Fussy Germans and Cheeky Italians

In a very German turn of events, we are informed the Pope ran the risk of being fined up to  €2,500 for not wearing the seat belt during his recent visit to Germany.

In an even more German development, we are informed it was now decided “the law didn’t apply to the Pope since he was on public streets that were closed for papal events”.

And just when you thought this is as German as it goes, be informed that the entire proceeding had been started “on behalf of an unnamed Dortmund resident who voiced concern over the Pope’s safety”.

By the speed Popemobiles have reached these days, you can understand his concerns….. all those slugs having to run for cover…

The omnipresent Father Lombardi said he was ““grateful for the affectionate concern for the Pope’s safety”. But wait! Father Lombardi is not a German!

Well, this is then (how should I put it) a very Italian turn of events…

Mundabor

Exorcisms

We are informed that the second conference for priests on exorcism will soon take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Interesting news.

Archbishop Nichols must be terrified.

Mundabor

 

The Fruits of Vatican II: Ebro Observatory

Edouard Manet, "The Suicide".

If there’s one thing the Jesuits do brilliantly, it is extinguishing themselves.

This, they do with a passion, as if it was a tenet of Vatican II that the Jesuit order should not see the year 2050. No, wait: make it the year 2030. No, wait…

The zeal with which the Order, carried on the wings of the joyous V II renewal, is progressing towards the achievement  of this admirable and, we must say, desirable end is well exemplified by the recent announcement – reported by Rorate Caeli, the heroic supporters of the aggiornamento – about the closure of the Ebro Observatory, founded by them in 1904. Those were, as the reader(s) will remember, the dark times before V II, when the Church had not experienced the great work of the Holy Spirit yet  (as we all know, He was waiting for V II to spread His light)  and lived in a pre-historic obscurity characterised by unseemly phenomena like, say, a huge amount of followers, power as much as you like, and a real grip on the great part of the population.

Fortunately, those times are now rapidly going to an end and the Jesuit Order – renewed and refreshed, no doubt, by a warm shower of Holy Spirit – is preparing itself for a rather unobserved, but certainly glorious tomb.

Ah, to be like them! To be able to die ignored and forgotten, and saying that this is one’s true vocation and the fulfillment of one’s being! How the Jesuits really pave the way for the rest of us!

Where’s the tambourine?……

Mundabor

What Has Become of Christmas

When I was a child money was, generally speaking, rather tight for very many. In a country that was just achieving the usual symbols of Western prosperity, Christmas was still lived mainly as a religious festivity. True, the children were excited at the prospects of long-awaited toys, and Christmas gifts tended to be “big things; “but there was a smart system of “recycling”, by which what was planned anyway was actually given as a Christmas gift. Millions of bicycles have certainly been sold that way, and it’s not that without Christmas there would have been no bicycle…

Later, the situation began to become more serious. The Country was becoming more prosperous, actually seriously prosperous, and the habit of making expensive gifts to one’s entire circle of acquaintances – unthinkable just one or two generations before, with much more pressing worries dominating everyone’s lives – also started to get a sure grip on the, I must say, less smart part of the population; the ones, that is, who thinks that they must keep pace with the other not so smart, but often better off, acquaintances. And so the circus got started.

I still remember the casually heard chat on the Roman underground, with the old-ish lady sitting in front of me – a working-class type, about sixty – complaining with her friend about how much she had spent that year in Christmas gifts. Mind, this was not the fake complaint people voice to show how much they can afford: the lady was worried.  The amount was around an average net wage, and I never forgot the episode.

Later still, a new phenomenon began to pave its way in the public consciousness: Christmas stress. Now, I do understand that for some people stress is a status symbol, like complaining about the large maintenance bills of a large car, but this is different. We are so accustomed to the phenomenon of people starting to worry mid-November for all the things they have to do, we have forgotten that actually it is supposed to be… Christmas!

I am not one of those condemning the “consumerism” of the event in itself. If it’s important, of course there will be money spent. But the idea of having one’s life eaten by stress- and present-related worries is really too stupid to contemplate.

The last trend – one I have only noticed in the Anglo-Saxon countries – is the attempt to take Christmas away from Christmas. The atheist troops and the politically correct brain damages insist in having all the mess  associated with Christmas – like the impossible traffic: try London on an Advent Saturday – without, well, Christ.  “Season’s greetings”, says the stupid card you receive in the office, and you would like to ask what “season”  are they referring to, or whether Winter is so worth celebrating. “Winter lights” is the way some particularly stupid English councils call their Christmas fairy….. Everything is made so as – officially – not to offend our Muslim brothers and sisters – well they aren’t my brethren then; a family implies shared values – but is in reality an attempt to eradicate Christianity from the Western civilisation.

