Make no mistake about it. St. Mary's parishioners continue to resist the merger and subsequent closure of their church. Why? Because merger is closure and we as a parish have a right to exist and to worship in peace.

Let us be clear: If our "convener" thinks that he is going to merge St. Mary's without significant inconvenience, he is mistaken. We are not like the frog in lukewarm water that is slowly boiled by turning up the heat just a little each time. We are not that stupid.

It has been argued that in order to somehow "prove" that we are all good little Catholics, we must "cooperate" by worshiping at the other churches in our "merger group." Well many St. Mary's parishioners do in fact  worship elsewhere from time to time or even regularly: St. Martin's or St. Anthony's in Hammonton, Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin, Sacred Heart or St. Isidore in Vineland, or even Mater Dei Nursing Home to name just a few. We recognize that the Catholic Church is, by definition, universal.

However, the agenda of the convener (and those pressuring him) is to get St. Mary's to merge with other churches and to eventually close. Therefore worshiping at these locations potentially undermines the cause of St. Mary's autonomy and right to existence. This would be nothing less than false unity: a unity at the expense of Truth and Justice, a unity at the expense of the continuation of the Faith, a unity at the expense of the existence of a parish, and a unity that tramples on the God-given right of the Catholic people to worship in a church they built and maintained without incident for over 80 years. This is not unity at all, but instead the unnecessary destruction of unity and of a true community of Faith.

For that reason, if necessary, it would be better to attend any services at any other Catholic church than those in our "merger group" or even to worship privately in the home on days that are not holy days of obligation. Furthermore, if we at St. Mary's have no desire to merge with these other churches, (and as we understand the sentiment is mutual,) we should not be forced to.

We are one Catholic community throughout the world, but that does not mean we should consolidate into fewer and fewer Catholic churches. May God have mercy on those in our diocese responsible for the persecution of the Church. They will one day have to answer for their actions and for the loss of souls that results.

(As a side note, it was stated in St. Mary's bulletin this week that small children should not attend the Easter Vigil. The Easter Vigil Mass, long as it may be, is intended for everyone, even "restless little children." How dare anyone state that a member of the Body of Christ should not be welcome at mass. For shame! How anti-family and anti-life to imply that only certain people are worthy to attend mass. What about those with disabilities or those who have conditions requiring them to move or occasionally make an utterance? Lord have mercy! What are we coming to? The mass is for all people and it is not always necessary to be able to hear a pin drop.)

From the Editor:
We received this email back around Thanksgiving time and, though we had it ready to post, had neglected to post it! Quatholic Megachurches are coming to Peoria, IL against the will of Catholics there. The devil is hard at work. Evil is the only word for what is going on here, and the Diocese of Camden is not alone in its persecution. It is happening ACROSS THE COUNTRY. What will become of "Catholicism" in the United States?

Read this article about Diocese of Peoria

Dear Committee to Save St. Mary's Malaga,

I've read the very distressing story about the Archdiocese's destruction of your parish in New Jersey.  I sent this e-mail to you because of my fear that my home parish of St. Anthony of Padua [see photos below right, -ed.] in Streator, IL is about to be destroyed in an extremely misguided attempt at consolidation.  There are three functioning Catholic parishe in Streator: St. Mary, St. Anthony and St. Stephen.  All three were founded by European immigrant ethnic groups, and all three still had grade schools as late as 1999.  Today St. Anthony is the only church that has a grade school.

As early as 2005 I had heard rumors about a proposed consolidation of the three Catholic churches in Streator.  In September 2007 the parishioners of all three Catholic churches received a letter from the Diocese of Peoria in which the bishop told of his desire to close all three churches and build a new church.  In October 2007 the two head Streator priests, Msgrs. Ham and Prendergast,* conducted information sessions regarding the consolidation of the parishes.  (Since then it has been widely seen that Msgr. Prendergast is the main figure pushing for consolidation.)  After those information sessions, committees were formed to "study" the pros and cons of consolidation.  Whatever point those committees had is beyond me.

At the time of those sessions there were rumors that the planned church would be built on farmland east of Streator.  Shortly thereafter the local newspaper published a story about St. Patrick's Church in Ransom, a parish in a small town about 12 miles east of Streator.  The members of St. Patrick's were enraged to find out that their church was to be included in the proposed consolidation, considering that the church recently had completed a thorough renovation with the full knowledge of the bishop.  The fact that St. Pat's owns 40 acres of farmland quickly led the parishioners of that church to conclude that their church was being closed so that the Diocese could sell their farmland to buy land for the new consolidated church.  The next year saw the parishioners of St. Pat's fight a nasty battle to get out of the proposed consolidation.  During that time the parishioners of St. Pat's were told their church would reopen.  Two months after reopening (and after they had made up their Diocesan appeal money), Msgr. Prendergast informed the parishioners of St. Pat's that their church would close after all.  St. Pat's eventually was able to get completely out of the consolidation plan, but it is very unlikely the church ever will hold services again.

In mid-2008 the parishioners of the Streator churches learned that Msgr. Prendergast had purchased 40 acres of land east of Streator for what seemed to be the very inflated amount of $12,500 per acre.  Since that time rumors have abounded that the land Msgr. Prendergast purchased is above abandoned mine shafts and is unsuitable for the building of a new church.  Of course, Msgr. Prendergast has denied these rumors.    

In the year following the purchase of the land no more statements were made by the Diocese or Streator priests regarding the building of a new church.  That a new church ever will be built seems unlikely, as Streator is a fairly low-income town and the land the Diocese purchased for the church is regarded as unsuitable.  As time has gone by, there have been rumors that St. Stephen's Church will get an addition and become the consolidated church in town.

In June 2009 Msgr. Ham, the longtime popular priest of St. Anthony, retired.  Msgr. Prendergast took his role as pastor of St. Anthony's and, what he calls us now, the "Streator Catholic Community."  Since Msgr. Prendergast took control at St. Anthony, the parish has begun to fall apart.  Msgr. Prendergast seems almost to delight in being cruel to many parishioners.  The number of altar servers is declining.  Even adult servers report that he is a very difficult person with whom to work.  He so upset the retired choir director that the performance of Handel's Messiah (a St. Anthony tradition since 1998 or so) will be conducted at the Methodist church instead.  I've heard that he shows a particular animosity toward the choir in general.  Two weeks ago parishioners of St. Anthony learned that their popular 4:30 PM Mass on Saturday would be canceled, as would all confessions.  Msgr. Prendergast ordered these cancellations following the departure of a retired Slovak priest who helped at Masses as needed.  Since the departure of the Slovak priest to a parish about 35 miles from Streator, it widely has been alleged that he left Streator because of Msgr. Prendergast's treatment of him.

