Prayer to Christ Crucified - Pius XII

Papa Pio XII Sito ufficiale della Causa di Canonizzazione

To Jesus on the cross – Venerable Pio XII

O Jesus crucified,
you have deified human nature,
assuming it for yourself;
after having preached justice, charity, kindness,
and making the rich and the powerful
a force for the poor and the weak,
you gave salvation to the world

with your passion and death;
look down with love on your people,
who bow down at your feet
in a spirit of penance
invoking your forgiveness not
only for themselves,
but also for the many troubled who
would remove your crown and desecrate you
by the pride of their intelligence
and the lust of their passions.
Save us, Lord, we are drowning!
Walk back on the waves of
the troubled seas of our soul;
be our companion in life and in death;
be our judge full of pity.
The thunderbolts of deserved punishment
give way to a generous, new effusion
of your mercy on redeemed humanity.
Extinguish hatred; inflame love;
with the powerful breath
of your Spirit burn off
the thoughts and desires of domination, destruction and war.
Give bread to the little ones,
homes to the homeless,
work to the unemployed, peace to the nations throughout the world,
and the prize of eternal bliss to us all.

Amen

Palm Sunday at St. Stans in Milwaukee

Here are the pictures from Palm Sunday.  I uploaded them earlier to the Facebook page:

Photos care of P. Wesely

Photos from Palm Sunday 2015.
Posted by St. Stanislaus Catholic Church (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) on Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Concerning the exile of Jews from Spain (1492)

It seems that in modernity’s take on Christianity there are a few sticking points that are used as bludgeons against Christ’s Only Church (The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church for those unaware). Among these are the black legends, threats of evil popes, flat-Earther allegations, but among the protestant sects none comes close to the perceived mishandling of the Jew’s.

Explusion of the Jews

Protestant muckrakers like John Hagee and TV personalities like Glenn Beck spend a decent amount of time concerning themselves with the situation in Israel and how the Jew’s are being harmed here and there.  This might well be a well-intentioned endeavor and people, regardless of their religious affiliations, but it becomes a crime when such folks who have fashioned themselves as historical luminaries take historical occurrences, pull it out of context, then claim that the Whore of Babylon  can be seen persecuting God’s chosen people… the Jews of today.

With the Reconquista of Spain from the Moors came with it many difficulties, one such difficulty was concerned with how would those that aligned themselves with the Moors be treated when the Moors were finally forced off the Iberian Peninsula? Charles Coulomb gives us a little context in his book on Catholic US history entitled “Puritans Empire”:

Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain

“The entrance of Ferdinand and Isabella into the Alhambra marked the end of the age-long struggle begun when Don Pelayo emerged from the Covadonga eight centuries before. At last Spain was free.

One of the immediate results of this occurrence was the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. This happening has been frequently cited in recent years against the Queen, and it is an important question to address. In order to understand it in context, we must remember that the Spanish Jews had, from the first invasion by the Moors back in 711, collaborated closely with the Muslim invaders, who were after all, also a Semite people. This was considered an act of betrayal by the Spanish. During the long years of Moorish tyranny, Jews often served under them as governors of the Christian populace; Jewish culture in Spain flourished, Toledo and Cordova in particular becoming centers of Hebrew thought and learning. While such collaboration is easily understood, so too is the resentment toward it. When an occupying force is at last dislodged from a nations territories, those who collaborated with the occupiers – as Pierre Laval and Vikdun Quisling found out after World War II – often do not fare very well.

But the Twentieth Century rulers faced with large ethnic minorities might launch genocide against them, as did the Turks with the Armenians and the Nazis with the Gypsies, Jews, and Poles (or else “ethnic cleansing” as the Serbian Communists call it). Isabel had no such desire. She feared possible future collaboration of the Jews with Muslims – and she had not defeated restive nobles, brigands and the Granada Moors to see it all lost to Turks. But as a Catholic she would certainly not want them wantonly executed. What then to do?

At this point, in order to explain her motivations, a few points must be made about her and her contemporaries’ understanding of Catholicism. They believed Our Lord’s words “Unless a man be baptized of water and the Holy Ghost, he shall not enter the Kingdom of God.” And “Unless a man eat my body and drink my blood, he shall not have life in him.” They agreed with Pope Boniface VIII in his bull Unam Sanctam that “it is absolutely necessary to the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” This is why the Protestant Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France) said in regard to his conversion to Catholicism, “the ministers say that I can save my soul as a Catholic, the priests that I cannot save it as a Protestant. Therefore I can surely be saved as a Catholic.” Without this understanding none of the Queen’s actions with regard to the Jews or to the Guanches and Indians can be understood.

For like her Savior, she did not desire the death of sinners, but that they should live. She wished that all of her subjects might be members of the Catholic Church, outside of which she believed there was no salvation. If the Jews would convert (for church law forbade her to force them to do so) they would be given all the privileges and rights of ordinary Spaniards. If not they were a security risk, and must go. In the event, at most 160,000 left. Many of these, interestingly enough, were picked up by Ottoman vessels and brought to Thessalonica and Constantinople, in which city the anniversary of their arrival was celebrated in 1992. Others went to North Africa and still others to the Netherlands where, unhampered by the Church’s laws against usury they laid the foundations for that country’s capitalist economy and eventual financial prowess. Those who converted, however soon reached the heights of Spanish society. Many became bishops and nobles and high courtiers; St. Teresa of Avila, for example was part Jewish.”

