That so called “modern” interpretation is a hellish attempt to normalize behavior that was always recognized throughout Christendom for centuries as one of the very gravest of sins. A sin against nature and God. The ploy seems to have worked sadly. But if you read the account in Genesis the meaning is unmistakable.
POSTED BY FR. GORDON J. MACRAE ON JULY 25, 2018 LEAVE A COMMENT Padre Pio’s letter to Pope Paul VI on Humanae Vitae Share this... Less than two weeks before Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina died, he sent a letter on Humanae Vitae to Blessed Pope Paul VI who is himself due to be canonized 14 October, 2018. Your Holiness: Availing myself of Your Holiness’ meeting with the Capitular Fathers, I unite myself in spirit with my Brothers, and in a spirit of faith, love and obedience to the greatness of Him whom you represent on earth, offer my respectful homage to Your August Person, humbly kneeling at Your feet. The Capuchin Order has always been among the first in their love, fidelity, and reverence for the Holy See. I pray the Lord that its members remain ever thus, continuing their tradition of seriousness and religious asceticism evangelical poverty, faithful observance of the Rule and Constitutions, renewing themselves in vigorous living and deep interior spirit—always ready, at the least gesture from Your Holiness, to go forward at once to assist the Church in her needs. I know that Your heart suffers much these days on account of the happenings in the Church: for peace in the world, for the great needs of its peoples; but above all, for the lack of obedience of some, even Catholics, to the lofty teachings which You, assisted by the Holy Spirit and in the name of God, have given us. I offer Your Holiness my daily prayers and sufferings, the insignificant but sincere offering of the least of your sons, asking the Lord to comfort you with His grace to continue along the direct yet often burdensome way—in defense of those eternal truths which can never change with the times. In the name of my spiritual sons and of the “Praying Groups” I thank Your Holiness for the clear and decisive words You have spoken in the recent encyclical, “Humanae Vitae”, and I reaffirm my own faith and my unconditional obedience to Your inspired directives. May God grant truth to triumph, and, may peace be given to His Church, tranquility to the people of the earth, and health and prosperity to Your Holiness, so that when these disturbing clouds pass over, the Reign of God may triumph in all hearts, through the Apostolic Works of the Supreme Shepherd of all Christians. Prostrate at Your feet, I beg you to bless me, my Brothers in religion, my spiritual sons, the “Praying Groups”, all the sick—that we may faithfully fulfill the good works done in the Name of Jesus and under your protection. Your Holiness’ most humble servant, PADRE PIO, Capuchin San Giovanni Rotondo, 12th September 1968. (l’Osservatore Romano – Weekly Edition in English – 10 October 1968) Editor’s note: Father Gordon’s article for this week was lost in the mail. We’ll try to put it up next week. Today is the 50th anniversary of the watershed encyclical letter Humanae vitae, an intervention on behalf of keeping the sexual intercourse of a married couple united with an openness to life, thus proscribing contraception, abortifacients, and abortion as intrinsically dishonest. We thought it opportune to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, republishing Padre Pio’s letter to Pope Paul VI about this, thus providing a good example of being in solidarity with the successor of Saint Peter even in the midst of controversy. At the time, some 600 theologians, many seminary professors and otherwise renegades such as Charles E. Curran and Richard A. McCormick voiced their dissent against what, some years later, Cardinal Ratzinger in his commentary on Ad tuendam fidem would categorize as infallible teaching. Please share this post widely on social media and take the time to read the short but entirely prophetic document praised by the saints: Humanae vitae promulgated on 25 July 1968 by Pope Paul VI Note from Father Gordon J. MacRae: Please share this post. It is our first guest post by a Patron Saint. I thank Father George David Byers for following the promptings of the Holy Spirit by posting this in place of my lost missive. You may also wish to see and share a post about what happened two weeks after Padre Pio’s letter was written: “I Am a Mystery to Myself!” The Last Days of Padre Pio.
