Login 
We have not wanted to disrupt the spiritual joy of these days of the Easter Octave with any negative commentary. That this has meant turning a blind eye to the trampling of the Sacred Triduum in Rome is indicative of the gravity of these times. With the announcement of the Apostolic Exhortation, and of the names of those chosen for its public launch, it seems that we must now acknowledge the Easter Passion of 2016...
Entering the Passion on Holy Thursday
When he was Cardinal of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis frequently broke the liturgical law stipulating that only the feet of men were to be washed during the Mandatum service on Maundy Thursday. Having continued to consistently break this law as Pope between 2013 and 2015 - even washing the feet of a self-described transsexual that year - he amended the law in early 2016 to permit the washing of the feet of women.
He then appeared to shatter his newly amended law last week by washing the feet of Muslims and Hindus at a refugee centre some 25-miles outside of the city of Rome. I say ''appeared'', because Pope Francis' new liturgical law stipulated that those having their feet washed should be chosen from among the ''people of God''.
Now, the Catechism of the Catholic Church - described by St. Pope John Paul II as a ''sure norm for teaching the Catholic Faith'' - explicity teaches that one enters the (capital ''P'') People of God through faith and Baptism (CCC 782; 785). However, in his homily (would that be the right word?) at the refugee centre, Pope Francis spoke of the members of the different religions as all being children of the same God. Although God is clearly the Father of all, the Catechism again gives very clear teaching on becoming a child of God through grace and Baptism (please see CCC 1996 ff). Yet, Crux News suggested that, although the term ''people of God'' usually referred to the Baptized, Pope Francis' decree seemed to have an open-ended definition.
The much-ignored fact that true peace cannot be attained without the grace of Christ was tragically underscored just three days later, on Easter Sunday itself, when 72 people were killed and over 300 injured during an Islamist suicide bombing; which specifically targeted Christian families celebrating Easter in the centre of the Pakistani city of Lahore.
The Crucifixion on Good Friday
Could any true Catholic fail to be scandalized, indeed utterly horrified, by the fact that Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa used his (too?) long-held position as Preacher to the Papal Household to promote, once again, the evils of the Lutheran heresy?
That this happened during the liturgy of Good Friday, at the very heart of the Church in Rome and in the presence of an aquiescent Pontiff, is not only a hideous travesty; it is, in fact, nothing short of apocalyptic.
I am not sure whether Pope Francis' peaceful acceptance of Cantalamessa's vile promotion of Luther and his heresy is more disturbing than the continued silence of all of the world's bishops, and most of the world's priests and laity, in the face of it.
This is especially distressing when one considers that Cantalamessa used the sermon for Good Friday, the very day of Our Lord's Passion and Death, to falsely assert that Martin Luther - this fornicating, sacrilegious, Mass-hating and Magisterially condemned heretic - ''deserves the credit'' for bringing a truth to light which the Catholic Church had supposedly forgotten. In fact the opposite is true!
In the face of such grave evils, perhaps one can only reflect on the chillingly prescient vision of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, from the 1st June 1821: ''Then I saw that everything pertaining to Protestantism was gradually gaining the upper hand, and the Catholic religion fell into complete decadence... In those days, Faith will fall very low, and it will be preserved in some places only, in a few cottages and in a few families that God has protected from disasters and wars.''
The Octave of Easter becomes another Passiontide...  Â
And now it has been announced that the long-awaited (long-dreaded?) Apostolic Exhortation will be released just one week today at noon in Rome. The choice of those clerics who will publicly release the document is certainly troubling...
We have only recently drawn attention to Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri's involvement with the Focolare movement and its disturbingly indifferentist trajectory towards a one-world-religion. We have also discussed: his shocking treatment of orthodox participants at a post-Synod family meeting; seeming favouritism towards those who dissent from the Magisterium; Modernistic conception of evolution in doctrine; and underhand shenanigans - including even the illegal removal of mail - during the Synods of 2014 and 2015.
