The counterchurch?

Multiculturalism in Religious Garb

From the article:

Upon reading this interview, it becomes apparent that we are not dealing here with the venerable Catholicism of the West at all, but with an entirely new religion, which, while it persists in calling itself Catholic, has one God (Deism) which can be shared with other religions. What makes the new orientation deceptive, is that it does not explicitly renounce the Catholic deposit of faith, or change it totally; rather it is a question of emphasis and of a new contextualisation of doctrines. The emphasis in Fr. Körner’s remarks is one of a post Vatican II man-centredness, the striving for a “horizontal” earthly utopia, “creating a new world”.

One can then understand why it is of utmost importance to the New Church to suppress the Vetus Ordo and those who adhere to the Catholic Faith as it has always been.

It is high time to awaken out of sleep

Alas, the 'springtime' in the Church picks up pace:

Traditional Priest Kicked Out of New York

"The Traditional Mass is not a spectator sport"

Found this Crisis article by Steve Skojec from 2012 about Mass as said by the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem. FTA:

This is why seeing this kind of Christian joy in action in a monastic community that opens its doors to public worship is something else entirely. For starters, the monks – Dom Daniel, Frater John, Frater Alban – are so noticeably kind. At the conclusion of Mass, they mingle with the faithful, whom they take the time to get to know by name. They sell produce, and fresh baked breads, employing monastic industry to support their work. And if you forgot your wallet? No worries. They’ll probably spot you a loaf. They remember not only who you are, but what is going on in your life, and when they say they’re praying for your intentions, you get the feeling that they mean that they’re doing so with great specificity.

Battling the spirit of indifference

Having done all, to stand

St. Athanasius, writing to his brother bishops:

"The Church has not just recently been given order and statutes. They were faithfully and soundly bestowed on it by the Fathers. Nor has the faith only just been established, but it has come to us from the Lord through His disciples. May what has been preserved in the Churches from the beginning to the present day not be abandoned in our time; may what has been entrusted into our keeping not be embezzled by us. Brethren, as custodians of God’s mysteries, let yourselves be roused into action on seeing all this despoiled by others."

Via SSPXAsia.

The Order of Things

Fr. Carota writes:

Traditional Catholic Order and Revolutional Disorder

A snippet:

Now we turn to the Holy Latin Mass with its orderly rubrics. What a complete difference. Every single Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is done with the same order and beauty all over the world. Go to where ever the Holy Latin Mass is offered and see if there is not this sacred respect and order. Prove to me that I am wrong. And all the people I know who love the Holy Latin Mass have such reverence for the Eucharist that they would never ever dare to approach the altar to receive Holy Communion in mortal sin.

Listen to Father

Traditional Catholics, Canonical, SSPX and Sedevacantist Pray, Work Together

Nothing is as simple as it may seem

There are always at least two sides to every story.

Among The Ruins

This

Clear, consise, calm, and correct.

Resisting Wayward Prelates According to the Saints

No ostriches allowed

No one says it like Mundabor.

Incidents At The Frontier

"There can always be “something else”. There is always “something else” happening in pretty much everything. But it is astonishing that wherever a prelate is to be justified, utterly irrelevant circumstances of facts become the reason why something wrong was made."

The suppression of the Vetus Ordo continues

Fisher More College, a Catholic institution of higher learning in the Diocese of Ft. Worth, has just had its Vetus Ordo suppressed by Bishop Michael Olsen.

Read about it here at Rorate-Caeli.

It might be worthwhile to ponder why the Vetus Ordo, the Mass of the ages, the Mass that was (and is) a living link to Holy Mother Church and her Children throughout time is being suppressed. Especially so in light of Summorum Pontificum and Universae Ecclesiae.

News on the FFI

From The Eponymous Flower: Franciscans of the Immaculate Exonerated: Correction of Commissar Volpi After Notification by Manelli Family

Clarity Amidst the Lio

While the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate must ask permission for saying Mass, for obtaining a liturgical calendar, indeed for most anything, Pope Francis has appointed a new cardinal for whom anything goes.

The 'crime' of the FFI is simply to revere the Mass as known for centuries, to uphold tradition, to adhere to the Vetus Ordo. For this, their order is being destroyed.

