The Holy Father has been taking a beating lately on behalf of his sinful sons in the priesthood.  “The pope will have much to suffer,” Our Lady told the children at Fatima.  This has been realized in every pope since the time of the apparitions, but we wonder if Our Lady had these days and this pope particularly in mind.

None of us should be particularly surprised or even disturbed by the assaults of the enemies of the Church.  This is nothing new or unexpected.  For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry? Our Lord said on the day he died (Lk23:31).  History has played itself out, just as he predicted.

It is the height of hypocrisy for secularists to act horrified by unnatural vice within the Church when they are its biggest advocates.  But it is even worse for a wolf to cloth himself in the robes of a shepherd.  We have put the rope in our enemies’ hands.

En route to Portugal on Tuesday, Benedict was asked if the suffering of John Paul contained in Fatima’s third secret could be extended to encompass the suffering of the church today concerning the clerical abuse scandal.

Benedict affirmed it could, arguing that the Fatima message doesn’t respond to a particular situation or time but offers a “fundamental response” to the constant need for penance and prayer.

“In terms of what we today can discover in this message, attacks against the pope or the church don’t come just from outside the church,” he told reporters. “The suffering of the church also comes from within the church, because sin exists in the church. This, too, has always been known, but today we see it in a really terrifying way.”

The evil within the Church is especially terrifying because it has not done more to restore our militancy.  Where has been the outrage?  Why did the Church not protect the innocent once pastors knew what was happening?  Leon Podles has written on the subject of anger and the sex scandal.  Katie van Schaijik at The Linde has an interesting commentary on Podles’ article.

The ethics of chivalry originally arose out of the need to moderate the ferociousness of masculine aggressiveness.  Today it needs to be restored in order to validate masculine authority and the role of fathers.  This is not to say that the moderation of chivalry is not necessary today.  Militancy and Chivalry are not necessarily identical and there are many divisions within the Church that exist because of arrogance and a lack of charity.  But child molestation is a no-brainer.

The way of Chivarly is the hard road.  It admits of no extremes and makes demands on all sides.  No rest for the weary.  No convalescing for the wounded.  On your feet and fight.  On your feet and tend to the needy.

Here is an interesting take on the culture of Twitter which is appropriate to this subject.  Fight the good fight, with the emphasis on good.

Filed under: Blessed Virgin Mary, Catholic, Catholic Action, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Chivalry, Culture, Knights, Manliness, Religion, Spirituality Tagged: Benedict XVI, Fatima, Katie van Schaijik, Leon Podles, The Linde
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The post Fatima and Priestly Chivalry first appeared on AirMaria.com.

This perverse view has been carefully prepared by a so called “education,” aiming at convincing us that there are no absolute moral truths: they are all relative and depend upon the time and the culture that one happens to live it. It was declared to be “high time” to liberate ourselves from paralyzing taboos which have kept us in bondage. This view also justifies “same sex marriage” – a moral abomination that threatens the very fabric of society and that a no- nonsense Italian peasant would condemn on the ground that “no door can be opened if lock and key are identical.” From time immemorial – starting with Genesis – marriage has been declared to be the union of a man and a woman – whose spiritual, intellectual, affective and biological structures are so admirably complementary. Today in our morally decadent world, it is neither prudent nor politically correct to proclaim clearly and loudly that the natural moral law is as valid today as it was when given to Moses on Mount Sinai. It is a risky affair to proclaim the objectivity of truth and of moral values in our society seeped in “dictatorial relativism.”

Filed under: Catholicism, Church, Knights, Manliness, Marian Chivalry Tagged: Alice Von Hildebrand, Moral Courage
From MaryVictrix.com

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The following prayer sums up the great value of St. Joseph for our moral and spiritual life:

O Guardian and Father of virgins, Saint Joseph,
to whose faithful care Jesus Himself
and the Virgins of virgins, Mary, were entrusted;
for the sake of these two most precious treasures,
I beg and entreat you to preserve me from every sin
so that I may always serve Jesus and Mary
most chastely with pure mind, heart, and body.
Amen.

St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, protect my purity.

Ave Maria!

Mass: Solemnity of Saint Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Readings:
1st: 2 Sm 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16
Resp: Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 & 29
2nd: Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22
Gsp: Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24a

The post Mar 20 – Homily – Fr Alan: St. Joseph, Protector of Purity first appeared on AirMaria.com.

In today’s Mass (Monday 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Jun 4), Fr Terrance draws out a “7-Step Program” for life, freedom, and true happiness, based on the first reading from St. Peter’s Second Letter.  Father looks at how we can move from knowledge of God to the love of God, according to the wisdom taught by the first pope.

Ave Maria!

Mass: Monday 9th Week of Ordinary Time – Wkdy

Readings: 
1st: 2 Pt: 1:2-7
Resp: Ps 91:1-2, 14-15, 15-16
Gsp: Mk. 12:1-12

More on the Readings: https://airmaria.com/r?m=1613

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The post St. Peter’s 7-Step Program – Jun 04 – Homily – Fr Terrance first appeared on AirMaria.com.