Category: Uncategorized

The Republic is Dead

As of 18 December 2015, no one in the United States with at least a sixth grade education can claim ignorance on this point.
The central doctrine of a just republic is The Rule of Law, which has several components (even wiki gets this right):

  1. The republic is governed by laws, not by the will of its leaders
  2. All citizens are subject to the law, including the law makers
  3. Equal protection under the law

Without getting into the dozens of examples I could cite, let’s just say the Rule of Law has been dead or badly broken since at least 2010.  So everyone with a functioning brain should have been able to glean, for quite some time now, that we were careening seriously off the rails. But what happened on 18 December 2015?   Here’s what happened:  The “republicans” in congress assraped the American Republic on national television.
This budget deal is absolutely hideous.  Unthinkable, really. Remember way back in November 2014, when the people were so fed up with Washington that they handed sweeping victories to the GOP in the House and Senate?  Remember how this was going to be, finally, the game changer to stop/repeal the madness?  Have you noticed how nothing, absolutely nothing, happened?
Because the elites care about no one but themselves, and staying in power.  Paul Ryan?  Yeah, knight on white horse gonna come riding in and save us.  Lindsey Graham?  Voted Yea.  Rubio?  DIDN’T SHOW UP FOR THE VOTE.
The only sane, serious, responsible one of the lot is Cruz, it appears to me.  Unfortunately, it’s too late.  The evil has infiltrated to such an extent, no one man can fix it.  Not with both parties in the tank with each other.
Silver lining:  Read the first paragraph again.  No one can now deny what is going on.  Thank you, Paul Ryan, for exposing your flank.  You’re in the open now.
There is no political solution.
 

Year of (False) Mercy, Hell, and you

Fr. Z has a great post on Conscience, Communion, and so-called “mercy”.  I’m calling it the Year of False Mercy (actually I stole that), because the mercy offered is done so seemingly without any need for contrition.  No worries, you are just fine remaining in your sin, stay right where you are, the Church will come out to the “margins” and meet you there.  Then, we will accompany you back and feed you the Lamb of God, because you’ll be hungry from the journey.
That’s not mercy.  That’s a diabolical inversion of Luke 15:21. It’s as if the father saw the prodigal son in the distance, copulating with a harlot, and killed the fatted calf anyway.
This is what happens when you have vast numbers of clergy, many with red hats (or white), who don’t actually believe in the Real Presence. If they did, there is no way we get to this point. In fact some would say there are vast numbers who don’t believe ANY OF IT, and they say it pretty convincingly — Ann Barnhardt has a great piece here.
Not only do they not believe the harder truths, they are EMBARRASSED by all of it.  So out of touch, you know. How in the world do you expect us to move about in polite society with all this talk of Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity, SIN, contrition, penance, mortification, firm purpose of amendment, CONVERSION? Are you out of your mind? Here, wrap all that nonsense up in this nice felt banner of Mercy, you’ll feel better.
Here’s the thing. At the end of the day, having the faith means believing ALL OF IT. Until your conscience is formed, molded, fired and cured around this concept, you are lost. Most of us have been on the other side at some point, so we understand how they think, and why they believe what they believe (or don’t). Our culture is so drenched in the errors of modernism, it all should be so obvious to anyone with a brain. But they can’t see what we see, because they refuse the graces being offered to them. They refuse to be converted, choosing narcissism instead. It’s like being on the wrong side of a two-way mirror.
What about the heathen masses drowning in abortion, contraception, porn, Caitlyn, Miley and Khloe? How do the masses even stand a chance, with bishops like this? We can’t possibly expect these poor souls to actually consider turning away from sin; that would mean somehow getting them to understand SIN EXISTS.  Is it possible that Invincible Ignorance plays a greater role in the salvation of souls than does the Catholic Church?
Don’t dwell too long on that question, it’s rhetorical.  The answer is NO.  In an age where the sum total of all human knowledge is available from the phone in your hand, Invincible Ignorance most certainly does NOT apply to you, unless you are part of an undiscovered tribe in the Amazon.  So if you were planning to drape yourself in that mantle at your Particular Judgement, well, let’s just say you’ll be naked as said tribesman, and it’s about to get very warm.
So do yourself a favor.  Give a wide berth to the current captain of the Barque.  Ignore the diabolical inversion of John 18:38 where instead of Pilate speaking, it’s the Church, going out to all those boldly sinning, proclaiming “What is Truth?  I find no guilt in them.”
Back to the question of sacrilegious Communion.  With the world growing stranger by the day, I find myself distracted in prayer, with thoughts of tactical measures and wondering how it all ends. I mean, I know it all ends in total victory, which is great sustenance. But I’m talking about the actual “how”. If we wind up with the vast majority of Masses ending in sacrilege, not only with the communicants in mortal sin but also the priests themselves intentionally committing sacrilege, then I’m pretty sure that will be the Abomination of Desolation we’ve all been wondering about. And no faithful Catholic can be a part of that.
The question then becomes: Where do the faithful go to find an undefiled Mass? I’ve got a place I’m pretty sure will be safe, but does everyone? How many more will question “the gates of Hell will not prevail” and flee the Church of Rome?
 
