Posted on 11/28/2011 8:49:17 PM PST by ReformationFan
VATICAN, November 28, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) One of the highest ranking cardinals in the Vatican has said that the United States is well on the way to the persecution of Christians. Cardinal Raymond Burke
Cardinal Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St. Louis and now the head of the Vaticans highest court, told Catholic News Agency that he could envision a time when the Catholic Church in the U.S., even by announcing her own teaching, is accused of engaging in illegal activity, for instance, in its teaching on human sexuality.
Asked if the cardinal could even see American Catholics being arrested for their faith he replied, I can see it happening, yes.
In his remarks to several U.S. Bishops meeting with him Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI made similarly emphatic warnings about the U.S. The pope told the bishops that the seriousness of the challenges which the Church in America, under your leadership, is called to confront in the near future cannot be underestimated.
He added: The obstacles to Christian faith and practice raised by a secularized culture also affect the lives of believers.
In the interview published today, Cardinal Burke declared that it is a war and critical at this time that Christians stand up for the natural moral law. Should they not, he warned, secularization will in fact predominate and it will destroy us.
Pope Benedict too urged the bishops of the United States to speak out in defense of morality. The present moment can thus be seen, in positive terms, as a summons to exercise the prophetic dimension of your episcopal ministry by speaking out, humbly yet insistently, in defense of moral truth, and offering a word of hope, capable of opening hearts and minds to the truth that sets us free, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
LOL! But I understand you on this topic. Hope that’s OK with you — or are you teasing?
This phrase was never dropped from Catholic traditionalist confirmations.
A few things I can see that will be very troubling for the church in the next few years is the problem that Catholic hospitals are going to run into under Obummercare, refusing to marry same sex couples and preaching against homosexuality.
This is very true. This is one reason I am so grateful to have the honor of singing purely Christian Christmas music at many secular venues this Christmas season in a major US city. I will sing about Christ until the day I die to as many people as possible. They can jail me, reject me, taunt, and kill me. I will never stop.
Posted on FR from: The Essentials of the Catholic Faith, Part Two: Channels of Grace, Confirmation
Sacramental Character. The Church stresses that the indelible seal received in Confirmation is really a new character. It is not merely a deepening of the baptismal character. The Churchs tradition teaches that the confirmation character gives the power and the right to perform actions which are necessary in the spiritual battle against the enemies of the faith. These enemies are the world, our own proud intellect and will, and the evil spirit.
Moreover, the Church does not hesitate to say that Confirmation changes the simple members of the kingdom of Christ into soldiers of Christ. St. Ignatius, in his Spiritual Exercises, expresses this idea forcefully in the invitation that Christ extends to His chosen followers.
My will is to conquer the whole world and all enemies and thus to enter into the glory of my Father. Whoever, therefore, desires to come with me must labor with me in order that following me in pain, he may likewise follow me in glory (The Kingdom of Christ).
The character of Confirmation confers on the baptized the strength they need to live up to Christs expectations of the Mystical Body on earth, which is the Church Militant.
snip
Three words in the Churchs definition of Confirmation bring out the unique effects of this sacrament. They are to witness to Christ, and spread and defend the faith. On each of these three levels, Confirmation strengthens a Christian and imposes the obligation to witness, spread, and defend. Let us now examine them in detail.
Leave the matter to Burke, and he would. But the matter is not in his hands. He is only one baron, so to speak, among many barons, great or small.
If the State starts by outlawing the Catholic Church and imprisoning Bishops and Priests about a quarter of the non-Catholic Christians in this country won't be in any hurry to see the situation turned around.
JMHO
Bishops are not famous for their courage. Consider the fate of St. John Fisher, who alone stood up to Henry VIII. Lost his head. Literally.
Its also worth noting that Our Lady of Kibeho (Vatican approved Apparition in Rwanda that in the early 1980s foretold the genocide there in the 1990s) strongly recommended the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows. A friend gave me one of these Rosaries (it has seven decades of seven beads each) this weekend that she got at a talk by Immaculee Ilibagiza.
Either Christians form effective political action groups or the Left will make us “domestic terrorists” and seriously harm us like all the commies before them have done.
Amorality is deadly to the moral.
The "soldier of Christ" imagery, remains valid [7] but is downplayed... Then he strikes him lightly on the cheek, saying: Peace be with you) (cf. the knightly custom of the accolade). When, in application of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,[10] the Confirmation rite was revised in 1971, mention of this gesture was omitted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_(Catholic_Church)
Admittedly wikipedia often has a leftist bias, but its report on the post-Vatican II watering down of Confirmation is consistent with the consensus among traditionalists.
Do not forget Blessed Pope Urban II who launched the Holy Crusades with the slogan “Deus vult!” (God wills it!)
Of course the situation is different in the US because the Catholic Church has never been the religion favored by the government.
Unfortunately a lot of the Catholic bishops have been the enablers of a lot of the developments they now fear, by their support of Democratic politicians.
The sled was going down the hill anyway but without a doubt they greased the skids. A good many of them seem to have taken Vatican II to mean that they could become a separate US Catholic Church in name and just another liberal Protestant denomination in reality. Had it not been for the enthusiastic support of a good many Bishops, Priests, and Nuns, as well as a good percentage of the Catholic folks in the pews, our current situation would probably have been delayed but I'm not sure it could have been avoided altogether.
Regards
aye that
the Church has contributed to its own demise by its leadership simpering and enabling rabid pro-abortion pro-adultery politicians like O’Malley Pelosi and the Kennedys
Big Difference though.
Americans of Christian faith will more likely go on the defensive.
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