Fr. Rutler on the redacted canticle of St. Francis in Laudato Si

There is nothing more profound than a priest who has spent decades zealously living out his vocation in a state of Sanctifying Grace. Their words transcend your mind to a mystical place. They reach into your soul and turn on a light.

Here's Fr. Rutler's latest which leaves little room to doubt the albatross he sees in Rome.

This is why it is important that the “Canticle of the Sun” be invoked in its entirety. The first and last three verses do not appear in the encyclical. An uninformed reader might get the impression that the saint of Assisi did not sing his song in a transport of joy to God whose glory is ineffable. “Most High, all powerful, all good Lord! All praise is Yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing. To You alone, Most High, do they belong. No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your name” (verse 1). The last three verses praise the Lord for the strength he gives to forgive and to endure sickness and trial, for the mystery of death and fear of dying in mortal sin, and for serving him “with great humility.”

A satirist once described a trendy clergyman who “collects butterflies and considers the word ‘not’ to have been interpolated in several of the Commandments.” While Christ bid us to “consider the lilies of the field,” he did so not as a botanist but as the Lord who “is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). To redact the “Canticle of the Sun” risks being left with the Sun, but without the Son.

ADDENDUM

Fr. Z adds:

How does St. Francis’ hymn end?

Woe to those who die in mortal sin!

May God have mercy on those who have caused such vast scandal.

May God have mercy on those who will fall to their baser appetites.

Everyone… pray for the deeply confused and clean your own house!

GO TO CONFESSION.

n.b. What is painfully obvious: This pope is leading souls to die in a state of mortal sin while telling them they must now turn their attention to utilizing their powers to control the weather to save themselves, listen and execute the ideas of heretics and help the communists. He's helping us all out.

Judgment at Nuremberg

"In a national crisis, ordinary and extraordinary men can delude themselves into the commission of a heinous crime."

I listened to the Nuremberg trials today as I was doing chores. I hadn't watched the movie for years but with The ethnic cleansing of Christians and the diabolical morass in the United States, I was very interested in watching again. I never understood the hatred and moral decadence of German citizens, how the human mind and soul could function in their willful ignorance or worse, participate in the cruelty and mass murders, disposition of bodies.

With a little more experience with life under my belt, I listened carefully to the dialogue of the movie.

Many things jumped out at me.

The statement above was said by Spencer Tracy playing Chief Judge Dan Haywood. He said it in the context of explaining one would expect all men carrying out such heinous crimes to be and appear evil. But, that is not how it operates. When momentum takes over the culture of a country, men and women who consider themselves good people participate in crimes against the body and soul.

So many people claimed they did not know what was happening. Ernst Janning, a defendant on trial admitted it was a lie. He said they were present when their neighbors were dragged out of their homes and if they didn't know, it was because they didn't want to know.

After Ernst Janning incriminated himself, counsel for the defense did damage control by saying that if ordinary men should be convicted of complicit assistance to the 6 million murders, then many others are also guilty. He mentioned the quislings at the Vatican who signed a concordant with the Third Reich.

I always gave the Holy See the benefit of the doubt, but Pope Francis agreements with the communist tyrants in Cuba have relieved me of my delusion. I now have the benefit of my front row seat to the s**t show of the wealthy communists ability to use the Pope like a puppet to help spread the tyranny in Cuba to the United States.

I've read and heard all the excuses used for the concordant with the Nazis. Any way you slice it, Hitler bought public approval and silence from the Vatican so they could save their own backsides from the Crucifixion. They won their freedom from oppression by bartering the lives of 6 million people. It was wrong then and it is wrong now.

Christ didn't draw up a truce with Herod. Peter didn't sign a concordant with Nero.

The Extravagant Rant

Outstanding post on Laudato Si.

Welcome to Sodom and Gomorrah

I really thought Justice Kennedy would be hard-pressed to substitute himself for God and throw the structure for creating law down the toilet. I wasn't completely surprised, but it's hard to imagine anyone, even if their catechesis was crappy, positioning themselves over God as the arbiter of truth about about marriage.

