Communism in the Catholic Church

In 1917 the Blessed Virgin at Fatima warned that if her requests to convert Russia were not heeded the agents of Communism would later infiltrate the Church with their errors. Vatican II provided a perfect opening for this Red influence to seep into the Church. The plan in 1962 was to invite the Soviets to the Second Vatican Council which is why certain dissident cardinals met secretly in France before the Council to sign the infamous 1962 Moscow-Vatican Agreement with Archbishop Nikodim. Russia's objective was to subvert the Church through the Council so it was crucial to their plan that the Church first be bound by a treaty that promised there would be no censure of Communism at the Council. Since 1962 the Church's hands and feet have been bound by this treaty while the agents of Communism have been gleefully at work dismantling the Church without censure.

Communist Infiltration of Catholic Seminaries

Anatoliy Golitsyn was formerly a high-ranking KGB official involved in espionage and counter-espionage who defected to the Unites States in 1961. In 1985, Golitsyn reported that Russian Orthodox priests are controlled and directed by the KGB in order to promote cooperation between Soviet churches and Western Catholics to help establish a united front for disarmament (peace and justice movements) and convergence. In 1990 Golitsyn warned against the Vatican’s (1962) policy of appeasement with the Communist Party:

"The Vatican should reverse its mistaken support for the renewal of the Communist régimes... It fails to understand that greater apparent official tolerance of religion is accompanied by a secret drive to increase Party and KGB penetration of the Catholic and other churches and to use agents therein for political and strategic purposes. As part of the program to destroy religion from within, the KGB, in the late 1950s started sending dedicated young Communists to ecclesiastical academies and seminaries to train them as future church leaders. These young Communists joined the Church at the call of the Communist Party... to implement its general line [unchanged policy] in the struggle against religion."

Memoirs of a Communist Agent

Back in the 60s the memoirs of a Communist agent were discovered by a French nurse named Marie Carre while attending to an auto accident in which the agent was killed. In his briefcase was found a set of biographical notes which she kept and read, and then decided to publish because of their extraordinary content. The end result is a little book entitled, AA 1025---The Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle, which reveals the sentiments and plans of this Communist who had deliberately entered the priesthood (along with others) with the intention of subverting and destroying the Catholic Church from within. The following excerpt is taken from his notes:

"It was during those days that I launched on the market the program that would allow Catholics to be accepted by Protestants... I prophesied with assurance the suppression of Latin, of priestly vestments, of statues and images, of candles and prie-dieu (so that they could kneel no more). And I also started a very active campaign for the suppression of the Sign of the Cross. This Sign, and also genuflections, are all ridiculous customs. I also prophesied (and we were then in 1940) the disappearance of altars, replaced by a completely bare table, and also of all the crucifixes, in order that Christ be considered as a man, not as a God. I insisted that Mass be only a community meal, to which all would be invited, even unbelievers... I searched for the means of suppressing the Pope. I consoled myself by hoping that we would surely succeed in making him look foolish."

Communist Infiltration of the Catholic Hierarchy

Manning Johnson, a former official of the Communist Party in America, gave the following testimony in 1953 to the House Un-American Activities Committee: "Once the tactic of infiltration of religious organizations was set by the Kremlin... the communists discovered that the destruction of religion could proceed much faster through the infiltration of the Church by communists operating within the Church itself. The communist leadership in the United States realized that the infiltration tactic in this country would have to adapt itself to American conditions and the religious makeup peculiar to this country. In the earliest stages it was determined that with only small forces available to them, it would be necessary to concentrate communist agents in the seminaries. The practical conclusion drawn by the Red leaders was that these institutions would make it possible for a small communist minority to influence the ideology of future clergymen in the paths conducive to communist purposes.... The policy of infiltrating seminaries was successful beyond even our communist expectations."

