An interesting thing happened to me yesterday at church. As mass was ending I noticed a woman I did not recognize checking out the Indulgence calendars on the back table so I went over, introduced myself and explained what they were. It turned out she had come from Seattle visiting family, I introduced my wife and the three of us proceeded to the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast downstairs in the church hall and found ourselves in conversation as we ate.
As we spoke (Dawife and her really hit if off) we found she was originally from Massachusetts but was thinking of moving back as the next was now empty and she had family both in the area & near Boston so she was scouting out various cities and towns and proceeded to ask about the Fitchburg / Leominster area. Her first question spoke volumes:
Is it safe for a woman to go to a supermarket at 8 PM in this city.
Now Fitchburg isn’t what it was when I was a teen and there are parts that are a lot rougher thanks to drugs and gangs but I was able to say “yes” without hesitation, but the implication of the question that really hit me.
When a woman’s first question when inquiring about a potential move concerns personal safety that suggests where they currently are isn’t safe.
Seattle was once of the great cities in our nation, but over the last few years it has let itself become ruled by the mob to the point where the first question from a professional woman looking for a new place to live is “Will I be safe to go grocery shopping?”
That we should reach this point in an American city in my lifetime is disgraceful and that I feel more shame over it as an American then those who actually run Seattle three thousand miles away do is the greatest indictment of their actions and inactions that I can think of.
If you don’t want such people, we’ll gladly take them.
Sir Humphrey: The church [of England] is looking for a candidate [for bishop] to maintain the balance.
The Bursar:What balance?
Sir Humphrey: Between those who believe in God and those who don’t.
The Bursar: Is there anyone in the church that doesn’t believe in God?
Sir Humphrey: Yes, most of the Bishops.
Yes Prime Minister The Bishop’s Gambit 1986
Lord Germain:Whatever may be the outcome of this, I shall not forget your [Friar Tuck’s] interference (rides away)
Sir William of Marksbury: I advise you father to be a little more restrained. It’s not a very sound idea to make an enemy of that particular lord.
Friar Tuck: Nor of my particular LORD Sir William.
The Adventures of Robin Hood Friar Tuck 1955
One of the spiritual works of mercy in the Catholic Church is to admonish the sinner, that is warn a person who is sinning that their actions put their soul at risk. However in the modern “touchy feely” church this is often forgotten or ignored by clergy who either:
Do not believe
or
Are cowards
This situation is exacerbated when the sin is public and even celebrated. To confront such a person brings a risk in terms of reputation and responses.
And that brings us to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone who will not rule out excommunication in the case of Catholic pols who publicly advocate abortion. As he puts it:
You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings.
And he also notes that during the civil rights era Excommunication was put to good use to cause public Catholic to repent from serious sin
On April 16, 1962, he [Archbishop Joseph Rummel] followed through, excommunicating a former judge, a well-known writer and a segregationist community organizer. Two of the three later repented and died Catholics in good standing.
You see that’s the point. If you are actually interested in saving souls and the normal methods do not work Excommunication is a powerful tool. It may not work in every case as noted above but that was two souls saved out of three.
Now of course there was a time when the threat of excommunication carried a lot of weight, when people of power actually believed and feared for their souls to wit:
These days however you are more likely to get a Catholic Pol and a Catholic Bishop more in line with my Sir Humphrey Quote than the Friar Tuck quote.
The real question is this: Do they actually believe? For a pol who doesn’t actually believe excommunication will not move them but the other question is do you have clergy who actually believe?
Clergy who believe will take this passage from the prophet Ezekiel to heart:
Thus the word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, you shall warn them for me.
If I say to the wicked man, You shall surely die; and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his wicked conduct so that he may live: that wicked man shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death.
If, on the other hand, you have warned the wicked man, yet he has not turned away from his evil nor from his wicked conduct, then he shall die for his sin, but you shall save your life.
If a virtuous man turns away from virtue and does wrong when I place a stumbling block before him, he shall die. He shall die for his sin, and his virtuous deeds shall not be remembered; but I will hold you responsible for his death if you did not warn him.
When, on the other hand, you have warned a virtuous man not to sin, and he has in fact not sinned, he shall surely live because of the warning, and you shall save your own life.
Ezekiel 3:17-21
A member of clergy who either does not actually believe or fears man more than God will not act or wish to rock the boat.
But a member of clergy who not only takes this passage to heart, but has actual love for the sinner, a love strong enough to bear the opprobrium of a post Christian society will act both for his own sake and that of the sinner. And when the slings and arrows come his way he will comfort himself with Christ’s words:
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
In addition to this post both Calendars will also be available in the links section of this blog under “Catholic” immediately and at the WQPH 89.3 FM web site eventually.
As always these indulgences are available under the normal conditions which are listed on the calendars: The norms are as follows:
Communion on the day of an indulgence. This can be applied to any amount of indulgences that day.
Confession within twenty days of the day of an indulgence. Applies to all indulgences during that period
Prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father (an Our Father, Hail Mary or any appropriate prayer) once per day of indulgence.
To earn an indulgence you must be in a state of grace (no unconfessed mortal sin) at the time of the indulgenced act)
Indulgences can only be applied to the dead or to the person earning the indulgence. They can not be applied to any other living person.
For a PLENARY indulgence you must have NO attachment to sin. If such an attachment exists the indulgence earned is only partial.
A plenary indulgence can only be earned one a day (expect if death is imminent), there is no limits to partial indulgences daily.
An indulgence attached to a feast day is still valid if the feast day is transferred lawfully.
A specific day’s indulgence requiring a visit to a particular church or oratory can be made from noon the previous day to midnight on the actual day.
No unbaptized person nor any Christian who is currently under the penalty of excommunication may earn an indulgence.
You must ACTIVELY seek and or state your intention to obtain an indulgence for the act or prayer that carries it to be valid.
If you want to know what an indulgence is check here or an entry from the Catholic Encyclopedia of a century ago or check out EWTN here.
We tend to get the government we deserve. This week a lot of people were wondering what they did to deserve this. The answer is simple: When the last election was stolen you went along with it.
So enjoy the $5 gas, the debacle in Afghanistan, the open borders, the crime and the terror attacks to come because all of these things we collectively as Americans have richly earned.
A lot of people are wondering how the people responsible for Afghanistan live with themselves. That’s easy. When you become a post Christian society then loving your neighbor as yourself is no longer a priority, nor is truth, nor is the common good.
All of these thing were stressed in Christianity and it amazes me that folks are shocked that without it they disappear.
Speaking of shocks I’d like to say I was shocked by the behavior of Mets players going after the fans for daring to boo them after their 3 1/2 game lead became a 7 game deficit in a month.
While ownership is unhappy the players have figured out that even if they lose a percentage of the fans it won’t be enough to keep them from making a nice enough living so they will never have to live like the fans they despise unless they do something stupid with their cash.
Milo Yiannopoulos is very sick with COIVD and is using Ivermectin to counter it. He may or may not make it. If he doesn’t it will delight a lot of his enemies but will disgust the great enemy as he has already moved away from his clutches. If he does make his enemies on the left will be upset and the great enemy will still have hope, but the way things are going it seems to me much more likely that if he makes it he’ll help grab a lot of souls out of his clutches.
I wish him the best either way.
Finally you’ve likely noticed a few odd posts here. That’s because I’ve decided it’s better to have the occasional sponsored post to generate revenue that ads or banners that slow down the site. In the end the hosting and the writers need to be paid for and if people are willing to pay for a post (as long as it doesn’t violate my basic guidelines) I’m going to take their money.
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