British Govt to Fund 'Sperm Bank' for Lesbians and Single Women - UK Slides Further into Post-Modern Dystopia

Torch of The Faith News on Friday 08 August 2014 - 16:02:09 | by admin

Assisted Suicide... Homosexualist Pride Marches... 'Gay Marriage'... Targeted Destruction of Disabled Babies in the Womb... Sex-Selection Abortion... Burning Aborted Babies to Heat Hospitals. Barely a week goes by without some radically dystopian news item hitting the news headlines here in England.

All of these things are vivid examples of how society ends up when God, the Church and the Natural Law are rejected. Instead of the beauty of the Faith, healthy marriage and family life, and a unified and well-ordered society, we descend into a chaotic dystopia. All of this could - and should - serve as a wake-up call for us to see the horrific trajectory that we are on and to do something to return to normality. Instead, it seems, the wider populace just sleepily accepts the latest degradation of the human person and of the social order. With each retreat from moral goodness, the belief in God, the dignity of human life and even belief in human love is diminished. 

The latest shocking news has been broken by the Daily Mail. Their research suggests that the British Government is to draw on tax-payer pounds to fund a new 'Sperm Bank,' to 'allow lesbians and single women to create a child without the involvement of a father.'

Laura Witjens, the Chair of the Huxleyan-sounding National Gamete Donation Trust (NGDT), stated to the Daily Mail: 'It's become more socially acceptable to say, I haven't found a guy yet, don't want to wait for him, still want a child.' Witjens also said: 'The aim is that we will have enough surplus sperm so that we will be able to set up a service for people like single women and same-sex couples'. She rejected the suggestion that growing up without a father hurts children. 

These decadent attitudes clearly express the dehumanizing atheism which has taken over so much of our society. Everything and everyone is viewed through it's reductionist lense as a commodity. Our nation needs much prayer and fasting. How can we expect anything other than chastisement for our sins and indifference to sin? Please pray that God will have mercy on us and that God's beautiful plan for Christian marriage and family life will be rediscovered and lived out for the glory of God, the defence of the human person, the peace of the Church and the well-being of society.

St. Gianna Molla - Pray for us!   

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Patriarch Sako Appeals for Urgent Help S.O.S. - Catastrophe in Iraq!

Torch of The Faith News on Thursday 07 August 2014 - 23:41:39 | by admin

Patriarch Sako has made an urgent S.O.S. appeal for help to all people of good will, to the UN, and to the EU, after ISIS militants attacked most of the villages in the Ninevah plain with mortars, during the night of 6th-7th August.

An estimated 100,000 Christians had to flee their homes and head out into the desert, with only the clothes they had on their backs. Patriarch Sako explained in his urgent S.O.S appeal, that the exodus of Christians is 'a real via crucis'. The frightened refugees include pregnant women, the elderly, young children and sick people. They are heading out into the desert during the season of searing summer heat in Iraq. They have no water, food or shelter.

Patriarch Sako warns that these Christians face a real danger of genocide from the muslim extremists. He also noted that ISIS had taken over the churches in the villages they invaded last night. They have already been carrying out acts of destruction and desecration in them. The Islamists have also been burning old manuscripts and other documents.  

We also learned last night that a Christian lady and two young children were killed in the Christian town of Baghdida. At the same time we discovered that around 40,000 Yazidi families are taking refuge on Mount Sinjar, after ISIS militants tried to force them to convert to Islam. Around 40 of their children are believed to have died in violence in the area, whilst another 20 are thought to have died from thirst due to the lack of water in the mountains.

Patriarch Sako has implored the UN, the EU, and all people of good will to intervene to help the suffering Christians and all others being exposed to violence from ISIS. There will now be an emergency session of the UN Security Council this evening.  

A few minutes ago, various mainstream media outlets were reporting that the US is considering limited military intervention and aid drops from the air. The Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. read the following statement: 'His Holiness urgently calls on the international community to protect all those affected or threatened by the violence, and to guarantee all necessary assistance - especially the most urgently needed aid - to the great multitude of people who have been driven from their homes, whose fate depends entirely on the solidarity of others.'

