Cardinal Cupich’s Revolutionary Conscience Fr. Gerald E. Murray https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/cardinal-cupichs-revolutionary-conscience Wednesday, February 21, 2018 The Church has always taught that marriage is intrinsically indissoluble by the express will of God. That the unbreakable unity of marriage is not an ideal, in the sense of an as yet unattained goal towards which married couples strive, but rather is the very reality, the very nature of marriage. The Church teaches that fidelity to marriage vows is not merely something that you should strive for in seeking to arrive at the ideal of marriage, but rather is a serious obligation inherent in the nature of marriage. Thus infidelity is not an excusable failure to live up to an ideal that is difficult, perhaps even impossible to achieve. Infidelity is rather a positive rejection of a solemnly promised vow to live in accordance with the divinely willed nature of marriage. In short, the Church teaches that God joins a man and a woman in an indissoluble bond and offers them the grace to be faithful for life to the obligations inherent in this state of life. Any infidelity to these obligations does not cause that marriage to die or disappear. And marriage is not subject to dissolution by the retroactive withdrawal of consent at any point after the exchange of vows. Ever since the publication of Amoris Laetitia, doubts have been cast upon the necessity of adhering to this understanding of marriage. Chicago’s Cardinal Blasé Cupich recently spoke on Amoris Laetitia at St. Edmund’s College in Cambridge, England. His line of argument undermines the Church’s teaching on marriage, and everything else, by treating one’s lived experience as some sort of divine revelation. This means that what one does becomes the standard of what one should believe. Cardinal Cupich speaks about a synodal church in which: there is no hierarchical distinction between those with knowledge and those without. As such, the most important consequence of this call to accompaniment ought to be greater attention to the voices of the laity, especially on matters of marriage and family life, for they live this reality day to day. Laymen are often better instructed in Catholic doctrine than their pastors. The shepherds should rejoice when they find their flock to be knowledgeable and faithful believers. But what if they reject Church teaching? Is that rejection to be embraced as a sign of God’s action in their lives? Cardinal Cupich argues: “It goes without saying that this will also mean rejecting an authoritarian or paternalistic way of dealing with people that lays down the law, that pretends to have all the answers, or easy answers to complex problems, that suggests that general rules will seamlessly bring immediate clarity or that the teachings of our tradition can preemptively be applied to the particular challenges confronting couples and families. In its place a new direction will be required, one that envisions ministry as accompaniment, an accompaniment, which we will see, is marked by a deep respect for the conscience of the faithful.” It is deeply demoralizing to hear a Catholic bishop describe the task of teaching the faithful the truths of the Gospel as being an exercise of authoritarianism or paternalism that “pretends” to answer the difficult questions or problems people have. When he claims that it is wrong to think that “the teachings of our tradition” can “preemptively” meet “particular challenges confronting couples and families,” he is reducing Church teaching to an inadequate set of possibly useful suggestions. The voice of the Lord speaking through the doctrine of his Church is no longer reliable or universally applicable. Instead, we must listen to the conscience of married couples, which is even seen as a new source of divine teaching. Cardinal Cupich claims: “accompaniment also is an act of forming Church teaching. There is a continuum of accompaniment which undergirds this entire range of actions by the Church. And thus . . . the core goal of formal teaching on marriage is accompaniment, not the pursuit of an abstract, isolated set of truths. This represents a major shift in our ministerial approach that is nothing short of revolutionary.” [Emphasis added.] What does this revolution involve? Cardinal Cupich says: When taken seriously, this definition demands a profound respect for the discernment of married couples and families. Their decisions of conscience represent God’s personal guidance for the particularities of their lives. In other words, the voice of conscience – the voice of God – or if I may be permitted to quote an Oxford man here at Cambridge, what Newman called “the aboriginal vicar of Christ” – could very well affirm the necessity of living at some distance from the Church’s understanding of the ideal, while nevertheless calling a person “to new stages of growth and to new decisions which can enable the ideal to be more fully realized” (AL 303). Thus a decision of conscience, for instance, to leave one’s wife and civilly “remarry,” is labeled “God’s personal guidance” that would grant divine approval to one’s blameless embrace of the “necessity” of what is euphemistically called “living at some distance from the Church’s understanding of the ideal.” Cardinal Cupich is telling us that God will inspire someone to serenely decide in his conscience that it is necessary for him to commit adulterous acts, and that this is therefore God’s will for him. Is there any possible way that this opinion is reconcilable with Catholic teaching on the nature and proper formation of conscience, the necessity to avoid mortal sin at all times, and the impossibility of God approving of what He condemns, i.e., adultery? What is revolutionary here is not any change in the Church’s teaching on marriage (which is impossible), but rather the attempt to impugn that teaching by claiming that since some people decide that they would rather not be faithful to their marriage vows, they may in good conscience claim that God does not require them to be faithful; rather they should calmly recognize the “necessity” of embracing what has always been taught by the Church to be a gravely immoral lifestyle.
