“Holy Week”, A Vintage CTS Booklet

“Holy Week”, A Vintage CTS Booklet

Mundabor

“It’s Not My Fault” and Other Legends

Andrea Solario, "Christ crowned with thorns"

“I stopped going to Mass because the priest was not inclusive of my own oh so very sensitive nature”. “I stopped going to confession because I didn’t react what the confessor said to me”. “I will not convert to the Church because you Catholics are all so insensitive you won’t allow me to have my own theology as I’ve always done”.  The list is very long.

You go around the Internet, you read a lot of this: it’s not really my fault, because another made me do it. It seems the culture of refusal of responsibility for pretty much everything (from one’s own sins to one’s own weight) does not stop in front of the keyboard, rather finds a new elan through it.

I profit of this occasion (rather fitting, as Good Friday has just begun) to say for the avoidance of doubt it was my fault when I stopped going to Mass; it was my fault when I stopped going to confession; it was my fault when I refused – or thought I did not need to – seriously examine Catholic teaching. And it was, most grievously, my fault when I refused to face the problem of abortion, thinking I could solve the moral issue just by avoiding it staring at me in the face.

Of course, there are extenuating circumstances. Still,  pretty much everyone has them, most thieves and most prostitutes among them; do we excuse the thief or the prostitute when they tell us “I stole because the priest refused to tell me what a unique and wonderful being I am”, or “I prostituted myself because the priest told me sex outside of marriage is a sin and made me feel a slut”? Thought not…

In my modest opinion, the day we learn to face our faults in this most important of matters (our soul) we have made a great step toward salvation. But please let us stop saying others caused us to do something.

The cause of what we do is always us.

Mundabor

P.s. by the way, it is I who nailed Christ on the Cross. Not physically of course but no, seriously, really, yes it is I. I do it, actually, every day in some way or other. And strangely enough, I can’t even find ways to stop hammering those nails.

Still my fault.

Archbishop Nichols Is A Shame For The Church

Failed Catholic, but successful careerist: Archbishop Vincent "Quisling" Nichols.

My last post was in defence of Michael Voris complaining about those religious who seem to have forgotten (probably because they have) what Christianity is about.

If you want an excellent example of such behaviour, look no further than to the Numero Uno of English Catholicism, our well-known disgraziato Archbishop Vincent “Quisling” Nichols.

Nichols is already notorious for the zeal with which he undermines Catholic doctrine and Catholic principles. His clear support for so-called same-sex couples speaks volumes about the heretic Pope Benedict has made the mistake of putting at the top of the English Hierarchy (and the even bigger mistake of not removing when it became clear that the man doesn’t care a straw for Catholic orthodoxy), and his continued refusal to put an end to the scandalous homo masses in Soho should leave even the most naive supporter of Archbishop Vincent “Quisling” Nichols in no doubt as to what side he has chosen. He has also managed to pick another scandalous battle in the Cardinal Vaughan School matter. In short, wherever he can undermine Catholic values, he relishes the job.

On another occasion (when our anti-hero decided to bash bankers; a very popular and risk-free activity at the moment and therefore an ideal occupation for this disgraziato) I have written about him as follows:

++ Vin “Quisling” Nichols lives in a world where abortion kills 200,000 a year and the womb has become the most dangerous place to be, easily eclipsing war zones. He has witnessed the disintegration of British society through the widespread recourse to divorce and easygoing, taxpayer-financed, future securing teenage pregnancy. He has seen the mockery of the family through the legalisation of so-called civil partnerships and has had the nerve to say that he was not against, and that the Church’s opinion on the matter is “nuanced”. He presides over a society where no Hollywood comedy thinks it can do without the obligatory faggot and the BBC even has the temerity to re-write the recent rendition of Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead revisited” in very pink tones. He sees every day how every kind of monstrosity (from old couples, let alone old men, adopt children to the renting of uterus to the slow crumbling of opposition to euthanasia) gets a foot in the door of British society, and he complains about ……bankers!

This applies – verbatim if you exclude the miraculously let aside bankers – to the present situation; with the important exception that we are now in the middle of the Holy Week.

