Practical Catholic=Practical Schism

Knightly Salute to Cavey,
I never liked this phrase, and wish that the Order would change their standard to being a Traditional Catholic, not Practical.
Part One

Part Two

New win for the Latin Mass

(Telegraph) - Good news from Rome: the Vatican has further underlined the freedom of priests to celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form whenever they choose. Two important points have been clarified by Ecclesia Dei, which will make it more difficult for the English, Welsh and above all Scottish bishops to stall the implementation of Summorum Pontificum:1. A priest does NOT have to be approached by a “stable group” of the faithful in order to schedule a PUBLIC celebration of the Extraordinary Form – he may choose to do so, for example, in order to introduce his parishioners to this ancient form of the Roman Rite. Or because it’s his aunt’s birthday. Any reason, really.2. A Mass in the Extraordinary Form may replace a regularly scheduled Mass in the Ordinary Form.You can find more details of the Ecclesia Dei ruling here, on the excellent New Liturgical Movement blog....

Thank God for our Holy Father! While rebel priests and bishops from all over the western world seek new ways to twist canon law and thwart the pope's will, the Vatican has now ruled the following. Any Roman Rite Catholic priest may celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass (Tridentine mass, Extraordinary Form or Usus Antiquior) or "Ancient Use" at any time, whenever he wants, for any reason, or no particular reason at all. It can be done privately (with or without guests), or publicly, and it may replace any ordinary mass at any time. The one and only requirement is that the priest be competent to celebrate it, and there are many means through which a priest may attain competency, either through training videos or short workshops.

Pope Benedict XVI has effectively given the Usus Antiquior ("Ancient Use") just as much freedom in the modern Church as the ordinary modern mass. This freedom will prove essential to younger priests, just coming out of the seminaries, who tend to be more traditional in their liturgical practices, and will immediately be confronted by retro-1970s priests serving as rectors, chancellors and bishops. The retro-1970s clergy tend to express an open hostility toward the Usus Antiquior and/or anything having to do with traditional liturgical practices.

That "pressure" may still be there, but the "power" of these retro-1970s throwbacks to do any harm has now been significantly diminished. Young priests, fresh out of the seminaries, can now offer the Usus Antiquior whenever they want, and while they may incur the frowns and glares of their superiors, there is nothing they can lawfully do to stop them anymore. This most recent act by the Vatican signifies that the retro-1970s post-conciliar neopriests are now finally being put out to pasture.

So now there should be no excuses offered. Obey His Holiness, or else! All the Excuses have been eliminated, all the barriers are sent tumbling to the ground! Deo Gratias!
St. Michael the Archangel, Pray for us!

Abortion Remains Obstacle in Health Care Legislation

Oblasphemer, the President of our illustrious nation still doesn't get the message or fails to hear the cry of the people of this nation who have the common sense and the understanding of the preciousness of Life!

From Wall Street Journal: **Emphasis mine**
By LAURA MECKLER
Many obstacles need to be cleared if the Democrats are to pass their health-care legislation, but one of the toughest will be the persistent issue of abortion. ( It is plain and clear what the solution is so just do it!)

Abortion was one of the final matters to be resolved in December when the Senate created its version of the health-care bill, with a carefully crafted compromise that left neither side in the debate happy. If a final bill is to clear the House, Democrats will have to find a way to finesse the problem again. One idea being floated involves inserting more-restrictive language later into a spending bill. (Finesse? Or you mean BS the public and in essence ignore God's law thereby BS'n God! Wow! Oblasphemer indeed!)

At issue is whether health-insurance policies people would buy with federal subsidies established by the legislation could offer abortion coverage. (Legislation should protect life, liberty and pursuit of happiness not take it away from an innocent and defenseless being) When the House debated its health bill last year, antiabortion Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.) won language prohibiting insurers from selling plans that cover abortion to any person receiving the subsidies. With their votes, the bill passed 220-215 (Good Guys 1, Oblasphemer 0).

The Senate language is less restrictive. It allows insurers to offer abortion coverage as long as customers write a separate check to pay for it, an exercise meant to assure that no federal money goes toward abortion services. That provision was a compromise aimed at satisfying Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the last Democratic holdout.

But Mr. Stupak said the Senate version left too big a loophole, while abortion-rights supporters argued that in practice, it would be too cumbersome for insurance companies to collect separate checks and they wouldn't cover abortion at all. (Health insurance is to ensure health, right? Abortion ends life, right? Is everybody seeing this?)

