Blog to discuss the book "The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation" and current events that point to the events described therein.
This is from a BISHOP, a member of the episcopate of the Holy Roman Catholic Church!
Due to immigration and procreation, Dutch Muslims have gone from 22,000 in 1973 to more than 1 million today, roughly 6% of the population. In March, the Dutch government announced a 10 million Euro program to combat the radicalization of Muslim youth. The methods to be employed weren't specified.
The birthrate of European Muslims is three times that of their non-Muslim counterparts (the latter well below replacement level). In less than 20 years, it's estimated that one-third of all European children will be born into Moslem families. By 2050, one in every five Europeans will pray to the same god as Osama bin Laden and the Iranian ayatollahs.
There was a time when the name "Mother Teresa" was used as the example extraordinaire for holiness in this world. But it seems that ever since her death, the media has conspired to denigrate her memory.
Most obvious has been the media's attempts to juxtapose her life with that of the late princess of Wales, Diana. While Mother Teresa's life was holy in every way, confirmed even by miracles from Heaven since her death, the lurid details of Diana's life have been glossed over in some attempt to turn her into some sort of secular saint. We have concerts for Diana, books, movies, memorials and such. Yet looking closely at her life we find mental illness, infidelity and indiscretions were more her trademark.
On the other hand, in Mother Teresa we find heroic virtue, true charity, not for TV camera consumption, and fidelity to her Church and herself.
Not to worry. Heaven will watch out for its own. The Woman Clothed with the Sun will also march on.
From "The Pilot", an opinion by Kevin and Marilyn Ryan This trend toward fewer and fewer babies is now firmly established, but its implications are just beginning to sink in. A friend has predicted that Europe will soon be little more than a theme park of Asians. This projected future is being countered by data showing the explosive birthrates of Europe's Muslims and future predictions about how long before the EU is an Islamic organization. While it will be a "hard sell" in our current pro-birth control world, the Church's position has been right. It has been right that we are not to play God with our bodies. It has been right to proclaim the co-creation of children as a primary purpose for marriage. The Church's steadfast stand may be an "inconvenient truth" to the modern couple beginning a marriage. However, don't ask the young mother bringing her baby home from the hospital. Don't ask the father at his daughter's first Communion. Don't ask the couple on their children's wedding days. Inconvenience may be their road to true happiness.
Heaven. At least that's what it used to say. Now, according to the editors of the Lectionary and the New American Bible, it says "Sky". Is that correct? Well, if you pull up your handy Greek scripture, the word used is ouranos (apologies for not using the Greek font and diacritical marks). And ouranos is translated everywhere else in the NAB Book of Revelation as "Heaven".
So why is it translated as "Sky" in the passage from Chapter 12 used on the Feast of the Assumption? It appears that an opinion has been imposed on the text. If you read the Collegeville Commentary on the Holy Bible, the author of the piece on the Apocalypse says the Book of Revelation is lifted from an ancient Near East legend about a sky goddess and a dragon.
So what does it matter? Well the literal translation is "a great sign appeared in the heaven..." And the heaven is used to designate the Church. So the great sign will appear in the Church. Further, the great sign is an activity of a part of the Church, the College of Cardinals. And the activity is the "bringing forth a son".
This "bringing forth" will be the great sign and anyone who has studied the Book of Revelation and Apocalypse - Letter by letter, will know that the sign has appeared and what it signifies.
So much for sola scriptura as the main doctrine of protestant movement. If the Bible and nothing else is authoritative in all circumstances, then why are so many protestant denominations giving approval to homosexuality, not only among the membership but also the clergy? Have they not read the Bible and been clear in its meaning? The latest trend among the lost is to "vote" on God's word and decide what He really meant.
If this alone wasn't enough to prove the heresy that protestantism is, then what else would? When you become untethered from the teaching authority that accompanies the Bible, you are in for trouble indeed. And when your leaders feel they have license to tell you that black is white and night is day, you are headed for disaster.
The Lutherans are just the latest in the mad rush to embrace sin as good. The Anglicans lead the way by ordaining Eugene Robinson. No longer is it the role of the clergymen to set the example for holiness. Sin is exalted and sinners elected. There is a solution but its obviousness may be getting in the way.
In the Church founded by the Son of God, The Holy Roman Catholic Church, there is one deposit of faith, one teaching authority, and one final word. God made it that way to keep us from doing exactly what we are seeing in articles like the one linked above. But as is always the case, we have "gone astray, each choosing our own way..."
There is a near perfect storm out there conspiring against vocations to the priesthood. The post-Vatican II era has yielded an environment of feminism, modernism and apathy that has nearly killed off the priesthood.
Where do Priests come from? The obvious answer is "families". So we start there. Why don't more families yield Priests? Well, for one thing, there are fewer families to start with. According to recent studies, more couples are choosing co-habitation without marriage. Beyond that, more people are putting off child bearing until later in life and only then having a small family. To do so, they are opting for artificial birth control. So a "family" centered around the modernist impulse for material wealth and founded on a sin against moral teaching is not really likely to yield aPriest.
In Africa, there are many vocations. The Priesthood there affords a roof over the Priest's head, food and protection from AIDS if the Priest observes the rule of celibacy. In the US, temptation taunts the young at every turn - material and sexual. Instead of seeking refuge from a world gone mad with sexuality, the western Priest joined in the madness as evidenced by the abuse scandals.
Social pressure even from within Catholic families also contributes to the lack of vocations. Parents' and grandparents' expectations for success do not include the Priesthood for their sons. There was once great pride in having a Priest come from one's family. No longer.
The Church itself has instituted reforms that tend to dampen vocations. The altar server ministry, once reserved for young males is now dominated by females. One observer stated at the time this change was put in effect that within a generation, "the male altar server would cease to exist". Holy Thursday, the Feast of the Lord's Supper" has always included the ritual of the washing of the feet. This symbolizes the institution of the Priesthood. But at most parishes now, women are included in the ritual. How this can be viewed as anything other than blasphemy is beyond me.
Finally, the abysmal faith formation at most parishes does nothing to prepare the young for vocations. Most graduating seniors can barely recite basic Church teaching. The Religious, Sisters and Brothers who once dominated Catholic education, have all but disappeared, replaced with poorly formed laypeople who teach what They believe or "feel" about Church teaching.
I once asked Steven Paul, author of Apocalypse - Letter by Letter what was in store for a Church with so few vocations. His prophetic response was "maybe God knows that we won't be needing as many Priests".
