Le Fleur de Lys too

300,000 Ninjas Stealthily March Past Reporters During the 39th Annual March for Life

2012-01-25T21:15:00.006-05:00

A stealth march.

300,000 Ninjas Stealthily March Past Reporters During the 39th Annual March for Life

...However mere "thousands" were spotted - and deemed unimportant

One would think that even 10,000 people marching on our nation's capitol any weekend during the summer would be picked up by the Major Media. The newshounds seem to love a good march whenever it comes up. The Occupy Wall Street protesters, for example, started with a mere 1,000 marchers before being picked up by the news, who followed the movement for months. The highest estimates place the total number of protestors around 30,000 and they received worldwide coverage.

This past Monday, in nearly freezing temperatures and rain, an estimated 300,000-400,000 protestors marched through the streets of Washington D.C. up to the Capitol steps - and went largely unnoticed. Though the March for Life has occured annually for 39 years and consistently had numbers over 250,000 every year since 2003, The New York Times never even mentioned it. No story, no pictures - it didn't happen if you're a Times reader. In fact, it hasn't even had a mention in 5 years.

Those news sources that did actually run a story, had headlines such as, "Thousands March to Protest Roe" and give the opposition the final word:

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement that politicians supporting the March for Life were ignoring more pressing issues.

"Anti-choice politicians and their allies promised to focus on creating jobs, yet they are attacking a woman's right to choose at near-record levels," Keenan said.

"Near-record levels" is quite true, though you wouldn't know it from the way the Major Media tells the story.

So easy to miss, in fact, that CBS "didn't get a single photograph of pro-life protestors".

If you'd like to see a rather entertaining viewpoint that seemed to be largely missed, then

Please enjoy this 4-minute video that highlights a few actual protesters:

C/O James Battle

Shouldn't be suprised, these same reporters missed everything during the Clinton administration, missed the fact that we haven't had a budget in 1000 days, the connection between the administration and "Fast and Furious. The "mainstream media" are getting to be more and more a bog.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Eventually they won't be able to ignore the Pro-life movement.

Requiem pour Notre Bon Roy Louis XVI

2012-01-25T16:40:00.005-05:00

Dieu Savez le Roy!

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

St Louis IX, King on Keeping a Vow

2012-01-25T16:25:00.002-05:00

A vow is a promise* to God. King Louis IX knew this and demonstrated this to his subjects in a way they did not expect...

Jean Sieur de Joinville relates:

"...The Queen Mother and the Bishop of Paris (Guillaume d'Auvergne), as well as many of the nobles, tried hard to persuade Louis to give up his proposed Crusade and apply to the Pope for a dispensation. The Bishop was most insistent, urging that when Louis took the Cross he was still weak from sickness and not in possession of his faculties; he urged as political dangers the power of Emperor Frederick and the "deceitful coin " of the King of England, the treachery of the Poitevins, the heresies of the Albigenses: "Germany is disturbed; Italy is not at rest; in front the road to the Holy Land is blocked; behind is the inexorable hate of Frederick and the Pope; implacable feuds: to all this you leave us."

Said the Queen Mother: " Remember, my son, that God loves obedient children. Stay till thou canst go with a larger army; God is no caviller(1); thy excuse is that thy senses were dazed and thy wits wandering."

To this the King replied, " You say that weakness of wit was the cause of my taking the Cross; lo, then, since you desire it, here I lay down the Cross, I resign it to you," and putting his hand to his shoulder he tore off the badge and presented it to the Archbishop. At this there was a buzz of applause and congratulation from all who sat round. Then said the King, and his voice and face changed, " My friends, you agree now, do you not, that I am in full possession of my senses? that now at any rate I am sane in mind and body? Give me back then my Cross. For He who knows all things knows that no food shall pass my lips until my Cross is restored to me."

And when they that stood round heard this, they declared: " This was the finger of God." ...

Dieu le Roy,
Brantigny

*As opposed to a oath which ask God to witness. Breaking both is a serious offense to God. Example, marriage "vows" are not made to each other but to God, promising to Love, Cherish, and honour each other. This is why it is so important to make these vows in the presence of a Priest, or Deacon.

An example of a bad vow is Scarlett O'hara vowing to never be hungry again. One cannot state a vow for something over which one does not have control.

(1) Caviller, A quibler, someone who raises annoying petty objections.

Indiana school voucher law upheld by county judge

2012-01-25T08:51:00.001-05:00

Criterion staff report

A Marion County Superior Court judge has ruled that the Indiana school voucher program is constitutional—a ruling that means the nearly 4,000 students who benefit from the state’s school choice program can continue to attend non-public schools with state funds.

In his ruling on Jan. 13, Judge Michael Keele upheld the new program that went into effect for the 2011-12 school year. The judge stated that the voucher system is designed to benefit students and their families—not private, religious schools— because the money is given directly to the students’ families.

“This Court therefore concludes that the degree of religiosity of the participating schools is immaterial to the case at hand,” Keele noted. He added that the Choice Scholarship Program “bestows benefits onto scholarship recipients who may then choose to use the funding for education at a public, secular private or religious school.”

Keele made his ruling in response to a lawsuit that was filed in July by opponents of the program. Opponents, which included teachers and school officials of public schools, argued that the voucher program was unconstitutional because it improperly benefited private, religious schools.

Opponents of the voucher program said they plan to appeal Judge Keele’s decision. Advocates of the program applauded his ruling.

“This is a huge victory,” noted John Elcesser, executive director of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association, in a Jan. 13 statement. “It means that the nearly 4,000 low-and-middle-income children in Indiana who are participating in the program can continue to attend a high quality, non-public school using public funds.”

The judge’s ruling was also praised by Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, whose office represented the state in the case.

In a news release on Jan. 13, Zoeller said the voucher program “followed the Indiana Constitution in creating broader educational options for Hoosier children since the scholarship funding is directed to students’ families, not to private schools.” †

We can winn the fight against liberal government. This article gives me hope.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Britain OKs television ads for abortion clinics

2012-01-23T16:30:00.002-05:00

Now that we have dating services for Adulterers, Viagra, Low T, Trojan condoms and KY jelly, it would be long before this is repeated in the United States. These are all flagrant attacks on the Faith.

LONDON -- Britain's broadcast advertising body has given the go-ahead for private abortion clinics to advertise their services on television.

The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice says there is no justification for barring private clinics that offer post-pregnancy services, including abortions, from advertising on television.

Nonprofit post-pregnancy services are already allowed to advertise on television, and their for-profit counterparts are allowed to advertise in all other media.

Conservative lawmaker Nadine Dories said the move would desensitize people to the seriousness of getting a termination.

But committee spokesman Matt Wilson said the new rules would not allow companies to say: "Come to us to get an abortion." He said clinics would have to promote an "array of services."

Via Foxnews.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

30 Pieces of Silver Award

2012-01-23T15:34:00.002-05:00

"Katholics", who by their evident disregard of Catholic teaching, and overt acts contrary to the Faith are awarded the "30 Pieces of Silver Award" for conduct befitting a certain Judas Iscariot...

January's awardee...Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services for her support of Abortion contradictory to the faith.

Repent and sin no more.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Do you have a Katholic you wish to nominate? Nationality does not matter. Click here for email address...

White House demands faith groups fund abortion drugs

2012-01-23T15:00:00.003-05:00

Readers it continues, this attack against the faith is in full earnest. It has been a disappointment to me that Catholics are so confused the they continue to support this administration.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

War of the Vendee, new scene.

2012-01-23T13:06:00.001-05:00

The trailer for the new film, "The War of the Vendee", from Navis Pictures is here...
For more information, please visit http://www.navispictures.com/">

Jhesu-Marie!
Brantigny

One of the world's smallest surviving babies is headed home

2012-01-20T14:22:00.003-05:00

God is awesome.

Melinda Star Guido weighed only 9 ½ ounces at birth— less than a can of soda. After spending her early months in the neonatal intensive care unit, a team of doctors and nurses will gather Friday to see her off.

Melinda has been growing steadily and gaining weight since she was born premature at 24 weeks in August at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. She is the world's third smallest baby and the second smallest in the U.S.

Now weighing 4½ pounds, doctors said Melinda has made enough progress to be discharged. It's too early to know how she will fare developmentally and physically, but doctors planned to monitor her for the next six years.

Most babies this small don't survive even with advanced medical care. About 7,500 babies are born each year in the United States weighing less than 1 pound, and about 10 percent survive.

A study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2010 found that many survivors have ongoing health and learning concerns. Most also remain short and underweight for their age.

There are some rare success stories. The smallest surviving baby born weighing 9.2 ounces is now a healthy 7-year-old and another who weighed 9.9 ounces at birth is an honors college student studying psychology, according to doctors at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois where the girls were born.

Soon after birth, Melinda was treated for an eye disorder that's common in premature babies and underwent surgery to close an artery. Melinda's mother, 22-year-old Haydee Ibarra, held her for the first time after the operation in November.

Despite the hurdles, doctors said Melinda was fortunate she did not suffer serious complications such as bleeding in the brain...

Thank You God for the life of this child and all babies.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

February 19, 1915

2012-01-19T13:31:00.005-05:00

The Battle of Galipoli begins with a bombardment of the combined French and British fleet.

The French pre-dreadnaught Battleship Bouvet sunk at the Dardanelles after striking a mine. The lower photos show the ship sinking. "In two or three minutes she sank in deep water just north of Erenkeui, carrying nearly the whole of her crew to the bottom. The cries of the men dragged down with her, or struggling in the water as they were swept downstream, sounded over the strait."

By the spring of 1915, combat on the Western Front had sunk into stalemate. Enemy troops stared at each other from a line of opposing trenches that stretched from the English Channel to the Swiss border. Neither opponent could outflank its enemy resulting in costly and unproductive direct attacks on well-fortified defenses. The war of movement that both sides had predicted at the beginning of the conflict had devolved into deadly stagnation.

Allied leaders, including Winston Churchill and Lord Kitchener, scoured their maps to find a way around the impasse. The Dardenelles Strait leading from the Mediterranean to Istanbul caught their eye. A successful attack in this area could open a sea lane to the Russians through the Black Sea, provide a base for attacking the Central Powers through what Churchill described as the "soft underbelly of Europe", and divert enemy attention from the Western Front.

The Campaign was a fiasco, poorly planned and badly executed. It began in February 1915 with an unsuccessful naval attempt to force a passage up the Dardenelles. The flotilla retreated after sustaining heavy damage from Turkish guns lining both shores and from mines strewn across the channel.

In April, a landing on the Gallipoli Penninsula attempted to secure the shores and silence the Turkish guns. Trouble brewed from the beginning. Amphibious operations were a new and unperfected form of warfare leading to poor communications, troop deployment and supply. The Turks entrenched themselves on the high ground pouring artillery and machine gun fire down upon the hapless Australian, New Zealand, Irish, French and English troops below. The battleground soon resembled that of the Western Front - both sides peering at each other from fortified trenches, forced to spill their precious blood in futile frontal attacks on well defended positions. The stalemate continued through the fall of 1915 until British forces withdrew at the end of the year.

Casualties were high - approximately 252,000 or 52% for the British/French while the Ottoman Turks suffered about 300,000 casualties or a rate of 60%. The failed campaign gained little and badly tarnished both Churchill's and Kitchener's reputations.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps "Anzacs" usually get the major share of historical commentary however England, France as well as Anzacs all participated as well as did the navies of Britain and France.

The Catholic Church, "We Were Tebowing...

2012-01-19T13:02:00.001-05:00

...before it was cool."

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

From Vivificat.

Norvège : islam, viol et "putes"

2012-01-18T14:47:00.001-05:00

The religion of peace..

St Denis! Montjoie!

Jhesu+Marie
Brantigny

Was this child denied treatment becuase of her mental retardation?

2012-01-18T11:41:00.002-05:00

Imagine going to your childs doctor and being told we won't treat your child because she is mentally retarded. Which is saying "treatment for your child will be a waste of time. The quality of life will for her not be improved."

A Philadelphia hospital is under the gun after reportedly telling one mom her daughter would not be able to receive a kidney transplant because the 3-year-old has an intellectual disability. ABC News reports that Amelia "Mia" Rivera has Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a complex genetic disorder that causes mental and physical impairments, and her family said that the 3-year-old will die if she does not get a kidney in the next six months to a year.

Chrissy Rivera wrote about her daughter’s experience at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in a blog post last week. Since then, more than 18,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the hospital to reverse their position.

Here is a snippet from Chrissy's blog:

After the labs, Amelia falls asleep in her stroller and we are called back to a large room with a screen and about sixteen chairs. Joe and I get comfortable and leave a space between us to fit the stroller. After about five minutes, a doctor and a social worker enter the room. They sit across from us but also leave a space between the two of them.

The doctor begins to talk and I listen intently on what he is saying. He has a Peruvian accent and is small, with brown hair, a mustache and is about sixty five years old. He gets about four sentences out ( I think it is an introduction) and places two sheets of paper on the table. I can’t take my eyes off the paper. I am afraid to look over at Joe because I suddenly know where the conversation is headed. In the middle of both papers, he highlighted in pink two phrases. Paper number one has the words, “Mentally Retarded” in cotton candy pink right under Hepatitis C. Paper number two has the phrase, “Brain Damage” in the same pink right under HIV. I remind myself to focus and look back at the doctor. I am still smiling.

He says about three more sentences when something sparks in my brain. First it is hazy, foggy, like I am swimming under water. I actually shake my head a little to clear it. And then my brain focuses on what he just said.

I put my hand up. “Stop talking for a minute. Did you just say that Amelia shouldn’t have the transplant done because she is mentally retarded. I am confused. Did you really just say that?”

The tears. Oh, the damn tears. Where did they come from? Niagara Falls. All at once. There was no warning. I couldn’t stop them. There were no tissues in conference room so I use my sleeve and my hands and I keep wiping telling myself to stop it.

I point to the paper and he lets me rant a minute. I can’t stop pointing to the paper. “This phrase. This word. This is why she can’t have the transplant done.”

“Yes.”

All children are blessed in the sight of God.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Priest Holes

2012-01-18T11:34:00.002-05:00

Christine blogs today on Priest holes. Sometimes I wonder if this is going to return. Thanks to Christine and to Elena-Maria for pointing this out.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Politically Correct Hymns!

2012-01-17T11:12:00.004-05:00

Question> "What is the difference between a terrorist and a choir director?"

Answer> "You can't negotiate with a choir director."

...Well, I'm at Mass yesterday and we're singing "Holy Holy Holy", when at the 3rd verse I got tripped up. I started singing "Though the eye of sinful man...". Oh, no no no, Mr. Patriarch, that was the wrong verse - you must now go through re-training. Please visit your parish representative of Offensive Hymn Committee to Rehab All Pronouns (also known by it's acronym of Oh Crap).

After that, my mind drifted a bit. Why don't we just re-write everything: More...

I dislike intently Ad Libs which are not part of the Liturgy. Especially the Gloria, the Sanctus, Ecce Angnus Dei and the Angnus Dei...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

The Knights Templar are recognized by the Pope

2012-01-11T08:29:00.008-05:00

On this day in 1128, Pope Honorius II grants a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar, declaring it to be an army of God.

Led by the Frenchman Hughes de Payens, the Knights Templar organization was founded in 1118. Its self-imposed mission was to protect Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land during the Crusades, the series of military expeditions aimed at defeating Muslims in Palestine. The Templars took their name from the location of their headquarters, at Jerusalem's Temple Mount. For a while, the Templars had only nine members, mostly due to their rigid rules. In addition to having noble birth, the knights were required to take strict vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. In 1127, new promotional efforts convinced many more noblemen to join the order, gradually increasing its size and influence.

A humble beginning. Immediately after the deliverance of Jerusalem, the Crusaders, considering their vow fulfilled, returned in a body to their homes. The defense of this precarious conquest, surrounded as it was by Mohammedan neighbours, remained. In 1118, during the reign of Baldwin II, Hugues de Payens, a knight of Champagne, and eight companions bound themselves by a perpetual vow, taken in the presence of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to defend the Christian kingdom. Baldwin accepted their services and assigned them a portion of his palace, adjoining the temple of the city; hence their title "pauvres chevaliers du temple" (Poor Knights of the Temple). Poor indeed they were, being reduced to living on alms, and, so long as they were only nine, they were hardly prepared to render important services, unless it were as escorts to the pilgrims on their way from Jerusalem to the banks of the Jordan, then frequented as a place of devotion.

The Templars had as yet neither distinctive habit nor rule. Hugues de Payens journeyed to the West to seek the approbation of the Church and to obtain recruits. At the Council of Troyes (1128), at which he assisted and at which St. Bernard was the leading spirit, the Knights Templars adopted the Rule of St. Benedict, as recently reformed by the Cistercians. They accepted not only the three perpetual vows, besides the crusader's vow, but also the austere rules concerning the chapel, the refectory, and the dormitory. They also adopted the white habit of the Cistercians, adding to it a red cross.

Notwithstanding the austerity of the monastic rule, recruits flocked to the new order, which thenceforth comprised four ranks of brethren:

1. The knights, equipped like the heavy cavalry of the Middle Ages;
2. The serjeants, who formed the light cavalry;

and two ranks of non-fighting men:

3. The farmers, entrusted with the administration of temporals;
4. The chaplains, who alone were vested with sacerdotal orders, to minister to the spiritual needs of the order.

The order owed its rapid growth in popularity to the fact that it combined the two great passions of the Middle Ages, religious fervour and martial prowess. Even before the Templars had proved their worth, the ecclesiastical and lay authorities heaped on them favours of every kind, spiritual and temporal. The popes took them under their immediate protection, exempting them from all other jurisdiction, episcopal or secular. Their property was assimilated to the church estates and exempted from all taxation, even from the ecclesiastical tithes, while their churches and cemeteries could not be placed under interdict. This soon brought about conflict with the clergy of the Holy Land, inasmuch as the increase of the landed property of the order led, owing to its exemption from tithes, to the diminution of the revenue of the churches, and the interdicts, at that time used and abused by the episcopate, became to a certain extent inoperative wherever the order had churches and chapels in which Divine worship was regularly held. As early as 1156 the clergy of the Holy Land tried to restrain the exorbitant privileges of the military orders, but in Rome every objection was set aside, the result being a growing antipathy on the part of the secular clergy against these orders. The temporal benefits which the order received from all the sovereigns of Europe were no less important. The Templars had commanderies in every state. In France they formed no less than eleven bailiwicks, subdivided into more than forty-two commanderies; in Palestine it was for the most part with sword in hand that the Templars extended their possessions at the expense of the Mohammedans. Their castles are still famous owing to the remarkable ruins which remain: Safèd, built in 1140; Karak of the desert (1143); and, most importantly of all, Castle Pilgrim, built in 1217 to command a strategic defile on the sea-coast.

In these castles, which were both monasteries and cavalry-barracks, the life of the Templars was full of contrasts. A contemporary describes the Templars as "in turn lions of war and lambs at the hearth; rough knights on the battlefield, pious monks in the chapel; formidable to the enemies of Christ, gentleness itself towards His friends." (Jacques de Vitry). Having renounced all the pleasures of life, they faced death with a proud indifference; they were the first to attack, the last to retreat, always docile to the voice of their leader, the discipline of the monk being added to the discipline of the soldier. As an army they were never very numerous. A contemporary tells us that there were 400 knights in Jerusalem at the zenith of their prosperity; he does not give the number of serjeants, who were more numerous. But it was a picked body of men who, by their noble example, inspirited the remainder of the Christian forces. They were thus the terror of the Mohammedans. Were they defeated, it was upon them that the victor vented his fury, the more so as they were forbidden to offer a ransom. When taken prisoners, they scornfully refused the freedom offered them on condition of apostasy. At the siege of Safed (1264), at which ninety Templars met death, eighty others were taken prisoners, and, refusing to deny Christ, died martyrs to the Faith. This fidelity cost them dear. It has been computed that in less than two centuries almost 20,000 Templars, knights and serjeants, perished in war.

These frequent hecatombs rendered it difficult for the order to increase in numbers and also brought about a decadence of the true crusading spirit. As the order was compelled to make immediate use of the recruits, the article of the original rule in Latin which required a probationary period fell into desuetude. Even excommunicated men, who, as was the case with many crusaders, wished to expiate their sins, were admitted. All that was required of a new member was a blind obedience, as imperative in the soldier as in the monk. He had to declare himself forever "serf et esclave de la maison" (French text of the rule). To prove his sincerity, he was subjected to a secret test concerning the nature of which nothing has ever been discovered, although it gave rise to the most extraordinary accusations. The great wealth of the order may also have contributed to a certain laxity in morals, but the most serious charge against it was its insupportable pride and love of power. At the apogee of its prosperity, it was said to possess 9000 estates. With its accumulated revenues it had amassed great wealth, which was deposited in its temples at Paris and London. Numerous princes and private individuals had banked there their personal property, because of the uprightness and solid credit of such bankers. In Paris the royal treasure was kept in the Temple. Quite independent, except from the distant authority of the pope, and possessing power equal to that of the leading temporal sovereigns, the order soon assumed the right to direct the weak and irresolute government of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a feudal kingdom transmissible through women and exposed to all the disadvantages of minorities, regencies, and domestic discord. However, the Templars were soon opposed by the Order of Hospitallers, which had in its turn become military, and was at first the imitator and later the rival of the Templars. This ill-timed interference of the orders in the government of Jerusalem only multiplied the intestine dessentions, and this at a time when the formidable power of Saladin threatened the very existence of the Latin Kingdom. While the Templars sacrificed themselves with their customary bravery in this final struggle, they were, nevertheless, partly responsible for the downfall of Jerusalem.

To put an end to this baneful rivalry between the military orders, there was a very simple remedy at hand, namely their amalgamation. This was officially proposed by St. Louis at the Council of Lyons (1274). It was proposed anew in 1293 by Pope Nicholas IV, who called a general consultation on this point of the Christian states. This idea is canvassed by all the publicists of that time, who demand either a fusion of the existing orders or the creation of a third order to supplant them. Never in fact had the question of the crusaders been more eagerly taken up than after their failure. As the grandson of St. Louis, Philip the Fair could not remain indifferent to these proposals for a crusade. As the most powerful prince of his time, the direction of the movement belonged to him. To assume this direction, all he demanded was the necessary supplies of men and especially of money. Such is the genesis of his campaign for the suppression of the Templars. It has been attributed wholly to his well-known cupidity. Even on this supposition he needed a pretext, for he could not, without sacrilege, lay hands on possessions that formed part of the ecclesiastical domain. To justify such a course the sanction of the Church was necessary, and this the king could obtain only by maintaining the sacred purpose for which the possessions were destined. Admitting that he was sufficiently powerful to encroach upon the property of the Templars in France, he still needed the concurrence of the Church to secure control of their possessions in the other countries of Christendom. Such was the purpose of the wily negotiations of this self-willed and cunning sovereign, and of his still more treacherous counsellors, with Clement V, a French pope of weak character and easily deceived. The rumour that there had been a prearrangement between the king and the pope has been finally disposed of. A doubtful revelation, which allowed Philip to make the prosecution of the Templars as heretics a question of orthodoxy, afforded him the opportunity which he desired to invoke the action of the Holy See.

Their tragic end

In the trial of the Templars two phases must be distinguished: the royal commission and the papal commission.

The Royal Commission. Philip the Fair made a preliminary inquiry, and, on the strength of so-called revelations of a few unworthy and degraded members, secret orders were sent throughout France to arrest all the Templars on the same day (13 October, 1307), and to submit them to a most rigorous examination. The king did this, it was made to appear, at the request of the ecclesiastical inquisitors, but in reality without their co-operation.

In this inquiry torture, the use of which was authorized by the cruel procedure of the age in the case of crimes committed without witnesses, was pitilessly employed. Owing to the lack of evidence, the accused could be convicted only through their own confession and, to extort this confession, the use of torture was considered necessary and legitimate.

There was one feature in the organization of the order which gave rise to suspicion, namely the secrecy with which the rites of initiation were conducted. The secrecy is explained by the fact that the receptions always took place in a chapter, and the chapters, owing to the delicate and grave questions discussed, were, and necessarily had to be, held in secret. An indiscretion in the matter of secrecy entailed exclusion from the order. The secrecy of these initiations, however, had two grave disadvantages.

As these receptions could take place wherever there was a commandery, they were carried on without publicity and were free from all surveillance or control from the higher authorities, the tests being entrusted to the discretion of subalterns who were often rough and uncultivated. Under such conditions, it is not to be wondered at that abuses crept in. One need only recall what took place almost daily at the time in the brotherhoods of artisans, the initiation of a new member being too often made the occasion for a parody more or less sacrilegious of baptism or of the Mass.

The second disadvantage of this secrecy was, that it gave an opportunity to the enemies of the Templars, and they were numerous, to infer from this mystery every conceivable malicious supposition and base on it the monstrous imputations. The Templars were accused of spitting upon the Cross, of denying Christ, of permitting sodomy, of worshipping an idol, all in the most impenetrable secrecy. Such were the Middle Ages, when prejudice was so vehement that, to destroy an adversary, men did not recoil from inventing the most criminal charges. It will suffice to recall the similar, but even more ridiculous than ignominious accusations brought against Pope Boniface VIII by the same Philip the Fair.

Most of the accused declared themselves guilty of these secret crimes after being subjected to such ferocious torture that many of them succumbed. Some made similar confessions without the use of torture, it is true, but through fear of it; the threat had been sufficient. Such was the case with the grand master himself, Jacques de Molay, who acknowledged later that he had lied to save his life.

Carried on without the authorization of the pope, who had the military orders under his immediate jurisdiction, this investigation was radically corrupt both as to its intent and as to its procedure. Not only did Clement V enter an energetic protest, but he annulled the entire trial and suspended the powers of the bishops and their inquisitors. However, the offense had been admitted and remained the irrevocable basis of the entire subsequent proceedings. Philip the Fair took advantage of the discovery to have bestowed upon himself by the University of Paris the title of Champion and Defender of the Faith, and also to stir up public opinion at the States General of Tours against the heinous crimes of the Templars. Moreover, he succeeded in having the confessions of the accused confirmed in presence of the pope by seventy-two Templars, who had been specially chosen and coached beforehand. In view of this investigation at Poitiers (June, 1308), the pope, until then sceptical, at last became concerned and opened a new commission, the procedure of which he himself directed. He reserved the cause of the order to the papal commission, leaving individuals to be tried by the diocesan commissions to whom he restored their powers.

The second phase of the process was the papal commission, which was not restricted to France, but extended to all the Christian countries of Europe, and even to the Orient. In most of the other countries — Portugal, Spain, Germany, Cyprus — the Templars were found innocent; in Italy, except for a few districts, the decision was the same. But in France the episcopal inquisitions, resuming their activities, took the facts as established at the trial, and confined themselves to reconciling the repentant guilty members, imposing various canonical penances extending even to perpetual imprisonment. Only those who persisted in heresy were to be turned over to the secular arm, but, by a rigid interpretation of this provision, those who had withdrawn their former confessions were considered relapsed heretics; thus fifty-four Templars who had recanted after having confessed were condemned as relapsed and publicly burned on 12 May, 1310. Subsequently all the other Templars, who had been examined at the trial, with very few exceptions declared themselves guilty.

At the same time the papal commission, appointed to examine the cause of the order, had entered upon its duties and gathered together the documents which were to be submitted to the pope, and to the general council called to decide as to the final fate of the order. The culpability of single persons, which was looked upon as established, did not involve the guilt of the order. Although the defense of the order was poorly conducted, it could not be proved that the order as a body professed any heretical doctrine, or that a secret rule, distinct from the official rule, was practised. Consequently, at the General Council of Vienne in Dauphiné on 16 October, 1311, the majority were favourable to the maintenance of the order.

The pope, irresolute and harrassed, finally adopted a middle course: he decreed the dissolution, not the condemnation of the order, and not by penal sentence, but by an Apostolic Decree (Bull of 22 March, 1312). The order having been suppressed, the pope himself was to decide as to the fate of its members and the disposal of its possessions. As to the property, it was turned over to the rival Order of Hospitallers to be applied to its original use, namely the defence of the Holy Places. In Portugal, however, and in Aragon the possessions were vested in two new orders, the Order of Christ in Portugal and the Order of Montesa in Aragon. As to the members, the Templars recognized guiltless were allowed either to join another military order or to return to the secular state. In the latter case, a pension for life, charged to the possessions of the order, was granted them. On the other hand, the Templars who had pleaded guilty before their bishops were to be treated "according to the rigours of justice, tempered by a generous mercy".