This last trend is getting worse. Last year, Tiffany & Co. made what I consider one of the most beautiful Christmas ads ever – don’t look if you are envious of the beautiful and wealthy, though; it will cause you serious liver damage …..  -. This advertisement was in the cinemas during Advent and it was all about Christmas, the warmth of the family, the beauty of pure feelings, the warmth of traditional values, and all that…. Which is, by the way, the same that happen sin Italy, where Christmas doesn’t have to be explained, and the beauty and warmth of family values is everywhere (the Asti Cinzano ads have been running, with the same Edwin Hawkins music and variations of the same theme, for many decades now…)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuQXN-VfbDo

Now it is Advent again, and Tiffany & Co. has a new adv. Laetitia Casta stars, and the atmosphere is rather romantic, but limited to only two people. What is not there is…. every mention of Christmas, or of all the other things mentioned above. Please!

The same tragic phenomenon I have noticed regarding the former icon of Christmas ads: Coca Cola. They now have an evocative setting, the snow and this and that, but no Father Christmas I am afraid, nor any mention of Christmas whatever.

One can understand that at Tiffany & Co. there may be around more idiots than it is good for them, but around one billion people must associate father Christmas with Coca-Cola! How can they be so criminally stupid as to damage Christian feelings and their own purse at the same time!?

End of rant, I think.

Have yourselves a merry little Christmas..

Mundabor

When The Church Had Courage: Cardinal Siri

The picture says it all. Cardinal Giuseppe Siri

Read here the Notification Concerning men’s Dress Worn by Women, from Giuseppe Cardinal Siri.

Cardinal Siri was the Archbishop of Genua for more than 40 years. He was a staunchly conservative prelate, one you could have well imagined in the same room with Ottaviani and Lefebvre. He wasn’t the one to say it half. I wonder how many we have nowadays who would have the sheer guts to talk that way.

Some flowers carefully picked for you:

The wearing of men’s dress by women affects firstly the woman herself, by changing the feminine psychology proper to women; secondly it affects the woman as wife of her husband, by tending to vitiate relationships between the sexes; thirdly it affects the woman as mother of her children by harming her dignity in her children’s eyes.

The motive impelling women to wear men’s dress is always that of imitating, nay, of competing with, the man who is considered stronger, less tied down, more independent.  This motivation shows clearly that male dress is the visible aid to bringing about a mental attitude of being “like a man.”⁵  Secondly, ever since men have been men, the clothing a person wears, demands, imposes and modifies that person’s gestures, attitudes and behavior, such that from merely being worn outside, clothing comes to impose a particular frame of mind inside.

Then let us add that woman wearing man’s dress always more or less indicates her reacting to her femininity as though it is inferiority when in fact it is only diversity. The perversion of her psychology is clear to be seen.

This man is so politically incorrect, you would want to make him a monument. He is so on target, you are at a loss to understand how can a prelate dare to talk in such a plain, strong language. And he is so different from most Archbishops of today, you wonder whether the latter haven’t come out from a convent for schoolgirls.

You also wonder what a man like this would think of knowing that colleagues of him approve of “civil partnerships”….. truly, what an insensitive and non inclusive chap….

What do our archbishops dish the faithful today? When they are not openly heretical like our wannabe Christian, parody-Archbishop, walking joke Vincent “Quisling” Nichols (just type his name in the “search” bar of this blog, or click under “bad shepherds”; and I have spared you the last exploit…..), they are suavely whispering wimps who spend their time telling us how “green” Pope Benedict is, how oh so connected the Church is with modern issues, and how so very worldly the Church has become. Yes, there will be some very slight warning about that chap, Jesus. But only if it really, really can’t be avoided, and always in a way meant not to excite or upset anyone.  When was it last time you heard your Bishop mention Jesus – unless it was to link him to some popular cause, which doesn’t count – ? If you exclude a handful of brave men, when was last time you heard an Archbishop expressing himself with one fifth of the guts of the late Cardinal Siri?

Alas, this generation will not experience many of Siri’s courage  and energy, but possibly many of Nichols’ cowardice and utter betrayal of Catholic – nay, Christian – values. Still, we are called to love the Church and be faithful to her irrespective of how many Nichols come our way. Be assured, they will have their reward.

In the meantime, I suggest you read the linked piece in its entirety. And cry.

Fifty years of V II and of relentless quest for popularity have made the Church a ghost of her old self. No doubt, sanity will unavoidably prevail one day, and we already see signs of improvement here and there. But make no mistake, decay and stench of modernism are everywhere not only at the peripheral level, but in the Curia, where still too many see the SSPX as if it were the work of the Devil – or should I say, of the angels – and have no problem at all when an archbishop says he is fine with “civil partnerships”.

Siri was made Cardinal by Pope Pius XII.

I do not doubt Nichols will be made Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.

We must pray.

Mundabor

Life begins at… what?

Lots of Newt Fanciers nowadays.....

One day I might write a post about the US Presidential election as seen from a European. It might be a bit off topic, though.

For the moment, I will be content with commenting about some rather strange remarks from Newt Gingrich: the man who, after a rather sleepy start – and one which let me and others think he was not really serious about the race – has now risen to become the most serious contender of Adolf Hussein Obama, The Nazi Menace.