The Rorate Caeli blog has stated: 'We regret to say, but a Holy See spokesman declaration is not enough at this extremely urgent moment!' Their article concluded: 'Please, Peter, show your face and your tears for all the world to see! Please, Peter, speak up with your own voice! These are your own sheep being massacred!'

Although the Holy See is likely working behind the scenes, it must be said that the apparent silence in the face of such apocalyptic events is very disturbing. This sense is only deepened in light of the fact that recently the papacy has dominated internet news because of controversial papal interviews, 'apologies,' and some 'Hints for a Happy Life' - which latter made no mention of God, conversion, objective morality or eternal salvation.

Please pray for the Church - She is being Crucified in Her Head and Members. 

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Extraordinary Period of Prayer and Penance to Counter the Proposed Black Mass in Oklahoma

Torch of The Faith News on Wednesday 06 August 2014 - 23:38:53 | by admin

Bishop Edward J. Slattery of the Diocese of Tulsa has written a pastoral letter to the people of his diocese to ask them to join in an extraordinary period of prayer and penance to counter the proposed Black Mass in Oklahoma City.

This follows on from Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma's repeated calls for the Oklahoma Civic Centre to cancel the evil travesty which is scheduled to take place on 21st September 2014. The Archbishop of Oklahoma has called on the faithful in his diocese to make prayers of reparation, Eucharistic Holy Hours, and to write letters of protest to the civic centre. On 21st September he plans to lead a public Eucharistic Procession to make reparation to Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

The head of the satanic group planning the evil Black Mass claims to already have a Consecrated Host that was 'mailed' to him by a friend.

Bishop Edward J. Slattery of Tulsa, joining Archbishop Coakley in protest and prayer, writes:-

'Countering with Prayer the Proposed Black Mass in Oklahoma City

My Dear People:

As has been widely reported, a Satanic Black Mass has been scheduled for September 21st in Oklahoma City's Civic Centre. As a part of Satanic worship, a Black Mass attempts to invert the action and meaning of the Eucharist in order to mock Christ's sacrifice and worship Satan through an orgiastic ritual of pain and perversion. It blasphemes everything which we hold as sacred and redemptive; and the spiritual dangers it poses ought not to be dismissed. Since the Civic Centre has not responded positively to the pleas of the Archbishop of Oklahoma City not to host this event in a tax-payer supported public venue, I am asking the faithful Catholics in the Diocese of Tulsa to fight this blasphemy through prayer and fasting:

1). Please keep the nine days prior to the Feast of the Assumption as an extraordinary period of prayer and penance. I am asking every Catholic to abstain from all meat and meat products from August 6th through the 14th. I am also asking that you consecrate your hunger with a daily recitation of a decade of the Rosary and the familiar prayer to St. Michael. Printed copies of these prayers are available in the bulletin and at the entrances of the church. Be strong and encourage your friends to also be strong.

2). On Assumption Day, August 15th, we will ask Our Lady on Her Feast, to intercede for us and protect us. On that day, I in the Cathedral, and every priest in his own parish, will pray a special prayer written by Pope Leo XIII for the defence of the Church against the attack of the Enemy and his apostate angels.

3). Should these prayers and this period of fasting not effect the cancellation of this event, then I will ask every priest in the Diocese to conduct a Eucharistic Holy Hour on September 21st at the same time (7:00 pm) as this profanity is being celebrated in Oklahoma City. Wherever possible, I ask the Eucharistic Processions - especially outdoor processions - be arranged as part of these Holy Hours. Let us give a public witness to our faith in the Eucharist which is being so profoundly mocked and ridiculed by this event. 

From the snares of the devil, deliver us, O Lord!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Rev. Edward J. Slattery

Bishop of Tulsa'.