Russia today continues with its plan to subdue the Church and the world but their strategy at this time is to conceal this plan under the guise of a collapse of power. As they finalize their plan for world conquest they don't want the world to suspect what they're about to do (invade), so the Bear is simply playing dead while secretly promoting this global pacifism (green peace) that advocates the overthrow of the establishment.

This pacifist delusion of the last times is especially evident in the Church with the false security that all are forgiven and that a day of sunshine has dawned upon Christianity. (New Pentecost) The agents of Communism infiltrated into the Church with a plan to erase from our minds any notion of punishment or divine justice so that when this scourge (Russia) came upon society and the Church we would not be ready.

Communism of course is one of the tentacles of the internationalist octopus that is working around the clock to dissolve the institution of Christianity (papacy) and bring about a New World Order. The *prospective vision of Vatican II was a new church of man with the unification of all religions so the Council was an opening for this World Council of Churches to get in the door and use the Church as a forum to advance this New Communistic Order. [Novus Ordo]

If only the world had listened to Pope Paul's warning about Satan in the Church! With all that has transpired in the past forty years it somehow hasn't dawned on the faithful that the ancient serpent reared its head at Vatican II and challenged the Faith to a dual! It was this very onslaught against the Faith that the Blessed Virgin was attempting to alert us to in her message at Fatima. [Third Secret] The same prompted the Holy Father's S.O.S. of June 29, 1972: "From some fissure the smoke of satan entered into the temple of God."

This is a guest post by David Martin of Our Lady's Workers of Southern California, republished with permission.

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Bishop Fellay on the Errors of Assisi III

From the sermon of His Grace Bishop Fellay on the Feast of the Epiphany 2011

In theory they know, in theory they believe. But in reality, do they believe? Do they really believe that Our Lord is God? Do they really believe that peace among men, among nations, is in His hand? Do they really believe in all the immediate, direct consequences of His divinity? …Are they all going, like the Magi, the Three Kings, to adore the true God and to look to Him for that peace and to ask Him for it? Are they going to the King of Peace: Rex Pacificus?

Oh, how history repeats itself, alas!

Yes, we are deeply indignant, we vehemently protest against this repetition of the days at Assisi. Everything that we have said, everything that Archbishop Lefebvre had said at the time [of the first World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi in 1986], we repeat in our own name. It is evident, my dear brothers, that such a thing demands reparation. What a mystery!

Yes, to adore: what does that mean? To adore means first of all: to recognize, to recognize the divinity. Adoration is given to God alone. And recognizing His divinity immediately implies submission; a declaration of submission to the sovereignty of God. It is to recognize that God has every right over us, that we are really entirely dependent, absolutely dependent upon God for our existence, our life, our ability to act, think, desire, and will. Every good, every good thing that happens to us, comes from the goodness of God. And this is true—not only for believers, not only for Christians—this is true for every creature, absolutely every creature.

God, the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, is also the One who governs this world, the One who sustains all things by the power of His Word, the One in whom everything has its stability! Lord of life and death, of individuals and nations! Almighty, eternal God, to whom all honor and glory is due! Yes, to adore is to put oneself in this posture of humility which acknowledges God’s rights.

Let us go, then, let us go to Our Lord; even though He hides His Divinity, even though He is a tiny Child in the arms of His Mother, He is truly God! He is true God, sent by the mercy of the good God to save us. For He was made man, and in becoming a man he became the Savior, and His name, given by God Himself, is Jesus: the Savior! The only name that has been given under heaven by which we can be saved. The only Savior! The only Holy One, “Tu solus Sanctus” [as we say in the Gloria], who comes to bring us something unheard of: the invitation to God’s eternal happiness.

How can people hope to be able to receive His blessings when they insult Him, when they ignore Him, when they diminish Him? It is madness! How can anyone hope for peace among men when he makes a mockery of God?

And here modern thinking makes truly bizarre sorts of projections: it pretends that all religions, ultimately, adore one and the same true God. That is absolutely false; it is even in Revelation; we find it already in the psalms, in Psalm 96:5, “All the gods of the Gentiles are devils!” They are devils. And Assisi will be full of devils! This is Revelation, this is the Faith of the Church; this is the teaching of the Church!

