OUR LADY OF FATIMA  CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Pope's Trip to France

November 13, 2008

This trip was of most interest to me. Hey I posted two links on the subject already ! On the plane ride to Paris the Pope took a question from reporters on the subject of the Motu proprio on the Traditional Mass. Now knowing that the Pope has questions submitted to him ahead of the press conference and he chooses which ones he will answer, the fact that he took a question on the subject should cause us to prick up our ears a bit. The question was about whether the Pope would use the trip to France to speak to the French bishops (who have not exactly been very favorable to the Trad Mass) and reprimand their recalcitrance. The Pope’s response was that the issue was no big deal since the Trad Mass only concerns a few people after all.

The shocker was that that was exactly what the Pope intended to raise with the bishops when he met with them at Lourdes. This is what he said in part:

Liturgical worship is the supreme expression of priestly and episcopal life, and also of catechetical teaching. Your mission of sanctification of the faithful people, dear Brothers, is indispensable for the growth of the Church. I was prompted to detail, in the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, the conditions for the accomplishment of this mission, in that which relates to the possibility of using both the missal of Blessed John XXIII (1962) and that of Pope Paul VI (1970). The fruits of these new dispositions have already seen [the light of] day, and I hope that the indispensable pacification of the spirits is being accomplished, thank God.

I comprehend your difficulties, but I do not doubt that you will be able to reach, within reasonable time, solutions which are satisfactory to all, so that the seamless robe of Christ is not torn anymore. No one is excessive within the Church. Everyone, without exception, must be able to feel at home, and never rejected. God, who loves all men and wills that no one be lost, entrusts us with this mission of Pastors, making us Shepherds of His sheep. We can only give Him thanks for the honor and the confidence He places upon us. Let us endeavor to always be servants of unity.

Recently I enjoyed a visit with a Bishop of the American Catholic hierarchy in which we both agreed that the Holy Father is sending conflicting signals. "No it (the MP) is no big deal" (on the plane).  "Yes it is..." (a few days later at Lourdes...) go figure !

Now this tough intervention also needs to be situated in another context of which most Trads will not be aware. Beginning that very day, in the Novus Ordo breviary the Liturgy of the Hours, the second lesson at the Office of Readings (Matins) is taken each day for a full two weeks from St. Augustine’s magnificent treatise on Pastors in which bad shepherds or bishops are reprimanded for serving themselves and not their flocks. You will recall from the Pope’s address above that this was the very point Pope Benedict made.

Now, however, yet another thorn for the Holy Father: hours after this stern rebuke, Cardinal Vingt-Trois, the head of the French bishops’ conference stated this:

LOURDES (Hautes-Pyrenees), 14 September 2008 (AFP) - Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, president of the Conference of Bishops of France, stressed that the relationship between the pope and the bishops "is not a servile relationship of subordination".

"The relationship of the pope with the bishops is not a boss/employee relationship. He is not the CEO of a multinational corporation who is coming to visit a branch office," said Cardinal Vingt-Trois during a press briefing held after the meeting between the pope and the bishops.

"We have welcomed him and listened to him as a brother who has come to reinforce the faith of those with whom he works and with whom he is in communion," said the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris.

"We are in a relationship of communion, of affection, and of collaboration. And when we have things to say to him, we say them" said Cardinal Vingt-Trois.

Earlier the pope had spoken before the bishops calling for the steadfastness of the Church in the face of the challenges of the contemporary world – a speech with the tone of a directive which was met by somewhat lukewarm applause.

This has to be another example of a slap in the Pope’s face and of the total confusion and disobedience that reigns in today’s Church.

If that were not enough… what about the sacrileges that took place after the Sunday Mass in Lourdes ? I watched the pre-recorded Mass in the afternoon and noted at the end that I had never seen such a heavy security detail around the Pope as he left. Minutes later the pop-culture kids (and even older people) who attended the Mass dipped their fingers in the Precious Blood left in chalices on the credence tables and helped themselves to consecrated hosts abandoned by the clergy who had gone off with the Pope leaving the Blessed Sacrament to be profaned ! Others had their picture taken sitting in the throne previously occupied by the Holy Father and fawning women kissed the ground the Pope had walked on as though he were some pop star – and this was after a Mass ??? The online account….

