Feast Day of St Andrew

A very happy and holy St Andrew's Day to one and all.

Let us especially pray for the conversion of that ancient country, Scotland, that it may come back to the Faith of its fathers.

St Andrew - Pray for Us
St Margaret of Scotland - Pray for Us
St Ninian - Pray for Us
St Columba - Pray for Us

The Power of the Media in Modern Britain

Er no thanks... but something is wrong.

As Catholics we all know about the "power of the media" because, sadly, it all too often follows an anti-Catholic line. Strike that. 95% of the time it is anti-Catholic (by omission or commission).

Today the landlord in the Bristol, Joanna Yeates murder case, Christopher Jeffries said he had to move from safehouse to safehouse after the media painted him as guilty of an awful murder. As The Telegraph put it:

Mr Jefferies told the inquiry how he had been forced to move between friends like a "recusant priest at the time of the Reformation."

This cannot be right. The media have overturned the age-old right of being 'innocent until proven guilty.' Indeed, it is often the case that the innocent are hounded to an awful degree, with salacious and often made-up material spread across the papers, whereas the guilty are treated with kid gloves and so we see people of the most heinous crimes (such as child abuse) let out after a few years to repeat offend.

I don't know how other Catholics feel, but I get the feeling that GK Chesterton would rip apart the topsy-turvey nature of a system that brutalises the innocent yet soft-soaps the guilty.

I just hope that in the shadow of some awful behaviour by the tabloids, real press freedoms aren't curtailed: the kind that expose the wrongdoings of the MPs, bankers and... newspapers.

In a country where the guilty have the right to Playstations but the innocents are ripped apart in the womb, it is little wonder that, as a society, we have lost all idea of what we are, of what is right and what is wrong.

And the answer, short of mass conversion and the Social Reign of Christ the King? I think we should look for the break-up of media empires, a regulatory body with some teeth, and a return to the kind of media in which the small publisher can publish and flourish - allowing some decent Catholic voices to be raised in answer to the material and spiritual concerns of a people crying out for answers.

Telegraph story and video

Why Do So Many Think They Know Better Than God Himself?

I should start this blog entry with an apology to any theologians or priests looking in, for I am neither, just a bog standard Welsh Catholic with a Comprehensive education, so if I mix my metaphors or fumble the ball a little, please do bear with me.

I love Advent. I love this time, with the approaching of Christmas, the preparation, the hymns, carols, the excitement - almost as much (sometimes more than) the great Feast itself!

The thought of the Nativity story, the Incarnation of the Word, God made man, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ... it can make one dizzy in anticipation.

When one analyses this simple fact of the Incarnation of God one realises that far from being the simple matter of a baby in a crib, we are dealing with a fathomless mystery and equally amazing example of the fathomless nature of God's Grace.

As we Catholics say the Hail Mary we repeat those wondrous words pronounced to the Mother of God:

Hail Mary the Lord is with Thee,
Blessed art Thou amongst women and Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb.

After Her total submission to the Will of God, something each of us strives towards in our lives (often failing dismally), she was made the Ark of the Covenant. The Incarnation of God was made possible by the total submission of Our Lady to the Will of God. The Handmaiden of the Lord became our Co-Redemptrix, surely one of the reasons for Satan's prideful rebellion, that a mortal woman by raised higher in Heaven than the Hosts of Angels, as their (and our) Queen.

And this brings me to an issue that came up in conversation with our local priest on the issue of the Church, Confession etc. "Why do we need the church?" so many ask in the modern age. They could ask why do we need coffee, why do we need pavements, why do we need collars on shirts - for none of these has done even a tiny fraction towards advancing civilisation as Mother Church has -- yet we get this modernist, 60s, socialist, materialist (label it as you will) mantra repeated all the time in all forms of media but especially in modern fiction:

Why do we need the Church.


The modernists who would rewrite history and paint the Church as the greatest evil known to man (forgetting all the evils it replaced and all the evils it negated and strove to 'fix' - I am reminded of GK Chesterton's quote on Christianity as not found wanting, but found, and untried), forget that Our Lord Jesus Christ left us His Church.

If we did not need a Church, if we did not need the Sacraments of the Church, then Our Lord would not have created it, with St Peter as the first Pope, with the Apostles and others as the first Bishops, with the Mass and -- "This is My Body" -- the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity left in the Eucharist to strengthen the Christians. Our Lord also explicitly gave the priests the power for the forgiveness of sins, to enable us as e struggle on in our daily lives.

