The Book of Daniel and the Gospel of Mark warn of a great tribulation to come. Its early signs are already upon us and require invoking the Patron Saint of Justice.
A strange case has been simmering in the courts of the European Union for several years, and it came to an even stranger close at the end of October. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld a 2011 Austrian court verdict against a seminar presenter, a woman, for “disparaging religious doctrines.” In a 2009 seminar sponsored by the conservative Freedom Party in Austria, the woman recounted an event in the life of Muhammad ibn Abd Allah whose 7th Century proclamations of the Qur’an gave birth to Islam. The event is well documented.
In 620 AD, at the age of 56, soon after the death of his first wife, Muhammad married a young girl named A’isha. At the time of their marriage, A’isha was six years old. Muhammad described her as “very attractive and of a lively mind.” Many of the revelations resulting in the Quran occurred while he was in her company.
One day, when she was left behind during one of Muhammad’s expeditions, she returned to the group accompanied by a young man. This set off a monstrous scandal that threw the girl’s marital fidelity into doubt. Muhammad then dictated what he described as a divine revelation that assured him of her innocence. This story is recounted in the Qur’an (24:11-20).
In 2009, in an Austrian seminar entitled “Basic Information about Islam,” the seminar presenter described the story of the marriage of Muhammad and A’isha’concluding, “A 56-year-old and a six-year-old?… What do we call it if not pedophilia?” In 2011, the Austrian court convicted the woman, imposing a fine for statements that constitute “an abusive attack on the Prophet of Islam.”
The woman appealed the verdict to the European Court of Human Rights. Last month, the verdict was unanimously upheld by an ECHR panel of seven judges including judges from Ireland, Germany, and France. The ECHR judges reasoned that the marriage between Muhammad and six-year-old Aisha lasted until Muhammad’s death when Aisha was 18-years-old. Thus, according to the court, “the marriage need not be motivated by pedophilia.”
The ECHR further reasoned that the convicted woman’s observations about the marriage could “stir up prejudice and threaten religious peace” and “could only be understood as having been aimed at demonstrating that Muhammad was not worthy of worship.” The ECHR arrived at this conclusion after having “carefully balanced her right to freedom of expression with the right of others to have their religious feelings protected.”
I could go into a long protracted analysis of a double standard in what constitutes “stirring up prejudice and threatening religious peace” – and how political correctness influences it – but I think you may already get the point. If you contrast the above story with the treatment the Catholic Church has been receiving in the news media and power centers of Western Culture, the duplicity is not at all subtle.
Sometimes you have to stand back a little from scandal in the Catholic Church to see a more panoramic view. The scandals feel less personal then, but also seem more ominous. A view from a little distance will leave you with a sense that there have been, and still are, some nefarious agendas behind the scenes of the Catholic abuse story.
The truth is that the world in which we live is retreating from all the institutions that once gave us meaning and purpose, and, most important of all, identity. “Losing my religion” is not just a 1991 pop culture hit by R.E.M. It is a cultural calamity.
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Without doubt, trust in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has been strained in recent years. There is no denying it, and some of that distrust is justified by inconvenient truths that too many have tried to keep hidden. But look around you. Where DO you place your trust? Our politics are at the brink of civil war. Our news media once respected as the “Fourth Estate,” has hit rock bottom in public trust. Among polls of Americans, Congress is the second lowest source of trust among all institutions and the news media lower even than that.
Fatherhood has retreated into the forests. Families are falling apart. Gender has become confused, and a product of the will instead of the heart of one’s identity. In the Western world, the psyches of the young have become fragile. Universities pamper screaming mobs of students who block points of view that challenge them. Conservatives make them feel “unsafe.”
Colleges hire grief counselors to help 20-something year-old men and women cope with a C-level grade, or the trauma of being exposed to ideals, or of seeing a mouse in their dorm room. The resilience of young people – though still with some courageous exceptions – is under siege.