At this stage, Democrats' last-ditch effort to save the overall health-care bill must work with the Senate provision.

The path toward passing the bill, given united Republican opposition, goes this way: The House passes the Senate bill, and both sides then approve alterations using a process known as reconciliation, which requires a simple majority in the Senate. Reconciliation can only be used for matters that relate to the federal budget, and abortion doesn't qualify. Thus, the Senate version would stand. (They are going to need Reconcilliation, offered by Holy Mother Church, lest they just fancy the fires of Hell. I'm just saying, it's really hot down there!!)

On Monday, Mr. Stupak called the Senate abortion language "unacceptable." House leaders believe there is a good chance he will vote against the final bill. Democrats estimate that roughly 10 other lawmakers could follow Mr. Stupak's lead, or perhaps more. (abortion is unacceptable period! End of discussion. There is no room for compromise)

To make up for any lost votes, Democrats would need to pick up support from Democrats who voted against the original House measure for reasons unrelated to abortion—either the few liberals who thought that bill was too conservative or the conservatives who thought it was too liberal.

It is also possible Mr. Stupak could be brought on board. One idea being discussed, according to leadership aides, is for congressional leaders to promise to impose new abortion restrictions on the use of federal subsidies through one of the annual spending bills. Mr. Stupak hasn't ruled out a solution along those lines


St. Michael the Archangel, Pray for us and the U.S.!

Iraqi Christian leaders plead for government protection in Mosul

Very sad News from Catholic World News:
Church leaders in Iraq have issued a statement demanding government action to end a campaign of violence against Christians in Mosul. A joint message from Catholic and Orthodox prelates calls attention to "a premeditated plan to place pressure on Christian Churches, to achieve a certain agenda." Decrying the failure of government officials to take effective action despite five execution-style murders within a week, the Church leaders said that the lack of security creates "the impression that we are unwanted in this city, which is our homeland."

"We need international intervention to push the central and local government to act immediately,” Archbishop Georges Casmoussa of Mosul told the Fides news service.


Simple Solution: Massive Crusade!!!!

Pope's Lenten Message for 2010

"The Justice of God Has Been Manifested Through Faith in Jesus Christ"



VATICAN CITY, FEB. 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is Benedict XVI's message for Lent, which was published today by the Vatican press office. The message has as its theme: "The Justice of God Has Been Manifested Through Faith in Jesus Christ."

Lent begins Feb. 17.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Each year, on the occasion of Lent, the Church invites us to a sincere review of our life in light of the teachings of the Gospel. This year, I would like to offer you some reflections on the great theme of justice, beginning from the Pauline affirmation: "The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ" (cf. Rm 3, 21-22).

Justice: "dare cuique suum"

First of all, I want to consider the meaning of the term "justice," which in common usage implies "to render to every man his due," according to the famous expression of Ulpian, a Roman jurist of the third century. In reality, however, this classical definition does not specify what "due" is to be rendered to each person. What man needs most cannot be guaranteed to him by law. In order to live life to the full, something more intimate is necessary that can be granted only as a gift: we could say that man lives by that love which only God can communicate since He created the human person in His image and likeness. Material goods are certainly useful and required – indeed Jesus Himself was concerned to heal the sick, feed the crowds that followed Him and surely condemns the indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine – yet "distributive" justice does not render to the human being the totality of his "due." Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God. Saint Augustine notes: if "justice is that virtue which gives every one his due ... where, then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God?" (De civitate Dei, XIX, 21).

What is the Cause of Injustice?

The Evangelist Mark reports the following words of Jesus, which are inserted within the debate at that time regarding what is pure and impure: "There is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him … What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts" (Mk 7, 14-15, 20-21). Beyond the immediate question concerning food, we can detect in the reaction of the Pharisees a permanent temptation within man: to situate the origin of evil in an exterior cause. Many modern ideologies deep down have this presupposition: since injustice comes "from outside," in order for justice to reign, it is sufficient to remove the exterior causes that prevent it being achieved. This way of thinking – Jesus warns – is ingenuous and shortsighted. Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation with evil. With bitterness the Psalmist recognises this: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps 51,7). Indeed, man is weakened by an intense influence, which wounds his capacity to enter into communion with the other.