Yeah!!! What about The Rest of Them .... and MOST importantly, I expect most here are wondering the, alleged, "Shepherds"!!?? "The Fourteen Catholic Senators Who Enabled Late Term Abortion" http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standi...olic-senators-enabled-late-term-abortion.html .... and numerous "Catholic" House members? We expect a politician to be a slimey POS but a church full of cowardly or worse Clergy! It's past time for a Goat vs Sheep "Shoot-Out" ... sooooo ... why worry and lament that THAT TIME is upon us ... Eh!!?? Rejoice that The Lord is near!! Rejoice that YOU may be a Christian Soldier that He is depending upon in These-Days!! Lord, Please send St Michael to help us and Save ALL Here. AMEN!!!
The first message you cited--before Akita--is the same one Come Soon posted. I remember the phrase about Our Lord's seamless garment being ripped. She may have missed it somehow but it is the same one.
Sg, I am not offended, maybe a little annoyed. You want to paint me as some sort of Pope Francis groupie when that is very far from the truth. Sg, I think I did confuse the text and that is the one from NovusOrdoWatch but I still do not believe that they have the text to the third secret. Is there any proof they do? That was my point, where did they get that text from? You can believe that it is the actual text but I prefer to hear it from the authorities as opposed to some random website which does not acknowledge any pope since Pope Pius XII. NovusOrdoWatch.org is absolutely a non-Catholic website and their purported text for the third secret supports their opinions which is very suspicious.
We pick up all sorts of garbage when we search non-Catholic or sede sites Been there Done that Hated it
Insofar as the post-Vatican II Church is concerned, the Mass is still valid and the advice of the Blessed Mother is to pray And perform acts of penance The Secret of LaSalette speaks volumes and can readily be found I doubt if we are meant to waste time doing fruitless online searches when we can be performing our daily duties and praying the daily rosary Everything in moderation
Just something of note. Several people have noted that Fr. Spadaro called Pope Francis "Bergoglio". I honestly can't remember where, but I heard from somewhere that it is the custom in mainland Europe to sometimes refer to a Pope by his last name. Possibly it is only an Italian custom. I honestly don't think Fr. Spadaro would be disparaging to Pope Francis in any way. The man seems to be his hero. I could be wrong on this, but I know I heard it at one point from an educated person. So that may be a starting point if anyone cares to research it. I personally only refer to Popes by their title unless referring to them before their papacy began. I think that is a good way to delineate what part of a pontiff's life we are speaking about. Pre or post election.
No, Carol55, I had no such intention at all. I honestly meant that you are very charitable. I can't seem to find any charity in my heart for him.
I don't know whether there is any proof or not, but at the link that ComeSoon gave, it is mentioned it was a message given to a priest and they speculate that it could be the actual message. "In May of 1994 — 77 years after Our Lady first appeared to the three children at Fatima, Portugal — a French priest by the name of Raymond Arnette was listening to a CD entitled Mysterium Fidei, with French lyrics and sung by French choirs. As he was listening devoutly, suddenly the music faded into the background and a clear voice, which was perceived quite normally and not as an interior inspiration, said: “L’eglise saignera de toutes ses plaies”, that is, “The Church will bleed from all her wounds.” Then, there followed this text: There will be a wicked council planned and prepared that will change the countenance of the Church. Many will lose the Faith; confusion will reign everywhere. The sheep will search for their shepherds in vain. A schism will tear apart the holy tunic of My Son. This will be the end of times, foretold in the Holy Scriptures and recalled to memory by Me in many places. The abomination of abominations will reach its peak and it will bring the chastisement announced at La Salette. My Son’s arm, which I will not be able to hold back anymore, will punish this poor world, which must expiate its crimes. One will only speak about wars and revolutions. The elements of nature will be unchained and will cause anguish even among the best (the most courageous). The Church will bleed from all Her wounds. Happy are they who will persevere and search for refuge in My Heart, because in the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph. After this message, Fr. Arnette only heard one more sentence: “This is the Third Secret of Fatima.” Could this be the true Third Secret, then? It could be. This text has been published and circulated before, for instance, in the book The Devil’s Final Battle as well as in a newsletter of then-SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson in 2000. If this is the true Third Secret, it is no wonder why the Vatican, beginning in 1960 with John XXIII, did not wish to make it public. John XXIII claimed that the Third Secret “does not concern my pontificate” and refused to reveal it, despite the Blessed Virgin Mary’s order that it be revealed to the faithful by 1960 at the latest. Of course, by 1960, preparations for John XXIII’s so-called “Second Vaticcan Council” were running high, its convocation having been announced by him on January 25, 1959." But in answer to your question as to whether we think it could be the actual 3rd secret, I said that I believe the message of Akita is essentially the same as the yet to be fully released 3rd secret.
