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.
'SPIRIT OF ANTI-CHRIST' IS BEST DEFINED NOT AS SECULAR SPIRIT BUT ONE FULL OF HATRED
From SpiritDaily.com
We are out of balance when we focus too much on evil, at the same time that we are in peril when we ignore it.
There is but one recourse: the Holy Spirit.
At Christmastime, we think (or should think) of Christ; in our time we are also forced to ponder the opposite spirit (for the spirit of anti-christ is rising).
Just what is the "spirit of anti-christ"? How, in our special times, is it manifesting? How do we detect it?
More than anything, the spirit of anti-christ is in those who show direct vitriol toward religion and specifically Catholicism and Christianity. Simply put, it is truculence aimed directly at Jesus.
Day after day, this time of year -- as a new "tradition" -- there are stories about the Infant kidnapped from a Nativity here, or a Nativity disallowed there, or a statue of Jesus found hanging. There are the anti-Catholic jokes. There is the bias. There are universities where they won't even allow Santa! The spirit of anti-christ is the spirit of militant secular humanism, and finds its extreme in satanism.
Anti-christ is most manifest in atheism but is not confined to non-believers. Those of religious faith who bristle at the mention of Christ are obviously of this spirit -- or at least influenced by it. Direct animosity toward Christians (as seen currently and urgently in India) is what would balloon into a challenge unlike any seen since the early-century martyrs.
It is one thing to see the rise of homosexual rights; it is another to watch gay demonstrators with signs that display stark anti-Christian hatred.
That spirit extends across sexual, economic, and cultural boundaries.
In Mexico, Playboy magazine came out with a cover depicting a nude model but for a Virgin-like veil (on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which of course is centered in Mexico). That is the spirit of anti-christ because it went beyond the prurient and into the realm of the blasphemous, which spells hatred. Anti-christ is the spirit of lust where Christianity is the spirit of love. Catholics are disdained by certain writers in magazines like Time while a hard-core pornographer is exalted as a nice old man when he dies. The spirit of anti-christ reverses everything, so that good is evil and evil is good. It spells the word "live" backwards.
"Want proof that hate is driving this assault?" asks a group that fights Catholic bigotry. "The head of the ACLU in New Hampshire, Claire Ebel, advises that if crèches are allowed in parks, it is permissible 'for a display of satanic ritual.' And this hatred of Christmas is not exclusive to the U.S. In England, Muslim preacher Anjem Choudary called Christmas 'evil' in a recent sermon. No wonder they are banning words like 'bishop,' 'chapel,' 'monk' and 'nun' from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. And all of this is being endorsed, if not promoted, by self-hating Christians."
Scientists in America and politicians in the new, unified Europe, especially, are hankering for the day when they will be able to exert a coordinated purge of Jesus. They are refashioning nature. They are redefining spirit. The confessional has been replaced by the couch of the psychiatrist. At the same time, there is an unprecedented eruption of those claiming to see peculiar images of Jesus.
Is Heaven countering the attempt to purge Him? Is it hinting at a coming large manifestation? "An unusual phenomenon occurred at my kitchen sink," wrote Antoinette Santangelo of Cedar Knoll, New Jersey. "On this day, before I left my house at one o'clock in the afternoon, I filled my one-year-old grandson's bottle with milk at the sink. I rushed out without noticing that I had dropped a 'clump of milk' on the ledge of the front of the sink, discovering it only upon my return four hours later. Since I had left a pot in the sink, I set out to wash it; however, before I could do so, I felt a strong force pushing me back from the sink. I wondered why this was so strong. After the strong force subsided, I attempted to wash the pot.
"It was then that I noticed the small drop of milk on the front of the sink. Upon closer examination, I was filled with emotion to see the suffering Face of Jesus on this drop of milk. [The next morning] after Mass I showed my father the picture and he immediately saw the image of Jesus' Face clearly and asked if he could follow me home so he could see the sink and picture in the drop of milk. He found it incredible and believed when he saw was truly the face of Jesus."
It is difficult to discern: are these reports -- so numerous -- pareidolia (the imagining of images into natural, coincidental formations), some other type of deception, or signs from Heaven to offset the attempts at stripping Christian supernaturality from the public square? Why does it happen so often -- with the same frequency as statue beheadings, Nativity controversies, and satanic graffiti?
