Blogposts

A New Bishop for Hong Kong/Prayer for China/Persecutions Continue

05-30-2021Weekly Reflection

In a podcast for Radio Free Rome, Vatican-reporter Marco Tosatti, opined on the new bishop for Hong Kong. This transcript appeared on Signor Tosatti’s blog:

Hong Kong finally has a new bishop: Stephen Chow, a Jesuit. For two years there have been several moments in which it seemed that the appointment was about to be announced, followed punctually by reconsideration, but now finally the Holy See has made its choice.

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Denying Communion to Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians

05-23-2021Weekly Reflection

In a letter dated March 30, 2021 Archbishop Gomez, the President of the Conference of U.S. Catholic Bishops informed the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that the American bishops will be taking up the issue of Catholic politicians who support abortion, euthanasia, or other moral evils. You can include in the category of other moral evils gender ideology, sodomy, and forced-compliance with sex-change surgeries to name a few. Cardinal Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation, in his reply counseled dialogue and consensus among the American bishops in considering these issues and the worthiness to receive Communion.

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President Biden and Public Scandal

05-17-2021From the desk of Fr. VillaFr. Gerald E. Murray

Should President Biden Be Admitted to Holy Communion? The simple answer is, “No,” owing to his public and unwavering support for legalized abortion. Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law states: “Those...obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.” Abortion, the killing of innocent unborn children, is a grave sin, as is the legalization and promotion of this heinous practice. It’s a criminal violation of an unborn person’s right to life.

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Twitter, the Fifth Circle, and the Eighth Commandment

05-16-2021Weekly Reflection

In Dante’s depiction of Hell in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, there is the Fifth Circle: In the swampy, stinking waters of the river Styx *– the Fifth Circle – the actively wrathful fight each other viciously on the surface of the slime, while the sullen (the passively wrathful) lie beneath the water, withdrawn, "into a black sulkiness which can find no joy in God or man or the universe". (Note: In Greek mythology Styx was the goddess that controlled the river that divides this world from the underworld) Catholic philosopher Edward Feser reflects below on this in looking at the social-media phenomenon Twitter. Here is an excerpt:

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Hell, the Devil, Exorcisms

05-09-2021Weekly Reflection

Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.
—1 John 3:8

Our contemporaries, including many Christians, reject the notion of hell as something incompatible with God’s love and mercy. In fact there have been those who have maintained that at the end even Satan will be reconciled to God, a theory called apocatastasis, meaning a restoration to the original state, that the Church has rejected as contrary to the teachings of the Faith.

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Believing in God, Believing God, Believing unto God

05-02-2021Weekly Reflection

St. Thomas Aquinas distinguished three dimensions in the act of faith: “It is one thing to say: ‘I believe in God’ (credo Deum), for this indicates the object. It is another thing to say: ‘I believe God’ (credo Deo), for this indicates the One who testifies. And it is yet another thing to say: ‘I believe unto God’ (credo in Deum), for this indicates the end or goal of faith.

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What Cultural Marxism Is and Why It Must be Defeated

05-02-2021From the desk of Fr. Villa

Cultural Marxism is the Marxist dialectic fused with Freudian theory and applied to identity and culture. Dialectic is the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions. Like all forms of Marxism, it is based upon categorizing people into abstract groups and then creating a narrative of historical oppression between them. The strategy of Marxists is always to cultivate a victimized group and then convince its members that solidarity is required against the oppressors. This creates resentment and hatred and is how Marxist ideologies fulfill their revolutionary objectives.

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Sign the Petition to Pope Francis to Stop the conference at the Vatican, Exploring the Mind Body & Soul

04-26-2021From the desk of Fr. Villa

This conference is scheduled for May 6 to May8. The cover-photo on the conference-website features spoof of Michelangelo’s Creation of Man in the Sistine chapel. It has God’s hand Adam’s hand touching with rubber gloves. The invited to the Conference are a number of individuals who support abortion, population control via abortion/contraception, new age pseudo-religions and big pharmacy. Involved in this is a concerted effort on the part of many institutions to invent a universal religion superseding particular religions to create a universal religion uniting humanity. This has been the goal of Freemasons, secularists, some atheists, and various political ideologies. The will of Jesus is that all be united as one in Him in His Church. Click on this link to sign the petition and learn more about this Conference: lifepetitions.com/petition/tell-vatican-to-cancel-health-conference-packed-with-pro-abort-secularist-speakers

Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican The KGB made corrupting the Church a priority.

04-25-2021Weekly ReflectionIon Mihai Pacepa (edited)

Battling the Church

In February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev approved a super-secret plan for destroying the Vatican’s moral authority in Western Europe…Up until that time, the KGB had fought its “mortal enemy” in Eastern Europe, where the Holy See had been crudely attacked as a cesspool of espionage in the pay of American imperialism, and its representatives had been summarily jailed as spies. Now Moscow wanted the Vatican discredited by its own priests, on its home territory, as a bastion of Nazism.

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The Easter Duty and Confession

04-18-2021Weekly Reflection

The second precept of the Church (“You shall confess your sins at least once a year.") The third precept (“You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season.") The Easter Season for this purpose extends from the 1st Sunday of Lent until Trinity Sunday.

Objections to Confession and Catholic Responses

Objection #1 – Only God can forgive sin. It is true that only God can forgive sin (on His own authority). God is the Person forgiving sin in Confession.

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Pray for the Conversion of China

04-11-2021Weekly Reflection

It was a staple of the Church in the Cold War era to pray for the conversion of Russia. The Soviet regime was a fierce enemy of the Church and a great persecutor of Catholics and orthodox Christians. Josef Stalin was the architect of mass murder. Christians were murdered or sent to the Gulag, a network of concentration camps, which were in existence before the Nazi camps. Millions upon millions died in these camps. This was documented by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his book The Gulag Archipelago.

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What Does Hell Really Mean?

04-04-2021Weekly Reflection

Our contemporaries, including sadly many Christians, reject the notion of hell as something incompatible with God’s love and mercy. In fact there have been those who maintain that, at the end, even Satan will be reconciled to God, a false-teaching called apocatastasis, meaning a restoration to the original state. The Church has rejected this as contrary to the teachings of the Faith.

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