Meanwhile, St. Anthony's School is in free fall.  Although the Diocese claims to want to support Catholic education in Streator, St. Anthony's Church still covers about 90 percent of the expenses of the school.  Supporting the school is seriously draining the cash reserves of the parish.  I heard today that enrollment is declining even more next year.  It is difficult to see how school ever could survive without the support of the church.

Many parishioners believe Msgr. Prendergast is deliberately destroying St. Anthony's Parish so that attendance at both the church and school fall, giving the Diocese an excuse to close the parish for good.  Many believe Msgr. Prendergast has great personal animosity toward St. Anthony's Parish (Prendergast is actually a native of Streator).  Msgr. Prendergast also confirmed in a private meeting that the nearby hospital is interested in the land on which the school lies (and, I would imagine, the land where the church is, too).  I personally feel that Prendergast (and the Diocese, for that matter) are deliberately running St. Anthony's Parish to the ground so that the buildings can be demolished and the land sold to the local hospital.

At the same time, Msgr. Prendergast is moving all office operations for the Streator churches to the old convent at St. Stephen's.  The secretary of St. Anthony's recently learned that her job will be cut in June of next year, the same month, it is rumored, that St. Anthony's rectory will be demolished.  At the moment, Msgr. Prendergast has construction experts reviewing all the church buildings in Streator.  Although the reports will be finished by the end of this month, he has stated that he won't reveal them to the parishioners until after Christmas, because they could be "very upsetting" to many parishioners.  It seems nearly everyone at St. Anthony's (and the other churches too) believes that the reports will show St. Anthony's to be in the worst condition of all the churches.  Just this week I heard another rumor [Editor: this is not a rumor, by the way] that the Diocese plans on tearing down three church structures in Streator next year.  Considering that Msgr. Prendergast already has demolished most of the old buildings at the other churches, I fear that he plans on tearing down the rectory, church and convent at St. Anthony's.  A small group has met with Msgr. Prendergast, urging him to address the rumors in front of the congregation, but nothing has happened yet.      

This planned consolidation seems to be nothing more than a suppression of St. Anthony's Church.  During the information sessions in 2007 Msgr. Prendergast brought up the typical crap about ethnic parishes and declining numbers of priests and parishioners.  St. Anthony's, at least until Prendergast became pastor, had a good number of young people and high attendance at Masses.  What would you recommend that parishioners at St. Anthony do before the very likely event that the Diocese closes our church next year?

Sincerely,
(We have withheld his name.)

*Prendergrast is our McGrath or Odien. It's amazing just how people can become instruments of evil.

This was originally posted January 31, 2009. We thought it was worth republishing.

Catholic theology and Church teaching are not accidental. Holy Mother Church teaches unchanging, eternal Truths. Moreover, these Truths are all connected and interconnected. Like all systems, each Truth depends upon the other; they are the structures that support the building. We do not, after all, have an atomistic system wherein one truth may stand up as a pillar without the others. Generally speaking, it is not possible, nor is it logical, to accept one teaching of the Catholic Church and dispense with the others, as if one was unrelated to the next. Once we begin to do this, the structure loses its supports and comes tumbling down.

Take, for example, our church buildings and chapels. They are designed for the worship of Christ, the King of the Universe. They are supposed to give us a glimpse of heaven. They are to surround us with examples of how we should live (depictions of the lives of Christ and the saints), who we are and were designed to be (holy sons and daughters of Our Lord), and the physical and spiritual means of getting there.


As Catholics, we believe that Christ is truly and physically present in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar and that his Eucharistic Presence resides in the Tabernacle. If the King of the Universe resides in the Tabernacle, it only makes sense that that Tabernacle be located in a prominent place, front and center.


If the King of the Universe in the Tabernacle is located front and center in our churches, it only makes sense that we reverently face Him. If the King of the Universe is located in the Tabernacle, front and center, and we are all facing His Majesty, it only makes sense that we be able to kneel before Him in humility and out of love and devotion to Him.


If we truly believe that Jesus Christ, King and Redeemer of our fallen race has come to be with us sacramentally in the Holy Eucharist and that He resides in our Catholic churches, then our souls and minds ought to be elevated, our whole selves reminded of Him while we are in church, whether mass is going on or not. Throughout most of human history, people have not been literate, and even today we need reminders of what it means to live the Christian life. God allows us to use our senses to know Him. To glorify God and for the help of our souls, we are given works of art in the form of paintings, stained glass windows, statues, and other things within our churches.


Consider this. When you have a guest coming to your house, you clean up. You make ready. You prepare. If you were to have an "important" guest come to your house, you would want it to look good. In this case we have an important guest--the most important Guest possible, our Creator--coming to be with us, so great is His love for us. We should want all around us to remind us of His loving and sacrificial Presence.

Says the Catholic Church of England and Wales:

A Church for us is more than a building - it is a Sacred Space, filled with God's presence. Everything within that space - the paintings, the statues, the stained glass - exists for a spiritual purpose.

This is to provide people with a focus for prayer and an insight into God: literally a 'glimpse of heaven'. The word 'Patrimony' describes the Church's cultural inheritance in terms of architecture, art and artefacts. All witness to our Catholic past: a history of persecution, struggle and ultimately, revival. We are just custodians, with a duty to preserve these sacred treasures for the future. Today we also create the Patrimony of tomorrow by commissioning high quality Sacred art.

But now, after roughly two thousand years of Holy Mother Church teaching us

• about the sacredness the church building,
• about how we must be ever vigilant of the possibility of sacrilege not only personally but also in our churches and shrines,
• about how Our Lord would be with us even until the end of time both spiritually and in the Holy Eucharist in our churches and sacred places,
• about Christians sacrificing all they had materially and even their own lives for the sake of their holy churches erection and continuation,
  
• to fall on our knees before God in our beloved churches,

now, in late twentieth and early twenty-first century America we are told to believe that our churches are "just buildings" and we ought not be attached to them. I don't know about you, but my mother taught me when I was just a child that this is one of the most important things that distinguishes us as Catholics from the protestants: our churches are open because we believe that they are holy places, that Our Lord is there, and that they are not just buildings. My mother was no liar.

Places where Our Lord has come to us sacramentally in His unbloody sacrifice, day after day after day, we are now told to believe are buildings like any other. That isn't Catholicism. That is materialism. And that, my friends, is precisely what the devil himself would have us believe. To believe our churches are only buildings would be to deny Our Lord's Eucharistic Presence, our ultimate and eternal destiny, and that for which we were created--the worship of God. In fact, to claim that our churches are just buildings would be to deny our spiritual nature, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and even our sacred baptisms and confirmations. To claim that our churches are just buildings is to deny the validity of their consecrations and blessings. To claim that our churches are just buildings is an insidious lie. And a lie is a lie no matter who says it.