We at Torch of The Faith are heartened to see such manly episcopal leadership in the face of such grave evil. We invite all of our readers to please join in with this period of prayer and penance to make reparation to Our Blessed Lord and to intercede so that this sacrilegious crime will be prevented. The fact that such serious affronts to God and to the Church are being openly planned and tolerated should awaken all of us to the gravity of our times in the Church and for the world. Stay close to Jesus and Our Lady. Do also pray the Holy Michael prayer frequently in these times. 

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Feast of the Transfiguration - Global Day of Prayer for Peace in Iraq

Torch of The Faith News on Wednesday 06 August 2014 - 10:50:11 | by admin

In partnership with Aid to the Church in Need, Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, the leader of the Chaldean Catholics - the largest Christian community in Iraq - has called for a Global Day of Prayer for Peace in Iraq - to be held today, the Feast of the Transfiguration.

The Bishops' Conference of England and Wales has endorsed this initiative and Catholics are thus urged to especially pray today for the suffering Christians in Iraq. The Bishops have also called for this coming weekend - of 9/10th August - to also be a special time for prayers focused on the situation in Iraq.

Patriarch Sako has written a prayer for today's Global Day of Prayer for Peace in Iraq. Please pray this frequently and spread the word wherever you can.

Lord, the plight of our country is deep and the suffering of the Christians is heavy and frightening us. Therefore we ask you Lord to assign our lives, grant us patience and courage to continue to witness our Christian values with trust and hope. Lord, peace is base of any life; give us peace and stability to live with each other without fear, without anxiety, with dignity and joy, glory to You forever. Amen.

Bishop Declan Lang, Chairman of the International Affairs Department of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, has described the recent events in Iraq as 'disastrous' and as  'religious cleansing' of Christians. He recalled that some churches have been made into mosques and that the homes of Christians have been marked as a target for the extremists. Bishop Lang has called on the British government and leaders of other states to: 'Prioritise action to save the Christian and other persecuted communities of Iraq and to offer them the help and support they need urgently.' The Bishops' Conference has also drawn up a dedicated bidding prayer to be prayed in parishes this coming weekend.

More than 500 Christians recently protested against the anti-Christian persecution by ISIS, outside a UN base in Irbil. 

The protest was arranged by Christians to express anger at the loss of their homes to ISIS, but also at the silence of the world in the face of the violent anti-Christian injustices being perpetrated in Iraq.

An e-mail from Miss Sahar Mansour, a former Chemistry lecturer at Mosul University, to the Diocese of Shrewsbury, should give us all pause for thought. 

Miss Mansour fled Mosul in June. She said: 'We have become penniless, we do not know how we will survive. We depend on God and all of us have a hope, but I really feel now that all the people are starting to grow weak and lose their strength because we do not have anything and there is no action to help the Iraqi Christians from Mosul... As I am a Christian woman, I am in serious danger from ISIS. They are barbarous, nobody knows what they will do and how they think, we heard recently that ISIS women are searching for women from Mosul to get married to ISIS men... In addition, ISIS has stated that every woman should undergo female genital mutilation. ISIS has forced all women to wear hijab and cover their faces like Muslims. ISIS are stealing the freedom of the women... In the current situation, I do not think there will be any future in Mosul, it would be impossible to live there... I hope that I can live in better life with my family in peace and love, can practice as I am Christian, and can follow Jesus and His commandments.'

Aid to the Church in Need is working to relieve some of the emotional, material and spiritual distress of the Iraqi Christians. Please pray for them and send any help that you can. Let us all especially pray today on this Global Day of Prayer for Iraqi Christians and through this coming weekend.      

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Homosexualist Pride

Torch of The Faith News on Monday 04 August 2014 - 17:00:58 | by admin

The skies above Liverpool were ripped by a particularly violent thunderstorm on Saturday. Torrents of rain overwhelmed grids and gutters to send water cascading through the rapidly flooding streets. Somebody remarked that it seemed like the wrath of God. It was during the storm that we remembered that it was 2nd August, the date of the 5th annual 'Liverpool Pride' march.