 

It is also interesting that during this time the exile of the Jews did not go unnoticed by the reigning pontiff Pope Alexander VI.  The pope encouraged migration of the Jewish people from Spain and called on Isabelle to be more lienent with them. While the Jews settled in Rome, Alexander demanded that they not be persecuted.  To this day the Jewish settlements of Rome are a result of his actions.

Canon 220 and the Chilean Bishop Crisis: Stop the accusations!

The Code of Canon Law 220: New Revised English Translation (London, Harper Collins, 1997) page 46.

 "No one is permitted to damage unlawfully the good reputation which another person enjoys nor to violate the right of another person to protect his or her own privacy."

 "Nemini licet bonam famam, qu quis gaudet, illegitime laedere, nec ius cuiusque personae ad propriam intimitatem tuendam violare." Code of Canon Law: Latin-English Edition (Washington, Canon Law Society of America,1983) pages 72 -73

The Burden of Proof is on those making the accusations!

The protestant fools have infiltrated this once Catholic nation and the walls are crumbling within.  They have even recognized "Reformation Day" as a national holiday.

I for one will stand and pray for this Bishop and all bishops (even Archbishop Weakland) because the Lord of Hosts demands our fidelity and love to be given to them!

What you dont know is that the Church is under fire because the Chilean government wants to legalize abortion and euthanasia right now and they will smear now and ask questions later!

See how they treat him? This is wrong!

St. Thomas Beckett pray for us!

Update on Fr. Kenneth Walker and Fr. Terra FSSP new picks

"Father Terra built the shrine in honor of and in thanksgiving to Our Lady for saving his life. I can't remember if I had already shared the picture of the stained glass piece that was installed in the choir loft of the church around Christmas time in memory of Fr. Walker."



The Shrine in Thanksgiving of Fr. Terra's Protector, Our Lady



The stained glass window in memory of Fr. Kenneth Walker FSSP as reported HERE

 

Please continue to pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Walker FSSP

h/t FSSP Supporters Facebook Page

Breaking Luther: Luther's failed exorcism and the Catholic priest that was called to fix his problem

The following comes from Matthew Olson of Catholic Analysis:

Martin Luther’s Failed Exorcism

The Jesuit Fr. Louis Richeome “related a story of Luther attempting to exorcise a woman and failing”.  When it became clear that he could do nothing the family called upon the Catholic Church to perform the exorcism.  Needless to say the family came back to the One True Fold of Christ and few if any Lutherans speak of this matter outside of the belittleing of superstitious peasants and their papist healers.

The reference can be found below but it is in an old French dilect that is very hard even for today's Frenchmen (like my Priest) to read or outright translate, so google translate will not do.

(Sarah Ferber, Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern France, p. 34, ISBN 0-203-65227-4)

Transcribed from p. 203-204 of Richeome’s “Trois discours pour la religion catholique les Miracles, les Saincts, les Images"

"Il fe fouuenoit aufsi de plus freche date que l’an1545. Luther ayant entrepins en la ville de Vvitemberg de coniurer es diables, qui poffedoyent vne ieune fille de Mifne, fut prins aux toiles, & charge de coups, & de confufion comme apres nous reciterons. La memoire de ces chofes luy donna fcrupule pour penfer a fa confcience, & hardieffe de s’excufer de femblable efcrime, & faire la couard, referuant fa charite a autres exercices moins dangereux. La refte de la refponce qu’il faict, difant qu’il ne faut croire aux diables, & qu’ils colludent auec les exorciftes, eft en partie l’efcume de la vieille herefie d’Arrius, partie de la nouuelle de Caluin."

Transcribed from p. 481-482 of Florimond de Raemond’s “L’anti-Christ et l’anti-papesse" [link]:

"Luther preuoyant ue fon miracle n’auoit pas de nez, duuel il auoit fait tant de cas contre le Roy d’Angleterre, qu’vn pauure Moine comme luy euft affuiecty a fon Euangile l’Allemagne, voulut entrepredre d’exorcifer vneieune fille de Mifme poffedee du Diable. Mais il n’en rapporta que des coups, & tous les affiftan auffi. Comme celuy dont fainct Gregoire parle: Ie fuis content taire le furplus du conte, par-ce qu’il fent trop mal, pour l’infortune qui aduint au pauure Luther, femblable a celle de l’Empereur Copronyme fur les fonds du Baptefme. Qui fera curieux de fcauoir le difcours de cefte farce, l’aille voir chez Staphile, lequel eftant pour lors fon difciple, affifta a tout ce myftere, & auec vne hache enfonca la porte pour efchapper: car le Diable empechoit que la clefne peuft ioiier, & tenoit Luther tout tremblant au collet."

Great Catholic Politicians: New Series

It seems to many that we have been completely without solid Catholic leadership in politics at the highest levels for a long while.  Folks like JFK are supposed to be held up as role models for all Catholics to look up to.  Sadly such people betray the faith often for their own personal gain, and as Holy Writ describes "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his sou?"

The purpose of this series is to make better known recent politicians and rulers that you likely have never heard of.

+JMJ+