"They plugged themselves the remaining Hosts into their bags"
 
Without thought and in large quantities they had been left unguarded in open metal ciboria (sacred vessels) before the stage of the papal eucharistic celebration. The Faith in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar - central mystery of the Catholic Church - has vanished from the hearts.


Benedict XVI celebrating the eucharist at the outskirts of Lourdes.

(kreuz.net) After the pope's mass in the Southern French shrine of Our Lady, Lourdes, severest sacrileges were committed.

This was reported by German witness and journalist Alexander Smoltczyk - Vatican journalist of the anticlerical German boulevard magazine 'Der Spiegel' - on September 14th.

After the end of the papal mass by Benedict XVI and the exodus of most of the clergy, some mass attendees approached the credences in front of the table altar, upon which countless sacred vessels containing the remaining consecrated Sacred Hosts from the celebration were placed. The sacred vessels were unguarded. Also patens with more consecrated hosts on them were situated on the credence tables.

Mass attendees [tourists? pilgrims?] threw themselves towards these credences and without any scruples starting flling their bags and pockets and coats with the remaining Sacred Hosts, for all to see, Smoltczyk. "They stuffed their bags with the holy communion fully and uninhibitedly."

According to the version of the journalist merely one bishop intervened. But only after another couple of [alleged] pilgrims had started to dip their fingers into chalices filled with remaining precious blood, in order to dab their foreheads with the contents. "Non! Non! That is not right!" - the bishop reportedly said.

At the same time - behind the back of the intervening bishop, and after countless sacred hosts had already been stolen by alleged pope devotees - an artificially blonde lady took place upon the large wooden throne, where few moments before pope Benedict XVI had been seaten, and had herself photographed in different poses.

Female scouts from northern Spain posed around the altar, as if they were drinking wine around a standing table of a tapas bar.

In the meanwhile, German journalist reports, "an elderly and frail looking lady succesfully attempted to secretly hide all kinds of used sacred linen into her bags."

And while unimaginable sacrileges against the eucharist (left totally vulnerable by the clergy who left the site in a hurry to follow the papal event into the centre of the town) took place and theft was also only few ft. away, devotees of the pope started kissed and affecting everything that the "very Holy Father" had just fifteen minutes before walked upon or been seated upon.

"This scene was unbelievable, I am still appalled", Smoltczyk writes, while rubbing his eyes.

The Stations of the Cross

Just days before the death of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger led the devotions on Good Friday in the Coliseum in Rome. His words on the depth of the crisis within the Church were startling at the ninth station made headlines:

MEDITATION

What can the third fall of Jesus under the Cross say to us? We have considered the fall of man in general, and the falling of many Christians away from Christ and into a godless secularism. Should we not also think of how much Christ suffers in his own Church? How often is the holy sacrament of his Presence abused, how often must he enter empty and evil hearts! How often do we celebrate only ourselves, without even realizing that he is there! How often is his Word twisted and misused! What little faith is present behind so many theories, so many empty words! How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him! How much pride, how much self-complacency! What little respect we pay to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where he waits for us, ready to raise us up whenever we fall! All this is present in his Passion. His betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his Body and Blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart. We can only call to him from the depths of our hearts: Kyrie eleison ­ Lord, save us (cf. Mt 8: 25).

PRAYER

Lord, your Church often seems like a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side. In your field we see more weeds than wheat. The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion. Yet it is we ourselves who have soiled them! It is we who betray you time and time again, after all our lofty words and grand gestures. Have mercy on your Church; within her too, Adam continues to fall. When we fall, we drag you down to earth, and Satan laughs, for he hopes that you will not be able to rise from that fall; he hopes that being dragged down in the fall of your Church, you will remain prostrate and overpowered. But you will rise again. You stood up, you arose and you can also raise us up. Save and sanctify your Church. Save and sanctify us all.

+TF

PS. The day after the sacrilege the Pope held another Mass for the sick in the esplanade that leads up to the Basilica in Lourdes. A nearby monastery loaned an ancient chalice and paten for the event. 10 minutes after the Mass the paten was stolen by a souvenir hunter - sacrileges abound !!!!

In conversation with the same US prelate I was told: "Terence, the Pope has caused utter chaos in the Church !" I heartily concurred !

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