In the City

This growing event provides a clear cultural litmus test. For example, around 75,000 people were expected to attend the event. Local news bulletins on TV and radio gave excitedly sympathetic coverage of the 'Pride March'. This included men and women dressed as witches, 'fairytale princesses' and some people wearing very little in the way of clothing. Each year, a mere handful of courageous Christians publicly protest against this event, with placards proclaiming truths from the Bible. Such people have been variously described on social media as 'miserable bigots' and an 'aging Christian hate mob'. 

A further demonstration of our cultural trajectory is provided by the fact that 'Liverpool Pride 2014' was supported by a number of key public organizations. Liverpool City Council sponsored the event and flew a rainbow flag from the roof of Liverpool Town Hall for the whole day. Merseyside Police not only sponsored the event, but had uniformed officers taking part in the march, whilst bearing rainbow flags and a 'Police with Pride' banner. They also provided an 'Out and Proud Officer,' who wrote a full-page article in the event's official brochure. Merseyside Fire and Rescue also sponsored the event and sent along a fire engine painted pink and given the nomenclature of 'Lilly'.

Other prominent sponsors, promoting the homosexualist ideology, included Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust; Merseytravel (which includes local bus, ferry and rail transport); Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority; Homes for Everyone (including various housing associations); Liverpool Football Club; and Radio City. Workers from various agencies took part in the march wearing rainbow T-shirts and coloured wigs.

The Archdiocese of Liverpool again maintained a conspicuous silence. This is so, even though 'Liverpool Pride' always incorporates the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King into it's cityscape and rainbow river logo. The House of God and Cathedra of the Archbishop are thus pictorially subsumed into cultural homosexualization without even a murmur to defend God, the Church, the Faith or morals. Where would Catholic - and other - employees of the sponsoring organizations find support to avoid going along with 'Liverpool Pride'?

And in the Church

A little further research reveals that the group calling themselves 'Quest' have historically promoted the 'interfaith celebration' during 'Liverpool Pride'. Quest is the group which dissents from the Magisterium of the Catholic Church in promoting an active homosexual lifestyle.

Mr. Terence Weldon - who describes himself on his blog 'Queering the Church' as 'Catholic, gay, partnered; a father and a grandfather' - posted a revealing article on the website of Quest on the 27th July.

Entitled Preparing for a ''Great Sea-Change'' for Gay and Lesbian Catholics, the article suggests that the papacy of Pope Francis: 'has offered also the prospect of some meaningful change in the position of lay-Catholics, in ministry if not (yet) in teaching.' 

Mr. Weldon speaks of a meeting in October 2013 between the chair and deputy chair of Quest with Archbishop (now Cardinal) Nichols. This meeting was held: 'to discuss the relationship between Quest and the institutional church.' Apparently the detail of this meeting 'has been confidential for now'. However, Cardinal Nichols is said to have suggested that Quest members might reflect on the Gospel story of the Road to Emmaus. Mr. Weldon sees this theme as: 'a useful point of reflection on the future relationship between Quest and the bishops.'

Mr. Weldon provides a link to an article on his blog entitled: 'The Road from Emmaus: Gay and Lesbian Prophetic Role.' Here Mr. Weldon promotes some writings from Michael B. Kelly. 

His article makes the shocking suggestion that it is right for 'LGBT Catholics' to turn their backs 'on the Jerusalem of the institutional Church,' which has 'rejected and hurt' them, and to head home to their 'own spaces' where they will 'meet Jesus'. The article suggests: 'Only when we invite him (sic) into our homes, into our private spaces, sharing a meal (or other refreshments?) will we recognise him' (sic).

It is then claimed that, having been filled with the knowledge and meaning of the Resurrection, the 'LGBT Catholics' are 'called to Jerusalem, to the institutional church'... to... 'proclaim to it's recognised leaders, the reality and full significance of the Resurrection: and they will finally hear the message from us, the gay and lesbian men and women they had previously rejected.'