Politically, we are at each others’ throats in a game of one-upmanship and gotcha. It seemed to reach its most hurtful and horrifying peak in the public spectacle to which we were subjected in the Senate confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, guilty for being accused. That was the point at which I realized that we have reached a new low, and cannot descend much further without dissolving our union in hate.
In October this year, a middle-aged man in Florida mailed pipe bombs to a long list of political figures with whom he disagrees. Then a middle-aged man in Pittsburgh, a Holocaust denier on social media, killed eleven worshippers in a Synagogue after posting a rant about Jews and President Trump. Much of the news media played down the fact that the man despised Trump. Politics, that once honorable favorite pastime of America, has become dangerous.
OUR ONCE AND FUTURE FAITH
The same is true or is fast becoming true, in our Church. Canadian Catholic blogger, Michael Brandon wrote in response to a post on These Stone Walls awhile back: “The Catholic Church has become the safest place in the world for children, and the most dangerous place in the world for Catholic priests.” I wrote of the origin for that conclusion in a controversial post that was shared 25,000 times on social media: “Five Years of Pope Francis in a Time of Heresy.”
The news media would have us all believing that the now forty-year-old sexual abuse scandal “could bring down the Catholic Church.” This is nonsense. The Church will survive this, but there is a far more pernicious threat that the news media makes it a point not to cover. I found a scary analysis of it in “The Catholic Crisis,” a fine article in Commentary (May 2018), by Sohrab Ahmari who also has a panoramic view of why Catholicism stands at a precipice and, surprise, the sexual abuse story is but a symptom of it, not the cause.
Sohrab Ahmari is a London editor for The Wall Street Journal and a senior writer at Commentary, a journal of thought and opinion established by the American Jewish Committee. He is completing a memoir on his journey to Catholicism, and, as such, a journey that forms his compelling panoramic view of the Church and its fate in the modern world. His article, “The Catholic Crisis” is a review of a new book by The New York Times’ columnist, Ross Douthat, To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism.
Both Ahmari and Douthat note that “the principle duty of a Catholic” is not to the pope, but to “the truth the papacy exists to preach, to preserve, and to defend.” Mr. Ahmari wrote:
“There is a reason to worry that lately a spirit of relativism has entered the Roman Church that threatens to undermine its unity and catholicity. That should concern Catholics and non-Catholics because the Church is the living bedrock of the West and one of the last bastions of the principal that moral truth is moral truth yesterday, today, a thousand years from now.”
In Pope Francis, both writers see a papacy that “thrives in ambiguity.” Their evidence is found among a list of perplexing notions including recent comments by Pope Francis calling into question the existence of hell. Defenders of the Pope excused the incident as a misreading of the Pope’s remarks by leftist, atheist journalist Eugenio Scalfari. However, as Ahmari points out, this particular faux pas was the fifth interview Pope Francis has granted to this journalist.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis has remained unresponsive to a request for dialogue and clarification on some controversial points in Amoris laetitia. American Cardinal Raymond Burke and other conservative cardinals posed a series of “Dubia” asking whether the prohibition on authorizing communion for those divorced and remarried in a civil, but not sacramental, union still stands. The pope, according to Ahmari, “first ignored, and then ridiculed them.”
Mr. Ahmari also reports on Ross Douthat’s “fascinating speculation” on the future of Catholicism, and it is one in which conservatives should find cause for hope. As I have written in previous posts, the Church and faith will survive this current age of doubt. In the meantime,
fidelity is our only effective response to it. But Ross Douthat offers a more sobering source of hope summarized by Ahmari:
“The liberals simply don’t have the numbers… theological liberalism is in demographic decline, and liberal orders struggle to attract vocations. Church coffers may be full, but the pews are empty. The leading lights of theological liberalism are octogenarians, and there are no successors in the wings.”
“Conservatives and traditionalists, meanwhile, have the numbers, the intellects, the energy. Orders that prize tradition and orthodoxy are thriving worldwide. In population terms, Africa is a beacon of hope for conservatives, a continent where weekly Mass attendance averages 70 percent (compared with just 20 percent in Europe) and where the Church wins nine million new believers each year.”
