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.
Note: I wrote previously about my feeling that the meaning behind 9:11 referred to the Book of Revelation chapter 9, verse 11. the time 9:11 always seems to get my attention, morning and night. It signals the end of the first woe, or more importantly and accurately, the beginning of the second woe and God's judgements in the time of the 6th and 7th trumpets. The article on SpiritDaily is interesting in that others are feeling something ominous about this number.
DOES NUMBER '11' SIGNIFY 'THE LAST HOUR' AS WELL AS BIBLICAL-LIKE JUDGMENTS?
Is there really anything to the number "11"? We have been having fun with this lately -- if "fun" is the right word. Let's say we see it as curious. So many run across this number and believe there is importance attached to it.
Some of it does seem to indicate significance -- at least to certain people.
We have warned it may be linked to the occult -- that the concept is popular among New Agers (who are also seeing it). But we are not ones to disdain the prophetic, nor potential signs. In this case, it is a number that seems to figure often into both personal and societal situations.
"My dear sweet husband passed December 19," wrote a woman named Nancy. "A speeding car hit him at his work site. He was a lineman and was ready to retire. Please pray for his soul. He had on his brown scapular and just went to Confession and Communion the week before. He has to be with Jesus. Joe was a very holy and loving man. I will be lost and alone without him.
"That day on the clock I saw 11:11 a.m. That evening is when it happened. The day before I saw 11:11 too. I tried to e-mail you the first time, but my email didn't go through. This number is always showing and Joe and I both noticed it. He used to say it's '11:11,' or I'd tell him. Please pray for our family. I have five children and ten grandchildren. They are his step children, but love him as a real father. They are very devastated as am I. I have been reading the articles on the number eleven being noticed by many people, and I have to share my experience. I don't believe this is of the occult, but somehow, in my case, it is a grace from God, and He is showing me that he is in control, and that Jeremiah 1:5 is so true, and he knows or controls when we come into this world and when we leave."
Let us indeed pray for Nancy and her family.
"Twelve years ago my mother suffered and died from cancer," said another viewer. "I took care of her and prayed to God to take her up and end her suffering.
"This went on for a couple of months. Those last few months of taking care of her were a very holy time for us, I had many experiences that brought me back to my Catholic faith in a real committed way. But what I find most remarkable here is what is on my birth certificate and on her death certificate -- the uncanny 'coincidence' in the dates and times (with 11's) with which we came in and out of this world. I was born on 5:11 at 1:15 and she passed on on 5:11 at 11:55. You tell me what are the chances of that...
"I know He was showing me something really big here, and this has a very deep spiritual meaning. He gave me the Grace to deepen my faith in a tangible way; He gave me proof that I could look at over and over."
And so we discern, as we are careful not to become obsessed with it -- not to look too much for any word or symbol (but for the Cross) or number. Is it the coincidence of big numbers (that with a large population, any happenstance can and does occur)?
Or is it -- as a fundamentalist Christian website asserts -- a number that in the Bible means "last hour" and "judgment"?
We can't link directly to the site because it is one of those with anti-Catholic views (many fundamentalists fall into this trap), but it has admittedly intriguing information.
The day of the terrorist attack on New York: 11 The date of the attack, September 11 or 9/11 = 9 + 1 + 1 = 11 911 is emergency number = 9 + 1 + 1 = 11 September 11th is the 254th day of the year: 2 + 5 + 4 = 11 After September 11th we have 111 remaining for the end of the year. 119 is the area code for Iran & Iraq 1 + 1+ 9 = 11 The first plane to hit one of the buildings was Flight 11 The State of New York was the 11th state to join the Union New York City = 11 letters Afghanistan = 11 letters The Pentagon = 11 letters Flight 11 had 92 passengers, 9 + 2 = 11 Flight 77 had 65 passengers, 6 + 5 = 11 Twin Towers look like an 11 Twin Towers had 110 floors Another sad occurrence of the number 9 and 11 is found in the official number of people killed in the World Twin Towers: 2792. 2 + 7 = 9 9 + 2 = 11 27 + 92 = 119 92 - 27 = 65 = 6 + 5 = 11
But can we not find such associations -- if we move around figures enough -- with any number? Or do the repeated occurrences of the number eleven have a deeper meaning?