By nature, he is open to sharing freely, but he finds in his being a strange force of gravity that makes him turn in and affirm himself above and against others: this is egoism, the result of original sin. Adam and Eve, seduced by Satan’s lie, snatching the mysterious fruit against the divine command, replaced the logic of trusting in Love with that of suspicion and competition; the logic of receiving and trustfully expecting from the Other with anxiously seizing and doing on one’s own (cf. Gn 3, 1-6), experiencing, as a consequence, a sense of disquiet and uncertainty. How can man free himself from this selfish influence and open himself to love?

Justice and Sedaqah

At the heart of the wisdom of Israel, we find a profound link between faith in God who "lifts the needy from the ash heap" (Ps 113,7) and justice towards one’s neighbor. The Hebrew word itself that indicates the virtue of justice, sedaqah, expresses this well. Sedaqah, in fact, signifies on the one hand full acceptance of the will of the God of Israel; on the other hand, equity in relation to one’s neighbour (cf. Ex 20, 12-17), especially the poor, the stranger, the orphan and the widow (cf. Dt 10, 18-19). But the two meanings are linked because giving to the poor for the Israelite is none other than restoring what is owed to God, who had pity on the misery of His people. It was not by chance that the gift to Moses of the tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai took place after the crossing of the Red Sea. Listening to the Law presupposes faith in God who first "heard the cry" of His people and "came down to deliver them out of hand of the Egyptians" (cf. Ex 3,8). God is attentive to the cry of the poor and in return asks to be listened to: He asks for justice towards the poor (cf. Sir 4,4-5, 8-9), the stranger (cf. Ex 22,20), the slave (cf. Dt 15, 12-18). In order to enter into justice, it is thus necessary to leave that illusion of self-sufficiency, the profound state of closure, which is the very origin of injustice. In other words, what is needed is an even deeper "exodus" than that accomplished by God with Moses, a liberation of the heart, which the Law on its own is powerless to realize. Does man have any hope of justice then?

Christ, the Justice of God

The Christian Good News responds positively to man’s thirst for justice, as Saint Paul affirms in the Letter to the Romans: "But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (3, 21-25).

What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. The fact that "expiation" flows from the "blood" of Christ signifies that it is not man’s sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the loving act of God who opens Himself in the extreme, even to the point of bearing in Himself the "curse" due to man so as to give in return the "blessing" due to God (cf. Gal 3, 13-14). But this raises an immediate objection: what kind of justice is this where the just man dies for the guilty and the guilty receives in return the blessing due to the just one? Would this not mean that each one receives the contrary of his "due"? In reality, here we discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different from its human counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in His Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross, man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need – the need of others and God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship. So we understand how faith is altogether different from a natural, good-feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to accept that I need Another to free me from "what is mine," to give me gratuitously "what is His." This happens especially in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thanks to Christ’s action, we may enter into the "greatest" justice, which is that of love (cf. Rm 13, 8-10), the justice that recognises itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it has received more than could ever have been expected.

Strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to creating just societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love.

Dear brothers and sisters, Lent culminates in the Paschal Triduum, in which this year, too, we shall celebrate divine justice – the fullness of charity, gift, salvation. May this penitential season be for every Christian a time of authentic conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ, who came to fulfill every justice. With these sentiments, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 30 October 2009

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Only a Catholic State will stop Islamization

Here is an interesting video I found in reference to Europe's crisis, but it will also apply to us and the entire world.

REFORM CCHD NOW!

DON'T LET YOUR MONEY WORK AGAINST THE CHURCH! STOP THIS ANTI-CATHOLIC HERETICAL MONSTROCITY NOW!

SIGN THE PETITION....

VISIT:
http://www.realcatholictv.net/usccbscandal/petition.php

Bishop Slattery on Ad Orientam

Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has recently returned to the practice of saying Holy Mass ad orientam in his cathedral. In the diocesan periodical he gave an excellent little catechesis on the merits of ad orientam and why the Church ought to return to this posture. Bishop Slattery said:



"From ancient times, in the celebration of the Mass, everyone - celebrant and congregation - faced the same direction, since they were united with Christ in offering to the Father Christ's unique, unrepeatable and acceptable sacrifice. When we study the most ancient liturgical practices of the Church, we find that the priest and people faced in the same direction, usually toward the east, in expectation that when Christ returns, He will return 'from the east.' At Mass, the Church keeps vigil, waiting for that return. This single position is called ad orientam, which simply means 'toward the east.'

