This from a reader of The Remnant in England...

Thought I should share with The Remnant and its readership some liturgically historic news for the Catholic Church in England and, specifically, the Diocese of East Anglia.

Bishop Alan Hopes of the Diocese of East Anglia became the first bishop in England to celebrate a Pontifical High Mass at the throne in the Extraordinary Form since the introduction of the new rite.  The Mass was celebrated on the feast of All Saints (Nov. 1) in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Norwich, England.  It was also the first Pontifical High Mass celebrated by a bishop in his own cathedral in the Diocese of East Anglia since the Protestant Reformation.

Many of us were shocked to read the news headline, Mother Wins Case to Kill Her Disabled Daughter, which made the rounds just days ago. As LifeNews reported on October 29th:

Two and a half years ago, Dr. Phil advocated for the mercy killing of people with disabilities. Well, Dr. Phil would be happy to know that his dream has now become a reality — one mother successfully petitioned the court to kill her severely disabled daughter.

Nancy Fitzmaurice, born blind with hydrocephalus, meningitis and septicaemia, could not walk, talk, eat or drink, the Mirror reported.

Her health was so poor she required 24-hour care and was fed, watered and medicated by tube at London’s Great Ormand Street Hospital. Her health deteriorated and as she grew she would scream in agony for hours despite being given morphine and ketamine.

After posting a comment on The Remnant’s blog, Fetzen Fliegen, about singer/activist Elton John singing the praises of Pope Francis, his new ‘hero’, we garnered a few comments on The Remnant’s Facebook page accusing us of hating those with whom we disagree. One comment in particular provided an opening for us to address this issue of “hate” head on. Since hatemongering is the accusation du jour, leveled against anyone and everyone who would dare hold up the law of God to a world that is increasingly rejecting Him, we believe the following exchange may be useful.

COMMENT FROM HEATHER: Can't we just love all people for who they are? Doesn't your faith and religion teach you to cherish all life? Hate and meanness hurt all including those that spread it. Someone may not have the same beliefs as you but that doesn't mean you should put them down or bash their way of life. Put out hate and hate will spread...put out only love and love will be returned.

MJM RESPONDS: Agreed, Heather! Of course, our Church teaches that charity must always come first and that hatred of anyone is a mortal sin which, unrepentant, makes a person deserving of eternal damnation. And if you actually read the article you may be surprised to discover that it's something of an ironic defense of Elton John.

Catholics around the world need to know that the Vatican communications machine is still doing its best to manipulate the results of the Synod on the Family.  

As can be seen from the link here and below to the relevant page on the Vatican website, all the preliminary and more liberal documents of the Synod are up there in multiple languages, while the only one that matters de jure - the final and official relatio which did not even propose - much less approve - Communion for divorced-and remarrieds or "welcome" for homosexuals and their "gifts", is posted only in Italian.

God save the Pope from his enemies, as Cardinal Pell said. May he find a consistent vision to guide him as pastor of the Universal Church. Awake Francis/Peter! Be the man that Christ wants you to be!

(ROME) My good friend and colleague, Chris Ferrara, has rightly indicated that this is no time to mince words. We are reaping all of the final madness that logically had to emerge from the victory of the conscious cabal that took the Roman Catholic Church captive at the time of Second Vatican Council. No one can play semantic games with the horrible reality this has caused.

Dear Miss Erinyes

I'm just wondering what your opinion is. Do you think that Francis really is pope? I cannot imagine the real pope doing and saying the things that Francis is doing and saying.

Do you think that it is possible that the last conclave was rigged, making Francis' election illegitimate?

Fr. M
_

Dear Father,

The truth is that I have no idea. I am not a canonist; I have no training in theology or Church history and have no special ability to discern between the various arguments now being commonly bruited about the internet. I can see that we have a very large problem, one in the person of Francis that seems to equal the horrifying problems in the world. He seems to me to be, indeed, an intrinsic part of those external problems, a product of them, one might even say.

Sister Cristina Sings 'Like a Virgin'

When I first saw this quaint, old photograph of a Catholic nun, playfully teaching a couple of street urchins how to dance a jig, I was surprised by the tears that suddenly began to burn behind my eyes. It’s certainly nothing profound but it says much about what we have lost. Catholic nuns, the old habits, innocent children playing in the street—it’s all gone now, along with  most everything else good, true and beautiful about the world in which we live.

If you don’t understand why my tears somehow make sense then perhaps you never knew the old Catholic Church of which this photograph is a happy reminder. It wasn’t a system of oppressive rules, abusive nuns and holy fools as we’re constantly told it was. In fact, the reality of it bore little resemblance to the Catholic-bashing fairytale we see depicted in the movies and everywhere else with such intensity that even the history we ourselves lived through is in danger of being transformed in the image and likeness of a Godless modern age.  

The dispute between the Pharisees and Our Lord is being misrepresented. It was the Pharisees through their technical distortion of the meaning of the words of the law that were advocating a minimalist compliance with the natural and divine law. In fact, Our Lord came to demand a more rigorous application of the Law and the Prophets.

Perhaps you have experienced a similar ad hominem attack as I have when simply stating or defending the very simple dogma on marriage that has been held by Catholics everywhere and always (at least before the gnostic oracle of Cardinal Kasper came on the scene). Marriage is the union between one man and one woman which bond is broken only by the death of one of the spouses. Our grandparents would have considered inconceivable that such a simple and basic statement could become the source of ridicule and persecution by fellow Catholics. Yet, utter this truth today and you are likely to be confronted with something like the following: “You are being like the Pharisees. Christ came to bring mercy and the Pharisees stubbornly held on to the letter of the law rather than embracing Christ’s new spirit of mercy. Like the Pharisees of old you obstinately are refusing the law of mercy Pope Francis seeks to promote.”

If we cannot depend upon the official documents, whether “final” or “working” from our bishops for an accurate iteration of Catholic teaching,  then how are we to proceed at all?

So, those who are watching the incredible debacle the Synod on the Family is turning out to be – with the press office clamping down on the information on who is saying what in the Aula; issuing only vague and subjective “summaries” of the day’s talks; blowing smoke whenever anyone asks a difficult question - should probably not be blamed for being thoroughly un-shocked by the contents of the now-notorious “Relatio”.

Does the Catholic Church Still Believe in Mortal Sin? Hell? Damnation? Sins that Cry to Heaven for Vengeance? The Ten Commandments?

The New York Times, Time and The New Yorker are exuberant about the contents of the mid-Synod document on homosexuality. The Huffington Post calls it a “dramatic shift.” Reuters says the document challenges the Church to “change its attitude” toward those who practice perversion, the sin of Sodom. These times are interesting indeed.

Even most Catholics today do not realize that a number of Fathers of the First Vatican Council actually submitted a papal petition for Columbus’ canonization

Another Columbus Day has passed. The usual suspects in the secular, and now sadly even “Catholic” media have trotted out their yearly calumnies of the man whom America still, to her credit, honors with a National Holiday. There is still no better response to this yearly spectacle of hatred towards Columbus than the following statement of Rev. A. Knight from 1877, “The disapproval of the ‘Infidel Press’ is to Catholics a guarantee of the goodness of a cause second only to an autograph letter of the Holy Father.”