News Item: : 2016: Amoris Laetitia et Annus Horribilis
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Saturday 31 December 2016 - 21:13:35

8 April, 2016: Cardinals Baldisseri and Schonborn ''selling'' Amoris Laetitia to the world's media with a smile. I don't know about you but, after the way they've been behaving, I wouldn't even buy a used car from these two relativistic princes.  

In recent times, our annual New Year's Eve articles have included some commentary and reflection on a number of apocalyptic events that had occurred during the previous twelve months; together with a positive and urgent call to repentance and a sincere living-out of the Fatima message.

There is no doubt that the year ''2016'' has been forever pummelled into the very souls of orthodox Catholics by the release of Amoris Laetitia and all that has followed in its wake. In so many ways, it has caused 2016 to be an annus horribilis for the Church.

Perhaps there is no need to rehearse all of that again this evening.

Suffice it to say that, as the secular world dizzily prepares to celebrate the start of another New Year, the Church teeters at the very brink of a metaphorical, and in some sense a metaphysical, precipice.

Whatever seeming cracks may be appearing in the logistical movements of the 4 cardinals, those Dubia need answering; and they are not going to go away.

We will personally remember 2016 as a year marked by cracks and divisions.

Whilst there is a sense in which there was a world before Amoris Laetitia and a world after it, it is more truly the case that this diabolical saga has not so much sundered those two worlds, as it has further opened the dreadful splits that have already been opening up, between orthodox Catholicism and dressed-up heresy, for at least five decades. 

In one way, it is good to see such splits finally being acknowledged. At least now they are undeniable; and can no longer be covered up by a seemingly ''open'' conservatism.

When St. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote his powerful treatise Adversus Haereses against the heresies of Gnosticism, around the year 180 AD, the lines of demarcation were at once made very clear. Everyone knew exactly where they stood, or else needed to stand.

On the other hand, the more painful splits this year have been felt when some orthodox priests and people, even those who share our serious concerns about Amoris Laetitia, have sought to distance themselves from us in order to protect themselves.

It seems that, in the year 2016, we have become too outspoken even for some of the orthodox who we support, and who formerly supported us...

The very fact that such people feel the need to be protected says everything that one needs to know about the present regime; which is so clearly undermining orthodoxy, and the orthodox, everywhere.

At times like this, I often think of Benjamin Franklin's line, ''we must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang seperately.''

Another kind of crack caught the world's attention for a brief moment on 30th October when - just one day before Pope Francis headed off to Lund to ''commemorate'' the arch-heresiarch Martin Luther - the ancient Basilica at Norcia, and many other ancient churches and homes in the town and surrounding area, were devastated by a very powerful earthquake.

A 'quake that was so strong that people in Rome not only felt it, but fled their beds in fear for their lives...

One of the most remarkable happenings this year, and one which well expresses the gravity of these times in which all sense of sin has been lost, was the fact that the respected theologian, Fr. Giovanni Cavalcoli OP, was suspended from Radio Maria and rebuked by Pope Francis' assistant Secretary of State, Archbishop Angelo Becciu.

Fr. Cavalcoli's only ''offence'' was to have suggested, in perfect continuity with centuries of Church teaching, that the devastating earthquakes could be understood as, ''divine punishment for the offence to the family and the dignity of marriage, in particular through (homosexual) civil partnerships.''

Fr. Giovanni Cavalcoli OP: He imparted Catholic teaching and suffered rebuke and suspension for doing so...

It will be remembered that Italy had only passed a new law approving homosexual civil partnerships on 23rd July this year. The first earthquake struck Norcia one month later on 24th August. This turned out to be only a most unusual ''fore-shock'' to the massive quake that shook Norcia, and all of Italy, on 30th October.

Archbishop Angelo Beccui publicly demonstrated his own lack of knowledge of Catholic doctrine when he claimed that Fr. Cavalcoli's words were not in accordance with the Gospel or the theology of the Church, that they offended believers and scandalized non-believers, and that they were somehow contrary to the ''vision of God offered to us by Christ''.

Fr. Cavalcoli, may God bless him, responded forcefully: ''I reaffirm everything... From a theological point of view, these disasters are the result of Original Sin... We are in the presence of a divine punishment for the sins of man... and two men together represent a sin against nature... Earthquakes are provoked by the sins of men, such as civil unions. Read the Catechism. I have been a doctor of theology for 30 years... and I repeat that sins like homosexuality deserve divine retribution, which can be manifested in earthquakes.''

It's funny, but I remember the days when I was still a Protestant looking into Catholicism, and thinking that the Catholic Church's teaching as regards disasters, and their relationship to temporal punishment for sin, actually made more sense of the universe and the possibility of belief in the presence of a loving God.

Without an understanding of the Fall, Sin and Redemption, in a universe where God brings forth a greater good from the evils that we have really brought on ourselves, then all one is left with is a meaningless nihilistic void that is fraught with fearful and overwhelming disasters.

How is any of that more comforting than the Catholic conception and invitation to trust in Divine Providence?

One of the most striking aspects of this whole affair, which most of the media also overlooked, was the response Fr. Cavalcoli gave about the Vatican in the days of Francis, when he was finally suspended from Radio Maria.

Pointing to Masonic infiltration in the Vatican, Fr. Cavalcoli reflected: ''I worked there but today I bitterly see how everything has changed... Satan has entered the Church for some time and into the Vatican itself.''

Asked if he would apologise for his words, Fr. Cavalcoli replied: ''I don't think so and I confirm everything I said. If any apology should be made, it should be to Catholics for the re-evaluation of Luther and the confusion this has created.''

Listen those who have ears to hear: The Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls has long been used as a centre for ecumenism. On the day before Pope Francis' visit to ''commemorate'' the heretic Martin Luther in Lund, this ancient church was physically split by the same earthquake which devastated Norcia.

The visit of Francis to ''commemorate'' the arch-heresiarch Luther was itself an apocalyptic event of unprecedented magnitute. So too, was the fact that Francis stood alongside an effigy of the same heretic, before a large audience of Lutherans, on the very anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima's apparition and publicly witnessed Miracle of the Sun.

In a sense this brings us full circle.

2017 will mark the 100th anniversary of the apocalyptic events at Fatima, the 500th anniversary of the heretical Lutheran revolt and the 300th anniversary of the emergence of Freemasonry...

We conclude this New Year's Eve reflection by again calling readers to place all of their hope in Our Lord and Our Lady; and to live the Fatima message by practicing the First Saturdays Devotion every month in 2017. Only with Jesus and Our Lady can be victory be assured.

We are undoubtedly living through extremely tough times for the Church and for orthodox Catholics. Nevertheless, let us go forward in hope with the words we highlighted this time last year from 1 Peter 1:6-7: Wherein you shall greatly rejoice, if now you must for a little time be made sorrowful in diverse temptations: That the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, you love: in Whom also now, though you see Him not, you believe: and believing shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

As 2016 draws to a close, let us pray for one another to Keep the Faith! 

Our Lady of Fatima - Pray for us!

---

This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1514 )