Would you want your name on the short list of five people who turned the country into Sodom and Gomorrah? I honestly can't think of anyone in the history of human civilization who has done something more insidious and evil. Apart from the physical crucifixion, the offense is the darkest act in the history of Christendom.

In the world of Christ's Mystical Body, he has foisted Christ's Body upon the cross and driven the nails into his hands and feet.

What a dirty rat.

I don't know much about the history of Sodom but I am curious to know how long it took before God took action. It's going to get ugly now.

I hate to say it, but I did rationalize Kennedy's bold act of rebellion aimed at God as the fruit of the tree of Pope Francis.

You know what I loved best?

The USCCB's statement.

For over 50 years they have worked towards the goal of of yesterday's ruling. Hiring and ordaining androgynous heretics to contradict the truths of the Catholic Church, they are brazenly planning another synod to impose moral chaos on human sexuality and the Sacraments. Their statement reminded me of that scene in Casablanca when Captain Renault raided Rick's saloon and pretended to be shocked to find gambling.

“I ask all in positions of power and authority to respect the God-given freedom to seek, live by, and bear witness to the truth.”

How about you start by purging every heretic from every classroom and every parish and every apostolate?

How about plucking every last one of them out of every university?

How about you stop ordaining heretics?

How about defrocking the ones we have? God knows there is a library of complaints in every chancery.

Talk is cheap. They know full well the consequences of ordaining and hiring heretics that contradict Church teaching on their behalf. And yet, we see from the circus of the Romans they are going to keep on doing it, bolder than ever.

At the end of the day, Archbishop Kurtz's message affirms the Scriptural counsel of keeping our hand on the plow in every circumstance.

I leave you with Justics Scalia's words of wisdom:

The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie."

CDF reportedly affirms Medjugorje 'seers' are full of baloney.

Great news on the alleged CDF findings on Medjugorje.

They are reportedly confirming the seers are frauds. The findings are not insignificant. The faithful are banned from participating in the fraudulent simulation of the Blessed Mother's appearance and the seers are banned from reporting or publishing the "messages".

This is huge. The 'seers' will be forced over the barrel of disobedience.

The reported basis for this finding is crackpot theology in some of the messages which makes it impossible to be from the Blessed Mother, the money-making schemes they have going and the disobedience to the local bishop.

The CDF is reportedly suggesting pilgrimages not be banned because people can go there to pray in Church. Cardinal Meuller is not a stupid man, so I am guessing he knows the ramifications of flying past Fatima and Lourdes where pilgrims can obtain miracles. I am guessing they felt this would mitigate hysteria while waiting out the seers to hang themselves.

I think this is a brilliant plan.

Another day, another insult bordering slander

I just could not get into the weeds of Pope Francis accusation that gun manufacturers are unChristian.

Meanwhile, he is acting gaga for communists, tyrants and murderers of the innocents.

Please.

Maybe he's grooming us for an encyclical about wearing shoes and fur coats as he is shoving heresies down our throats.

The big picture of ambiguity and a show about nothing for the moral leader of the world is not resonating with anyone. He is rambling on like the rest of us instead of assuming his role as a Pope and it is noticeable even to the uncatechized:

The inconsistency is unmistakeable. To bomb a railway, you need bombs. Somebody has to make them, but now he's saying the people who do such work are not practicing Christian beliefs.

This week, the Pope has not sounded analytical. He has sounded exasperated and frustrated by the world condition, and more than a little bitter.

In other words, Pope Francis sounds like most of us. The problem is that he is not like most of us. He's the Pope...

The last thing the Roman Catholic Church needs is a dull, disengaged Pope. The second-to-last thing it needs is a Vatican version of Jerry Springer or Donald Trump.

I am sorry if that sounds irreverent, which it does, but that is because I am getting exasperated and frustrated, too, and a little nervous as well. An outspoken, spirited Pope who takes an up-front leadership role has tremendous potential for good, not just to the church but the world as well.