The modernist rebellion against the need for the Church (which reached its ideological zenith circa the French Revolution - but has reached its technological zenith today via the reach of Hollywood and the media) is flying in the face of the wishes and precise instructions left by Jesus Christ whose birthday most people in Europe are about to celebrate.

As for those Protestants of 1001 varieties of the modernist 'catholics' who say they do not need the Catholic Church, i.e. that any church will do... well they are as bad as those charlatans who say "I can confess my sins to God at home" -- because we all know that they seldom do, nor (without they guidance of Holy Church) would they know what constitutes sins in many respects.

Jesus Christ did not start the Protestant churches - men did. The Son of God did not start all the other religions men did (yes - even modern Judaism was started by the Pharisees). Are we really so proud, so insincere, so devious as men to think that we know better than Jesus Christ - the Son of God, God made man, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Word Incarnate?

He left us the Church with the Pope at its head; he left us the Sacrifice of the Mass, he left us Confession to help us overcome our sins... and yet we, modern men, think that we do not need all this! We can do without His Church, we can do without His Sacrifice of the Mass, we can do without His Confessional!

How proud and sinful is modern man, that so many of us think we can pay lip service to the Son of God, yet ignore the very things He left us, in order that we may be worthy of Heaven, the gates of which He opened for us.

We are all of us sinners, we are all of us weak, we are all of us human. We All fall, many times, on our own Via Dolorosa. That is why we need the institutions left to us by Jesus Christ - especially His Sacraments.

If we think we can do without them we are sorely mistaken! We should submit ourselves to the Will of God, and that begins by availing ourselves of His Sacraments through the auspices of His Church.

To do otherwise is to join the Devil in his terrible revolt against God Himself.

Be on the side of the Angels! Go to Mass, get to Confession, partake of Communion. The Sanctifying nature of the Eucharist will give you many Graces, and in this modern(ist) world we, each and every one of us no matter our status, need all the Graces we can get!

Give GKC This Christmas

Give the Gift of Chesterton this Christmas.

GKC is the perfect gift for a non-Catholic friend. He is perhaps one of the writers most responsible for a great number of converts to the Faith (and common sense!) in 20th Century Britain (and long may that continue).

G.K. Chesterton on Sola Scriptura

He could be a little more 'rotund' and the sound is a bit computerised.... but this is glorious nonetheless.

Enjoy!

Mel Gibson: Forgive Our Trespasses

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone...

Fatima, WW2 and New Age White-Washed Satanism

The inventor of modern witchcraft

I was listening to an old podcast from the BBC History magazine (an Irish Catholic friend dismissed it as "Whig history" when he caught me reading a copy previously) when the subject of the "Wicca religion" came up.

I am no expert in these things, other than what common sense and sound Catholicism informs me is a great evil and wrong. Yet what I found of interest in this feature was that the gent being interviewed -- clearly someone with a softness for paganism -- had to admit that the vast majority of historians interested in Wicca (which has to be a quite specific pool to draw from) admit that the 'religion' as we know it was invented by one Gerald Gardner.

Gardner himself claims he was initiated into Wicca by a New Forest coven in 1939 (a significant date) but the historians in question generally dismiss this and think that he invented the Wicca religion himself, in 1946. Funnily enough, like Aleister Crowley, Gardner claimed to use witchcraft to defend Britain from Nazi Germany. Make of that what you will!

Gardner knew Crowley (the Satanist) and in 1947 joined his Ordo Templi Orientis. After Crowley's death Gardner became the highest ranking member of the OTO.

There are a number of interesting points here for Catholics:

• Our Lady at Fatima said WW2 would happen because of the sins of men, and here we have a degenerate man who founded modern witchcraft right after WW2, in 1946. Mankind has learnt nothing, as the Wicca movement has grown in Europe and America since then.
• The movement embraced by extreme feminism for all sorts of political, sexual and social reasons, was founded by a man who joined Aleister Crowley's highly dubious OTO in which "sexual magick" (sic) was considered important.
• Wicca is linked in with Satanism from its very beginning, despite the protestations against such links by those trying to be its public face or trying to whitewash it.
• Those Catholic feminists - even nuns in America - who flirt with Wicca need to seriously sort themselves out!
• Wicca has no roots in "ancient religions" or "pre-Christian faiths" - it was invented by a weirdo who liked nudism and sex, in 1946.
• Catholics from every nation and of every "rank" must ensure that our Shepherds do not see Wicca/Witchcraft as a "fellow religion" in this age of ecumenism and post-Assissi ecumaniacal shindigs (e.g. the Peace Mala group promoted on the front page of the Menevia News diocesan newspaper promotes Wiccan groups on its website as I previously detailed on this blog).