Quite by accident in the last few weeks, I came across a much more local summation of the state of the Church in North America, and it seems bleak. At least, it did for me until I got to the last few stunning paragraphs.
In a climate in which I thought the faithful had abandoned the notion of the Church as a mirror of justice, a faithful Catholic, a lawyer no less, concluded his stunning take on the state of the Church by profiling what the witch hunt has meant for one wrongly imprisoned priest. Don’t miss “Priests, Good and Bad” by Frank Friday published at American Thinker (October 27, 2018).
THE PATRON SAINT OF JUSTICE
Some extraordinary things can be found in Ordinary Time. It is by no human design that readings assigned long ago for the Sunday liturgy arose just weeks ago at a time of tribulation for the Catholic Church. The readings for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time were anything but ordinary. Their timing seems a divinely inspired gift.
But before I proceed down this path through the labyrinthine ways of Sacred Scripture, I want to share with you a message from a very good priest and a friend, Father Stuart MacDonald. Writing from Ontario, Father Stuart is a canon lawyer and author of the TSW guest post, “Last Rights: Canon Law in a Mirror of Justice Cracked.”
Readers may recall from my posts in recent months that a new GTL tablet allows me to receive messages from those who establish a messaging account at GTL’s mainframe, (www.ConnectNetwork.com). At the time of his guest post, Father Stuart established a messaging connection and, along with a few other readers, has been helping to keep me up to date on matters affecting the Church at this critical time.
His messages have included entire missives from and about Archbishop Carlo Viganò and his challenge to Pope Francis centered on the controversy over former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. This is a time of great tribulation for faithful Catholics, and especially so for priests who feel their loyalties torn and their allegiance under clouds of doubt. I am not shielded behind These Stone Walls from the doubt and pain experienced by so many priests right now.
A few weeks ago, Father Stuart sent a series of messages to me containing Archbishop Viganò’s published response to Cardinal Ouellet. Archbishop Viganò has challenged Pope Francis for his handling of the Cardinal McCarrick affair and other matters. I wrote about this in a series of posts I will link at the end of this one.
Just days before sitting down to type this post, wondering what on earth I could write about without taking a side on the vortex of information and misinformation, Father Stuart sent me this message:
“I have been so shaken by all this that a few weeks ago, I informed my small congregation that henceforth all weekday masses would be ad orientem because the time has come to focus on Christ and not the cult of the priest and his performance. I pray the canon in Latin sotto voce now and we pray the Prayer to St. Michael at the end of every mass. Call me foolish if you want, but it is the only way I am going to survive.”
The world might call him foolish, but I could only call him faithful. And like me, he perhaps had no idea when he wrote that message that the Mass readings for the following Sunday, the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, provided a solid basis in Scripture for what he has undertaken. The Book of Daniel (12:1-3) calls upon Michael, the Great Prince, and Guardian of your people,” while the Gospel of Mark (13:24-32) warns of a time of great tribulation. For many, that time has come. I can only add to Father Stuart’s resolve the words of Saint Peter, Bishop of Rome:
“Stay sober and alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)
Editor’s Note: Please share this post. You may also like these related posts from Father Gordon MacRae at These Stone Walls:
- Pope Francis Consecrates Vatican City to St. Michael the Archangel
- Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and the Homosexual Matrix
- Cardinal Sins: A Puppet Show from the Sexual Revolution
- Pope Francis in the Dock by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
Kathleen Riney says
PERFECT Fr.G.! As usual…However, you’ve been the most “Free Priest” on the North American
Continent since our Father Allowed you to be Locked Up…So You quite literally could, “Set the Captives FREE”. A true, Living Gospel (Alter Christi) of The Word of God, made Flesh…And for all these years, Your Parish has had more Converts & Reverts than ANY Diocease in NA! (God’s Sense of Humor usually escapes me when I’m the one Tagged! 😬😂) ❣🔥☦
Juan says
Dear Father Gordon,
Your article is an impressive, realistic account of the current state of the Catholic Church. It’s a relief that the actual condition of the Church is being recognized. Otherwise we wouldn’t know what to pray for. Neither would we be aware of the enemy’s strategies and what changes are needed.
