The confusion that is the Catholic Church

"I want to spend Eternity in Heaven" Fr. Mark Goring

I can't help but wonder why I never hear anything about the disaster that is the Catholic Church right now--from our Canadian Catholic clergy. The only Canadian clergy I have heard speak up, is Fr. Mark Goring. And now Fr. Mark is in the penalty box.

(Patrick Coffin speaks to Fr. Mark Goring. Thanks Patrick Coffin and Fr. Mark Goring.)

I spoke recently to a very faithful and holy Catholic priest about this silence. He felt that there is actually little knowledge/awareness from rank and file Catholics about what is happening now in the Church. Which absolutely stunned me. How could that be?

And then I remembered what someone told me recently about Justin Trudeau and one of his supporters, many of whom are Catholic. An elderly woman made an announcement to a group of people she was with at a Catholic meeting. She told them that Justin Trudeau was humbled after the election. And that he was going to start listening to people.

She was serious. It made me want to cry.

I went looking for where this poor woman might have reached this crazy conclusion and found this editorial in the Catholic Register.

"It was a humbled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who indulged the media after his Liberal Party was returned grudgingly to Ottawa with a minority government. 

The virtue of humility, as Pope Francis reminds us, is the bedrock of character. It should be widely abundant across society yet often is dismally lacking, particularly among political leaders and especially at election time.  So if one outcome of the Oct. 21 vote is less arrogance in Ottawa, then strike up a small victory for Canadians. 

Trudeau acknowledged that voters “gave me a lot to think about” and that he heard their message “to work together, to listen to each other, to figure out a way to move forward that isn’t as divisive.” He promised to “reflect” on all of this. Then he made this promise: 

“It’s extremely important that the government works for all Canadians, as I have endeavoured to do over the past years and as I will do even more now, deliberately,” he pledged."

(I've come to realize after reading the Catholic Register for two years--with very few exceptions--that it is an extremely liberal paper. I don't read it anymore,)

Every faithful Catholic who follows politics in Canada (even a tiny speck) knows that Justin Trudeau is not humbled. He does not work for all Canadians. He excludes Catholics and pro-life people from his so-called inclusiveness, including getting funds from the tax payer funded Canadian Summer Jobs Program, and barring pro-life people from being an MP in the Liberal party. Will Trudeau change those discriminatory policies? I don't think so.

And he sucks in little old Catholic women like he did above.

We do have faithful Catholic commentators like Taylor Marshall, Patrick Coffin, John-Henry Weston and Michael Voris. Some people may not like their style but they speak the truth. And since our clergy doesn't speak up we have no choice but to listen to these Catholic commentators.

There are also many American Bishops who speak up, like Cardinal Burke, Athanasius Schneider, and Bishop Strickland to name but a few. But I haven't heard Canadian bishops speak up on this Catholic dumpster fire. And that makes me very sad.

(Note: Patrick has a great suggestion with what to do with Justin Trudeau--send him to Germany--you'll have to listen to his podcast above to know why.)

I will not say one word on this

The Roman Catholic Church is in a mess. I am a Roman Catholic. I love my church. But I am really sad, angry and disgusted because there has been no resolution to the mess we are in.

Of course I am talking about the sex scandal in the Church, about Theodore McCarrick, and about the very credible letters written by Carlo Maria Viganò regarding the scandal.

The good news, if there can be any good news in this unprecedented failure of our church, is that there are some very good vocal lay people out there who are speaking about this diabolical, demonic train wreck. Namely Dr. Taylor Marshall and Timothy Gordon, Patrick Coffin, and the Church Militant, Michael Voris. From this vocal laity, I have learned a lot about the Vatican and clergy that I would never have known otherwise. Education is always a good thing, and believe me, I am being educated.

But nearly no clergy is speaking out. There was one courageous member of the clergy who spoke out, Fr. Mark Goring. But he has recently been shut down. All of his videos on the scandal have been removed. This made me very sad indeed. God bless you Fr. Goring for your bravery.

Bishop Robert Barron also spoke out. But since August 2018 Bishop Barron has been silent.

And what did Pope Francis say?

"I will not say one word on this". 

With all due respect to Pope Francis, this was a horrible response to a very very serious situation.

The most thanks go to Archbishop Viganò. This man is an absolute treasure and probably a saint. God protect him.

At the moment it is the laity who are keeping the story alive. I can only imagine that the Vatican isn't too happy with this fact. There is of course a solution to this. The Vatican can tell us the truth of what has been going on. They can appoint a lay team to investigate and report back to the faithful.

To all those clergy who are covering up the truth, you can't hide from God. The truth will come out eventually. It always does. In the meantime, if Pope Francis will not say a single word, the laity will go to the laity to learn. The clergy can speak up at any time. And stop Jesus from being scourged. Over and over again.

