised a husband to leave his wife - then bought a house with her. Shamed priest Joseph Creegan acted as a marriage counselor for Graham and Anne Odgen. Graham claims the senior Catholic, sacked after an 18-year affair with another married woman, told him to ditch Anne."

Affirms Ecclesia Dei, contradicts Hoyos on 'canonical status'
 Polish 'Bishop' warns against expansion of the SSPX
"On Sunday, January 13, Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski of Gdansk, had a pastoral letter concerning the SSPX read in all the parishes of his diocese. It reads : 'The Society is a schismatic group which does not recognize the pope nor the council. This group has opened a chapel and is inviting the faithful to join them under the pretext of pre-conciliar liturgy.…This schismatic group is trying to spread in Poland.…Those who join them are excommunicated.'”

NOW Comments: Goclowski's remarks are at odds with those of "Cardinal" Dario Hoyos, who in recent years has claimed that the group isn't formally in schism from the counterfeit church. However, Hoyos' position is itself at variance with the clear language of John Paul II's 1988 "apostolic letter" Ecclesia Dei, which spoke of the "schismatic act" of the SSPX's Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in the consecration of four bishops as the reason for his excommunication and the letter clearly stated that those priests and laity who continued to adhere to him would also fall into the schism.

Founder of 'conservative' Legionaries of Christ
 Controversial religious leader Maciel dies at 87
"The Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the charismatic founder of the religious order Legionaries of Christ, who was disgraced toward the end of his life by Vatican censure over sexual abuse accusations dating from the 1950s, is dead at the age of 87. According to the Legionaries of Christ, the powerful Mexican priest died Wednesday of natural causes in the United States. His death was reported for the first time Thursday. The Rome-based Legionaries has a presence in Connecticut: Its U.S. headquarters is in Orange and it has operated a seminary in Cheshire."

What's really behind the Vatican II "reforms"
 What has happened to the Catholic Church?
* "The sense of Universalism that is rampant in Rome these days, is very close to our purpose for existence. With all our hearts we support the revolution of John XXIII." (Yves Marsaudon, State Minister of the Supreme Council of French secret societies) After the anti-pope's death, Marsaudon wrote: "To the memory of John XXIII, who has designed to give us (freemasons) his benediction, his understanding, and his protection."

"Death of Communism" update
 Fetal Soup served in Chinese restaurants
"China has become a nation who without conscience aborts their own future generations. And this is Satan's ultimate victory here. Is this conscience loss regarding the transcendent dignity and inherent right of human life to be blamed exclusively on atheistic Communism? Have not the recent influences of Western morals of secular humanism, materialism, hedonism, and ultimately unmitigated egoism, also contributed to this Chinese terrorism of the womb? In any case, the combination amounts to self-inflicted Chinese genocide, which so saddens the God that creates and loves the ethnical uniqueness of China."

NOW Comments:
We must disagree with one of the author's suggestions here. Whatever social ills have visited upon mainland China through Western influences, a nation that by it's very own self-definition is militantly atheistic, and which has a political system based upon dialectical materialism that persecutes believers, runs over student protesters with tanks and routinely performs forced abortions, certainly doesn't need any "help" from us when it comes to destructive policies. Let's keep in mind that after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the dictator Vladimir Lenin instituted the first laws legalizing abortion since pre-Christian Rome, and Communist regimes the world round would follow suit, Red China notwithstanding.

Benedict XVI's continuing rejection of Fatima
 Another rebuff from the Russian schismatics
"The present Pope in particular has done all in his power to put aside the Third Secret, to finish with the idea that Russia should be converted, and to destroy Fatima as the symbol of restoration of the Catholic Church. On the 90th anniversary of the October miracle at Fatima, when the chastisement was announced by the Virgin and prefigured by the sun spinning out of its orbit, he said not a word. For him, Fatima is past history. To all appearances, for him, the future lies with Vatican II ecumenism and the eventual implantation of the One-World Religion."


NOW Comments:
How is it possible the author of the words above not see the inherent contradiction of referring to someone as "present Pope" who seeks the "implementation of the One-World Religion," which is plainly an act of apostasy? (Sure, one might argue that there is the qualification "to all appearances" preceding talk of this anti-Church, but then to be consistent one must also say that "to all appearances Benedict XVI cannot be Pope and espouse such utterly un-Catholic ideas"?)

Confronting a politically-charged issue
 Revisited: prison for women who procure abortions?
"I can understand why pro-lifers do not want to call for jail time for women who have had abortions. I can see how such a call would severely damage the prospects for anti-abortion legislation. But the truth is the truth. This question of the 'mother's' guilt must be dealt with in the philosophical and moral arena, even if it makes sense to keep it low key in the political process."

'Post-Christian' forces show their fangs
Photographer persecuted for refusing services to same-sex ceremony
"The case of a Christian photographer who refused to photograph a same-sex 'commitment ceremony,' was heard before the New Mexico Human Rights Division on Monday. A same-sex couple asked Elaine Huguenin, co-owner with her husband of Elane Photography, to photograph a 'commitment ceremony' that the two women wanted to hold. Huguenin declined because her Christian beliefs are in conflict with the message communicated by the ceremony."

Protestants back off remark by politician's aide
Church of Ireland: Pope 'is not the Anti-Christ'
"The Pope is not the Antichrist, the Church of Ireland has declared. In a statement released on Jan 23, the Church of Ireland distanced itself from comments made by an aide to Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Nigel Dodds. Mr Wallace Thompson, an advisor to the minister and secretary of the Evangelical Protestant Society, told RTE radio he opposed plans for a visit to Ulster by the Pope, who was a ‘man of sin and son of perdition.’"