Now where is continuity? Now where is rupture? What a mystery!

Yes, my dear brothers, if we want to be saved, there is only one way, and that is the way of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Chardin, Evolution, And Vatican II

Guest Post by David Martin

"There shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but... will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears" (2 Tim. 4:3)

The influence of Teilhard de Chardin has been overlooked and not given due consideration by the Church in our time. His work to integrate the theory of evolution with Catholicism helped to spawn the modern day notion that the Catholic Church is an evolutionary process that goes through phases of change over time, which of course is heresy.

Chardin believed that God and the universe are evolving and pressing toward some glorious light or new Pentecost, an error that was insidiously applied at Vatican II, to the end that there are Catholics today who actually believe that God and his works undergo transformation and change.

But the fact is that monkeys do not grow out of fish, people do not grow out of monkeys, and reform does not grow out of tradition. What God has established from the beginning, whether spiritual or physical, remains, and does not change.

But not according to Chardin. He applied evolution in a spiritual way to create the fallacy that religion and its source evolve as well. As he saw it God is a cosmic entity that has yet to hatch and become a living host. His lunacy can best be described as science fiction fantasy which denies the goodness and majesty of the omnipotent Creator, for which reason he was condemned by the Church fathers in 1962.

Even so, his ideas were a major foundation block for the reformist movement that hit the Church at Vatican II which in turn has caused the Church in our time to evolve away from God, save the elect. Is it any wonder that Chardin is such a favorite among today's modernist progressives?

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Why are Many Individuals (Especially Clerics) Opposed to the Tridentine Latin Mass?

I feel that the overall resistance to the Traditional Latin Mass and many of its traditional teachings (e.g. no salvation outside of the Church, necessity of Baptism for salvation, the existence of an eternal hell, et cetera) is attributable to a pervasive lack of faith and spiritual laxity that have penetrated our culture. Our culture has not only neglected the Faith of our Fathers but has repudiated traditional and time-tested philosophies, governments, ways of public conduct, attire, etc. Some would say that the cause of discord in the Church originated at the 2nd Vatican Council. While I do feel that the Council was one of the most debilitating assaults to the traditional faith, our world has been suffering from a pernicious cancer induced during the Enlightenment. The philosophers of the enlightened led to the French Revolution and the essential collapse of Catholicism in what was once regarded the most Catholic nation in the world. Since that time we have seen mankind exalted and the faith and piety of many vanish.

Our Blessed Lady’s appearance in Fatima (1917) illustrates the revolution in the hearts of mankind long before the Council. And, recall Our Lady’s similar appearance in La Salette (1846). Our world has been rebelling against authority, against traditional manners of dress and practices of sexuality, etc, etc for generations. And it was this modernism that was so forcefully condemned by His Holiness Pope St. Pius X. Unfortunately, modernism – the true cause of our problems – has been misunderstood. We are certainly – and should not be – opposed to advances in technologies and ways of life that improve our living. However, modernism the heresy is the movement in Roman Catholic thought that sought to interpret the teachings of the Church in the light of philosophic and scientific conceptions prevalent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Unfortunately, modernism entered the ranks of some prominent members of the clergy in the 1950s and 1960s leading to the collapse of interior piety and reverence as well as the exterior visibility of our internal faith (e.g. genuflections, public processions, etc). It was precisely this school of thought of modernism that individuals present at the Council sought to fight – people like Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Unfortunately, the members of the clergy who consented to the enlightenment philosophies have worked exceedingly hard to tarnish the name and reputation of His Grace Marcel Lefebvre and any Catholics who wish to attend the Mass of the Saints. Have you noticed that of all priests canonized as of this point, none of them said the Novus Ordo Mass.