The pope reserved to his own judgment the cause of the grand master and his three first dignitaries. They had confessed their guilt; it remained to reconcile them with the Church, after they had testified to their repentance with the customary solemnity. To give this solemnity more publicity, a platform was erected in front of the Notre-Dame for the reading of the sentence. But at the supreme moment the grand master recovered his courage and proclaimed the innocence of the Templars and the falsity of his own alleged confessions. To atone for this deplorable moment of weakness, he declared himself ready to sacrifice his life. He knew the fate that awaited him. Immediately after this unexpected coup-de-théâtre he was arrested as a relapsed heretic with another dignitary who chose to share his fate, and by order of Philip they were burned at the stake before the gates of the palace. This brave death deeply impressed the people, and, as it happened that the pope and the king died shortly afterwards, the legend spread that the grand master in the midst of the flames had summoned them both to appear in the course of the year before the tribunal of God.

Such was the tragic end of the Templars. If we consider that the Order of Hospitallers finally inherited, although not without difficulties, the property of the Templars and received many of its members, we may say that the result of the trial was practically equivalent to the long-proposed amalgamation of the two rival orders. For the Knights (first of Rhodes, afterwards of Malta) took up and carried on elsewhere the work of the Knights of the Temple.

This formidable trial, the greatest ever brought to light whether we consider the large number of accused, the difficulty of discovering the truth from a mass of suspicious and contradictory evidence, or the many jurisdictions in activity simultaneously in all parts of Christendom from Great Britain to Cyprus, is not yet ended. It is still passionately discussed by historians who have divided into two camps, for and against

While the individual knights were not allowed to own property, there was no such restriction on the organization as a whole, and over the years many rich Christians gave gifts of land and other valuables to support the Knights Templar. By the time the Crusades ended unsuccessfully in the early 14th century, the order had grown extremely wealthy, provoking the jealousy of both religious and secular powers. In 1307, King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V combined to take down the Knights Templar, arresting the grand master, Jacques de Molay, on charges of heresy, sacrilege and Satanism. Under torture, Molay and other leading Templars confessed and were eventually burned at the stake. Clement dissolved the Templars in 1312, assigning their property and monetary assets to a rival order, the Knights Hospitalers. In fact, though, Philip and his English counterpart, King Edward II, claimed most of the wealth after banning the organization from their respective countries.

Today there are many claims made about the templars: That many fled France and went to Switzerland and founded the famous Swiss banking system, that they buried large amouts of gold they found in the Holy Land, that they are the forerunners of the Freemasons*. These claims are made more and palatable by movies such as the Di Vinci Code, National Treasure, and by the History Channel's so called investigative programmes. For a nation who lives by sound bites and whose attention span is only two hours these all make sense. The truth however it is probably no more than what is written above.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Find the Primative Rule here:

* The youth organization of Freemasonry is called DeMolay.

For I was hungry...

2012-01-10T12:38:00.005-05:00

For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee? Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee? And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.

There is a problem when in a world as rich in reasources as ours there is starvation.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Le juif Alphons Ratisbonne/Vaincru Par Notre Dame

2012-01-10T11:24:00.004-05:00

Qui ne connaît le récit de l’extraordinaire conversion d’Alphonse Ratisbonne, obtenue par l’intercession des prières de l’archiconfrérie de Notre-Dame des Victoires ? (...)

Issu d’une famille israélite très aisée, de Strasbourg, Alphonse Ratisbonne, encore tout jeune, fut bouleversé par la conversion de son frère Théodore et par son entrée dans les Ordres ; il l’avouera : « Cette conduite me révolta, et je pris en haine son habit et son caractère. » (...)

Alphonse suivit de brillantes études de Droit à Paris où il menait une vie mondaine de jouissance et de fête.

« J’étais juif de nom, voilà tout ; car je ne croyais pas même en Dieu. Je n’ouvris jamais un livre de religion et dans la maison de mon oncle, pas plus que chez mes frères et sœurs, on ne pratiquait la moindre prescription du judaïsme. »

Il était fiancé à une nièce âgée de seize ans mais, avant son mariage, il se rendit en Italie pour un voyage d’agrément. C’était à la fin de l’année 1841. Il faut lire toutes les péripéties et les rencontres ménagées par la Bonne Providence pour conduire le jeune impie aux genoux de Marie. Encore...

Le vrai ecuminism est la conversion...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

The Miraculous Conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne

2012-01-10T10:40:00.008-05:00

In November 1830, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a young novice in the convent of the Sisters of Charity at Rue du Bac, Paris. The novice's name was Catherine Laboure'.

This was not the first time she had seen Our Lady, but it was the most significant. Our Lady appeared holding a globe, which she lifted while gazing prayerfully heavenward (signifying that she is praying for the entire world). Then the globe disappeared, and the vision changed. Our Lady extended both hands, from which rays of light streamed. Around her formed an arch with the words: "O Marie concue sans peche, priez pour nous qui avons recours a vous" -- O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you."

Our Lady asked that a medal be struck showing this vision. On the back of the medal, she asked for the depiction of two hearts (her own and that of Christ), with a cross surmounting the letter M. She promised that God would grant great graces through this medal to Christians who would wear it prayerfully.

With great difficulty, Sister Laboure' convinced her confessor to arrange for the striking of the medal. It was finally approved, struck, and circulated.

Originally known as the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, it quickly became known as the Miraculous Medal, because so many miracles of healing and conversion attended those who wore it. Nonetheless, although the Pope himself possessed a Miraculous Medal, it was initially most popular in France; it did not become firmly established at Rome and worldwide until after the miraculous conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne....

Rue de Bac, Paris, where the Miraculous Medal was first revealed to St. Catherine Laboure

In January 6, 1842. Alphonse, a young Jewish banker, just arrived in Rome. The son of Strasbourg's most important Jewish family, he is a man of the world: wealthy, refined, sophisticated, agnostic (a former atheist)...a friend of the Rothschilds, entirely at ease in the salons of the nobility. At 28, he is engaged to his own niece, Flore Ratisbonne, whom he plans to marry the following August. Right now, he is touring Europe and the East, partly for pleasure and partly for his health -- one last fling before settling down with Flore and assuming a partnership at his uncle's bank.

Alphonse hasn't intended to visit Rome. He is fiercely anti-Catholic: As he himself puts it, the very name of the Jesuits provokes him to fury. He has always harbored this antipathy to Catholicism, but it has intensified exponentially since his elder brother, Theodor, became a convert and subsequently a priest.

Therefore, the very last place in the world Alphonse wants to visit is Rome. But somehow he has ended up here. At Naples, he'd somehow stumbled into the wrong ticket line...and in a fit of pique, even after he realized what was up, he remained there and booked his passage on the steamer to Rome. So here he is, making the best of it, avidly touring Roman ruins and museums in the company of a paid guide.

Suddenly he hears his name called and wheels around. It is his old classmate from Strasbourg, Gustave de Bussieres, a Protestant. (Alphonse doesn't mind Protestant chums; it's just Catholics he objects to. )

The two eagerly rekindle their friendship. Later, when Alphonse calls on Gustave, he encounters the latter's older brother, the Baron Theodor de Bussieres, a convert to Catholicism and a close friend of Alphonse's priest-brother. Alphonse feels instinctive abhorrence toward this zealous Catholic convert, but he knows the baron is an expert on Constantinople (which Alphonse plans to visit) so he rashly agrees to call upon him for travel advice.

This hasty promise proves to be Alphonse blessing in disguise.

Within the next day or two, Alphonse visits the Church of the Aracoeli, where the "chants solennels" stir him deeply; he is so moved he weeps, although he can't put his finger on what it is that has touched him. Directly afterward, though, he visits Rome's notorious Jewish ghetto, where the palpable misery of his people renews his fury against everything Catholic.

From there, he goes to pay his call on the Baron de Bussieres. He did not intend to actually visit however. Rather, he will merely leave his card and depart. But the baron's doorman mistakes Alphonse's intention and bustles him into the drawing room, where the baron, his wife, and his young daughters are en famille.

At first, the baron and Alphonse merely exchange meaningless pleasantries. Then Alphonse happens to mention his visit to the Aracoeli; he recounts the strange emotion he felt, the vague religious awakening....

Suddenly he notices the baron's eager expression, which seems to say: "You will be a Catholic someday!" Repelled by the baron's zeal, Alphonse describes his visit to the Jewish ghetto. He launches into a vicious attack on the Catholic Church, which he holds responsible for all the misery endured by Jews since the time of Christ.

Unfazed, the baron responds by extolling the glories of Catholicism. Alphonse replies sarcastically, openly ridiculing Catholic "superstition." Only the presence of Mme. de Bussieres and the children keeps him from outright blasphemy.

Finally, the baron makes an extraordinary proposition.

"Since you abhor superstition and espouse such liberal views," he asks, "would you consider submitting to a simple test?"

"What test?"

"To wear something I'm going to give you. It's a medal of the Holy Virgin. It appears quite ridiculous to you, no doubt. But as for me, I attach great importance to it." And he shows Alphonse the Miraculous Medal attached to a cord.

Alphonse is dumbstruck. He can scarcely believe the baron's impertinence. But as a man of the world, he doesn't want to seem to be making too much of a trifle. So he consents, breezily quoting a line from The Tales of Hoffman: "If it does me no good, at least it will do me no harm."

The baron's little daughter puts the medal around Alphonse's neck. And Alphonse breaks into laughter: "Ah! Ah! Me voila catholique, apostolique et romain!"

But the baron presses further. Merely to wear the Medal isn't enough, he says. Alphonse must also agree to pray a simple prayer, the Memorare of St. Bernard.

This is too much. "Laissons ces sottises!" exclaims Alphonse -- "Let's stop this foolishness!" For the mention of St. Bernard has reminded him of his brother, Abbe' Theodor Ratisbonne, author of a biography of the Cistercian saint. Anything that reminds Alphonse of his traitor-brother arouses his rage.

However, the baron persists. If Alphonse refuses to pray this short prayer, he insists, he'll thereby render the whole "test" null and void. So, Alphonse consents. At the Baron's behest, he even agrees to copy out the Memorare. Then he pockets it and leaves, greatly amused at the entire absurd episode.

But later that night, when he mechanically copies the prayer, something happens. He can't get the words of the Memorare out of his mind. They haunt him, he recounts later, like an annoying tune one can't dislodge from one's head. Over and over again, with mounting irritation, he murmurs this obtrusive prayer of St. Bernard.

Several times, during the following days, the baron takes Alphonse sightseeing. Always, no matter what monument they're visiting, the baron manages to work the conversation around to the subject of religion. This annoys Alphonse, but he's unflappable. Often, he lightly deflects the Baron's proselytism with raillery bordering on blasphemy.

At one point the baron assures Alphonse, "I'm convinced you'll one day become a Christian...even if the Lord has to send an angel from Heaven to bring it about."

"A la bonne heure," Alphonse responds drily, "car autrement la chose serait difficile." (The delicate French sarcasm of these words is truly untranslatable, but here's the gist: "The sooner the better, for otherwise the matter would be rather difficult." [Imagine the lip very slightly curled in a sneer...])

On the same occasion, as the carriage passes the Scala Sancta, the baron suddenly removes his hat and exclaims, "Hail, holy steps! Here is a future penitent who will one day ascend you on his knees!"

This staggers Alphonse. He cannot believe his companion is saluting "a bunch of stupid steps." A few minutes later, as they pass through the delicious gardens of a local villa, Alphonse doffs his own hat and parodies the baron: "Hail, true glories of nature! It is to you we should pay homage and not to a stupid staircase!"

In fact, the baron's relentless proselytism is starting to get on Alphonse's nerves. Far from drawing him toward Catholicism, it is repelling him further. Yet the baron, undaunted, persists.

But the baron is not relying on argument alone. He's also praying very hard. And so are his friends, his fellow members of Rome's tight-knit community of aristocratic French expatriates. Notable among these friends is the Comte de la Ferronays, ex-diplomat, once a notorious roue' and now a devout, fervent Catholic.

Moved by the baron's pleas, the Comte drops into a church and fervently prays "more than 20 Memorares" for the conversion of the "young Jew."

That very same evening, the Comte suffers a fatal heart attack. After receiving his final Sacraments, he dies devoutly, surrounded by his loving family.

Now the stage is set for the conversion of Ratisbonne.

It is the night of January 19-20. Alphonse plans to leave Rome the following day. In the middle of the night, he is abruptly awakened. At the foot of his bed, he sees a large Cross (not crucifix), quite distinct, "sans Christ." He tries to shake the unwelcome sight, but he can't. No matter where he looks, there it is. Even when he closes his eys, he sees it. At last, exhausted, he falls asleep. When he awakens in the morning, he has forgotten his night-vision.

Alphonse packs, breakfasts, and goes out to pay his farewell calls. He runs into his pal Gustave, and the two discuss an upcoming religious ceremony, the papal Blessing of Animals at St. Peter's. They're both greatly amused by the whole notion of such a ceremony, so they take this opportunity to mock and deride Catholicism. "There followed a volley of jests and witticisms," Alphonse later reports, "such as you'd imagine between a Jew and a Protestant."

After leaving Gustave, Alphonse stops at the Cafe Greco to read the newspapers. He runs into a few more expatriate friends, and they chat of frivolous things such as the brilliant ball given the previous evening. Then Alphonse exits into the brilliant Roman sunshine. It is just after noon.

Within moments, he encounters the carriage of the Baron de Bussieres. The baron invites him inside for one final sightseeing tour. But first, de Bussieres explains, he must stop at the Church of San Andrea delle Fratte for a quick errand. A dear friend of his, the Comte de la Ferronays, has just died, he says, and he must finalize the funeral arrangements.

They stop at the church. De Bussieres says he'll be only a few minutes, so Alphonse should wait in the carriage with Mme. de Bussieres, but Alphonse decides instead to come inside to see the church interior.

There's not much to see. The church is "poor, bare, and ugly," devoid of distinctive art or architecture. Alphonse looks around mechanically as de Bussieres hurries away to consult with the friars.

Alphonse is alone. Suddenly a large black dog bounds menacingly in front of him. But then, in the next moment, the dog disappears. In fact, everything disappears, as if a veil has been drawn over the church interior. A brilliant light blazes from a side chapel, the Chapel of the Archangels. It's as if all light has been concentrated at that one spot.

And in the center of the light, Alphonse sees her. She is standing on the altar: "tall, brilliant, full of sweetness and majesty." She is so blindingly beautiful that, after one glance at her face, he casts down his eyes. Repeatedly he tries to raise his eyes again, to behold that beautiful face. But he cannot. He can't raise his eyes past the level of her hands, which are outstretched, with light streaming from her fingers -- just as in the image on the Miraculous Medal.

But her hands are very expressive. To Alphonse, they speak of "all the tenderness of the Divine Pity."

With one hand, she gestures to him to approach. He does so, on his knees. After he has advanced a few paces, she gestures again, as if to signify: "Enough--that's good!"

Then, as he gazes on the light streaming from her fingers, he receives the gift of Infused Knowledge. Faster than thought, he understands all: his own profound sinfulness (especially the enormity of Original Sin); God's infinite love and mercy toward poor sinners, revealed in the Incarnation and Crucifixion; the beauty and truth of Catholicism; the reality of Christ's Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

A Jewish agnostic reared in a skeptical milieu, he has never even heard the term "Original Sin"; now he instantly knows what it is, more profoundly than if he'd been studying the subject for years.

The entire experience takes mere moments.

The Baron de Bussieres returns from his conference with the friars. He looks around the nave. Where is Ratisbonne? Finally, he spots the young man: slumped, kneeling, with his head against the altar rail in the Chapel of the Archangels.

The baron approaches. Once, twice, a third time, he taps Alphonse on the shoulder. No response. Finally Alphonse is roused. He turns toward the baron "a face bathed in tears," clasps his hands together, and exclaims, "Oh! How that gentleman has prayed for me!"

"That gentleman" is the Comte de la Ferronays, whom Alphonse has never met. No one has told Alphonse that the Comte had been praying for him. Rather, it has just been revealed to him...in the same supernatural light wherein he has received infused knowledge of Catholic Truth.

De Bussieres is stunned. He begs Alphonse to explain himself, but Alphonse cannot. He is sobbing too hard, murmuring between sobs, "How happy I am! How good God is! How unbelievers are to be pitied!"

The baron helps Alphonse outside and into his carriage. He takes him to the Hotel Serny, where Alphonse is staying, and loosens his cravat so he can breathe. But Alphonse is still sobbing, clasping his Miraculous Medal, murmuring thanks to God. At last he turns to the baron, embraces him, and with a face "presque transfiguree" says: "Take me to a confessor! When can I receive baptism, without which I can no longer live?"

"What has happened?" exclaims the baron. "What have you seen?"

"That," says Alphonse, "I can reveal only on my knees and to a priest."

So...the baron takes him to the Gesu, the Jesuit mother-church, to see Pere de Villefort. There, Alphonse tries to explain himself, but he is still sobbing so hard that he is unintelligible. At last he calms down, takes the Miraculous Medal from his neck, holds it up, and cries: "Je l'ai vue! Je l'ai vue!"

Then, as the baron and the priest listen in amazement, Alphonse recounts the whole story. He concludes with an enigmatic statement that strikes his listeners forcefully: "Elle ne m'a rien dit, mais j'ai tout compris!" "She spoke not a word, but I understood all."

Eleven days later, Alphonse is baptized at the Gesu. Everyone who is anyone is there, for the news of Alphonse's conversion has caused a sensation. (His family is renowned throughout Europe.) Attendees strain to catch a glimpse of the young convert, but he is oblivious. All he cares about is baptism...and then, the Holy Eucharist. He is so overcome by the experience of receiving the Eucharistic Lord that he has to be sustained by de Bussieres, his baptismal sponsor, while returning from the altar to his place.

The following month, the Vatican holds a canonical process to investigate the circumstances surrounding Alphonse's conversion. After lengthy investigation and many depositions, it concludes that his sudden conversion was entirely miraculous -- an act of God wrought through the powerful intercession of the Virgin.

The conversion of Ratisbonne is widely perceived as a confirmation by Heaven of the efficacy of the Miraculous Medal. The devotion spreads...and spreads....

The following July, Alphonse enters the Jesuits. He spends 10 fruitful years in the bosom of the Society. Then, with papal permission, he leaves to help his brother Theodor found the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, dedicated to the conversion of the Jews. Alphonse spends the rest of his life as a holy priest, laboring among Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land. He establishes orphanages and schools for poor children, builds the Church of the Ecce Homo, and lives a life of extraordinary sanctity. He dies at Ain Karem, reputed site of the Visitation. On his deathbed, he goes into ecstasy -- apparently seeing, one last time before death, the Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Joan the woman, Cecille B. de Mille 1917

2012-01-06T15:36:00.001-05:00

A film of Joan of Arc by Cecille B. De Mille 1917

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Jehanne by Antonin Mercie

2012-01-06T15:26:00.000-05:00

Under a staircase on the ground floor of the Art Institute of Chicago is hidden the bust of The Maid by Antonin Mercie. I found this quite by accident on afternoon as I was visiting the Institute for a Mary Cassat Impressionist exhibition several years ago. At the time I paused for a second, gave it a glance and continued to the exhibition. Weeks later the bust reappeared in my mind and I called my sister who works near by and asked her to run over on her luncheon and take some photos for me. I present this now, La Pucelle. (simply The Maid).

Jhesu + Marie
Brantigny

Thanks to Diane

Jehanne la Pucelle, what did she look like?

2012-01-06T15:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, May 7, marked the anniversary of the recapture of Les Tourelles, a small bastion which lay astride of the main route into Orleans. Orleans was a large City on the Loire River which supprited the King of France, but which lay inside of the territory held by the English. The Duke of Orleans, had been held by the English since his capture by the English at the battle of Azincourt in 1415. It was considered contrary to the laws of chivalry to besiege a city, and held it's Lord a prisoner at the same time.

What did Jehanne look like? I have often wondered this. I am pretty sure she didn't look like Mila Jojovich, Ingrid Bergman, or Lee Lee Sobieski. No existant portraiture exists. Although I have published an article about Bermont, I cannot say with out a doubt that it was her (I believe it is, but that is my opinion). Contemporaries remark that she looked like anyone else, no one special. In the Trial of Rehabilitation the referance of her commoness are repeated so often as to make it annoying.

She is said have been about 5 feet, 2 inches in height. Her eyes were set far apart, and protruded somewhat, she was reaonably good looking, yet not pretty. She had a stocky build (as a healthy 15th century farm woman should have). Behind her left ear she had a red birth mark. Her complexion was dark. Her hair was black.

How do we know her hair was black? A letter writen to the people of the city of Riom which was found in their archives during 1844 was found to contain a 1st class relic of the Saint. A single black hair had been pressed into the wax of the seal by a finger. ...The custom whereby the writer of a letter plucked a hair from his head and pressed it into his seal was frequent at the time; it was an additional guarantee of the authenticity of the document; so it may be taken as reasonably certain that the hair came from Jeanne's head, which gives additional confirmation to the tradition that she was ´black and swart`...(1) Unfortunately the strand of hair has since disappeared which is a pity. It would be the most cherished of all relics of a French Saint. (The finger print, if it were hers, is a relic in it's own right.)

Contrary to the myth Jheanne did not dress in mens clothes constantly, only when she was in the presence of her soldiers did she adopt male dress. Opinion here... I believe that she adopted male dress to allow the men to focus more on the mission and less on the miss. She repeated asked her accusers at her trial to send her some womens clothes. Their refusal to do so, says more about their desire to accuse her than to find the truth.

This must have been some woman, who Kings and hardened soldiers followed, and for whom the English held such animosity. sometimes we are known the best by our enemies.

We could use another Jheanne now.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

(1)Scott, W. S: Jeanne d'Arc-Her Life, Her Death, and the Myth

(2)Virginia Frohlick has had many discussions with me over the web concerning Joan. She is a true Companion of the Maid. I have never written an article without her help. See her site here...

A short Biography of "la Pucelle"

2012-01-06T15:23:00.000-05:00

« En nom Dieu, les hommes d'armes batailleront et Dieu leur donnera la victoire. »
"In the name of God the men (at arms) will fight, and God will provide the victory"
Jehanne à Poitiers, mars 1429 (Joan at Poitiers, March 1429)

A Short Biography of Saint Joan of Arc

Many us were inspired by the CBS film on Joan of Arc with Lee Lee Sobieski. Though in my mind it is the best version of the life of Joan many of the fact were distorted or left out to keep the plot going along and making a dramatic film. A good point with this actress is that she was just about the right age which of course the Ingrid Bergman film couldnt quite pull off. Additionally, in the Bergman film, the script was parallel to the book by Mark Twain and the play by Bernard Shaw. The Lee Lee version was identifiably taken from her trial statements and the rehabilitation.

My friend Virginia Frohlick has placed on her site this short biography. I add it to whet the appitite, because, this is just a small portion of the most complete English language site dealing with the Maid. Virginia is the expert on Joan. The link above will transport you to her site.

Saint Joan was born on January 6, 1412, in the village of Domremy to Jacques and Isabelle d'Arc. Joan was the youngest of their five children. While growing up among the fields and pastures of her village, she was called Jeannette but when she entered into her mission, her name was changed to Jeanne, la Pucelle, or Joan, the Maid.

As a child she was taught domestic skills as well as her religion by her mother. Joan would later say, "As for spinning and sewing, I fear no woman in Rouen." And again, "It was my mother alone who taught me the 'Our Father' and 'Hail Mary' and the 'Creed;' and from none other was I taught my faith."

From her earliest of years Joan was known for her obedience to her parents, religious fervor, goodness, unselfish generosity and kindness toward her neighbors. Simonin Munier, one of Joan's childhood friends, tells how Joan had nursed him back to health when he was sick. Some of her playmates teased her for being 'too pious.' Others remembered how she would give up her bed to the homeless stranger who came to her father's door asking for shelter.

Joan was 'like all the others' in her village until her thirteenth year. "When I was about thirteen, I received revelation from Our Lord by a voice which told me to be good and attend church often and that God would help me." She stated that her 'Voices' were Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. At first her 'Voices' came to her two or three times a week but as the time for her mission drew near (five years later), they visited her daily telling her to 'Go into France' to raise the siege of Orleans, conduct the Dauphin Charles to Reims for his crowning and to drive the English from the land.

Joan went to the neighboring town of Vaucouleurs, which means Valley of many colors. There she spoke to the loyal French governor by the name of Sir Robert de Baudricourt. After many rejections he finally agreed to send her to the Dauphin who at the time was living at the castle of Chinon.

On the evening of February 23, 1429, she began her mission for God. In the company of six men, she rode through the Gate of France on her way to Chinon. Joan reached this town on March 6th, but was not received by the Dauphin, Charles, until the evening of March 9th.
After being accepted and approved by a Church council headed by the Archbishop of Reims, Joan was allowed to lead the Dauphin's army. This part of her career was meteoric. She entered Orleans on the evening of April 29th and by May 8th the city had been freed. The Loire campaign started on June 9th and by June 19th the English were driven out of the Loire valley. The march to Reims started on June 29th and by July 17th Charles was crowned King of France in the cathedral of Reims.

From this time on, for reasons know only to King Charles, the king no longer valued Joan's advice and guidance. She had always told him that God had given her 'a year and a little longer' to accomplish His will but the king seemed to take no notice of it. For almost a year he wasted what time remained to Joan, until in frustration, she left the court. Her last campaign lasted from the middle of March until her capture at the town of Compiegne on May 23rd, 1430. Her 'year and a little longer' was over.

Abandoned by her king and friends, she started her year of captivity. As a prisoner of the Burgundians she was treated fairly but that all changed when on November 21st, 1430, she was handed over the English. How she survived their harsh treatment of her is a miracle in itself.

The English not only wanted to kill Joan but they also wanted to discredit King Charles as a false king by having Joan condemned by the Church as a witch and a heretic. To obtain this goal the English used those Church authorities whom they knew to be favorable to them and the staunchest of these was Bishop Cauchon.

Joan's trial of condemnation lasted from February 21st until May 23rd. She was finally burnt at the stake in Rouen's market square on May 30th, 1431.

Twenty-five years later the findings of Joan's first trial were overturned and declared 'null and void' by another Church court, who this time was favorable to King Charles. It was not until 1920 that the Church of Rome officially declared Joan to be a saint. Her feast day is celebrated on May 30th.

Note of Caution, Many writers have distorted the Story of this Saint, they have added calumny to her memory. You may find them on the net I will not place them here. I recommend all of these sites, as well as the books and CD rom. I recommend the Lee Lee version of the film and do not recommend "The Messenger" with Mila Jojovich, it is garbage. Here is a link to a silent film called the "Passion of Joan of Arc" from 1928...

Links:
Joan of Arc's Companions in Arms, English, French
The 'Companions' of Jeanne d'Arc and Others, short biographies
SteJeannedArc.net entirely in French only
Maison de Jeanne d'Arc in French only
Allen Williamson's site on the maid

Books:
Joan of Arc: Her Story at Amazon.com
Joan of Arc by Maurice Boutet de Monvel, the narritive is a bit slanted and written for the youth of France but the illustrations are superb
CD Rom: this is a great resource, find it here
Maid of Heaven, The story of Joan of Arc. here...

My Favorite quotes of the Maid,

"Je me attens a Dieu, mon createur, de tout; je layme de tout mon cuer..."

"Au France et au Roi, Mon ambition sera à servir. "...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

New Style Currency for a Monarchist America

2012-01-06T15:22:00.000-05:00

The photo below is a nickle of the new Monarchist currency being developed for the new American Monarchy. It will be called the "Joannie" after Joan of Arc.

Jhesu+Marie
Brantgny

Reprint from my first year in blogging

A nation of thugs

2012-01-06T08:56:00.003-05:00

As the recreation coordinator among my other duties in a North Carolina Prison I can say is the jungle rules basketball these guys play would shame inmates.