Note: Here is another example of a runaway rogue unsupervised extra ecclesial body dissenting from Church authority on faith and morals with no accountability. The USCCB is more and more becoming a seat of dissent and secularization in the US and is becoming ever more irrelevant to the life of the Church. They are simply too compromised by homosexuality, and consumed with political power to effectively shepherd the flock. Change is needed. U.S. Catholic Health Association Openly Defies Vatican Over Nutrition and Hydration of Disabled Statement penned by same priest who called it a "blasphemy" to keep Terri Schiavo alive
By John ConnollyWASHINGTON, D.C., December 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHUSA) posted a statement on its website interpreting a document by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on the necessity of feeding and watering the disabled in a way contrary to its intended meaning.
CHUSA is the same organization that advised the USCCB to endorse offering the morning-after pill to victims of rape being treated in Catholic hospitals. It has now posted a letter on its website claiming to put the CDF document in its proper context. The letter is penned by John J. Hardt and Fr. Kevin D. O'Rourke, O.P., both bioethicists. O'Rourke is notorious as the priest who lobbied against the cause to keep Terri Schiavo alive. He stated that "for Christians, it is a blasphemy to keep people [like Terri Schiavo] alive."
In the current letter, the two bioethicists came to the conclusion that the CDF document errs on the side of not nourishing and hydrating patients, rather than the reverse, claiming that the document's meaning is much narrower than face value dictates.
"Many of the rules are repeated in one way or another in the present Code of Canon Law," the letter said. "Two canons of the present code are relevant for our study: Canon 18: Laws which establish a penalty or restrict free exercise of rights . . . are subject to strict interpretation. Canon 52: A singular decree has force only in respect to the matters which it decides and for the persons for whom it was given."
Hence, the application of the CDF response, because it limits the free exercise of rights, will only apply to a restricted number of cases, specifically to patients with a firm diagnosis of PVS [persistent vegetative state]. Some commentators have sought to extend the statement to people with other pathologies, such as advanced Alzheimer's disease or acute dementia. But the response concerns only patients who are diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state, not to all patients who are unable to assimilate food and water without artificial assistance."
In 2004, Pope John Paul II told an international medical-moral congress that "the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act. Its use, furthermore, should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and as such morally obligatory."
In 2005, the U.S. Bishops sent two follow-up questions on the statement asking for clarification on the statement. The questions asked for confirmation that the administration of food and water was morally obligatory and if food and water could be removed in the event of a doctor's judgment that the patient will not regain consciousness. The CDF responded in September of 2007 with a yes to the first question and a no to the second.
"Theologians on the wrong side of these debates are not satisfied with church clarifications," he said. "The theologians on CHA's website claim that the mere "psychic burden" of being cognitively disabled, and the related "burden upon the loved ones giving care," justifies withholding tube feeding and thereby causing death by starvation. This is exactly the conclusion that the Vatican statement rejected. A comatose person's life, and our need to care for him, is not a burden that justifies starvation any more than it justifies suffocation. I fail to see how this line of reasoning does not in principle justify suicide."
Dr. Edward Peters, a canon lawyer, criticized Hardt and O'Rourke's legal reasoning. On his blog (http://www.canonlaw.info/2007/12/hardt-orourke-err-in-minimi...), Peters faults the letter for taking the CDF document in the completely wrong light. He debunks O'Rourke and Hardt's use of canon law from 1298 to interpret what was not a juridical statement from the CDF, but a moral one.