Wicca was invented in 1946 by Gerald Gardner, close associate of Satanist Aleister "The Beast" Crowley and leader of his Satanist group after Crowley's death.

It's modern propaganda that it is "white" witchcraft, and a feminist old religion dating back centuries, is like so much else in this day and age, just hogwash.

Catholics: arm yourselves with the Truth. Only then can we seek to expose the Wiccan lies and protect our Faith from those who think we can 'learn' from these freakish cults or who think such cults are on a par with our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Olympic Posters Point to Dead Society

Spodges, twirls, blocks and funny colours.

The LOndon 2012 official posters were unveiled today and what a cacopohony.

The con that is "modern art" is there for all to see. The Empreror is stark, staring naked.

The "art" is as shoddy, shocking and vacuous as those post-60s roller discos that double-up as Catholic Churches.

Art, like Churches, used to stir the soul. Now in this kind of vomit-inducing form it just stirs the stomach.

Oh The Guardian love them with words like "the most effective posters" and "a winner" or what about "touching idealism" and "self-conscious sentimentality."

But these are the same brand of people who loved Vatican 2 and predicted the modernisation of the Church would fill the pews (just like they promise the same with "gay marriage" or married priests).

All modernism, in art and religion, does is wreck. It ruins what it touches because its soul is basically against Truth and Beauty, it is relativism writ large.

I am not English, hence the blog name, but if I were I would love to think someone would promote something inspirational and English, traditional and English, making England and her culture and history part of the Olympic ideal (how about a Celt, Viking, Saxon and Norman reaching out for the Olympic torch, or King Alfred's statue on a stadium backdrop, or the Olympic rings floating on a 'nice cup of tea'... They could be traditional, fun, self-effacing, proud or thought-provoking.

But please someone tell me what the squiggles, lines, blocks and swirls of modern art are supposed to tell me about England in 2012 other than it is a mess.

If they wish to stop drug-taking in the athletes, was it wise to use these images, many of which I imagine drug usage had a role in!

BBC Reports on Young Women Becoming Nuns

Sister Jacinta

There's an interesting story on the BBC website on how more young women are turning to a religious vocation in a world that is giving them many problems, pressures and false hopes which quickly fade and die.

We can only hope Holy Mother Church recognises that there is a terrible spiritual vacuum in many peoples' lives. If Catholicism isn't forthright enough to offer itself, with 'the Truth that sets you free' at its core, then many youngsters will turn to any number of evils and errors which will plunge all too many souls into damnation.

There are many false worldly choices offered to the young, which is why I think Catholicism needs to stand apart from the "modern world" with its relativism, decadence and hostility to the family. By being apart from the mess of the modern world it can attract those who have seen through the half-truths and miasmas of the modern world or who have witnessed its empty promises, whatever their age.

When is a Priest Not a Priest? - in the Catholic Times Letters Pages

Fr Paul Kramer

It appears that the Catholic Times has published some letters attacking a priest and a lay Catholic, partly on charges of "anti-Semitism" (always a hot potato). Whilst reading through the Christian Order website I found a link to this site Christian Truth Scotland, which I used to read when I was north of the border.

It seems that whilst the Catholic Times have seen fit to publish letters with false accusations, the letters detailing the truth and putting forward a defence of the pair have not been printed. As one of the allegations is that a priest (Fr Paul Kramer) is somehow not an actual priest -- surely one of the most scandalous of assertions if untrue, as it appears to be -- I would like to think the Catholic Times would be duty bound to publish letters from those who seem to be attacked merely for defending Catholic Tradition and Truth.

After all, if some people (within and without the Church) do not like Fr Kramer and Mr. Sungenis (of both of whom I know very little) and what they have written - they can blame the authors themselves who, so they can say, will have condemned themselves by their writing. The Catholic Times surely has nothing to fear in publishing their letters, whereas at the moment certainly in regards to the slur against Fr Kramer, they would seem to have given credence to a most erroneous and dangerous lie (after all, if Fr Kramer were lying in this regard it could easily be disproved by accessing Church records).