The coach is to blame for his inability to fully instruct this fellow in good sportsmanship, and the referees should be fired. There is not excuse for this blindness. Is it any wonder that we have players in the NBA like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Damon Stoudamire, Ruben Patterson, Bonzi Wells, Sam Mack, Glenn Robinson, and Allen Iverson, all of which have complaints filed for assaults. The time to squash this is while he is young.

We are raising a nation of thugs. The desire to win at any cost has it's consequences.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

This video went viral the day it was posted.

A new film

2012-01-05T11:12:00.003-05:00

A remarkable feat for so young a cast.

Jhesu+Marie
Dieu le Roy!
Brantigny

The trailer for the new film, "The War of the Vendee", from Navis Pictures.
For more information, please visit http://www.navispictures.com/

Why Southerners eat Blacked Eyed Peas on New Years Day

2012-01-04T17:17:00.003-05:00

The story of eating black eyed peas on New Year's Day

Black Eyed Peas

"The Real Story is much more interesting and has gone untold in fear that feelings would be hurt. It’s a story of war, the most brutal and bloody war, military might and power pushed upon civilians, women, children and elderly. Never seen as a war crime, this was the policy of the greatest nation on earth trying to maintain that status at all costs. This is an unhealed wound which remains in the hearts of some people of the southern states even today.

The story of The Black EYED Pea being considered good luck relates directly back to Sherman 's Bloody March to the Sea in late 1864. It was called The Savannah Campaign and was lead by Major General William T. Sherman. The Civil War campaign began on 11/15/1864 when Sherman 's troops marched from the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia
and ended at the port of Savannah on 12/22/1864.

When the smoke cleared, the southerners who had survived the onslaught came out of hiding. They found that the blue belly aggressors that had looted and stolen everything of value and everything you could eat including all livestock, death and destruction were everywhere. While in hiding, few had enough to eat, and starvation was now upon the survivors.

There was no international aide, no Red Cross meal trucks. The Northern army had taken everything they could carry and eaten everything they could eat. But they couldn’t take it all. The devastated people of the south found for some unknown reason that Sherman ’s Bummers(1) had left silos full of black eyed peas.

At the time in the north, the lowly black eyed pea was only used to feed stock. The northern troops saw it as the thing of least value. Taking grain for their horses and livestock and other crops to feed themselves, they just couldn’t take everything. So they left the black eyed peas in great quantities assuming it would be of no use to the survivors, since all the livestock it could feed had either been taken or eaten.

Southerners awoke to face a new year in this devastation and were facing massive starvation if not for the good luck of having the black eyed peas to eat. From New Years Day 1866 forward, the tradition grew to eat black eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good luck."

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

(1) "Bummers" is a 19th century term used to describe General Sherman's foraging parties. Bummers would desent like locusts and remove anything of value, including family silver, dresses, mirrors, money as well as foodstuffs. Shermans Army cut a swath of destruction 200 miles long and 80 miles wide. The penalty for being caught was summary execution.

Today this would be a war crime.

Ste Geneviève

2012-01-04T10:34:00.004-05:00

January 3rd is the Feast of my youngest daughters patron Saint, Ste Geneviève. When she was little and growing up we celebrated this day by doing something special. She went to St Francis of Assisi School in Jacksonville, N.C. We would send cupcakes to her class to help her celebrate the feast day with her class. Early on both my wife and I looked to this dear Saint to guide our treasure and preserve her.

Sainte-Geneviève is often forgotten now, except maybe by the French. The magnificent Church dedicated to her,was allowed to run into decay, was restored by Louis XV, then desecrated by the mob in 1791 and was renamed the Pantheon, a name by which it is now more commonly known. Her bones were shattered and destroyed, burned in the police yard. Yet some of her relics still exist and continue to provide cures to the lame and infirm who come to ask her blessing and intersession.

Sainte-Geneviève

She is Patroness of Paris, born at Nanterre, about 419 or 422; and died in Paris, 512.

Her feast is kept on 3 January. She was the daughter of Severus and Gerontia; popular tradition represents her parents as poor peasants, though it seems more likely that they were wealthy and respectable townspeople.

In 429 St. Germain of Auxerre and St. Lupus of Troyes were sent across from Gaul to Britain to combat Pelagianism. On their way they stopped at Nanterre, a small village about eight miles from Paris. The inhabitants flocked out to welcome them, and St. Germain preached to the assembled multitude. It chanced that the pious demeanour and thoughtfulness of a young girl among his hearers attracted his attention. After the sermon he caused the child to be brought to him, spoke to her with interest, and encouraged her to persevere in the path of virtue. Learning that she was anxious to devote herself to the service of God, he interviewed her parents, and foretold them that their child would lead a life of sanctity and by her example and instruction bring many virgins to consecrate themselves to God. Before parting next morning he saw her again, and on her renewing her consecration he blessed her and gave her a medal engraved with a cross, telling her to keep it in remembrance of her dedication to Christ. He exhorted her likewise to be content with the medal, and wear it instead of her pearls and golden ornaments. There seem to have been no convents near her village; and Genevieve, like so many others who wished to practise religious virtue, remained at home, leading an innocent, prayerful life. It is uncertain when she formally received the religious veil. Some writers assert that it was on the occasion of St. Gregory's return from his mission to Britain; others say she received it about her sixteenth year, along with two companions, from the hands of the Bishop of Paris. On the death of her parents she went to Paris, and lived with her godmother. She devoted herself to works of charity and practised severe corporal austerities, abstaining completely from flesh meat and breaking her fast only twice in the week. These mortifications she continued for over thirty years, until her ecclesiastical superiors thought it their duty to make her diminish her austerities.

Many of her neighbours, filled with jealousy and envy, accused Genevieve of being an impostor and a hypocrite. Like Blessed Joan of Arc, in later times, she had frequent communion with the other world, but her visions and prophecies were treated as frauds and deceits. Her enemies conspired to drown her; but, through the intervention of Germain of Auxerre, their animosity was finally overcome. The bishop of the city appointed her to look after the welfare of the virgins dedicated to God, and by her instruction and example she led them to a high degree of sanctity.

In 451 Attila and his Huns were sweeping over Gaul; and the inhabitants of Paris prepared to flee. Genevieve encouraged them to hope and trust in God; she urged them to do works of penance, and added that if they did so the town would be spared. Her exhortations prevailed; the citizens recovered their calm, and Attila's hordes turned off towards Orléans, leaving Paris untouched. Some years later Merowig (Mérovée) took Paris; during that siege Genevieve distinguished herself by her charity and self- sacrifice. Through her influence Merowig and his successors, Childeric and Clovis, displayed unwonted clemency towards the citizens. It was she, too, who first formed the plan of erecting a church in Paris in honour of Saints Peter and Paul. It was begun by Clovis at Mont-lès-Paris, shortly before his death in 511. Genevieve died the following year, and when the church was completed her body was interred within it. This fact, and the numerous miracles wrought at her tomb, caused the name of Sainte-Geneviève to be given to it. Kings, princes, and people enriched it with their gifts. In 847 it was plundered by the Normans and was partially rebuilt, but was completed only in 1177. This church having fallen into decay once more, Louis XV began the construction of a new church in 1764. The Revolution broke out before it was dedicated, and it was taken over in 1791, under the name of the Panthéon, by the Constituent Assembly, to be a burial place for distinguished Frenchmen. It was restored to Catholic purposes in 1821 and 1852, having been secularized as a national mausoleum in 1831 and, finally, in 1885. St. Genevieve's relics were preserved in her church, with great devotion, for centuries, and Paris received striking proof of the efficacy of her intercession.

She saved the city from complete inundation in 834. In 1129 a violent plague, known as the mal des ardents, carried off over 14,000 victims, but it ceased suddenly during a procession in her honour. Innocent II, who had come to Paris to implore the king's help against the Antipope Anacletus in 1130, examined personally into the miracle and was so convinced of its authenticity that he ordered a feast to be kept annually in honour of the event on 26 November. A small church, called Sainte-Geneviève des Ardents, commemorated the miracle till 1747, when it was pulled down to make room for the Foundling Hospital. The saint's relics were carried in procession yearly to the cathedral, and Mme de Sévigné gives a description of the pageant in one of her letters.

The revolutionaries of 1793 destroyed most of the relics preserved in St. Genevieve's church, and the rest were cast to the winds by the mob in 1871. Fortunately, however, a large relic had been kept at Verneuil, Oise, in the eighteenth century, and is still extant. The church built by Clovis was entrusted to the Benedictines. In the ninth century they were replaced by secular canons. In 1148, under Eugene III and Louis VII, canons from St. Victor's Abbey at Senlis were introduced. About 1619 Louis XIII named Cardinal François de La Rochefoucauld Abbot of St. Genevieve's. The canons had been lax and the cardinal selected Charles Faure to reform them. This holy man was born in 1594, and entered the canons regular at Senlis. He was remarkable for his piety, and, when ordained, succeeded after a hard struggle in reforming the abbey. Many of the houses of the canons regular adopted his reform. He and a dozen companions took charge of Sainte-Geneviève-du-Mont, at Paris, in 1634. This became the mother-house of a new congregation, the Canons Regular of St. Genevieve, which spread widely over France. Another institute called after the saint was the Daughters of St. Genevieve, founded at Paris, in 1636, by Francesca de Blosset, with the object of nursing the sick and teaching young girls. A somewhat similar institute, popularly known as the Miramiones, had been founded under the invocation of the Holy Trinity, in 1611, by Marie Bonneau de Rubella Beauharnais de Miramion. These two institutes were united in 1665, and the associates called the Canonesses of St. Geneviève. The members took no vows, but merely promised obedience to the rules as long as they remained in the institute. Suppressed during the Revolution, it was revived in 1806 by Jeanne-Claude Jacoulet under the name of the Sisters of the Holy Family. They now have charge of over 150 schools and orphanages.

For Geneviève Suzanne Thérèse-Bernardette, notre chou d'Amour.

Jhesu+Marie
Brantigny

Tomb of Ste Geneviève

Portrait by by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun 1821

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T00:12:00.003-05:00

A Happy and Joyous New Year to all. It is about 11:12 PM, and the New Year has already had it's ball drop in New York. I will be going off to the house tomorrow. Peace to all.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle

2011-12-24T22:09:00.001-05:00

Joyeux Noel,
Brantigny

Huron Carol

2011-12-24T22:01:00.001-05:00

The "Huron Carol" (or "'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime") is a Christmas hymn, written in 1643 by Jean de Brébeuf, a Christian missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Canada. Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron/Wendat people; the song's original Huron title is "Jesous Ahatonhia" ("Jesus, he is born"). The song's melody is a traditional French folk song, "Une Jeune Pucelle" ("A Young Maid"). The well known English lyrics were written in 1926 by Jesse Edgar Middleton.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Les Petits Chanteurs d'Aix - Il est né le Divin Enfant

2011-12-24T22:00:00.001-05:00

Christmas for Saint Joan of Arc

2011-12-24T21:22:00.003-05:00

Ben D. Kennedy author of"Maid of Heaven" conjectures on the celebration of Christmas by the Maid of Orleans, he writes...

One can only wonder about how Saint Joan of Arc celebrated Christmas as there is unfortunately nothing in the historic records however there is little doubt that Christmas would have been a very special time for Joan given her intense love and devotion to God. While Joan was growing up in the small town of Domremy she most likely would have attended at least one worship service and possible more on Christmas day at the little church of St. Remy located just next door to her house. more...

Thanks and a tip of the beret to Ben Kennedy.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Le Fleur de Lys too is Catholic

2011-12-24T20:25:00.004-05:00

...And is not incorporated in the Diocese of Detroit.

Archdiocese of Detroit asks Michael Voris to stop using the name ‘Catholic’

DETROIT, Michigan, December 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - For many years faithful Catholics have wished that bishops would take strong action to correct the myriad of Catholic persons and entities who, while claiming to be Catholic, act against the faith, especially regarding issues of Catholic morality.

Catholic pro-abortion politicians, Catholic hospitals that perform clandestine abortions and sterilizations; Catholic universities that constantly violate the faith in many ways, Catholic newspapers and magazines that have been challenging Church teachings and authority for years, all come to mind. Now, today, news broke that the Archdiocese of Detroit has called on someone to stop using the name ‘Catholic’ - but it’s not someone who is fighting against the morals or faith of the Catholic Church at all. It is in fact an individual who has devoted the last several years to vigorously defending and promoting authentic Catholic principles – Michael Voris, known best for his hosting of The Vortex on the website RealCatholicTV.com.

In a press release issued December 15 and signed by Communications officer Joe Kohn, the Archdiocese of Detroit states: “The Archdiocese has informed Mr. Voris and Real Catholic TV, RealCatholicTV.com, that it does not regard them as being authorized to use the word ‘Catholic’ to identify or promote their public activities.” More

My response to the Diocese in Detroit is, "Change your ways or stop using Catholic!" to describe the Diocese of Detroit!

Jhesu+marie,
Brantigny

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T20:13:00.002-05:00

Jesus Christ is born this day! Halleluja!

Best Wishes to all,

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Zita, Empress of Austria.

2011-12-21T13:02:00.009-05:00

Yesterday I recieved a relic of the Empress Zita, whose cause for beatification has begun. I thought that I would post some portraits of her today...

The Official site relates...

Zita was born on May 9, 1892. She was the daughter of Robert, the last reigning Duke of Parma (he was thrown out of his duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, at the time of the Italian unification in 1860, the evil of Nationalism already rearing its head).

Zita was born of Robert’s second marriage (the 5th of 12 children) to Maria-Antonia, Royal Princess of Portugal, from the Braganza dynasty. From his two wives, he had 24 children (born between 1870 and 1905), 6 of whom from his first marriage were handicapped and gave thus a particular personality to the family: contrary to most, the family did not hide them. Zita was born ‘Italian’, but it was only by chance, due to the fact that her family resided half of the year in the Austrian castle of Schwarzau, near Wiener Neustadt, about 70 km south of Vienna, and the other half in their Villa de Pianore, in Tuscany, near Lucca. She would have to suffer from this circumstance during World War I, when she, the 'Italian or French' Princess, was accused by the Germans and some of her own subjects of favoring the Italians, then enemies of the Central Powers.

Her upbringing was happy, among this large family, but also very pious. Zita was first taught at home by tutors, later she went to the Visitandines of Zangberg, in Bavaria (September 1903-July 1908), and finally she spent several months with the Benedictines of Saint Cecilia of Solesmes, then exiled to Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, England (February-July 1909).

While still a child, the future empress met the man who would become her husband, the young Archduke Charles. Villa Wartholz where Charles resided with his parents was not far from Schwarzau. Their love story however developed slowly and led to their betrothal, on June 13, 1911. On the official photograph, she added her motto, in her own hand: “More for you than for me”.
On June 24, 1910, St. Pius X received Archduke Charles’ young fiancée and told her this prophecy: « You will marry the heir of the throne. I wish you therefore all good things ». Zita timidly dared twice to point out to the Pope that the heir was Franz-Ferdinand, Charles’ uncle and the nephew of the reigning emperor Franz-Joseph (1848-1916), but the sovereign pontiff had insisted : « And I rejoice greatly, because Charles is the reward that God has set aside for Austria, for all that she has done for the Church ». Zita, troubled, as she left the private audience, replied to her mother: « Thank God, the Pope is not infallible in matters of politics». Unfortunately for the Servant of God, the Pope was right.

The wedding was celebrated at Schwarzau, on October 21, 1911, in the presence of Emperor Franz-Joseph. The couple experienced the army life, since Charles was a soldier. They lived, for example, at Brandeis, in the Kingdom of Bohemia. Very quickly, they were blessed by the close births of children: the heir, Otto (born on November 20, 1912), Adelheid (January 3, 1914), Robert (February 8, 1915), Felix (May 31, 1916), who were followed by more.

Charles and Zita were not really prepared to reign, since, by all appearances, they would not have to ascend the throne until 1940 or 1950 and even then, it could happen that once Franz-Ferdinand became emperor, he would change the rules of succession to the Throne so that his children, born of his morganatic marriage to Countess Sophie Chotek von Chotkowa und Wognin, would not be excluded from the line of succession. But for the time being, Zita was already the First Lady of the Empire, since the Emperor was widowed and Franz-Ferdinand’s wife could not hold an official role. Obviously, with the Sarajevo murder, the couple became the direct heir to the Throne and moved to Hetzendorf, a castle close to Schönbrunn where the Emperor lived.

Mother and educator of her children, the Servant of God tried to support her subjects, her adoptive children. During the war, she visited many hospitals and was not fooled by the last minute improvements that were made in her honor. In order to act more efficiently, she organized personally a home collection which raised between December 1914 and April 1915, a sum of 1.5 million Crowns, for which she received the Medal of Merit from the Red Cross on August 11, 1915. She was very attentive to those that were confided in her care, even to the point of tasting the dishes served in public shelters.

They came to power on November 21, 1916, after the reign of 68 years by Franz Josef (sic), in the middle of an atrocious war. Karl and Zita ascended to the throne in the worst of times. They only lived a short moment of glory before a long Way of the Cross. The moment of glory was their crowning as King and Queen of Hungary, in Budapest, on December 23, 1916. The Crown of Saint Stephen was not set on her head, but the Servant of God was crowned with the jewel made for the queens of Hungary (the crown made for Elisabeth (Sissi) who preceded her). However, the National Hungarian Crown was set on her right shoulder, by the Bishop of Veszprem as a symbol that she was called to help her husband carry out his heavy duty. The words of the ritual are profound in their meaning: « Receive the Crown of Sovereignty, so that you may know that as the spouse of the King, you must always care for the people of God. The higher you are placed, the more humble you must remain in Jesus Christ».

On the other hand, she let her husband run the Empire, even though she followed the affairs of the State through the reports of the ministers. The Emperor was the man who made all the decisions in the end, even sometimes in spite of the disagreement with his wife (such as for the amnesty in July 1917). The following statement from Franz Josef to his daughter, Archduchess Valerie, shows how he appreciated the complementary quality of the couple and how fond he really was of his successor: « He was very happy to see the way in which Zita helped her husband. She was able to develop and grow in him all his excellent qualities and allow them to blossom into maturity».

« Guardian Angel of all the suffering » (Card. Piffl, archbishop of Vienna)

Zita focused on the social issues of her days. In times of war, the activities related to social calls and representations were canceled and Zita devoted most of her time to charitable work. She created the Work for the Child which raised funds for the poorest. As early as December 26, 1916, her financial manager delivered to the President of the Council of Austria a check of 650,000 Crowns and the detailed list of the collected donations : 15 tons of chocolate, 30,000 doses of condensed milk, a wagon full of clothes and 75,000 pairs of shoes. Fifteen days later, she inquired on the efficiency and speed of the distribution of the items. She also reduced the living expenses of the royal family, by eliminating certain items such as chocolate and white bread, so as to share more closely in the deprivation of the less fortunate. The Empress never hesitated to remind belligerents such as German Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff, of her concerns for peace, which prompted his criticism of her ‘being anti-war’ in general :
« -I am against the war, as every woman who loves nothing more than to see the human race in happiness rather than tears.
- Sorrow and pain, what of it? I never work better than on an empty stomach; it is all about tightening one’s belt and hanging in there.
- I cannot bear to hear one talk of hanging in there, while one is sitting in front of an abundant meal. ».

However, the most important service that the imperial couple tried to render to its subjects was to bring them peace. The old emperor Franz Josef in order to prepare for the future, had refused to include his heir in any way into the declaration of war with Serbia which sparked the worldwide conflict. Emperor Karl is known as being the « only honest man» involved in the First World War, because he sincerely wanted and tried his best to reach peace under honorable conditions for all. These separate peace offers (made secretly, unbeknownst to his German allies who were stubborn and a nuisance) were dealt with by Zita’s two brothers, the princes Xavier and Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma, but the initiative came from Karl, and not from the Empress who followed and approved of them.

Zita left Madeira soon after Karl’s death for Spain (May 19, 1922). She gave birth to Elizabeth, their third daughter, at the royal palace of El Pardo, on May 31, 1922. “How can I now make every decision by myself? Karl ran and managed everything.” This admission shows, without doubt, that she was not “the man of the household” as it had been slandered in order to accuse her spouse of weakness. From now on, she must find the strength to face alone, with God’s help, the task of being a mother and regent for the sake of her son Otto, the titular Emperor. “I have a grave political duty, and maybe only this one. I must raise my children according to the mindset of the Emperor, turning them into good men who fear the Lord, and before everything else I must prepare Otto for his future. None of us knows the future. The history of peoples and dynasties – which do not count time by the yardstick of human life, but by much longer measures – must inspire confidence in us.”

It is in the education of her children that Empress Zita found a new reason to live. She declined the generous offer of King Alfonso XIII of Spain to take care of Otto’s education at the best secondary school in the kingdom, because she was determined to educate him according to Austrian and Hungarian methods (programs were followed and examination taken in front of Karl’s former ministers). She left the Castile for the Basque county and settled at the villa Uribarren in Lekeitio, thanks to a generous offer to use it for as long as needed before it was to be turned over to a charitable institution. Otto’s education was entrusted to Count Degenfeld, who was assisted by five monks from the Hungarian Benedictine abbey of Pannonhalma, and a few other tutors who helped the younger children. The education that she oversaw was very strict, but her son was always grateful to her for that.

She set her own daily rhythm very rigorously. She went to bed at midnight and got up at 5 a.m., to attend Mass with fishermen’s wives at 5:30. Back home by 7 a.m., she woke up the younger children who made their beds and polished their shoes by themselves. As they got ready, Zita read to them a passage from the life of the saint for the day. At 7:30, the household assembled in the chapel for mass (the second for the Empress), which was served by the boys. She taught them their catechism herself. They all made their first communions very young. She made each of them a prayer book in which she glued holy cards. She also led them in evening prayer.

The financial situation improved thanks to the lifting of the confiscation of some of their private properties, as well as donations collected from prominent Austro-Hungarian families by Margrave Pallavicini. She also, as “head of the family,” used these funds to help any Habsburg who also lost their properties, or any of their servants in need. This did not mean that they lived in abundance, far from it: the household had to spend sparingly.

As adulthood was approaching for her oldest child, and because she desired to give her son Otto the best possible education in a Catholic university, Zita chose to move to Belgium where they lived for a little over ten years (September 1929 - May 1940). They settled quickly in the Castle of Ham at Steenokkerzeel, conveniently located halfway between Brussels and Louvain, where he studied until receiving his doctorate in 1935 from the School of Political and Social Science. All her children would be educated in French-speaking Catholic schools. Zita lived surrounded by a few faithful friends who made up a second family, among whom a Hungarian Benedictine monk became her chaplain, Dom Weber. There, the Empress found a favorable and simple atmosphere to raise her family. Life in Belgium was a mixture of small court life (etiquette was maintained, but “nothing is overdone, Her Majesty naturally imposes some, even though her simplicity keeps her close to those who serve her”) and country life (she occasionally cared for the animals given to her children: 25 goats and sheep whose straw she changed when the children had extra work, and she cultivated roses). Avoiding worldliness, she led an austere life, because she had suffered so much that she could not help but keep gravity in all things. Her true source of happiness was her family.

Thus, November 20, 1930, the day that marked the majority of the titular Emperor, Otto, marked a new roles for them both. She was no longer morally his regent. Her mission was accomplished. From then on, even though she still made some decisions, she consulted with her son. Moreover, she supported him in his efforts for the restoration of the monarchy in order to save Austria from Hitler. That little Alpine country had become a mere shadow of the great empire it formerly was. Partitioned in what appeared to some Austrians (especially the Social-Democrats and the Nazis) as a sort of failed state, the pull towards uniting with Germany was strong. During the peace treaties following the Great War, Karl successfully prevented any annexation of Austria to Germany. The only valid force of opposition at the time was the monarchist movement, which was not based on nostalgia or demands for historic rights, but was rather a real alternative wanting to instill in Austrians a patriotic pride that would prevent them from desiring to unite with their more powerful neighbor of the same language.

Zita freely gave him advice, as she was always interested in politics. In particular, she made sure to point out the social doctrine of the Church in the publication of the royalist program of Weisner, in July 1930.

During one of Zita’s last trips to Austria, her health became more precarious. She continued to deteriorate; she had already lost her eyesight and movement became more and more difficult. She was always accompanied by some of her children and was cared for by her lady-in-waiting, Marie, Baroness von Plappart. The testimonies of the nurses charged with her care, the Sisters of Familia Spiritualis "Opus" are absolutely edifying. She serenely awaited death in order to see her loving spouse once again. Her prayer was answered on March 14, 1989, when she was almost 97 years of age.

During her funeral in Vienna on April 1, 1989, the 67th anniversary of the death of her beloved husband, the ceremonial used to take her mortal remains into the Crypt of the Capuchin Friars expresses very well the humility of the Servant of God:

The court chamberlain rapped three times on the heavy church door.
- From inside, the voice of a Capuchin friar answered: ”Who begs entrance?”
- The Chamberlain responded: “Her Majesty Zita, by the grace of God, Empress of Austria, Apostolic Queen of Hungary, Queen of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slovenia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria, Queen of Jerusalem etc…; Archduchess of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Cracow; Duchess of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukovina; Grand Princess of Transylvania, Margravine of Moravia; Duchess of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Sator, of Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara; Princely Countess of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Görz and Gradisca, Princess of Trient and Brixen, Margravice of Upper and Lower Lusatia and Istria; Countess of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz and Sonnenberg…etc…; Lady of Triest, Cattaro and in the Windic March; Grand Vojvode of the Vojvodeship of Serbia…etc… ; born Princess Royal of Bourbon, Princess of Parma…etc…” .
- The Capuchin friar answered: “We know her not.” The door remained closed.
- A second time, the chamberlain knocked. “Who begs entrance?”
- “Her Majesty Zita, Empress and Queen.”
- “We know her not.”
- And a third time, three knocks resound: “Who begs entrance?”
- “Zita, a mortal sinner.”
- “Let her enter.”

Prayer for asking the beatification of the Servant of God Empress Zita

God, our Father, You redeemed the world through the atoning sacrifice of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He who was King became the Servant of all and gave His life as a ransom for the many. Therefore You have exalted him.

Now deign to grant Your servant Zita, Empress and Queen, to be raised to the honor of the altars of Your Church. In her You have given us an admirable example of faith and hope in the face of adversity, and an unshakeable confidence in Your Divine Providence.

We beseech You that Zita, alongside her husband Blessed Karl, will become a model of love and marital fidelity, and be an example for families in the ways of a true Christian upbringing. May she who in every situation gave her heart to others, especially the poorest among us, be an example of service and love of neighbor to all.

Through her intercession, grant our petition (mention your intention here). Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

One Our Father, three Hail Marys, and one Glory Be

Imprimatur : 09/07/2009
† Mgr. Yves Le Saux
Bishop of Le Mans (France).

We would be grateful to those who have received graces through the intercession of the Servant of God, Empress Zita, that you share it by writing to:

Association for the Beatification of Empress Zita
Abbaye Saint-Pierre
1, place Dom Guéranger
72300 Solesmes, France

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

See the web site here

I recieved a nice letter from M. l'Abbé Cyrille DEBRIS of the Diocese of Rouen. What a blessing that the Dicese of Rouen the place of the martyrdom of La Pucell should be the seat of the Cause of the Beatification of the Empress Zita.

One of the Most Consistent Men in the World: Roger Williams

2011-12-21T08:57:00.004-05:00

Stephanie A. Mann has a short post about Roger Williams...

...Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island and one of the most consistent men in the history of the world, at least whom I've ever read about, was born on December 21 in 1603. He was born and baptized in London, although the records were destroyed in the Great Fire of London. He studied at Cambridge and was ordained in the Church of England, but he was not only a Puritan, but a Separatist. Williams was convinced that the Church of England was a totally corrupt church and that a new church must be formed...more

Things never change. It is not a rare sight in this country, and other places that a new ecclesiastic community should pop up overnight in a shopping mall or an abandoned church. During the reformation, which should be called the Protestant Rebellion, errant religious left the Catholic Church due to disagreement over doctrinal issues. Forming their own churches they attempted and attempt still to silence any other doctrine save their own. In this way if a community feels that a woman should be made a pastor, and the current pastor doesn't they vote him out and seperate him from their community. Additionally these churches are exclusionary in so far as they have a tendancy to divide over race as well. In this state 2 Churches of the same denomination sit sometimes within speaking distance, one is black and the other white. This is a stab this is to the body of Christ who called us all to be as one. Roger Williams exemplified this separation, as did Henry VIII, Martin Luther, John Calvin, etc.