Notice how - in direct opposition to the witness of Sacred Scripture and Tradition - this hermeneutic seeks Jesus Christ apart from His Church. The real Emmaus account reveals Jesus Christ at the heart of the Church in the Mass. Notice too, how this homosexualist reinterpretation seeks to supplant the Magisterium with the ideas of the sinful and wounded self. In reality, this kind of reading is not receptive exegesis at all, because that would require humble acceptance of the actual words of the sacred text. Instead, it is a post-modern imposition of ideology. As such, it is impious and throws up a cruel deception to all who may have been wounded by rejection and sin - their own sins and the sins of others - and yet who wish to repent and seek Christ and His Truth, Healing and Love. It is grace, repentance, the sacraments, true teaching, prayer and objective pastoral and moral support that are needed to find the freedom of the New Life in Christ. None of us can overcome our own sins. Much less can we save ourselves from them. The hallmark of the hermeneutic employed here, is a loss of the sense of sin. 

It is also worth noticing that the detail of the aforementioned meeting was confidential when Cardinal Nichols was still an Archbishop. Now the details are beginning to gradually emerge. The hermeneutic applied to the Emmaus story suggests that Quest is seeking to teach the 'recognised leaders of the institutional church,' who, it is claimed, 'will finally hear the message' from the self-proclaimed gays and lesbians... How timely this 'revelation' appears now that Cardinal Nichols is wearing the red silk and preparing for the October Synod.

As the October Synod approaches, it is not pride that any of us need, but humility, charity and chastity. Humble obedience - to God, to the Natural and Divine Law, and to the constant Tradition of the Church - is the true way to overcome the rebellion of Original and Actual Sin. 

May Our Lady of the Assumption pray for the Church and for each and all of us to reject sin and come to the fullness of truth in Jesus Christ.        

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Invoking the Holy Name of Jesus - The Simplest Way to Pray

Torch of The Faith News on Sunday 03 August 2014 - 22:37:59 | by admin

All of us struggle to pray at times. Some Catholics feel so overwhelmed by the troubles facing the Church and by their own sufferings that they find it particularly hard to pray. At times like this, it is good to stop everything and return to basics. Many Catholics today have never been taught that the most simple way to pray is to invoke the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

From the earliest times of the Church, the faithful have prayed the Holy Name of Jesus as a foundational devotion. In the Middle Ages, the devotion developed through the construction of special altars dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus. St. Bernardine of Siena (1380 - 1444) painted a wooden tablet with the Monogram of the Holy Name of Jesus - IHS - surrounded by the rays of the sun to help to spread the devotion far and wide. For long periods the loving invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus was an indulgenced prayer of the Church. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that: 'The invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the Holy Name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the Word and ''brings forth fruit with patience'' (Luke 8:15). This prayer is possible at all times because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus' (CCC 2668).

If you are finding it hard to pray; if you desire to draw closer to the Heart of Jesus; if you wish to make reparation for the atmosphere of blasphemy which prevails generally today; then simply praying the Holy Name of Jesus with love and devotion will help to honour Him and refresh your soul.

'All whatsoever you do, in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him' (Col 3:17).  

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Jesus Christ - Conqueror and King by Divine Right

Torch of The Faith News on Saturday 02 August 2014 - 15:28:27 | by admin

A couple of weeks ago, we recommended Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey's book 20 Holy Hours. He was a man dedicated to restoring the social reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To this end, he worked hard to draw families to the Sacred Heart through the Enthronement ceremony in homes. He met St. Pope Pius X, who wholeheartedly approved of Fr. Mateo's apostolate and 'commanded' him to devote his life to this magnificent work.

How prophetic these men were! They were blessed to see and to understand the dangerous trajectory of events and movements during their earthly lifetimes. In our day, an androcentric trajectory has become all pervasive. It is not only normative for most people, but has even been established as the only acceptable way to think and act. The result is that there are not many - even in the Church - who can see that, having scrambled to dethrone God, man himself will tumble from the shaky pedestal he has erected. Those with eyes to see are concerned that this fall may be as soon as it will be devastating.  