Having the priest and people celebrate Mass ad orientam was the liturgical norm for nearly 18 centuries. There must have been solid reasons for the Church to have held on to this posture for so long. And there were! First of all, the Catholic liturgy has always maintained a marvelous adherence to the Apostolic Tradition. We see the Mass, indeed the whole liturgical expression of the Church's life, as something which we have received from the Apostles and which we, in turn, are expected to hand on intact (1 Cor. 11:23).

Secondly, the Church held on to this single eastward position because of the sublime way it reveals the nature of the Mass. Even someone unfamiliar with the Mass who reflected upon the celebrant and the faithful being oriented in the same direction would recognize that the priest stands at the head of the people, sharing in one and the same action, which was-he would note with a moment's longer reflection - and act of worship.

In the last 40 years, however, this shared orientation was lost...The priest faces the people while the people face the priest, even though the Eucharistic Prayer is directed to the Father and not to the people. Unfortunately, this change had a number of unforeseen and largely negative effects. First of all, it was a serious rupture with the Church's ancient tradition. Secondly, it gave the appearance that the priest and the people were engaged with a conversation about God rather than the worship of God. Thirdly, it places an inordinate importance on the personality of the celebrant by placing him on a kind of liturgical stage.

Even before his election as the successor to St. Peter, Pope Benedict has been urging us to draw upon the ancient liturgical practices of the Church to recover a more authentic Catholic worship. For that reason, I have restored the venerable ad orientam position when I celebrate Mass at the Cathedral.

This change ought no to be misconstrued as the Bishop 'turning his back on the faithful,' as if I am being inconsiderate or hostile. Such an interpretation misses the point that, by facing in the same direction, the posture of the celebrant and the congregation make explicit the fact that we journey together to God. Priest and people are on the pilgrimage together.

It would also be a mistaken notion to look at the recovery of this ancient tradition as a mere 'turning back of the clock,'...His Holiness wants us to discover what underlies this ancient tradition and made it viable for so many centuries, namely, the Church's understanding that the worship of the Mass is primarily and essentially the worship which Christ offers to His Father."

The Prayer of St. Michael Explained

Knightly salute to my brother Cavey, as St. Michael is one of my favorite Patron Saints.

Here is a link to an explination of the St. Michael Prayer

http://catholic-caveman.blogspot.com/2010/01/prayer-to-st.html#links

New Blog Series

To better streamline the council's blog, I have created a new blog to supplement this one. It is titled Rector Pro Fidelis Miles Militis: A Knight's Guide this will serve as a compilation of my life's research and study of Knighthood and Chivalry and serves as a guide to being a Catholic Knight. I have posted the link below but the blog is also on my blog list on the sidebar to the right of this post.

Please enjoy!

http://guideforcatholicknights.blogspot.com/

Letter to Te Deum Foundation

Office of the Grand Knight 1720 McCall Dr., Stedman, NC 28391
Fr. Michael Irwin Council 9001, Dunn, NC
www.kofc9001dunn-nc.blogspot.com


President
Te Deum Foundation
Mrs. Wilhelmina S. Mobley
2767 London Lane
Winston-Salem, NC 27103

Dear President Wilhelmina S. Mobley,

My Lady, thank you for your request of support from Council 9001. We are a Council of loyal and faithful knights of Holy Mother Church and to the Holy Father and to the Traditional teachings of the Magisterium of Holy Mother Church; as should be expected of Catholic Knights and Gentlemen, the world over. We are also a Council that is steadfast in the traditions of Holy Mother Church, in particular the promulgation of the Traditional Latin Mass as set out by Holy Father’s Motu Proprio. We strive to make known the treasures of Catholicism in order to combat the acceleration of secularism, especially as it attempts to creep into Holy Mother Church as foretold by Our Lady of Akita.

With this being said, we would like to inquire as to if the proposed seminary will indeed offer instruction on the Latin mass to the seminarians and offer on a regular basis the Latin Mass. As you are aware of our support of Holy Mother Church and Her Priests and future priests, we have also been called to support her treasure: The Traditional Latin Mass. We pray that you would consider supporting the same.



Deus vult,


Sir Knight Pepe G. S. Aguilar,
Grand Knight
Knight of Columbus
Fr. Michael Irwin Council 9001
Sacred Heart Parish
Dunn, North Carolina








Fidei Defensor