Universae Ecclesiae And The SSPX

never a Sedevacantist: Archbishop Lefebvre

From the German site Summorum Pontificum, a communique’ of the German SSPX about Universae Ecclesiae:

Two points are particularly noteworthy:

1. Zur Frage des Papstamtes

Die Priesterbruderschaft St. Pius X. anerkennt Papst Benedikt XVI. als rechtmäßigen Papst und als Oberhaupt der katholischen Kirche. […]

My translation:

1. On the question of the Papal Office:

The Society of St. Pius X acknowledges Pope Benedict XVI as legitimately reigning Pope and as the Head of the Catholic Church. […]

It follows a clear distinction between them and the Sedevacantists. We knew that already, but I think there is a lot of confusion around.

2. Zur Frage der neuen Messe

Die Bruderschaft bestreitet nicht die Gültigkeit der neuen Messform. Wenn sie korrekt gefeiert wird – was an vielen Orten allerdings nicht mehr selbstverständlich ist – ist sie eine gültige Messfeier. […]

Again, my translation:

2. On the question of the New Mass

The Society doesn’t question the validity of the new form of Mass. When it is celebrated correctly – which in several places is not an automatic occurrence anymore – it is a valid Mass celebration […].

It follows, again, a rather convoluted explanation that the Novus Ordo be valid, but the SSPX has doubt about its “legality” or “legitimacy” or “lawfulness” (Rechtsmaessigkeit), an expression that I can’t explain to you – in my simple world, if you recognise its validity it means that you recognise the right of the Church to celebrate it – and would make a clarification of the SSPX very welcome.

Still, I find it positive that the SSPX in Germany has explicitly intervened making clear that they recognise both the Pope’s legitimacy and authority, and the validity of the New Mass. It is sad to hear incorrect or outright mendacious information about the Society and this kind of intervention is just what is required to deal with it. I wish the SSPX would intervene more often on these points, as otherwise they offer the flank to misinformation or outright calumniation.

Mundabor

The Power Of Abortion Images

Truly beautiful blog post here, from a woman who was a persuaded (so-called) pro-choice activist and has later become a pro-life activist. In her case, this happened because she saw photos of aborted babies, those shocking images I do not have the nerve to put into this blog (which I would like to be readable also from impressionable natures), but which can certainly be extremely powerful in giving someone a salutary shock.

More in general, the author of the mentioned blog post reiterates what I was saying in a very recent post: the ultra-sound images (which she calls sonograms) will be a powerful element in persuading people that abortion is homicide.

Let us read together some beautiful passage of this remarkable story of personal development. On the photos:

Most people think, as I did, in terms of “tissue,” “clumps of cells,” “the products of pregnancy,” all the euphemisms Planned Parenthood and the entire anti-life front use to dehumanize an unborn child. An image of an aborted baby says in one second what even the most well-informed and eloquent pro-life crusader could not say in two hours. It says: “This is a human being, and it is dead.” A picture of an abortion does not show you a terminated pregnancy or some discarded tissue. It shows you, clearly and finally, a child that has been killed. Legally.

On the sonogram:

The sonogram image is the most powerful visual tool in the pro-life arsenal. It is far more effective and powerful to the woman considering abortion than even the most horrifying photo of an aborted baby, because the child is alive and the child is hers.

On the pro-choice propaganda:

“Women who go to abortion clinics are bombarded with the aforementioned euphemisms: tissue, clump of cells, product of pregnancy. But a moving image of the child inside her, in some cases fully formed and active, its strong little heart beating away: this belies the euphemisms. It negates the propaganda. It is the truth, in front of her eyes, and it is the most powerful weapon we have to fight the people who would kill that child and collect their fee”.

If abortion is the empowering act organizations like NARAL would have us believe, they would shrug off sonogram law. If abortion is the nonchalant casting-off of useless tissue anti-lifers would have us believe, a woman could look unflinchingly at the “clump of cells” on the sonogram and say to the abortionist, “Go for it.” But NARAL, Planned Parenthood, NOW, and their ilk know that the woman is going to see a baby.

But it is possible, and I like to believe probable, that it is a higher emotion that will cause a woman to keep her baby upon viewing a sonogram. I think it might even be appropriate to call it something very silly, like love.

These beautiful words truly expose the hypocrisy of the pro-choice rhetoric, and it is in fact true that if the “object” of the abortion were only a clump of cells, no sonogram in the world could ever be a deterrent to the abortion being executed.

For too long, Western societies have chosen – out of ill-conceived “feminism” or, more probably, in order to be able to do as they please – not to see. But when the sonogram or the photos are put in front of one it is really, really difficult not to see.

Therefore, it can happen that only looking at photos moves a person persuaded for years to simply change her mind. Juts imagine what happens when it is the sonogram of one’s own child.

I wish the Texan law all the best and am curious to see, in a couple of years, the effect of the 24 hour rule on a great number of abortion. It can be said that at times, gruesome photos save lives.

Mundabor

Mind Your Click: On The Wise Use of Your Mouse

The wrong click, and you can find yourself in a rather unpleasant place...

Just in case someone is confused (I am; time and again)…..

The National Catholic Register is very orthodox. Excellent bloggers like the Archbold brothers can be found there. They still belong to the Legionaries of Christ, a group that, whatever you may say of their disgraceful founder, can’t be defined as “liberal” by any stretch of the imagination. They were, last time I looked, in the process of being bought by EWTN.

The National Catholic Reporter is, on the other hand, the disgusting, openly heretical, leftist, pacifist and, well, cretin-ist publication often exposed on these pages as well as in countless other blogs. They are good to test your patience on very calm, relaxed days. They are also good to start being extremely worried should you, for a strange coincidence, happen to be of their opinion. Can’t remember it ever happening to me, though. We might agree on 2+2=4, but that’s about it.

Therefore please keep in mind: reporter= bad. Very easy to memorise, I should say.

Similarly, if you look at the “good” American Catholic you land here, a thoroughly orthodox site always good for some good reading and, at times, a good laugh.

But if you are inattentive, you may easily land on this site, a Franciscan outlet which, when it writes something right, does it purely unintentionally and on which I have read, in months past and whilst being inattentive, some of the most stinking post-Liberation Theology crap ever. Might be improving, though, as the Grim Reaper incessantly works through the ranks and files of the once-glorious Franciscans.

This should be easier, as upon seeing that one has landed on a Franciscan site the desire to click oneself away should be, actually, automatic and almost irresistible.

Think before you click, then, and be aware of the consequences. I remember serene afternoons utterly ruined at the thought of the people reading the “reporter” and leaving comments about how wrong Catholic doctrine is, perhaps ruining others in the process. Not a nice thought.

Mundabor