By a decree of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXII), Mass should not be celebrated in any place except a consecrated or blessed church. Hence it is the wish of the Church that at least cathedrals and parish churches be solemnly consecrated, and that smaller churches be blessed (Cong. Sac. Rit., 7 Aug., 1875), but any church and public or semi-public oratory may be consecrated (Cong. Sac. Rit., 5 June, 1899). Both by consecration and by blessing a church is dedicated to Divine worship, which forbids its use for common or profane purposes. Consecration is a rite reserved to a bishop, who by the solemn anointing with holy chrism, and in the prescribed form, dedicates a building to the service of God, thereby raising it in perpetuum to a higher order, removing it from the malign influence of Satan, and rendering it a place in which favours are more graciously granted by God (Pontificale Romanum).  (From New Advent, the Catholic Encyclopedia.)

In the past, Catholics and Catholic buildings alike have been the targets of hatred and persecution. I need not list the litany of specific examples, but priests have been tarred and feathered, buildings blown up, altars desecrated, the Sacred Body of Our Lord maligned, churches vandalized. The history of anti-Catholicism in this country is well-documented and is, in fact, alive and well today. Of course in this country Catholics not even permitted to run for public office (and even when they were, there was serious doubt about their "patriotism"). Catholics have experienced horrible persecution in this and other countries, and by extension our houses of worship desecrated in the worst possible ways. Suffice it to say that many of you have likely heard the stories of your own ancestors and what they went through to preserve the faith, or even just to get to mass. I know I grew up hearing these stories of perseverance in the Faith, and my own family sacrificed much and for that I am so proud and so grateful. It is a great privilege to be born into a good Catholic family and to receive the benefits of our patrimony. The fruit of all that sacrifice is made real to us by virtue of worshiping in the places bequeathed to us by our ancestors and by the grace of God.


It is amazing that at this point in American Catholic history, instead of the Catholic Church being the object of hostile attacks from without, our church buildings and even the Church itself is being attacked from within. Sadly, our shepherds are leading their sheep astray, and many souls will be lost. Instead of protecting our churches, our patrimony, they are being closed (and often the contents sold on ebay) and when faithful Catholics hold tight to the timeless teachings of their Faith, they are called all manner of things from "disobedient" to "unchristian" and worse. Sometimes these attacks are leveled, shamefully, by their own priests and bishops. Yes, many of the very bishops who

• harbored child abusers, shuffling them from one parish to the next
• affiliate themselves and do business with the likes of criminals who would steal churches and schools right out from under unsuspecting Catholics
• allow the rampant sexual impropriety of priests in their diocese
• advocate such unorthodox doctrine as married, gay, and "womyn" priests; as well as downplay of the sacrificial nature of the mass and many other things
• repeatedly lie to the faithful in matters ranging from real estate transactions to canon law to theological Truth
  
• justify closing churches by claiming there's a "priest shortage" and then persecuting and sending away priests by the dozen...
  

...yes, some of the very same bishops would be so blind and arrogant as to criticize the faithful Catholics who merely want to worship their Lord and Savior in the manner they always have: in their own churches. This is an outrage, and it should not be tolerated by any thinking Catholic.

I admit that I've had the movie, Molokai: The Story of Father Damien, sitting around at home for months. I rented it from Netflix. It's a gorgeous movie with a star-studded cast, the acting superb, the cinematography wonderful, period clothing impeccable, script well-written, the events historically accurate. There's not a thing wrong with this movie. The problem? The subject matter.

Fr. Damien, who I just discovered was canonized less than two weeks ago by our holy pontiff (YES!!!!), was a Belgian Sacred Heart priest who worked among the lepers on the island of Molokai in Hawaii during the mid to late 1800s. When considering the topic of leper colonies--something I never thought much about, to be honest--it simply never occurred to me that children found to have the disease would be forcibly separated from their parents, wives from husbands, and so forth, never to be seen again. To be shipped off to Molokai was itself like death.

They were treated more like criminals than innocent victims of disease. The infected were hunted out, often by police and officials, and put into forced segregation. Torn from family and friends and lost in the grim strokes of despair and death, the unwanted existed in their damp seclusion....most of the patients' ceilings were only the canopy of the sky.*

To witness this barbarism even in movie form was simply heart wrenching. That's why it took so long to finish the movie.

Another effect of exile I had never considered was that of vice. Apparently, faced with one's inevitable demise and death, and lacking the mores and expectations of a larger society, many felt they had nothing to lose in debauchery. Fr. Damien, who volunteered and was not sent to live among the lepers, had all these difficulties to face and more. The only priest on the island, and disallowed to leave, he was not permitted to go to confession for long periods of time. Refused permission to board a steamliner with a priest (Fr. Modeste) aboard, and the ship not allowed to dock on Molokai, Fr. Damien was forced to make his confession while screaming from a rowboat. (This true event is portrayed in the movie.)

Though he repeatedly requested and prayed for not only a priest to come hear his confession, but also material and human aid for the more than a thousand sick and dying people on Molokai, he was refused time and again by his bishop and superiors. Although there were nuns and others willing to come help, they were refused admittance to the leper colony by the bishop and Board of Health, and money and materials were withheld from the saint and needy lepers. He had no doctors, no nurses.

Additionally, the protestants on the Board of Health had a hand in forcing Fr. Damien to remain on the island, supposedly for fear of spreading the disease. They thought that "by forcing him to stay he would leave  the settlement altogether. Jealousy had prompted them to destroy a hope that they would not fulfill themselves."**

Because Fr. Damien had no doctors or nurses, grave diggers, construction workers, maintenance men, farmers, teachers, and children were without parents, he became all these things. "Everyone looks on me as a father. As for me I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ," the great saint said. His sermons began, "We lepers."

As if all this was not enough, he also established sodalities, a brass band, trained interested people in church music, evangelized voraciously the many non-Catholics (he baptized over a thousand people), administered the sacraments, established perpetual adoration, and built orphanages. Needless to say his favorite saint was the great missionary Francis Xavier.

Despite Fr. Damien's tireless efforts, his bishop said this, "I regret that the admiration for this work of charity is erroneous. I see with displeasure that the newspapers who admire you exaggerate by putting things in a false light."*** Both his provincial superior and his bishop were not only discouraging, they treated him horribly and undermined his efforts to do the Lord's work among people who needed so much help. Finally his superior, Fr. Leonor (depicted in the movie by Derek Jacobi) admitted that the bishop was "suffering from the disease of jealousy. Public esteem for anyone other than himself is his torment." The bishop did not wish donations to be given to Fr. Damien on Molokai but all to be lavished instead on him. Again we see how greed undermines God's will. But the provincial superior, Fr. Leonor, was no better. In fact as time went on the Board of Health relaxed somewhat in restricting Fr. Damien's movements, but Fr. Leonor continued to restrict him and severely limited his ability to go to confession.