It is a question this hour -- this late hour, at this late time of the year. "Earlier today, a bus taking members of a heavy-metal band, the Red Shore, veered off the Pacific Highway north of Sydney," wrote a viewer at this time precisely a year ago. "The bus rolled several times and slammed into a tree, killing the lead vocalist and one of the road crew. They were on their way to a performance at Sydney University in a double-header with a U.S. 'death-metal' outfit call 'All Shall Perish.' They had called their tour, 'Christmas Carnage.'
"Sadly, this title has turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Coincidence speaks to us. It heralds. It tries to warn. In the quiet of night, in the silence, we take it to the Infant.
Pope's Christmas Greeting Says We Must "Protect the Human Being against Self-Destruction" of Sexual Aberration
By John-Henry Westen
VATICAN CITY, December 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - During his exchange of Christmas greetings with the Roman Curia this morning, Pope Benedict XVI noted that the Church "cannot and should not limit herself to transmitting just the message of salvation to her faithful." It must also he said "protect the human being against self-destruction" - a destruction which comes from a warped understanding of marriage and human sexuality.
"It is necessary to have something like an ecology of the human being, understood in the proper manner," said the Pope. "It is not a surpassed metaphysics when Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman, and demands that this order of creation be respected."
Unless we "listen to the language of creation" he said, we end up with "destruction of the work of God." The Pope suggested that the gender ideology which seeks to redefine the sexes to allow for homosexuality, transgenderism and such things are examples of mankind separating himself "from creation and the Creator." With such attempts to decide for himself, mankind "lives against the truth and the Spirit of the Creator."
Appealing to concern for the environment to heighten awareness of the gravity of the matter, Pope Benedict said, "Yes, the tropical rainforests deserve our protection, but man, as a creature is no less deserving" of protection. Rather than a limit of our freedom, the Pope emphasized that it was a condition of that freedom.
Quoting great theologians of the past, the Pope called marriage "between one man and one woman for life" the "sacrament of creation" and urged his listeners to reread the Encyclical Humanae Vitae. It was the intention of its author Pope Paul VI, he said, to defend against treating sexual love as a commodity.
At the conclusion of his address, the Pope returned to the theme of being in harmony with creation and the Creator. "The Holy Spirit grants us joy," he said, "This joy is the expression of happiness, of being in harmony with oneself, which is only possible if one is in harmony with God and His creation".
Note: The "Mountain Burning with Fire" is stirring. Also known as the Religion of Peace and Tolerance.
20,000 Muslims Attack a Church in Cairo
Posted GMT 11-26-2008 9:57:4 One thousand Christians were today trapped inside the Coptic Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary in West Ain Shams,Cairo, after more than twenty thousand Muslims attacked them with stones and butane gas cylinders. The Church's priest Father Antonious said that the situation is extremely dangerous.
The Muslim mob that attacked the church blocked both sides of the street and encircled the church building, broke its doors and demolished its entire first floor. The mob were chanting Jihad verses as well as slogans saying "we will demolish the church" and "We sacrifice our blood and souls, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Islam", while the entrapped Christians chanted "Lord have mercy".
The incident started on the occasion of the inauguration of the Church today, when the Muslims hastily established a Mosque in the early hours of this morning, by taking over the first floor of a newly-built building facing the Church and started praying there.
When the security forces tried to disperse the mob, they went to nearby homes and shops owned by Christians, and were armed with sticks, butane, knives and other sharp objects.
Witnesses said the mob included children from as young as 8-years old to men of over 50-years old, in addition to women.
The Church building was originally a factory that was adapted into its present state, the matter which took over five years to complete and to get the necessary permissions from the authorities to have a Church established.
Human rights organizations and lawyers were refused entry into the besieged Church.
Note: I couldn't even bring myself to post the real title in my post. The words "erotic" and "Jesus" do not belong in the same article. that a Cardinal can't find anything wrong with this situation speaks volumes about how far gone Europe and the highest reaches of the Church have become. It absolutely disgusts me that supposed Catholic officials can't see how wrong this is. There are many non-Catholics and atheists who would respect our faith more than these people including the Cardinal. This is a sign of grave apostasy and if something isn't done soon, bloody persecution is sure to follow. While the world recoils in horror over the film made by a non-Muslim depicting Islam as having violent tendencies, our own Bishop defends this blasphemy as being artistic expression!