That ancient principle - when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing nobody. Christ gave it even more clarity. You are neither here nor there and I will spit you out of my mouth.

Heretic Kasper Gets Second Chance to Lead Catholics Into Temptation at Pope Francis Synod

This is not really a surprise. Why would they get this close to the opportunity of destruction and execute it at their age?

I thought you would enjoy this doozy of a story.

First of all, have you noticed they are trying to portray the mission of the Church from conversion to clapping you into the arms of the devil?

The Church’s role, it says, is to accompany families

.

If that isn't nutty enough, wait until you get a load of this:

as Christ did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

This is the road Peter used to run away from Nero like a chicken and he came upon Christ who was heading into Rome. Peter asked Christ where He was going and Christ said he was heading into Rome to be crucified again. Peter realized what he was doing and returned to Rome to be crucified.

They are trying to twist the story of Christ into some kind of cheap companion.

How about doing your job and accompanying our children to the Catechism and Sanctifying Grace?

My thoughts on Laudato Si

I have about as much zeal to read it as I could be lured to the sound of Nero's fiddle as Rome is burning to the ground.

Our friend Fr. Z tried to find something positive to say. But I couldn't agree more with Oakes Spalding who said he could find 10 things in Mein Kampf* or Stalin's memoirs that he liked. 

But the person who nailed it for me is Fr. George Rutler. Below is his commentary in its entirety but the last paragraph says everything there is to say about this encyclical and this papacy.

As vicars of that Logos, popes speak infallibly only on faith and morals. They also have the prophetic duty to correct anyone who,

for the propagation of their particular interests, imputes virtual infallibility to papal commentary on physical science while ignoring genuinely infallible teaching on contraception, abortion and marriage and the mysteries of the Lord of the Universe.

I wish I could say he is ignoring his duty to teach infallible teaching on contraception, abortion, marriage and the mysteries of Our Lord but the situation is more serious as he seems to be going out of his way to throw heresies and heretics at 2000 years of teaching the tools for salvation. I don't have a lot of stamina to delve into his personal theories about the threats to dirt and leaves.

He is using heretics to lure tens of thousands into clapping fornication. The sound of Nero's fiddle is deafening to me in Laudato Si.

Fr. Rutler's weekly is below. A Hail Mary on Father's Day to this great priest and physician of the soul.

A museum curator showed me a contemporary copy of the papal bull Inter Caetera by which Pope Alexander VI divided the world between Spain and Portugal with a meridian. While not without effect, it was generally ignored. John Henry Newman’s letter to the Duke of Norfolk lists popes who were mistaken in certain policies: St. Victor, Liberius, Gregory XIII, Paul IV, Sixtus V, and St. Peter himself when St. Paul “withstood” him.

Pope Urban VIII and his advisers, in the misunderstood Galileo case, inadequately distinguished the duties of prophecy and politics, and of theological and physical science. St. John Paul II said that “this led them unduly to transpose into the realm of the doctrine of the faith, a question which in fact pertained to scientific investigation.” Father Stanley Jaki, a physicist, cautioned me against using the “Big Bang” as theological evidence for creation. On a loftier level, the physicist Father Georges Lemaître likewise restrained Pope Pius XII from conflating the parallel accounts of the universe.

Father Lemaître pioneered the “First Atomic Moment”—contradicting the prevailing thesis of a cosmological constant, or “static infinite” universe. Sir Fred Hoyle mocked it as the “Big Bang” but the term now has lost its condescension. Lemaître told the pope: “As far as I can see, such a theory remains entirely outside any metaphysical or religious question . . . It is consonant with Isaiah speaking of the hidden God, hidden even in the beginning of the universe.” It was like the counsel of Cardinal Baronius: the Scriptures teach us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.

Pope Francis’ encyclical on the ecology of the earth is adventurously laden with promise and peril. It can raise consciousness of humans as stewards of creation. To prevent the disdain of more informed scientists generations from now, however, papal teaching must be safeguarded from attempts to exploit it as an endorsement of one scientific theory over another concerning anthropogenic causes of climate change. It is not incumbent upon a Catholic to believe, like Rex Mottram in Brideshead Revisited, that a pope can predict the weather. As a layman in these matters, all I know about climate change is that I have to pay for heating a very big church with an unpredictable apparatus. This is God’s house, but he sends me the utility bills.