Finally Fr. Damien contracted leprosy, a natural result of his coming into direct contact with the disease for so long. Adding insult to injury, he was accused of "impious activity," shall we say, in contracting the disease. This was completely without foundation, meant only to drag down his reputation.

It seems Fr. Leonor treated Fr. Damien with disdain until the great saint's death. As Fr. Damien lay dying (left), Leonor even refused to send him a crucifix for the leper's chapel. It is unfortunate that throughout Catholic history, despite physical and spiritual need, there have been too many bishops and prelates who care little for the salvation of souls. We need only read the lives of countless saints to see how many struggled with their superiors and bishops. We find ourselves living in another of these eras in which material and corporate logic trumps spiritual need, an era in which not only are we being deprived a crucifix but our entire churches are being stolen away. May the good Lord bless his very many faithful servants throughout our blessed Church's history. And may Fr. Damien, saint of the lepers, faithful despite all opposition, pray for all of us.

Thankfully by the time of his death he received some human assistance and increased supplies, and his reputation has of course been vindicated. The great saint was only 49 at the time of his death.

No description on my part could ever do St. Damien of Molokai or the movie justice. I highly recommend renting or buying the movie. Also, supplement your viewing by obtaining for $2 the From the Housetops periodical (link below) with a succinct but ample biography of this great new saint of the Church. He is yet another saint who, in the face of persecution from both his immediate superior and bishop, was able to build chapels, spread the Faith, and act as a true father as shepherd of all to a people without hope.    


*From the Housetops, Volume XVIII, No. 2, Serial No. 39, page 2. Note: I noticed that this particular issue is not linked on the website of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I bet if you give them a call they may send it to you or copy it for you. It is excellent. Here is the wikipedia entry on Fr. Damien: click here.
**Ibid, page 8
***All quotes are taken from historical account or from From the Housetops, not from the movie. 

We received this email today from a parish in North Jersey that has experienced similar persecution. Here's an excerpt. (What I left out were some suggestions he made that include things we're already doing.) I left off Danny's last name.

The parish of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Montclair has an annual St. Sebastian Feast, and I have included here a picture of the beautiful statue of the martyr St. Sebastian from their church (see right).

Hello my name is Danny;  I live in North Jersey and saw the article in the Italian Tribune concerning the possible closing of your parish.   I will of course pray for the Parish and I am familiar that unsettling feeling of such an announcement.  My parish,  Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Montclair, NJ was threatened with closure several years ago,  but thru the grace of God that danger seems to have passed.    I pray a similar conclusion is shared by St. Mary's,  a parish also under Our Lady's protection!  

Here is the St. Sebastian Society website. On it you will find a link to OLMC Church, "a small parish with a big heart and lots of courage." I love that description!

By the way, would anyone be interested in going up for their Feast of St. Sebastian? It is on Aug. 28, 29, and 30. It might be fun. We could car pool; estimated time 2 hours, 5 minutes. If you are, let us know by emailing us: info@savestmarys.net .

Today, June 16th, is the feast day of Blessed William Greenwood, one of the Carthusian martyrs murdered by King Henry VIII. Because the monks and priests refused to show approval for the king's divorce and remarriage, and subsequent break with the One True Church, they died horrible deaths. Blessed William Greenwood died of starvation in Newgate Prison, and many others were hung, then disemboweled while still alive, and finally quartered. Check out this great website which will tell you a little more about a few of the martyrs at Tyburn. (It is the website of the Catholic Benedictine nuns located at Tyburn.)

Although their feast is not until the end of the summer (as one of the "Forty Martyrs of England and Wales"), and they died roughly 50 years later, this would be a good time to mention Saints Margaret Clitherow and Margaret Ward, pictured to the right in the painting above (left and right). Margaret Ward was executed for trying to rescue a priest from prison.

Margaret Ward was kept in irons for eight days, was hung up by the hands, and scourged, but absolutely refused to disclose the priest's whereabouts. At her trial, she admitted to having helped Fr. Watson to escape, and rejoiced in "having delivered an innocent lamb from the hands of those bloody wolves." She was offered a pardon if she would attend a Protestant service, but refused.

Margaret Clitherow (1556?-1586), whose feast day is March 25th (individually) also has a very interesting story. From Bert Ghezzi's Voices of the Saints:

St. Margaret Clitherow became a convert at her hometown of York in 1573 when it was dangerous to be a Catholic in England. Pope Pius V had excommunicated Queen Elizabeth in 1570, provoking an intense persecution of Catholics. Mass was outlawed, priests were regarded as traitors, and harboring them was a capital crime. Margaret disobeyed the law, keeping secret rooms in her house and at a neighbor's house where priests hid and celebrated Mass.

On March 10, 1586, sheriff's men raided Margaret's house. They found a schoolmaster with her children, whom they mistook for a priest, but he escaped through the secret chamber. The officers terrorized an 11-year-old Flemish boy who lived with the family. The frightened child led them to the priests' room, where they found vessels and books for Mass. So Margaret was taken to prison to await a hearing.

John Mush, Margaret's biographer, report that she accepted her persecution lightheartedly. She and Anne Tesh, her friend also betrayed by the boy, laughed so much that Margaret said, "Sister, we are having so much fun that I'm afraid unless we are separated we shall be in danger of losing the merit of our imprisonment." And just before she was to appear before the judge, Margaret decided to cheer the 35 other Catholic prisoners across the hall. "She looked out of a window towards them," writes Mush, "and she made a pair of gallows on her fingers and pleasantly laughed at them."

In the above picture, St. Margaret Clitherow is in the foreground, towards the center, just to the
left of the gallows, wearing the red and lavender dress. Margaret Ward is standing on the left,
just in front of the tree, with the red head covering. I presume the white-clad figures are 4
of the Carthusian monks martyred.

Margaret was charged with harboring and maintaining priests. When the judge asked her if she were guilty or not, she declined to enter a plea. The judge warned her that the law required the death penalty for anyone refusing to plead. He told Margaret that she would be stripped, arms stretched out and bound to stakes, and pressed to death with a sharp stone on her back. "I am not worthy of so good a death as this," was her reply.

Margaret believed that her death was inevitable. Had she pled to the charges, her husband and children would have to testify against her and her neighbor's guilt would have been exposed, possibilities she could not bear. Her love for her family intensified her suffering, but did not deter her. "I love my husband next to God in this world," she wrote.