POSTED BY FR. GORDON J. MACRAE ON SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 18 COMMENTS "I Am a Mystery to Myself." The Last Days of Padre Pio http://thesestonewalls.com/gordon-macrae/i-am-a-mystery-to-myself-the-last-days-of-padre-pio/
http://m.ncregister.com/blog/matthew-archbold/the-worst-most-perfect-catholic-story-of-2018 The Worst Most Perfect Catholic Story of 2018 Posted by Matthew Archbold on Thursday Jul 26th, 2018 at 1:14 AM Controversy about who's singing what for the Pope. This is it! It's the perfect story to precisely encapsulate our era of deranged self absorption, lunacy, and apathy. It couldn't be better. Put this story in a time capsule and if anyone ever wants to truly understand how things were going in 2018, just dig it up and appreciate this topsy turvy headspinningly awful story that I'm about to lay on your mind and soul. The Irish Post reports that a Catholic guy who was the runner-up on a popular talent show called "You're a Star," which I assume is similar to American Idol, was upset that the guy who actually won the contest was asked to perform for Pope Francis because the guy publicly endorsed a "yes" vote on abortion in the recent referendum. Here's the details: You’re A Star runner-up James Kilbane – a devout Catholic – says O'Donnell should not have been considered for the gig after he supported a 'Yes' vote in Ireland's abortion referendum. It comes after O'Donnell and fellow country music star Nathan Carter were announced among the big names who will perform in front of Pope Francis at Croke Park on Saturday, August 25. Over 75,000 people are expected to attend the gig during the Festival of Families 2018, but rival crooner Kilbane is unlikely to be among them. He told the Irish Sun: ”How can Daniel O’Donnell perform for the Pope when his Yes stance in the gay marriage referendum was directly opposed to the Catholic Church here? Seems like a reasonable point, right? The winner of the show publicly advocated liberalizing abortion laws and now he's invited to perform for the pope just a few short months later? I mean, isn't that a little confusing for faithful Catholics? Might it lead some to believe that the Church isn't all that serious about the sanctity of life business? Now, to be fair, some might think it's just sour grapes by O'Donnell because he lost to this guy on the show so he's getting a little chippy. But hold on, a priest who famously performed REM's "Everybody Hurts" on a similar show called "Britain's Got Talent" also chimed in about this event! And he too was VERY UPSET about the goings on as well. Your hopes are up, right? You're thinking that a brave courageous priest (who sings on television in his spare time) is standing up publicly for the sanctity of life, right? He IS upset. Buuuuuuuut, not exactly upset about the same thing. Meanwhile, Britain's Got Talent star Father Ray Kelly has been left similarly outraged by news Nathan Carter will perform REM's 'Everybody Hurts' alongside a choir at the event. The singing priest, who went viral after performing the hit on BGT earlier this year, made the ironic claim that Carter should not perform "my song" – although REM might have something to say about that.Fr Kelly said: "Nathan has no history of performing Everybody Hurts. He has never recorded it and I’m sure he is well aware of my performances on Britain’s Got Talent. "If I was as big as Nathan Carter, and he was me, I would never do this to another performer. "I’m shocked but my parishioners have also been calling me to say they are outraged about him taking my song." What more needs to be said? What more could be said? I give you the perfect story encapsulating this horribly clear snapshot of our time. Weep at your leisure. Bonus: Here's Fr. Kelly singing his own reworked version of "Hallelujah." He's the one in front of the tabernacle.
This pope is "personally opposed to abortion but publicly for it. Same with gay rights. We all know what Who am I to judge really means."PF is to catholicism what Obama was to the US! He is an abomination.
Careful there, I'm not prepared to agree with that. "Who am I to judge?" means he knows he is not our final Judge as Christ IS. Yes, he is the Vicar of Christ. Judge not lest you be judged is one of my favorite passages. There is a fine line between calling a spade a spade and judging others in appropriately. I believe it is our duty to pray for our Holy Father, as well as ourselves. Pray for the eyes to see, ears to hear, and heart to discern our Lord's Will and the courage to live that will in our lives.
The only problem I see here is that Pope Francis refuses to give an answer declaring the Immutable Truths of God and upholding the 10 Commandments It is as though his now-famous quote “who am I to judge?” is said almost with a wink IMO And if it were otherwise His actions would reflect it. Sadly, I say this.
Almost? Let’s not be credulous. It’s the best known quote of his papacy yet never clarified. It’ll be his epitaph.
I believe the "Who am I to judge" statement was in response to a question about admitting homosexuals to the priesthood and not the destination of anyone's immortal soul. If the Vicar of Christ doesn't have the authority to decide who should be admitted to seminaries and ordained to the priesthood, who does? Our seminaries have been turned into the equivalent of Greek or Roman bathhouses, we have Bishops, other clergy, and faculty members of Catholic educational institutions promoting homosexual unions as good, playing down the intrinsic evil of abortion and making a mockery of Christ's explicit teaching on adultery; the Church's financial resources are being decimated by payouts for clerical sex abuse, yet the Pope prioritises climate change and open borders while calling sins of the flesh a minor matter. We certainly have a duty to pray for the Holy Father and a duty to obey him in all things but sin. We have no duty to accept that the likes of Emma Bonino is a forgotten great, that man made climate change is a greater evil than the wholesale slaughter of defenceless human life, that the Gospel tells us can't God can't be God without us, that an unmarried sexual relationship is a channel of marital grace, that there is good in homosexual relationships, that adhering to any of God's Commandments is an unattainable ideal, that Martin Luther was not a heretic denounced by the people best place to make that call, or that Pope Francis is a good Pope. Pope Francis does plenty of judging - just not of anything or anyone which will bring the wrath of the secular media down upon him. Only God knows the destination of his immortal soul, but we would have to abandon our God given reason to pretend that Pope Francis hasn't thus far been the worst Pope in the history of the Church.
