Approved Marian Apparition: Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas

"It is certainly no coincidence that the apparitions of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas in Argentina is finally declared authentic during the pontificate of our first Argentinian pope, and during the Jubilee Holy Year of Mercy. Surely this is an indication that the messages from Our Lady are of no little importance for our current time and circumstances."

Arising from the confusing mess of "prophecies" that inundate our world, these messages from our Holy Mother are worthy of belief.  Pray the rosary! 

Read the full article, click HERE 

"A post-synodal apostolic exhortation, by its very nature, does not propose new doctrine and discipline, but applies the perennial doctrine and discipline to the situation of the world at the time."

~ Cardinal Raymond Burke on Amoris Laetitia, the post-synodal apostolic exhortation written by Pope Francis

Online Live Perpetual Rosary, Share Prayer Intentions

Pray the rosary live with other Catholics worldwide as you gaze at images of the Holy Land!

Please comment your prayer intentions.

Click here to Come Pray the Rosary Online

(You will need the Adobe Flash Player program installed into your PC or Apple Mac for it to work, click HERE for free Adobe Flash Player! )

Pope Francis in Cuba

Reuters: 

September 20, 2015

"Pope Francis celebrated Mass with tens of thousands of Cubans on Sunday in Havana's Revolution Square, the political heart of Cuba where the Communist government stages its biggest rallies.

"The huge plaza is where Cubans celebrate May Day beneath massive portraits of revolutionary leaders Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos built into the facades of state buildings. 

"To welcome the pope, who helped bring about the recent rapprochement between Cubaand the United States, a similarly giant poster of Jesus Christ was hung nearby. 

"Some waited in the square from 3 a.m.

" 'Francis has come to bless this new union between Cuba and the United States,' said Enrique Mesa, a 32-year-old tourism worker.

"While Cuba's government basks in the glow of the pope's four-day visit, he may use the stage to criticize the Communist leaders on democracy and human rights. 

"Between 30-40 dissidents were detained to stop them attending papal events, a dissident human rights group said. 

"Security agents wrestled two men and a woman to the ground at the edge of Revolution Square, then led them off, after they started shouting and tried to hand out flyers, a Reuters witness said.

"Arriving on Saturday, Francis exhorted Cuba and the United States to deepen their detente, and encouraged Cuba to grant more freedom to the Roman Catholic Church, which has re-emerged as a powerful force after suffering decades of repression.

" 'His visit is cause for hope in our aspirations for improvement,' said biologist Benito Espinoza, 41, at Revolution Square. 'We are an optimistic people, but we have suffered for many years.' "

Click to read the entire article:  Reuters: Pope Celebrates Mass in Havana's Revolution Square

Danger Zones of Evangelization, "Church Militant or Church Belligerent?"

Are we so set on convincing others, especially those with looser beliefs in Catholic doctrine, that they must believe and live the rules or else?  Many of us do it in the name of evangelization.  But what if this does the opposite of what we intend and turns people farther away from our Holy Catholic Church? Do we think to ourselves, "Well, that's a shame. They're in danger of hell! I'll catch them again on the next go 'round." This behaviour was an aspect of this author's life a few decades ago just after undergoing a renewed spiritual conversion.  The danger is in staying firmly at that place and not allowing God to move within us, providing new spiritual eyes as we grow and mature in faith. There are always times when we should remind others of certain teachings of the Church! But it's unwise to use these as a bludgeon, especially to those not ready or willing. 

Pope Francis is teaching us by example to use kind words and to meet people where they are rather than trying to drag them up to our ledge on the mountaintop. He demonstrates the example of Jesus by meeting people where they are and showing love and joy in the Catholic faith. He lives charity and lets God's light shine through him for others to see! Yet those of the doctrinal legal mind-set pick apart his every word and action, looking for errors rather than seeing the whole picture.  This is not unlike how Jesus was treated when He walked the earth. It's a good idea to self-evaluate;  am I being the Church Militant, or the Church belligerent? This is the title of an essay written by Father Paul Scalia some years ago.  Here are two quotes, and the link to the full article is below them.

 "Those who constantly challenge and criticize cannot be taught. They may be able to pick apart goofy catechesis and spot liturgical abuse from a mile away. But they cannot learn, because they never stop questioning, criticizing, picking things apart. The criticism results in a cynicism borne (ironically) of a zeal for truth. If we refuse to trust anyone, then we set ourselves up as our own personal magisterium. And we have a name for that: Protestantism."

"In short, the risk is to cease being the Church Militant and to become instead the "Church Belligerent." This term describes not so much a specific group of people as a certain attitude, mindset, or approach. It indicates the necessary fighting spirit of the Church Militant severed from the principle of charity. And it constitutes a hazard—not for those who think that the past forty years have been a catechetical and liturgical success, not for those who see no need to evangelize, not for those waiting for the Church to be updated. Rather, it poses a threat precisely to those—to us—who take the demands of the Church Militant seriously, who see the crisis in society and within the Church, who recognize the catechetical and liturgical fallout of almost four decades, and who desire to enter into the battle for souls."

Click here to read the entire article: Catholic Answers magazine, The Church Militant or the Church Belligerent? by Fr. Paul Scalia

“From some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.”

