(posted by Frenchie)
December 8th has a special significance for Guam, it is without a doubt a day of celebration for Catholics on the island, which is marked by a Mass with the Archbishop at the Cathedral, followed by a Marian procession in the street of Agatna.
As the 8th falls on a Sunday in 2024, the chancery has decided to celebrate The solemnity of the Immaculate conception, and Santa Maria Kamalen on Monday the 9th.
This will be the first such celebration for our newly minted Archbishop, therefore we wish him and the Archdiocese a joyous, successful and peaceful day.
Some of our older denizens might recall that December 8th 1941 fell on a Monday, and marked the beginning of a 3 years period of darkness and suffering. This leads me to reflect more precisely into the years of darkness that have afflicted many of our fellow Catholics around the world.
For those of the readers that do not keep up with the world news, many of our brothers and sisters have been the victims of unrelenting attacks. From Africa where Catholics are the target of different terrorist groups, in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Central Africa, The Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania, with priests, religious sisters, school girls being kidnapped or killed. School boys being slaughtered or forced into para military groups. To Asia were churches are regularly attacked in Indonesia, India and Pakistan; Catholics are being surveilled, detained and re educated in China, and of course not forgetting Syria where re organized and re armed by the Biden administration and Israel, Al Quaeda and other sub groups are chasing and killing Catholics, Orthodox and Armenians in Allepo, while Churches and convents are being bombarded by the Israeli Air Force in Lebanon. In central America, priests and Bishops are arrested and expelled in Nicaragua, while pastors are assassinated by narco traffickers in Mexico and Panama.
One might think, thanks God we do not have anything similar in Europe or North America. Sadly you would be wrong in your assumptions. All over Europe churches are being burnt to the ground by people unknown, principally because the police is not allowed to investigate by their free mason superiors. In the USA, the FBI was (we are told no more) investigating Catholic churches, and infiltrating parishes looking for potential "Christian terrorists", and treating pro life activists as terrorists (arresting them with fully armed S.W.A.T teams in the early hours of the morning) In Canada the liberal government of Justin Trudeau has targeted Catholics in particular for not agreeing with their woke agenda, arresting and prosecuting students and priests.
To give you an idea of the extent of the agressions our church is the target of in Europe, please read this article HERE
All this gives us an idea of the tenebrous times we are living through. While our local Church is still struggling with the consequences of the Clergy sex scandals, we are doing well compared to our brethrens. Hopefully our new Archbishop will be successful in addressing our issues. At least one can hope.
This is when next December 8th a monumental event will take place in Paris, France: the reopening of Notre Dame of Paris which had been severely damaged following a very suspicious fire five years ago.
The event will indeed be monumental because of the symbol of that reopening in a country once called the elder daughter of the Church. After almost 120 years of a very strict anti Catholic law which saw to sideline the church in 1905, France has become a shadow of itself on the religious front. Only 10% of the population goes to the dominical mass and only 45 % of the people consider themselves Catholic compared to 90% when I was a child.
The current French Government and the President of the country are almost all free masons, fully intent on ridding the country of the Church. Yet despite all these challenges the believers are resisting and making headways. Since the pandemic of 2020 2021 the number of adults requesting to be baptized has jumped 20 fold. A large segment of the west African migrant population is living their religious life openly and with zeale. Religious sisters orders which had seen a collapse, are experiencing a renewal, often tied to these new migrant population.
When the Paris Cathedral went up in flames, the media almost accidently diffused pictures of a pious crowd on their knees singing the beautiful french version of the Hail Mary, getting an unexpected wave of positive comments and questions.
Five years after the fire, thanks to over 2000 tradesmen and women, archeologists, scientists, architects and hundreds of historians, the Cathedral will reopen on the feast of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. A strong symbol and a signal of hope and joy.
Now for the diplomatic row: President Macron an avowed free mason, responsible for the sad spectacle of the opening and closing of the Paris Olympics, insisted that Pope Francis should come to celebrate this momentus event. Pope Francis insisted that he would not come to be part of a publicity stunt for the benefit of Macron. Instead he shall visit the Archdiocese of Ajaccio (Corsica) and his newly minted Cardinal on December 15th to push forward one of his pet project. The diplomatic arm wrestling has been going on for over two years, and it seems that Bergoglio discovered he could still influence people positively.
This is why 32 days after putting a stop to the madness of the woke movement, and its culture of death, the Catholics of America can join the Catholics of France to celebrate another symbolic victory against the forces of darkness and evil
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