"Canons 18 and 52 and the Rules of Law upon which they draw are, by their plain terms, meant to inform one's interpretation of laws and legal directives," wrote Peters. "In issuing its Response on nutrition and hydration, however, CDF was not issuing a law, or an authentic interpretation of a law (1983 CIC 16), or indeed any other kind of juridic decree (administrative or otherwise). Instead the dicastery is setting forth moral criteria for personal decision-making, a point reinforced by the CDF Response being posted among the dicastery's doctrinal statements, not its disciplinary ones. In other words, by subjecting CDF's enunciation of moral principles to interpretive techniques that were developed for assessing legal norms, Hardt & O'Rouke are basically criticizing the CDF Response for not being something it never claimed to be."
CHUSA has a history of doctrinal dissent, endorsing the use of "emergency contraception" and sterilization in Catholic hospitals and paying for advertising space in pro-abortion magazines. Fr. O'Rourke attended a talk in Wisconsin in October to explain his new interpretation of the CDF's document, asserting that maintaining the lives of the disabled "has never been the Catholic tradition," but rather, these kinds of decisions have always been left "up to the family." When
Father O'Rourke was asked at the talk about the discrepancy between his viewpoint and the Responses to Certain Questions, he indicated that the CDF document is "full of holes that theologians will be able to exploit."
Note: Persecution of Catholics is up worldwide. From the violent attacks in the Muslim and now Hindu worlds to the more subtle outlawing of Catholic speech in the UN and EU and some Canadian and US states. Persecution is growing and the world's states are aiding and abetting it. A new religion of atheistic relativism and secularism is being touted and legislated by the state. What's next? Read Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation and find out.
Hindu mob attacks Catholic workers in Gujarat New Delhi, Dec. 20, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A group of Catholic Church workers including priests and nuns came under assault by Hindu fundamentalists in India's troubled Gujarat state on December 19 on their return from a cultural program. Prashant-– a Jesuit social group-– said that Hindu fundamentalists first disrupted the program of the church team at Baidiya village.
Later their jeep was waylaid by the same group, which had grown enough to block the path of the Catholic mission workers. A priest, a religious brother, and two students were seriously injured in the assault and had to be taken to hospital. A nun and female students in the group managed to escape injury.
Pointing out that the local police initially refused to register their complaint, Prashant said the attack-- in which the Hindu zealots charged that the Catholic group was trying to convert Hindus-- was "indicative of a pattern of the past years."
Under the rule of the Hindu nationalist BJP party for over a decade, Gujarat has recorded dozens of instances of anti-Christian violence, including the burning of churches, desecration of cemeteries, assaults on Christian workers, and harassment of Church institutions by the government.
Note: The story below from Catholic World News shows how even in so-called "moderate" Muslim countries, there is no tolerance towards Christianity. Indonesia's constitution, unlike even more hostile Islamic regimes in Saudi Arabia, for example, guarantees freedom of religion. But when the law is violated, the state looks the other way. Meanwhile, all over the US and Europe, Mosques are being built often with financial assistance both from the state and christian religious authorities. Is this what the Pope is talking about when he seeks reciprocity from Muslims in his talks.What gives? Islamic pressure closing churches in Indonesia
Jakarta, Dec. 20, 2007 (CWNews.com) - The Indonesian Catholic bishops have called public attention to rising Islamic pressure against Christian churches, Vatican Radio reports.
Bishop Martinus Situmorang of Padang, the president of the country's episcopal conference, is the co-author of a new report on the campaign by Muslim activists to close down Christian churches. The report shows that from 2004 through 2007, 108 churches have been closed because of Islamic pressure.
The report notes that Indonesia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and challenged the government to honor that promise, protecting the Christian minority from Muslim extremists.
Catholics constitute just 3% of the population in Indonesia. About 85% of the country's 220 million people are Muslims, giving Indonesia the world's largest Muslim population.
Note: In the book, The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation, the author Steven Paul explains how the term "earthquake" in prophetic writings often is used to symbolize political upheaval. But in some cases it also depicts actual seismic events. Often the two go together. Who would argue that the area of Israel/Palestine is always on the verge of the former. Now an article says the latter is also imminent. Experts warn major Israel quakes fast approaching
As if political instability and rampant insecurity in the Middle East are not worrying enough, Israeli experts are warning that a major earthquake could strike the region at any time. Three minor quakes over the past month have served as a reminder that Israel and the West Bank sit atop one of the most sensitive fault lines in the world, where earthquakes have a history of causing havoc.
