Becket!

In the four days following Christmas, we celebrate three martyrs, and the Apostle who gave us the Book of the Apocalypse of St. John, (as well as the words apocalyptic, post-apocalypse, etc.)  This has always interested me, and underscores part of Fathers homily on Christmas, that the Cross in implicit in the Creche.

Today we celebrate the life and death of St. Thomas Becket, martyr.  Back in the 12th century, a King who felt the Church was his to parcel out, to tax and to dispose of cried "Who will rid me of this truculent cleric" and four royal knights took the hint and killed the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago should be asking this great martyr for his intercession.  Because now it will not be the cry of a frustrated monarch that dispatches knights, rather, it will be the umbrage of bigoted deviants deprived of their chance at a drunken revel involving verbal harassment of  Catholic families dispatching lawyers.  Unless some unstable person attacks the good Cardinal, as has happened to His Holiness.  In the past it was Royal Perogative that unleashed zealous men-at-arms upon prelates who stood up for the Church, this time it will lawyers sent by those who claim tolerance as their banner, to silence our Pastors.  And attempt to silence them they will.

It won't just be deviants--of all stripes--moving on the bishops, it will murderers.  The legalized child murder industry and it's oh-so-righteous cheerleaders are already managing to atack some of the bishops outreach, and they will go for the man as well.

And, just as in Becket's day there were kings men in the Church, there are the servants of murder and deviancy in the church.  How else to explain the appointment of a donor to pro-abortion groups being appointed to responsible and high position in the USCCB lay professional clique?  How else to explain the money the CCHD gives to group allied with pro abortion and pro gay activities?  How else to explain things like Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco, or even the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville being listed as Gay Friendly by New Ways Ministry?

We need to ask St. Thomas Becket's intercession, for if our Bishops escape Red Martyrdom at the hands of the depraved, they shall surely experience some form of White Martyrdom at the hands of Lawyers.  Unless there is a lot of prayer and penance for the preservation of the Church in these times of Apostasy and Growing Oppression.

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  It's a day when really, we should be asking for their intercession as they are Martyrs in heaven.  This feast recounts the massacre of boys by Herod, and Joseph being warned of Herod's murderous intention in a dream, telling him to take Mary and Jesus and flee.  It brings us once again against the uniqueness of the person of Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, incarnate, and it foreshadows the hostility that the religion of Jesus would always provoke from earthly powers that would brook no rivals.  

In the centuries after, the death toll was stated in the thousands, and the hundreds of thousands, and there is debate about the historicity of the event.  Interestingly, some historians have said that the dismissal of the event is less a matter of competent history, than opinion and anti religious bias.  I think that it's important to remember that the 1910 edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia lists the death toll as falling within a range of six to two dozen, based on the population of Bethlehem and environs at the time.  Considering the various murders and crimes of Herod the Great, this could easily have passed unnoticed given the times and the obscurity of the location and the victims.

In the last few decades in the U.S., this feast has become politicized, linked to the murder of the unborn by the abortion industry being legalized.  I haven't got a problem with this, and my mnd has usually taken this tack when i think about this feast.  But this year my thinking on the Feast of the Holy Innocents has gone elsewhere.

The Church is the Body of Christ, with Jesus Christ Himself it's head.  When we are Baptized we become part of the Body of Christ, a manifestation of, and the presence of, Christ in the World. It is for this reason that when incense is used in the Mass, the people are incensed as well as the Gospel, the Gifts, the Ministers and the Altar.  The incense, as well as symbolizing our prayers ascending to heaven and giving glory to God also marks or points out the ways in which Christ is present in the Liturgy of the Mass.  This fact is key to what I've been thinking this year.  For Herod was not trying to stamp out a religious sect by ordering the massacre of the Holy Innocents--he was trying to kill Jesus, to kill Christ. 

And this happens still, in fact is accelerating.  Christians are targeted for death in an attempt to destroy the Church, which is the Body of Christ.  Trying to destroy the Church is in a very real way trying to destroy Christ. 

Right now the Bombing of the Church of St. Theresa in Nigeria is an example.  The death toll for this attack keeps rising, I've seen reports with the current toll as high as 100.  The bombing was meant to kill Catholic Christians, to intimidate them into acquiescing to the imposition of Muslim rule in Nigeria--a nation that is roughly half Christian, half Muslim with a few animists still around.  Despite what Muslims often say to Christians, they really don't like the person of Jesus Christ, postulating instead "Issa" a prophet who was in no way the son of God--finding the very concept to be "blasphemous".  But less well knownis the extent of Muslim attacks on Christians in Nigeria.  There was not one church bombed this Christmas, but three. They used Christmas bombings last year as well, and have sponsored attacks on Christians in the hinterlands too. 

In Nigeria's Delta State, Nuns going to provide charity and spiritual support in a deprived village were raped at gun point Christmas eve, and robbed of the items meant for Charity.  The delta has been something of a stronghold for Boko Haram, as the local jihadist/sharia group is known.  (The name Boko Haram means "Western Education is Sacrilege" )  Interestingly enough, though Boko Haram obviously--even their name proclaims it--wishes to destroy the Church--the main provider of western education--it didn't get much help from Al-queda or other Islamic organizations until Nigeria became an important and growing source of oil--something that the Middle Eastern Islamics need to keep within their grasp, for it's the basis not only of their economy but their political power.  So here we have another Massacre of Innocents, an attack on the Body of Christ, by worldly powers who will have no rival--not even the Son of God.