I don’t have all the answers.
Stay confessed.

Church in crisis?

ICYMI:  Last week, a bunch of heretical cardinals, at the urging of a heretical pope, tried to change Church teaching on sodomy, fornication and adultery.  In other words, they tried to change the truth.  Hmmm… except you can’t change the truth.  2+2=4.  Using “mercy” to claim 2+2=5 just makes you deceitful and pernicious, not merciful.
HELLO>>> it is the OPPOSITE of mercy to tell someone their sinning is no problemo, when it is perfectly clear their (unrepentant) sinning will place them in hell for all eternity.  There’s nothing okay about that.  We have it in scripture and directly from the lips of Our Lord.  The only way to gain mercy is to acknowledge your sin as sin, express contrition and confess your sins, and have a firm purpose of amendment (TRY to avoid the sin in the future).
We are all sinners, and we remain sinners until we die.  No matter how much we perfect ourselves with the aid of God’s grace, we never become perfect until we reach heaven.  However, in order to reach heaven, we must TRY to perfect ourselves and we must have contrition when we fall short.  The culture tries to teach us that sin doesn’t exist; that’s where the devil wins.
So yes, there seems to be great turmoil in Church today.  Who knows where it will go.  What we do know is this:  The Church is indefectible, she is incapable of teaching of erroneous doctrine, and the gates of hell will not prevail against her.  These are the facts, so worry not.
And finally a few words from Ann Barnhardt

ZEAL: It’s what’s for dinner

Confession, Sunday Mass, ongoing conversion.  These are the things that sustain us and make everything in the world and our daily lives tolerable.  It is truly amazing how easy it is to deal with strife all day when your soul rests in the trust of God.  You realize that nothing else matters in the world, and that  “the world” itself is the problem.  Meaning society, culture, etc.  We have to survive in a world of shit, and there’s only one way to do it:  By understanding that this life is mercifully short, and if we try to live it properly we will spend eternity in paradise.
By accepting your RESPONSIBILITY to honor God, you begin a great journey.  Yes, it is only the beginning:  Breakfast.  You’ll still be very messy and really attached to many of your sins, as a result of habit and being out in the real world every day.  It takes time to, first, come to accept the objective reality of your sins, and over much more time, actually be able to overcome these sins THROUGH LOVE OF GOD.  This is Lunch, the ongoing conversion.  God made everything, including the rules.  And He did it all for our own good.  It doesn’t start with a denouncement of sin, it starts with confession, Mass, and prayer, so the Holy Ghost and the angels can start working inside you.  Without them, the demons get all the facetime.
Now we get to dinner.  The real mission, which is of course “mission,” or ZEAL.  This means that even after you are a committed Catholic, your job is far from over.  Then your duty becomes TO PROCLAIM THE TRUTH.  It’s not “our” truth, it is the eternal truth of the entire universe.  Justice and Mercy demand we proclaim it.  Everyone deserves to hear it, but there is too much noise out in the world for most people.

Confusion

A rather average post over at mundabor regarding extra ecclesiam. I say average, meaning average for mundabor. Which means totally solid and way above average if compared to virtually any mainstream newchurch blogger. The money quote is here: “But this is what Catholicism is: as hard and as beautiful as a diamond. He is wise who understands that the diamond will not become soft for the sake of the Protestant glass. He is a fool who thinks that he is quality glass, and the diamond will have to yield to him.” The rest is here but do click over there as well.