I take it that you are referring to me. I certainly don't go searching for and reading those websites per se. Like I mentioned before, sometimes Google searches on vatican II or communion in the hand or Sister Lucia or the 3rd secret, for example, would turn up articles in these websites. That is all.
The final message given at Akita Japan: October 13, 1973 "My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. You will inform your superior." After a short silence: "As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests." "The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres...churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord. "The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them" "With courage, speak to your superior. He will know how to encourage each one of you to pray and to accomplish works of reparation." "It is Bishop Ito, who directs your community." And She smiled and then said: "You have still something to ask? Today is the last time that I will speak to you in living voice. From now on you will obey the one sent to you and your superior." "Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved."
I found it puzzling and even sinister because in that video, Fr Spadaro first referred to PF as simply Francis, then later on as Bergoglio. Of course, I don't know about Italian customs, but don't the Italians call him Papa Francesco?
As a result of Amoris Laetitia, the false church seems to be gaining ground How many souls are being led to hell?
I wonder how swiftly the rebuke from the Vatican will come this time. (words in red are my emphasis) Cardinal Sarah: Widespread Communion in the hand is part of Satan’s attack on the Eucharist ROME, February 22, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — The head of the Vatican department overseeing liturgy is summoning the Catholic faithful to return to receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling. In the preface to a new book on the subject, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, writes: “The most insidious diabolical attack consists in trying to extinguish faith in the Eucharist, by sowing errors and fostering an unsuitable way of receiving it. Truly the war between Michael and his Angels on one side, and Lucifer on the other, continues in the hearts of the faithful.” “Satan’s target is the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Real Presence of Jesus in the consecrated Host,” he said. The new book, by Don Federico Bortoli, was released in Italian under the title: ‘The distribution of Communion on the hand: a historical, juridical and pastoral survey’ [La distribuzione della comunione sulla mano. Profili storici, giuridici e pastorali]. Recalling the centenary of the Fatima apparitions, Sarah writes that the Angel of Peace who appeared to the three shepherd children in advance of the Blessed Virgin’s visit “shows us how we should receive the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ.” His Eminence then identifies the outrages by which Jesus is offended today in the Holy Eucharist, including “so-called ‘intercommunion.’” Sarah goes on to consider how faith in the Real Presence “can influence the way we receive Communion, and vice versa,” and he proposes Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa as two modern saints whom God has given us to imitate in their reverence and reception of the Holy Eucharist. “Why do we insist on receiving Communion standing and on the hand?,” the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship asks. The manner in which the Holy Eucharist is distributed and received, he writes, “is an important question on which the Church today must reflect.” Read the rest at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-sarah-we-need-to-rethink-the-way-communion-is-distributed
The First apparition of St Michael. In the spring of 1916 Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, had their first encounter with a heavenly messenger. Writing in her memoirs, composed under obedience to the Bishop, Lucia tells of that first meeting. We went on that occasion to my parents' property, which is at the bottom of the Cabeco, facing east. It is called Chousa Velha. About the middle of the morning it began to drizzle and we climbed up the hill, followed by our sheep, in search of a rock that would shelter us. And so it was that we entered for the first time into that blessed place. It is in the middle of an olive grove that belongs to my godfather, Anastacio. From there one can see the village where I was born, my father's house, and also Casa Velha and Eira da Pedra. The olive grove, which really belongs to several people, extends as far as these places. We spent the day there, in spite of the fact that the rain had stopped and the sun was shining in a clear sky. We ate our lunch and began to say the Rosary. After that we began to play a game with pebbles. We had only been at it a few moments when a strong wind began to shake the trees and we looked up to see what was happening, since it was such a calm day. And then we began to see, in the distance, above the trees that stretched to the east, a light whiter than snow in the form of a young man, quite transparent, and as brilliant as crystal in the rays of the sun. As he came near we were able to see his features. We were astonished and absorbed and we said nothing to one another. And then he said: Do not be afraid. I am the angel of peace. Pray with me. He knelt, bending his forehead to the ground. With a supernatural impulse we did the same, repeating the words we heard him say: My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You. After repeating this prayer three times the angel rose and said to us: Pray in this way. The hearts of Jesus and Mary are ready to listen to you. And he