Erotic Jesus sparks art debate in Austria Mon Apr 7, 2008 3:21am EDT By Sylvia Westall
VIENNA (Reuters) - They knew it would be risky to exhibit a homoerotic version of Christ's Last Supper, but curators at museum of Vienna's Roman Catholic Cathedral weren't ready for a barrage of angry messages and calls to be shut down.
The source of the dispute, which Austrian media has dubbed Vienna's version of the Mohammad caricature row, is a retrospective honoring Austria's cherished artist Alfred Hrdlicka, who turned 80 earlier this year.
But not everyone has been wishing Hrdlicka a Happy Birthday. And the Cathedral Museum's director and Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, have both come under fire from some museum visitors and Catholic websites.
The Church hastily removed the main picture, "a homosexual orgy" of the Apostles as Hrdlicka describes it.
But the protest has continued, much to the surprise of the small Cathedral Museum which is nestled down a narrow street in Vienna's historic Gothic quarter.
The museum's director defends both Hrdlicka's work and his decision to host the artist's controversial versions of biblical imagery in a museum tied to the Catholic Church.
Click on the post link to read the rest if you have the stomach for it.
Note: Since when is the right to practice one's own faith against the law in the UK? When the religion is Catholic. While extremist Muslims plot their terrorist activities under the noses of the snooty dysfunctional government, MPs decide that the real threat is Christian teaching.
UK Catholic Bishop Before Parliament for Insisting on Crucifixes in Every Classroom and Truly Catholic Sex-Ed By Hilary White
LONDON, March 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Bishop of Lancaster UK today gave a spirited response to accusations by secularist MPs in a Commons Committee who accused him of trying to establish religious "fundamentalism" in his schools. Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue told the Committee that schools in his diocese should see it as their prime duty to teach the Catholic faith and to evangelise and that this constituted neither "proselytism" nor "fundamentalism".
Crucifixes in every classroom, "sex-education" based on the principles of chastity and the sanctity of marriage, no school fundraising for anti-life groups and religious education based firmly in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: it sounds like the dream world of most Catholic parents. But the scenario is one that was ordered last year by the Bishop O'Donoghue in a 66-page document, "Fit for Mission? - Schools". The document was circulated to all teachers, staff, governors and parents in the diocese.
But the document that received high praise from parents, Catholic lay organizations and the Vatican, has drawn the ire of the increasingly aggressive secularist wing of the British government. Earlier this year, the Labour MP for Huddersfield, Barry Sheerman, told the media that this new document was a worrying sign of a new "fundamentalist" direction on the part of the Church. Sheerman, the chairman of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, called Bishop O'Donoghue to explain his intentions.
Sheerman told media, "It seems to me that faith education works all right as long as people are not that serious about their faith. But as soon as there is a more doctrinaire attitude questions have to be asked." Sheerman said, "It does become worrying when you get a new push from more fundamentalist bishops. This is taxpayers' money after all."
But Bishop O'Donoghue replied in the Daily Mail, "They (the MPs) see me as a fundamentalist and that is a pejorative word these days with connotations of terrorism, violence and irrationality. I will say I reject these connotations."
Appearing before the committee with the Stephen Venner, the Anglican bishop of Dover, and Peter Irvine of the Catholic Education Service, O'Donoghue said the document was necessary when he found that the Catholic religious instruction in the schools had been "marginalized" even within the Religious Education department.
MP Fiona McTaggart said she found it "surprising" that the document bans the various fundraising activities such as the Red Nose day, and Amnesty International, in which children were encouraged to support anti-family and pro-abortion organizations and activities. She also objected to the instruction to remove materials from school libraries that "contain polemic against religion in general" such as the works of Karl Marx and French nihilist philosopher Albert Camus.
Bishop O'Donoghue responded, "Supposing you went into a school and you found in the library material that said the Holocaust has never taken place."