Today we in the True Church face yet again a serious threat perpetrated by those who consider themselves above the True Church and her teachings. These unhappy ones see the Church as a place where they may give voice to their misconceived ideas, and that they have a right to demand the Church change to suit them, (ie. female ordination, homosexual marriage and birth control etc...) We have idiots in political office who know less about the Faith than a face lift and who deign to instruct the Church, and who lecture the Faithful on matters of Faith. there are those who are so disordered as to believe that over the 2000 years plus that what the Church says and teaches is not what it really means.

There are no locked doors on the way out of the Church.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Hildegarde Von Bingen will be named a Doctor of the Church at her Canonization

2011-12-19T14:02:00.007-05:00

For those who have never heard of St Hildegarde a new film has come out called Vision, here is it's trailer.

This very powerful film is available on NetFlix instant movies free.

Read about Canonization.

St Hildegarde's Biography

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

St John de Matha,

2011-12-16T16:49:00.007-05:00

Our Sainted King Louis IX was a Third Order Trinitarian.

This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

ST JOHN OF MATHA, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE TRINITARIANS—1169-1218

St. John was born of very pious and noble parents, at Faucon, on the borders of Provence, June the 24th, 1169, and was baptized John, in honour of St. John the Baptist. His mother dedicated him to God by a vow from his infancy. His father Euphemius sent him to Aix, where he learned grammar, fencing, riding, and other exercises fit for a young nobleman. But his chief attention was to advance in virtue. He gave the poor a considerable part of his money his parents sent him for his own use; he visited the hospital every Friday, assisting the poor sick, dressing and cleansing their sores, and affording them all the comfort in his power.

Being returned home, he begged his father's leave to continue the pious exercises he had begun, and retired to a little hermitage not far from Faucon, with the view of living at a distance from the world, and united to God alone by mortification and prayer. But finding his solitude interrupted by the frequent visits of his friends, he desired his father's consent to go to Paris to study divinity, which he easily obtained. He went through these more sublime studies with extraordinary success, and proceeded doctor of divinity with uncommon applause, though his modesty gave him a reluctancy to that honour. He was soon after ordained priest, and said his first mass in the Bishop of Paris's chapel, at which the bishop himself, Maurice de Sully, the abbots of St. Victor and of St. Genevieve, and the rector of the university assisted; admiring the graces of heaven in him, which appeared in his extraordinary devotion on this occasion, as well as at his ordination.

On the day he said his first mass, by a particular inspiration from God, he came to a resolution of devoting himself to the occupation of ransoming Christian slaves from the captivity they groaned under among the infidels; considering it as one of the highest act. of charity with respect both to their souls and bodies. But before he entered upon so important a work, he thought it needful to spend some time in retirement, prayer, and mortification; and having heard of a holy hermit, St. Felix Valois, living in a great wood near Gandelu, in the diocese of Meux, he repaired to him and begged he would admit him into his solitude, and instruct him in the practice of perfection. Felix soon discovered him to be no novice, and would not treat him as a disciple, but as a companion. It is incredible what progress these two holy solitaries made in the paths of virtue, by perpetual prayer, contemplation, fasting, and watching.

One day, sitting together on the bank of a spring, John disclosed to Felix the design he had conceived on the day on which he said his first mass, to succour the Christians under the Mahometan slavery, and spoke so movingly upon the subject that Felix was convinced that the design was from God, and offered him his joint concurrence to carry it into execution. They took some time to recommend it to God by prayer and fasting, and then set out for Rome in the midst of a severe winter, towards the end of the year 1197, to obtain the pope's benediction. They found Innocent III promoted to the chair of St. Peter, who being already informed of their sanctity and charitable design by letters of recommendation from the Bishop of Paris, his holiness received them as two angels from heaven, lodged them in his own palace, and gave them many long private audiences. After which he assembled the cardinals and some bishops in the palace of St. John Lateran, and asked their advice. After their deliberations he ordered a fast and particular prayers to know the will of heaven. At length being convinced that these two holy men were led by the spirit of God, and that great advantages would accrue to the church from such an institute, he consented to their erecting a new religious order, and declared St. John the first general minister. The Bishop of Paris, and the abbot of St. Victor, were ordered to draw up their rules, which the pope approved by a bull in 1198. He ordered the religious to wear a white habit, with a red and blue cross on the breast, and to take the name of the order of the Holy Trinity. He confirmed it some time after, adding new privileges by a second bull, dated in 1209.

The two founders having obtained the pope's blessing and certain indults or privileges, returned to France, presented themselves to the king, Philip Augustus, who authorized the establishment of their order in his kingdom, and favoured it with his liberalities. Gaucher III, lord of Chatillon, gave them land whereon to build a convent. Their number increasing, the same lord, seconded by the king, gave them Cerfroid, the place in which St. John and St. Felix concerted the first plan of their institute. It is situated in Brie, on the confines of Valois. This house of Cerfroid, or De Cervo frigido, is the chief of the order. The two saints founded many other convents in France, and sent several of their religious to accompany the counts of Flanders and Blois, and other lords, to the holy war. Pope Innocent III wrote to recommend these religious to Miramolin, king of Morocco; and St. John sent thither two of his religious in 1201, who redeemed one hundred and eighty-six Christian slaves the first voyage. The year following, St. John went himself to Tunis, where he purchased the liberty of one hundred and ten more. He returned into Provence, and there received great charities, which he carried into Spain, and redeemed many in captivity under the Moors. On his return he collected large alms among the Christians towards this charitable undertaking. His example produced a second order of Mercy, instituted by St. Peter Nolasco, in 1235.

St. John made a second voyage to Tunis in 1210 in which he suffered much from the infidels, enraged at his zeal and success in exhorting the poor slaves to patience and constancy in their faith. As he was returning with one hundred and twenty slaves he had ransomed, the barbarians took away the helm from his vessel and tore all its sails, that they might perish in the sea. The saint, full of confidence in God, begged him to be their pilot, and hung up his companions' cloaks for sails, and, with a crucifix in his hands kneeling on the deck, singing psalms, after a prosperous voyage, they all landed safe at Ostia, in Italy. Felix, by this time, had greatly propagated his order in France, and obtained for it a convent in Paris, in a place where stood before a chapel of St. Mathurin, whence these religious in France are called Mathurins.

St. John lived two years more in Rome, which he employed in exhorting all to penance with great energy and fruit. He died on the 21st of December, in 1213 aged sixty-one. He was buried in his church of St. Thomas, where his monument yet remains, though his body has been translated into Spain. Pope Honorius III confirmed the rule of this order a second time. By the first rule they were not permitted to buy any thing for their sustenance except bread, pulse, herbs, oil, eggs, milk, cheese, and fruit, never flesh or fish: however, they might eat flesh on the principal festivals, on condition it was given them. They were not, in travelling, to ride on any beasts but asses.

When we consider the zeal and joy with which the saints sacrificed themselves for their neighbours, how must we blush at and condemn our insensibility at the spiritual and the corporal calamities of others! The saints regarded affronts, labours, and pains as nothing for the service of others in Christ: we cannot bear the least word or roughness of temper.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

St. Chrysostom[1] elegantly and pathetically extols the charity of the widow of Sarepta, whom neither poverty nor children, nor hunger, nor fear of death, withheld from affording relief to the prophet Elias, and he exhorts every one to meditate on her words, and keep her example present to his mind. "How hard or insensible soever we are," says he, "they will make a deep impression upon us, and we shall not be able to refuse relief to the poor, when we have before our eyes the generous charity of this widow. It is true, you will tell me, that if you meet with a prophet in want, you could not refuse doing him all the good offices in your power. But what ought you not to do for Jesus Christ, who is the master of the prophets? He takes whatsoever you do to the poor as done to himself." When we consider the zeal and joy with which the saints sacrificed themselves for their neighbors, how must we blush at, and condemn out insensibility at the spiritual and the corporal calamities of others! Fine saints regarded affronts, labors, and pains, as nothing for the service of others in Christ: we cannot bear the least word or roughness of temper.

From several bulls of Innocent III and the many authors of his life, especially that compiled by Robert Gaguin, the learned general of this order, in 1490, collected by Baillet, and the Hist. des Ordres Relig. by F. Helyot. See also Annales Ordinis is SS. Trinitatis, auctore Bon. Baro, Ord. Minor. Romae, 1684, and Regula et Statuta Ord. SS. Trinitatis, in 12mo, 1570.

One more reason to dislike republicanism

2011-12-14T13:28:00.005-05:00

You may read my reasons here, and while some of the references are now dated like examples can be found in this administration of the current "Emperor", Here is one from Hillary Clinton about forcing homosexual rights on countries asking for or already receiving aide. I did not vote for that. Here is an article about the next step for a perverted ideal.

This recent tidbit comes from Wisconsin;

MADISON, Wis. -- The signatures of Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler will be counted on recall petitions targeting Gov. Scott Walker as long as they are properly dated and include a Wisconsin address, the board charged with reviewing the petitions was told Tuesday.

Suspicious signatures will be noted when the Government Accountability Board reviews the petitions, but reviewers will look to see that signatures are accompanied by a Wisconsin address and are dated as having been signed during the circulation period, board elections specialist David Buerger said.

"We will flag them, but we will not strike them without challenge," Buerger said after being asked whether Mickey Mouse's signature would be counted. He noted that in previous recall petitions, Adolf Hitler's name was struck because the address given was in Germany, not because of the name itself.

The board unanimously approved the board's plan for reviewing the petitions.

Circulators need to gather 540,208 valid signatures by Jan. 17 to force a recall election for Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. Organizers said they had 300,000 as of Nov. 28 and then declined to give an update Tuesday.

The effort to recall Walker, Kleefisch and four Republican state senators is fueled by anger over the proposal passed this year that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for public workers. Recall elections targeting six senators this summer resulted in two Republican incumbents losing their seats.

The four senators targeted for recall are Terry Moulton, of Chippewa Falls; Pam Galloway, of Wausau; Van Wanggaard, of Racine; and Scott Fitzgerald, of Juneau. An exploratory committee also has been formed to look at a possible recall effort against Democratic Sen. Bob Jauch related to his position on a mining bill.

Petitions for the senators require between roughly 15,000 and 16,700 signatures, depending on the lawmaker.

The GAB plans to hire about 50 temporary workers to conduct the review of what it expects could be up to 1.5 million signatures.

Judge Thomas Barland, a GAB board member, asked what was being done to prevent the temporary workers being hired to review the petitions from attempting to sabotage one side or the other. All people hired will be subject to the same background check that GAB staff are to ensure they don't have a partisan background, Buerger said.

"Our overarching priority for the staff we are hiring is that they are coming at this from a nonpartisan basis," he said.

The goal is to have the petition review done in public, but because where that will be done hasn't been determined, it's not yet known how broad the access will be, Buerger said. Electronic copies of all the petitions submitted will be available upon request, he said.

The board plans to ask a court for an extension of 60 days, instead of just 31 days, to finish its review. Challenges must be made within 10 days after copies of the petitions are given to the targeted office holders, but an extension to that is also expected to be sought.

The Republican Party and Walker's campaign have started their own website asking for people to submit information about signatures that ought to be disqualified, including multiple signatures.

Walker and those targeted are at a disadvantage since they can't see the signatures collected until after they are submitted, while circulators can weed out problems before they are submitted.

"A majority of citizens have grown increasingly frustrated with the recall process, and this effort allows these people to get involved and protect their state from repeated fraudulent activity," said Republican Party executive director Stephan Thompson in announcing the launch of the website Tuesday.

The GAB has encouraged anyone who witnesses fraud or other problems related to circulating petitions to contact the board, which is working together with the state Department of Justice to refer cases to district attorneys for possible prosecution.

Read more:

This is democracy and republicanism. It is not Democracy and republicanism gone wild it is merely the logical extension of those principles passed down from the "forefathers". Remember both parties operate in this manner because the parties look to the revolution as the defining moment in the history of the United States. As I have said before in the blog the republicans and democratic parties are on the same side of the same coin, being their only goal is to retain "power". the will of the people is not a concern unless and only if the gift of the vote or reelection campaign money is forthcoming. How many politician recently have had problems with Campaign finance recently?

I believe I would know it if Adolph Hitler came in to vote. I would still ask for an ID.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

On What?

2011-12-12T14:34:00.003-05:00

Senate legalizes bestiality in the Armed Forces

This had to come. Once the procription against Homosexuals serving in the Military was overturned by a pagan Senate and signed into law by an equally pagan president those portions of military law which outlawed sodomy and bestiality had to go as well. Unfortunately for the nbaby genuises the left in the General Article 134. which reads: "Though not specifically mentioned in this chapter, all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, and crimes and offenses not capital, of which persons subject to this chapter may be guilty, shall be taken cognizance of by a general, special or summary court-martial, according to the nature and degree of the offense, and shall be punished at the discretion of that court." So this would have to be the charge used for inapproprate sex between and adult and a minor. Enlistment is open to youths at age 17. More...

A return to Rome...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

US takes gay rights fight to international stage and Archbishop calls Obama out.

2011-12-09T17:00:00.004-05:00

My Friend Sarah writes from Australia. She makes this observation...

Hillary Clinton now presumes to dictate to the world re 'homosexual 'rights' with missionary zeal, seeing such as her 'calling'; she has the audacity to claim that 'gay rights are human rights'; that support to the developing world is henceforth to be directly tied to their acceptance and enshrineing into law of the homosexual agenda. No acceptance of the homosexual agenda? No funding/development aid/humanitarian assistance!

This is more than a step too far; it is the US hurling itself over the cliff's edge to the jagged rocks and pounding sea below as it exports its loathsome culture of death as a non-negotiable to the rest of the world; forcing homosexuality down the throats of the God-fearing who haven't sold out their souls to the satanic lie that the US has become (with Australia not far behind it)!

Quickly now the end time struggle approaches,

Updated December 07, 2011 15:46:06

Photo: Ms Clinton received a standing ovation after the address in Geneva. (AFP: Sebastian Feval)

The United States has put the fight against gay and lesbian discrimination at the heart of its foreign policy, but stopped short of warning transgressor nations they could be stripped of US aid.

President Barack Obama has ordered all government agencies that play an active foreign policy role to take steps to encourage foreign nations to put a premium on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.

"I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting LGBT persons around the world," he said in a memorandum unveiling his directives.

The memo was released the same day as pop singer and gay rights advocate Lady Gaga visited the White House.

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton meanwhile, in an impassioned speech at the United Nations in Geneva, committed $US3 million to start a Global Equality Fund to support civil society organisations working for LGBT rights worldwide.

"Being gay is not a Western invention. It is a human reality," she said.

I am directing all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons.

US president Barack Obama
"Gay people are born into - and belong to - every society in the world. They are all ages, all races, all faiths. They are doctors, and teachers, farmers and bankers, soldiers and athletes."

The US action came amid rising international attention on discrimination against LGBT citizens and growing disquiet in Africa over Western policy on the issue.

Washington for example, has expressed concern over legislation in Nigeria that seeks to outlaw gay marriage and public displays of affection between homosexual couples.

Britain has meanwhile warned that it will consider withholding aid from nations which do not recognize gay rights.

Mr Obama condemned laws that criminalise LGBT citizens, beatings of people who join peaceful LGBT pride celebrations, or the killings of men, women, and children over their perceived sexual orientation.

"By this memorandum I am directing all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons," he said.

Mr Obama directed government agencies to fight against the criminalization of LGBT activity abroad and to combat discrimination, homophobia, and intolerance.

'Build respect'
He required the departments of State and Homeland Security to ensure LGBT asylum seekers are properly protected and noted the US government could resettle highly vulnerable people who need urgent protection.

The president directed agencies involved with foreign aid and development to engage governments and civil society groups abroad to "build respect for the human rights of LGBT persons."

He also directed swift action to respond to human rights abuses against LGBT people perpetrated by foreign governments and required all agencies to produce an annual report on progress towards all the initiatives.

But Mr Obama appeared to stop short of warning that nations that do not satisfy US requirements on aid could automatically see American assistance cut.

"The president's memo today puts forward a comprehensive strategy, of which one component is finding affirmative ways to support these efforts through our assistance," said Caitlin Hayden, a National Security Council spokeswoman.

"We are not talking about cutting aid or tying aid, but we are talking about using all of our tools, including assistance, to translate our principles into action."

Senator Clinton said the Global Equality Fund will help civil society organisations target advocacy, learn how to use the law as a tool and manage their budgets and staff.

We are not talking about cutting aid or tying aid, but we are talking about using all of our tools, including assistance, to translate our principles into action.

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden
The chief US diplomat, who received a standing ovation at the end of her speech, said LGBT rights were universal human rights.

Joe Solmonese, of the Human Rights Campaign, which fights for the LGBT community, praised the administration's new strategy.

"Today's actions by president Obama make clear that the United States will not turn a blind eye when governments commit or allow abuses to the human rights of LGBT people," he said.

But Texas Governor Rick Perry, courting social conservatives as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination to take on Obama in next November's election, accused the president of waging a war on American values.

"This is just the most recent example of an administration at war with people of faith in this country. Investing tax dollars promoting a lifestyle many Americans of faith find so deeply objectionable is wrong," he said.

Archbishop Wenski Speaks Up for Catholic Conscience

'The president's promises are not being kept,' Miami archbishop says.
by KEVIN JONES (EWTN NEWS) 12/06/2011 Comments (11)

MIAMI (EWTN News)—President Barack Obama has not kept his promises about conscience protections for abortion opponents, and those who trusted him to exclude abortion from the health-care bill seem to “have been played,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami said.

“His administration is running roughshod over conscience-protection provisions’ long part of the law that find their justification in the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion, a foundational human right,” the archbishop wrote in a Dec. 2 essay in the Miami Herald.

“It is one thing for an administration to support and promote an agenda; it is quite another to force those who disagree with it to violate their moral and religious principles.”

The archbishop noted President Obama’s 2009 commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, where he promised to “honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion” and to provide “sensible” protections for those who do not want to be involved.

“Fast-forward to late 2011, and the record shows that the president’s promises are not being kept,” the archbishop said. He added that the president seems to have deceived pro-life Catholics like former Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak, Catholic Health Association head, Sister Carol Keehan, and Notre Dame’s leadership.

“The long line of evidence is disturbing,” he said.

Archbishop Wenski cited the administration’s 2009 reversal of previous regulations on federal conscience laws. He noted that the health-care bill of 2010 omitted traditional protections for conscience rights and included language that would “subjugate” conscience rights to federal and state “emergency” service laws.

“In other words, any abortion declared an ‘emergency’ (broadly defined) by a government requires a health-care provider’s full cooperation, regardless of his or her views on the matter,” Archbishop Wenski warned.

He also objected to the Department of Health and Human Services rule announced on Aug. 1 that requires almost all health plans, including those provided by Catholic organizations, to cover sterilization and contraception, including abortifacient drugs.

“HHS seemingly wants to regard fertility as a disease — and elective abortion subsidized by the taxpayer as health care.”

The archbishop lamented federal contracts’ and grants’ new requirements that grantees help provide all legally permissible family-planning and obstetric/gynecological services. Many U.S. State Department AIDS program grants now require integration with family planning and “reproductive health” services, which ignores conscience clauses in the congressional authorizing statute.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had been receiving a grant to help human-trafficking victims, but this grant was discontinued after the conference said it could not meet the new requirements and pointed out that the requirement violates existing federal conscience laws.

“Catholic social and health-care providers — the largest private network in the nation — are at risk of being left out of all federal programs, despite their well-earned reputation for providing superlative service to the American public.”

“In effect, the Obama administration is telling these Catholic providers to surrender their conscience rights and their Catholic ethos or shut their doors,” Archbishop Wenski charged.

The archbishop urged Americans and elected officials from both parties to be concerned with these developments, warning that the violation of religious and conscience rights puts everyone’s rights in jeopardy.

Thank You Sarah.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

How John Q Public heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor

2011-12-07T11:33:00.004-05:00

*
On a lazy Sunday morning at the Pearl Harbor naval base the day was just beginning. It was approaching 8:00 in the morning. Meanwhile, in New York City it was already afternoon. The east coast was listening to a football game between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers which had an approximate 2:00 PM EST kickoff. At approximately, 2:26 WOR (possibly Mutual) broke into the game with this surprise bulletin about an attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor. The NBC Red network was broadcasting Sammy Kaye's Sunday Serenade with Sammy and his Orchestra, Tommy Ryan, Alan Foster, and the Three Kaydettes. The day's broadcast was just about finished and next up was the rather bland University of Chicago Round Table. The topic was "Canada: A Neighbor at War." Canada, part of the British Empire, had declared war on Germany soon after England. While we supplied material to the British, Canada was supplying an even more precious commodity - men.

Just as the NBC network program changeover was to take place, it upcut the start of the Round Table with its first bulletin * on the Pearl Harbor bombing at 2:29:50 pm read by NBC news writer Robert Eisenbach. At the same time, on the Blue Network, NBC interrupted its Great Plays broadcast of "The Inspector General" with the same bulletin.

Meanwhile, over at CBS where the only regularly scheduled news broadcast on Sundays was about to begin, things were in a disarray as the United Press wire news flash flowed in about the bombing. The 2:30 P.M. program was The World Today. Normally, this program would have gone on the air to report current world events. But this day, they began almost immediately with the bulletin by announcer John Daly of Pearl Harbor being bombed. CBS continued with additional commentary on the impact of this event. But NBC continued its regular programming. That CBS' regular program was news-related offered it a better opportunity to give broader coverage.

At 2:38:20 P.M. NBC Red offered another bulletin that Manila was being bombed (which later proved to be false). This was followed at 2:52 P.M. by the University of Chicago Round Table moderator mentioning that Burma was being bombed. At CBS at 2:33 P.M., Washington D.C.-based newsman Albert Warner speculated on what possible steps FDR would take given that the Japanese envoys were meeting with Secretary of State Cordell Hull as the bombing was taking place. At 2:39, Warner interrupts his own analysis with a bulletin that the Japanese are bombing Manila.

Probably surprising today, but not then, NBC went back to regularly scheduled broadcasting until the top of the hour at 3:00 P.M. Radio was driven mostly by commercial sponsors. To interrupt a sponsored program required the permission of the sponsor executives. While there were several interruptions during the University of Chicago Round Table on the Red Network, there was only one on the Blue Network during its regularly scheduled Great Plays. CBS on the other hand was in the midst of a news program and could continue without problems broadcasting breaking news.

In London, CBS broadcaster, Robert Trout, spoke briefly about what impact the news would probably have on Britain, which was not yet aware of the news. Due to the Austrian Crisis a couple of years before, all of the U.S. Radio news organizations began beefing up their overseas coverage especially CBS; they were ready to report from overseas. Then during an analysis by Elmer Davis, John Daly cut in with another bulletin that the attack was still going on. CBS was able to get a telephone line from New York through to Ford Wilkins, their stringer in Manila who began to report that the Phillipines were now under attack. But due to sudden censorship by the U.S. Government, he was cut off at 2:49 P.M.

At 3:00 P.M. CBS began broadcast of its regularly scheduled New York Philharmonic Orchestra program. NBC Red returned at 3:15 P.M. with comments from H. V. Kaltenborn. Except for bulletin interruptions, regular programming continued into the evening as the fact of a country soon to be at war began to dawn on America. As events developed, government control of the air waves began to unfold. On the NBC Red network at 4:06:40 P.M. a report from the roof of KGU in Honolulu was suddenly cut off by a telephone operator seizing the line for an "emergency" at 4:09:15 P.M.

Later in the evening, Hawaiian time, KGU broadcast this brief summary of events and eyewitness reports.

The coming of America's involvement in the second World War also brought the increasing development and rise of broadcast journalism. Much of that credit goes to Edward R. Murrow and the CBS News team, but there were equally innovators at NBC and the Mutual Broadcasting System. But on this day, we could only witness the first pangs of its birth.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Borrowed from Oldtime Radio

Video: *This footage of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was shot by CWO4 Clyde Daughtry. The original footage has since been lost, and the poor quality of this footage is due to the fact that it is a copy, and believed to be the best remaining version of this film in existence. Among the many valuable portions of this footage are shots of USS Nevada (BB-36) underway and firing back at Japanese aircraft, USS Oglala (CM-4) rolling over and sinking, and USS St. Louis underway (CL-4). Naval History and Heritage Command, Photographic Section, UM-10.

** This bulletin ends and the program reverts to the actual program about Canada and it's war against Germany allied to Britain.

The 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl harbor

2011-12-07T10:41:00.005-05:00

Today marks a tragic day in American History. On this day 70 years ago at approximately 1:00 PM EST the Japanese Empire thrust itself on the United States by attacking the United States Naval Army and Army Air Forces in Hawaii. This one act galvanized the America, as we found ourselves no longer an isolationist country but a country bent on finishing the Second World War. If the first World War marked the end of an era, then December 7th surly marked the beginining of a new one.

Here is an overview of the Pearl Harbor attack by the US Navy's Historical Branch.

Click here first.

The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.

Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued. In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.

By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well.

The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December. Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead. Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.

These great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since. For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition. American and Allied morale suffered accordingly. Under normal political circumstances, an accomodation might have been considered.

However, the memory of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor fueled a determination to fight on. Once the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 had eliminated much of Japan's striking power, that same memory stoked a relentless war to reverse her conquests and remove her, and her German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace.

Whereas the United States was slowly drawn into the Great War, the attack on Pearl Harbor shocked us into war.

Losses.

Not all wars are like the 1st Gulf War where the casualties for the US were disporportionate to the enemy. Battles are calculated be area gained, and objectives taken. The losses in killed and wounded are only calculated in the hearts of families.

The US Navy bore the burden of those killed at pearl harbor, many of these men remain aboard their ships to this day.

US Navy, Killed 2008 Wounded 710

US Army, Killed 218 Wounded 178

US Marines, Killed 109 Wounded 69

Civilians, Killed 68 Wounded 35

Summary of U.S. Ship Damage

Battleships

Arizona sunk, total loss, It is now the National Memorial to Pearl Harbor

California sunk, raised, repaired May 1944

Maryland damaged, repaired Feb. 1942

Nevada heavily damaged, repaired Dec. 1942

Oklahoma capsized, total loss

Tennessee damaged, repaired Mar. 1942

West Virginia sunk, raised, repaired July 1944

Pennsylvania slightly damaged, repaired Aug. 1942

Destroyers

Cassin heavily damaged, rebuilt Feb. 1944

Downes heavily damaged, rebuilt Nov. 1943

Helm damaged, repaired Jan. 1942

Cruisers

Helena heavily damaged, repaired June 1942

Honolulu damaged, repaired Jan. 1942

Raleigh heavily damaged, repaired July 1942

Minecraft

Oglala sunk, raised, repaired Feb. 1944

Auxiliaries

Curtis damaged, repaired Jan. 1942

Sotoyomo sunk, raised, repaired Aug.1942

Utah capsized, sunk, Now a memorial

Vestal heavily damaged, repaired Feb. 1942

YFD-2 sunk, raised, repaired May 1942

Some of these ships went on to serve at DDay 6 June 1944.

Of 22 Japanese ships which were in the attacking forces at Pearl harbor only one survived to be surrendered at the end of the war. All 4 of the Aircraft Carriers which launched aircraft against Pearl Harbor were sunk at Midway on June 4-5 1942less than 7 months later.

May in God they find rest.

This is ecuminism! Catholic youth indoctrinated in Vendee by Muslims.

2011-12-06T11:28:00.007-05:00

A la mosquée de La Roche, des collégiens s'imprègnent de l’islam.

Des élèves de 5e au collège Saint-Pierre des Essarts ont visité aujourd'hui la mosquée de La Roche.

L’éveil aux religions, c’est aussi s’imprégner des lieux cultuels. Venus du collège Saint-Pierre aux Essarts, des élèves en 5e, curieux et ouverts, ont posé leur regard sur la mosquée. Un échange riche a suivi avec Ali Bensaada, aumônier auprès des maisons d'arrêt. Grâce à cette visite, les collégiens auront une image de l'endroit où l'islam se vit. Une bonne manière de comprendre au mieux leur programme scolaire, s'intéressant aux débuts de l'Islam. encore...

