How many "prayer warriors" do you know? Twitter's a great place to meet them, or to hone your own skills of praying for people. I have a great group of Twitter prayer warriors to share my Catholic faith with. We call our selves "Catholic Characters," because we find joy in praying for and lifting each other up. And supporting each other in our apologetic pursuits.
Lately, I'm finding a new type of person to pray for. These are the tweeps we engage in our "apologetic pursuits." They can be Protestant, gay, or atheist, or anywhere in between. Each are unique in their beliefs, and their ability to persuade, argue, insult, encourage, or cajole. But they all share one thing in common: every one of them thinks they understand, and can explain in a nutshell, what Catholicism is.
I haven't found one who can.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”
I'm not saying that people hate us (although some might), but that their perception of Catholicism is based on a false premise. And who can blame them? Everywhere you turn, Catholicism is being assaulted. It's very easy to hop on that bandwagon.
I'd like to continue the discussion here. Help to dispel ideas of what our opponents think Catholicism is. Veni Sancte Spiritus.
What is the Church of Nice? It is a worship community that sort of looks Catholic and OFFICIALLY is Catholic – but at the end of the day, authentic Catholicism has been
sucked out of it in almost every possible way. There are all kinds of signs you can look for to determine if your parish is a Church of
Nice.
The priest will never preach on anything controversial related to your eternal life, like
homosexuality, abortion, reception of Holy Communion as a divorced and remarried
parishioner.
He will never utter a word about the immortal danger your soul is in if you are co-habiting and or having sex outside of marriage or using contraception INSIDE marriage.
Times for Confession will be sparse and practically none of the parishioners ever go –including you.
If you have been going to your Church of Nice parish for some years, you will occasionally have the thought come to your mind that it seems like less and less people attend.
You will also notice that there are nowhere near as many young adults or families as you
remember from years ago. But the music director will bust out in a loud song rich with
lyrics about the community, instead of God, and you will forget your thoughts about less
people in the pews.
You will also hear a strange thing from time to time about something the RCIA instructor
or Religious Ed director said in class and you will think to yourself for a moment –
“hmmm .. that’s odd”, but then you will go on with your business and forget about it.
Then the occasional discussion will come up with friends and family who are former
Catholics who bad mouth this or that about the Church – and while you might feel quietly
uncomfortable about their outbursts, you won’t say anything because, frankly, you don’t
have the knowledge to respond to them because it was never told to you.
And eventually, you will allow yourself to be lulled into a false set of comfort regarding
their eternal lives by buying into the ridiculous diabolical canard that – it’s not REALLY
important if they are Catholic or not – after all, they’re basically good people and God
understands and we are all going to Heaven anyway so not that big a deal.
If you go to a parish replete with altar girls, protestant hymns, an army of so-called “Eucharistic ministers” (which they are NOT by the way), a joke-cracking priest, a con-
gregation receiving Holy Communion in their hands, warped catechesis coming from the
adult and/or kids religious ed department, no substantive preaching, a congregation with
more older people than younger families and no one really in between, where people
around you, including you dress in clothes more suited for going to the movies than wor-
shipping God, if almost the entire congregation goes to Holy Communion, and a good
number of them never return to their seats afterwards, if it is customary to applaud the
band or singers – then you can be pretty certain, your parish is a Church of Nice.
If you have no idea why this list of issues are problematic, then you are almost guaran-
teed to belong to the Church of Nice.
If you don’t know the answers to the following basic questions, you should be concerned:
What are is meant by the Four Last Things and what are they?
What is wrong about using the term Eucharistic Ministers?
What is an indulgence and why is it important to know? Can you explain why Protestantism is a heresy? (Did you even know it IS a heresy?)
What are the various mysteries of the Holy Rosary?
What does the Church mean by the term “The Real Presence”?
What is the Mass?
Can you be a “good” Catholic and still disagree with the Magisterium?
Do you even know what the word Magisterium means?
Is it EVER possible to refuse to believe an infallible teaching AND still be a good Catholic?
If you can’t answer ALL of these questions – at least on some fundamental level – then
you need to be very concerned about your faith life. And this is just a beginning list – it
could easily have hundreds of questions on it.
What the Church of Nice gang has been so fantastic at over the past 40 or 50 years .. and
this means bishops and priests .. is substituting knowledge with feelings.
In this manner , they have introduced into the faith a humanist dimension that has no
place in the Church.
The same madness that goes on in the culture about not being judgmental and always
making sure no one is offended has become paramount in the Church as well, thanks to
the Church of Nice crowd – hence the name, Church of NICE, where everyone is always Nice.