As Dr. Taylor Marshall and others have said: Pray the rosary, pray for the Pope, pray for the bishops, pray for the cardinals, live your vocation, be a holy priest or holy religious, be a holy dad or mom, be a holy kid.

Day 2 in Europe: Basel Switzerland

This is the view from our breakfast table. A tugboat pushing a barge down the Rhine river.

This church below is the Elisabethenkirche Basel. Wikipedia says it was built in 1857 but from the plaque below I see the year 1516, which was the beginning of the Reformation (1517-1648). Maybe it was built that year, I don't know. Looks like in 1824 to 1893 it was Reform Evangelical?

If anyone can translate that plaque let me know. There isn't much on the Internet in English on this church. I didn't go inside it. I will see tomorrow if I can.

UPDATE: Translation for this plaque:

"Built 1857-65 after the plans of Ferdinand Stadler (1813-70) under the management of Christoph Riggenbach (1810-63) and C.J. Wartner (1817-91). 

Donated from Christoph Merian (1800-58) as "bulwark against the evil spirit of the time" 

in place of a chapel built in 1516. Most important neo-Gothic church of Switzerland with completely preserved interior decoration. 

Glass windows from Heinrich Burkhard (1824-93). Evangelical-reformed church."

Lots of trams in Basel. They are everywhere.

Today I found another Catholic Church, St. Clara's. It is about 500 metres from our hotel. Adoration was happening when I visited and it was wonderful to be able to be there at that time to pray for everyone.

At the end of Adoration, one of the congregants put the Holy Eucharist back in the Tablernacle. I had never witnessed this before, it is always the priest that does this in Canada.

After the lady did this, we sang the Tantum Ergo (a beautiful rendition here), and there were more prayers and I'm not sure which language they were. She probably said them in Swiss or German. I think it was the Angelus since it was 12 noon. Here is the Angelus in Latin sung beautifully by the Daughters of Mary.

More interesting art. I didn't see any stations of the Cross in this church, just like there weren't any in the church we went to on Sunday.

From the information on this plaque looks like this church has lost most of its probable splendour from when it was built as there have been at least two renovations done since.

Here is an interesting story of the Church and the nuns there. Not sure if I should believe it or not. Perhaps some truth and some fiction?

At least it had a crucifix, actually it had two of them. And a few statues. I didn't take a picture of the outside of the church as there were some pop up markets in front of it, so hard to get a decent picture.

These pictures were taken of the Rhine River as I crossed it on the bridge between our hotel and where the church was.

And as a bonus feature, and to check if you read to the bottom of this blog entry, I had a very interesting dream last night that I will share with you. I dreamt that Pope Francis died, and the Church appointed me as Pope. I am not kidding. In the dream I thought that this was strange indeed. Since I am neither a man, nor a priest, nor any kind of clergy at all. So there you have it. Dreams from Basel. Make of it what you will.

Capitalism is not the enemy

The fact that Pope Francis is a strong critic of capitalism bothers me. Matthew Lau says:

In another speech in February, Pope Francis said that “capitalism continues to produce discarded people” — an ill that, according to him, is thankfully curtailed by taxes which promote “solidarity” and “mutual care.” He then told the over 1,000 listening to his address that “we must work toward changing the rules of the game of the socio-economic system.”

There is nothing inherently wrong with capitalism, and many things right about it. Greed and excess etc.--is a product of man not capitalism.

For over fifteen years my husband and I owned and operated a small business. We created jobs for people, we provided goods and services, we provided our children with a good and honest work ethic, we contributed to the economy of our country. This is all good and healthy. It is not evil.

After those years of running our company we both took jobs for the next fifteen years in the government. The amount of money wasted and squandered in government was horrendous--those taxes Francis talks about are frequently mismanaged and wasted. The way many people were treated and abused in government was horrifying. Managers on power trips, and employees too lazy to work sprinkle themselves throughout the bureaucracy. Managers who couldn't manage produced "discarded people", not capitalism.

As business owners we never wasted money, we worked hard and didn't abuse people, we added to the GDP. There was nothing nefarious about the fact that because we lived in a capitalist society, we were able to make a good and honest living as well as provide people with jobs. All because of capitalism.

I would argue that communist governments like Cuba, are evil. The people there suffer from low wages, lack of goods and services, lack of motivation, lack of basic property rights, lack of something to strive for. These kinds of living conditions do not occur to this extent under capitalism.

In third world countries where there are very poor people, is it capitalism that's at fault, or is it corrupt leaders, wars and terrorists that are at fault?

Certainly there are greedy and evil capitalists. Just like there are greedy and evil people in dictatorships, in socialism, in communism, and in terrorists.

Year of Mercy pilgrimage

This is the year of Mercy. Maureen made a mini pilgrimage yesterday to our own Holy Door at Notre Dame Cathedral. Here is her post on this wonderful Year of Mercy.