Turning to Cardinal Christoph Schonborn (sorry Eminence, our website programme does not allow umlauts!) - pictured above with the glinting Jewish Menorah that he was awarded by the European Lodge of B'Nai B'rith - his recent interventions have been most disturbing from a Catholic perspective.
For example, in stark contrast to his earlier work on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he has suggested a number of things which are at odds with Catholic moral teaching.Â
And so: Cardinal Schonborn has claimed that there are no ''black and white'' answers in relation to the issue of Holy Communion for the divorced and re-''married''; he has argued that we must look for the presence of ''positive moral elements'' in relationships of cohabitation; he has suggested that Catholics can, and indeed must, respect the decisions of persons to form same-sex pairings; and finally, he responded to the transsexualist Conchita Wurst's victory in the Eurovision Song Contest with delight and the suggestion that there is ''multi-coloured diversity'' in God's garden.
When Archbishop Tomash Peta, of Astana in Kazakhstan, warned that the smoke of Satan was getting into the Rome Synod in 2015, Cardinal Schonborn led the retort against him; even pausing to facilitate the mocking laughter of sacrilege-promoting Modernists in the aula. There was something very diabolical about those dark weeks.
Let's face it: there is no way that men like Baldisseri or Schonborn would have been allowed to retain their leadership positions, never mind being chosen to launch papal exhortations, in the days of the Holy Office. In more sane times, their public rejection of Magisterial teaching relating to doctrine and morals would have led to the withdrawal of their offices and maybe even their faculties.
The choice of these men, coupled to Cardinal Walter Kasper's pre-Easter crowing about a new leaf being turned in the Church after 1,700 years, does not bode well at all.
Once again, the words of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich come to mind. This time from 12th April, 1820: ''I had another vision of the great tribulation. It seems to me that a concession was demanded from the clergy which could not be granted. I saw many older priests, especially one, who wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping. But others, and among them the lukewarm, readily did what was demanded. It was as if people were splitting into two camps...''Â
Easter Passion   Â
There is something quite remarkable in the fact that Mother Angelica went through her final suffering on Good Friday and her peaceful death on Easter Sunday.
It has been refreshing to read and listen this week to some of the many stories of Catholics who converted - and reverted - through the various apostolates of Mother Angelica.
So many people either found their faith for the first time, came back to the faith they once had, or went deeper in the faith they already had, through the teaching and witness of Mother Angelica on EWTN and in her books.
Countless others found through her the encouragement, grace and strength which they needed to carry their various heavy crosses.
After the conclusion to the Public Reception and Rosary, at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament on Wednesday, Johnnette Benkovich said a beautiful thing in her conversation with Raymond Arroyo.
Sadly, I can't remember it word-for-word, or find it on-line to copy out, but she basically said that Mother Angelica had willed to live as long as possible, through all of her sufferings down here, in order to give God the greatest possible glory. I also read somewhere that Mother had shunned pain relief and had insisted on being kept alive as long as possible.
Johnnette was recalling how Mother Angelica knew that the will of a person is set at the point of death, either for or against God, and that there is no further merit possible after death: the deceased will be in Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. Mother Angelica had wanted to join her will to the merit being received through suffering in union with Christ, for as long as possible down here, in order to give God the greatest possible glory.
Johnnette also used this amazing example of faithfulness and the value of suffering to further underscore the error and inhumanity of euthanasia.
Her words, reiterating the words and actions of Mother, were among the most spiritually and practically helpful that I have heard in my entire life. There was such grace accompanying them in these dark times for the Church that I ask you to please believe me when I say that I do not exaggerate this point. I believe that they may prove helpful in the times ahead for the Catholic Church.