I would highly recommend that you read “Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre” by Michael Davies. There are also other sophisticated accounts behind your question on why the clergy can seem so opposed to the Traditional Mass. One such account which details the modernistic influence at the Council is “Rhine Flows Into the Tiber”

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Proposition 17: Women to be Lectors!?

From HallowedGround, illustrating the alarming presence of modernism still deep within the modern Church. This is completely antithetical to the Order of Lector.  St. Pius X, ora pro nobis!

Probably the most newsy — and somewhat unexpected — item in the final propositions of the Synod of Bishops on the Bible was a proposal to allow women to be officially installed in the ministry of lector.

The issue was raised in Proposition 17 on “The ministry of the word and women,” and on Saturday morning it passed with 191 votes in favor, 45 opposed and three abstentions, according to our sources***.CNS article

Isn’t that special? I cringe when I hear people speak of Modernism in the past tense, as if it was some early 20th century heresy that was crushed, vanquished, and we can now breathe easy. Nonsense. Modernism has the Church in a strangle hold, and is slowly squeezing the life out of Her as we watch. These men with itchy ears are running the Church, and are the instruments of destruction. You never know what they are going to do, they’re almost totally untrustworthy. Another abuse becomes the norm.

Source: Hallowedground

Shall we ever see a return to the minor orders?

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Father Michael Pfleger of the Archdiocese of Chicago: Supports Barack Obama

Catholic Priest Has Only Glowing Praise for Pro-Abortion, Pro-Homosexual Marriage Candidate Barack Obama

By Cassidy Bugos

CHICAGO, January 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic priest Father Michael Pfleger of the Archdiocese of Chicago wants people to know that pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage Senator Barack Obama "is the best thing to come across the political scene since Bobby Kennedy."

Father Pfleger says he has known Obama for 20 years. "I think Barack Obama is in a class of his own," he said.

As an Illinois Senator Obama had the unstinting approval of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his dependable support of pro-abortion legislation. Now, after a short two years in the U.S. Senate, Obama has earned 100% ratings from pro-abortion groups across the board, including NARAL Pro-Choice America and the National Organization for Women.

In 2002 he voted against a bill to protect or offer medical care to babies that survive botched abortions. Prior to that he opposed an Illinois State ban on partial-birth abortion, and refused his vote to a bill mandating internet pornography filters in schools.

In 2006, Obama cast his vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment. "Personally, I do believe that marriage is between a man and a woman," he said the day he voted against defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

But Father Pfleger is just concerned for Obama's "vulnerability."

"When anybody comes with that much hope, whether it's a Bobby Kennedy or whether it's a Martin Luther King Jr., they do become vulnerable. They become vulnerable because they tell the country and the world that we can be better and we don't have to accept what is. And unfortunately, we live in a world where not everybody wants it to be different."

Although Father Pfleger says he is pro-life, he has a long history of inviting outspoken pro-abortion advocates into his pulpit – this despite the fact that the Chicago Archdiocese has a longstanding policy explicitly forbidding the use of Church property, under any circumstances, by pro-abortion advocates.

Yet in January 2003 singer Harry Belafonte was invited by Pfleger to speak at a Sunday Mass, where he criticized Bush for being pro-life and threatening a "woman's right to abortion." [His website reveals that he has invited many people with heretical views to speak at this parish, or as well calls it, a "faith community" http://www.saintsabina.org]

Pfleger has also hosted Muslim firebrand Louis Farrakhan, a known ridiculer of the Pope who has condemned Judaism as "a gutter religion."

Nor is this the first time Father Pfleger has been outspoken in his support of pro-abortion politicians. In February 2003 he invited pro-abortion Presidential candidate and Pentecostal minister Rev. Al Sharpton to speak during Mass.

For Sharpton, that was the first time he had spoken in a Catholic church.

"The comfort," he told the Chicago Sun-Times after the event, "is that Father Pfleger is a different kind of a Catholic priest."

Different indeed.