"We can say with certainty that an earthquake of a magnitude of six on the Richter scale could take place in the coming years," said Yefim Gitterman from the seismology department at the geophysical institute of Lod, near Tel Aviv.
"It can happen tomorrow or in years to come," he said. "Statistically, there is a major quake every 80 years."
Under that assessment, Israel and the Palestinian territories should brace for a major earthquake soon, as the last one happened 80 years ago, on July 11, 1927, in British mandate Palestine when 300 people were killed in Jerusalem and Jericho.
A similar quake measuring seven on the Richter scale and with an epicentre in the Hula Valley, today in northern Israel up from the Sea of Galilee, devastated the town of Safed and killed some 4,000 people in 1837.
"Stronger earthquakes of a magnitude of seven are statistically less common," Gitterman said. But that could be bad enough.
The Lod institute estimates that if a magnitude seven earthquake strikes the northern Jordan Valley or the Dead Sea, between 8,200 and 9,500 people could be killed, more than 20,000 injured and more than 20,000 left homeless.
Running north to south, the Hula Valley, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, the Arava Desert and the Red Sea lie on what is known as the Syrian-African fault line. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who saw Jerusalem fall to the invading Romans in 70 AD, also wrote that around 30,000 people perished in an earthquake whose epicentre was in the region of the Dead Sea in 31 BC.
The Lod institute, part of the infrastructure ministry, is on standby day and night to brief the Israeli authorities on the epicentre and magnitude of a powerful tremor within 10 minutes in order to mobilise an emergency response.
The Israeli home front command publishes extensive advice on how to behave in the event of an earthquake on its multi-language website, urging families to prepare emergency supplies to survive for 24 to 72 hours until help arrives.
All new homes built in Israel are equipped with bomb shelters, and the civil defence advises that those without should crouch inside a doorway or under a heavy table in the event of an earthquake, and avoid using lifts.
The website advises people to carry out drills at least twice a year to make a response in an actual event automatic.
It's snowing today, hard. And the wind is blowing too, up to 40 mph. Since it's Sunday, there aren't any school closings but across the bottom of the television screen is a long list of church closings. The Methodists, Assembly of God, Unitarians, Lutherans, Episcopalians and a whole long list of others. Many Catholic Churches also cancelled religious education classes.
But my wife pointed out something interesting. No Catholic Masses were cancelled. You see, the sacrifice of the Mass goes on no matter what. From a purely logistical sense, it's not a problem for the Priest. He lives there. And, no, they aren't putting parishioners at risk. There was an overflow crowd at the vigil Mass last night long beforethe snow began to fall.
The fact is, you don't cancel the Sacrifice of the Mass. It would be imprudent to dis-invite the Savior of the world because of weather. All it requires for Christ to become truly present in His Church is a Priest to say the Mass. Nobody else need be there. So no matter what the weather, the Mass goes on.
How unfortunate for the separated brethren that the customs they have created are of so little consequence.
I've been writing about signs of the apostasy in the ranks of the clergy. This article illustrates well how far some will go to cozy up to political power and gain public favor rather than adhere to basic Catholic teaching on faith and morals. In this case, the clergy, even to the episcopate, contributed to the state murder of Terry Shiavo. How different would things have been if these leaders had joined together and spoken with one voice about this injustice? We'll never know.
Bobby Schindler Reveals Shocking Support by Catholic Clergy for Sister's Euthanasia Killing
By Steve JalsevacDecember 14, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Shiavo, the young woman who was dehydrated to death in Florida in 2005, has become a prominent opponent of euthanasia since that wrenching time for his family. In a recent Challenge magazine interview with Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Schindler revealed the shocking details of the support from many prominent Catholic clergy for the court ordered removal of food and hydration from Terri. Bobby is a practicing Catholic as was his sister.