In the second Holy Hour in Fr. Mateo's book, we find the following prayer:-

'Adorable Master, there are so many conspirators who plot to blaspheme Your Name and for the public and social denial of Your divine Kingship!

Numerous also are those compromisers who condemn You by their hypocritical silence, those who disdain to pronounce Your Name, or what saddens You more, those who pretend not even to know You!

Lord, they do not consider You worthy of even a passing glance, but they strike Your adorable Face. You are not only an unknown, the phantom legend of the past, but they have the audacity to disregard You, in order to safeguard, they say, liberty of conscience and social peace, justice and the welfare of civilized nations on the march toward progress. You are condemned to banishment and death.

This shall not be, O King of Love, a thousand times no! Rather with You they will crucify us also! Adorable Jesus, behold this phalanx of friends drawing its ranks closer around our threatened Master Who presides over this Cenacle. Vivified by the fire of a new Pentecost - that of the divine Eucharist, we protest against this legal deicide of our times.

Fired with ardent zeal for the glory of Your cause, we proclaim You in the face of Your enemies, Conqueror of Light and King of Love!

And since You are Conqueror and King by divine right, since You are a faithful God, we will not leave here until You have again promised us Your victory - that victory already promised to armies whose battlecry is: ''Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdome come!'' O yes, Jesus-Saviour, You will reign over us and You alone Jesus Crucified!'

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Aug 1st: Day of Prayer, Adoration and Solidarity for Persecuted Christians in Iraq, Syria and Middle East

Torch of The Faith News on Friday 01 August 2014 - 13:04:47 | by admin

Today is the day chosen by the FSSP (Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter) for a worldwide day of Public Adoration of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in supplication for our persecuted brethren in Iraq, Syria and the Middle East. This initiative has been embraced by Catholics all around the globe.

If you cannot make it to Eucharistic Adoration, please join in prayer in some other way. The Rosary and Angelus would be powerful ways to join with this hugely important initiative.

Last Saturday, Neville Kyrke-Smith, UK Director of Aid to the Church in Need, addressed the large crowd near Parliament, who were praying and demonstrating in solidarity with Iraqi Christians suffering from persecution by ISIS. Here he is with a couple of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and some lay supporters.

Mr. Kyrke-Smith asked: 'What is our government doing about this and how are they responding? Whether we like to admit it or not - this country's government has over the years laid the foundations for such a situation to arise. Now the government seems incapable or unwilling to help Christians and others suffering and dying at the hands of ISIS.'

On the Aid to the Church in Need website, Mr. Kyrke-Smith notes: 'Perhaps, for a start, we could make sure that every parish here has a prayer at Mass this Sunday for all those expelled from their ancient homeland for their faith, and for peace in the Middle East. If we do not stand up for Christians in a city where they have followed Christ for 1,600 years, how will anyone help us when the attacks on us become more physical? Addressing nearly 1,000 Iraqis and ACN supporters opposite the Houses of Parliament on Saturday was a haunting experience - I had the feeling that what is happening in our biblical, historical homeland could easily happen here before long. Now is the time to stand up for our faith and the right to believe.'

We met Neville a few years ago in Liverpool. He is a very balanced, calm and widely travelled gentleman. His years with ACN have taken him to many places, where the Church both suffers and prospers, around the world. When a man of his calibre and experience starts talking like this, you need to sit up, pay attention and act.

Please do pray today for the suffering Christians of Iraq, Syria and the Middle East; and remember to say a prayer for the protection of the rights of the Church, here in the West.

'Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me' (Matthew 25:40).  

Keep the Faith!    