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Vatican Newspaper: Receive Communion on Tongue, Kneeling

As readers will remember from my past post, Mission: Restore Eucharistic Reverence, I encourage the reception of Holy Communion on the tongue as opposed to Communion in the Hand. My comments on this article are in the red brackets.

For those that are refused the ability to receive Communion on the Tongue while kneeling, I highly encourage you to write a formal letter of complaint to your bishop and/or Vatican officials. Some helpful pages may include Contacting Vatican Officials as well as Addressing Clergy.

Vatican Newspaper Article Says Catholics Should Receive Communion Kneeling and on the Tongue

Editorial by John-Henry Westen

Although it may seem a little strange, there is a definite battle being waged within the Catholic Church. It is the same "culture war" being waged by secular moderns against those who uphold traditional morality, it is pro-life vs. pro-choice. But within the Catholic Church the same battle is fought along liturgical lines, and the publication in the Vatican newspaper of an article calling for Catholics to receive Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue is telling.

"If some nonbeliever arrived and observed such an act of adoration perhaps he, too, would 'fall down and worship God, declaring, God is really in your midst,'" explained Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan in the pages of L'Osservatore Romano. [Exactly - kneeling is a symbol for the whole world to help non-believers see that we believe the Eucharist truly is our God]

The Catholic News Service reports that in the January 8 edition of the Vatican paper, Bishop Schneider noted that the reverence and awe of Catholics who truly believe they are receiving Jesus in the Eucharist should lead them to kneel and receive Communion on their tongues. "The awareness of the greatness of the eucharistic mystery is demonstrated in a special way by the manner in which the body of the Lord is distributed and received," the bishop wrote. [Bishop Schneider's comments are well needed in an area when people continue to embrace heresies like consubstantiation]

Although in all likelihood most Catholics are oblivious to it, the decision to receive communion on the tongue, versus in the hand and the decision to receive communion standing rather than kneeling is a significant fault line in the culture war.

Modernizers who relentlessly work to have the Catholic Church move away from so-called 'archaic' positions on sexuality , (forbidding contraception, pre-marital sexual activity, homosexuality etc.) [Such actions are heresy] also rail against 'archaic' piety in worship.

However, the culture war at least in terms of liturgical issues was nearly lost in the West until the advent of Pope Benedict [Deo Gratias. Please remember to pray for the Holy Father daily. Thank God often for Summorum Pontificum].

In the United States for instance, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on the Liturgy wrote in its July 2002 newsletter: "Kneeling is not a licit posture for receiving Holy Communion in the dioceses of the United States of America unless the bishop of a particular diocese has derogated from this norm in an individual and extraordinary circumstance."

The majority of the faithful have since adopted the practice of standing and receiving communion on the hand.

However, some traditional Catholics, often derisively referred to as "pre-Vatican II" Catholics have held to the practice of communion kneeling and on the tongue. Those same Catholics are often the most vociferous defenders of life and family within and without the Church.

While many valiant Catholic activists who work in the pro-life and pro-family battles receive communion in the common fashion, they nonetheless respect the right of those who wish to receive communion kneeling and on the tongue.

Not so for those within the Church seeking to get the Church in line with the times.

Certain Church leaders, priests and even bishops who are zealous in their attempts to modernize the Church have gone so far as to attempt to enforce modernism by refusing communion to those who kneel for communion. [Modernism has been declared the Synthesis of All Heresies by Pope St. Pius X]

One prominent example of such was Orange County Florida Bishop Tod Brown who was caught on video last year refusing communion to a woman who was kneeling. Brown is also known for refusing in 1994 to back an Idaho measure to deny homosexuals special privileges. Explaining his actions he said the law "would contribute to attitudes of intolerance and hostility in Idaho directed at homosexual citizens and is potentially discriminatory."

In Brown's diocese there has been considerable intolerance toward Catholics who kneel for communion and some traditional Catholics have been asked to leave the diocese.