Interesting analysis. I found Dr. Fitzgibbons years ago....one of the few psychiatrists who has been offering the best advice to the Church...one of lone courageous voices who truly understands the human weaknesses and the treatment of such, esp. if caught early enough. But, alas, such experts get sidelined. Cardinal McCarrick should be laicized and his enablers should resign: Psychiatrist .........Priests and bishops who embrace the situational ethics that fueled the massive worldwide rebellion against Humanae Vitae regularly have grandiose, disproportionate thinking concerning the assertion of the primacy of the personal conscience as taking precedence over the sixth and ninth commandments and 2,000 years of Church teaching. Such grandiose thinking intensifies narcissism in priests, bishops and laity. Also, the failure of bishops and priests to live and to preach the truth about sexual morality by their silence and passive-aggressive anger against Humanae Vitae further weakened their male confidence. These grave errors both predispose them to act out sexually and to be fearful of correcting someone like Cardinal McCarrick, whose abusive behaviors were known to them. Spiritual conflicts If a priest fails to teach the Church’s truth about sexual morality as contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he does not configure himself to Jesus Christ in this vital aspect of proclaiming the Good News. His failure to do so leads to a growth towards embracing situational ethics, which in turn leads to a support of the primacy of the personal, and usually uninformed, conscience over the mandates of the sixth and ninth of God’s 10 commandments. The massive rebellion of bishops conferences against Humanae Vitae in the 1960s and 1970s and the pressure applied to priests and to seminarians to rebel against it -- as described by Cardinal Stafford at the fortieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae -- further weakened the Faith of bishops and priests. Priests have been pressured by their pastors and their bishops not to preach about sexual morality and marriage. Subsequently, a great fear developed of confronting sexual problems at all levels. ...... All the warnings given by Pope Paul VI in HV [Humanae Vitae] about giving in to the contraceptive mentality have been fulfilled and the damage is even far more. The contraceptive mentality is responsible in large part for the epidemic of divorce, marital infidelity and the demographic winter in many countries because of low birth rates. The explosion of sexually transmitted disease is due to the contraceptive mentality and the accompanying permissiveness, whereas, the massive retreat from marriage and the epidemic of cohabitation have left forty percent of children being born out of wedlock. A two fold increase has occurred in depressive illness in adolescents on the pill and a two fold greater risk for suicide attempt and a three fold greater risk for suicide on the pill, sexual activity by those who vowed to remain celibate and the sexual abuse of minors by priests, especially of adolescent males are further results of this collapse of moral teaching. Bishops and priests in large numbers worldwide rejected Humanae Vitae and gave into sexually heretical thinking. This heresy has seriously harmed seminary formation, as well as college, secondary and primary education. ...... Loyal priests are often told by their pastors or pressured by their bishops through his staff not to preach on contraception, sexual morality, marriage, fornication, homosexuality or adultery. Those who do not remain silent on these subjects are often victims of false accusations. Tragically, a ‘critical mass’ of homosexually inclined clergy has tipped the balance and the clergy who are faithful on sexual ethics are in danger of being falsely accused. The influence of Cardinal McCarrick in the Vatican’s choice of Cardinals is alarming as identifying a tendency toward those who support situational ethics. Cardinal McCarrick and other cardinals and bishops, some of whom who have been appointed by Pope Francis, support books that undermine the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. This behavior lends support to evidence of a strong influence of sexual heresy in high levels of the Church. Similarly, another bishop appointed by Pope Francis has recommended that parishes make their own decisions about their approach to homosexuality. ...... Today, the laity needs to defend the Church from the unprecedented attempts from within the Vatican to undermine her teaching on marriage, homosexuality, sexual morality in general, particularly adultery and the Eucharist. In order to protect the Church, priests and bishops with homosexual attractions have a grave responsibility to address their psychological conflicts and often-heretical views on sexual morality and to protect adolescent males in particular, and the Church from further shame and sorrow. With all due respect, the Hierarchy must be protected from priests who have same-sex attractions and who have never preached the Church’s truth on sexual morality. If a candidate for the episcopacy has such conflicts, he should not be considered for the Office of Bishop. The abuse Cardinal McCarrick inflicted upon youth, as well as adults, and the great shame that he has brought upon himself and the Church, are