A plea to all fallen-away Catholics

To all fallen-away Catholics:
Please prayerfully consider returning to a firm practice of the faith.  Maybe you’ve never really practiced it, or maybe you don’t truly know what it is. Well, it is your duty to learn it.  And never in history has there been more knowledge resources available in an instant with zero effort.  Go do the work.

People think this journey starts with a personal desire to “go and sin no more”; that you have to be ready to live like a saint before you take the first step in accepting Christ.  That never happens.  Rather, it starts like this:  “There is this thing called Catholicism that my parents spent a lot of time teaching me. So I probably should do some research about it.”  Or maybe you have joined some protestant community and you are starting to figure out they don’t have the truth over there.    Whatever your situation, the journey starts with the search for Truth.  That’s it.  All you need is a serious desire to learn what is true.
You probably know most of the doctrines.  Some you may disagree with.  Others you agree with, but find hard to live your daily life in accord with them.  If you are to have any hope of someday striving to live a holy life, it starts with understanding why the doctrines are what they are.  The Church doesn’t just throw shit out there for the sake of being strict.  Everything is tied together and it all makes sense but you have to do the research.  Turn off Words With Friends for one hour and do some research.
Pick two pieces of doctrine you don’t agree with.  Thoroughly research how the doctrine is grounded in Scripture and Tradition down through the ages. Formulate your counterargument.  How’s that working out for you?
Once you start to discover the truth, it sets you free.   If you allow it to.  You see, upon learning the truth, you have two choices.  Remember the Matrix?  Remember the blue pill and the red pill?  You either take the red pill and accept reality, or take the blue pill and prefer to live in fantasyland.  Oh except in the movie of life, your choice determines where you spend eternity.  Shit just got heavy.
However there is one major problem:  The Church is really f****d up right now.  Not as bad as it has been in a few other other centuries, but certainly this is one of the worst times in history.  But how can this be, when She was founded by Christ and is guided by the Holy Spirit?

While Christ promised that the gates of hell would never prevail against His Church, he never promised the Church would not have bad leadership.  Everything good in the Church, like purity of doctrine, comes from the Holy Spirit.  Everything bad in the Church comes from human weakness, and we’ve had plenty of bad bishops and priests in the past 50 years.  So much so that the majority of parishes in the United States no longer are truly Catholic, meaning they don’t really believe what the Church teaches.  You must learn to distinguish the Church itself, which is indefectible, from it’s members, (clergy or laity) whom are frequently bastards.
For these reasons, choosing a solid parish is essential to learning and living the faith.  In many diocese this is very difficult.  To be assured of orthodoxy, look for parishes that offer the Extraordinary Form – the old Latin Mass.  I highly recommend getting to know the Extraordinary Form, it is the Mass the Church used for 1500 years, until 1970.  A big reason for the problems in the Church in the past 40 years is the decline of liturgy.  it really does matter.  It helps to have a beautiful Church as well.
The first few times you attend the Latin Mass, don’t even try to follow along in the book.  Just sit back and watch it all.  Then gradually start to learn it.
But FIRSTLY, GO TO CONFESSION.  It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been away or what you’ve done.  The priest has heard it all before, trust me you have zero shock value.
You can’t receive the necessary graces to progress on this journey if you are in a state of mortal sin.  You also must have a firm purpose of amendment.  That means you can’t just confess and then go on committing your habitual sins.  It doesn’t mean you’re never going to sin again; we all continue sinning but hopefully they become less serious sins.  But it does mean having the desire to radically live your life in a manner that our broken culture thinks is crazy.
Don’t wait.  Do the research.  The joy and freedom you will experience has no earthly equal.

There is an epidemic of teacher sex abuse of minors…..

Isn’t it curious how the MSM never reports on this. Maybe because it is largely females abusing males as well as homosexuals of both sexes acting as the abusers. Some good commentary by veneremurcernui and links to another blog with the citations. What I don’t see mentioned in either place is where all this is headed: The agitprop will soon turn toward — wait for — TOLERANCE. Lowering of the age of consent, normalization of more and more radically perverse lifestyles, etc.