The first pope, from his fishing days, had enough hydrometeorology to know that he could not walk on water. Then the eternal Logos told him to do it, and he did, until he mixed up the sciences of heaven and earth and began to sink. As vicars of that Logos, popes speak infallibly only on faith and morals. They also have the prophetic duty to correct anyone who, for the propagation of their particular interests, imputes virtual infallibility to papal commentary on physical science while ignoring genuinely infallible teaching on contraception, abortion and marriage and the mysteries of the Lord of the Universe.

Further reflection on the resignation of Archbishop Nienstedt

A reader sent me a copy of the indictment filed against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis about a week ago. I took a few days and read it.

A great deal of the misfeasance and malfeasance of enabling pedophiles was done by Bishop Harry Flynn. I found that interesting because I have yet to hear his name mentioned by the enemies of the Catholic Catechism. It further confirmed to me that so long as one encourages sleeping around, nobody will hold them accountable for ordaining and enabling pedophiles.

That being said, the conduct of many others is outrageous.

This case is a magnificent example of farcical dog and pony show of VIRTUS. How they were able to spin the focus and appoint themselves as protectors of children is positively ludicrous. I encourage you to read the indictment.

It must be kept in mind that this is the DA's case without the opportunity to present a defense, but the facts don't leave a lot of room to defend Archbishop Nienstedt's appointment and promotion of a priest with plenty of evidence in his personnel folder that convict him of being a reckless endangerment to children.

What I found surprising was the cavalier attitude of Chancery administrators and bishops to the sexual antics and criminal conduct of priests, which they caricatured as risk-taking. It explains the reasons why numerous priests live with their male lovers for decades without any actions taken by their supervisors. It explains the decades of patronizing phone calls and letters to whistleblowers. To them, the sexual debauchery of the men they ordain is nothing more than having an employee on their hands who is chasing cheap thrills.

A serious problem continues to exist in the hierarchy of our Church. The absolute unwillingness to acknowledge the real problem is exasperating.

There are no stinkin pinkies here. Move along.

Pope Francis blasted Catholics labeling his rhetoric about money 'communism'. They are only showing concern for the poor - that's all. It's unfair to say people who care about the poor are communists.

I guess it's never occurred to him that people calling what he's doing communism actually care about and for the poor too--some of them even poor themselves.

Sometimes I get the feeling he thinks before he showed up, nobody cared for the poor.

He must know it isn't advocacy for the poor that convicts him of socialism, its the specific strategies he suggests. It was his constant shilling for the virtues of dysfunction that leaves one penniless and his incitement of contempt for people who study in school and go to work. The class warfare. His going gaga for Cuban communist dictators and tyrants did not help his reputation. It is his abandonment of moral theology and the distribution of Sanctifying Grace - turning the church into a social service agency.

Christ blasted Judas when he tried to turn our mission into the proprietorship of the poor and warned him that first and foremost is the mission of salvation which we have all yet to see in this papacy.

Dear Children Attending Catholic School...

Have you read the letter written by a group calling themselves "Concerned Parents"?

Are these the same parents


Dear children,

When we were growing up in Catholic school, children who wanted to put their hands down the pants of the kid sitting next to them were bullied into shame and silence. Not having a sex partner led to sitting at home all alone feeling despair and smoldering in anger. Now, Catholics schools are filled to the rafters with families proudly celebrating sleeping around and in vitro fertilization and in no way do your teachers or priests or pope tell you that these circumstances have obstructed you from Heaven--a new and blessed change!! Now, a bishop is coming along to tell you misuse of human sexuality is evil!! Do not listen to him. Listen to the teachers who are boldly explaining that mercy and love is when you are taught not to listen to Church teaching!

You have to be 50 cents short of a dollar to lure your children into this tripe.