Où le decendants du Chouanerie est ? Il n'y a pas de vrais hommes dans le Vendée ? en France ? Où le Eglise?

Teaching Catholic girls to become good Muslims.

Sometime in October of this year, students of the Saint-Pierre School (a Catholic school in the Diocese of Luçon, located in the commune of Les Essarts in the Vendée) visited the mosque of La Roche-sur-Yon, accompanied by their teachers. The purpose: to "soak in" the spirit of Islam. It seems that they succeeded, judging from this picture:

Forbid this Almighty God. This is ecuminism.

Jhesu+Marie?
Brantigny

Would we ever find a Jewish school going to the mosque in the name of "soaking in" Islam?

"All I know about the Spanish Inquisition I learned from Monthy Python."

2011-12-06T10:33:00.004-05:00

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! (1) " and it seems no one knows about the Inquisition either. The Catholic Investigation Agency explains what exactly what it was all about. It is unfortunate that many people know all they will ever know about the Inquisition comes from Monty Python.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

(1) Monty Python

The Real St Nicholas

2011-12-05T19:43:00.001-05:00

St. Nicholas

The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.

Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. The prisons were so full of bishops, priests, and deacons, there was no room for the real criminals—murderers, thieves and robbers. After his release, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a unique relic, called manna, formed in his grave. This liquid substance, said to have healing powers, fostered the growth of devotion to Nicholas. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day.

Through the centuries many stories and legends have been told of St. Nicholas' life and deeds. These accounts help us understand his extraordinary character and why he is so beloved and revered as protector and helper of those in need. more

Jhesu+Marie
Brantigny

Catholic Zeal

2011-12-02T17:00:00.002-05:00

Forget all the ecuminism lets get back to zealous conversion.

Jheus+Marie,
Brantigny

..Kentucky church bans interracial marriage

2011-12-01T13:48:00.003-05:00

This has made the news today, however, there are many ecclesiastic communities who do not condone or welcome people of the same religion who are not the same race. In this state, NC, there are churches who are black, churches who are white, and churches which are Korean, etc. Each proclaims the same basic creed, the only commonality which they share is their absolute unshakable belief that all Catholics are going to hell and that the Catholic Church is a cult. (oh, and all Priests are pediophiles). This is not the Church Christ founded on Penticost.

The True Church brings all peoples together, not just the one's, you know, who look like us...

By Eric Pfeiffer, of The Sideshow

A small Kentucky church has chosen to ban marriages and even some worship services for interracial couples. The Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church, located in Pike County, made the vote in response to a longtime member who is engaged to a man whose birthplace is in Zimbabwe.

Other pastoral leaders in the area were quick to denounce the church's vote. "It's not the spirit of the community in any way, shape or form," Randy Johnson, president of the Pike County Ministerial Association, told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The small congregation, which usually hosts about 40 members each Sunday, held the vote after longtime member Stella Harville, brought her fiancé Ticha Chikuni to church with her in June. The couple performed a song together at the church in which Chikuni sang "I Surrender All," while Harville played the piano.

Chikuni, 29, who works at Georgetown College, is black--and Harville, who was baptized at the church but is not an active member, is white. Dean Harville, Stella's father, said he was told by the church's former pastor Melvin Thompson that his daughter and her fiancé were not allowed to sing at the church again. However, Thompson recently stepped down and the church's new pastor, Stacy Stepp, said the couple was once again welcome to sing.

Stepp's decision prompted Thompson to put forth a recommendation saying that while all members are welcome at the church, it does not "condone" interracial marriage, and that any interracial couples would not be received as members or allowed to participate in worship services. The only exception? Funerals.

The Harville family has formally requested the congregation to reconsider the interracial ban, and Thompson has also said he would like to resolve the issue, the area CBS affiliate WYMT has reported.

A copy of the recommendation, obtained by WYMT, reads in part:

That the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church does not condone interracial marriage. Parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services and other church functions, with the exception being funerals. All are welcome to our public worship services. This recommendation is not intended to judge the salvation of anyone, but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve.

Members of the church held a vote on Thompson's proposed language, with nine voting in favor and six voting against. The other members in attendance chose not to vote.

Gawker notes that Pike County is 98 percent white and home to the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud.

The Harville family doesn't see Gulnare's new policy promoting anything like unity or civil peace. "They're the people who are supposed to comfort me in times like these," Stella Harville said.

And Stella's father was much more forceful in his denunciation of the interracial ban. "It sure ain't Christian," Dean Harville said. "It ain't nothing but the old devil working."

Jhesu+Marie,

Brantigny

St Catherine Laboure

2011-11-28T15:17:00.003-05:00

As the evening Angelus sounded, Catherine was born of Peter and Louise Labouré on May 2, 1806. She was the ninth child of a family of eleven. Fifteen minutes after her birth, her name was entered on the city records. The next day, she was baptized on the feast of the Finding of The True Cross. It seems more than a coincidence that Catherine was born at the ringing of the Angelus; surely it was God's charming touch—the heralding by our Lady's bells of the saint who was to be so highly favored by Mary. Nor was it an accident that Catherine's name received the prompt attention of the world... certainly it was her holy mother's intuition that led Louise Madeleine Laboure to call attention to her special child. Even the feast of Catherine's baptism was prophetic, for Catherine was to find the cross in every turn of her life, to have deep devotion for it, and to see a mysterious vision of the cross.

When Catherine was nine years old, her mother died. After the burial service, little Catherine retired to her room, stood on a chair, took our Lady's statue from the wall, kissed it, and said: "Now, dear Lady, you are to be my mother."

After living a year in Paris with her Aunt Margaret, Catherine came back to her father's home to supervise the household. She was her father's favorite child, and this efficient, stern, upper middle class farmer depended on her. On January 25, 1818, Catherine received her First Holy Communion. From that day on she arose every morning at 4:00 a.m., walked several miles to church in order to assist at Mass, and to pray.

One day she had a dream in which she saw an old priest say Mass. After Mass, the priest turned and beckoned her with his finger, but she drew backwards, keeping her eye on him. The vision moved to a sick room where she saw the same priest, who said: "My child, it is a good deed to look after the sick; you run away now, but one day you will be glad to come to me. God has designs on you—do not forget it." Later, she awoke, not knowing the significance of the dream.

Sometime later, while visiting a hospital of the Daughters of Charity, she noticed a priest's picture on the wall. She asked a sister who he might be, and was told: "Our Holy Founder Saint Vincent de Paul." Catherine had seen this same priest in the dream.

In January of 1830, Catherine Laboure became a postulant in the hospice of the Daughters of Charity at Catillon-sur-Seine. Three months later, she was again in Paris, this time to enter the Seminary at the Mother House of the Daughters of Charity. Shortly after she entered her new home, God was pleased to grant her several extraordinary visions. On three consecutive days she beheld the heart of Saint Vincent above the reliquary in which his relics were exposed, each time under a different aspect. At other times, she beheld our divine Lord in front of the Blessed Sacrament; this would occur especially during Mass when he would appear as he was described in the liturgy of the day.

On the eve of the Feast of Saint Vincent de Paul, July 19, the Sister Superior spoke to the novices about the virtues of their Holy Founder and gave each of them a piece of cloth from his surplice. Catherine earnestly prayed to Saint Vincent that she might see the mother of God with her own eyes.

She was convinced that she would see the Blessed Virgin Mary that very night. In her conviction, Catherine fell asleep. Before long, a brilliant light and the voice of a child awakened her. "Sister Labouré, come to the Chapel; the Blessed Virgin awaits you."

Catherine replied: "We shall be discovered."

The little child smiled, "Do not be uneasy; it is half past eleven, everyone is sleeping... come, I am waiting for you." She rose quickly and dressed. The hall lights were burning. The locked chapel door swung open at the angel's touch. Amazed, Catherine found the Chapel ablaze with lights as if prepared for midnight Mass. Quickly she knelt at the communion rail, and suddenly, she heard the rustle of a silk dress... the Blessed Virgin, in a blaze of glory, sat in the director's chair. The angel whispered: "The Blessed Mother wishes to speak with you."

Catherine rose, knelt beside the Blessed Mother and rested her hands in the Virgin's lap. Mary said: "God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do not fear; you will have the grace to do what is necessary. Tell your spiritual director all that passes within you. Times are evil in France and in the world."

A pain crossed the Virgin's face.

"Come to the foot of the altar. Graces will be shed on all, great and little, especially upon those who seek for them. You will have the protection of God and Saint Vincent. I always will have my eyes upon you. There will be much persecution. The cross will be treated with contempt. It will be hurled to the ground and blood will flow." Then after speaking for some time, the Lady like a fading shadow was gone.

Led by the child, Catherine left the chapel, marched up the corridor, and returned to her place in the dormitory. The angel disappeared and as Catherine went to bed, she heard the clock strike two in the morning.

Catherine lived the normal life of a novice of the Daughters of Charity until Advent. On Saturday, November 27, 1830, at 5:30 p.m., she retired to the Chapel with the other Sisters for evening meditation. Catherine heard the faint swish of silk... she recognized our Lady's signal. Raising her eyes to the main altar, she saw her beautiful Lady standing on a large globe.

The Virgin spoke, this time giving a direct order: "Have a medal struck as I have shown you. All who wear it will receive great graces."

Catherine asked how she was to have the medal struck. Mary replied that she was to go to her confessor, a Father Jean Marie Aladel saying of this saintly priest: "He is my servant." Father Aladel at first did not believe Catherine; however, after two years, he finally went to the archbishop who ordered two thousand medals struck on June 20, 1832. When Catherine received her share of these first medals from the hands of the priest she said: "Now it must be propagated."

The spread of a devotion to the medal urged by Saint Catherine was carried out so swiftly that it was miraculous itself.

Today, after the Rosary, Our Lady's Miraculous Medal is the most common Catholic devotional sacramental object.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Borrowed from the Association of the Miraculous Medal

Can republics be snobbier than the Monarchy?

2011-11-28T14:25:00.002-05:00

"...Many commentators continue to follow Malcolm Muggeridge's argument that the monarchy is the source of class consciousness, that "the impulses out of which snobbishness is born descend from the Queen at the apex of the social pyramid, right down to the base." This neglects the fact that several countries routinely held up as progressive, egalitarian democracies - Holland, Sweden, Norway - are also monarchies. It also neglects the Olympic-class snobbery to be found in every non-royal society, from Ivy League America to the Crillon Ball crowd in Paris..." more

A well worth while reading at Ci-Divant.

Is there anything snobbier than a liberal elitest?

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

God's miracle that is us.

2011-11-23T14:17:00.001-05:00

Richard Dawkins explain this...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

The First Thanksgivings Were Catholic

2011-11-23T14:01:00.003-05:00

...Catholics, gathered around their laden Thanksgiving tables enjoying the company of family and friends, should know a quite consoling fact of American History: the first Thanksgivings on U.S. soil were Catholic.

The epic journey of the first European colonists to the Southwest

The American History books we studied as youth pretend that Colonial American History is exclusively what happened in the thirteen New England colonies. This ignores an enormous part of reality - our Catholic History. Little attention is paid to the epic northward advance by Spanish pioneers into the southern tier of States reaching from Florida across Texas and New Mexico to California, today called the Spanish Borderlands.

The first two Thanksgivings in the present day United States were actually Catholic. More...

Everybody have a good Thanksgiving holiday, and My God bless your family!

Jhesu+Marie!
Brantigny

The Latin Mass

2011-11-23T08:46:00.003-05:00

This is a High Mass as explained by Archbishop Sheen...

Traditional Latin Mass filmed on Easter Sunday in 1941 at Our Lady of Sorrows church in Chicago. The film presents the ceremonies of the Missa Solemnis or Solemn High Mass in full detail with narration by then-Mgr. Fulton J. Sheen. Celebrated by Rev. J. R. Keane of the Order of Servites (hence the white habits and cowls), the ceremonies are accompanied by a full polyphonic choir, orchestra, and fifty Gregorian Chanters.

The attention to detail in the ceremonies is impressive. Notice, for example, how the servers and ministers always take great care to move in order. Notice too that the servers are all almost identical in height. The Ordinary of the Mass, composed by Rev. Edwin V. Hoover, while pleasant in places, is very much a reflection of its time. The Proper on the other hand is timeless and sung admirably by a healthy throng of Seminarians from Mundelein, Illinois.

Unfortunately due to size restrictions at Youtube around 20 mins have been cut from the original, however, I hope to upload a full version somewhere soon. In addition to the cuts I have added new captions and edited the opening credits which had deteriorated in the original. Other than this the film remains largely unchanged. Apologies for the error in the captions for the two parts of the Mass (software). The first part is of couse the Mass of the Catechumens, the second is the Mass of the Faithful.

I present this just as the Church has promulgated changes to the Mass as it will be beginning on Sunday 27 November 2011. I have not heard sung a High Mass since I was very small, yet still remember the responses in latin after all these years.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Blessed Fr Miguel Pro

2011-11-23T08:31:00.002-05:00

If some came and arrested you, and you were charged with being Catholic would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Today is the Feast of Fr Miguel Pro

Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, S.J. a Mexican Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, executed during the persecution of the Catholic Church under the presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles after trumped up charges of involvement in an assassination attempt against former President Álvaro Obregón.

At the time of the killing of Pro, Mexico was under rule of the fiercely anti-clerical and anti-Catholic President Plutarco Elías Calles who had begun what writer Graham Greene called the "fiercest persecution of religion anywhere since the reign of Elizabeth."

One of his companions, Fr. Pulido, said that he "had never seen such an exquisite wit, never coarse, always sparkling." He was noted for his charity and ability to talk about spiritual subjects without being boring. Fr. Pulido remarked that there were two Pros: the playful Pro and the prayerful Pro. He was known for the long periods he spent in the chapel.

Long-time President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz was ousted in 1911 after staging a rigged reelection, and a struggle for power — the Mexican Revolution — began.

Pro studied in Mexico until 1914 when a massive wave of governmental anti-Catholicism forced the novitiate to dissolve and the Jesuits to flee to Los Gatos, California, in the United States. He then went to study in Granada, Spain (1915–19), and then taught in Nicaragua from 1919 to 1922.

Back in Mexico, a new constitution for the country had been signed. Five articles of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico were particularly aimed at suppression of the Catholic Church. Article 3 mandated secular education in schools, prohibiting the Church from participating in primary and secondary education. Article 5 outlawed monastic religious orders. Article 24 forbade public worship outside of church buildings, while Article 27 restricted religious organizations' rights to own property. Finally, Article 130 took away basic civil rights of members of the clergy: priests and religious were prevented from wearing their habits, were denied the right to vote, and were not permitted to comment on public affairs in the press. Most of the anti-clerical provisions of the constitution were removed in 1998.

Because of Pro's background with the miners in Mexico and his natural ability to get along with workers, he was sent to Enghien, Belgium, to do a special study of Catholic labor movements. There, his health continued to deteriorate. He was ordained on schedule in Belgium on August 31, 1925. He wrote at that time, "How can I explain to you the sweet grace of the Holy Spirit, which invades my poor miner's soul with such heavenly joys? I could not keep back tears on the day of my ordination, above all at the moment when I pronounced, together with the bishop, the words of the consecration. After the ceremony the new priests gave their first blessing to their parents. I went to my room, laid out all the photographs of my family on the table, and then blessed them from the bottom of my heart."

His first assignment as a priest was to work with the miners of Charleroi, Belgium. Despite the socialist and communist tendencies of the workers, he was able to win them over and preach the Gospel to them.

Three months after ordination, he was forced to undergo several operations because of his ulcers. He remained cheerful and courageous, explaining that the source of his strength was his prayer.

In summer 1926, Father Pro's Jesuit superiors sent him back to Mexico, in the hopes that a change of climate would help him. On the way, he took a trip to Lourdes, where he celebrated Mass and visited the grotto.

Father Pro arrived at Veracruz on July 8, 1926. Plutarco Elías Calles was now president of Mexico. Unlike his predecessors, he vigorously enforced the anti-Catholic provisions of the 1917 constitution, implementing the so-called "Calles Law", which provided specific penalties for priests who criticized the government (five years imprisonment) or wore clerical garb in certain situations outside their churches (500 pesos). This law went into effect on July 31, 1926.

By this time, some states, such as Tabasco under the notorious anti-Catholic Tomás Garrido Canabal, had closed all the Churches and cleared the entire state of openly serving priests, killing many of them, forcing a few to marry and leaving a few to serve covertly at risk of their lives. On his return Fr. Pro served a Church which was forced to go “underground.” He celebrated the Eucharist clandestinely and ministered the other sacraments to small groups of Catholics.

We owe our details of Pro's ministry in the underground church to his many letters, signed with the nickname Cocol. In October 1926, a warrant for his arrest was issued. He was arrested, released from prison the next day, but kept under surveillance.

An assassination attempt by bombing against Álvaro Obregón (which only wounded the ex-president) in November 1927 provided the state with a pretext to capture Pro and his brothers Humberto and Roberto. A young engineer who was involved and confessed his part in the assassination testified the Pro brothers were not involved. Miguel and his brothers were taken to the Detective Inspector's Office in Mexico City.

On November 13, 1927, President Calles gave orders to have Pro executed under the pretext of the assassination, but in reality for defying the virtual outlawing of Catholicism. Calles had the execution meticulously photographed, and the newspapers throughout the country carried them on the front page the following day. Presumably, Calles thought that the sight of the pictures would frighten the Cristero rebels who were fighting against his troops, particularly in the state of Jalisco. However, they had the opposite effect.

Fr. Pro and his brothers were visited by Generals Roberto Cruz and Palomera Lopez around 11 p.m. on November 22, 1927. The next day, as Fr. Pro walked from his cell to the courtyard and the firing squad, he blessed the soldiers, knelt and briefly prayed quietly. Declining a blindfold, he faced his executioners with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other and held his arms out in imitation of the crucified Christ and shouted out, "May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies!" Before the firing squad were ordered to shoot, Pro raised his arms in imitation of Christ and shouted the defiant cry of the Cristeros, "Viva Cristo Rey!" -"Long live Christ the King!". When the initial shots of the firing squad failed to kill him, a soldier shot him point blank.

The Cristeros became more animated and fought with renewed enthusiasm, many of them carrying the newspaper photo of Pro before the firing squad.

Fifty-two years after Pro's execution, the Pope visited Mexico, was welcomed by the President, and celebrated open-air Masses before thousands of people (an act which would have been a crime during Pro's life and was still technically illegal at the time, though unenforced). At his beatification on September 25, 1988, Pope John Paul II honored Fr. Pro with these words:

Neither suffering nor serious illness, neither the exhausting ministerial activity, frequently carried out in difficult and dangerous circumstances, could stifle the radiating and contagious joy which he brought to his life for Christ and which nothing could take away. Indeed, the deepest root of self-sacrificing surrender for the lowly was his passionate love for Jesus Christ and his ardent desire to be conformed to him, even unto death.

"Viva Cristo Rey!"
Brantigny

from Bad Vestments

2011-11-22T09:50:00.004-05:00

This is Paganism.

San Francisco Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregation officially called Ebenezer although, as you can see by the link, it has begun to refer to itself as herchurch.

Why does herchurch exist? According to the web site:

The Christian-Lutheran Feminist/Womanist/Mujerista Movements exist to celebrate the feminine persona of God/dess and dimensions of the sacred as expressed in faith, worship, learning, mutual care, and acts of justice. more...

See? Paganism.

His grace the Hambishop of the Church of the Holy Hamburger, Saint McDonalds Parish.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

St Cecilia, feast day.

2011-11-22T08:38:00.004-05:00

History indicates that the first saint whose body experienced the phenomenon of incorruption is St Cecilia, the patroness of musicians.

The year of St Cecilia's birth is unknown, but it is believed she died about 177 A.D. Cecilia was a member of a rich and distinguished Roman family, who gave her in marriage to a young nobleman named Valerian, despite her desire to remain a virgin. On their wedding night St Cecilia was successful in persuading the new groom to respect her vow of virginity and later converted him to the Faith when he was favored with a vision of Cecilia’s guardian angel.

Valerian and his brother, Tiburtius, who was also converted by St Cecilia, were later called upon by the early Christian persecutors to renounce their religion. When both heroically refused, they were beheaded and buried along the Appian Way.

Cecilia was arrested for having buried their bodies and for this crime was given the choice of sacrificing to the heathen gods or being put to death. St Cecilia steadfastly affirmed her faith and chose to die rather than renounce it.

Because of her nobility and youth, her captors decided to execute St Cecilia in secrecy to avoid the expected criticism of the people. She was subsequently confined to the vapor bath of her home to die of suffocation. St Cecilia remained a whole day and night in that stifling environment, yet remained unharmed.

An experienced executioner was then sent to behead St Cecilia, but due to a loss of courage at having to kill such a young and beautiful woman, he failed to sever her head with the three blows required by law. He ultimately fled, leaving the Saint on the pavement of her bath, alive and fully conscious, with her head half severed.

St Cecilia was lying on her right side, her hands crossed in prayer before her. She turned her face to the floor and remained praying in that position for three days and nights. The position of her fingers, three extended on her right hand and one on the left, were her final silent profession of faith in the Holy Trinity.

The early Christians clothed the body of the martyr in rich robes of silk and gold and placed it in a cypress coffin in the same position in which she had expired. At her feet were placed the linen cloths and veils which were used to collect her blood.

She was laid to rest in the Catacomb of St. Callistus by the future Pope Urban, who had baptized her husband and brother-in-law.

In the year 822, during the time of the restoration of the church dedicated to her memory, Pope Pascal I wished to transfer the remains of the Saint to a place of honor in her cathedral but could not locate her grave. The Saint appeared to him in a remarkable vision while he was at prayer and told him of the location of her body. The relic was found in exactly the place indicated.

The Pope then had the body, along with the bones of her husband, her brother-in-law, and the martyr Maximum, placed below the altar of the church.

Seven hundred seventy-seven years later, one of the most documented exhumations of any saint’s body occurred in 1599, when Cardinal Sfondrato ordered the restoration of some parts of the basilica. On October 20th of that year, during the course of work being done under and near the high altar, two white marble sarcophagi were discovered, which corresponded with the description left by Pascal I of the caskets containing the relics of the holy martyrs.

The Cardinal had the sarcophagi opened in the presence of witnesses of unquestionable integrity. After the marble covering was removed, the original cypress casket was found in a good state of preservation. The Cardinal, with understandable emotion, raised the lid, exposing to view the treasure which had been confided to the grave by Popes Urban and Pascal.

The mortal remains were found in the same position in which the Saint had died almost fifteen hundred years before. Through a silk veil which modestly covered the body could be seen the gold embroidered dress of the Saint, the mortal wound in the neck, and the blood-stained clothes.

Pope Clement VIII was informed at once of the discovery but was unable to visit the tomb immediately because of the severe attack of the gout, but sent instead Cardinal Baronius, who together with Antonio Bosio, the explorer of subterranean Rome, left us priceless descriptive documents relating to the events of this exhumation.

Peering through the ancient veil which covered the body, they noted that Cecilia was of small stature and that her head was turned downward, but due to a “holy reverence,” no further examination was made. Bosio recorded his opinion that the Saint was found in the same position in which she had expired.

A sculptor of unusual talents, Stefano Maderno, who it appears was engaged in performing his trade during the restoration of the Basilica, executed a statue of the Saint, which is reputed to be one of the most celebrated and best known Italian works of art and is believed to represent the Saint in the exact posture of her body. This statue is found immediately in front of the high altar in a niche of black marble, which was designed by Maderno to give the appearance of an open sarcophagus. Doing so, Maderno introduced a new altar design which was frequently imitated.

The Basilica of St. Cecilia is believed to have been built on the site of St. Cecilia’s family mansion. The second chapel, on the right aisle, is called the Caldarium and is the room where St. Cecilia was condemned to death. Here are found the remains of an ancient Roman bathroom; the conduits are preserved which formerly contained the water which was heated in the lower room. The marble slab on the altar is the one on which Cecilia is believed to have survived the first martyrdom by suffocation and very well may be the slab which marked the place of her death.

More on St Cecilia from Catholic Fire.

Roman Catholic Saints.

Meaning of the name
The name "Caecilia" was shared by all women of the Roman gens known as the Caecilii, whose name may be related to the root of 'caecus', blind. Legends and hagiographies, mistaking it for a personal name, suggest fanciful etymologies. Among those cited by Chaucer in The Second Nun's Tale are: lily of heaven; the way for the blind; contemplation of heaven and the active life; as if lacking in blindness; a heaven for people to gaze upon.[6]

Patroness of musicians
Cecilia's musical fame rests on a passing notice in her legend that she was beheaded and at the same time praised God, singing to Him, as she lay dying a martyr's death. She is frequently depicted playing an organ or other musical instrument. Musical societies and conservatories frequently have been named for St. Cecilia. Her feast day became an occasion for musical concerts and festivals that occasioned well-known poems by John Dryden and Alexander Pope[7], and music by Henry Purcell (Ode to St. Cecilia), George Frideric Handel (Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, Alexander's Feast) and Benjamin Britten (Hymn to St. Cecilia), as well as Herbert Howells with text from a poem by W. H. Auden. Gerald Finzi's "For Saint Cecilia", Op. 30, was set to verses written by Edmund Blunden

Prayer to St Cecilia

O glorious saint, who chose to die instead of denying your King, we pray you please to help us as His fair praise we sing. We lift our hearts in joyous song to honor Him this way. And while we sing, remembering, to sing is to doubly pray.

At once in our hearts and in our tongues we offer double prayer sent heavenward on winged notes to praise God dwelling there. While in our hearts and tongues we try with song to praise God twice, we ask dear saint, to help us be united close to Christ! Amen.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

While stationed in Califoria we attended St Cecilia in Tustin. It is from that Parish that my daughter Genevieve was Baptised and relieved of Original Sin.

Did Marshal Ney die in America? A 19th century mystery

2011-11-18T16:50:00.004-05:00

Less than 100 miles south-east of where I am is Davidson County NC. It has been a tale long told with pride there that one of Napoleon Bonapart's favorite Generals that died in that county on the 15th November 1846. That man allegedly was Michel Ney, Duc of Elchingen and Prince of the Moscowa. An article in the International Napoleonic Society relates this...

We are the 15 th of November 1846. An old professor, respected by everyone, dies in Rowan County, North Carolina. Lying on his death bed, he finds the strength to say a few words to his friends who surround him: "I will not die with a lie on the lips. I am Marshal Ney of France". One can imagine the trouble, if not the amazement, which also immediately sweeps over the audience. A dying man has just admitted that he is not the one that he has always claimed to be. But what did he claim exactly? And what do we really know about him? In fact, his origins are as mysterious as his last words. This is an interesting article and the rest may be found here...

This article reminds me of the rumors of the various generals of Nazi Germany after WWII. If this is true it is an in glorious end for a man like Ney, the duelist's duelist, hiding from an enemy who had no desire to find him...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Was Jane Austen Murdered?

2011-11-14T14:58:00.004-05:00

Nearly 200 years after Jane Austen‘s untimely death, crime novelist Lindsay Ashford has come up with a new explanation: arsenic poisoning.

Austen, the English author of such classic novels as “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense and Sensibility,” died in 1817 at age 41. Her death has been attributed to everything from cancer to Addison’s disease.

But Ashford, who moved to Austen’s village of Chawton three years ago and started writing her new crime novel in the former home of Austen’s brother, stumbled across another possibility — that Austen died of arsenic poisoning.

While reading Austen’s correspondence, Ashford came across a line the novelist wrote just a few months before she died: “I am considerably better now and am recovering my looks a little, which have been bad enough, black and white and every wrong colour.” :More

Hmmm.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Question for the Day about Planned Parenthood

2011-11-14T13:09:00.002-05:00

I am fairly sure Planned Parenthood would have liked it had I not been born.

Question: Fr. Thomas Collins of Covington, VA asks,

Why is it that Joe Paterno gets sacked for not reporting child sex abuse, and bishops get sued for not reporting child sex abuse, but Planned Parenthood gets subsidized ($360,000,000+/year) for not reporting and for covering up the "consequences" of child sex abuse? It seems that allegiance to the pro-abortion war against inconvenient human life absolves one from the need to obey inconvenient laws.
Thanks to Les Femmes the Truth
Margaret Sanger the founder of Planned Parenthood speaks out, right here...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Belmont Abbey College v. HHS

2011-11-14T12:53:00.006-05:00

Belmont Abbey is a picturesque college that my be seen off of Hwy 85 South in the mountains of North Carolina my adopted state. They are doing what larger Universities like Notre Dame does not. They are standing up for the Faith.

