To Scotland’s great shame, the devolved Scottish Parliament, voted for the legalization of same-sex ‘marriage’ on the 4th February 2014. The new Scottish legislature, which prides itself on proportional representation, indicated by this vote that its decision did not reflect the proportion of the Scottish electorate opposed to this measure. An 83% vote in favour far exceeded even the most optimistic poll ratings allegedly in favour. In addition, while the proponents of the Bill had the vast resources of the State, a politically-correct education system and the liberal media in their favour, the opponents had to finance their case through donations from an economically-depressed nation.
The Parliament consistently refused to consider amendments, to the law, which would protect those opposed to same-sex ‘marriage’.The Scottish parliament and Government has shown itself to be no friend of the traditional family nor of the moral law, we therefore ask all our readers to join in the Public Rosary Novena which began at the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, Edinburgh on 18th January 2014, and which will continue on the 18th of each month until the 18th September 2014, the date of the referendum.
Those who can participate at Edinburgh are asked to meet at the main entrance at 11.00am to pray 15 decades of the Rosary, followed by the Angelus at 12 noon.If you cannot attend, please offer 15 decades of the Rosary and the Angelus on those days either in your parish, family or on your own so as to appease God’s anger and to beseech His mercy.
‘Public prayer is far more powerful than private prayer to appease the anger of God and call down his mercy. Holy Mother Church has always advocated public prayer.’ St Louis Marie de Montfort in The Secret of the Rosary.
I am sure that heaven will not ignore the prayers of those who pray catch-up for the 18th of January.
Our Lady of Aberdeen, pray for us.
St Andrew, pray for us.
Who said the Satanic is dead?
Recent demonstrations by the feminist group Femen have involved blasphemous attacks upon Churches and churchmen. In this article we examine the ideology of this group which unashamedly declares itself socialist and atheistic. But is there a satanic element to its ideology too?
Liturgical revelations
In a previous article in this blog we suggested, tongue-in-cheek, that the use of the Apostles’ Creed at Novus Ordo Masses instead of the Nicene Creed perhaps indicated that some priests were uncomfortable with the new liturgical translation and postures which required them, inter alia, to bow at the ‘ et homo factus est’ and to use the word ‘consubstantial’.
We have since had confirmation that we were not too far off the mark. Fr Michael Butler, chairman of the liturgical commission of the Diocese of Brentwood, in a recent letter to The Tablet, wrote: Most priests have got on with it [the new translation] but grumbled about it … Not only grumbled but also changed or avoided some words and phrases that they found somewhat difficult to say with meaning. Some avoid words like “dewfall”, “oblation”, “consubstantial”, “many” (and prefer “all”), some refuse point blank to use the Roman Canon ever again.’
His bishop has criticized his views and stated that they do not represent the views of the diocese. Nevertheless, such views as have been expressed simply confirm that the spirit and letter of the permanent liturgical revolution begun by Annibale Bugnini have not been thwarted. This latest outburst, whatever one might think about the Novus Ordo per se, merely demonstrates an attitude in the clergy that the liturgy is theirs (to be adapted to their wishes and desires á la révolution liturgique with their ever-changing ad-libbing) rather than something belonging to the Church to which they must conform. But apart from “dewfall” which is foreign to the traditional Mass, all the words to which they take exception are true and theologically correct translations of the original Latin. The refusal to use the Roman Canon displays perhaps an antipathy not so much to the translation as to the very Canon itself which, although redacted in the Novus Ordo, is a clearer expression of pre-conciliar Eucharistic belief, than the new Canons. One has to ask how any Catholic priest cannot understand the Roman Canon and remain a priest?
One is also faced with that “many” versus “all” argument which is repeated ad nauseam although it was effectively answered in the Catechism of the Council of Trent thus:
‘Looking to the efficacy of the passion, we believe that the Redeemer shed His blood for the salvation of all men; but looking to the advantages, which mankind derive from its efficacy, we find at once, that they are not extended to the whole, but to a large proportion of the human race. When therefore, Our Lord said: “for you” He meant either those who were present, or those whom He had chosen from amongst the Jews, amongst whom were, with the exception of Judas, all his disciples with whom He then conversed; but when He adds “for many,” He would include the remainder of the elect from amongst the Jews and the Gentiles. With great propriety therefore, were the words “for all” omitted, because here the fruit of the passion is alone spoken of, and to the elect only did His passion bring the fruit of salvation. This the words of the Apostle declare, when he says, that Christ was offered once, to take away the sins of many; and the same truth is conveyed in the words of Our Lord recorded by St John; “I pray for them, I pray not for the world; but for them whom Thou hast given Me, because they are Thine.”’
Of course, for those who believe in universal salvation the above is anathema.
What has happened in Brentwood should not surprise us. Missus Romanus in ‘The Permanent Liturgical Revolution’ , Approaches 44-45, July 1975, advised us:
And since it is clear, insofar as the liturgy is concerned, that it is the Novus Ordo Missae that has opened the way to these divisions by destroying the ‘impassable barrier’ to heresy constituted by the millennial rite of the Roman Church canonised by the Council of Trent and St Pius V, and in so doing has opened the infernal cycle of today’s endless change, it is quite obvious that we shall not correct the evil and call a halt to the flood of sacrilege and offences to the Most Holy Eucharist merely by returning to a strict observance of the very doubtful rubrics of 1969. The Church must return to the Roman Rite as it existed before the new evolution began, for it is only by using this as our starting point that Tradition can bear the fruits of grace and that the Church can make and give to its children the liturgy they need to worship God and to offer, in the sacrament, the Sacrifice of Reparation that the world needs more than ever today.’ To which we say, Amen.
Eugenio Corti 1921-2014
This great Catholic Italian writer, died on the 4th February, 2014 at the age of 93. He was born on the 21st of January 1921. He enlisted Eugenio Corti RIP 1921-2014 the Italian army at the beginning of the war and became a lieutenant volunteering for service in the Eastern Front, in order to fight against Bolshevism beside the Germans (then allied to the Italians). He then fought with the Allies after the fall of Mussolini. After the war he continued his fight against Communism through cultural action. His greatest work The Red Horse has been translated into several languages. His harrowing tale of the Italian retreat from the Eastern Front, Few Returned – Twenty Eight Days on the Russian Front, Winter 1942-43, has also appeared in English. May he rest in peace. An article by Robert Hickson, featuring both the above works of Corti, ‘What then is it to be a priest?’ appeared in Apropos No 28.
Fr Robert Bradley SJ RIP
Dr Robert Hickson, recalls his memories of Father Robert Bradley S. J. who died recently. As well as reflecting upon Fr Bradley’s Catholic attributes it discusses the experiences of Fr Bradley and other like-minded Jesuits in coming to terms with the woeful state of the Jesuit order. It also reveals that it is not only creatures from Hell who hiss at the mention of the name of the Blessed Virgin, our Mother in Heaven.
The Yuck Factor
In this article, Br Andre Marie considers the sound Catholic approach to homosexuality and takes issue with those who are fundamentally correct in opposing the vice, but inadequately rooted in their principles and therefore unreliable in their actions.
The Belloc Society annual Sussex talk and folk session