"And I have care over my children as a mother ought to have. I trust I have done my duty by bringing them up in the fear of God, and so I trust now I am discharged of them. And for this cause I am willing to offer them freely to God who sent them to me, rather than I will yield one jot from my faith."

Thus, on the Friday in Passion Week, 1586, she was pressed to death under 800 pounds of weight. Fittingly, she must have thought, she died like Christ, with her arms extended, as on a cross.

Supposedly St. Margaret Clitherow was also pregnant at the time of her death. She was publicly stripped and humiliated, as Christ, prior to her barbaric execution. Later on, her two sons became priests and her daughter a nun in France.

The English martyrs are an inspiration to all of us. May we be granted the tremendous faith they had, and may we be willing to lay our lives on the line for the sake of the Truth if necessary. May we always be willing to defend our precious Faith.

Blessed Thomas Greenwood and Saints Margaret Ward and Margaret Clitherow, pray for us!

Today is the feast day of a little known saint and his many companions. In the late 1800s in Uganda, St. Charles Lwanga and about 100 of his fellow Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, were murdered in various monstrous ways by their king. A wonderful account of their background and martyrdom can be found here (scroll down for longer account).

In short, we may easily relate to their circumstance since their society was debauched, as is our own. They were killed for standing against great sins. In brief,

King Mwanga of Uganda launched persecutions of Christians in response to their opposition to his homosexual and corrupt court. St. Charles, the master of his pages, was martyred with fourteen other pages on June 3, 1886; other companions were killed later.

Many of those killed were young. At least one of the courageous martyrs was a thirteen-year-old boy, and another was the king's "page boy," only 14. Through their blood sacrifice in the name of Jesus Christ, they were saved from being victims of pedophilia.

The lesson taught by these and other heroic saints and martyrs is that we, as Christians, must be willing to imitate their great courage by standing in opposition to all wrong perpetrated by those in positions of authority, whether inside or outside the Church. For the sake of charity, we must point out where Holy Mother Church teaches Truth and be willing to spread the holy faith, not suppress it or attempt to alter it to suit our personal desires or sense of convenience. The Truth must be made clear in order for people to know what it is and follow it.

St. Charles Lwanga & his many companions, pray for the Diocese of Camden!

This is from the diary of St. Maria Faustina and was printed in our bulletin this past week. Right now priests in our diocese are in great need of prayer. Please do not forget to offer your prayers for them, morning and night! They are in need of courage, for now is a time of trial for all Catholic Christians, and especially for the priests, so many of whom have been persecuted by being sent away, forcibly retired, sent to the military, etc., artificially creating the "priest shortage" so desired. Shame, shame, shame! Our Lady predicted this persecution which so offends Our Lord and St. Faustina urges us to pray for our priests. Remember, strange as it may seem, enemies of Our Lord may come from without or within! So we must keep close to the merciful heart of Jesus, says St. Faustina.

  Picture below is a statue of St. Faustina at St. Mary's.
Oh my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church: Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit, and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You O Lord.

Lord, give us holy priests; You Yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests.

May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests, for You can do all things.

Amen.

This article is an entry taken from the Council of Parishes of SJ website, which we thought was good enough to constitute its own article here on Savestmarys.net. Thank you to Barbara Byrnes of St. Joseph's, Woodstown/St. Mary's, Malaga for writing it.

On a snowy January 19, 2002 my husband, Ed (Byrnes) and I were married by his brother, the late Father John Byrnes at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church in Woodstown in front of all of our family and friends. If you know where Cowtown Rodeo is St. Joe's is not too far from there. St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church is a small little country church which resembles the little country churches often depicted on Christmas cards. Our wedding was beautiful. Ida Nicolosi who comes from a Catholic farm family sang the "Ave, Maria" like an angel while the late Mrs. Judy Miller, who was a dairy farmer, played the organ perfectly. We, like many other parishioners gave donations to build a brand new parish center. At that time we were struggling to keep the farm. My husband and I had dreams....we had dreams to farm, raise a family and attend Mass at the Catholic Church which was built by many who faced persecution and hardships, including the Byrnes family. Dear and Holy Father Byrnes gave Ed and I the gift of the Holy Sacrament of Marriage. Respect for the Sacrament of Marriage begins with keeping our Catholic churches open!

Ed and I were forced from our parish of St. Joseph's RC in Woodstown in manner that wasn't Christian. We were treated this way because we opposed all the Catholic church and school closings, including our own parish. God and Our Blessed Mother made us hear the Bells of St. Mary's in Malaga, NJ where there is a brave and holy Catholic Priest who defends the Catholic Faith and the parish. Father Romanowski has a true and sincere love for God and our Blessed Mother. He loves us all too. Holy Orders is a sacrament too. If Cardinal Hummes of the Congregation of Clergy in Rome or Bishop Galante has any respect for the PRIESTHOOD, then they would leave Father Romanowski to remain as Pastor of St. Mary's in Malaga as is wanted by God and our Blessed Mother.

Our Cardinals and Bishops should be marching along side of us for the March for Life in Washington, DC. Instead of closing down our parishes, Bishop Galante should have had a pro-life postcard campaign done months ago. It was also a disgrace to see President Obama, a pro-abortion political figure, on the front page of the Catholic Star Herald instead of our Holy Father Pope Benedict. My mother-in -law (God bless her soul) , Anna Byrnes, would have been upset by this. It was a major disrespect for all those who participated in the March for Life too. I guess that shows you where our bishop's loyalties lie. But saints down the ages have had troubles with bishops, including even St John Bosco, who struggled with his archbishop.

The bottom line is this: It is a sin to destroy God's house. It is a sin to remove from our towns God, Our Blessed Mother, Holy Spirit and all of the Angels and Saints. (Every Catholic church has a guardian angel), Holy Catholic Mass, the Holy Eucharist, Confession, Rosary, Divine Mercy....

There is a Latin saying that states: "An action is good when it is good in every respect; it is evil when it is evil in any respect." If our Bishops and Cardinals put their faith in The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, things would be alot different. ALL PRIESTS NEED TO HAVE COURAGE AND PUT THEIR FAITH IN GOD BY PROTECTING THE TEACHINGS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Christ Condemns Compromise With Evil
The teaching of the Catholic Church is clear: we cannot compromise with the devil. The devil has forces that surround us. The celebrations that we have in the Church every day are necessary to defeat the devil.

The lie is an important part of the devil's tactics. You will be equal to God, Satan tempted Eve. Eve should have believed God, but she showed that free will is part of man's characteristic personality and she gave in to the temptation.

It's easy enough to show the opposite reaction in the threefold temptation of Our Lord in the desert. Jesus rejected pleasure, power, and fame in order to demonstrate the true happiness of unity with God. It is this faith of ours that keeps us alive in the Lord.