Belmont Abbey College, a Benedictine college in western North Carolina, has sued the federal government in an effort to prevent the implementation of a mandate requiring private health insurance plans to cover contraception and sterilization.

“A monk at Belmont Abbey may preach on Sunday that pre-marital sex, contraception, and abortions are immoral, but on Monday, the government would force the same monk to pay for students to receive the very drugs and procedures he denounces,” said Hannah Smith, senior legal counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “This is much worse than an unfunded mandate; it is a monk-funded mandate.”

According to the Becket Fund, Belmont Abbey College will face a $140,000 fine if it chooses to drop health insurance coverage for its employees.

Media presentation:

 Belmont Abbey is a small Catholic liberal arts college located in Belmont, North Carolina. Founded in 1876 by Benedictine monks, Belmont Abbey’s mission is to “educate students in the liberal arts and sciences so that in all things God may be glorified.”

 As a Catholic college, Belmont Abbey teaches that contraception, sterilization, and abortion are against God’s law.

 On August 1, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a regulation requiring that group health plans include “[a]ll Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity.” FDA-approved contraceptives include a number of drugs Belmont Abbey, and many scientists, consider to be abortifacients—most notably Plan B and Ella.

 Belmont Abbey believes it will not be excluded from the requirements of the government mandate under the religious employer exemption. The exemption is extremely narrow, covering only certain religious employers whose purpose is to inculcate religious values and which employ and serve those of their same faith. As a result, many religious colleges and universities, social service organizations, and hospitals will not qualify for the exemption.

 Because of the government mandate, Belmont Abbey is forced to provide free contraception, sterilization, abortifacients, and related education and counseling against its Church’s teachings, or pay a substantial fine and terminate its health insurance for employees and students.

 The Becket Fund filed suit on behalf of Belmont Abbey College on November 10, 2011, to protect Belmont Abbey’s First Amendment and federal statutory rights to be free from this government-imposed substantial burden on its religious freedom.

Quotes attributable to Becket Fund attorney, Hannah Smith, Senior Legal Counsel, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty:

 “A monk at Belmont Abbey may preach on Sunday that pre-marital sex, contraception, and abortions are immoral, but on Monday, the government forces him to pay for students to receive the very drugs and procedures he denounced.”

 “The Government refuses to give the same accommodations to groups exercising their fundamental First Amendment freedoms as they do to corporations such as McDonald’s and teachers’ unions.”

MEDIA INFORMATION SHEET
Belmont Abbey College v.Department of Health and Human Services

 “No employer, particularly in this economy, should be forced to make the choice between violating their deeply held religious beliefs or paying a heavy fine and terminating their health insurance plans for employees.”

 “The mandate, which forces Belmont Abbey College to fund government-dictated speech that is directly at odds with its religious teachings, is un-American, unprecedented, and flagrantly unconstitutional.”

 “Freedom of conscience is a ‘first freedom.’ If government can demand that private organizations abandon their conscientious objections as a condition of serving their employees or the public, what can’t government do?”

A demonstrator in 2009, hold her placard, simplifying the truth for Pro-abortion Katholyks

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Ella Cate Inman update.

2011-11-14T12:31:00.007-05:00

This is near and dear to me. On 6 February 2011 I posted this a story about a little girl who through no fault contracted a deadly disease. Finally here is the update:

Greetings all,
As some of you already know Ella Cate had a clear MRI last Thursday. That makes 6 months post treatment- YEA! This also marks the one year anniversary of when this journey began....what a year it has been. We went to Orlando in late September for Ella Cate's Make a Wish trip and had an amazing time. We stayed at "Give Kids the World Resort" which was started in the 1980s by a Holocaust survivor and hotel
entrepreneur Henri Landwirth. He spent from age 13-18 in various concentration camps, lost most of his family and almost a leg. He came to this country with $18. He turned his traumatic experience and hatred into something very fun and meaningful for children with life threatening illnesses. It really is an amazing story...check it out on the web. We went to various parks throughout the week and could barely keep up with the kiddos. Below are some pics from the trip. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers. They mean so much. We will continue to have MRIs every 3 months until we reach the 1 year mark, then will go to every 4-6 months for the second year. Hope everyone is doing well. Would love to hear from you.

Lori, Greg, Ella Cate and Easton

Jhesu+Marie.

Veterans Day

2011-11-10T09:01:00.006-05:00

On the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, the guns fell silent...

The last surviving veteran of World War I per country is shown in the table below, along with any living veterans.

Algeria, Saci Ben Hocine Mahdi, 01 June 1998, 100 years
Austria, August Bischof, 4 March 2006, 107 years
Australia, John Campbell Ross, 3 June 2009, 110 years
Barbados, George Blackman 01 March 2003, 105 years
Belgium, Cyrillus-Camillus Barbary, 16 September 2004, 105 years
Canada, John Babcock, 18 February 2010, 109 years
Czechoslovakia, Alois Vocásek, 9 August 2003, 107 years
Denmark, Lorenz Gram, 26 December 2004, 105 years
Estonia, Juhan Kallaste, 28 August 1999, 107 years
France, Lazare Ponticelli, 12 March 2008, 110 years
France, Pierre Picault, 20 November 2008, 109 years
Germany, Erich Kästner, 1 January 2008, 107 years
Guyana, Gershom Browne, 6 December 2000, 102 years
Hungary, Franz Künstler, 27 May 2008, 107 years
Italy, Delfino Borroni, 26 October 2008, 110 years
Jamaica, Stanley Stair, 01 April 2008, 107 years
Netherlands, Bert van Sloten, 01 September 2005, 105 years
Newfoundland and Labrador, Wallace Pike, 11 April 1999, 99 years
New Zealand, Bright Williams, 13 February 2003, 105 years
Philippines, Eracleo Alimpolo, 2 October 2002, 104 years
Poland, Stanisław Wycech, 12 January 2008, 105 years
Portugal, José Ladeira, 5 May 2003, 107 years
Romania, Gheorghe Pănculescu, 9 January 2007, 104 years
Russian Federation, Dmitry Malozemov,May 1998, 101 years
Senegal, Abdoulaye N'Diaye, 10 November 1998, 104 years
Serbia, Aleksa Radovanović, 22 June 2004, 105 years
Slovenia, Ivan Kovačič, 16 April 2001, 103 years
South Africa, Norman Kark, 01 March 2000, 102 years
Thailand, Yod Sangrungruang, 9 October 2003, 106 years
Turkey, Yakup Satar, 2 April 2008, 110 years
Ukraine, Mikhail Krichevsky, 26 December 2008, 111 years
United Kingdom, Florence Green, Living, 110 years
United States, Frank Buckles, 27 February 2011 110 years

All are gone now save one.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

The above hymn is traditionally sung at Rememberance services in the Naval Service, Navy, Marine, th Coast Guard. I have listened to it to often on these occasions for my fallen comrades.

Marine Corps Birthday, 236 Years of keeping the wolves away from the front door.

2011-11-10T07:19:00.004-05:00

‘If the Army and the Navy ever look on heaven's scene,They will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.’—The Marines' Hymn, Third Verse, Last Stanza

‘Gone to fight the Indians. Will be back when the war is over.’
—Unknown

‘Retreat, hell! We just got here!’
—Capt Lloyd Williams, U. S. Marine Corps

‘‘The Marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand.’
—Attributed to Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916)

‘The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle.’
—GEN John J. ‘Black Jack’ Pershing, U.S. Army, Commander of American Forces, World War I

‘Why in hell can't the Army do it if the Marines can? They are the same kind of men; why can't they be like Marines?’
—GEN John J. ‘Black Jack’ Pershing, U.S. Army, 12 February 1918

‘Come on, you sons of bitches: do you want to live forever?’
—GySgt Daniel Daly, U. S. Marine Corps, Battle of Belleau Wood, 6 June 1918

‘It is related that, during the early days of World War II, a lofty-minded civilian visited Guadalcanal. During his tour, war aims were mentioned. Addressing [then] Lieutenant Colonel L. B. Puller, one of the most hard-bitten professionals on the island--or, for that matter, in the Marine Corps--the visitor inquired, “And what, colonel, are you fighting for?”
Colonel Puller reflected for a moment, then answered, “$649 a month.”’
—The Marine Officer's Guide, Sixth Edition

‘I have just returned from the front with the Marines, and there is not a finer fighting organisation in the world.’
—GEN Douglas MacArthur, U. S. Army, in the vicinity of Seoul, Korea, 21 September 1950

‘We’re surrounded. That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them.’
—LtGen [then Col] Lewis B. ‘Chesty’ Puller, U. S. Marine Corps, Chosin Reservoir, Korea, December 1950

‘Don't you forget that you're First Marines! Not all the communists in Hell can overrun you!’
—LtGen [then Col] Lewis B. ‘Chesty’ Puller, U. S. Marine Corps, Chosin Reservoir, Korea, December 1950

‘Do not attack the First Marine Division. Leave the yellow-legs alone. Strike the American Army.’

—Orders given to Communist troops in the Korean War; shortly afterward, the Marines were ordered to not wear their khaki leggings
‘The Marine Corps has just been called by the New York Times, 'The elite of this country.' I think it is the elite of the world.’
—ADM William ‘Bull’ Halsey, U.S. Navy

‘The safest place in Korea was right behind a platoon of Marines. Lord, how they could fight!’
—MG Frank E. Lowe, U.S. Army, Korea, 26 January 1952

‘The man who will go where his colors will go, without asking, who will fight a phantom foe in a jungle and mountain range, without counting, and who will suffer and die in the midst of incredible hardship, without complaint, is still what he has always been, from Imperial Rome to sceptered Britain to Democratic America. He is the stuff of which legends are made. His pride is his colors and his regiment, his training hard and thorough and coldly realistic, to fit him for what he must face, and his obedience is to his orders. As a legionary, he held the gates of civilization for the classical world...he has been called United States Marine.’
—LTC T. R. Fehrenbach, U. S. Army, This Kind of War

‘Marine human material was not one whit better than that of the human society from which it came. But it had been hammered into a form in a different forge, hardened with a different fire. The Marines were the closest thing to legions the nation had. They would follow their colors from the shores of home to the seacoast of Bohemia, and fight well either place. ‘A Marine Corps officer was still an officer, and a sergeant behaved the way good sergeants had behaved since the time of Caesar, expecting no nonsense, allowing none. And Marine leaders had never lost sight of their primary — their only — mission, which was to fight.’
—LTC T. R. Fehrenbach, U. S. Army, This Kind of War

‘You cannot exaggerate about the Marines. They are convinced to the point of arrogance, that they are the most ferocious fighters on earth — and the amusing thing about it is that they are.’
—Fr. Kevin Keaney, 1st Marine Division Chaplain, Korean War

‘Being ready is not what matters. What matters is winning after you get there.’
—LtGen Victor H. ‘Brute’ Krulak, U. S. Marine Corps, April 1965

‘There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a second-hand opinion.’
—GEN William Thornson, U. S. Army

‘We have two companies of Marines running rampant all over the northern half of this island, and three Army regiments pinned down in the southwestern corner, doing nothing. What the hell is going on?’
—GEN John W. Vessey Jr., U. S. Army, Chairman of the the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1983

‘There is no easy way to be a Marine and there never will be. You are a Marine every day and it is your responsibility to uphold the legacy that Marines in the past have so dearly established.’
—Col John Ripley, U. S. Marine Corps

‘Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.’
—Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, 1985

‘Marines know how to use their bayonets. Army bayonets may as well be paper-weights.’
—Navy Times, November 1994

‘The United States Marine Corps, with its fiercely proud tradition of excellence in combat, its hallowed rituals, and its unbending code of honor, is part of the fabric of American myth.’
—Thomas E. Ricks, Making the Corps, 1997

‘For over 221 years our Corps has done two things for this great Nation. We make Marines, and we win battles.’
—Gen Charles C. Krulak, U. S. Marine Corps, 5 May 1997

‘We are United States Marines, and for two and a quarter centuries we have defined the standards of courage, esprit, and military prowess.’
—Gen James L. Jones, U. S. Marine Corps, 10 November 2000

‘There is no better friend and no worse enemy than a United States Marine.’
—LtGen James Mattis, U. S. Marine Corps

‘If the Army and the Navy ever look on heaven's scene,
They will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.’
—The Marines' Hymn, Third Verse, Last Stanza

The current Marine Corps Recruiting video when I enlisted...

To all my brother Marines, Past, Present and Future, a hearty Seper Fidelis!

Gunny B.

Thanks to Geoff Gilbert U. S. Marine whow sent me these quotes.

He forgot one, "If everybody could be a Marine we wouldn't be the Marines, we'd be the Air Force..." Who said that? I said that.

I couldn't resist

2011-11-09T11:32:00.003-05:00

Concerning Democracy.

Jheus+Marie,
Brantigny

Feast of the beatification of Saint John Lateran, ‘Mother of all the other Churches’

2011-11-09T08:45:00.010-05:00

One of the things many non-Catholics forget is that the Catholic Church date from Christ. Throughout numerous persecutions it has survived and in doing so has preserved many priceless gifts passed down from ancient times. One of those gifts is the Church of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. While many (Catholics and non-Catholics) believe that St Peter's Basilica is the seat of Peter is is in fact St John Lateran. which on this day we celebrate it's dedication.

This is the oldest, and ranks first among the four great "patriarchal" basilicas of Rome. The site was, in ancient times, occupied by the palace of the family of the Laterani. A member of this family, P. Sextius Lateranus, was the first plebian to attain the rank of consul. In the time of Nero, another member of the family, Plautius Lateranus, at the time consul designatus was accused of conspiracy against the emperor, and his goods were confiscated. Juvenal mentions the palace, and speaks of it as being of some magnificence, "regiæ ædes Lateranorum".

Some few remains of the original buildings may still be traced in the city walls outside the Gate of St. John, and a large hall decorated with paintings was uncovered in the eighteenth century within the basilica itself, behind the Lancellotti Chapel. A few traces of older buildings also came to light during the excavations made in 1880, when the work of extending the apse was in progress, but nothing was then discovered of real value or importance. The palace came eventually into the hands of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, through his wife Fausta, and it is from her that it derived the name by which it was then sometimes called, "Domus Faustæ".

Constantine must have given it to the Church in the time of Miltiades, not later than about 311, for we find a council against the Donatists meeting within its walls as early as 313. From that time onwards it was always the centre of Christian life within the city; the residence of the popes and the cathedral of Rome. The latter distinction it still holds, though it has long lost the former. Hence the proud title which may be read upon its walls, that it is "Omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater, et caput".

It seems probable, in spite of the tradition that Constantine helped in the work of building with his own hands, that there was not a new basilica erected at the Lateran, but that the work carried out at this period was limited to the adaptation, which perhaps involved the enlargement, of the already existing basilica or great hall of the palace. The words of St. Jerome "basilica quondam Laterani" (Ep. lxxiii, P.L., XXII, col. 692) seem to point in this direction, and it is also probable on other grounds. This original church was probably not of very large dimensions, but we have no reliable information on the subject. It was dedicated to the Saviour, "Basilica Salvatoris", the dedication to St. John being of later date, and due to a Benedictine monastery of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist which adjoined the basilica and where members were charged at one period with the duty of maintaining the services in the church.

This later dedication to St. John has now in popular usage altogether superseded the original one. A great many donations from the popes and other benefactors to the basilica are recorded in the "Liber Pontificalis", and its splendour at an early period was such that it became known as the "Basilica Aurea", or Golden Church. This splendour drew upon it the attack of the Vandals, who stripped it of all its treasures. St. Leo the Great restored it about 460, and it was again restored by Hadrian I, but in 896 it was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake ("ab altari usque ad portas cecidit"). The damage was so extensive that it was difficult to trace in every case the lines of the old building, but these were in the main respected and the new building was of the same dimensions as the old. This second church lasted for four hundred years and was then burnt down. It was rebuilt by Clement V and John XXII, only to be burnt down once more in 1360, but again rebuilt by Urban V.

Through these various vicissitudes the basilica retained its ancient form, being divided by rows of columns into aisles, and having in front an atrium surrounded by colonnades with a fountain in the middle. The façade had three windows, and was embellished with a mosaic representing Christ as the Saviour of the world. The porticoes of the atrium were decorated with frescoes, probably not dating further back than the twelfth century, which commemorated the Roman fleet under Vespasian, the taking of Jerusalem, the Baptism of the Emperor Constantine and his "Donation" to the Church. Inside the basilica the columns no doubt ran, as in all other basilicas of the same date, the whole length of the church from east to west, but at one of the rebuildings, probably that which was carried out by Clement V, the feature of a transverse nave was introduced, imitated no doubt from the one which had been, long before this, added at S. Paolo fuori le Mura. It was probably at this time also that the church was enlarged.

When the popes returned to Rome from their long absence at Avignon they found the city deserted and the churches almost in ruins. Great works were begun at the Lateran by Martin V and his successors. The palace, however, was never again used by them as a residence, the Vatican, which stands in a much drier and healthier position, being chosen in its place. It was not until the latter part of the seventeenth century that the church took its present appearance, in the tasteless restoration carried out by Innocent X, with Borromini for his architect. The ancient columns were now enclosed in huge pilasters, with gigantic statues in front. In consequence of this the church has entirely lost the appearance of an ancient basilica, and is completely altered in character.

Some portions of the older buildings still survive. Among these we may notice the pavement of medieval Cosmatesque work, and the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, now in the cloisters. The graceful baldacchino over the high altar, which looks so utterly out of place in its present surroundings, dates from 1369. The stercoraria, or throne of red marble on which the popes sat, is now in the Vatican Museum. It owes its unsavoury name to the anthem sung at the ceremony of the papal enthronization, "De stercore erigeus pauperem".

From the fifth century there were seven oratories surrounding the basilica. These before long were thrown into the actual church. The devotion of visiting these oratories, which held its ground all through the medieval period, gave rise to the similar devotion of the seven altars, still common in many churches of Rome and elsewhere. Between the basilica and the city wall there was in former times the great monastery, in which dwelt the community of monks whose duty it was to provide the services in the basilica. The only part of it which still survives is the cloister, surrounded by graceful columns of inlaid marble. They are of a style intermediate between the Romanesque proper and the Gothic, and are the work of Vassellectus and the Cosmati. The date of these beautiful cloisters is the early part of the thirteenth century.

The ancient apse, with mosaics of the fourth century, survived all the many changes and dangers of the Middle Ages, and was still to be seen very much in its original condition as late as 1878, when it was destroyed in order to provide a larger space for the ordinations and other pontifical functions which take place in this cathedral church of Rome. The original mosaics were, however, preserved with the greatest possible care and very great success, and were re-erected at the end of the new and deeper apse which had been provided. In these mosaics, as they now appear, the centre of the upper portion is occupied by the figure of Christ surrounded by nine angels. This figure is extremely ancient, and dates from the fifth, or it may be even the fourth century. It is possible even that it is the identical one which, as is told in ancient tradition, was manifested to the eyes of the worshippers on the occasion of the dedication of the church: "Imago Salvatoris infixa parietibus primum visibilis omni populo Romano apparuit" (Joan. Diac., "Lib. de Ecclesia Lat.", P.L. CXCIV, 1543-1560). If it is so, however, it has certainly been retouched. Below is seen the crux gammata, surmounted by a dove which symbolizes the Holy Spirit, and standing on a hill whence flow the four rivers of the Gospels, from whose waters stags and sheep come to drink. On either side are saints, looking towards the Cross. These last are thought to belong originally to the sixth century, though they were repaired and altered in the thirteenth by Nicholas IV, whose effigy may be seen prostrate at the feet of the Blessed Virgin.

The river which runs below is more ancient still, and may be regarded as going back to Constantine and the first days of the basilica. The remaining mosaics of the apse are of the thirteenth century, and the signatures of the artists, Torriti and Camerino, may still be read upon them. Camerino was a Franciscan friar; perhaps Torriti was one also.

The pavement of the basilica dates from Martin V and the return of the popes to Rome from Avignon. Martin V was of the Colonna family, and the columns are their badge. The high altar, which formerly occupied the position customary in all ancient basilicas, in the centre of the chord of the apse, has now beyond it, owing to the successive enlargements of the church, the whole of the transverse nave and of the new choir. It has no saint buried beneath it, since it was not, as were almost all the other great churches of Rome, erected over the tomb of a martyr. It stood alone among all the altars of the Catholic world in being of wood and not of stone, and enclosing no relics of any kind, until the latter half of the 20th century. The reason for this peculiarity is that it is itself a relic of a most interesting kind, being the actual wooden altar upon which St. Peter is believed to have celebrated Mass during his residence in Rome. It was carefully preserved through all the years of persecution, and was brought by Constantine and Sylvester from St. Pudentiana's, where it had been kept until then, to become the principal altar of the Cathedral church of Rome. It is now, of course, enclosed in a larger altar of stone and cased with marble, but the original wood can still be seen. A small portion was left at St. Pudentiana's in memory of its long connection with that church, and is still preserved there.

Above the High Altar is the canopy or baldacchino already mentioned, a Gothic structure resting on four marble columns, and decorated with paintings by Barna of Siena. In the upper part of the baldacchino are preserved the heads of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the great treasure of the basilica, which until this shrine was prepared to receive them had always been kept in the "Sancta Sanctorum", the private chapel of the Lateran Palace adjoining. Behind the apse there formerly extended the "Leonine" portico; it is not known which pontiff gave it this name. At the entrance there was an inscription commemorating the dream of Innocent III, when he saw the church of the Lateran upheld by St. Francis of Assisi. On the opposite wall was hung the tabula magna, or catalogue of all the relics of the basilica, and also of the different chapels and the indulgences attached to them respectively. It is now in the archives of the basilica.

The baptisteryThe baptistery of the church, following the invariable rule of the first centuries of Christianity, was not an integral part of the church itself, but a separate and detached building, joined to the church by a colonnade, or at any rate in close proximity to it.

The right to baptize was the peculiar privilege of the cathedral church, and here, as elsewhere, all were brought from all parts of the city to receive the sacrament. There is no reason to doubt the tradition which makes the existing baptistery, which altogether conforms to these conditions, the original baptistery of the church, and ascribes its foundation to Constantine. The whole style and appearance of the edifice bear out the claim made on its behalf. There is, however, much less ground for saying that it was here that the emperor was baptized by St. Sylvester. The building was originally entered from the opposite side from the present doorway, through the portico of St. Venantius. This is a vestibule or atrium, in which two large porphyry columns are still standing and was formerly approached by a colonnade of smaller porphyry columns leading from the church.

The baptistery itself is an octagonal edifice with eight immense porphyry columns supporting an architrave on which are eight smaller columns, likewise of porphyry, which in their turn support the octagonal drums of the lantern. In the main the building has preserved its ancient form and characteristics, though it has been added to and adorned by many popes. Sixtus III carried out the first of these restorations and adornments, and his inscription recording the fact may still be seen on the architrave. Pope St. Hilary (461-468) raised the height, and also added the chapels round. Urban VIII and Innocent X repaired it in more recent times.

In the centre of the building one descends by several steps to the basin of green basalt which forms the actual baptismal font. There is no foundation for the idea that the Emperor Constantine was himself actually baptized in this font by Pope St. Sylvester. That is a confusion which has arisen from the fact that he was founder of the baptistery. But although he had embraced Christianity and had done so much for the advancement of the Church, the emperor, as a matter of fact, deferred the actual reception of the sacrament of baptism until the very end of his life, and was at last baptized, not by Sylvester, but by Eusebius, in whose diocese of Nicomedia he was then, after the foundation of Constantinople, permanently residing (Von Funk, "Manual of Church History", London, 1910, I, 118-119; Duchesne, "Liber Pontificalis", Paris, 1887, I, cix-cxx). The mosaics in the adjoining oratories are both ancient and interesting. Those in the oratory of St. John the Evangelist are of the fifth century, and are of the conventional style of that period, consisting of flowers and birds on a gold ground, also a Lamb with a cruciform nimbus on the vault. The corresponding mosaics of the chapel of St. John the Baptist disappeared in the seventeenth century, but we have a description of them in Panvinio. The mosaics in the chapel of St. Venantius (the ancient vestibule) are still extant, and are of considerable interest. They date from the seventh century, and a comparison between the workmanship of these mosaics and of those in the chapel of St. John offers an instructive lesson on the extent to which the arts had deteriorated between the fifth and the seventh centuries. The figures represent, for the most part, Dalmatian saints, and the whole decoration was originally designed as a memorial to Dalmatian martyrs, whose relics were brought here at the conclusion of the Istrian schism.

The Lateran Palace
From the beginning of the fourth century, when it was given to the pope by Constantine, the palace of the Lateran was the principal residence of the popes, and continued so for about a thousand years.

In the tenth century Sergius III restored it after a disastrous fire, and later on it was greatly embellished by Innocent III. This was the period of its greatest magnificence, when Dante speaks of it as beyond all human achievements. At this time the centre of the piazza in front, where now the obelisk stands, was occupied by the palace and tower of the Annibaldeschi. Between this palace and the basilica was the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, then believed to represent Constantine, which now is at the Capitol. The whole of the front of the palace was taken up with the "Aula Concilii", a magnificent hall with eleven apses, in which were held the various Councils of the Lateran during the medieval period.

The fall of the palace from this position of glory was the result of the departure of the popes from Rome during the Avignon period. Two destructive fires, in 1307 and 1361 respectively, did irreparable harm, and although vast sums were sent from Avignon for the rebuilding, the palace never again attained its former splendour. When the popes returned to Rome they resided first at Santa Maria in Trastevere, then at Santa Maria Maggiore, and lastly fixed their residence at the Vatican. Sixtus V then destroyed what still remained of the ancient palace of the Lateran and erected the present much smaller edifice in its place.

An apse lined with mosaics and open to the air still preserves the memory of one of the most famous halls of the ancient palace, the "Triclinium" of Leo III, which was the state banqueting hall. The existing structure is not ancient, but it is possible that some portions of the original mosaics have been preserved. The subject is threefold. In the centre Christ gives their mission to the Apostles, on the left he gives the keys to St. Sylvester and the Labarum to Constantine, while on the right St. Peter gives the stole to Leo III and the standard to Charlemagne. The private rooms of the popes in the old palace were situated between this "Triclinium" and the city walls. The palace is now given up to the Pontifical Museum of Christian Antiquities.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Thanks to the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Mariology

2011-11-08T13:15:00.003-05:00

In the nature of things, our treatment will be theological, and we will have to resort to certain facts of history and statements of doctrine that are somewhat technical.

There are three basic errors which occasioned the Church’s defining Mary’s divine maternity. Ever since its definition by the Council of Ephesus these three errors keep cropping up, so much so that we can say that the dogma of Mary being the true Mother of God is a precondition for admitting three other mysteries of our Faith.

What are they? First, that Christ was and is a true man because evidently only a human being would need a human mother. Errors in the early Church, or any doubts regarding Christ’s humanity ever since, necessarily would exclude Mary’s being the true Mother of God. The most common heresy of the early Church denying Christ’s true humanity ever since, necessarily would exclude Mary’s being the true Mother of God.

The most common heresy of the early Church denying Christ’s true humanity was a form of Gnosticism also called Docetism. More commonly, however – both in the early Church and ever since – those who question Mary’s being the Mother of God do so because they doubt or deny that her Son is true God. In other words, we cannot intelligibly speak of Mary being the true Mother of God unless her Son is the true Son of God. The tests of orthodoxy regarding Christ’s divinity is whether a person will believe in His Mother’s divinity maternity: the acid test of orthodoxy over the centuries.

Finally, even where a person might claim verbally, “Yes, Jesus is God. Jesus is Man,” but if that same individual does not also say that although Christ has two natures, one divine, one human, but has only one personality which is divine, then you also would exclude Mary from being the true Mother of God. In fact, it was precisely that heresy known historically as Nestorianism that gave rise to the solemn definition at Ephesus in 431. (Tradition has it that Our Lady was assumed into heaven at Ephesus). It was there that the Council defined Mary’s divine maternity against the Nestorians. What did they hold? They held that Jesus, the true Son of Mary, was or may be said to be also the Son of God, but the two natures in Christ, the divine and human, did not form one individual, one substance, one person, so that Nestorius and his followers had a very simple dodge: Mary is the true Mother of Jesus, the human person, but she is in no way the Mother of God as God is not united – to use a technical term – hypostatically with His human nature.