Well, our (rather) newly converted candidate had surprised pretty much everyone by saying that he thinks life begins at… implantation. “Are we in front of a mini-Pelosi?” I was already thinking. In the end, Gingrich looks like he is peloso (=hairy) enough as it is…

Thankfully, the Catholic candidate has now issued a clarification and unambiguously made clear that life begins at conception.  No ifs, no buts, no hairy things.

The statements of the candidate are a joy to read:

As I have stated many times throughout the course of my public life, I believe that human life begins at conception

I believe that every unborn life is precious, no matter how conceived. I also believe that we should work for the day when there will be no abortions for any reason, and that every unborn child will be welcomed into life and protected by law.

That is why I have supported, and will continue to support, pro-life legislation that not only limits, but also reduces, the total number of abortions, with a view to the eventual legal protection of all unborn human life.

This is very, very good news and I think it very wise from Gingrich not to be cowed by his advisers and strategist into a “mainstream” position and water down not only what he believes, but what clearly mobilises a growing number of – often, young – American voters.

Always from LifeSite news, I notice that Gingrich has signed the Pro-Life Pledge, and Mitt Romney hasn’t. Shall I, now, add a passing remark about Mormons and Christians? Or shall I leave it at that?

One of the many beauties of Catholicism is that, if properly intended, it doesn’t leave much room for self-made theology. A Protestant can immerse himself in the Bible until he finds something vaguely resembling what he wants to find, and chances are the “church” with the corresponding creed is not so very far away. A Catholic will know what is right, and will not have anywhere to hide. Unless of course he is, how should I put it….. hairy.

Kudos to Newt Gingrich for his clear positioning in matter of abortion, then.

Mundabor

Some Good Bishops (Even) In France

Well done! Bishop Rey of Toulon.

You would not have believed this possible – nor would I, to be frank – but even in France there is still the one or other Bishop who dares to be… Christian.

The Bishop of Toulon, Mons. Dominique Ray, has dared to do what many of his colleagues would consider an affront to democratic institution (and Christianity be stuffed): he called for the ban of a blasphemous piece now on its way to France from, you guessed it, Spain.

Yes, to get it right: the good man supports the ban of the work, because by all love of freedom in front of blasphemy every Christian is supposed to draw a line and, in a Christian country, to ask that this be respected by the community in which he lives.

I will not anger you with a list of the blasphemies contained in the work. Suffice it to say that possibly even Cardinal Schoenborn – a man able to promote blasphemous crap like this, besides going to bed with his  heretical priests and supporting the lies of Medjugorje – would find the piece a bit, well, risqué.

We should not get too optimistic, of course. This is still the land of the Nourrichards, and if I were asked who between the two is more representative of the state of the episcopacy in France I do not think I would be able to give any other answer than the terrifying one.Still, it is good that every now and then, a Western European bishop even remembers to do his job.

Mundabor

Where Commies Go To Die

The newcomer was surprised at the existence of the place, and at seeing so many old friends there...

Lucio Magri was an Italian journalist and politician. A smart and eloquent guy, you would wonder how he could be a Communist. He was, of course, not your friend-of-the-workers commie, but rather one of those at-ease-with-the-rich commie, who could be very critical of the “real communism” because he felt so good talking of his own, imaginary brand of it.

Lucio Magri went to Switzerland to commit suicide. His commie ideology not contemplating even the possibility of the existence of God, he thought it fitting to dispose of himself like you do with an old TV set.He was so depressed, some say, after his wife’s death. He was so depressed, other say, after seeing the ruinous fall of everything Communist. He was such a communist, say I, that is: an idiot to the last. Although in his case you may say, a well-spoken and well-dressed idiot.

Lucio Magri is now, with a very high degree of probability, in Hell. It is fitting to say this because the usual good-ism does not help much in front of a planned and clinically executed project of getting rid of oneself. Except, of course, one can’t get rid of himself, ever. If Hell exists – and it does; Jesus said so; Magri might have been aware of His existence, methinks – then Lucio Magri is very, very probably there.

He is – very probably – there because he allowed his stupid ideology to, literally, eat him alive. He is there because he allowed his soul to be polluted with a false ideology at the point of not caring even for the possibility that, in the same way as he had been spectacularly wrong all his life about communism, he might be spectacularly wrong about God’s existence, too.

Lucio Magri was, for a 79 years old, a healthy man. He wasn’t suffering of some painful disease, and didn’t suffer of some slowly advancing disease like dementia; no, he was one of those healthy old men we fortunately see more and more often around us. What killed him was the emptiness he carried inside, the refusal to accept he might have been utterly and completely wrong, the ruthless disregard for human life that is such a typical trait of Communists the world over.

Lucio Magri willingly, if not consciously, chose Hell. Unless for some strange miracle and extraordinary feat of his guardian angel – poor one, how he must have suffered – he found the strenght, in his last seconds, to deny all his life and ideology and repent, he is most assuredly in Hell and this is what became of the well-spoken, well-dressed, pleasant armchair revolutionary.

Let this be a cautionary tale. Communism is of the devil, and those who believe in Communism and do not repent will get to him in the end.

Mundabor