primarily the result of his unresolved psychological conflicts, leading to embracing a sexual heresy and refusing to teach the truth found in Humanae Vitae. Had he addressed his psychological weaknesses and preached the truth, he would have been configured to that truth and, in all likelihood, would never have used others compulsively as sexual objects. ...... In order to rebuild trust and purify the Church, resignations should be requested of members of the Hierarchy in the United States and in the Vatican who enabled Cardinal McCarrick. These undermine the Church’s teaching on homosexuality and sexual morality by supporting situational ethics and would seem to be actively trying to laicize loyal, psychologically and spiritually healthy priests. In addition, Cardinal McCarrick should be treated by the Vatican as would any priest would be who engaged in similar monstrous behaviors against adolescent males and young adults. Justice requires his laicization. Entire article here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinio...aicized-and-his-enablers-should-resign-psychi
After that analysis offered by Dr. Fitzgibbons above one has to wonder just what those personal conflicts within Pope Francis, as a priest, were which he felt necessary to discuss with his choice of a Jewish psychiatrist rather than one of his own faith history. Such a choice could possibly be speculated upon as a deliberate option for a secular, non Catholic with no alliance to Catholic teachings re: personality development, for the reason of hoping to receive only a rationalization for one's own confusion. Who knows, but if there was some kind of inner conflict, was it resolved according to Catholic teaching for priests or did it actually go unresolved in truth and carried forward to the point of justifying such tendencies towards the relaxed approach on the traditional teachings of the Church that we have witnessed coming from this Pope.
Would any of these "types", like Spadaro, ever accept that such images just might be displayed for religious reasons or historical and traditional symbols for the religious connection to the country's past rather than always bending to the political?? And one would also have to wonder about his own choice of the symbol for his tweet.... It is accepted tradition that Jesus' purity was protected by His mother at the time of the crucifixion. Hmmmm! Papal Adviser Slams Proposed Italian Crucifix Law Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro has voiced strong opposition to a proposed law that would mandate placing crucifixes in all public buildings, rejecting the bill as the politicization of a religious symbol. Father Spadaro, the left-wing editor of La Civiltà Cattolica and an adviser to Pope Francis, accused Matteo Salvini’s League party of wanting to use the crucifix as an action figure, which is “blasphemous,” he said in a tweet Tuesday. When the European Court of Human Rights banned the placement of crucifixes in Italian classrooms in 2009, the Vatican reacted sharply, calling the intervention “wrong and myopic,” while standing behind the Italian law dating back to the 1920s that mandated the placement of crucifixes in public schools. At the time, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi defended the public display of the crucifix as essential to Italian and European identity. “It seems as if the court wanted to ignore the role of Christianity in forming Europe’s identity, which was and remains essential,” Lombardy said on behalf of the Holy See. Curiously, the argument used by the Vatican fewer than ten years ago to defend the display of crucifixes in public buildings closely resembles the reasons given by the League in its bill, the very arguments opposed by Father Spadaro. The crucifix has “universal value as a symbol of civilization and Christian culture in its historical roots, independent of a specific religious confession,” the bill states. “For thousands of citizens, families, and workers, it is the symbol of a history shared by an entire people,” it reads. Father Spadaro, on the other hand, has rejected the idea that the crucifix is a mark of identity, insisting on the contrary that “it is NEVER an identitarian symbol.” On Wednesday, Spadaro added that the new bill is unacceptable, because the cross is not a “a team emblem” to be displayed for political ends, AP reported. According to Italian media, a number of Catholics reacted unfavorably to Father Spadaro’s words, suggesting instead that he would be better off preaching the gospel rather than playing politics. “For a priest to say that it is not a symbol of identity offends me profoundly,” one commenter said, while another exclaimed: “We have fought in European court to defend the crucifix as a cultural symbol and then you come out today with these words? When will you stop with the political opposition and go back to being a priest?” Most accounts have suggested that Father Spadaro’s harsh reaction to the proposed bill stem from his dislike of the League party and particularly Matteo Salvini’s efforts to rein in illegal immigration. Father Spadaro’s journal has accused Salvini of trying to usher in a new era of “neo-Constantinianism,” referring to the reign of the Roman emperor who legalized Christianity in 313 AD. https://www.breitbart.com/national-...-adviser-slams-proposed-italian-crucifix-law/