The Thinking Housewife details some of Cardinal Nichols' past 'accomplishments' as archbishop of Birmingham (in Great Britain), including a 'prayer' to Christ at a homosexual mass, which the cardinal endorsed for six years. Emphases mine:

"Rainbow Christ, you embody all the colors of the world. Rainbows serve as bridges between different realms: Heaven and Earth, east and west, queer and non-queer. Inspire us to remember the values expressed in the rainbow flag of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. Red is for life, the root of spirit. Living and Self-Loving Christ, you are our Root. Free us from shame, and grant us the grace of healthy pride so we can follow our own inner light. With the red stripe in the rainbow, we give thanks that God created us just the way we are. Orange is for sexuality, the fire of spirit. Erotic Christ, you are our Fire, the Word made flesh. Free us from exploitation, and grant us the grace of mutual relationships. With the orange stripe in the rainbow, kindle a fire of passion in us. Yellow is for self-esteem, the core of spirit. Out Christ, you are our Core. Free us from closets of secrecy, and give us the guts and grace to come out. With the yellow stripe in the rainbow, build our confidence. Green is for love, the heart of spirit. Transgressive Outlaw Christ, you are our Heart, breaking rules out of love. In a world obsessed with purity, you touch the sick and eat with outcasts. Free us from conformity, and grant us the grace of deviance..." [In all honesty, one must admit this 'prayer' is a clear case of diabolical disorientation.]

The cardinal has also endorsed adoption rights for homosexuals (as long as they are single, whatevah) and given the nod to teaching Catholic school kids both sides of the abortion and contraception issue, including how to access those things.

Pope Francis and Cardinal Nichols -- two sons of the Church.

 It brings to mind this quote from Archbishop Sheen: "He (Satan) will create a counter-church that is the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God...It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in an inverted sense, and emptied of its divine content it will have a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all appearances resemble the mystical body of Christ." (Communism and the Conscience of the West) [In other words, the form without the substance.]

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!

Lex, Lex, and Lex

Rorate-Caeli provides a portion of Fr. Stefano Manelli's pastoral report for the FFI (a report that was issued after Pope Benedict XVI's Moto Proprio Summorum Pontificum was issued). It is, of course, clear and true. A snippet:

More devastating—let us note this again—has been the negative influence of the Novus Ordo on the Religious Life, as already referenced above (with respect to the devastating losses in nearly all the Orders and Religious Institutes). And here we cannot fail to mention as well the sadness caused by the closing of so many monasteries and religious houses, as well as the closing of the greater part of the seminaries for priests and brothers, with the consequence of an aging clergy, the drop in the Missions without a turnover of missionaries, and the continual increase in the number of towns that even in Italy remain without a pastor, again because of lack of vocations. 

 There is much more. And of course, for speaking truth, Fr. Manelli has been severely persecuted and the FFI attacked with a diabolical ferocity.

The Calumny Continues

The Volpist destruction of the FFI continues apace. Women religious are not to be spared. Here is a link to all the latest posts at Rorate-Caeli:

FFI Under Intervention

The Eponymous Flower has an interesting post, too: Universal Pastor Hands Key to Sneaky Fox

It would be good to say a daily Rosary for the Pope and the bishops.

The View from Inside

"The friends came out of the church and looked up, from the outside, at the window that they had admired while inside. They saw nothing other than the simple outline of a gloomy shadow. Nothing could be made out, not a single depiction of a saint, of an angel, or of the Savior, nor even less the complex plan and the meaning of the design. ‘All this,’ thought the sculptor, ‘is the most unsettling symbol of how different the appearance of a religious truth or a sacred story when it is seen from the warm interior of faith or from its cold and dark exterior. The Christian faith is a great cathedral, with windows divinely painted. Standing outside, you see none of the glory, nor do you get any hint of it. Standing inside, every ray of light reveals a harmony of ineffable splendor’." (From The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne, quoted in Consubstantiality Between the Mass Media and Bergoglio by Alessandro Gnocchi and Mario Palmaro)

 H/t to Rorate-Caeli

Admitting the truth is a big step forward

Rorate-Caeli and The Destruction of the Roman Rite

Here is a new interview with Bishop Fellay of the SSPX. It's in French with English subtitles, and there is a transcript link provided.

A spear thrust

Rorate-Caeli unpacks Sandro Magister's article "The Francis Transformation". To quote:

It emerges from conversations with his visitors that Ratzinger himself has seen in this restriction a "vulnus" on his 2007 motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum."

Pope Leo XIII's prayer to St. Joseph

Jay Boyd, of Philothea on Phire, has posted a very pertinent article about the St. Joseph Prayer that Pope Leo XIII gave to the Church. He is the Pope who gave us the St. Michael Prayer. Go here to read about this prayer. It is needed as much now as then.  Here's the prayer (and there are special instructions for praying it after the Rosary each day in October):


To you, O Blessed Joseph, we come in our trials, and having asked the help of your most holy spouse, we confidently ask your patronage also. Through that sacred bond of charity which united you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the fatherly love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you to look graciously upon the beloved inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by his blood, and to aid us in our necessities with your power and strength. 

 O most provident guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ. Most beloved father, dispel the evil of falsehood and sin. Our most mighty protector, graciously assist us from heaven in our struggle with the powers of darkness. And just as you once saved the Child Jesus from mortal danger, so now defend God's Holy Church from the snares of her enemies and from all adversity. Shield each one of us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and your help, we may be able to live a virtuous life, to die a holy death, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.

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)