If you attend a parish that subscribes to the Church of Nice agenda – watch out. Your
soul is in jeopardy, serious jeopardy.
It is very likely that your religious instruction is deficient, you haven’t been to confession
in God knows how long, and if you have children – they are bored out of their minds and
more than likely will stop attending Mass after they leave home.
These are all symptoms of a dying faith – and it can all be placed at the doorstep of the
Church of Nice.
The Church of Nice is failing in spectacular fashion! It’s beginning to resemble the Rus-
sian Front from the German’s perspective in World War II. It won’t be much longer be-
fore the whole edifice is flat our overrun.
As the Russian forces – the Red Army – was overrunning town after town and province
after province – reclaiming all that had been taken by the Nazis in the previous two years,
many of the German High Command and the civilian population back in Berlin carried
on as though the eastern front was a sad fact, but not one they REALLY had to worry
about.
In April 1945, the first Russian tanks crashed into the heart of Berlin. It took a while, but
when it happened, it was decisive and final.
This is what is happening in the Church today – the portion of the Church, which is the
majority part of it, that worships at the Altar of Nice. It is being overrun and the defeat is
monumental.
2000 US parishes closed in the last 20 years, 1300 of them in the past 10 years and no
end of closings in sight. And why has the Church of Nice risen to such heights of power
and control.
Because fallen human nature is weak. Because most people don’t like confrontation and
will only occasionally do the right thing and challenge evil and wrong. Because being vi-
gilant – always vigilant - exacts a cost. And because sin is attractive. And because we are
lazy and slothful.
If it were not for the Catholic Church, the whole world would end up in Hell because the
Catholic Church is necessary for salvation. This is its charter – to be the instrument of
salvation – not merely a sign of salvation, but the actual instrument through which God
works His salvific action.
When much of that Church casts aside that charter and adopts an inauthentic attitude of
being the Church of Nice, then the world will go out of balance – as it has – and the
eternal lives of those Church of Nice members hangs in the balance.
If you attend a Church of Nice parish – get out of it and get to a parish where you will get AUTHENTIC Catholicism – the real McCoy. If you have friends or family who need to
hear this, pass it along.
While we watch and pray, and debate over Obama's contraception mandate, there is history that is as foreboding as it is inspiring. A movie about the little known portion of history of the French Revolution, the War of the Vendée, was just released February 24 by Navis Pictures. And with religious liberty at the forefront of America's struggles, this movie could not be released at a better time.
As you may already know, Navis Pictures is a one-of-a-kind movie studio, casting only children and young adults. Director Jim Morlino of Connecticut trains Catholic young people with little or no acting experience to accomplish things most of them never dreamed: to take part in a real and professional acting and film making experience through the eyes of their faith. "The Catholic faith we cherish informs everything we do and say, believe and think," says Morlino.
Challenging the young actors to prayerfully reach deep inside and imagine the struggles and joys of the saintly men and women they portray, the results are nothing less than miraculous. Morlino can't praise the young actors enough. "They brought an incredible level of concentration, dedication and devotion to the whole process. They came ready to work and ready to play."
This latest film, The War of the Vendée, featuring actors from 2 months to age 21, is poised to outdo his first film, St. Bernadette of Lourdes, which was incredibly successful around the globe, selling thousands of DVDs with no formal advertising campaign. A tale of virtue and valor, the story highlights the faith and courage of a people subject to the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution when the religious liberty was taken from them.
With a strong devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort, with rosaries and scapulars around their necks, and the Badge of the Sacred Heart on their breasts, these peasants fought valiantly to the death for God and King. While countless numbers of men, women and children perished, ultimately their mission was victorious in restoring the faith to France.
While the War of the Vendée is unlikely to be found in your typical history book, there is already a worldwide interest in the film. This is due to the small but fervent group of people in France and throughout Europe who work for recognition that the atrocities committed in of the War of the Vendée were nothing less than genocide.
Those who know the true history have a term for the deliberate attempt to deny the truth of the War of the Vendée and keep it from being told- "memoricide." Jim Morlino found this denial appalling. "Not only has the story of sacrifice been ignored, but [there is an effort] to kill the memory of this event." While we pray here in the United States that our religious liberty remains, this film will ensure that the martyrs of Vendée will not be forgotten.
While the nation's voters voiced their opinions on Obama by placing more Republicans in the House since the 1940s, and voting in key Republican senators, Connecticut maintained the status quo, speaking their liberal stance loudly.
