The Coming Persecution

Michael Voris, never known to mince words, has declared that there is a coming persecution in this country the likes of which we have never seen. It will come to the point that many people will be given the choice to either follow Christ to their temporal detriment or reject Christ to their temporal success. Catholics already are the first and will always be the main target.

Yes, many of us have known this for quite some time. (For the record, I am not affiliated with RealCatholicTV and RealCatholicTV is not affiliated with me.)

The persecution already began some time ago and it will continue and will grow, as Michael Voris predicts. One point that Voris misses is that the homosexual rights movement is not completely about homosexual rights, it is about cloning and embryonic stem cell research. [However, he does touch on this on his excellent follow-up about contraception] When you have two woman legally married, you have all the legal and biological structures in place to engage in cloning and embryonic stem cell research and that means money and lots of it in research grants, etc. It also means the ability to fall into the temptation to "Be Like Gods" creating life as humans want even designing children right up to their IQ's.

Abortion is really about sacrificing children in the name of future prosperity and it is a practice that is either before or after birth that is as old as humanity itself. Indeed, in the movie, The Passion of the Christ based on Sister Anne Catherine Emmerick's visions, those children that chase after Judas represent the children sacrificed to idols when the Jews adopted the pagan practices of their neighbors.

The problem is that these such movements will fail but not until they create great disasters and leave a trail of death and destruction especially the human kind. However, what to keep in mind is that Mary told the three shepherd children in Fatima that in the end her Immaculate Heart will triumph.

I know Michael Voris does put much blame of this on the US bishops. Well, I will leave the blaming to him, my question is what to do. The answer is to pray and to pray hard, a request by Cardinal Sean O'Malley. It is also to seek to live your faith daily as a disciple of Christ. Be rooted in Christ and live for him everyday. If you are looking for a model to follow, consider St. Patrick's Breastplate.

If you are looking for a bible verse to guide you, then check out Romans 1:18ff. If you look carefully, it denotes the source of all of our problems. When a society turns from Christ then it slowly decays until it collapses into passion driven anarchy. So you will have a choice, follow Christ in trust that He is leading you where you belong or seek the ways of the world and be successful for a time until there is a total collapse.

Monsignor Jonas Abib, founder of Canção Nova, warns that the Church must suffer as did Christ on the cross and yes that time is coming. Are you going to embrace your cross or embrace all the temporal goods the world can give you?

The reality is that we have been here before. Mr. Voris complains about people who do not live their faith serving the Church. There is nothing new under the sun. If you read the eighth chapter of Ezekiel you will find a similar situation. Leaders of the Jewish people were secretly serving other gods in the thought that they had been forgotten by the God of Israel. Meanwhile, God warns Ezekiel that He is aware of every action done in secret that is bringing destruction on his people.

The warning signs to the people then were there. The warning signs to us now are here. How do we respond?

Stay close to the sacraments. Pray and pray hard and be focused on Christ. Yes, there are times a-coming that will be difficult, but remain close to prayer and seek to grow in holiness and eternity is our reward. It is something that God says we gain with holy perseverance and not in any other way. The evil one will do everything he can to get us to turn from God and to give-up. He is after all the prince of darkness and St. Paul reminds us that we are children of the light and of the day.(1 Thess 5:5) Therefore, the prince of darkness will do all he can to extinguish your light. But Be still and know that God is God.(Psalm 46:10) Pray, hope, trust, repent, believe and act in prayerful Catholic holiness. God our Father is the ultimate victor always. Ezekiel knew that before the Babylonian exile happened. We can know that too.

Michael is right about the coming persecution. I don't agree with him on everything, but there are times he hits it right out of the park. He was dead on about the coming persecution and about our need to prepare for it. However, that preparation began with our baptism and continues until we are in the presence of Christ after our death, and upon his return.

God Bless You,
Fr. Robert J Carr

The Other Silenced Priest

We are seeing in the Catholic news stories of a popular evangelist priest who has resigned due to accusations that he says cannot be cleared. His ministry on hold he resigned his priesthood claiming he did not often celebrate the sacraments anyway.

Many in response are bringing up Padre Pio and others who were falsely accused. Let me bring up another priest far more controversial than Padre Pio who was silenced by the Vatican but died a priest; that man was Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

It was Fr. Teilhard a priest/scientist (paleontology) who had first discovered that Christianity and Evolution were not mutually exclusive. He began to write his theories and submitted them to the Vatican for approval. They were not approved. He was then allowed by the Vatican to teach, but not to publish. Imagine the heartbreak of the scientist who could not publish his research, but more importantly, imagine that scientist obeying. He did indeed. If you read any of Fr. Teilhard's materials you will see that a large majority of it was published after his death exactly for this reason.

Who was the mean ogre who would not allow this man to publish his works? Well, he was not a mean ogre at all, indeed, he used to spend two hours and forty minutes daily before the Blessed Sacrament. It was his tithe to God. His name: Cardinal Merry del Valle.

Cardinal Merry Del Valle's concern was that Fr. Teilhard could not give a good explanation between evolution and original sin. He tried but could not that is obvious in his work.

The prohibition to publish extended right to his death. However, it is one of the most graced moments in the Church.

Did Fr. Teilhard get things wrong. Absolutely, but don't all those who begin a whole school of thought? Many Psychiatrists today don't hold much weight for some of the teachings of Freud, but it was Freud who began the school of Psychiatry.

Fr. Teilhard got some things right. Indeed, because of his early teachings we can now adjust his ideas to see how original sin plays a powerful place in evolution and theology. Indeed, as a Catholic, I cannot imagine atheism, for evolution teaches me that the atheist must believe he can perceive all things in order to declare there is no god and evolution demonstrates that this is just not possible. Evolution does not disprove Christianity, indeed through evolution I can explain Christ's death and resurrection in a historically, theologically and scientifically accurate way that shows that yes, we are following the Way, the Truth and the Light.

Fr. Teilhard also demonstrated many things that affect us everyday. He taught that we define ourselves by our choices. You may say that is nice, but not realize how serious that teaching is. It especially affects us around November and December. Why? because that is the time we choose what to eat at Thanksgiving and Christmas? No, that is when we do a lot of Christmas shopping. One thing on shopping lists is video games. What video games do you buy your children? Remember we define ourselves by our choices. The action may be going on in the virtual world, but the player is in the real world where he his makes decisions. Remember that when you are looking for a video game for yourself or your children. What choices must they make when they are playing that game?

Fr. Teilhard suffered his silencing right to his death, but he obeyed. His submission taught much to us because others could come and fill the holes that he could not. He taught obedience to the Church and taught correctly. The Holy Spirit brought fruit to His actions.

Recently, Pope Benedict XVI taught that we as Catholics have never looked upon the early chapters of Genesis as mechanistic explanations of creation. He opened the door further to what those who know of Teilhard understood long ago. Evolution and Christianity are not mutually exclusive, indeed it is a natural process biologically, but spiritually and culturally requires our participation by our decisions. If we decide for Christ we grow in a process led by the Holy Spirit, if we decide against Christ spiritually we will devolve and culturally we will as well. Those who take evolution to be completely random cannot understand this, but those led by the Spirit do and see it happening everyday.

It all begins with a priest who recognized the need to obey Christ's church despite the pain and sacrifice it caused.