This present state of affairs has been foretold for decades now. Some modern- day prophets spoke up back then but were not listened to and were even put down on account of the labels applied to them.
As you very well say, it is not foolish, but faithful, what Father Stuart is, for veering somewhat towards Tradition in his celebrations. It honors you to congratulate yourself on account of what he is doing in his small community. In reading this part of your article the thought of the Traditional Mass comes to mind, as well as the controversy around such Liturgy. Saint Paul warns us in Titus, 3:9, against pointless arguments. I don’t think debating which Mass is “better” –Ordinary or Traditional- would solve today’s problems within the Church. Yet one might benefit from checking out the prayers in each of the two Masses, without entering into any controversy.
Compatible with a policy of peaceful coexistence and motivated by your brave article, Father Gordon, let’s remember that Pope Leo XIII prescribed a set of prayers to be said after each Mass in the kneeling posture: the Ave Maria (Hail Mary) three times, the Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen), Deus Refugium Nostrum (God Our Refuge), and the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. Pius X added the aspiration: Cor Jesu Sacratissimum, Miserere Nobis (Sacred Heart of Jesus, have Mercy on us), repeated three times. These prayers were meant to implore God’s protection against the Church’s enemies. This rings a bell, does it not?
So, we are bound to go back to the basics of our Faith. As Pope Benedict XVI told us as he was resigning: “Christ is the One who leads the Church”. To Him all Honor, Power and Glory forever and ever. Amen.
Juan.
Juan says
One clarification: the Traditional or Extraordinary Mass was never abolished by the Second Vatican Council.
In 1970 Pope Paul VI instituted the Ordinary Mass, as translated into various languages (the vernacular tongues). Celebration of the Mass in Latin was since then “cornered” in the Catholic world but “rescued” by Pope John Paul II in 1984 (Quattuor Abhinc Annos) and again in 1988 (Ecclesia Dei).
Finally, Pope Benedict XVI removed undue restrictions to celebrating Mass in Latin according to the Roman Missal revised in 1962 by John XXIII, in his Apostolic Letter “Summorum Pontificum on the Use of the Roman Liturgy Prior to the reform of 1970” (July , 2007).
Juan.
Lupe says
This is such a helpful post and excellent comments! The best part, for me, was the insight that ““the principle duty of a Catholic” is not to the pope, but to “the truth the papacy exists to preach, to preserve, and to defend.” It says what I have been struggling to explain to myself in unraveling the confusion I am often in these days. The observation that “the world in which we live is retreating from all the institutions that once gave us meaning and purpose, and, most important of all, identity.” is truly sobering. Looking forward, I think a confrontation of the homosexual problem by heroic American Bishops will bring us to the brink of persecution. May God give us the faith to keep our eyes on His son!
Carol Hall says
I will talk to our priests about saying the St. Michael the archangel prayer at the closing of our Masses. They always say this prayer at the end of their daily MASS on EWTN. I say the daily Mass and rosary daily with EWTN.
Michael says
Amazing article. Thank you Fr! “Mass after Mass” – I love it.
You know, this is slightly off topic but since Fr Byers mentions this occasionally on his blog I wanted to get a news source on what happens to priests who are sent to treatment centers. I found a Baltimore Sun one from – whadya know! – April 11 2002. For readers: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2002-04-11/news/0204110181_1_luke-priests-sexual-abuse/2?fbclid=IwAR1-LXEuv8FgTAimYgmxlzJG02Yb6jF8jW7Hjna_vfNEnBGoM0JlsJjSsKw
A collaborating doctor actually talks about the merits of the standard practice then – i.e. making priests watch immoral images and measuring their response. You know, that seems to be one of those uncomfortable little facts that I feel deserves far, far more attention than it gets from the Catholic faithful. It’s one of those instances where the moral Rubicon gets crossed not just in practice but in demonstrable policy, and nothing is said, or nothing is done. How, how, how can a bishop instruct a priest to watch pornography! As Fr Byers says, that is abuse too – clear, incontrovertible, documented abuse. No other way to spin it. And the faithful are paying for it – literally and spiritually.