Bishop O'Donoghue told the six committee members, "Every school has a philosophy. And a philosophy which puts God at the centre and morality as objective, is no less powerful than that which says God is irrelevant and morality is up to the individual choice."
"To our view, the role of democracy is to embrace all views, and not to infringe on basic human rights."
He said "the impression that is coming across" from politics and the media is that "some people seem to think that the only true democratic stance is the latter, namely that God is irrelevant and that morality is up to the individual."
The bishop told media that the document had come in response to pressure from parents. "Many parents go to great lengths to bring up their children properly and they feel that schools are not cooperating with them as well as they should," he said.
He told the Daily Mail that the government's sex education policies had failed. 30 years of "throwing condoms at children" had drastically increased the levels of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
In "Fit for Mission?" Bishop O'Donoghue wrote, "The secular view on sex outside marriage, artificial contraception, sexually transmitted disease, including HIV and Aids, and abortion, may not be presented as neutral information."
Note: The MP purposely used the loaded word "fundamentalist" to equate devout Catholics with terrorists. This is pure persecution and is growing throughout the west. He is using as leverage the tax money used to support these schools. Catholics needs to fight back by pointing out what "fundamentalist" Catholic doctrine really teaches about educating the young, caring for the sick, loving our enemies, etc. and counter the claim about money with the huge benefits Catholic institutions have always conferred upon society.
Catholic activist says, "To secularists anyone who actually believes his religion is a 'fundamentalist'".
By Hilary White
LONDON, February 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last month, LifeSiteNews.com reported that a British Parliamentarian had threatened to "investigate" what he called an increase in "fundamentalism" among British Catholic bishops in regulations for Catholic schools. This week, the Independent reports that MP Barry Sheerman, the chairman of a Commons select committee, is going ahead with the investigation.
The Independent reports that the Children, Schools and Families Committee will "call Catholic bishops to account" for recent isolated attempts to re-install genuine Catholic doctrine on moral and sexual teaching into the schools' curriculum. The reaction from Parliament comes in response to a document issued by Lancaster Bishop Patrick O'Donohue, "Fit for Mission: Schools," an instruction to revamp Catholic education in the diocese of Lancaster based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield and the Labour chairman of the committee, told the Independent that while the spokesmen for the English Catholic Church had "often peddled a softer line" on moral issues, the publication of Fit for Mission seems "at odds" with what was happening "on the ground".
"A lot of taxpayers' money is going into church schools and I think we should tease out what is happening here," said Sheerman. "We seem to have a shift in emphasis on the ground despite what the reasonable voices of the leadership are saying."
The Committee will interrogate the bishops on their approach in the schools to abortion, sex education and "PSHE" (personal and social health education).
But in a pamphlet titled "Will Your Grandchildren be Catholic?" Daphne MacLeod, a Catholic activist and former headmistress, writes that it is precisely this "softer line" preferred by Mr. Sheerman that has eroded the genuine Catholic religious nature of the Church's schools.
McLeod, the head of the Catholic education advocacy group, Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, told LifeSiteNews.com that the investigation by the Parliamentary Committee is an "ominous" stroke by an increasingly aggressive secularist government against religious institutions. The use of the term "fundamentalist" is especially offensive she said, and is a transparent attempt at equating believing Christians with violent Islamic extremism.
"To secularists," McLeod said, "anyone who actually believes his religion is a 'fundamentalist'. But Christian 'fundamentalists' are the ones who are around the world looking after AIDS patients, who started hospitals and schools."
McLeod said the implication that "fundamentalist" Christianity is some kind of threat to the state is an insult. "Let them show us some proof that there is a danger. Christian 'fundamentalists' are the ones who practice forgiveness and who are taught to 'turn the other cheek'. Show us how that is a threat."
Fr. Timothy Finigan, a Catholic priest and theology professor who founded the Association of Priests for the Gospel of Life, agreed that the use of the term "fundamentalist" was a scare tactic.
The message, Fr. Finigan wrote, is clear to bishops who dare to step away from the "softer" line of the mainstream of Catholic episcopal leadership. "There's that 'F' word beloved of the secularists everywhere, conjuring up images of suicide bombers, blown-up buses and women in burkhas," he wrote.