You would think that the UK Catholicism Supremo would profit of the Holy Week (when he is bound to have more media attention) to:

1) point out to the many ways in which our society behaves in an an-Catholic or at least un-Christian manner (say: abortion; divorce; sexual promiscuity; homosexuality) and
2) extol the virtues of the Catholic way as a sure remedy to those evils.

You would think that he would do it, if he cared for Catholic values. But the simple fact is that Archbishop Nichols doesn’t care a straw for Catholic values.

He really, really doesn’t. All he cares for, is to speak every now and then over economic social issues, which should be the preserve of politicians, whilst he is supposed to be, first and foremost, occupied with the cure of souls. If he believed in their existence, that is.

We are now well into the Holy Week, and our astonishing Vincent “Quisling” Nichols has been on record as follows:

1) On Sunday (Notabene: Palm Sunday!) on the Sunday Telegraph. He gets a big interview on a major newspaper on Palm Sunday and what does he talk about? Yep, that Cameron’s “Big Society” is not “social” enough for his liking.

2) On yesterday’s Evening Standard (not as prestigious as the “Telegraph”, for sure, but read nationwide) our chap is on record as intervening to ask a brewery not to change the name of a pub entitled to Cardinal Manning. And do you think that he did so defending Cardinal Manning’s lifelong battle for everything Catholic? Of course not! He does it because in this way Manning’s commitment to “social good” would be played down.

“Social good” is everything Vincent “Quisling” Nichols is interested in. It is the only issue he wants to go on record during the Holy week. This is a mickey mouse of an Archbishop, if there has ever been one.

I can’t wait to hear about our completely de-Christianised Archbishop talk about earth day on Good Friday, or on the immediately following weeks. But I’m sure he’ll put some social issues in the middle; just to be on the safe side, you know.

This man is a scandal through and through.

Mundabor

“The Passion Of The Christ”

Forget the popcorn.....

They say that an image can say more than thousand words. This may not always be true, but in some cases I think that these words are very, very near to the mark.

Let us take the film, “The Passion of The Christ”.

This film is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it, I must hasten to add, for the faint of faith. If you subscribe to the “let’s celebrate” mantra so conveniently spread in these godless times, you won’t like this movie. Violent, you will call it. Insensitively focused on cruel details. Graphic in the extreme.

And in fact, this film is a truly shocking experience. Still, I can tell you that no reading of the Gospel, no homily and no personal reflection and prayer ever opened my eyes to the reality of the Passion so much as this shocking film did from the first viewing.

I could never see this movie without crying of sorrow and shame and I tell you, it doesn’t happen to me whilst listening to the homily. The reality is that the sheer violence of this film delivers the goods in a way the best homily could probably – for want of the necessary visual props – never achieve. And in fact it can – I think – easily said that if you found the violence of the film excessive, this is a clear indication that the reality of the Passion was never transmitted to you in all its crudeness in the first place.

This film is not dedicated to the message of Jesus. It doesn’t primarily intend to explain Christianity and, in this sense, it can only indirectly be considered a help to the conversion of non-Christians. What this film does, is to limit itself to the last twelve hours of Jesus’ human existence. This, the film does not by explaining, but by observing. The screenplay closely follows the Gospels and is here and there integrated with elements of Anne Catherine Emmerich’s “The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord” (an unjustly neglected book, since come back to vast popularity). There are no frills, no hollywood-like “enrichments”, no attempts to make the story palatable. It is undiluted, brutal truth.

For this reason, the language has been accurately considered. No English-speaking actors here. The Jews talks in an Aramaic dialect (as they did in reality), and the Romans speak Latin. Astonishingly for the fans of the theory that Catholic churchgoers be too stupid to ever cope with Latin (much less… Aramaic!) you can easily follow the plot at all times through subtitles (just as you would, in church, with a Latin-English missal or booklet; but I suppose this is too much to ask of our liberal geniuses).

I watch this movie again every year during the Holy Week, but I think of it countless times during the year as its highly impressive visual message is a great help in my Rosary meditations. Every time, the violence of the Passion strikes me anew, which again tells me how easy it is to slowly but constantly sanitise the message until the sheer evidence of it is put in front of our eyes again.