NOW Comments:
If the reference of "pope" here is to Benedict XVI specifically, and not the position of Bishop of Rome in general, then we would say that while he not The Antichrist, he is certainly following the same false spirit, and as such certainly qualifies as small letter "a" antichrist. We say this because while he poses as Vicar of Christ, his words and deeds clearly mark him as an apostate. 

Ah, is that in your mission statement?
Once-Catholic Trinity University extols pro-abortion alumnae
"Despite its Catholic mission, Trinity University in Washington, D.C., continues to extol two of its pro-abortion alumnae, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. Both public officials identify themselves as Catholics, but reject Catholic teaching on serious moral issues."

What else was said?
 Another take on Heath Ledger's death, Mel Gibson's reaction
"Traditional Catholic Producer-Director-Actor Mel Gibson, named 'The Most Powerful Christian in Hollywood' by Beliefnet, told the press that he lamented the untimely death on January 22, 2008, at age 28, of his younger fellow Australian actor, Keith Ledger. Ledger had played Gibson's son in 2000's The Patriot, in which Gibson starred. Gibson said that he had distanced himself from Ledger since 2005 when, against Gibson's advice, Ledger chose to play a 'gay' cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.…" (See complete item under February 1, 2008 entry at Traditio for February 2008)

NOW Comments: Last month we carried news of the death of Ledger, along with a strongly-worded commentary from an external link. Those remarks drew a connection between the actor's role in the scandalous film and the circumstances of his early death, remarks that in all likelihood are not without foundation. Unfortunately, the writer then makes what we believe to be largely unwarranted attacks on Mel Gibson, implying that the filmmaker approved of Ledger's appearance in the movie and indeed was "all in favor" of his career, which the above shows is not the case (possibly, the writer at Most Holy Family Monastery hadn't seen this important information). In addition, Gibson is racked across the coals for his supposed denial of the dogma, Outside the Church There is No Salvation. Making such a blanket remark is inaccurate, because while there are quotes from him that strongly deny the dogma, others strongly support it (see Modernist Rev. Richard McBrien's attack in Mel Gibson's Catholicism). The trouble is that it's difficult to know which Mel to believe or what he believes; it's as though he tailors his remarks to those around him. In this regard we're reminded of Gerry Matatics, who also has been known to vacillate on the subject. While there are nuances to the teaching extra Ecclesiam nulla salus that must go into any discussion of the subject, as the Church herself tells us, one cannot qualify the dogma to death without doing a severe injustice to Truth.

 Human Events: The Top 10 Most & Least Pro-Life States

Call Christian, Jewish dialogue mutually enriching
 Dutch 'bishops' organize a day of Judaism
"On January 17, for the first time, the Dutch Bishops’ Conference organized a day of Judaism. Mgr. Adrianus Van Luyn, the bishop of Rotterdam and president of the Bishops’ Conference since January 8, 2008, declared : 'The commitment of Jesus as teacher, Prophet and Savior can not be understood if one detaches Him from His Judaism.'"

Sodomites free to prowl on campus, receive benefits
 Polish 'Catholic' university bars discrimination on sexual orientation
"The Catholic University of Lublin - where Pope John Paul II once taught theology - has banned employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the Polish newspaper Nasz Dziennik reports."

Apostasy in action
Multiple heresies and errors expounded by the false pope Benedict XVI
 Benedict XVI, Address to La Sapienza University in Rome, January 17, 2008:
 “... humanity’s wisdom – the wisdom of the great religious traditions – should be valued as a heritage that cannot be cast with impunity into the dust-bin of the history of ideas.  Let us go back to our initial question.  The Pope speaks as the representative of a community of believers in which a particular wisdom about life has evolved in the course of the centuries of its existence... Various things said by theologians in the course of history, or even adopted in practice by ecclesiastical authorities, have been shown by history to be false, and today make us feel ashamed.” (Emphasis in the original)

NOW Comments:
This was posted as Most Holy Family Monastery's "Heresy of the Week" for the week of January 30th, 2008, and is remarkable, first, in the number of different statements against Church's magisterium Ratzinger is able to squeeze into a single speech, and, second, the boldness with which he brazenly approves a proposition explicitly condemned as Modernist in Lamentabili by Pope St. Pius X (specifically, the purported evolution of Church teaching—see citation provided by Brother Michael Dimond in the above link). If the link has been changed when you read this, look for the week in question either at Some of the Recent Feature Articles page or The Heresy of the Week Archive for those from years back.

NOVUS ORDO WATCH IS PROUD TO PRESENT

VOODOO YOU TRUST?



 John Paul II's Betrayal in Benin

Now for the first time anywhere on Internet comes the most devastating exposé of the scandalous1993 visit to Benin, at which time he praised voodoo and spoke of "mutual enrichment" that supposedly could be achieved between Catholicism and the cult. "Voodoo You Trust" is a comprehensive examination of John Paul II's apostate behavior there and elsewhere in Africa. This report includes 86 footnotes (plus 14 additional references, 51 links (including 6 video and 3 audio), and 30 photos/illustrations. If you know anyone who still thinks that John Paul is a bona fide saint, or at least a basically decent sort, then they need to read this. If there's any flicker of Faith in them then this should given them real food for thought. The only ones who still be on his bandwagon after reading this are the ones who have made themselves oblivious to the truth. This is a wakeup call for Catholics…read, then forward the link! 

Click here for Voodoo You Trust?

The 12th Station of the Cross

a now pictorial essay

Expressions of the same faith?

—Do both give glory to God?—
 

The 12th Station of the Cross

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