Schindler stated that his sister "was not dying, not attached to any type of machinery and was only being sustained by food and water via a feeding tube." He noted that Catholic teaching does not allow a person "regardless of any advanced directive or even the sworn testimony of another person" to refuse food and water with the intent to cause their own death or that of another.
Still, Fr. Gerard Murphy of the Diocese of St. Petersburgh, Florida actually helped Judge Greer make the decision to dehydrate and starve Terri to death. Fr. Murphy did not consult with any members of Terri's family and did not even visit Terri. Murphy did however consult with Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, an assisted suicide/euthanasia activist, and testified on behalf of Michael Schiavo.
Bishop Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg refused to help the family stop the euthanasia death order and supported Father Murphy's seriously flawed position. The bishop eventually issued a confusing statement that was of no help to the situation and after that the Florida bishops supported Bishop Lynch's position.
Other prominent US clergy also made public statements condoning what was happening to Terri.
Schindler said Jesuit Father John Paris, professor at Boston College, commented on Pope John Paul II's statement mandating life sustaining treatment. Paris said in these situations, "I think the best thing to do is ignore it and it will go away. It's not an authoritative teaching statement. The problem here is that non-Catholics think when the Pope says 'Jump,' we all say, 'How high?'
"Father Kevin O'Rourke, ethics professor at the Loyola University of Chicago Medical School, told the Miami Herald that preserving Terri's life was "blasphemy." He also said, "For Christians, it is a blasphemy to keep people alive as if you were doing them a favor."
Father Richard McBrien, theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, told Bill O'Reilly of Fox News that, "This is not a question of euthanasia," directly contradicting the Vatican. "This is the removal of an 'extraordinary' means of sustaining life..."
Fortunately, there were many other priests and some bishops who were appalled by what was happening. The Vatican began issuing their own statements. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care, said, "Food and hydration are never considered medicine. To remove them means euthanasia, it means killing, and so this woman was killed by hunger and starvation. Let's stop with the euphemisms - they killed her."
Then, on March 31, Cardinal (Renato) Martino issued the strongest statement yet from Rome, when he said, "Whoever stands idly by without trying to prevent the death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo becomes an accomplice to murder."
Terri was successfully murdered as she succumbed to the extended withholding of food and water on March 31, 2005.
CHURCH WILL TOWER AGAIN, BUT BEFORE IT DOES A PURGE IS NEEDED -- AND URGENTLY
It is going to look like a disaster but in the end the Church will rise.
Count on that. But also count on things looking yet more dismal.
Many will live to see a time when there is going to be spontaneous prayer in the Holy Roman Catholic Church once again -- on a large scale (not just tiny prayer pockets).
There is going to be praying like the early Church prayed.
That day will come.
There is going to be a return to relics. There is going to be more tradition.
There is going to be an end to songs that have made Mass secular.
There is going to be healing; the charisms of Jesus, directly ministered, will resurrect. Count on that also. There will be unknown utterances and the "flames" of the Holy Spirit.
There will be resounding rosaries.
It will happen during this century.
The Church will rise -- it will tower.
But before then: a test of faith.
For the Church is still in the midst of a grinding, excruciating purification. That will be followed by persecution.
To wit, in just the past few days: -- A priest who is a Navy chaplain is court-marshaled for sexual abuse -- while he had HIV. -- A woman who was sexually abused by seven Roman Catholic priests in Los Angeles (and had a baby by one of them) received a $500,000 settlement, it is revealed. -- Also in L.A.: word that last summer Cardinal Roger Mahony was physically assaulted on a street in the wake of that diocese's huge abuse settlement (of $660 million). -- A Croatian priest is sentenced for gay abuse as a popular Arizona priest who was once featured on TV is ready to go to trial (and despite that is still holding prayer services). -- A priest is linked to both child pornography and a photo showing him holding a rifle in Afghanistan. This too makes the news. Oh, the news! -- In New Hampshire, meanwhile, it turns out that the poor fellow who allegedly held hostages at Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire headquarters had once allegedly been abused by a cleric in Boston archdiocese.