In Gaza, under both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, Christian Arabs are suffering horrible persecution, including intimidation, beatings, kidnapping, forced marriage, rape, extortion, human trafficking and employment discrimination, because they do not fit the narrative of Muslims deprived of their birthright by Jews.  This is troubling because there are actually more Christian Arabs in the world than Jews--and they are disappearing from their homelands, which are also the homelands, the cradle lands, of Christianity.  In Iraq, Midnight Masses nationwide were cancelled this Christmas, because the country which President Obama declared 'stable and self reliant" is too prone to killing it's Christians for it to be safe.  Both the Chaldean (Catholic) Christians and the Assyrian (Orthodox) Christians are targeted.  Their Patriarchs feel that it is only a matter of time before there are no Christians left in Iraq--they will have fled, converted for safety's sake or been killed.  Globally, nine out of every ten people facing religious persecution are Christian.  The UK Government is finally taking notice of this fact--oddly.  I say oddly because government regulations have penalized people for wearing a cross at work, or having a bible at their desk--not just people in government jobs, but nurses and accountants.


In the United States, the Chairman of the U.S. Religious Freedom Commission has said that Christianity may be eradicated from Iraq and Afghanistan.  The President has responded to this by eliminating the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom.  It's not just Islamics who are wishing to destroy the Body of Christ on earth, but secularists desire this as well, or at least its' castration.  The Church--using the word in it's broadest possible sense to include all those Baptized into the Body of Christ--can articulate moral realities that oppose the unbridled power of the state, and the relativism and amoral pragmatism of government.  It's currently the fashion of our selfstyled "intellectual elite" to poo-poo the idea that Christianity is under attack by the courts, various government agencies and the secular media, but the sheer number of actions against religious practices that occur outside of Churches,  specifically or culturally Christian symbols and Christian schools and institutions  gives this the lie.

So on this Feast of the Holy Innocents, perhaps it's prudent to ask their intercession for our protection fro persecution world wide, and for a divine intervention to change hearts among those who hate us, so they will extend to us the same tolerance they so vocally call for for non-christian groups and beliefs.  Who knows, with divine protection,perhaps  we can even vote an end to abortion, since over 60% of Americans disapprove of abortion on demand.  perhaps that's one of the things the Seculars are afraid of. 

Weird Search Terms

Well, I stood away from blogging for a while, so today I looked at how people had been finding this blog.  The two weirdest search terms to bring people here were "Bondage and Discipline" and "ignorant redneck christians" (sic).  I hope the person looking for ignorant redneck Christians was gratified to be here.

Just a Quick Note on Liturgy

So complaints are starting to come in about priests returning to the practice of ad libbing parts of the Mass, or simply using the old translation when they don't like the new one.

The usual advice is to write the priest a letter, and send a copy to the Diocesan Chancery, and the Apostolic Nuncio.  I am here going to offer different advice.  After Mass--directly after, when Fr. Flannelboy is shaking hands with everyone, go up to him, (if you have a couple of like minded friends, have them with you, in the back ground to make sounds of agreement) and ask him:

Father, if we can't trust you to read words out of a book, (or vest properly if he isn't vested properly) how can we trust you to pass on the faith we have received from the Apostles, or manage the money we work so hard to give to the Church properly, or even be around our kids without corrupting them?

Then quote Matt 25:20-22 at him.  Do it in front of others, publicly.  Some will say this is divisive.  That's not true, what is divisive is the Liturgical Abuse.  Some will say that you shouldn't do this in public.  That's not true either--he did it in public, it's not a secret that he did it.  Calling him on it in public might just shame him into doing the right thing next time.

Don't facilitate the Clericalism of liturgical abuse by silence.

Just out of curiosity...

..does anyone think Nancy "The Theologian" Pelosi's quiet and unheralded trip to Hawaii is just a coincidence?  Or are people thinking what I'm thinking--it's a secretive chance to plot strategy with the Obama outside the eyes of the public, press and their own party?

Well, I'm back from my Bloging Break

I didn't blog very much during Advent, because I wanted to keep my energies on the season.  I hope your Advent was filled with blessings and you Christmas Holiday a joyful one.

I wanted to take a break from being so involved in thinking about and being engaged with current events.  It's a shame, but sometimes I get too involved in these things to keep my mind on my main task, which is to get to Heaven.  This has been escalating this last year, and I have to be honest about it.

I have never had less trust in, or hope for, our Republic than I do now.  I believe tht our enumerated rights will evaporate in the next two to three years, and I think this will happen no matter who is elected president, or what party controls congress.  We Americans have lost the ideal of a republican form of government, in which the government is a public affair with everyone having input, and degenerated into a bitter factionalism that makes such a form of government nearly impossible.  I am afraid we will see the rise of a party dictatorship that subordinates the good of the Republic as a whole to the interests of one constituency.  And, I fear that whichever party achieves that, Christians in general, and Catholics in particular will feel the lash.  Honestly, I see the Republican Party as being as likely to do this as the Democrats--they make lots of the right mouth noises, but their actions don't bear them out.

Right now I have 64 bookmarks of news stories that show the decline in religious and civil liberties and defections from the practice of the faith--and I have not been marking many of the ones I read and find.  I think that between now and Lent, I'll be writing a lot about these things and what is occurring in America that makes me afraid for children and grandchildren. 

Just a hint--there is a sheriff in Indiana who takes exception for the FDAs operations against Amish farmers, and has said that he will not cooperate, and that if federal agents show up at an Amish farm without a search warrant he will arrest them for trespass.  He has been threatened with three years imprisonment.  At the same time, law enforcement agencies trying to enforce federal laws concerning illegal immigration are being sued by the Federal Government.  We have reached a point where we are under rule by decree--much as the Wiemar Republic reached that point two chancellors ahead of that Guy who when we name him we lose the argument.

Our rights are dead--it only remains for the people in charge to decide they can rub our nose in it.