Sheerman's comments about tax-funding for the Catholic schools was also a rhetorical attack, Fr. Finigan wrote. "Let's be clear about this. Catholics also pay tax. The money does not belong to the government, it belongs to us and is given to the government in trust for use for our benefit."
Catholic schools in Britain are owned by the Church and operate using tax funding to help maintain buildings. Fr. Finigan wrote, "If Catholic children are not educated in Catholic schools, they will be educated in community schools at the expense of the state anyway."
"By his emotive appeal, Sheerman is attacking the historic agreement of 1944 with little less subtlety than the 'No Rome on the Rates' campaigns of a former era."
To contact Barry Sheerman: House of Commons London SW1A 0AA Telephone: 020 7219 5037 Fax: 020 7219 2404 Email: SHEERMANB@parliament.uk
Note: From Spain to Canada to the meetings of the commissions of the UN and EU, it is clear that a persecution of Catholics is increasing in scope, frequency and strength.
Canadian Catholic magazine faces legal attack for criticizing homosexuals Alan Borovoy
Toronto, Jan 14, 2008 / 01:52 pm (CNA).- A Catholic magazine in Canada faces severe legal attack and possible censorship after a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission alleged it made derogatory comments about homosexuals.
In February 2007 Rob Wells, a member of the Pride Center of Edmonton, filed a nine-point complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission alleging that Catholic Insight had targeted homosexuals as a powerful menace and innately evil, claiming it used inflammatory and derogatory language to create a tone of "extreme hatred and contempt."
Catholic Insight responded to these charges in its January 2008 issue, saying the complaint consists of "three pages of isolated and fragmentary extracts from articles dating back as far as 1994, without any context." Catholic Insight continued, saying, "these isolated quotes are not meaningful without the contexts of the articles themselves from which they were culled; in fact, most of them are even out of context from the sentences from which they were taken." "C.I. regards all of these charges as unfounded and made with the intent to harass. It intends to defend itself vigorously should the CHRC proceed. The magazine has continually emphasized that, with the respect to homosexual activity, it follows the guidance of the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church has made clear that persons with same-sex attraction must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity and that every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided."
The magazine also reiterated its support for Catholic teaching that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered, noting its long-time coverage of the political manifestations of the issue. "From its beginning in 1993, the magazine has traced and exposed homosexual activists for their attacks against Christians defending the traditional order in law and society and their use of derogatory language against all who stand in their way," the magazine said.
The human rights complaints process in Canada currently funds the legal costs of complainants, but defendants must pay for expenses out of pocket. Rules of evidence for criminal court proceedings are also not followed in human rights hearings.
Catholic Insight said that the complainant Wells had also sought to shut down other websites, and had targeted Ron Gray, leader of the Christian Heritage Party. The magazine reported Gray's claims that in his conversations with the CHRC, an official of the agency had admitted to him that the Human Rights Act is about censorship.
Alan Borovoy, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said he never imagined the human rights commissions would be used to undermine freedom of speech. He said that acting as censors was "hardly the role we had envisioned for human rights commissions."
In a Catholic Insight editorial, the magazine said, "Today, Catholic Insight magazine has also become a victim of the new anti-religion. We, too, have been denounced to the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Ottawa for speaking out against the activists who agitated for adding so-called sexual orientation to the Hate Crimes Act in 2003 and the legalization of same-sex "marriage" in 2005. The politically correct activists brook no opposition."
Note: this article might better be titled "Cardinal O'Connor Versus the Church". The Poles are simply devout Catholics trying to witness to their faith as their Bishops taught them. Around the world, increasingly it is the Bishops who have lost faith and are opposing those trying to practice the faith. As I have written previously, this apostasy is increasing in strength. All the evil one needs is a head to make the break complete. In Apocalypse - Letter by Letter, Steven Paul describes how this will come about.
Cardinal Murphy O'Connor Versus the Poles
Editorial by Hilary White
It has been a busy Advent and Christmas season for the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. He has, in a space of a few months, outraged, shocked and disgusted a surprisingly broad cross section of his flock. Polish immigrants, noted for the vibrancy of their Catholic faith; Catholic pro-lifers who have held the line for decades in the fight with little help from the hierarchy; and Catholic traditionalists who have spent decades living in near-exile from their own Church, have felt the back of Cormac Cardinal Murphy O'Connor's hand recently.