Father Gordon J MacRae says
Thank you, Michael, for this insightful comment. As you may know, I was once in ministry as Director of Admissions for a treatment center for priests. It was a facility under the auspices of the Servants of the Paraclete, a small religious congregation dedicated to spiritual renewal and psychological treatment for priests. We did not use the test that you describe. It is called penile plethysmography. One particular center in Maryland was notorious among priests for subjecting them to this. It has fallen out of use even among secular treatment centers. That the U.S. Bishops went along with this is sad, and an example of the relativism that has made its way into the governance of the Church. Thank you again for this comment.
Father George David Byers says
Thanks for bringing this up again, Michael. You can also find references to this many times in the footnotes of the John Jay report. The bishops who have gone along with this should be subject to investigation as provided by the February 2019 Synod on Abuse, and be removed for having their priests gay-raped in this way. Blessings upon you. Father George
Sue says
Thank you for a beautiful post, Father G! Our family has lived a very sheltered Catholic life, from what I hear from other Catholics. Every parish we’ve belonged to our 35 years of marriage has prayed the St. Michael Prayer & a Hail Mary, kneeling, at the end of Mass. One parish offered every Mass, including daily Mass (only NO at the time) ad orientem, sometimes in Latin. Most also distributed Holy Communion at the communion rail. Every parish also had scholas & magnificent choirs. All were founded by German Catholics. Maybe that’s why I’ve never been attracted by the TLM. When you’ve always had very reverent, prayerful Masses, why look for anything else? God bless you!
Liz F. says
I’m so glad to get a chance to read this wonderful post.
After our FSSP (low) masses the priest leads the leonine prayers which of course includes the St Michael prayer, but I have noticed at the novus ordo daily masses we attend more and more priests are saying the St. Michael prayer. At one parish at least one priest (out of four) would always say it, but then I noticed that if they others didn’t the lay people would say it anyway! Now it’s just a given! At another parish (named for the good Archangel) the school children would say it after their masses, but it would not be said after regular daily masses. Recently, I noticed they were saying it too with their other prayers.
Adoration programs are growing our diocese too, thanks to our good bishop. We sometimes stop in for a visit after mass at one chapel and there are often several people there. It encouraging to see them all there.
Fr. Gordon, you were actually the person who introduced me to the longer form of the St. Michael prayer. We say the short one most of the time (because we have it committed to memory) but I do love the long one also. Maybe we need to dig that out.
God bless you and Fr. Stuart and all of the good priests fighting the good fight. I love the Ad Orientem too. It makes so much sense to me to face God.
I have not been in touch much lately but that does not mean that you, Pornchai, Skooter and others are not in my frequents prayers. I was praying for Anthony Begin’s soul the other day when I was thinking of poor souls to pray for.
God bless you.
M says
My mother told me when she was a girl in Ireland the Prayer to Saint Michael was always recited at the end of every mass. Given the nature of the times we live in perhaps that custom should be resumed throughout the entire Church.
As for focusing on Christ. One of my favourite gospel stories if the incident where Peter walks across the waves towards Christ. As soon as he takes his eyes off Christ his power to overcome vanishes and he begins to sink. Yes we must not allow the state of the world distract us and cause us to lose our focus on Jesus. We do not have to waste any time worrying about the survival of the Church Jesus promised She would survive till Time’s end and Jesus does not break His promises.