Another prominent example was the denial of communion to Virginia House of Delegate member Richard Black by Arlington's St. Thomas More Cathedral Rector, Fr. Dominic Irace in 2002. Black was one of the strongest defenders of life in the legislature. As Delegate Black left the Cathedral, Fr. Irace loudly called him a "conservative idiot." (see coverage)

These types of situations caused the Vatican to react rather strongly in 2002. Jorge A. Cardinal Medina Estévez, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which addresses liturgical matters, wrote a bishop about reports received of a priest denying communion to faithful because they were kneeling.

The Cardinal called such denial "a grave violation of one of the most basic rights of the Christian faithful," and directed the bishop to investigate the case. The letter said that the Vatican regards such abuses of the faithful as very grave. The letter said, the Congregation, if such actions are verified, "will regard future complaints of this nature with great seriousness, and if they are verified, it intends to seek disciplinary action consonant with the gravity of the pastoral abuse."
(see the letter)

Despite this letter from the Vatican, the suppression of kneeling remains strong.

The article in the Vatican newspaper advocating kneeling however signals a sea change.

Those who kneel have a champion in Pope Benedict who prior to his elevation to the pontificate wrote of kneeling and its tie to culture in his book 'The Spirit of the Liturgy" (Ignatius Press, 2000) "There are groups, of no small influence, who are trying to talk us out of kneeling," wrote then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. "'It doesn't suit our culture', they say (which culture?) 'It's not right for a grown man to do this -- he should face God on his feet'."

Cardinal Ratzinger continued: "The kneeling of Christians is not a form of inculturation into existing customs. It is quite the opposite, an expression of Christian culture, which transforms the existing culture through a new and deeper knowledge and experience of God.

Kneeling does not come from any culture -- it comes from the Bible and its knowledge of God . . . The Christian Liturgy is a cosmic Liturgy precisely because it bends the knee before the crucified and exalted Lord. Here is the center of authentic culture - the culture of truth. The humble gesture by which we fall at the feet of the Lord inserts us into the true path of life of the cosmos." [Excellent words on which to meditate]

Source: LifeSiteNews

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Pro-abortion Sen. Hillary Clinton to Speak at Chicago Catholic Charity

I just received this news from LifeSiteNews.com. I wanted to pass it along and encourage my readers to contact the Archdiocese of Chicago and Mercy Home and politely ask them to not allow pro-abortion Clinton to speak at the fundraiser.

Sen. Hillary Clinton has been scheduled to appear as the keynote speaker at a Catholic charity event in Chicago, despite objections from pro-life groups over her vociferous support for abortion and homosexual activism.

The Mercy Home Graduates Luncheon is an annual fundraiser to support the Mercy Home Catholic children's charity. Mercy Home for Boys & Girls is a long-term residential home for young people ages 11 to 21, administered by Catholic priests. Fr. Scott Donahue is the current president of the organization.

According to the Pro-Life Action League, Fr. Donahue was apparently not aware Sen. Clinton had been asked to speak at the event until he was informed of her scheduled appearance by the League.

However, Mercy Home spokesman Mark Schmeltzer told LifeSiteNews.com that Fr. Donohue was approached by Chicago Cardinal Francis George about the upcoming Clinton fundraiser. "The Cardinal had some very understandable misgivings but he just wanted to be assured this was not a political stop," Schmeltzer told LifeSiteNews.com.

...

In 2004, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a policy document calling on Catholic institutions not to have pro-abortion politicians put on a pedestal due to the scandal it would cause. In their document, Catholics in Political Life, the Bishops' Conference states: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honour those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honours or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."

Joseph Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League has organized a demonstration against Senator Clinton's appearance in Chicago. He told LifeSiteNews.com that her appearance would set a precedent for pro-abortion speakers at other Catholic events.