He started the season early with his official rejection in November of Pope Benedict's document removing the power of bishops to block the celebration of the pre-Vatican II rite of the Mass, an issue that has broad connections to acceptance of Catholic doctrine in a variety of areas, including moral issues.
Traditionalist Catholics are almost universally pro-life and pro-family, whereas many of those who have actively fought against the re-instatement of the ancient liturgical practices have also consistently championed a "progressive" Catholicism that rejects the moral law, particularly in sexual morality.
By the end of December, a week after his Christmas homily in which he urged Britons to be more accepting of immigrants, Murphy O'Connor had blasted Polish immigrants who are pouring into Britain in search of work.
In a homily, the Cardinal who heads the Catholic Church of England and Wales, urged the Polish community to learn English and integrate into local parishes. He claimed the Catholic Church in the UK was in danger of dividing along ethnic lines. The comments shocked both the Polish Catholic community and Catholic observers who have seen the influx of devout Poles as a desperately needed boost to sagging attendance and the increasingly grim outlook for the future of the Catholic Church in this country.
With photos appearing in the Telegraph of Poles kneeling devoutly on the sidewalk to hear Mass broadcast outside an overcrowded church, it is perhaps unsurprising that Polish leaders responded to the Cardinal's comments saying they felt "violated" and "spiritually raped". The comments made many Catholic commentators wonder aloud just what kind of Catholic immigrant the Cardinal would prefer.
But Britain learned just before Christmas what kind of Catholic their Cardinal does think is suitable. His real coup de grace, and perhaps his largest insult to the most faithful Catholics in the country, came at his unconditional reception into the Church of the man SPUC head John Smeaton identified as the major "architect of the Culture of Death" in this country: Tony Blair.
Cardinal O'Connor received Blair in a "private" ceremony in the Cardinal's own residential chapel. Neither the Cardinal's office, nor Blair's offered any explanation or retraction of the former Prime Minister's long record of anti-Catholic and anti-life policies.
To add insult to injury, an unnamed "Church source" presumed to be close to the Cardinal's office, had even chastised critics in the Daily Mail for daring to question the Cardinal's Christmas-week generosity. The Mail's source said, "Whatever he previously believed or did is a matter for individual conscience."
But the pro-life community, particularly its Catholic contingent, are so wearied by the decades of flaccidity, compromising and temporising and outright irreligion of its religious leadership, it hardly bothered to give a collective sigh of disgust. Among the pro-life Catholics of my acquaintance, the response was largely a quick shake of the head and a sickened laugh. In Britain's Catholic Church this latest outrage from its leadership was nothing more than business as usual.
At the same time, the odd news that Catholic attendance at weekly church services had, for the first time since the Reformation, outstripped that of Anglicans brought forward headlines like "Britain has become a 'Catholic country'" from the Telegraph. But the notion brought only sour and grim amusement to many British Catholic bloggers who have faithfully chronicled the growth of secularist anti-Christian hostility in British society, heavily abetted by the BBC's virtual monopoly on broadcast media. Despite the wild suppositions in the mainstream media, those who have been keeping track know that the news reflected only the continuing general collapse of British religious adherence.
The truth is simply that the native British have abandoned Christianity. It is easy to see what has alarmed Cardinal Cormac. The Poles are, quite simply, making him, and the Church he leads, look bad.
The robust, generous and stalwart faith of these people, tested through generations of brutal Communist suppression, has given them an ability to see through the fog of nonsense that has emanated out of British chanceries since the 1960's. And the Cardinal knows it. It is clear that the divide between the faith of the Poles and the dreary, watery, and half-hearted British Catholicism, content to allow the last dregs of its faith and devotion slowly to evaporate, is greater than one of language.
It is evident that whatever the Catholic leadership of this country has been doing for the last four decades, it has not been a boon to British Catholic faith or practice. If Cormac Murphy O'Connor is aware of the condition of his Church, he has chosen an odd way of expressing his concern by chastising the new Polish faithful for their very faithfulness.
Maybe the Cardinal should try a different tack, and take his own advice and accept the contribution of these people.
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.
