I remember once that ABFS said something along the lines of it only takes a dedicated 1 out 10k of a population to lead the rest along. Which tells me something was inherently wrong in Austria for them to readily accept so quickly Nazism. I suspect the dislike of Jews had something to do with it. The Anschluss: The German Annexation of Austria After a prolonged period of economic stagnation, political dictatorship, and intense Nazi propaganda inside Austria, German troops entered the country on March 12, 1938. They received the enthusiastic support of most of the population. Austria was incorporated into Germany the next day. In April, this German annexation was retroactively approved in a plebiscite that was manipulated to indicate that about 99 percent of the Austrian people wanted the union (known as the Anschluss) with Germany. Neither Jews nor Roma View This Term in the Glossary (Gypsies) were allowed to vote in the plebiscite. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/austria They thought they were being liberated.
It's strange you know. When the going gets tough the tough get going. But it seems to vary from country to country and region to region. In Catholic Ireland , pretty well everyone stood out in defense of the Faith down the centuries. Yet at the same time in Catholic England only one Catholic Bishop in the whole of England and Wales , under King Henry viii stood firm and kept the Faith. In France during the Revolution only the Catholic Vendee in Britanny stood firm. In Mexico under the Masons in the 1920's only the Peasant Christeros. At present in the Church I guess the Crown goes to the Catholics of the USA.
You are absolutely right, there are virtually no bishops anywhere saying anything. Bishop Strickland is not even that controversial, in that he is simply standing for Church teaching. Then you get a Bishop like Mar Emmanuel who is exposing those pulling the strings world wide. In some senses it is like they are simply shouting into the wind though, people in general world wide aren't really resisting. Mar Emmanuel makes an incredible point, whereby he asks why are none of the Bishops standing up? What do they have to be afraid of? The best case scenario is they die, get a martyrs crown, and meet God standing up. Worst is living longer, dying, and having their head hung in shame before God. He said if they had faith they would be speaking out, but believes they don't because they don't speak out.
I suppose Africa is the Ireland of today. They stand up together and with one voice, The Cardinals, the Bishops , the Priests and the people and they shout together to Rome and the World. No! No ! No!. But the USA is very good too, I have to say. Which is why Papa Frankie hates them so much.
Catholic Church in Africa is Booming, But Faces "Big Challenges," Says Continent’s Newest Cardinal https://www.aciafrica.org/news/1112...ig-challenges-says-continents-newest-cardinal Interesting how the Catholic church in Africa is booming and is also resisting modernism. God is clearly making moves there. Everywhere in decline is simply rolling over.
I read today of a poor old Catholic lady in the USA of 76 who was jailed for two years for praying silently against abortion. Bad enough but then the lady Democrat Judge who sentenced her made fun of her when her husband appealed for mercy. The Judge mocked her by saying she should keep the tenets of her Faith and just try to stay alive. Grrr My Irish blood boiled. I must admit a good part of me when my time comes wants to die with a gun in my hand hot from firing bullets at them. My grandfather , who I am very proud of fought for years against the Communists in Spain during the civil war there. Sigh I have the most shocking temper, may God forgive me for it. My eyes just turn bright red, I see white in front of me. I just want to have a gun in my hands.
Please don't Padraig, be a child of the light. Keep your heart directed to Jesus. I don't like how they are treated either, but I also know God is going to reward them greatly.
https://www.catholicnh.org/assets/D...rent-Issues/DeathPenalty-CatholicTeaching.pdf Catechism of the Catholic Church Catholic Teaching on Legitimate Self-Defense and on the Death Penalty 2263 The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing. "The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one's own life; and the killing of the aggressor. . . . The one is intended, the other is not" [St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 64, 7, corp. art.]. 2264 Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow: If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful. . . . Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one's own life than of another's [St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 64, 7, corp. art.]. 2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility. 2266 The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people's rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and the duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When it is willingly accepted by the guilty party, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people's safety, has a medicinal purpose: as far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party [Cf. Lk 23:4-43]. 2267 Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. 2 If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm—without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself—the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent
I have never heard of a saint who killed after their conversion. Though I have heard of many who were killed after it.
I see Cardinal Burke was refused entry to the Vatican today , by Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, because he has not taken the experimental Covid Jab. Wow!! It's like a time machine.
Well during the Catholic Crusades , Catholics who took up the Cross were given the solemn promise by Rome , by the Popes of the time, that if they died , fighting Islam, sword in hand, killing for all they were worth, of their immediate entrance into heaven and forgiveness of all their sins as Catholic Martyrs. This is why Catholics went out there in their millions. St Bernard of Clairvaux the foremost mystic/saint of the age preached this right across Europe.
St. Francis once spoke to the leaders of the Crusades for the Catholic side. He told them they would lose the next battle because they had not supplicated before God enough. Sure enough they did, but ended up winning the next one. St. Francis continued forward to meet the Sultan of Egypt, even at the warning of the leader. St. Francis secured the ability to proclaim the Word in Muslim lands. Which is why Franciscans hold custody of the Holy Sites today. All victories come from God, not men.
St Joan of Arc St Therese of Liseaux, dressed as her favourtie saint, Joan of Arc; they were both canonised on the same day.
The Catholic Church has never , ever been pacifist. This is not Catholic teaching. Which is why we have Catholic Chaplains, wearing their countries uniforms, very proudly, in armies all over the World. You are very,very much mistaken. Pacifism is most certainly not Catholic teaching.
I am not at all talking about pacifism. Saints never killed and were never pacifists, but the ultimate warriors. But they know where the real battle lies. All war and violence stems from sin. All victory comes from Jesus. When the heart has been conquered only then can it conquer. The victory of Jesus on the Cross is the ultimate example.
I recall St Teresa of Avila in pretty well the first words of her most famous book ,'The Seven Interior Mansions' , expresses deep regret that she was not a man so that she could go to fight the Protestant heretics in Holland. Of course at the time she wrote this she was in the highest state of Prayer, Spiritual Marriage. Very clearly she was not a pacifist. Saint Thomas Aquinas , the foremost theologian in the Catholic Church acknowledges this when he put forward his theories of a Just War. In other words he said war is sometimes right.
Of course Catholic saints have died sword in hand in wars. What are you even thinking? Why would they not? John 15:13 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Which recorded saints? If you find them, please post them. Then compare them to the amount that have been killed without a sword in their hands. The physical world is nothing Padraig. Everything is spiritual, it is about keeping Jesus in the heart. It is hard to keep Jesus in the heart while killing. I am not saying it isn't just, or doesn't happen. I am saying once the heart is conquered, one no longer has fear but only love, so they don't care what happens to their bodies. They rejoice in their persecution, because they know they will be rewarded for it. They know they get closer to God through their sufferings so they beg for it. They have no interest in killing their persecutors but praying for them. Because the more Christ grows in them the more they become like Christ.
This sounds brilliant but it is not the teaching of the Catholic Church. The Teaching of the Catholic Church is otherwise.