Evangelization at its best

Watch it and weep.

This evangelization appeals to everyone.

Q: What does the Vatican say about you auditioning at the voice? 

Sister Christina: Listen, I don't really know, I am waiting for Pope Francesco to call me on the phone. 

He always says we have to go out and evangelize, telling God doesn't take anything away from us, but will give us more. I am here for this.

Here are the lyrics to the song

Our Trip to Ireland (Cliffs of Moher, Doolin, The Burren etc.)

(Updated May 14)

On May 6, our neighbour Michael popped over and started to chat with me. He and his wife were in their summer home for the weekend. Michael is the brother-in-law of Helen, the woman we had rented from. He was very chatty and invited me to come over and meet his wife Eileen which I did. Before I knew it I was drinking wine with them.

I had just run over to their house with my slippers on (not expecting to stay long), when Fred came downstairs shortly thereafter and I was no where to be found. He saw that my shoes were still at the door and puzzled over that. Where had I gone in my slippers? Hopefully not too far. He finally figured out where I had run off to, and before he knew it, he had joined us for a lively conversation with our new friends in their big kitchen.

Before we said good-bye, Michael had invited us over the following morning for an Irish breakfast and promised to drive us about the area before their return to Dublin that afternoon.

It was an offer we couldn't refuse. It was especially appreciated, since we didn't have a car of our own to drive and we would get to see some of the area.

Breakfast the next morning was wonderful (Irish bacon, eggs, sausages, coffee, juice, grilled tomatoes and bread. I said no thanks to the blood pudding; Fred said yes thanks.) and off we went on our little tour.

Doolin, Liscannor (where Pope Francis is the Parish Priest. I kid you not.), the Rock Shop in the Burren, St. Brigid's Well (many miracles have been attributed to St. Brigid here). Michael also pointed out to us where the famous Cliffs of Moher were, although we didn't actually see them that day.

It was a fun morning and gave us a better idea of where we were going to return to later. We had already decided that we would visit these same spots again via taxi or bus hire.

And we did return on May 22 after our daughters had arrived.

We hired Pete McNamara to take us out on his bus to do the tour that day. He took us to all of the same places and it was a full day event this time.

Pete was a wonderful guide, explaining all the sites with lots of stories along the way and leaving us to explore the places for as long as we needed. The day included the Cliffs of Moher which were awesome. We were also very taken with the Burren and it's rocky beauty.

Naturally I took a ton of pictures.

We bought a few gifts at the Cliffs, had lunch in O'Connor's Pub in Doolin (very yummy) and bought rocky road chocolate (and other varieties of chocolate) at the chocolate store on Pete's recommendation.

And the sun shone the entire day. Praise Jesus.

Michael, Fred and Eileen on our foray into Clare country  

The Burren 

Purple flower in the Burren whose name I don't know (a friend let me know it is a purple orchid)

 O'Connor's pub in Doolin 

St. Brigid's well. The grotto is on the left. The graveyard is behind. And the pub is on the right. Of course there's a pub.

Inside St. Brigid's well. People leave all kinds of things here.

The Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher looking the other way

 The Burren and a lovely stone fence

The Burren and another lovely stone fence

Maude, Pete, Johanna and Fred. A good time was had by all.

And one more lovely stone fence. I know you wanted one.

What is a priest?

This post is a bit late. It took me a while to figure out how to make a movie out of my audio file of the homily Fr. Jerry gave on Holy Thursday.

Fr. Jerry talks about the institution of Holy Orders and priests, which was started on that first Holy Thursday over two thousand years ago.

He apologizes for those priests who have victimized others.

He talks about Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict, and Pope Francis who represent Faith, Hope and Charity respectively.

He also talks about the true vocation of priests and quotes this poem by Catherine Doherty.

WHAT IS A PRIEST?
By Catherine Doherty - foundress of Madonna House,
Combermere, Ontario, Canada

A PRIEST is a lover of God,
a priest is a lover of men,
a priest is a holy man
because he walks before the face of the All-Holy.

A priest understands all things,
a priest forgives all things,
a priest encompasses all things.

The heart of a priest is pierced, like Christ's
with the lance of love.

The heart of a priest is open, like Christ's
for the whole world to walk through.

The heart of a priest is a vessel of compassion,
the heart of a priest is a chalice of love,
the heart of a priest is the trysting place
of human and divine love.

A priest is a man whose goal is to be another Christ;
a priest is a man who lives to serve.
A priest is a man who has crucified himself
so that he too may be lifted up
and draw all things to Christ.

A priest is a man in love with God.
A priest is the gift of God to man
and of man to God.

A priest is the symbol of the word made flesh,
a priest is the naked sword of God's justice,
a priest is the hand of God's mercy,
a priest is the reflection of God's love.

Nothing can be greater in this world than a priest,
nothing but God Himself.