The background to this furore can be read in another Catholic Truth Scotland issue. It seems the Faith of our Fathers conference organised by Daphne Mcleod of Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (PEEP) had some speakers and its central London venue spiked by similar lies spread about it. I do not know all the ins and outs of PEEP, but I went to one of their Faith of our Fathers conferences some years ago and found it to be thoroughly Catholic and not "controversial" in any way, just very sound, and very traditional. From memory I recall going home with a wealth of Pro-Life, Latin Mass and similar materials, with a smile on my face and a spring in my step (yes, it really was that long ago!).

And not a "gay Mass" apologist in sight! ;-)

It may be that I am unaware of some sort of "office politics" going on in Catholic circles in London/England, but I do wonder why the Catholic Times would not publish a clarification from Fr Kramer (whatever they may think of his personal views), nor why anyone would wish to stop a Cardinal from addressing those seeking to uphold and defend Catholic traditions. Maybe I'm just naive.


Link:
Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice

Pope Pius XII - Empty Tabernacles?

Suppose, dear friend, that Communism was only the most visible of the instruments of subversion to be used against the Church and the traditions of Divine Revelation ... I am worried by the Blessed Virgin's messages to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul. ... A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God ... In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits them, like Mary Magdalene weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask, “where have they taken Him?”

Pope Pius XII, quoted in the book Pius XII Devant L'Histoire, pp. 52-53

Communion in Both Kinds - two Bishops Speak Out

Good intentions? Paths? A Mass in Chicago

A super post by Fr. Z on WDTPRS. A timely reminder that Communion in both kinds gives rise to far too many abuses, and (I would argue) causes scandal to some Catholics (including me!)

I pray that Catholic Bishops would defend Our Lord, present on the Altars of our land, from abuses. I know it can seem a tad hypersensitive, but the idea that Our Lord might be dishonoured, even once, should have all Catholics very, very concerned - if not outright angry.

A Reluctant Sinner on Gay Marriage

The cartoon characters Calvin & Hobbes deal with moral relativism

That wonderful, wonderful blog - A Reluctant Sinner - hands us clear, pristine and Catholic guidance, yet again! Please take the time to read his thoughtful, insightful posts on this matter.

In these times of moral upheaval -- the moral relativism that the Pope warned us about last September, to which the Archbishop of Westminster and the Prime Minister nodded like those little nodding dogs one sees in the back of cars -- it is uplifting that so many sound, sincere and brave Catholic voices are raised in dissent to the moral anarchy that is gripping the upper echelons of politics and religion.

Would that the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, as a body, gave clear and precise leadership to every Catholic to be proactive against this push by a Prime Minister who has his priorities all wrong.

In the meantime it is vital that Catholic Truth is proclaimed by as many Catholics as possible, so that the clear leadership of Pope Benedict can be matched by pressure-from-below. Then perhaps, just perhaps, the leadership of we Catholics born, by the Grace of God in Wales and England, can find the courage to espouse Catholic Truth.

We should expect no less from our Catholic leaders. Sad to say the moral relativism of this world, the weasel words and the modernism and newspeak of an anarchic, pagan age seems to have seeped into the palaces of too many Bishops. Is this perhaps a small part of the "smoke of Satan" entering the Catholic Church that Paul VI warned of as he witnessed Bugnini's liturgical changes? Time will tell.

John Smeaton on Gay Marriage

An excellent post by John Smeaton of the SPUC on the Tories and Homosexual marriage (sic).

Time for the Catholic Bishops to lead the way. Please.

Haf Bach Mihangel - Our Welsh Catholic Heritage

St Michael's 14th Century Church, Betws-y-Coed

Haf Bach Mihangel

It's St Michael's Little Summer in Welsh.


Today is Michaelmas - St Michael's Day and when it is hot at this time of year (as it very often is, as my family are sick of me telling them) it is known as Haf Bach Mihangel in Wales.


Yet further evidence of the folk-memory of those happy times when Wales was Catholic and Welsh; when the Saints spread the Faith to Ireland and we Welsh enjoyed the Sacraments and honoured the Real Presence of Our Lord on the Altars of our land, a Presence that had been adored since some of the earliest years of the Roman presence.

Our Catholic Faith was nurtured even when the Celtic lands to the East were lost to the pagan English.


So celebrate Michaelmas today and if you sit outside this evening, perchance with a wee sip of ale, wish each other a Dydd Mihangel Hapus and enjoy the beautiful sunshine as we enjoy this Haf Bach Mihangel.

Yes, the sun shines in Wales. As some Arab chappies might intone, God is Great. Indeed He is.