The Ugliness of Truth

It occurred to me that just now, in this moment in history, the truth seems very ugly, repulsive even. As if we were looking upon a disfigured man so hideously battered that he was unrecognizable. He was nailed to a cross and he said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me," (John 14:6).

Almost everyone abandons him, as they cannot bear the heart-wrenching scene of Someone they love so well being tortured and executed. They cannot bear the TRUTH.

 Author Louie Verrecchio writes here about Pope Francis and his recent interview. It manages to read without rancor or bitterness, but does not hide from the truth. Scroll down for the article.

St. Hildegard of Bingen, Doctor of the Church, had an apocalyptic vision that she wrote about in her Scivias.

She had a vision of five beasts, along with a woman. The woman represents the Church. She writes:

I also saw the woman I've seen many times before. She was standing as usual before the altar of God. I saw her from the waist down also, and where her femaleness was, she had eczema. I could see the black head of a monster there, too. It had fiery eyes, the ears of an ass, and the nose and mouth of a lion. This monster inside the woman opened its maw, then gnashed its hideous iron-silver teeth. From the monster's head, down to the woman's knees, she was bruised as if she'd been beaten. Below her knees, her legs were covered with blood. Look! The deformed head pulled out of the place with such force that the woman shook all over from the shock. A huge mound of defecation was stuck to that head. Then the head decided to lift itself up onto a mountain and climb towards heaven. Watch. An arm of divine lightning cracked down the sky and struck that head with such energy that it tumbled off the mountain, dead, and its spirit entered Hell.

Next, a horrible cloud descended on that mountain, smelling worse than anything you can imagine. It covered the entire mountain, and also that head. The people standing there were frightened out of their wits. When the fog didn't move, they panicked, screaming at each other.

We're doomed! What is this? What was that? We're gonna die! Who'll help us? Who'll save us? We've been tricked and didn't know it till now! Omnipotent God, have mercy on us! Let us return to You. Take us back. Let us run to the promises of the Gospel of Christ. Ah! We've been so badly deceived!

See! Then the woman's feet shone brighter than the sun, and I heard the voice from heaven speak to me:

Everything on earth is hurrying to its end. The world's troubles and its many disasters tell you this. But my Son's bride, the Church, will never be destroyed, no matter how many times she's assaulted. At the end of time she'll be stronger, more beautiful, more magnificent than ever before. She'll enjoy the sweet embraces of her Beloved. That's what the vision you just saw means. (From Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader by Carmen Acevedo Butcher)

The Destruction of the Faith

Digging Our Own Grave

From the article:

"I am concerned about the confidences of the Virgin to the little Lucia of Fatima. The persistence of the Good Lady in face of the danger that threatens the Church is a divine warning against the suicide that the modification of the Faith, liturgy, theology, and soul of the Church would represent."

A scholarly response to the Bishop of Rome

Sandro Magister on the papal punishment of the Friars of the Immaculate:

In Defense of the Franciscans Punished by Pope Francis

There is a lot to digest and the analysis by the scholars should be read carefully. Here are a couple snippets.

The decree of the congregation for institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life of July 11, 2013 (prot. 52741/2012) […] is an act of such gravity as not to be capable of being considered of mere internal relevance for the intended recipients alone. […] 

 The decree imposes upon the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate - contrary to what is established by the bull "Quo Primum" of Saint Pius V and by the motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum" of Benedict XVI - a ban on celebrating the traditional Mass.

In doing so, it deprives of a good of incommensurable value - the Mass (celebrated in the ancient Roman rite) - both the friars and the faithful who through the ministry of the friars have been able to participate in the Tridentine Mass, as well as all of those who in the future could eventually have participated in it.

And this.

Thus the prohibition, save authorization, established by the decree objectively fails to take into account this universal legislation of the Church, deliberating - through an act evidently to be subordinated to it (in terms of both matter and form) - in a way that contrasts with the universal and permanent discipline. Which, by reason of its apostolic origins, enjoys - as illustrious scholars argue - the character of irreformability. 

 The prohibition of the celebration of the Tridentine Mass on the part of the decree is unjustly discriminatory toward the Latin-Gregorian rite, which not only dates back from the Council of Trent to St. Gregory the Great, and from these to the apostolic tradition, but according to the unequivocal appreciation of the motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum" of Benedict XVI must be "duly honoured for its venerable and ancient usage." It, in fact, is an expression of the “lex orandi" of the Church. It is therefore a good to be protected. Not an evil to be shunned.