When in 431 the Church of the Council of Ephesus defined Mary’s divine maternity, it stated – and the words deserve to be memorized – “If anyone does not profess that Emmanuel is truly God and that consequently the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, let him be anathema.” You notice Emmanuel is a prophetic title for the Messiah.

You notice also how the council rested its case for defining that Mary is the Mother of God on the fact that her Son is Emmanuel, “God-with-us.” You might distinguish with a bit of subtlety, my saying that the title, Emmanuel, God-with-us, can be divided into two parts: “God,” that is Christ’s divine nature; “with-us,” that is Christ’s human nature for there was only one Emmanuel. It is God-with-us, God-among-us, God-one-of-us as a human being. That human being is true God. Both at Ephesus and ever since, in order to prove – as far as we can prove a mystery of faith – that Mary is assuredly the Mother of God, the Christ has gone both to Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

I am sure you heard this logic expressed before. It is a very simple and uncontestable syllogism. It comes in three parts. Major premise: We find in the Bible Christ Himself and others declaring Him to be true God. “The Father and I are one.” Thomas after Christ’s resurrection in adoration addresses the Savior, “My Lord and My God.” That is in the Bible. We further find – and it couldn’t be clearer – that Mary is declared to be the Mother of Christ. The child she conceived at Nazareth and gave birth to at Bethlehem is identified by the evangelists, and is considered later on by His followers as the Messiah, meaning the Christ. Very well. The logic tells that if Christ is God and Mary is the Mother of Christ, she is the Mother of that person who is God. She therefore is the Mater Dei, or in Greek, Theotokos.

It is interesting to know that over the years I have been teaching Islam, I more than once told my students – and it is thrilling to find it in the Koran – how Mohammed believed the Esau, the Ibn-Mariam (Jesus, the Son of Mary) was indeed the Messiah, the Christ. Mohammed had no doubts that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the Messianic prophecies. Moslems even to this day are offended if we call them non-Christian. But unlike those who are authentic Christians, Mohammed and his followers do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, so that in the Koran this is Mohammed’s own definition of a Christian, and you cannot improve on it: “A Christian is one who believes that Ibn-Mariam is Ibn-Allah (is one who believes that the Son of Mary is the Son of God).” Mohammed denied it; his followers have denied it ever since; and they have fought, as we know, some deadly wars against the Christians. They have tried to convert Mohammedan-style Christians to Islam.

Mohammed, as far as we know, never had access to our four canonical Gospels. All that he had read or heard about was from the Apocrypha. The course of history might have been changed had we known the reason Mohammed did not have access to the authentic Scriptures. Because at that time, in what later on became Islamic Arabia, Nestorianism (the heresy condemned at Ephesus) had become so rampant that that the only Christians whom Mohammed knew were those who denied that Mary is the Mother of God. Isn’t that sad? So much so that I have not hesitated telling my students, this is the perfect description of Mohammedanism: Mohammedanism is Nestorian Christianity. It is Christianity minus Mary as the Mother of God. She is only the Mother of Jesus, the man, as Nestorius claimed and as Mohammed after him preached.

The evidence of Sacred Tradition building on the revelation that the Apostolic Church received whenever they talk about Mary and her relationship to Christ, it is to recognize her as the Mother not merely of the human being, Jesus, but of the God who became man. Three martyrs, Irenaeus, Cyprian and Hippolytus – among the early Fathers of the Church, in their writings are especially clear about Our Lady’s divine maternity. We further evidence from the very early tradition that Mary was considered the Mother of God. The name Theotokos (God bearer) is found in some of the earliest Greek Fathers. Alexander (early fourth century), then the Latin Father, Ambrose, the one who brought Augustine into the Church, were staunch defenders of Mary’s divine maternity. Augustine, having been duly instructed by Ambrose, held the same belief. Vincent or Lerins is especially valuable as a witness to Mary’s divine maternity, not only because he used the term Theotokos, but because he is the one who gave us that most important principle of how to know what is authentically true in the Christian religion. Here is the way he put it: “Whatever has been taught from the beginning by everyone, everywhere in loyalty to the teaching of the apostles is God’s revealed truth.”

Therefore, Mary’s being the Mother of God is by Vincent of Lerins’ own formula, revealed truth. Now a word of explanation is necessary, because we Catholics are more than once challenged by those who do not accept our understanding of Mary as Mother of God. How is it possible! What on earth do you mean when you say that Mary is the Mother of God? Do we mean, as the pagans believe, that there were gods and goddesses and they would copulate and produce other gods or goddesses? Of course not. That’s blasphemy. It is not as though the Mother of Christ in any way was responsible – how could she be – for Christ’s divinity? Why, then, do we legitimately address her as the Mother of God? Because she gave to Christ whatever human mother gives to the offspring of her womb. Where no human mother gives her child the spiritual soul which the child possesses from the moment of conception, yet she is certainly the mother of the child she bears. In other words, a mother gives birth to a person. Our mother as a mother, along with a father is responsible only for our bodies and is not in any way the author of our souls. If mothers can legitimately be called mothers, Mary can be called the Mother of the person she gave birth to. This was a unique person who had a human body, had a human soul which was united with divinity, but she didn’t give Christ His divinity. So what? She didn’t give Christ His human soul. So what? She gave Christ all that any mother can give her child, his body, and therefore logically she may be legitimately called the Mother of the one she gave birth to, who is God. Given the divine maternity, the Church and her saints never exhausted the titles of dignity which they have given Our Lady. I searched a bit to come up with a most startling title of dignity that I could find. You know where I found it? Pius X, who describes Our Lady as “The Greatest after God.” That’s pretty good.

Now Christ is God, so Mary is the greatest after Christ. In other words, God has not created anything, anyone more sublime, closer to His own divinity than when He made His Mother. The Fathers of the Church, while saying Mary as creature is not infinite, nevertheless she is said to be “relatively infinite.” Why? Because if we all partake of the perfections of God the one person who was closest to God physically and spiritually, he is the nearest in approximation to God’s infinity.

Know the three famous relationships that Mary has with the Holy Trinity. Volumes have been written on each one of them. They have inspired the mystics and are the source of much contemplative prayer. The Church tells us that Mary bears a unique relationship to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. How unique is that relationship? She is said to be the daughter of God the Father par excellence in a way that no one else can be. What does the Church mean when she uses that title? She means that Mary has a relationship to the First Person that no one else can have. Why? Because the child that she gave birth to is both the Son of the Father and her Son. That surely must be a distinctive relationship. In other words, Christ did not have a human father, but He did have a human mother. He is therefore truly Mary’s Son. He is also truly the Son of the Father.

Mary, then of course, bears the most distinctive relationship to the Second Person. Let’s make sure we know what the Church teaches us when she calls Mary the Mother of God the Son. There are three persons in the Trinity, but only one of them became man, and we have to keep reminding ourselves; there are three persons. Absolutely speaking, might God the Father have become man? Absolutely speaking, yes. In fact, there was a very sophisticated heresy in the early Church which taught just that with the long polysyllabic name of Patripassionists. In other words, the Father suffered on the Cross to the redeem the world. Nonsense. He didn’t. The point is, only one person became a human being, and Mary is the human Mother of that Second Person of the Trinity. The Word, as John tells us, became Flesh. So it did, but it became flesh thanks to Mary. So much so that Augustine later on would say: “Caro Jesu, caro Mariae.” The flesh of Jesus is the flesh of Mary. Thus, the only reason we have the Blessed Sacrament and receiving the living Body and Blood of Christ is because He received that flesh and blood from His Mother.

Finally, Mary bears a unique relationship to the Third Person, the Holy Spirit. She is the Sponsa Spiritu Sancti, the spouse of the Holy Spirit. What does the Church mean? The Church means that Mary conceived virginally. No human being was the father of Jesus, Nevertheless, it did require divine power to make possible in Mary’s womb for a child to grow and develop and finally be born at Bethlehem, and as the angel told Our Lady “The Holy Spirit will come upon you.” As far as our weak human language can express it, the Holy Spirit is the one who espoused Mary and because of whom Mary conceived.

In closing, we might make this simple observation. Because of her divine maternity, Our Lady possesses a sublimity(1) that no other creature – except her Divine Son who is God – enjoys. Therefore, there is a legitimate and a profoundly meaningful sense in which Our Lady, though unlike the apostles who were ordained to the priesthood, yet her dignity is higher than that of the priesthood. Why? Because she could say, “This is my body and this is my blood.” Not because of the grace of ordination, but because of the dignity of her divine maternity.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Fr John Hardon, SJ Archives

(1) Perfection

The original Virgin Mary.

2011-11-08T13:05:00.004-05:00

I was sent this from the "Catholic Bulletin" blog. I present it in it's entirety

What was Mary's life like before the angel Gabriel appeared to her?

Mary's early years are shrouded in mystery. The Bible doesn't tell us much about her existence before the Annunciation. However, the few details that the Gospel of Luke provides allow us at least to catch a glimpse of Mary's life before the fateful day when she would become the mother of the Messiah.

In this new series, we will explore what Scripture tells us about the Blessed Virgin Mary. Who was Mary? What was her life like? What was her role in her Son's mission? And how does she continue to play a part in our lives today? While we may touch upon some apologetics questions and doctrinal issues along the way, my goal is simply to unearth the Scriptural data about Mary so that we can come to know and love her better through the Bible.

Nowhere Nazareth: A Surprising Choice

Consider what we can learn about Mary's pre-Annunciation life in the following verses:

...In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. ..(Lk. 1:26-27)

Admittedly, there is not a lot here to give us a portrait of Our Lady's early years, but there are at least three important facts we can unpack for all they're worth.

The first fact we discover about Mary is that she dwelt in "a city of Galilee named Nazareth." This small geographical detail is important because Nazareth would have been a very unlikely place for the messianic era to begin. Nazareth was a small, secluded agricultural village in Galilee. Far from the social-religious center of the Jerusalem Temple, Nazareth had only a few hundred inhabitants and was not directly on any major trade route. Moreover, there are no prophecies explicitly about Nazareth in the Jewish tradition, and the Old Testament never even mentions the town.

The fact that Jesus comes from Nazareth will cause him trouble later in his public ministry. Nathaniel's famous line, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (Jn. 1:46), illustrates how at least some Jews held Nazareth in rather low esteem. In the first-century Jewish world, Nazareth probably would not have made it into the "Top 10" of likely candidates for the Messiah's hometown. That God chose a woman from this lowly city to become the mother of the Messiah would have been quite surprising.

From Zechariah to Mary

The surprising nature of God's choice becomes even clearer when we consider how Luke's Gospel juxtaposes Gabriel's announcement to Mary with the same angel's announcement to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, in the previous scene. First, Luke tells us that Gabriel's announcement to Zechariah took place in the large city of Jerusalem and right in the heart of Israel's religious center, the Temple. In contrast, Gabriel's announcement to Mary occurs in the small, obscure village of Nazareth, and Luke doesn't even mention the setting in which this annunciation takes place. Next, Gabriel's first announcement is given to an honorable priest, representing a whole multitude of Jewish people in the midst of the Temple liturgy, while the second announcement was given to an unknown woman, apparently in the midst of her ordinary daily life. Finally, the annunciation to Zechariah had immediate public impact, as the multitude of people perceived that their priest had had a vision (1:10, 21–22), while the announcement to Mary seems to escape the notice of everyone around her — even though she had just received the most important angelic announcement in salvation history!

Mary thus stands in the biblical tradition of God choosing the people we'd least expect to play a crucial role in His plan of salvation.

In his book Theotokos, John Paul II pointed out how the contrast between these two announcements underscores the extraordinary nature of God's intervention in Mary's life. "In the Virgin's case, God's action certainly seems surprising. Mary has no human claim to receiving the announcement of the Messiah's coming. She is not the high priest, an official representative of the Hebrew religion, nor even a man, but a young woman without any influence in the society of her time. In addition, she is a native of Nazareth, a village which is never mentioned in the Old Testament." By highlighting Mary's lowliness in contrast to Zechariah's high social status as a priest, "Luke stresses that everything in Mary derives from a sovereign grace. All that is granted to her is not due to any claim of merit, but only to God's free and gratuitous choice" (pp. 88–89).

Mary thus stands in the biblical tradition of God choosing the people we'd least expect to play a crucial role in His plan of salvation. God surprisingly chose a man named Moses who was slow of speech and unsure of his leadership abilities to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt, and unexpectedly chose from all of Jesse's children the youngest boy, David, to become Israel's next king. Likewise, God chose from among all the people in first-century society not a woman from the Jewish aristocracy, nor the daughter of a chief priest in Jerusalem, nor the wife of a famous lawyer, scribe, or Pharisee, but an unknown virgin named Mary from the little village of Nazareth to become the mother of Israel's long-awaited Messiah-King.

Betrothed, Not Engaged

The second fact we learn about Mary is that she was "a virgin" who was "betrothed." This tells us three important things about Mary.

First, since Jewish women were typically betrothed around the age of 13, Mary probably was very young when she received this most weighty message from the angel Gabriel about her call to serve as the mother of the Messiah.

Second, as a betrothed woman, Mary would have been legally married to Joseph, but still living with her own family. Here we see how Jewish betrothal was not the same as our modern notion of engagement. Betrothal was the first step in a two-stage marriage process. At their betrothal, Mary and Joseph would have exchanged their consent to marry each other before witnesses, and this would have made them legally married. However, as a betrothed wife, Mary would have remained living with her own family apart from her husband for up to one year until the second step of marriage took place. In this second step, the husband would take his wife to his own home for normal married life to begin. Therefore, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her, Mary would have been living between these two stages of marriage: She would have been Joseph's wife, but not yet dwelling with him.

Third, according to Jewish marriage customs, sexual relations would not take place until the second stage of marriage. Thus, since Mary is a betrothed woman and not yet living with her husband, it would come as no surprise that she was a "virgin" (1:27).

The House of David

The third and perhaps most striking fact about Mary from this opening chapter of Luke's Gospel is that she is betrothed "to a man named Joseph, of the house of David" (1:27). Although the Scriptures are not clear as to Mary's own ancestry (theologians debate whether she, too, was of the house of David), her betrothal to Joseph connects her to the Davidic family. This has important implications for Mary. It tells us that Mary is not part of any ordinary family, but a royal family. Indeed, "the house of David" was the most famous family in Israel's history. David's descendants ruled over the Jews for several centuries in the glory days of the Kingdom of Judah. And God promised David that his family would have an everlasting dynasty and that his kingdom would never end (2 Sam. 7:13, 16).

However, in the first-century world of Mary and Joseph, the Davidic dynasty seemed to have been lying dormant for centuries as one foreign nation after another ruled over the Jews. In fact, no Davidic king had sat on the throne since 586 BC, and the Romans were the latest foreign powers to control the land. Thus, for Mary, being a part of "the house of David" did not bring the privilege, honor, and authority it did in the days of the great kings of old. Mary may be married to a man who possesses the royal bloodline of the Davidic kings, but her husband is not reigning as a prince in a Jerusalem palace. Instead, he works as a humble carpenter, appearing to live a quiet, run-of-the-mill life in the secluded village of Nazareth.

On the surface, there does not appear to be anything extraordinary about Mary. She is a young woman betrothed to a man from the house of David, but she lives a seemingly ordinary life in the small, insignificant town of Nazareth.

"Full of Grace"

"Full of Grace." For many of us Catholics who routinely recite these words of Gabriel in the Hail Mary, the expression "full of grace" may be so familiar that we might fail to catch its profound significance.

However, there is a lot more going on in Mary than meets the eye. Luke's Gospel provides one more detail that shows how underneath what appears to be a normal life, God has been doing something absolutely amazing in Mary's soul — something that has never been done before in the history of the human family. Consider the first words Gabriel says to Mary: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" (Lk. 1:28).

"Full of Grace." For many of us Catholics who routinely recite these words of Gabriel in the Hail Mary, the expression "full of grace" may be so familiar that we might fail to catch its profound significance. This is no ordinary greeting. In fact, no one in salvation history had ever been addressed like this before. And note that the angel does not say "Hail, Mary, full of grace." Gabriel says, "Hail, full of grace." The angel addresses Mary not by her personal name, but with the title "full of grace." As some Scripture scholars, such as Joel Green in his commentary on The Gospel of Luke, have pointed out, it is as if Mary is being given a new name. John Paul II, in reflecting on this passage in his book Theotokos(1), said "full of grace" is "the name Mary possesses in the eyes of God" (p. 88):

In Semitic usage, a name expresses the reality of the persons and things to which it refers. As a result, the title ‘full of grace' shows the deepest dimension of the young woman of Nazareth's personality: fashioned by grace and the object of divine favor to the point that she can be defined by this special predilection. (p. 90)

But what does this unusual title mean? The Greek word in this passage commonly translated "full of grace" is kecharitomene. This word is in a past perfect participle form, indicating an action that began in the past and continues in the present. It literally can be translated "you who have been and continue to be graced." In fact, the same verb is used in Ephesians 1:6-7 to describe not simply grace in the general sense of God's showing his favor on someone, but the particular kind of divine favor that is associated with forgiveness of sins and redemption. Therefore, it is as if the angel is saying to Mary, "Hail, you who have been and continue to be graced . . . Hail, you who already have received the forgiveness of sins and the gift of redemption."

One can appreciate why many have turned to this verse for biblical support for the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception — the belief that Mary was conceived full of grace and without the stain of original sin. Indeed, this verse indicates that Mary already had the working of grace in her life before the Annunciation scene. In other words, while certainly not serving as a definitive "proof-text" for the Immaculate Conception, Luke's Gospel clearly reveals that Mary already had forgiveness of sins and redemption before the angel Gabriel ever appeared to her.

Gabriel's words, therefore, reveal the most significant aspect of Mary's early life. On the surface, she may appear to be simply a young, betrothed woman dwelling in nowhere Nazareth. But in the midst of this seemingly uneventful life, God has made her "full of grace" as He quietly prepares her for the most important mission any woman ever embraced in the history of the world: to become the Mother of God.

One last thing, the truths in scripture are meant for those who originally heard them, and for us now. Jesus on the Cross... Well let us see what he said according to scripture... When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: "Woman, behold thy son" . After that, he saith to the disciple: "Behold thy mother". And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. John19: 26-27, Douay-Rhiems. Jesus is saying to us as well, "Behold your mother" .

Jhesu+Marie!
Brantigny

(1) God Bearer as defined by the Church of the Council of Ephesus in AD 431.

November 7, 1917

2011-11-07T19:18:00.004-05:00

It was on this date that the horror that was prophesied at Fatima, in Portugal came about. Today marks the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution, a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 (O.S.), which corresponds with 7 November 1917 New Style (N.S.). Thus the Russia began to spead error throughout which is still being felt today.

Invocation for the Conversion of Russia

Saviour of the world, save Russia.

An indulgence of 300 days (S.P. Ap., Nov. 24, 1924)

Prayer to Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus for the Conversion of Russia

O loving and compassionate Saint, deign to comfort our Russian brethren, the victims of a long a cruel persecution of the Christian name; obtain for them perseverance in the faith, progress in the love of God and of their neighbor, and in confidence toward the most holy Mother of God; prepare for them holy priests who shall make reparation for the blasphemies and sacrileges committed against the holy Eucharist; grant that angelic purity, especially in the young, and every Christian virtue may once more flourish amongst them, to the end that this noble people, being delivered from all slavery and returning freely to the one fold entrusted by the loving Heart of the Risen Christ to Saint Peter and his successors, may at length taste the joy of glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in the fellowship of the holy Catholic Church. Amen.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantogny

Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot fails

2011-11-04T15:18:00.002-04:00

It was on this date in 1605 that the Gunpowder plot failed...

Robert Catesby, the originator of the Powder Plot, owned estates at Lapworth and Ashby St. Legers. His ancient and honourable family had stood, with occasional lapses, perhaps, but on the whole with fidelity and courage, for the ancient faith. Robert, however, had begun differently. He had been at Oxford in 1586, after Protestantism had won the upper hand, had married into a Protestant family, and his son was baptized in the Protestant church. Father Gerard says that he "was very wild, and as he kept company with the best noblemen in the land, so he spent much above his rate." But at, or soon after, his father's death in 1598 "he was reclaimed from his wild courses and became a Catholic", and was conspicuously earnest in all practices of religion. We, unfortunately, also find in him an habitual inclination towards political and violent measures. This was conspicuously shown during the brief revolt of the Earl of Essex, in February, 1601. Upon receiving a promise of toleration for his co-religionists, Catesby immediately joined him, and also induced some other Catholics to join — among others, Thomas Percy, Thomas Winter, John Wright, and Lord Monteagle, all of whom we shall afterwards find in, or at the edge of, the Powder Plot. Catesby, who is said to have behaved with great courage and determination, escaped the fate of Essex with a ruinous fine, from which his estates never recovered.

But the mental warp caused by those few days at Southampton House was more deleterious still. He was probably henceforth connected with all the schemes for political or forcible remedies which were mooted at this time. Early in 1602 his ally, Thomas Winter, is found negotiating in Spain for assistance, in case Elizabeth's death should leave the Catholics a chance of asserting themselves, for it was one of Elizabeth's manias to leave the succession an open question. Again, he knew of, perhaps had something to do with, the obtaining of a Brief from Clement VII which exhorted Catholics to work for a Catholic successor to the throne. Still it is not to be imagined that Catesby's faction, for all their ultra-Catholic professions, thought themselves debarred from treating with Protestants when that was to their advantage. While Winter negotiated at Madrid, Percy was busy at Edinburgh, and received from James promises of favour for the English Catholics. So notorious was it that the Catesby clique were "hunger-starved for innovations", that when Elizabeth was sickening, he, with Tresham, Bainham and the two Wrights, was put under restraint by order of the council, but apparently for a few days only. Then the queen died and James succeeded (24 March 1603). After that everything seemed full of promise, and, so far as we can see, the universal hope of better things to come brought a period of peace to Catesby's restless mind.

But as time went on, James found it difficult, nay impossible, with Elizabeth's ministers still in office, to carry out those promises of toleration, which he had made to the Catholics when he was in Scotland, and believed that their aid would be extremely important. When he felt secure on his throne and saw the weakness of the Catholics, his tone changed. It was reported that, when he had crossed the English border on his way to London, and found himself welcomed by all classes, he had turned to one of his old councillors, and said "Na, na, gud fayth, wee's not need the Papists now". His accession was indeed marked by a very welcome relaxation of the previous persecution. The fines exacted for recusancy sank in King James's first year to about one-sixth of what they used to be. But the policy of toleration was intensely abhorrent to the Puritan spirit in England, and James could not continue it with the government machinery at his command, and he began to give way. In the fifth half-year of his reign the fines were actually higher than they had ever been before, and the number of martyrs was not far short of the Elizabethan average. At the first indication of this change of policy (March, 1604), Catesby made up his mind that there was no remedy except in extremes, resolved on the Powder Plot, and insisted in his masterful way on his former allies joining him in the venture. Thomas Winter says that when Catesby sent for him in the beginning of Lent, and explained his project, "...he wondered at the strangeness of the conceit", expressed some doubt as to its success, and no doubt as to the scandal and ruin that would result from its failure. But there was no resisting his imperious friend, and he soon expressed himself ready "for this, or whatever else, if he resolved upon it.". The first orders were that Winter should go to the Spanish Netherlands and see whether political pressure applied by Spain might not relieve the sufferings of the Catholics in England, but he was also to bring back "some confident [i.e. trusty] gentleman", such as Mr. Guy Fawkes. Winter soon discovered what Catesby had probably foreseen in England, that there was no hope at all of any immediate relief from friends abroad, and he returned with Fawkes in his company.

Early in May, 1605, Catesby, Thomas Percy (who by some is believed to have been the originator of the plot), Thomas Winter, John Wright, and Fawkes met in London, were initiated into the plot, and ten adjourned till they could take an oath of secrecy. They did this one May morning in "a house behind St. Clement's", and then, passing to another room, heard Mass and received Communion together, the priest (whom they believed to be Father John Gerard) having no inkling of their real intentions. It is of course impossible to give a rational explanation of their insensate crime. They did not belong to the criminal class, they were not actuated by personal ambitions. They were of gentle birth, men of means and honour, some were married and had children, several of them were zealous converts who had made sacrifices to embrace Catholicism, or rather to return to it, for they mostly came from Catholic parents. On the other hand, though religiously minded, they were by no means saints. They were dare-devils and duelists, and Percy was a bigamist. They were kept in a state of constant irritation against the government by a code of infamous laws against their religion, and a series of galling fines. They had, as we have seen, dabbled in treason and plans of violence for some years past, and now they had formed themselves into a secret society, ready to poniard any of their number who should oppose their objects. They understood their oath to contain a promise not to tell even their confessors of their plans, so sure did they feel of the rectitude of their design. Nor did they do so until fifteen months later, when, Father Garnet having written to Rome to procure a clear condemnation of any and every attempt at violence, Catesby, with the cognizance of Winter, had recourse to Father Greenway with results to which we must return later.

The first active step (24 May, 1604) was to hire as a lodging Mr. Whynniard's tenement, which lay close to the House of Parliament, and had a garden that stretched down towards the Thames. But no sooner was this taken than a government committee claimed the right of sitting there, so the preparations for mining had to be postponed for six months. Before Christmas, however, they had opened a mine from the ground floor of their house, and advanced as far as the wall of the House of Lords; then they made slow progress in working their way through its medieval masonry. In March, however, they discovered that the cellar of the House of Lords might be hired, and on Lady Day, 1605, a bargain was struck for that purpose. They had now only to carry in their powder, and cover it with faggots of firewood, and the first part of their task had been accomplished with surprising facility. They then separated, to make preparations for what should follow when the blow was struck. For this it was necessary to procure more money, and by consequence to admit more members. Five were mentioned before, and five more, Christopher Wright, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, Robert Winter, and John Grant had been added since. Three richer men were now sworn in, Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby, and lastly, Francis Tresham. It was this thirteenth man who has been generally believed to have caused the detection of the plot, by a letter sent to his cousin Lord Monteagle on 26 October. This mysterious document, which is still extant, is written in a feigned hand, with an affectation if illiterateness and in the obscurest of styles. The recipient was warned against attending Parliament on the day appointed, and hints were added as to the specific character of a "terrible blow" that would befall it. "There [will] be no appearance of any stir"; "they shall not see who hurt them"; "the danger will be past as soon as you have burnt this letter." Monteagle, having received this letter, first caused it to be read aloud at his table before some mutual friends of the conspirators, then he took it to the government.

Contrary to what might have been expected, no measures were taken for the security of the House, and the conspirators, who had heard of Monteagle's letter breathed again. Catesby had from the first laid down this principle, "Let us give an attempt, and where it faileth, pass no further." The attempt had not yet failed, they did not think the time had come to "pass no further". So the continued all their preparations, and their friends were invited to meet for a big hunt in Warwickshire on the fatal day. The official account of the government delay is briefly this: No one at first understood the inner meaning of the letter until it was shown to James, who "did upon the instant interpret and apprehend some dark phrases therein, and thereupon ordered a search to be made". That this story is not strictly true is acknowledged by every critic. Whatever the germ of truth in it may be, the delay in itself was far from sagacious. If the conspirators had not been foolhardy, they would have fled as soon as they knew that one of their number had turned informer. However, on the last day before that fixed for the explosion, an inspection of the precincts of the House was resolved upon and conducted by a high official, but led to no result. Yet another search was then ordered, on the pretext that some hangings of Parliament house had been purloined, and this was immediately successful. The powder was found and Fawkes, who was on the watch close by, was arrested. Next day (5 November) the conspirators fled to their rendezvous, and thus betrayed themselves. It was with difficulty that they got their own retainers to keep with them, the Catholics everywhere refusing them aid.