Fr. Gordon J. MacRae says
I posted this comment yesterday at The Wall Street Journal:
The most important feature of this February summit will be whether Vatican and U.S. Church officials have the political will to call this matter what it really is: a decades- long epidemic of narcissistic homosexual predation within the ranks of the priesthood. The American bishops in 2002 funded a study of the causes and context of abuse by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Then the bishops sought to mask the conclusions due to a concern for political correctness. Were Sigmund Freud alive today, he would find very curious the fact that an entire institution would prefer the term “pedophile scandal” to “homosexual scandal” even when the facts say otherwise: http://thesestonewalls.com/gordon-macrae/cardinal-theodore-mccarrick-homosexual-matrix/
Father Gordon MacRae
Ryan A. MacDonald says
There is a lot of thunder in this post, and maybe even a bolt of lightning or two. But I must tell you that Father Stuart has stolen your thunder with his remarkable reflection, brief though it was, on putting aside the performance of the priest to focus on Christ. What a profoundly wonderful and timely statement.
Domingo says
Two very young priests, two beautiful timely sermons. One spoke of gratitude that the sexual scandal broke in the Church. He said that it is time to mature in faith: who do we trust, the Lord or man?
The second one exhorted everyone, Mass after Mass, to go to Adoration: stand your ground with Christ the King! Now is the time to be militant, and the best armor is to be present before His Eucharistic Face!
There is hope, Father G, and I thank the Lord for this new breed of priests of His Bride.
Asking for your priestly blessings on me and my family,
joisy goil says
Fr. Gordon,
As I read this epistle, (and that’s what your messages are) I was thinking of a reply. As I continued reading I saw that Fr. Stuart beat me to the punch when he said, “the time has come to focus on Christ .” Good for him! Good for you in sharing this vital fact.
It is truly extraordinary how well timed things seem to come about. But recall who’s in charge here – Jesus!
Jesus knew the time would come where we would ask ‘who can we trust?’ And He gave us the answer. JESUS I TRUST IN YOU! His Divine Mercy plan. Could anyone really appreciate the awesomeness of this prayer fully until the Church and the World sunk to this sad low point in history?
Just forget about everything but Jesus. It is JESUS, not the pope, the bishops, the news media, the officials – its Jesus!
Thank you Father Gordon. God bless you.
Susan Dee says
Fr. Gordon,
As I read this epistle, (and that’s what your messages are) I was thinking of a reply. As I continued reading I saw that Fr. Stuart beat me to the punch when he said, “the time has come to focus on Christ .” Good for him! Good for you in sharing this vital fact.
It is truly extraordinary how well timed things seem to come about. But recall who’s in charge here – Jesus!
Jesus knew the time would come where we would ask ‘who can we trust?’ And He gave us the answer. JESUS I TRUST IN YOU! His Divine Mercy plan. Could anyone really appreciate the awesomeness of this prayer fully until the Church and the World sunk to this sad low point in history?
Just forget about everything but Jesus. It is JESUS, not the pope, the bishops, the news media, the officials – its Jesus!
Thank you Father Gordon. God bless you.
Enoch [Nick] Alemany says
God Bless you Fr. Gordon
Thank you for your message.
E.L. [Nick] Alemany
Jean Smith says
Hello Fr.MacRae,
Thank you for this column! We now belong to the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St.Peter. It is a beautiful liturgy and solid hymns. No “Eagles Wings” to be found. My husband Scott sings in the Schola for the Latin Mass in addition. It is a relief to be able to have this freedom to participate in a liturgy that is both sensible and other-worldly. Maybe all the changes in the Sixties exacerbated the troubles the Church and its members are experiencing now. It may be a factor.
Helen says
The world, today, is earth-shattering, Fr. Gordon. Thank God that Cardinal Dolan has asked that the prayer to St. Michael be prayed after each Mass. It gives me a sense of hope, again.
I could not stop reading your post…I didn’t want it to end. But, end it must. Thank You so, so much for this reading. I feel so informed after reading you, each week. I, also, feel confident that when I DO read you, it is Truth. That’s a rare commodity lately. So, again, thank you.
God bless you and please, continue to keep us informed. One day, we pray, it will be great news.
Always your fan,
Helen