 There is a statement oft quoted that is attributed to Pope Paul VI, now Blessed Paul VI.  The statement, “From some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.” This sentence has been the fodder of conspiracy theorists worldwide over decades.  Using this phrase, these theorists conclude that this means "masons" have entered the Church and are trying to destroy it from the inside.  Radical Traditionalists use this phrase to justify their adhering to the "old ways" and not adopting the new ways that Vatican II introduced.  Many even say that Pope Paul VI was murdered and an evil imposter took his place!  These theories run rampant on the internet, and are a favourite among the anti-Catholic crowd.

So, did Pope Paul VI really say that Satan has entered the Church, and thus we shouldn't trust her anymore?  Like everything else in the media,  we must look at the context.  First we must understand that there is no verbatim transcript of his homily given on 29 June, 1972, on the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.  There is only a translated summary by Father Stephanos Pedrano. I will not post the entire homily here, but only the section that contains the sentence in question with emphasis added by me,

Perhaps our being in communication with God obligates us to renunciations, to sacrifices; but at the same time that it deprives us of something it multiplies its gifts.  Yes, it imposes renunciations, but it makes us superabundant in other riches.  We are not poor, rather we are rich, because we have the riches of the Lord.  The Pope adds, “And so, we should wish to tell these brothers—whose absence we feel as it were in the guts of our priestly soul— how close they are to us, how much we love them now and always, and how much we pray for them, and with how much effort we seek to pursue, surround and repair the interruption that they themselves have imposed on our communion with Christ.

Referring to the situation of the Church today, the Holy Father affirms that he has a sense that “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.”  There is doubt, incertitude, problematic, disquiet, dissatisfaction, confrontation.  There is no longer trust of the Church; they trust the first profane prophet who speaks in some journal or some social movement, and they run after him and ask him if he has the formula of true life.  And we are not alert to the fact that we are already the owners and masters of the formula of true life.  Doubt has entered our consciences, and it entered by windows that should have been open to the light.  Science exists to give us truths that do not separate from God, but make us seek him all the more and celebrate him with greater intensity; instead, science gives us criticism and doubt.  Scientists are those who more thoughtfully and more painfully exert their minds.  But they end up teaching us:  “I don’t know, we don’t know, we cannot know.”  The school becomes the gymnasium of confusion and sometimes of absurd contradictions.  Progress is celebrated, only so that it can then be demolished with revolutions that are more radical and more strange, so as to negate everything that has been achieved, and to come away as primitives after having so exalted the advances of the modern world.

It is notable that directly after the "satan" reference, Pope Paul VI explains his statement, if indeed the translation was accurate.  Pope Paul VI is speaking of doubt, incertitude, problematic, disquiet, dissatisfaction, confrontation, lack of trust of the Church, trust of PROFANE PROPHETS who speak in "some journal" or "some social movement".  In other words, the doubts of Catholics worldwide following false prophets and laying aside the tenets of the Church have introduced the "smoke of Satan" into the Church. And what is "the Church"?  Here, Pope Paul VI refers to not just the Vatican, but all Catholics who make up the Temple of Christ; the Body of Christ.  Any of us who have been alive in the past several decades know exactly what Pope Paul VI means!  The smoke of Satan has indeed infiltrated into the minds and hearts of Catholics in our modern society!

It is ironic and interesting that the false prophets, apparition chasers, and conspiracists of this world use a phrase by Pope Paul VI that refers to THEM, but, like the evil one, they turn that phrase against the Church itself!

Our Church and her Magisterium stand strong under the leadership of the Canonically elected Pope Francis. Now she has much more work ahead in drawing us wayward Catholics back into the fold through the upcoming series of Synods.  Pray the rosary for our Holy Mother Church, as Pope Francis guides this embattled ship safely into harbour!


Source:  Catholic Stand

Vindicated: Why a maligned Pope will be beatified

Paul VI, who will be beatified at the Synod on the Family's closing. Credit: UN Photo.

By Matt Hadro

 

Vatican City, Oct 17, 2014 / 05:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- He had the unenviable task of being Pope during a most “tumultuous” era for the Church, but  Paul VI stood “deeply rooted in Christ” through it all, a theology professor has said.

“Pope Paul VI suffered greatly from the growing apostasy of the world from Christian values and from the distortions of the teaching of Vatican II,” said theology professor Dr. Alan Schreck of the Franciscan University of Steubenville. “Through it all, he remained deeply rooted in Christ and the Holy Spirit.”

Giovanni Battista Montini – soon to be Blessed Paul VI -- will be beatified Oct. 19, at the conclusion of the Synod on the Family.

His cause for beatification moved forward after a miracle was attributed to his intercession by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and approved by Pope Francis in May.

Benedict XVI had affirmed his “heroic virtue” in 2012, officially recognizing him as “Venerable.”

As Pope, Paul VI lived “heroic virtue” because though he “suffered” much turmoil and dissent in the Church, he directed major church reforms and supported renewal of faith amongst the laity and religious, was a prophet about the errors of the age, and was even a well-traveled “pilgrim pope.”

The reforms of Paul VI included reforms of the Roman curia and the College of Cardinals, as well as support for renewal movements within the Church... Read more: Catholic News Agency