Source: LifeSiteNews

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Daniel C. Maguire

Daniel C. Maguire hopefully will now stop teaching his heretical assertions. Finally, Roman Catholic bishops in the United States have declared two pamphlets by the "Catholic" theologian as “false teaching” because he argues that abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage are morally permissible. The pamphlets, “The Moderate Roman Catholic Position on Contraception and Abortion” and “A Catholic Defense of Same-Sex Marriage”, are simply heresy.

Let us pray for an end to all heresy! O Lord, through thy passion, thou hast redeemed the world. Misere Nobis!

Source: New York Times

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The Lost Tomb of Jesus?

I did not want to add any additional publicity to this blasphemy, but in light of recent news and in hopes that this post will help combat this new heresy, I have decided to write on the program that will air tomorrow on the Discovery Channel. This program is called the "Lost Tomb of Jesus".

The blasphemous "Lost Tomb of Jesus" is a documentary produced by James Cameron, director of the motion-picture Titanic and others. This documentary claims that archaeologists have found the bones of the family of Jesus including Jesus, Mother Mary, Mary Magdalen (again falsely claimed to be his wife), and a child who they claimed was Jesus's son! All of this is blasphemy against all the Catholic Church has represented for over 2000 years! Also, note that the tomb is not a new discovery - it was discovered 30 years ago in Jerusalem.

The problem is that people will never find the remains of Jesus, Mary, or Jesus's son. First, Jesus never had a son! Secondly, Mary and Jesus are now in Heaven body and soul. Our Lord ascended into Heaven forty days after His Resurrection. Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. The doctrines of the Ascension and Assumption have been cornerstones of Christian belief since the time of the Apostles!

An inscription at the tomb is claimed to read in Aramaic: "Jesus the son of Joseph". However, experts including Richard Bauckham, David Mavorah and Amos Kloner have responded by asserting the name of Jesus was common in archaeological inscriptions. Kloner, professor of archaeology at Bar-Ilan University in Israel who wrote the original excavation report on the site, has said, "I published all the details in...1996, and I didn't say it was the tomb of Jesus' family." Even some secular scholars are not backing the ridiculous claims of the documentary.

A very extensive rebuttal of this heresy is available at Extreme Theology. Secondly, I am not going to waste my time and watch this program. I have written The Discovery Channel and complained about this program. I ask others to do likewise.

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Vatican Official Acknowledges Liturgical Crisis

Feb. 23, 2007 (CWNews.com) - In an unusually candid conversation with the monthly Inside the Vatican, the secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship concedes that liturgical reform after Vatican II “has not been able to achieve the expected goals,” and indicates that Pope Benedict XVI is determined to address the crisis in Catholic liturgy.

In a lengthy interview, Archbishop Albert Malcom Ranjith Patabendige Don told the Inside the Vatican that a revival of the Catholic liturgy is essential to counteract the decline in practice among the faithful, particularly in the Western world.

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Bad "Catholic" Websites that Catholics Need to Avoid

I have been meaning to create this post for quite some time. I wanted to put together a list of websites that claim to be "Catholic" but should never be supported by Catholics. I am using Catholic Culture's website reviews for some of the information. Please realize that these websites are generally opposed to the truth of the Faith. If you have a link to one of these websites on your blog/website, I strongly ask you to remove it in an effort for us all to promote the complete truth not a "watering down" of the Catholic Faith.

All links below are to the Catholic Culture review of the website; you may have to register (I believe it's free) to see the review by Catholic Culture. I do not want to post an actual link to the website since that is to be avoided.