Dear readers, it seems to us here that Holy Church has entered on a particularly difficult stage of her own Passion. From the Pope down to the ordinary person in the pew, in dioceses throughout the whole world, there exists grave confusion and tepidity in the face of error, sin and evil. The holy Law of God, the Tradition of the Church, and the laws and customs, are being disregarded and trampled. Those who try to keep and promote them are derided or silenced. All of this both constitutes and portends the most grave of chastisements.
The Sacred Easter Triduum has been made an object of use by the very Pontiff and his closest confreres; and this has happened in ways that promote gender ideology, religious indifferentism and the Lutheran heresy. The Easter Octave has been disrupted by news of a declaration to be made by men who no longer present a Catholic understanding in terms of either faith or morals. And in the midst of all of these distressing things, violence against the Church brews up from the opposed camps of Islamism and atheistic secularism.
In Hoc Signo Vinces
The timing of Mother Angelica's death seems symbolic at so many levels. She suffered most on Good Friday and headed home to God on Easter Sunday. Her death comes just over one week before a potentially grave danger to the Faith, and to the salvation of countless souls, is to be made public.
As the many tributes to Mother Angelica demonstrate, countless souls around the world found their faith or had their faith deepened through her apostolate. So often, such people found a lifeline to orthodox Catholicism through Mother Angelica. Then, after her stroke and the persecution of the Modernists effectively silenced her, Mother Angelica taught us another way to go deeper in the Faith and witness to Christ. Although it was what she had always taught and lived, there was now a unique depth to the lesson: Mother taught us not only to suffer, but how to suffer well and why we need to.
I touched on this in my previous article on Brother Joseph Zoettl. I was not intending to argue for a retreat into quietism. Rather, I was acknowledging the fact that many who desire to follow Christ in the Church have already been effectively silenced and prevented, by enemies within, due to their faithfulness and orthodoxy. In the times ahead, and perhaps much sooner that we all think, the silencing and persecution are likely to escalate rapidly. It is not, perhaps, that many of us will choose to become little, but that it might be forced upon us. Therefore, it behoves us to begin practicing now.Â
Through Christ's Cross and Resurrection
This year, we have placed the following image portraying the Resurrection in our front bay-window as an Easter witness. We normally remove the Crucifix from the window during the Easter octave to help keep the focus on the Resurrection image. We noticed yesterday that we had forgotten to do so this time around.
Then we decided to leave the Resurrection image above the Crucifix for the whole week. It seems appropriate this year as the Church is going through something of an Easter Passion. We have a real spiritual sense that we are going through both the Suffering and the Resurrection of the Church.Â
It seems that Mother Angelica's passing has highlighted this fact in a particular way. Throughout the world, her apostolate has gathered together a spiritual army of faithful ones. For the most part, this army has little in the way of influence, leadership or even power. At least, that is the case temporally speaking.
However, Mother Angelica has taught us all with her words, work and final sufferings how to give God the greatest possible glory through embracing the unfathomable Power of Christ's Cross. This is always primarily a work of grace.
Perhaps we are approaching days when, as Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich prophesied, the Faith will be kept only in those cottages and families which God preserves from disasters and war. It seems certain that we are in a, perhaps the, Great Apostasy. Whichever it turns out to be, and whatever lies ahead of us, Mother Angelica's passing at this time, and the manner of her passing, can inspire us to suffer through these days with the grace of Christ for God's greater glory. Christ's victory is assured; our job is to stay on His winning side through His love, grace and mercy.
At Easter 2016, we have certainly entered a new level of the Passion in the Church. Still, victory is assured to those who remain faithful to Christ and the fullness of His Truth. We know this because it is also Easter. Some even seem to be be receiving an outpouring of joy in the opportunity of suffering for Christ and His Church.Â
That is why we speak of the Easter Passion of 2016 - an Easter Octave where both the Crucifix and the Resurrection remain prominent.Â
Please remember to pray for Mother Angelica whose Funeral Mass is today - it will be televised on EWTN at 12pm Eastern Time (Channel 589 on SKY at 5pm - with commentary beginning at 4:30pm - here in the UK).