Given the shibboleth coming from Rome, this is no time for sloth.

I am really taking a shine to Bishop Schneider!

In another peculiar development coming from Rome, the other day I read about a 'tribunal for bishops in sex abuse cases' and thought to myself, Gee, I hope they don't use this kangaroo court to remove bishops who are opposed to the Roman Mapplethorpe they are building. I mean, they wouldn't sink that low, would they?

I didn't much like the feeling I had in the pit of my stomach, but I chalked it up to the many years of experiences I had with Fr. Bill Scanlon (RIP) who had a cocktail napkin placed in his personnel file after he made noise about suspicions about a pedophile ring and various characters at Catholic Charities. The napkin said 'fools around with boys'. They used that napkin to torment the guy his entire vocation. It took a terrible toll on his health and destroyed his vocation. We were robbed and the Church was robbed. After his premature death, to those us who loved him and knew of his innocence, the antics rose to the level of
manslaughter. Consequently, when it comes to assessing what the lavender mafia is capable of doing and getting away with, I plead guilty to being 50 shades of jaded. But, I am very aware of my bias and will often dismiss my suspicions.

I must say however that when I read about Archbishop Neinstedt's resignation, the first thing I said was "Oh bleep, here we go!"

I immediately did some poking around to see if it was my imagination that only faithful bishops are being accused of 'mishandling' the ephebophiles the lavender mafia ordained.

I found this on Rorate:

As one conservative bishop after another is speedily removed over allegations of mishandling accusations of immorality and / or sexual abuse against the clergy subject to them, we await the day when liberal bishops and cardinals who are guilty of far greater offenses will experience the same treatment.

So it is more than my post-traumatic biases from the retaliation of scribbling on a napkin at some drunken party and slipping into a personnel file when a priest was on their trail.

Let us face it: The evidence to exonerate the Holy Father of the charge of letting the lavender mafia take over the Holy See is virtually non-existent.

A kangaroo court is in place and lo and behold, it is in pursuit of faithful bishops.

Given what we know about what kind of bishops ordain men sexually attracted to teenagers and then enable them, doesn't this strike you as inconsistent with abolishing the practices that lure teenagers into the hands of sexual predators?

Given what we know about the cause and effect, what are the odds it's a coincidence all the bishops they are accusing do not fit the profile of the real enablers?

Stinks to the high heavens.

This ought to liven things up.

Decision on Medjugorje a few months away.

Matt Abbot has a great round up.

He quotes a Vatican source:

In recent weeks, a source informed me that the Vatican commission has concluded that the reported apparitions are not supernatural in origin, "but because of the publicity surrounding [them] and the potential chaos that could result from the announcement, the authorities in Rome are sitting on it for now."

I also have a source who confirms the announcement will be the shenanigans and charades are not supernatural. Any discussion on facebook about the matter substantiates their fears of hysteria.

I just can't get over the number of people thinking the announcement is going to be about making it a National Shrine.

Forget about the priest who impregnanted a nun and the houligans of the 'seers'--Are they not unable to process the hammer swinging from the CDF

Don't they have a relationship with the Blessed Mother? Do they think she would sound like a broken record?

"Little children"

"I am your mother"

"You are my children"

"Pray"

"Thank you for having responded to my call".

Christ left us a Church that provides us a daily message from the Gospel.

It's half past time for the Holy See to crush the head of this serpent.

If you are a pagan and don't pray, send me your gyrations.

"Pray for me, and if some of you can't pray because you are not believers, send me good vibrations,"

Whatever floats your boat and causes your gyrations, spread it around to others.

If you don't pray, you've got yourself some vibrations all right. Why he would want them is a mystery.

Straining the Gnat

Parents should not let children use computers in their bedrooms, the pope has said, while warning of the dangers of internet ‘filth’.

This is very good advice.

But it is much more important for a Pope not to let apostates in our parishes and classrooms, wouldn't you say?

Patheos hosts symposium on 'why I am not leaving the Catholic Church'

What's the heck is going on here?