The Devil Deceives
During the present persecution of the Church in Camden, we have seen how the forces of evil (Satan) can entice the majority into complacency. The life of grace, which is divine life, shows through the false promises of the devil. We must be totally Committed to Our Lord through His Holy Mother. Our devotional life leads us to the love of God and therefore we give Him the honor that He deserves. Any other method of approaching God is wrong.

Our Lord & His Church are Truth
The Catholic Church has the answer to life's problems in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which shows that God chooses certain men to lead a parish in the way of Truth. Truth is the only way to live because it is the way of Jesus, Our Lord, who brings us into Heaven. Sacrificing the pleasures of this life is the way we appreciate the love of God and enjoy this presence. "Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light," Saint Matthew 11:29-30.

Sunday we celebrated the Triumph of the True Cross, Monday the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. Every day we take up our cross and find rest and peace in the cross, the Way of Salvation. That salvation is NOW--our oneness, unity with the Lord in Truth enables us to transform the face of the earth. We are chosen by the Lord to do this. Saint Paul emphasizes that there are those who are called, and that the Lord justifies and glorifies.

We've received so many tips lately on savestmarys. Thank you to one and all, there is so much to do and we are continually heartened by the broad level of input and participation on the part of those in and out of the diocese. This most recent article was forwarded to us since it is so very valid in this and other diocese and truly epitomizes the crisis in the Church at this time. It is very interesting and disturbing.

These Forty Years of Loyalty and Dissent: Humanae Vitae on the 40th Anniversary

I regret to have been surprised with the fortieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae just two days after my return from World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney Australia. I regret it, because it is a huge piece of what is happening in the Church and the world today, and I did not have time to prepare some commentary.

I cannot praise enough, nor recommend enough, Cardinal Stafford's laudable narration of his experiences and insights (cf. Humanae Vitae: The Year of the Peirasmòs -- 1968, By Cardinal James Francis Stafford). If only the whole Church were full of such pastors: wise insight into their pastoral experiences, cultured in their literary background, faithful to the Magisterium, and charitable in their assessments.

After my mind was blown away by the frankness and depth of his article, one aspect has struck me, even though it is an accidental point his article made. And it is this impression upon which I want to compound. It has to do with the unity, charity and brotherhood of the diocesan priesthood. Or better said, the complete lack thereof in our day. I think Cardinal Stafford does well to expose the causes.

My experience with clergy at every level of government of the Church is full of very unpleasant memories, and requires on my part a continual effort for forgiveness. And I forgive, as I need God to forgive me. Where I should have expected kindness, support, brotherhood, acceptance, advice and even fraternal correction, I have experienced every form of anger, lies and gossip, attack of my good name, varying degrees of hatred, exclusion, rejection and uncharitable criticism.

Did I merit such conduct, I must ask myself with all honesty? I think the answer is no, I did not. The hostility has come from heretics and liturgical abusers, and from a group of men who have done all to cherish one another, and defend each others' conduct which includes everything from impurity to abuse of alcohol to an absolute absence of a life of prayer to abuse of money to... well, we've all seen it in public and in private. But to this one could say, "That is an attack ad hominem, and proves nothing." OK, I agree.

Yet the reasons for this hostile conduct have been because: I refused to abuse the liturgy, I stood in the way of the Precious Body and Blood being washed down the drain, I preferred gold to glass for the species at Mass, I wanted to hear confessions every day before Mass, I adhered to a religious orders' Constitutions to the point of earning the contempt of my superiors, and I refused to say mass on a dirty coffee table in a living room. I earned ridicule because I pray the breviary every day (an obligation for priests under pain of mortal sin), because I employ Latin whenever possible in the liturgy, because I get up very early and because I don't watch TV. And after four years of the priesthood, I'm in my ninth parish, when each removal was a completely unilateral decision on the part of pastors, to whom I showed charity in exchange for their abuse. I could go on and on, but I think that's enough to make the point: If I were punished for evil deeds, I would deserve it. But the abuse comes from loyalty to the Catholic Church, in teaching and in practice.

A good priest friend of mine made an excellent observation a couple months ago: the first of all religious orders is the diocesan priesthood. It is truly a community, a brotherhood, or at least should be. Yet ever since the 1700's (I think of the rise of Illuminism, Freemasonry, St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, etc.), there has been an increasing decline in the unity among the clergy, and it is not rare to find in recent and late history true persecution of faithful clergy by unfaithful clergy.

Allow me to be clear: The problem is dissent. And dissent is a fruit of sin.

Cardinal Stafford mentions how the annihilation of fraternity among today's clergy returns especially to those priests, older now, who have rejected Humanae Vitae. He says, "The Archdiocesan priesthood lost something of the fraternal whole which Baltimore priests had known for generations."

The persistence of this dissent has not fizzled away, as he says, "Contempt for the truth, whether aggressive or passive, has become common in Church life. Dissenting priests, theologians and laypeople have continued their coercive techniques." The coercion takes the form of  the mentality of "dissent with us or we'll treat you worse than the trash," accompanied by group enterprises in which dissenters would rope in faithful priests against their will, and then give them no voice. This is why the Cardinal says, "No dialogue was possible in 1968; it remained impossible in 1978. There was no common ground." And there still is none. "Diocesan presbyterates have not recovered from the July/August nights in 1968."

I regularly avoid priest meetings in my local area. I have sat in on many, and have found that they are places where bad priests gossip and slander good priests, where the spirit of dissent is cultivated by discussions about how to get rid of the all-male clergy, the celibate clergy and how to justify homosexual conduct. When schools close by the handful, I have seen the clergy wrangling over "who gets the money" while no one even attempts to discuss "how are we going to educate our community's children in the Catholic faith?". I have sat in on meetings of ministry and apostolate where the discussion was all about numbers and money, and apostles lower on the power ladder would position themselves again and again to climb that very ladder. There is not rarely excessive drinking, criticism of Rome and of the Pope, a total hatred of Catholic forms of piety and devotion, contempt for rubrics.  Childish fighting, childish conduct, childish discussion and immature faith.

If I had the Catholic faith in common with my brother priests, I'd probably be criticized by my parishioners for neglecting them and spending so much time among such exemplary men. But we do not have the Catholic faith in common. I have little in common, in fact, with heretics, dissenters and haters of Rome , or with those who are apostles of sin.

I have no experience of a true fraternity of priests in a presbyterate or religious order; at least Cardinal Stafford new the day when he was a younger priest. Somehow in the back of my head, I can imagine what that might be like. Sure, there would be the occasional challenge of getting along with someone because of personality conflicts or minor defects; that's to be expected even in families. No, I'm not crying about my situation, just explaining why I don't go to all these gatherings of priests, and expressing a hope for reform in the Church.