Note: While I agree with the statements by Bill Donohue, the fact remains that this crisis is self-inflicted and the correct steps have not been taken to rid the Church of the perpetrators. Bill's point is that if you misidentify the real problem, you can't solve it and I wholeheartedly agree. Homosexuality within the Church, even to the highest levels is evidence of a large scale apostasy.
Steven Paul warned that things would get real bad before the Antichrist revealed himself. He said "if you think things are bad now, you can't even imagine how bad they will be. The acceleration of events since his passing makes one wonder just how bad...
THERE NEVER WAS A "PEDOPHILIA" CRISIS
(Catholic League) No sooner was the document on gays in the priesthood released than the critics went mad. What we could no longer tolerate was the perpetuation of the myth that there has been a "pedophilia" crisis in the Catholic Church, and that is why we issued the following news release:
"For 2000 years, the Catholic Church has been the subject of countless lies, especially on issues that touch on sexuality. Today, the biggest lie is that the Church suffers from a 'pedophilia' problem. And now that the Vatican has released its document on homosexuals in the priesthood, look for the lie to grow like a cancer.
"The findings of the National Review Board, appointed by the bishops to gather data on the problem of priestly sexual molestation, and the John Jay Report on this subject, conclusively said that most of the victims (81 percent) were male, and most of them were postpubescent. The National Review Board didn't mince words: 'we must call attention to the homosexual behavior that characterized the vast majority of cases of abuse observed in recent decades.'
"Yet in the past week, Voice of the Faithful and Call to Action (both Catholic dissident groups) have used terms like 'pedophilia' and 'child abuse' to describe the problem, respectively. This lie has deep roots: a Lexis-Nexis search linking 'pedophilia scandal' and 'pedophile scandal' with 'Catholic Church' (for all available dates in the U.S.) yields a total of 733 stories; linking 'homosexual scandal' and 'gay scandal' with 'Catholic Church' yields a grand total of 12 hits.
"Here's another lie. On the website beliefnet.com, there is an article by an anonymous priest that accuses the Vatican document of saying that 'gay men per se are incapable of relating to men and women.' The priest concludes that this is 'one of the most offensive things I have ever read in any church document about homosexuals.' But it's not true. The document clearly refers to 'those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture,' and not to gays per se as having this difficulty.
"Progress cannot be made unless we deal squarely with the facts. And the fact is that we've had a homosexual crisis in the priesthood all along."
Archbishop Nienstedt Fires Back at Mistaken Newspaper Critic
by Margaret CabanissDecember 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop John C. Nienstedt, coadjutor bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis, came under fire in the local Star Tribune last week for, essentially, voicing the Church's teaching on homosexuality. Nick Coleman explains where the archbishop got it wrong:
"The catechism, in my reading, says homosexual acts cannot be approved but does not label them a "grave evil." Homosexuals, like all baptized persons, are "called to chastity." But somehow, the sins of homosexuals always get denounced before the sins of straight people. And if gays must be accepted with compassion and respect, those qualities seem notably missing from Nienstedt's statement."
There's a lot to unpack in that statement. Fortunately, the archbishop himself responded with a letter to the editor over the weekend. It's brief, but devastatingly precise:
"In a Nov. 28 column, Nick Coleman accuses me of not being compassionate toward friends and relatives of persons with same-sex attractions. I vigorously deny the charge. For 13 years I prepared priesthood candidates for celebrating the Sacrament of Penance by counseling them to welcome persons with warmth, compassion and understanding. Anyone who has celebrated that same sacrament with me knows I follow my own advice.
What Coleman wants is for the church I represent to be accepting and compassionate toward homosexual acts and lifestyles. And that can never be.
