MARY AND THE MOSLEMS

By Tim Rohr

"Mary and the Moslems" is the title of a chapter in a 1952 book by the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. In this chapter Sheen wrote:

...at the present hour, the Moslems are beginning to rise again. If Moslemism is a heresy, as Hiliaire Belloc believes it to be, it is the only heresy that has never declined. Others have had a moment of vigor, then gone into doctrinal decay at the death of the leader, and finally evaporated in a vague social movement. Moslemism, on the contrary, has only had its first phase. There was never a time in which it declined, either in numbers, or in the devotion of its followers.

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NOTE: The "strange icon" pictured here is copied from another article about Mary and her influence in Islam which was published by my former alma mater, of which I am usually not a fan. 

MARRIAGE: PART 1 - FULTON SHEEN: MARRIAGE PROBLEMS

Last week, Fr. Jeff San Nicolas (in the name of the Archdiocese of Agana) hosted a press conference to address the embarrassing news that - as per a 2013 Economist report - Guam leads the world in the number of divorces per capita each year. 

Both Fr. Jeff and divorce attorney, William Pesch, appeared to blame Guam's "off-island divorces" as the reason for the world-leading divorce numbers. However, in my post THE REST OF THE STORY (Part 1),  I demonstrated that Pesch himself had earlier downplayed the number of off-island divorces and that even if we subtracted the number of those divorces, Guam would still rank 4th in the world. 

Further into the Daily Post report on the press conference, Fr. Jeff's comments caught my attention: 

"When I hear the numbers, it doesn't discourage me – I see it as an opportunity, as a calling for us to continue to do more," he said...We need to do what we can to be there for all marriages. ... In the sense that we can support them so that a decision that a couple makes to live together to love each other for life – they are equipped to fulfill that promise that they make to each other."

As evidence of the church's "support" for marriage, Fr. Jeff featured representatives of three groups at the press conference: Couples for Christ, Worldwide Marriage Encounter, and the Sponsor Couple program. 

A REMINDER - from a REAL BISHOP

With the disappointing words and actions of Archbishop Byrnes thus far, we are immediately reminded of our duty as outlined by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in an address to the Knights of Columbus in 1972:

"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops, like bishops, and your religious act like religious."

This quote will be posted permanently in the right side bar in the hopes that we will no more hear pleas to Rome for help. It NEVER was Rome's job in the first place. It was OURS. All of this hell and filth was brought upon ourselves by...OURSELVES. We chose not to confront, to look the other way. We have no one to blame but ourselves. And no one can fix this - as Sheen reminds us - but OURSELVES. 

WHY WE ARE HERE

"Who is going to save our Church? 

Not our bishops, not our priests and

religious. It is up to you, the people. 

You have the minds, the eyes, the ears

to save the Church. Your mission

is to see that your priests act like priests, 

your bishops, like bishops, and your

religious act like religious.”

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, before the

Knights of Columbus, June 1972.