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The Thirst of Jesus Christ

Torch of The Faith News on Thursday 31 July 2014 - 00:13:30 | by admin

To love Jesus Christ and His Church is to long for His public reign. To love Him means that His interests are our interests. This is the way of love. And what is at the heart of Jesus' interests? We know the answer to this from His words on the Cross: ''I Thirst!'' He thirsts for souls. If we truly love Him, and love our neighbour for His sake, then we desire to assuage His thirst by bringing souls to Him. In turn, they find that their own thirst - the thirst which only God can quench - is satisfied. To love Him, and to love our neighbour, is to bring Him souls. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church expresses a beautiful teaching on the thirst of Jesus for souls - and their thirst for Him - in CCC 2560: 'If you knew the gift of God! The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is He Who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; His asking arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for Him.'

How thirsty God is for souls in our times! And how thirsty souls are for Him.

Our Lady of Quito, in the Church-approved private revelations to Mother Mariana, in early 17th Century Equador, said that our present times would be a frivolous age and few would save their souls.

How sobering that is to our ears in a post-modern cultural milieu. And yet, how starkly obvious.

The Darkness of These Times.

This has not been an easy day for those who love the Lord and His Holy Church. Most days are not in these times. There are not too many laughs in the news these days for those who love God. Most readers will be only too aware of the unopposed slaughter and mass-displacement of Christians in Iraq by Muslim radicals; the under-reported killing of Catholics in numerous church bombings and shootings by Islamists in Nigeria; the fact that Christians are being brutally beaten by policemen in China because they refuse to remove crosses from public view on their churches; the apocalyptic dangers developing in Ukraine and in Gaza. The mainstream media reports about schools being bombed in Gaza, but fails to mention that one was a Catholic school named after the Holy Family. They also ignore the news of a Christian home being decimated by a shell which killed a lady of 60 years of age. As an innocent and suffering child wept today: 'What has any of this to do with us?'  

Here in the West, there is the constant slump into post-Christian nihilism, with it's own attendant dangers for freedom of speech; and perhaps ultimately for freedom of worship. Last week, Barack Obama signed an executive order which will force Christian employers to comply with so-called LGBT-rights. The US Conference of Bishops stated that Catholics 'will not comply.' The situation, already troubling for Christians as the HHS Mandate saga continues, is becoming positively dangerous. Today we also heard about Bob Eschliman getting sacked from his job as editor-in-chief of Iowa's Newton Daily News. Mr. Eschliman had objected, on his own personal blog, to the issuing of a 'Queen James Bible' which has been published as a pro-homosexualist re-writing of the Bible.

We also heard this morning about another Orwellian development relating to the spreading acceptance of Euthanasia in Europe. Lithuania's 'Health Minister' made the disgraceful proposal, on national television, that terminally ill poor people, who cannot afford palliative care, should be given the 'option' of lethal injection, in order to prevent them from seeing 'their families agonize' over their suffering. This 'Health Minister' also suggested that Belgium's new law on child euthanasia should be 'taken into account.' Thankfully Fr. Andrius Narbekovas, a prominent priest, lecturer and bioethicist on the Lithuanian bioethics committee, has described these suggestions as 'satanic'. 

The diabolical disorientation is what is most disturbing to Catholics with their eyes and ears open.

Contemporary Churchmen: Keeping Jesus and Souls Thirsty 

How few souls today find the living water of Jesus Christ and His Church! How many fail to hear the truth when papal interviews and visits give the impression that Jesus Christ and His Church - with all Her holy Liturgy, Dogma, Morals and Prayer - are not necessary for salvation and sanctification. To Jews and Muslims, the impression is being given that Jesus Christ and the Blessed Trinity are not necessary; to Evangelical and Anglican Protestants, the notion that the Catholic Church is not necessary; to atheists, the idea that God is not necessary. How cruel a deception to keep Jesus and these people thirsting for one another. Is this love? 

With Friends Like These ...

How disturbing it is to learn that Eugenio Scalfari, the Pope's friend and favoured interlocutor, is not only an atheist, but also a co-founder of the anti-clericalist Radical Party of 1955, and was a leading voice in the drive to legalize abortion and divorce in Italy.