Coleman further claims the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not say that homosexual acts are a "grave evil." What it does say is the following: "Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity (Genesis 19: 1-29, Romans 1: 24-27, 1 Corinthians 6: 10, 1 Timothy 1:10), tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.' ... Under no circumstances can they be approved."
As a priest and bishop, I have the responsibility before God and in the name of Jesus Christ to call all men and women to conversion, the first step of which is recognizing sinful activity for what it is. Sometimes that is not a comfortable thing to do, but it is always the compassionate thing to do."
Nienstedt is set to replace Archbishop Flynn whenever the latter retires, which could be as early as next year when Flynn turns 75. As Deal Hudson pointed out last Thursday, Nienstedt is commonly thought to be more "conservative" than his predecessor, and clearly that orthodoxy isn't welcome by all in the archdiocese. But through this sort of patient and dogged catechesis, Nienstedt is showing himself to be up to the challenge. Good for him.
To get a sense of how far things have gone, read the following article. There is a real spiritual battle going on in St. Paul, MN as a more orthodox Bishop is set to replace one that has gone off the rails. I post this as an example of how far into apostasy some have already headed.. US Catholic Parish set to "Publicly Bless the Relationship of Same-Sex Couples"
Openly challenges Church moral teachings
By Hilary WhiteST. PAUL - Minneapolis, November 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - St. Frances Cabrini church, of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese, has announced on their website that they are ready to "bless" homosexual partners.
The parish has published a "Statement of Reconciliation" repudiating the Church for its teaching on sexual purity and married chastity and misrepresenting these teachings as a form of "oppression." The statement said the parish will "Publicly bless the relationships of a same sex couple after the couple completes a process of discernment similar to that completed by heterosexual couples before marriage."
The parish statement goes on to pledge that it will publish in the homosexual press their commitment to the homosexual activist agenda and to including "a gay/lesbian perspective in catechesis at all levels, including elementary school age." The parish currently runs catechesis programmes for children from ages three and up.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pastor of the parish is Fr. Leo Tibesar who is a national leader in the anti-Catholic homosexual lobbying organisation, Dignity. Fr. Tibesar was recorded this week preaching a homily refuting Catholic teaching on sexuality and accusing those who uphold it, including bishops, Cardinals and "Evangelicals", of hypocrisy.
In May 2006, when LifeSiteNews.com revealed Fr. Tibesar's leadership role in the homosexual political movement within the Church, he was not the pastor of any parish. It was since the revelations of his involvement in the anti-Catholic campaign group that he was assigned to St. Francis Cabrini. He is also a longstanding figure in Archbishop Flynn's archdiocesan programmes preparing couples for marriage.
The parish says it "stands willing" to accept "openly gay or lesbian priests or lay ministers" despite the widely available statistics showing the high prevalence of homosexual clergy perpetrators in the Church's ongoing sexual abuse crisis.
Read the rest here (if you have the stomach for it)
Note: I've been writing about the growing apostasy inside the Church as foretold in the Apocalypse of the Bible. In this story we have an arm of the US Catholic Bishops giving a glowing review to a movie based on atheistic, ant-Catholic books, ones specifically targeted for boycott by the Catholic League. The same reviewer gave a positive review to "Brokeback Mountain," a movie that attempted to normalize homosexual relations.
Jesus once said, "those that are not against us are for us." As I wrote in a previous post concerning Bishops pulling the rug out from under the pro-life movement by approving the abortion pill in Catholic hospitals, "The Sin of David Redux," we have plenty to worry about in our own house.
Catholic League Slams US Catholic Bishops Conference Positive Review of Golden Compass
First Brokeback Mountain, Now US Bishops Movie Reviewer Praises Golden Compass
By John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, DC, November 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Harry Forbes has for many years been the Director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Office for Film and Broadcasting. In 2005, LifeSiteNews.com pointed out that Forbes issued a glowingly positive review of the homosexual propaganda film "Brokeback Mountain". Yesterday, Forbes issued another positive review, this time for the film adaptation of the specifically anti-Catholic novel "The Golden Compass."