With the governorship still on the fence, and a recount looming, Connecticut voted in a completely Democratic executive branch, 20 out of 32 senate seats, and 76 out of 115 assembly seats, with Bridgeport and other recounts still trickling in. Hopeful conservatives looked to Massachusetts and Scott Brown as their example, hoping to send a Republican senator to Washington this time around, but it was not to be. All five representatives, some of the most pro-death in Congress, and Dick Blumenthal, another NARAL favorite, easily dominated at the polls.
Connecticut remains solidly blue. But there is good news. Pro-life, pro-family candidates did make gains in Connecticut.
Endorsed pro-family state senate candidates won 50% of their contests, and pro-family representative candidates won 58% of their contests. Pro-life, pro-family candidates dominate the Republican class of freshman legislators, and won the vast majority of open and contested seats, reports the Family Institute of Connecticut's Action Committee.
Even though gubernatorial candidate Foley never responded to the FIC's questionnaires on pro-life and pro-family issues, his running mate for Lieutenant Governor, Danbury's Mayor Boughton, is a solid pro-life, pro-family advocate, and helped to bring some Connecticut pro-lifers to his side. But Foley was his own worst enemy, and failed the "throw-us-a-bone test" that could have given him the lead he needed to win the election outright, says Peter Wolfgang of the FIC.
With 75% of the freshman legislators being solidly pro-family, and no pro-family seats lost, it seems that Connecticut's conservatives may be chipping away at the solid blue foundation.
"If there is one lesson to be learned from the 2010 election, it is that the GOP needs pro-family backing to run competitively and gain seats," says Wolfgang. "If the top of the ticket had embraced social conservatives, the GOP might have prevented one-party rule in Hartford. Without us, it will be consigned to permanent minority-party status."
It should be an interesting day on Tuesday! But unless you look closely, the choices seem nebulous this time around, especially for Connecticut. What about Linda McMahon? She is "personally" opposed to abortion, you know the drill. Her bio declares her Catholic, CINO. But compared to Blumenthal, she's a saint!
NARAL Pro-Choice America endorsed Blumenthal hands down for his championing of women's "reproductive choice" in Connecticut. Blumenthal courted that vote, and unabashedly claims, "I will always stand up and protect a woman's right to choose."
Catholics, hopefully, will not vote for pro-abortion Attorney General Dick Blumenthal. (Blumenthal overrode his own state’s Department of Public Health decision and personally authorized the state’s taxpayer public funding of abortions under the children’s healthcare program Husky B.) Blumenthal would undoubtedly fight to preserve Obamacare intact, probably expanding its abortion-permissiveness roles, and even promoting reinstatement of the currently banned late term D&X Partial Birth Abortion method.
Another NARAL endorsement who needs to go is Chris Murphy. Murphy, along with his fellow congressmen (DeLauro, Himes, Courtney, Larson, Dodd and Lieberman), voted 100% pro-abortion across the board. None of them were ever even absent for a vote. They've got some debts to pay, I guess. If we want pro-life representation for Connecticut, we need to vote out all these Representatives!
The only good thing about Blumenthal running is that he'll lose his seat as AG. Candidate for AG Martha Dean is "the most intellectually substantive candidate running for state office in Connecticut, Martha is pro-family and can articulate our values," according to Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut.
Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.
Today we have a similar spiritual battle in progress—a battle between the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, truth and lies, life and death. If we do not soon stop the genocide of abortion in the United States, we shall run the course of all those that prove by their actions that they are enemies of God—total collapse, economic, social, and national. The moral demise of a nation results in the ultimate demise of a nation. God is not a disinterested spectator to the affairs of man. Life begins at conception. This is an unalterable formal teaching of the Catholic Church. If you do not accept this you are a heretic in plain English. A single abortion is homicide. The more than 48,000,000 abortions since Roe v. Wade in the United States constitute genocide by definition. The group singled out for death—unwanted, unborn children.
No other issue, not all other issues taken together, can constitute a proportionate reason for voting for candidates that intend to preserve and defend this holocaust of innocent human life that is abortion.
I strongly urge every one of you to make a Novena and pray the Rosary to Our Lady of Victory between October 27th and Election Day, November 4th. Pray that God’s will be done and the most innocent and utterly vulnerable of our brothers and sisters will be protected from this barbaric and grossly sinful blight on society that is abortion. No woman, and no man, has the right to choose to murder an innocent human being.
May God grant us the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and counsel to form our conscience in accordance with authentic Catholic teaching, and then vote that well-formed Catholic conscience.