• 8th Day Center For Justice - promotes liberation theology
• Association for the Rights of Catholics In the Church - errors include saying that promoting women's ordination is not heresy
• Call to Action - Excommunicated organization seeking to completely undermine Church teaching
• Catholic Women's Ordination - promotes women's ordination
• Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) - promotes contraception and abortion
• Dignity USA - undermines Catholic Church's teachings on homosexuality
• Future Church - promotes women's ordination
• Georgetown Center for Liturgy - disobedient with the Vatican on the Liturgy
• Jubilee 2000 Our Lady of the Roses - promotes a condemned apparition
• Just for Catholics - created by Joe Mizzi, a fallen away Catholic and former seminarian, to lead Catholics away from the Church
• Leadership Conference of Women Religious - As Catholic Culture states: "The site is filled with antagonism toward the hierarchy and Church teachings, the emphasis on political activism in a secular humanist context, and feminist rhetoric."
• Maryknoll:  Their political activism fits in very well with their espousal of liberation theology. While it is logical that Maryknoll would care about the material needs of those in the countries that they serve, they are forgetting what they were founded for. Instead of bringing the Truth of Christ to the world, they are politicizing the poor.
• National Catholic Reporter - better named the National Catholic Distorter.
• North American Forum on the Catechumenate - Founded by Rev. James Dunning, a dissenter who does not believe the Eucharist is Jesus. The prayer book has dissenting resources.
• Pax Christi USA - Catholic Culture states: "They seem to care more about finding common ground with abortionists and the gay rights lobby than about working for true peace."
• Roses from Heaven - promotes condemned Bayside New York "apparitions"
• These Last Days Ministries - promotes condemned Bayside New York "apparitions"
• We are Church - a dissenting group following the "spirit of Vatican II"
  
• UnhealthyDevotions.com - This website seems at first to be offering information on a Novena to Saint Jude, but actually tries to sway the reader from saying novenas at all!
• ConsecrationVows.com - Website tries to claim that Saint Louis de Montefort's Total Consecration to Mary is essentially selling your soul to the devil 

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On Women and Veils

Today few women wear the veil, a hat, or a mantilla, and many are asking why women should wear veils at all. First and foremost, the 1917 Code of Canon Law stated: "...women, however, should be with head covered and modestly dressed, ..." The new Code of Canon Law from 1983 does not mention the requirement of women to wear veils in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. However, the absence of a direct reference to the subject does not automatically imply a change of Church teaching. As stated in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, Can. 21: "In doubt, the revocation of a previous law is not presumed; rather, later laws are to be related to earlier ones, as far as possible, harmonized with them."

Women should still wear veils while in the presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist. Why? Even if the Code of Canon Law does not apply, St. Paul's words in 1 Cor. 11:4-6 do still apply:

Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered brings shame upon his head. But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame upon her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she had had her head shaved. For if a woman does not have her head veiled, she may as well have her hair cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should wear a veil.

Alice von Hildebrand,  from the book Women and the Priesthood remarked:

"Women are definitely more mysterious than men, not only because their affective life is more complex and more refined, but especially because there is something in women that calls for veiling. It is not by accident that women traditionally wore a veil, and that, up to Vatican II, they wore veils in Catholic churches. This custom was deeply symbolic, and alas this symbolism is now lost. Under the influence of feminism, many Catholics were led to believe that veiling indicated some sort of inferiority, and for this reason it was abolished.

"This interpretation rests on a misunderstanding. Far from indicating inferiority, the veil points to sacredness. While we do cover what is ugly or decaying, we also veil what is sacred, mysterious, and sublime. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he covered his face to hide the glow that was apparent because God had deigned to speak with him: Moses' body reflected the depth and mystery of his experience.

"Every woman carries within herself a secret most sacred, mysterious, and sublime. This secret is life. Eve means "the mother of the living." In the mystery of the female body, human life finds its beginning: not in the male semen but in the fecundated egg, hidden in the cavern of the female body. There God creates a new soul which is exclusively his work, and in which neither father nor mother has a part. This creation takes place when the male seed fecundates the female egg. Thus at that very moment a closeness exists between divine action and the female body which marks the latter as sacred ground. This is why the way a woman dresses, the way she sits, walks, laughs, should always be marked by a note of holy reserve. A woman conscious of her unmerited privilege will necessarily adopt a bodily posture- what is today called body language- which adequately reflects this calling."

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