To watch this movie is, to me, something akin to going to confession: unpleasant in the very thought, but highly salutary in the end result. I don’t sit joyously in front of the TV screen thinking “how beautiful, I am going to see Jesus being horribly tortured and killed again” in the same way as I – my fault, no doubt – do not manage to joyously run to the confessional, or to proceed to my examination of conscience without a sense of shame, humiliation and sheer inadequacy. Still, the spiritual benefits we can reap from such unpleasant activities can never be underestimated; not in case of the sacrament of course, but also certainly not in the case of such a powerful help to truly understand the Passion as this film undoubtedly is.

In the beautiful world of ours, for most of us this powerful Christian message is only a click away (or click here if you use the US version). Notice how cheap (particularly in the UK) this film has now become.

I suggest that you make the investment now and look at the film during next week.

You won’t like it. But you won’t regret it, either.

Mundabor

Episcopalian Madness

Then they complain they are nearing extinction…..

I have already written in the past about all the outrageous things happening among our Proddie brothers and sisters in , I hope, Christ.

You might remember the dog given Communion (I mean, theirs really isn’t; but it’s not about that), or the similarly brainless idea of giving communion to the unbaptised.

Today, I’d like to give you a further example of what happens when one belongs to a so-called Church the Holy Ghost (alreadyhaving His own Church, which is the Only One) doesn’t touch with a tadpole: Christianity mixes with political, or politically correct, ideas and what comes out of this mess is a tragic banalisation of the Christian message or, worse, outright disrespect for our Lord.

Take this, for example, from which the following words of wisdom reach us:

The Episcopal Church’s office of Economic and Environmental Affairs released a statement urging followers to stay mindful of global warming, recycling and reducing carbon dioxide emissions while celebrating the ancient Christian holiday in 2011.

[…]

“This year Earth Day falls within Holy Week, specifically on Good Friday, a profound coincidence,” said Mike Schut, a church spokesman. “To fully honor Earth Day, we need to reclaim the theology that knows Earth is ‘very good,’ is holy. When we fully recognize that, our actions just may begin to create a more sustainable, compassionate economy and way of life.”

[…]

“On Good Friday, the day we mark the crucifixion of Christ, God in the flesh, might we suggest that when Earth is degraded, when species go extinct, that another part of God’s body experiences yet another sort of crucifixion — that another way of seeing and experiencing God is diminished?”

From this, the unenlightened learn that:

1) The Episcopal Church, rapidly approaching self-extinction, has an “office of Economic and Environmental Affairs”. This is Episcopalian in so many ways: supposed religious people wanting to meddle in politics, the bold statement that economic and environmental affairs be clearly inseparable, and the smugness of the entire operation. It reminds one of “Yes, Prime Minister”, with Sir Humphrey reminding the premier that nowadays politicians talk like religious, and religious like politicians.

2) The desire to “honour Earth Day”. This is so very nuChristian.

3) The chaps are seriously worried that Good Friday well take some light from earth day. I kid you not. Read it again.

4) To make 3) more clear, Good Friday is called “ancient Christian tradition”. It is not said how infinitely more important Good Friday is, but there is simply a parallel: the new day “to be honoured” here, the old, “traditionally” honoured day there. Congratulations. You must be Episcopalians.

5) In the same spirit, earth day must be “christianised”. Never mind that for 2011 years Christianity never felt the need to have an “earth day”, instead concentrating on trifles like the Death and Resurrection of Our Lord. No, the earth as a whole must be made a new Christ, so that it may be worshipped.

6) Proof of this is the astonishing remark that when you (according to their metre of judgment, of course), neglect the environment, the earth experiences a sort of crucifixion. In no clearer way the complete loss of the meaning of the Crucifixion and its dumbing down to the level of the environmental protection could have been better expressed.

These people have simply lost their marbles or – more probably – have lost their faith. Were this not the case, such comparisons would instantly and instinctively sound deeply disturbing to them.

When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing— they believe in anything.

~ G. K. Chesterton

Mundabor