disappeared. He left us in an atmosphere of the supernatural that was so intense we were for a long time unaware of our own existence. The presence of God was so powerful and intimate that even among ourselves we could not speak. On the next day, too, this same atmosphere held us bound, and it lessened and disappeared only gradually. None of us thought of talking about this apparition or any pledge of secrecy. We were locked in silence without having willed it. The intense effect that the apparition of the Angel had on the children, quite different from the more serene experience of the Virgin the following year. Lucia states, I don't know why, but the apparitions of our Lady produced in us effects quite different from the angel's visitations We felt in both instances the same intimate happiness, peace and joy, but instead of the physical prostration the angel imposed, our Lady brought a feeling of expansion and freedom; and instead of this annihilation in the divine presence, we wished only to exult in our joy. There was no difficulty of speech when our Lady appeared; there was rather on my part a desire to communicate. This difference can perhaps be explained in this way. The angels of whatever choir share in common with God a spiritual nature, unmixed with matter. The goodness of their being, filled with the divine justice according to the degree of glory granted to each, radiates that holiness unmediated, though proportioned to the capacity of human beings to experience it. Not without reason Scripture shows how easily an angel appearing to men can be confused with God Himself (Rev 19:10, 22:9). When our Lady appears, however, although her glory is greater than that of the highest seraphim her human nature cloaks that glory in the familiar, just as did Our Lord's human nature, even after the Resurrection. Although the angels, too, can appear in more mundane fashion, it must have suited the divine purposes to reveal to the children something of the holiness of God. Lucia tells us of the lingering effect it had on them. His words sank so deeply into our minds that we never forgot them, and ever after we used to spend long periods on our knees repeating them, sometimes until we fell down exhausted.
The Second apparition of St Michael. Sometime during the summer of 1916 the three cousins were playing in the heat of the day in the garden near the well behind the Santos home in Aljustrel. Lucia describes how the angel appeared to them once more, chastising them for their for their lack of spiritual seriousness. Suddenly we saw the same angel near us. What are you doing? You must pray! Pray! The hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs for you. You must offer your prayers and sacrifices to God, the Most High. "But how are we to sacrifice?" I asked. In every way you can offer sacrifice to God in reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for sinners. In this way you will bring peace to our country, for I am its guardian angel, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, bear and accept with patience the sufferings God will send you. This apparition renewed the same profound effect which the first one had on them. Francisco, who throughout the appearances of the angel and Our Lady would see but not hear, was unsuccessful in prying from the girls the words which the angel had spoken until the following day. Lucia tells us, The Angels' words sank deeply into our souls like a gleaming torch, showing us Who God is, what is His love for us, and how he wants us to love Him too; the value of sacrifice and how it pleases Him; how He receives it for the conversion of sinners. That is why from that moment we began to offer Him whatever mortified us.
The Third Apparition of St Michael Lucia is uncertain when the third apparition of the angel occurred, sometime in late September or in October 1916 is her recollection. Having gone to the Cabeco with their flocks, and being more attentive to the words of the angel, they immediately knelt down to pray the prayer taught them by the angel: My God, I believe, I adore etc... After we had repeated this prayer I don't know how many time we saw the shining over us a strange light. We lifted our heads to see what was happening. the Angel was holding in his left hand a chalice and over it, in the air, was a host from which drops of blood fell into the chalice. The Angel leaves the chalice in the air, kneels near us and tells us to repeat three times: Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. And by the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners. After that he rose, took again in his hand the chalice and the host. The host he gave to me and the contents of the chalice he gave to Jacinta and Francisco, saying at the same time, Eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ terribly outraged by the ingratitude of men. Offer reparation for their sakes and console God. Once more he bowed to the ground repeating with us the same prayer thrice: Oh, Blessed Trinity etc. and disappeared. Overwhelmed by the supernatural atmosphere that involved us, we imitated the Angel in everything, kneeling prostrate as he did and repeating the prayers he said. It was in this way that catechized in prayer, reparative suffering, and the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, and strengthened by the Bread of Angels, that the children of Fátima were prepared for the visitation of the Queen of Portugal, the Immaculate Virgin Mary.
Sorry SG. It is late here and I missed that. I was trying to help you. I think the last message of Akita is a part of the Third Secret myself, but I think there is more to it.
Thanks Praetorian. I thought perhaps there was some detail I left out, but I couldn't find any discrepancy between our 2 postings of the message.