How is the caricature that the Church is an indentured servant who is falling down on the job, helpful?

Are they in love with God or does their relationship depend on the presents He brings like Santa Claus?

Is that how all the other relationships in their life work?

When their children come home with bad report cards, would they hold symposiums on Why they are NOT leaving their children?

God only knows.
I mean that quite literally. God only knows.
I have fallen away from practice of my Catholic faith before. ..I have even struggled with temptations to apostatize. I don’t intend to give you details of that, since I consider the matter personal, but I share the fact of those temptations because they exist and they need to be acknowledged as existing. No good comes from refusing to admit one’s own limitations.

Every one of us goes through moments when our relationship with God is tested. Sickness, shouldering more than our share of suffering, death and many other things, including the reckless behavior of priests or bishops--these things can and will cause a terrible storm. But for the life of me, I just don't get living in a relationship with God - of all people - with one foot out the door.

Like every other relationship, if you're feeling distance - that's the sign it's time to step up the labor involved in bringing yourself closer.

Primary relationships work best when they are paid attention to every day of your life. A tiny drift is effortless to rein it back in. But if a boat drifts way, way out-it becomes a lot of work that few people desire to do. Like an old car that needs a lot of work, trading it in is an enormous temptation.

The stuff that you trade in Sanctifying Grace for is always destructive. Always.

We're talking about the Body and Blood of Christ. Nobody with an aspostolate should portray Its value in our lives like that of a motor vehicle. Let's kick it up a few notches.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Pope Francis did not approve of Cardinal Kasper's plan. No, no.

He simply told Kasper to present it and afterwards publicly stated he was satisfied with what was said.

But the Pope did not approve it. Heavens no. Why that would be preposterous.

Sir, there isn't a Catholic in Christendom who is in a state of grace who doesn't recognized this as deception.

Did Cardinal O'Malley give Cardinal Pell the Stinkeye?

Beef up the prayers for Cardinal Pell. The rats are gnawing away at his vocation.

Did Bishop Chaput throw out orthodox music director?

This story surprised me.

His crime? Attempting to return the Cathedral to its proper place as the leading church in the Archdiocese, both musically and liturgically, after it had fallen on tragically hard times prior to his coming to Philadelphia when Justin Cardinal Rigali was its archbishop. Romeri may not have been able to challenge the supreme standard established by Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral in London, England, but he struggled manfully and successfully to raise that standard well beyond that which he had inherited.

Don't tell me Archbishop Chaput likes sappy protestant music?

Bear Wrongs Patiently

From Monsignor Pope.

Magnificent.

Fr. McCloskey's Intro to Lord of the World

Every once in a while you come across something that takes you deep into the spiritual world - the invisible world - and confirms something we see but nobody really wants to say out loud. Fr. Rutler, Bishop Fulton Sheen, St. John Paul II's writings have always struck a chord for me.

I came across this into of Lord of the World from Fr. McCloskey that fits the genre. It's a brief but well-done description of Church teaching on the antichrist and commentary that gives some perspective.

Nothing new, just a refresher on things I hadn't read in a while which for me really hit below the belt on the papacy of Pope Francis. I'm not implying Fr. McCloskey intended to convey anything about Pope Francis, but that the Catechism and Church teaching was a reality check.

I give the devil a lot of due. It's possible to be so powerful as to twist every word and deed of Pope Francis. I'd have a much easier time swallowing it, if it weren't for the things I see Pope Francis doing with my very own eyes.

When deception and confusion is about and I am trying to get to the bottom of it, sometimes the answers come down to one question where the person is trapped.

It is this way for me with the Holy Father. With all the hoopla around the papacy of what he didn't mean to say and do, there is just no getting around the author of appointing Kasper and Marx and helping them spread their errors.

I just can't help reading the description of Church teaching about the antichrist and pinning it like a rose to the trajectory of Pope Francis' 'pastoral policies' that contradict the Magisterium.

Nobody want's to pin such a sinister deception on such a loving, affectionate man. I hope the guy is just a tool. There is no question that he is being used as a tool.