Their only chance, they thought, was to fly into Wales, where, in the hilly country, and among a people which had not yet fully accepted religious changes they might still possibly find safety. But on reaching Holbeche, in Worcestershire, they perceived that further retreat was impossible, and were preparing to sell their lives dearly when a chance spark exploded their store of powder, wounding some and discouraging all. It seemed a judgment of God, that those who had plotted with powder should perish through powder. Their eyes seemed to have been at length opened to the reality of their offence. They made their last confessions to a passing priest, Father Hammond, and they prepared without illusions for the fate that was before them. Next morning (8 November) they were attacked, and defended themselves bravely against heavy odds — Catesby, Percy, and the two Wrights were killed, and the rest wounded and captured. After an almost endless series of examinations the survivors were put on their trials on 27 January, and executed on 31 January, 1606. Their deaths did them credit; in particular the last letters and verses of Sir Everard Digby, which were not intended for the public eye, and were not discovered or published till long after, produce the impression of a man who deserved a happier fate.

The attempt to incriminate the Church

We have already seen that the plot had been occasioned by the persecution. "If any one green leaf for Catholics could have been visibly discerned by the eye of Catesby, Winter, Garnet, Faux and the rest, they would neither have entered into practice [i.e. treason] nor missions nor combinations". This was a boast of one of the king's ministers, to show how far toleration had ever been from their policy. Now their object was to make the plot an excuse for increasing the persecution. The following words of Lord Salisbury (4 Dec., 1605), to a private secretary of James, will show the spirit and method with which they addressed themselves to their task: "I have received from your directions to learn the names of those priests, which have been confessors and ministers of the sacraments to those conspirators, because it followeth indeed in consequence that they could not be ignorant of their purposes. For all men that doubt, resort to them for satisfaction, and all men use confession to obtain absolution." He then goes on to say that most of the conspirators "have wilfully forsworn that the priests knew anything in particular, and obstinately refuse to be accusers of them, yea what tortures soever they be put to." But, of course, the unfortunate victims were not able to resist indefinitely, and ere long the inquisitors discovered that the conspirators had frequented the Jesuit fathers for confession. So a proclamation was issued, 15 Jan., 1606, declaring that Fathers Henry Garnet, John Gerard, and Oswald Greenway (Greenwell) were proved to be co-operators in the plot "by divers confessions of many conspirators". This accusation was reaffirmed in no less than four Acts of Parliament, in the indictment of the conspirators, and in other public documents, though as yet the government knew nothing of the real state of the case, of which we shall now hear. Indeed Salisbury afterwards confessed in an unguarded moment that it was by the hole-in-the-wall trick that "the Lords had some light and proof of matter against you [Garnet], which must otherwise have been discovered by violence and coertion". The true extent of the intercourse of the conspirators with the priests will be best shown, going back to the commencement and following the historical order.

Catesby, then, had been acquainted with Garnet since the close of Elizabeth's reign, and probably since his conversation, for he was a visitor at the house of the Vauxes and Brookesbys, with whom Garnet lived as chaplain. And as far back as May, 1604, he had noticed Catesby's aversion of mind from the king and government. On 29 Aug., 1604, he wrote to his superiors in Rome (apropos of the treaty of peace with Spain, which he hoped might contain a clause in favour of the English Catholics): "If the affair of toleration go not well, Catholics will no more be quiet. Jesuits cannot hinder it. Let the pope forbid all Catholics to stir." Next spring (8 May, 1605) he wrote in still more urgent tones: "All are desperate. Divers Catholics are offended with Jesuits, and say that Jesuits do impugn and hinder all forcible enterprises. I dare not inform myself of their plans, because of the prohibition of Father General for meddling in such affairs, and so I cannot give you an exact account. This I know by mere chance." The "desperation" referred to here was caused by the serious increase of persecution at this time. In particular Garnet had in mind the "little tumult" in Whales, where the Catholics had assembled in force (21 march, 1605) and had defiantly buried with religious ceremonies the body of Mrs. Alice Wellington, after the parson had refused to do so, because she was, he said, excommunicated (Cath. Record Society, ii, 291). Garnet's letter, which may have been backed by others, drew from Rome a letter ordering the archpriest Blackwell and himself, in mandato Papae, "to hinder by all possible means all conspiracies of Catholics. This prohibition was published by Blackwell, 22 July, 1605, and his letter is still extant.

Till June, 1605, Garned had no serious suspicions of Catesby. On 9 June, however, at Garnet's lodging on Thames Street, London, Catesby asked him whether it were lawful to explode mines in war, even though some non-combatants might be killed together with the enemy's soldiers. Garnet, as any divine might do, answered in the affirmative, and thought no more about it, until Catesby came up to him when they were alone, and promised him never to betray the answer he had given. At this Garnet's suspicions were decidedly aroused, and at their next meeting, in July, he insisted on the need of patience, and on the prohibitions that had come from Rome of all violent courses. Catesby's answer calmed the Father's fears for the time, but still at their next meeting Garnet thought well to read to him the pope's prohibition of violent courses, which Blackwell was about to publish. Catesby's answer was not submissive; he was not bound, he said, to accept Garnet's word as to the pope's commands. Garnet rather weakly suggested that he should ask the pope himself, and to this the crafty conspirator at once consented, for with careful management he could thus stave off the papal prohibition, until it would be too late to stop. Though here and elsewhere Garnet does not show himself possessed of the wisdom of the serpent, his mild and straightforward conduct was not without its effect, even on the masterful Catesby. For only now, after having committed himself so thoroughly to his desperate enterprise, did he feel the need of consulting his confessor on its liceity, and told the story under the seal of confession to Father Greenway, and "so that he could reveal it to none but Garnet". (Not knowing what to do in the presence of such a danger, Greenway (26 July) came and consulted Garnet, of course again under the seal. Garnet conjured Greenway to do everything he possibly could to stop Catesby's mad enterprise, and Greenway afterwards solemnly declared that he had in truth done his best, "as much as if the life of the pope had been at stake".

Catesby did not refuse to obey, and Garnet too easily assumed, until too late, that the attempt was, if not given up, postponed till the pope should be consulted, though in truth the plotting continued unchecked until all was discovered. Garnet afterwards asked pardon for this, admitting that between hope and fear, embarrassment and uncertainty, he had not taken absolutely all the means to stop the conspirators, which he might perhaps have taken on the strength of his general suspicions, even though he could do nothing in virtue of his sacramental knowledge. We have already seen that a proclamation for his arrest was issued on 15 January, 1606, and on 31 January he was found stiff and unable to move, after lying a week cramped in a hiding-hole with Father Oldcorne, the martyr, in the house of Mr. Abington at Hindlip, Worcestershire. At first Garnet successfully withstood every attempt to incriminate him, but he was finally thrown off his balance by stratagem. He was shown a chink in his door through which he might whisper to the cell of Father Oldcorne. Acting on the hint, the two Jesuits conferred on the matters that lay nearest to their hearts, making their confessions one to another, an recounting what questions they had been asked, and how they had answered; but spies, who had been stationed hard by, overheard all this confidential intercourse. After some days, Garnet was charged with one of his own confessions, and when he endeavoured to evade it, he found to his consternation that all his secrets were betrayed.

Though the extant reports of the spies show that the subjects overheard were by no means fully understood, Garnet was made to believe that the evidence was fatal and overwhelming against others, as well as against himself. Not knowing how to act, he thought hat his only course was to tell everything frankly and clearly, and so made use of the permission which Greenway had given him, to speak about the secret in case a case of grave necessity, after the matter had become public. The government thus eventually came to know the whole story. Though, in moments of supreme difficulty like these, Garnet seems somewhat lacking in worldly wisdom it is hard to see where we can definitely blame him, considering the simplicity of his character and the continuous deceptions practiced upon him, which were far more numerous than can be set forth here. "If I had been in Garnet's place", wrote Dr. Lingard to a friend, "I think I should have acted exactly as he did". In his public trial, on the other hand, he showed to advantage. Though attacked unscrupulously by the ablest lawyers of the day, and of course condemned, his defence was simple, honest, and convincing. His story could not be shaken.

After sentence he was long kept in prison, where further frauds were practised upon him. One of these was very subtle. Sir William Waade, Lieutenant of the Tower, wrote (4 April 1606): "I hope to use the means to make him acknowledge that the discourse he had with Greenway of those horrible treasons was not in confession. I draw him to say he conceived it to be in confession" — as if that were the first step to an acknowledgement that in truth it was not so — "howsoever Greenway did understand it". These last words about Greenway's dissenting from Garnet (which he never did), taken together with the presence in Waade's letter of an intercepted note from Garnet addressed to Greenway in prison (Greenway was really free and out of England), leads obviously to the inference that Waade had conveyed to Garnet the false information that Greenway was taken, and was alleging that he did not understand that their discourse was in confession. Garnet had in fact again been overreached, and had sent through his keeper (who feigned friendliness and volunteered to carry letters secretly) the note to Greenway, which had come into Waade's hands. If Garnet had not been clear about the fact of the confession both in mind and conscience, this note would most certainly have betrayed him; as it is, his letter, by its sincerity and consistency, offers to us convincing evidence of the truth of his story. Garnet's execution took place in St. Paul's churchyard, before a crowd, the like of which had never been seen before, on 3 May, 1606. As he had done at his trial, Garnet made a favourable impression on his audience. Being still under the illusions described above, he carefully avoided every appearance of claiming beforehand the victory of martyrdom, but this, in effect, rather increased than diminished the lustre of his faith, piety and patience.

The results of the plot on the fortunes of the English Catholics were indeed serious. The government made use of the anti-Catholic excitement to pass new and drastic measures of persecution. Besides a sweeping act of attainder, which condemned many innocent with the guilty, there was the severe Act 3 James I, c. 4, against recusants, which, amongst other new aggravations, introduced the ensnaring Oath of Allegiance. These laws were not repealed till 1846 (9 and 10 Vict. C. 59), though at earlier dates the Emancipation Acts and other relief bills had rendered their pains and penalties inoperative. Still more protracted has been the controversy to which the plot gave rise, of which in fact we have not yet seen the end. The fifth of November was celebrated by law as a sort of legal feast-day of Protestant tradition. Fawkes's Christian name has became a byword for figures fit to be burned with derision, and "the traditional story" of the plot has been recounted again and again, garnished with all manner of unhistorical accretions. These accretions were confuted in 1897 by Father John Gerard in his "What the Gunpowder Plot was", which while professedly traversing Father Gerard's criticism, does not in truth attempt to re-establish "the traditional story", but only his (Gardiner's) own much more moderate account of the plot which he had previously published in his well known History.

This is the main difference between the two critics. In truth "the traditional story" may be exaggerated, and in need of correction in every detail, which is Father Gerard's contention; and yet Gardiner's view, that truth will be found a short way beneath the surface, may also be valid and sound. The most substantial divergence between the two is found in relation to the time at which they conceived the government heard of the Plot. If, as Father Gerard thinks, the government knew of it for some time before Monteagle's letter and yet allowed it to proceed, from that time it was no longer a conspiracy against the crown, but a conspiracy of the crown against political adversaries, whom they were luring on, by some agent provocateur, to their doom. In the case of the Babington Plot, indeed, we have direct proof that this was done in the letters of the provocateurs themselves. In this case, however, direct proof is wanting, and the conclusion is inferential only.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

November 5, 1499

2011-11-04T14:28:00.002-04:00

It was on this date that the publication of the Catholicon in Treguier (Brittany). This Breton-French-Latin dictionary was written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc. It is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

St Martin de Porres Day

2011-11-03T08:52:00.005-04:00

"Compassion is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers, but even with a torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my harshness toward the unfortunate would create."

Prayer to St. Martin de Porres

To you, Saint Martin de Porres, we prayerfully lift up our hearts filled with serene confidence and devotion. Mindful of your unbounded and helpful charity to all levels of society and also of your meekness and humility of heart, we offer our petitions to you. Pour out upon our families the precious gifts of your solicitous and generous intercession; show to the people of every race and every color the paths of unity and of justice; implore from our Father in heaven the coming of his kingdom, so that through mutual benevolence in God men may increase the fruits of grace and merit the rewards of eternal life. Amen.

for more go here...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

A statue of St Martin resides in our parish, I believe the statue is one of the few remaining statues returned to the parish. A priest all fired up with the spirit of ecuminism removed the statues an placed them in a garage where they disintegrated after many years. The statue now holds a place of honour.

One Baptism for the Forgivemess of Sin

2011-11-03T08:32:00.003-04:00

"Je suis heureux d'être parfait aux yeux de le bon Dieu!" dit Audrey!

Well the prison is about to have a Baptism, in the Baptismal "tub" in the chapel. Very few know led by voulnteers who know not are convinced that this is only a sign of belief rather than a washing away of sin. It will be far colder in the Batismal than in the Jordan.

All pardon for sins ultimately comes from Christ’s finished work on Calvary, but how is this pardon received by individuals? Did Christ leave us any means within the Church to take away sin? The Bible says he gave us two means.

Baptism was given to take away the sin inherited from Adam (original sin) and any sins we personally committed before baptism—sins we personally commit are called actual sins, because they come from our own acts. Thus on the day of Pentecost, Peter told the crowds, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38), and when Paul was baptized he was told, "And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name" (Acts 22:16). And so Peter later wrote, "Baptism . . . now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 3:21).

For sins committed after baptism, a different sacrament is needed. It has been called penance, confession, and reconciliation, each word emphasizing one of its.aspects. During his life, Christ forgave sins, as in the case of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1–11) and the woman who anointed his feet (Luke 7:48). He exercised this power in his human capacity as the Messiah or Son of man, telling us, "the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Matt. 9:6), which is why the Gospel writer himself explains that God "had given such authority to men" (Matt. 9:8).

Since he would not always be with the Church visibly, Christ gave this power to other men so the Church, which is the continuation of his presence throughout time (Matt. 28:20), would be able to offer forgiveness to future generations. He gave his power to the apostles, and it was a power that could be passed on to their successors and agents, since the apostles wouldn’t always be on earth either, but people would still be sinning.

God had sent Jesus to forgive sins, but after his resurrection Jesus told the apostles, "‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’" (John 20:21–23). *

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

*(This is one of only two times we are told that God breathed on man, the other being in Genesis 2:7, when he made man a living soul. It emphasizes how important the establishment of the sacrament of penance was.)

One of the reasons why distribution on the hand is just wrong.

2011-11-02T11:47:00.002-04:00

"We discovered about 30 hymnals containing the Body of Christ"

Having attended Mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton these past two weeks, you may have heard Fr. Cole or me address a situation that we have been made aware of over the past several weeks. Heartbroken and with tears in their eyes, we have been approached by parishioners with open hymnals. What has caused the tears has been their discovery of the Body of Christ, partially consumed, stuck between the pages of a hymnal. After another incident this past weekend, I invited our NET Team (National Evangelization Team assigned to SEAS) to open and search all of the hymnals. We discovered about 30 hymnals containing the Body of Christ. more...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Man Sues Catholic University of America for Being... Catholic

2011-11-02T11:04:00.002-04:00

...It is alleged that CUA does not provide space -- as other universities do -- for the many daily prayers Muslim students must make, forcing them instead to find temporarily empty classrooms where they are often surrounded by Catholic symbols which are incongruous to their religion. Furthermore, it appears that Muslims on campus may even be forced to do their meditation in the school's chapels or in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception – hardly places where students of a very different religion are likely to feel very comfortable
A law school professor has filed a complaint with the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights, alleging that Catholic University of America, a private institution, discriminates against Muslim students.

John F. Banzhaf III claims the school "[denies Muslim students] equal access to the benefits CUA provides to other student groups," according to a press release, posted on PRLog.

The professor's allegations stem from the school's failure to give formal recognition to a Muslim Association, although its law school recognizes a Jewish association, according to theThe Tower, Catholic University's school newspaper... more...

I administer the chaplaincy programs at this prison. The only space we have that is big enough to house all the Muslims at prayer is the Chapel which has a large cross on the wall. The muslims will cover it with a sheet in order not to have the symbol of Chritianity. The Stations of the Cross and the Crucifix which I have placed on a wall not in their direct view they leave alone. I would suggest that this fellow suing the Catholic university should remove himself. He knew it was a Catholic University when he went there, more over, a muslim can go out side or some other place where he may pray.

"Montjoie! Saint Denis!"
Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Anne Boleyn?

2011-11-01T16:07:00.003-04:00

I love a mystery...

Confessions of a Ci-Divant writes in part...

The above portrait, a miniature by Horenbolte, is often referenced in websites and some history books today as being a portrait of Anne Boleyn. However, of all the many labelled and re-labelled Tudor portraits, this mysterious lady (described as twenty-five years-old in the faint gold lettering behind her) has had the most inconsistent identification. Sometime around the seventeenth century, it was housed in a collection as a portrait of Henry's first wife, Katherine of Aragon, which was still its presumed identity in 1774, when it was catalogued. More...

So who can it be?

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantighy

All Hallows Day

2011-11-01T14:26:00.004-04:00

Not my favorite day, but here is a photo of my 2 year old grandaughter Audrey in her mothers costume from when she was 2 years old. My wife has saved any dress that was dear to my daughter Genevieve for her daughter when the time came. The time came...
Can you guess who she is supposed to be?

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

Te Deum laudamus

2011-10-31T15:05:00.002-04:00

Te Deum laudamus

Latin hymn to God the Father and Christ the Son, traditionally sung on occasions of public rejoicing (coronation of kings, proclamation of bishops, consecration of a virgin, canonization of a saint, divulgation of a peace treaty or a victory).

According to legend, it was improvised antiphonally by St. Ambrose and St. Augustine at the latter's baptism. It has more plausibly been attributed to Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana in the early 5th century, and its present form--equal sections devoted to the Father and Son, a half-clause to the Holy Spirit, followed by a litany--fit in historically with part of the Arian controversy (over the nature of Christ) of the 4th century. Much of the text is composed of traditional statements of belief; and unlike most hymns, it is prose. The melody derives from various pre-Gregorian and Gregorian melodic styles.

Numerous English translations have been made; the version given here was prepared from a manuscript version dated 909 by the International Consultation on English Texts, an ecumenical committee of scholars, and was published in The Liturgy of the Hours*.

Te Deum laudamus

Te deum laudamus te dominum confitemur
Te aeternum patrem omnis terra veneratur
Tibi omnes angeli Tibi caeli et universae potestates
Tibi cherubim et seraphim incessabili voce proclamant
Sanctus sanctus sanctus dominus deus sabaoth
Pleni sunt celi et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae
Te gloriosus apostolorum chorus
Te prophetarum laudabilis numerus
Te martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus
Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur ecclesia
Patrem inmense maiestatis
Venerandum tuum verum unicum filium
Sanctum quoque paraclytum spiritum
Tu rex gloriae christe
Tu patris sempiternus es filius
Tu ad liberandum suscepisti hominem non horruisti virginis uterum
Tu devicto mortis aculeo aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum
Tu ad dexteram dei sedes in gloria patris
Iudex crederis esse venturus
Te ergo quaesumus tuis famulis subveni quos pretioso sanguine redemisti
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis gloria munerari
Salvum fac populum tuum domine et benedic hereditati tuae
Et rege eos et extolle illos usque in aeternum
Per singulos dies benedicimus te
Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum et in saeculum saeculi
Dignare domine die isto, sine peccato nos custodire
Miserere nostri domine miserere nostri
Fiat misericordia tua domine super nos quemadmodum speravimus in te
In te domine speravi non confundar in aeternum.

Jhesu+Marie,

Brantigny

Te Deum laudamus

You are God: we praise you;
You are the Lord: we acclaim you;
You are the eternal Father:
All creation worships you.
To you all angels, all the powers of heaven,
Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of
power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
The glorious company of apostles praise you.
The noble fellowship of prophets praise you.
The white-robed army of martyrs praise you.
Throughout the world the holy Church
acclaims you:
Father, of majesty unbounded,
your true and only Son, worthy of all worship,
and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide.
You, Christ, are the king of glory,
the eternal Son of the Father.
When you became man to set us free
you did not spurn the Virgin's womb.
You overcame the sting of death,
and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
You are seated at God's right hand in glory.
We believe that you will come, and be our judge.
Come then, Lord, and help your people,
bought with the price of your own blood,
and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting.
Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance.
Govern and uphold them now and always.
Day by day we bless you.
We praise your name for ever.
Keep us today, Lord, from all sin.
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.
Lord, show us your love and mercy;
for we put our trust in you.
In you, Lord, is our hope:
and we shall never hope in vain.

*(1975).

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at Ground Zero

2011-10-29T17:07:00.005-04:00

World Trade Center Church Will Be Rebuilt
Deal reached between Greek Orthodox and Port Authority means there will be a place

NEW YORK — Ten years after 9/11, plans have been settled to rebuild the only church that was destroyed during the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has spent the last decade in a tug-of-war with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land under the World Trade Center, over the future of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. The small church sat in the shadows of the Twin Towers but was crushed when they collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001.

On Oct. 14, both parties announced that they had finally reached an agreement.

According to Father Mark Arey, director of the Office of Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, St. Nicholas was founded in 1916 at a time when Lower Manhattan was still an immigrant neighborhood made up of mostly Greeks and Syrians. New York was an active port city at the time, and St. Nicholas is the patron saint of those who travel, particularly sailors. Local families pooled their resources and purchased an old tavern at the location of 155 Cedar St.

After its destruction on 9/11, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the 70-family congregation of St. Nicholas immediately pledged to rebuild.

While the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese understood that because of reconstruction efforts at Ground Zero it would not be possible to rebuild at the original site, much of the controversy in recent years has been over negotiating a land swap for the church to still be able to rebuild at Ground Zero. In 2008, a tentative agreement was made for a nearby location, 130 Liberty St. The Port Authority then claimed that the proposal to relocate the site would cost “tens and millions of public dollars,” and the deal was called off, prompting the archdiocese to file suit against the Port Authority on Feb. 14.

Recently, however, Greek Orthodox Archbishop Demetrios had dinner with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who agreed to mediate the negotiations between the archdiocese and the Port Authority. The final agreement will allow for St. Nicholas to be rebuilt on the proposed 2008 site on Liberty Street, with the Port Authority paying for the site work on the below-ground infrastructure and the archdiocese paying for the construction of the church. The site will also include an interfaith prayer center for visitors of any religion, with a slated completion in 2014.

In a statement from Cuomo’s office, he noted that “Rebuilding St. Nicholas Church, with a nondenominational bereavement center, is not just good news for the Greek Orthodox community, but for all New Yorkers. With this agreement, we are continuing New York’s collective healing, restoration and resurgence.”

Catholic Connection

A few short blocks away from St. Nicholas Church stands St. Peter’s, the oldest Catholic parish in New York City. It was a temporary morgue for victims on 9/11 and was the place where firemen carried the body of Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, the first recorded death during the attacks.

When asked to comment about the rebuilding of St. Nicholas, the pastor of St. Peter’s, Father Kevin Madigan, remarked, “It will be a wonderful thing for them to have a church presence. They have a loyal constituency. Many people don’t realize this, but the parishes of St. Nicholas and St. Peter’s have a shared history.”

He explained that St. Joseph’s Chapel, a mission of St. Peter’s, was St. Joseph’s Church until the early 1980s. “St. Joseph and St. Nicholas used to actually share the same wall,” he said. “During the construction of the World Trade Center, the original plan was to destroy both and build another tower. St. Nicholas remained, but St. Joseph’s Church was demolished.”

Religion at Ground Zero

Ground Zero has been a politically sensitive area and already the site of several clashes between political and religious leaders. On Sept. 22, part of Park 51, an Islamic cultural center formerly known as Cordoba House, opened two blocks away from the former World Trade Center site. The center was the topic of heated debate, as many of the 9/11 victim families believed its presence to be insensitive to the memory of their loved ones. The attacks on 9/11 were carried out by fundamentalist Muslims.

Also, during the memorial service to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks this year, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg did not invite any clergy to attend the occasion. While the Bloomberg administration claimed that this was simply due to space constraints, many religious leaders viewed this as an effort to exclude religious practice from the memorial events.

For Father Arey, the agreement to rebuild St. Nicholas is a victory for religious liberty and a special privilege for the Orthodox community to live out their faith. “St Nicholas will be the only church on Ground Zero, because it was the only church to begin with. … We are going to be a witness at Ground Zero. It’s a very special opportunity for Orthodoxy in America, where we are a very small minority of Americans.”

Thanks to Elisa who suggested this post.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

See the original article from February 2011 here...

Law of Uninteded Consequences.

2011-10-25T13:41:00.002-04:00

Man's folly hath enhanced the value of gold and silver because of their scarcity; whereas nature, like a kind parent, hath freely given us the best things, such as air, earth, and water, but hath hidden from us those which are vain and useless.— St Thomas More, Utopia, Bk 2. (1516)

Protestors complain of being robbed (er, having their property redistributed) by other protestors...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

St Edmund Campion, Martyr

2011-10-25T10:23:00.000-04:00

October 25, St Crispins day and Azincourt

2011-10-25T08:51:00.002-04:00

When I was in the Marine Staff Academy so many years ago a portion of the class was dedicated to the following soliloquy:

...We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England, now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day... (4.3.43)

I was reminded that today is St Crispins Day which of course reminded me of one of my all time favorite films being the 1944 version of William Shakespeare's "Henry V" played by Sir Laurence Olivier. A consummate actor, he is to me the Henry. A portion of the soliloquy from the play is quoted above.

It was on this day in 1415 that the English lead by King Henry V defeated the flower of he French Nobility at Agincourt or Azincourt in what is northern France. (Pas de Calais). In the period that followed, the daughter of King Charles VI of France Catherine of Valois, was married to Henry V, as a move to bring peace to the two nations that had been at war for more than 80 years; the couple's firstborn son was named as heir to the throne of France, in contradiction to Salic law which states that the Heir to France my only pass through male linage.

In France, Charles VII (Valois) became Dauphin upon the death of his father, Charles VI, but his legitimacy was placed in question by his mothers repudiation of him, being made feasible by her numerous and notorious affairs.

Henry V died while his son, Henry VI, was merely an infant, and the power struggle over control of the French throne led to renewed hostilities in the Hundred Years' War for a further 30+ years, highlighted by the capture of Orleans by Joan of Arc in 1429 and culminating in the final victory over the English at the Battle OF Castillon on 17 July 1453.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

October 25 Feast of the Forty Martyrs

2011-10-25T08:32:00.006-04:00

In St Andrews Catholic School in Chicago our Sisters (of Providence) would regale us with stories of the martyrs. I used to think how it would be to be prepared to give ones life for the faith. To give ones life for the faith is to renounce the world and all it's vanities and be killed in order to proclaim the good news with ones death. History is replete with the stories of these martyrs who refused mercy so that they may be united with Jesus in heaven. I recall the story of one sister who when told she would be spared death if she just repudiated her faith ran up the stairs to the guillotine to share in the glory of her companions. Thus it was for these humble martyrs on whose day we celebrate their martyrdom. Are we prepared to be martyred for the Faith?..

Today in England is the feast of the Forty Holy Martyrs of England and Wales (in Wales this is a memorial), a group of forty men, women, religious, priests, and lay people who were canonized by Pope Paul VI on October 25, 1970. These people were executed for the Faith during a period of anti-Catholicism from 1535 to 1679. The Martyrs who were canonized were among more than two hundred martyrs who had been beatified by various earlier popes. Some of the common "crimes" of these people were being priests, harboring priests, or refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. This group of saints includes some well-known saints, such as St. Alban Roe, and St. Edmund Campion. Many of these saints are recognized on the days of their martyrdom, but as a group, they are recognized on the day they were canonized. find more here...

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

A colonial recipe

2011-10-24T13:03:00.003-04:00

An October fall day. What is better on a fall day than to eat a nice and juicy apple? Remember when the gracery stores used to prepare caramel apples in the october? In Colonial times it was no different. Refridgeration unknown then, required that apples harvested must be eaten before they rotted.

Here is a quick and easy way to use those pommes from Colonial Sense.

Apple Snowballs a Colonial dessert

Time: 1/2 hour to boil the rice separately; 1/2 to 1 hour with the apple.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ingredients

2 teacupfuls of rice
apples
moist sugar
cloves
milk

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Directions

Boil the rice in milk until three-parts done; then strain it off
Pare and core the apples without dividing them
Put a small quantity of sugar and a clove into each apple
Put the rice round them, and tie each ball separately in a cloth
Boil until the apples are tender
Take them up, remove the cloths, and serve

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Source: The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton (1859)

Enjoy.

Jhesu+Marie,
Brantigny

See the comments below Sarah from Australia has sent a link for apple dumplings. :-{p