(Posted by Frenchie)
St Porphyrius Church in Gaza
As we are now in our Theological New Year, and we have entered the Advent period, which is supposed to be a period of penance and reflection before we can celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; it is appropriate that we reflect in the momentus events we have gone through over the last three years, as well as the earth shattering conflicts we are faced with right now.
Today December 8th 2023, Catholics of the Island of Guam celebrate the Immaculate Conception of our Lady. This mystery that we share with the Orthodox Church and all what we loosely term the Eastern rites of the Christian Church, is one of the deepest divide that we have with our reformed brothers and sisters, who do not recognised the Virgin Birth of our Lord, and often refer to our deference to the mother of Christ as idolatry and corruption.
On this Holy day, again I have witnessed several of these disrespectful statements here on Guam, but also,in the USA and around the world. In itself it is just another of the many persecutions we Catholics have been subjected to in a sea of Protestant, Masonic and Atheist majority where our beliefs are threatening to the manipulators, and false prophets of all kind. I am old enough to remember the bitter discourse preceding the election of John F Kennedy, the first Catholic US President. Nothing much has changed below the surface, except that the 2nd Catholic President, is what could be best described as a CINO, and our current Pontiff is more worried about climate change, that he is about saving souls, or defending his Church against renewed persecutions.
Of course not a single of these things happens in a vacuum.
During the last quarter of a century, ( a lifetime for most of our children) we have witnessed an intensification of the attacks on the freedom granted to us under the US constitution, known as the Bill of Rights. This led to a massive spying of US citizens by our own government. All this was done under the guise of better protecting us from "Muslim extremists" . Our representatives in DC were almost all on it from "the get go". Later we were sold two major wars (Afghanistan and Irak) under fabricated evidences and false narratives. These wars lasted for at least 20 years and costed the country blood, and treasure, but most of all moral rectitude, when we chose to ignore the 100s of thousands of innocent victims, classified under the gross euphemism of "collateral damage". Curiously, our Church leaders except for a few rare and courageous voices in the desert, were silent on these inequities, which we will be asked about on judgement day.
This is bringing us to our current issue, which is the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. I shall not dwell on the alleged atrocities, that are used to justify the current onslaught on the innocent civilian population of Gaza.
Two wrongs never justify a right. They never did, never do, and never will. St Thomas Aquinas is very clear in his analysis of justification for war. Our silence, acquiescence, and in some cases embrace of the eradication of a foe that is being described as less than human, or barbaric, not civilised cannot hide the ugly, putrid side of this issue. How can one pretend to be pro-life and endorse the wonton eradication of tens of thousands of innocents. Perhaps we forgot the warning: Matthew 25.40 "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me"
As of today, 1.9 million out of 2.2 million have been "displaced" over 17 000 have been killed over 38000 wounded. more than 7000 children have lost their lives. All this in the name of Justice.
Meanwhile most of the oldest Christian denominations have disappeared from the Middle East, except in Egypt. The same protestant Christian Zionist who are pushing for war, to bring their narrow and blasphemous interpretation of the Bible, and support mass slaughters, are disparaging the Catholic Church here on Guam, and across the world.
We have a duty to save souls, we will not do that by endorsing murder and persecution, and certainly by remaining silent when confronted by full lies and half truths. The saying that Evil prevailed because good people remained silent, should not apply to us. I shall make sure it won't apply to me. Pray that you won't
Once again, heresy, a Christian heresy, is at the root of so much evil. But our Catholic leadership doesn't like to use the word.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed very unfortunate. But since 1962, very few princes of the Church are using their pulpit to further the truth and call heresies.
ReplyDelete