Fortunately in my parish, there are two other diocesan priests, Fr. Bustamante and Fr. Perrone, and an occasionally varying collection of exemplary priests from the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross. We do form a sort of community, we discuss spiritual matters and encourage one another to be faithful. We share discoveries about the ancient liturgy, the Pope's latest teachings, the good example of the saints. And all that with lots of humor besides. We even do sports together and share meals.

Many faithful priests in the world are isolated by the type of coercion which the Cardinal mentioned. I meet them everywhere, including priests from around the world at World Youth Day, and many tell the same stories: abuse in exchange for fidelity. Yes, there are good priests out there; one Australian article stresses that there are many in fact. But dissenters in powerful positions put these faithful priests in very difficult positions and places, and places far from other faithful priests. It is not good for man to be alone, and every priest needs a presbyterate of brothers with whom to encourage, commiserate, bless, advise, laugh and pursue holiness.

May it please the Lord to send a great reformer to the Church. And may Catholic priests one day discover that they do, indeed, have Catholicism in common.

Fr. Paul Ward

7/15/08 Update: Relevant link to newspaper article click here. Priests must submit reassignment preferences by July 15th. "However, Andrew Walton, a spokesman for the diocese, said that priests were only being asked to express preferences for assignment." Boy that's the understatement of the year. Our inside sources inform us that a significant number of priests have not bothered to apply for reassignment or even requested to review the parish profiles. We presume this is because they fully realize that the reassignments are a done deal. In fact, we just learned of three additional priests in the past two days who have already been assigned outside the diocese, and the priest reassignments have not even been announced yet.

Save the Priesthood

by Chris, A Mater Ecclesiae Parishioner

When you see a priest, you should say, "There is he who made me a child of God, and opened Heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I had sinned; who gives nourishment to my soul." At the sight of a church tower, you may say, "What is there in that place?" "The Body of Our Lord. " "Why is He there?" "Because a priest has been there, and has said holy Mass."

                                                     -St. John Vianney

In the Catholic Church, our religious vocations are the lifeblood that sustains us.  The Camden Diocese is imploding under a modernist agenda that is pushing "lay leadership" on the faithful.  Accept this now for what it is; the blind leading the blind. 

We have slumbered for too many generations in the Church.  We have given and received bad catechesis, we have rebelled against God given revelation and the teaching of the Church.  We have failed ourselves and our children with our contented ignorance.  It is our materialism that has pacified us, and the cost of this comfortably numb state is nothing less than our souls. 

Make no mistake about it.  We are living in, as Dietrich von Hildebrand aptly named it, a devastated vineyard.  The fruitful vineyard of the Lord, that for so many centuries and through so many persecutions and trials that has borne so much fruit, is a withered branch.  Our children leave the church after their confirmation, and are only there so their parents can throw a party for the occasion.  This cultural Catholocism is one who feels no obligation to either accept or reject the teachings of the church as a whole. And why should they, when they are neither taught these things, or that their soul's destiny hangs in the balance of whether they choose to live the Catholic life, or merely a pharisaical version of that life. 

We move toward empty shells, dressed up as adult daycare.  There is a constant drift towards the lowest common denominator, instead of pushing ourselves and each other (as a communion of saints should) toward the highest and the eternal goal which is Heaven.  We have come to assume we will all go to Heaven and have become complacent.  We are more interested in "dialogue" than in truth.  This is a waste of time and usually money.  We have a problem with buying worthy vessels to hold the Blood of Our Lord, but we put much of our treasure into funding committees and workshops designed to distract and never actually come to the truth.

We should be praying as we begin any endeavor, but there is no prayer as our diocesan planning officials begin dismantling the churches and parish communities built by our parents, and grandparents or further back.  Dialogue purports that there is no absolute truth.  Our Lord tells us He is the Way, and the Truth.  Choose your side carefully.  You can flounder away under committee meetings, photo ops and other feel good nonsense, or you can guide your life by the same lamp post that has for generations made men and women better themselves by forgetting themselves and conforming their hearts to Christ's.

Our lay leaders dialogue while the faith is dying.  We are perishing.  Our children stand very little chance in this world without a sense that they can choose a Catholic Church that stands apart from the world, and in most cases in opposition to it, or one that tries to dance with the Devil and make peace with him.  There is no in between. 

I went through a CCD program and observed as it failed my generation miserably.  I fell away from the Church for a time, and when I returned, I noticed that though I had come back I had no peers.  They had left, and had not returned.  Pope John Paul II tells us in Catechesi Tradendae that catechesis is a sacred duty and a right of all the faithful. If we teach error, we have to account for that. It is not our opinion that we teach, but the Faith and how to live it.  It is the right of our children and we are failing. The laity has been in charge of this since my generation, and they have failed miserably. That is why our children are leaving the church in droves. That is why even adults not only don't know the faith, but act with apathy towards it. The designers constantly pander to what their notion of "hip" is (which is usually very outdated) or what they think will bring youth back to the church.  Keep in mind that whatever watered down version of current pop culture they dress up in church clothes, kids will see it as just that, and much less entertaining than what they can actually get with their pop culture.  Entertainment is not religion, nor is excitement religion.  Each year, a new trend arises from the sewage of pop culture, and we are trying to find ways to integrate that into our churches.  By the time it is integrated, it is already outdated.  From the tambourine and guitar bands of the 70's, to the praise and worship bands of today, we look to the world instead of just simply looking to our Catholic Heritage.  Remember G.K. Chesteron's words:

which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.  

True, joyful and undiluted Catholicism is for all time, and in the bosom of this Church can we work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  We need our priests to shepherd us.  Who would want to give their lives as a priest in the new "vision" of the church that is being put before us?  Perhaps that is a goal of this agenda.  Discourage vocations by emasculating and removing everything from the priesthood leaving it solely as a sacramental function. 

Without our convents and monasteries, we have few holy examples, few modern living saints to guide us, to pray for us or to sacrifice for us.  Indeed, these notions are largely ignored in the modern church.  When I see a religious habit, I see behind it the power of God, where these days I see religious and see only the power suit. 

We need to pray for holy men and women to lead us out of this spiritual desert.  And we not only need to pray for good and holy priests, but we need to rise up now and defend them.  We have precious few in this diocese, and we are watching as 21 of them at the writing of this piece are being sent into exile, forced into retirement or what have you.  Yet if the priest shortage was the concern, would we not need to keep these priests?  It must follow that they are being persecuted.  I know as a Knight of Columbus that I took an oath to defend the priesthood, which I intended to do with my own life were it ever necessary.  This is a time that I call on all knights of the diocese to rise up and defend their priests.  Their vocations are being destroyed, their priesthood taken away from them, and their spiritual fatherhood disintegrated before our very eyes.  If you do nothing now, you are not living up to your oath, and you will find yourself in a church devoid of the presence of Our Lord and in the middle of a lot of hand clapping and emptiness. 

Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them. -Pope Saint Felix III

We are entering a dark time, and it will require men and women of virtue, courage and strength.  We must rise to meet the challenges of our time, and defend our faith.  Now, the priesthood needs our defense.  Support your priests, and accept nothing less than priests.  Pray and fast for them and for new vocations. 

When the bell calls you to church, if you were asked, "Where are you going?" you might answer, "I am going to feed my soul." If someone were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, "What is that golden door?" "That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our souls is kept." "Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who serves the table?" "The priest." "And what is the Food?" "The precious Body and Blood of Our Lord." O God! O God! how Thou hast loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world. . . . Someone said, "Does Saint Philomena, then, obey the Cure of Ars?" Indeed, she may well obey him, since God obeys him. -St. John Vianney

So can we live without our priests?  Can we do without the Mass?  Perhaps as we should, we can place the blame on ourselves.  It is God's justice which brings chastisement into our lives, and it is always just.

St. John Eudes said:

The most evident mark of God's anger, and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world, is manifest when he permits His people to fall into the hands of clergy who are more in name than in deed, preists who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds. 

We have many good priests who are being persecuted, and there are those who are going along with the plan to dismantle our lives and replace it with something entirely different.  If you do not resist, you will find yourself guided by the person that until then sat next to you in the pew, but that thinks highly enough of their place to lead the congregation in a desolate liturgy that is not the sacrifice of Calvary we need to sustain us.  This is not the Church, and will not be the Church when they implement it. Consider the final message of Akita from Our Lady:

The work of the devil will infiltrate even the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate Me will be scorned and opposed by their conferees...churches and altars sacked, the Church will be full of those who accept compromise and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord. The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of My sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them.

If you don't see the writing on the wall, or the work that goes against the church your eyes are closed and you are still sleeping.   The following prophecy was given by Our Lady to Ven. Sister Marrianne de Jesus Torres in the 16^th century!

The sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised, for in doing this, one scorns and defiles the Church of God, and even God himself, represented by his priests.  The Demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way, and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them.  These corrupted priests who will thus scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all the priests.  This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good pastors of the Church, to the great majority of good priests, and to the Supreme Pastor and Vicar of Christ on earth, who will shed secret and bitter tears in the presence of his God and Lord, beseeching light, sanctity and perfection for all the Clergy of the world, of which he is the King and Father.  Moreover, in these unhappy times there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will lose themselves.  Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those whom it behooves to speak will fall silent.

This is for our time.  Our Lady told Sr. Marianne that it was a prophecy for the 20^th century, and the scandals we have endured have done this.  We need our good and holy priests to be an example.  They are trying to put two married ex-protestants on the fast track to the priesthood at present, and they are trying to replace the priesthood with the laity.  And our priests who have given up their lives in service to Our Lord and to us are suffering and they have no one to defend them.  If you are Catholic you are called to defend your priests now.  Accept no model of "newchurch" that has anyone other than a priest pastoring to you.  Offer words of encouragement and support to your priests, as well as your prayers and your fasting.  Storm Heaven with your prayers and fasting now to stop the decimation of the faith in our diocese. 

From the church bulletin 6/29: "Treasures from our Tradition"

Today is an exceptional event on our calendar. The Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time is eclipsed by a solemnity honoring two saints who didn't spend much time together in their earthly ministry, and who have distinct feasts so they probably don't mind sharing this one. Yet each suffered a similar fate in the same city, Rome, during the persecution of the Emperor Nero. Nero probably ordered the destruction of many of the residential neighborhoods in service to his building projects, and when the homeless began to look for someone to blame for the fires, Nero targeted the Christians. Soon, Peter was crucified, upside down, on the Vatican hill. Excavations (called scavi) under the Vatican basilica have proven the authenticity of his burial place near the place of his death. Paul, a Roman citizen, was later granted a swifter execution by the sword, and is remembered at a vast basilica on the city's outskirts.

Peter and Paul were just about polar opposites. Peter rough and ready, Paul poetic and polished. Peter carried burden of regret for his denials, Paul had his own issues with which he struggled. Peter leapt over barriers to go to the Gentiles, Paul strove with and surrendered to the same call. True, they spent very little time together in this life, but the same Spirit filled their hearts and by their witness changed the face of the earth.

Saint Paul--Bishop Galante

"When the ordinary of the diocese makes and persists in such a grievous mistake, we not only can oppose him, but must oppose him."

When Bishop Galante made his defense of his pastoral plan Tuesday night everything he said was in opposition to what a true spiritual plan is. He mentioned that he has responsibility for the whole diocese. This is not so. We all share in the Responsibility. But God is the only one who cares for the diocese, the Church, and the world. "Lest the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build. Lest the Lord guard the city, they watch in vain who guard" Ps. 126. Bishop Galante failed to place the love and primacy of that love in its proper position. The love of God is always first from the natural law, Divine law and the church law. Jesus tells us that if we heed His words in the Sermon on the Mount we are like the man who builds his house on Rock (Peter). When the rains and storms come that House (parish, diocese) stands. If we build our house (parish, diocese) on sand (money and sociology) that house (parish, diocese) falls--and what a fall it is. At St. Mary's we put first things first, as a best selling book of several years ago stressed. Not a passing reference to prayer, as Bishop Galante made, but the basis for our existence, expansion, and eternal life. When the ordinary of the diocese makes and persists in such a grievous mistake, we not only can oppose him, but must oppose him.

When St. Paul began his apostolate he did it with these words now addressed to us in Romans: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God. Which he had promised before, by his prophets, in the Holy Scriptures. Concerning his son, who was made to him of the seed of David, according to the flesh." (Romans I, 1-3). The only basis of the apostolate, parish, or diocese is the Lord Jesus then and now. What sustains us against the onslaught of the enemy? It is this faith of ours!

Who then shall separate us (St. Mary's) from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress (which I experienced Tuesday night) or famine? Or nakedness, or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword? (As it is written: "For thy sake we are put to death all day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.")  But in all these things we overcome, because of Him that hath loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8, 35-39)

God bless Fr. Romanowski! He speaks the absolute Truth. It is God who must lead us unto all Truth. We must not fear! And we must be courageous in taking a stand against injustice and error--even when, unfortunately, it is our very bishop who is persevering in such error. Let us continue to pray for the bishop unceasingly and pray for the intercession of St. Catherine of Siena, who courageously stood up to a pope in error. Truly she took a risk. We are not Christians unless we are willing to do the same.