ecumenia

The grinch who stole Holy Week, or more honestly put, the attention whore who tried to upstage it - Sunday 25th to Saturday 31st of March - Holy Week

As we all should be aware, but most are not, the Holy Week reforms of the 1950s were quite sweeping. Berfore Holy Week, Rorate Caeli once again re-posted an article on " The Reform of Holy Week in the Years 1951-1956". It is well-worth reading, especially in connection with the news recently that some traditional orders had been allowed to celebrate the pre-1950s Holy Week on a 3-year experimental basis starting this year.

Traditionalists are nothing if not resourceful and it didn't take long before there was a resource for the pre-1950 Holy Week with English translations, aptly called Pre-1955 Holy Week (although I grant that it may well have been present before the announcement). Rorate Caeli also provided us with a clarification on who exactly may chant the Passion. These two interventions by Rorate Caeli were quite helpful to me personally, as I finally came to realise taht the Passion is not actually the Gospel reading for Good Friday, but that we actually have a Passion reading followed by a Gospel reading, at least in the traditinal liturgy, pre-1950s edition in any case. Rorate Caeli was also kind enough to provide us with pictures of Palm Sunday from the pre-1955 Holy Week celebration.

Anybody who knows anything about Christianity knows that Easter is the biggest event of the Church year (yet it seems that professional journalists writing for major state-sponsored publications don't have a clue about what Easter is all about, to nobody's surprise, and they are probably even proud about it). We shall also know that Holy Week is the most august week of the year. It is for this reason that the secular anti-Catholic world generally steps up its attacks on the Catholic faith and the Catholic Church. It is also the week that the world's most popular attention-whore gets up to his usual attention-seeking antics in order to seemingly steal attention away from the Church's commemorations and celebrations.

This year was no exception, but having noticed that his Maundy Thursday foot fetish doesn't get the attention it used to , Bergoglio decided to get a little help from his now 93-year old atheist friend Euginio Scalfari. Every time he speaks to that an he can be guaranteed a few scandalous headlines and this time was no different. Just in time for the Holy Week Celebrations, in which Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist and died to save us from the fires of hell and allow us too spend eternity with God, Bergoglio told his friend that there is no hell, and that those who die in sin simply vanish, while those who repent before end up spending eternity in the presence of God. This interview was timed to coincide with Maundy Thursday, and naturally overshadowed his feet-washing ceremony, which was once more carried out in prison and against the rubrics of the Novus Ordo, rubrics which he himself amended, it has to be mentioned.

The reactions were not long in coming, and predictably, much of the Catholic press tied itself up in knots, blaming the poor atheist fool Scalfari, instead of pointing to Bergoglio as the culprit. The Vatican issued a non-denial denial, informing us, as we all know, that Scalfari does not record his interviews so it cannot be ascertained whether what was reported was the exact phrasing that Bergoglio used. In other words, they were saying loudly and clearly that Bergoglio is a heretic, as we all know, but we can use the he-doesn't-record-interviews card to get us out of a very serious doctrinal situation. They could really have done little else, for had they said that Bergoglio had actually admitted that he doesn't believe in hell, then they would efffectively have been confirming what we all know, that the man is not Catholic. Had they come out and denied that Bergoglio said that, then they would have had to explain how it is that a man who, as far as I know, hasn't faced many accusations of total misrepresenation in his work before - save for when he speaks to Bergoglio - could get such a fundamental thing so wrong.

Bergoglio himself did not come out and deny it, so we can rest safely in the knowledge that Bergoglio told his atheist friend that. It must be noted that this is not the first time that Bergoglio has denied that souls end up in hell, as Scalfari has reported on this before, and even in Church documents Bergoglio has written something to the tune of everything been on its way to Heaven. His defenders have pointed out that Bergoglio mentions the devil quite a lot, and so he must be misquoted if he has said that the devil does not exist. That is a logical fallacy if ever there was one, as it is entirely possible to believe that the devil exists and yet believe that nobody ends up in hell; that the devil would spend eternity in hell with his demons. In any case it was dishonest of them as they could easily have found multiple instances of Bergoglio telling us that those who die in mortal sin never end up in hell, assuming that anybody can even die in mortal sin, which Bergoglio does not seem to believe - save for traditional Catholics who use doctrine as stones to throw at people while sitting in the judgment seat of Moses. That's his phrasing, not mine, of course.

On the topic of attacking the Church's doctrines, Bergoglio could not resist taking a barb at the notion of truth, insisting that priests ought not to make "idols of certain abstract truths". This was in a separate speech, mind you, proving beyond doubt, if anyone is still not convinced, that the man is in constant heresy mode, and not just when speaking to his atheist anti-Catholic friends who, if you are to believe his enablers, have nothing better to do than...

Make The Church Great Again! An analysis on how a political speech could be used by a restorationist pope.

By now most of us have heard of Donald J. Trump's inauguration speech. It was relatively short so there is no good reason why anybody wishing to have an opinion on it should not take the time to watch it and for reference it has been linked below.

What I want to do today is try and use Donald Trump's speech with reference to the Church. Imagine we had a Catholic Pope who actually cared about the reign of Christ and His Holy Church!

[...Yada yada yada...] fellow Americans, and people of the world: thank you. [Fellow faithful]

WE, the citizens of America , are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people. ["We, members of the Church militant" instead of citizens, and Christ's Kingdom instead of country, all people's instead of "all of our people"]

Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for years to come. [Just the "course of the world for years to come and into eternity"]

We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.

Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to [...Yada yada yada...] for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent. [(They have not been magnificent but this part is irrelevant to the Pope's speech.)]

Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People. ["From the halls of the corrupt Vatican schemers and back to the faithful". Administration would have to be changed into pontificate, but otherwise solid.]

For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. [For far too long a group of malicious apostates has run wild in the halls of power in Christ's Church while the faithful have borne the cost.]

Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth. [Indifference flourished, and the people did not enjoy spiritual benefits]

Politicians prospered – but the jobs left, and the factories closed. [The unscrupulous spiritual wolves prospered, the vocations dried up left the faith and the seminaries, convents and monasteries closed.]

The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. [Ecumaniacs protected themselves but not the faithful placed under their charge]

Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s Capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. ["Our nation's Capital" changes to Rome, "our land" changes to "the Church"]

That all changes – starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.

It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America. [America changes to "the world"]

This is your day. This is your celebration.

And this, the United States of America, is your country. [The Catholic Church, is  Christ's Church]

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. [Not who sits at the throne of St. Peter, but whether he serves Christ the Soverign King]

January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. [The day when Christ became the ruler of His Church again]
The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

Everyone is listening to you now.

You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement the likes of which the world has never seen before.

At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction: that a nation exists to serve its citizens. [That the Church exists to lead it's members to Heaven]
Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. [From Americans to Christians, otherwise okay.]

These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.

But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. ["Our nation" changes to nations, our country changes to "our Church"]

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. [Catholic carnage]

We are one nation – and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams; and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny. [One Church]

The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans. [To all true Christians]

For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry; [We have swelled the ranks of ecclesial communities at the expense of our own]
Subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military; [Subsidized the non-Catholic population while allowing for the very sad depletion of our infrastructure]
We've defended other nation’s borders while refusing to defend our own;  And spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. [We have defended other religions' false

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