There will be no persecution of the Church

Prayer of St. John Fisher for Courageous Bishops

"Good Lord, set in thy Church strong and mighty pillars that may suffer and endure great labours, which also shall not fear persecution, neither death but always suffer with a good will, slanders, shame, and all kinds of torments, for the glory of thy Holy Name.

By this manner, good Lord, the truth of thy Gospel shall be preached throughout the world.

Therefore, merciful Lord, exercise thy mercy, show it indeed upon thy Church.

Amen.

The Battle for Middle Earth Begins

I am afraid I am going to have to stick my neck over the parapet, and probably finally convince at least one or two of my quorum of readers, that I have finally lost the last of my remaining marbles. For some considerable time I have believed that a severe persecution of the Church is imminent, and that it will begin in Britain. However, it will spread quickly throughout Europe - the re-election of the extremely anti-Catholic Zapatero government in Spain is but one sign of this. I am not quite as insane as I may sound; in recent weeks I have spoken or corresponded with priests in the UK who believe exactly the same. I recently spoke with a leading Catholic journalist who told me that he believed it was only a matter of time before priests and bishops are jailed for preaching the Catholic Faith. Legislation, introduced by the Labour government in recent years (and happily promoted by recent Catholic convert, the Rt. Hon Anthony Blair) has already resulted in a number of unpleasant incidents. Now, a Catholic Bishop, the Rt. Reverend Patrick O'Donoghue, has been 'summoned' to appear before a Parliamentary Committee this Wednesday to answer for the terrible crime of stating that the Catholic Faith should be taught in Catholic schools. The Chairman of the Committee has spoken of "fundamentalism" and its dangers. This from a government that has made it a crime to mention anything about the evils of Islam - one cannot even refer to Islamic terrorists. This is precisely why it is so important who is appointed as the new Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. We will need the equivalent of a Blessed Clement Von Galen, the "Lion" Bishop who stood up to Hitler. As previously posted, it is believed that Pope Benedict regards this appointment as one of the three most important of his pontificate. The new Cardinal may have to close all the Catholic schools - or he may follow the example of all but one of the episcopate during the time of that verminous apostate and odorous wretch, Henry VIII, and give way. I do not think things are anything like as bad over here - it is more of a "white" persecution compared to what I fear will soon be a "red" persecution in Britain. I would suggest that we pray for Bishop O'Donoghue - using the prayer of St. John Fisher - a true example of what a Bishop should be - the prayer is posted above.

Finally a few words from "Old Thunder" on the irony of a decayed society forcing its vision of "tolerance" on the Church:

"For there comes a time - it is brief, as must be all final moments of decay - but there comes a time in the moral disruption of a State when the mere utterance of a plain truth laboriously concealed by hypocrisy, denied by contemporary falsehood, and forgotten by the moral lethargy of the populace, takes upon itself an ironical quality more powerful than any elaboration of special ironies could have taken in the past."

Hilaire Belloc

Pope to Youth: "Take drugs!"

Pope Benedict's homily yesterday at a Youth Centre in Rome included the comment: "the Fathers of the Church called the Eucharist the drug of immortality."

My headline is, of course, how the BBC, the most impartial of all news organizations, will report it.

Marini 2: This Time It's Serious

New Papal MC - Monsignor 'the Enforcer' Marini



Interesting news about the US visit of BXVI's new MC - known as the "enforcer," the "real Marini", or "Marini 2 - No Surrender." Known to sweep away dancing nuns from the sanctuary with a casual flick of his steel-sided zuccetto, it is believed that Sammy Davis Junior originally meant his famous signature tune "The Candyman" to be called "The Candleman" in honour of Monsignor Marini. Old 'seven candles,' as he is known in Native American circles, was in the US to do a preliminary heretic burn for Papa Benedetto - and to make sure there was no soft-rock/blue vestment nonsense of the type encouraged by his namesake, Archbishop Piero 'Kenny G" Marini, when the Boss or "Big Ben" arrives next month. Taking no prisoners, any US Bishop who allows anything approaching a Mahoney-fest will soon find himself the Apostolic Nuncio in Uzbekistan - it will just take a word from the "enforcer" - the Candleman can, oh the candleman can.

Sword of the Spirit Movement

Cardinal Hinsley broadcasting on the BBC during World War II.



According to the great historian and writer, Christopher Dawson, who was Vice-President of the 'Sword of the Spirit,' founded by the wonderful Cardinal Hinsley, the aim of the movement was a "return to the foundations on which Western civilization and our own national life were built and therefore opposed alike to the deliberate apostasy of the totalitarian state and the superficial materialism of our own secularised culture." Sounds like we need a new 'Sword of the Spirit' movement in 2008! I believe I am right in saying that Churchill was almost convinced to become a Catholic by the example and leadership of Cardinal Hinsley.





"The world is now the stage of a conflict between those who genuinely believe in a Divine Creator and those who avowedly or implicitly deify man."


E. I. Watkin.

Busy

Been rather busy lately - hope to post on something moderately intelligent - or something very silly - in the near future.