Which disciple of Christ can fail to be gutted by the news that Cardinal Claudio Hummes, a very close friend of Pope Francis, has said that he does not know whether or not Jesus would approve of 'gay marriage'?

Can any true Catholic fail to be concerned that the author of the Fides et Forma blog, which has been strongly critical of the year-long persecution of the traditionalist-leaning Franciscans of the Immaculate, has been investigated by the police at the behest of Church authorities? 

Dorothy, at the blog An Honour and a Responsibility, has painstakingly translated an Italian article from Corrispondenza Romana. The original article, by Emmanuele Barbieri, deals with the identity of Mario Castellano; one of the 'consultants' on the team policing the Franciscans of the Immaculate.

The Italian article suggests that Castellano is a man with an interesting history, a 'Cathocommunist' past in Imperia; alleged affiliation to the Grand Orient of San Remo; collaboration on esoteric and pro-Islamic blogs; the writing of articles supporting the rights of Muslims in Italy, multiculturalism, and an adjustment of Italian law to the rights of Muslims; describing the presence of Mosques in Italy as 'a factor of stability and security'; evidence of sympathy for the Italian statesman Cavour - whose anti-clericalism was influenced by English-style Freemasonry; evidence of sympathy for the schismatic priests of the French Revolution. Developments in the Church read more and more like a Malachi Martin novel every day.

A Frivolous Age Indeed

This is indeed a frivolous age, and few save their souls. Catholic cathedrals in Europe have been opened up for Shintos, Suffis and women riding around the aisles on circus horses. In Madrid, a priest 'in good standing' tucks up his chasuble during Mass to dance around with Flamenco women. In Mantua, young people crowd into the cathedral for an evening of rap music with disco lights and a girl dancing ballet. Up in Scotland, the Commonwealth Games are opened by Queen Elizabeth II, with a ceremony that includes a very public homosexual kiss. On Merseyside, tens of thousands of people queue in intense heat to witness giant statues of an old lady and a little girl 'breaking wind' and 'urinating' publicly in the main streets. On Sundays, the shopping centres and outdoor markets of Europe and North America ring to the clatter of coins, whilst churches fall increasingly empty. In Montreal, over in Canada, one church closes from falling numbers every single week. The image of Hell which Our Lady of Fatima showed the three little seers is a shocking wake-up call for Catholics and all people today. In that vision, souls were falling into Hell like snowflakes. In Hell, there is an eternal thirst in an eternal fire.

Our Lady of Quito warned that Freemasonry would become dominant, that all would seem lost for the Church, and that this is when the triumph for Jesus Christ and the Church will come. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich saw revelations of the 'Illuminati' in Rome building a false new Church in harmony with the world. This will collapse and leave behind Our Lady, the Altar and the remnant to rebuild the One, True, Catholic and Apostolic Church. At Fatima, Our Lady promised: 'In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph.'

Let Jesus Quench Your Thirst

Dear readers, let us use these times to draw closer to Jesus Christ. Let Him console you as you console Him. Be the quenching of His thirst, by giving Him your soul. And in this, allow Him to quench your thirst. 

Remember: 'Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we might thirst for Him' (St. Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus; CCC 2560).

Keep the Faith: He who perseveres to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13). 

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Pope Leo XIII on the Overthrow of the Religious and Political Order of the World

Torch of The Faith News on Tuesday 29 July 2014 - 10:23:48 | by admin

'At this period, however, the partisans of evil seem to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons. No longer making any secret of their purposes, they are now boldly rising up against God Himself. They are planning the destruction of holy Church publicly and openly, and this with the set purpose of despoiling utterly the nations of Christendom, if it were possible, of the blessings obtained for us through Jesus Christ our Saviour'... 'that which is their ultimate purpose forces itself into view - namely, the utter overthrow of that political and religious order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of things in accordance with their ideas, of which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere naturalism.'

Pope Leo XIII, Humanum Genus (HG 2; 10), 1884.        

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