Pope Francis is not a big fan of either the Rosary nor Raymond Cardinal Burke, so PopeWatch can imagine what he thinks of Operation Storm Heaven:
The campaign is an initiative of Catholic Action for Faith and Family and aims to rally one million Catholics to pray the rosary on the first day of each month throughout the year. The specific intentions set forth by the Campaign under the guidance of Cardinal Burke will be united with the personal ones of all members. Intentions include: for Light of Truth to shine clearly in the Church, for peace to reign in the hearts of the Faithful and for the private intentions of those who participate in the campaign by praying the Rosary in solidarity with other participants around the world.
“The campaign is a response to so much evil present in the world that is challenging the faith of many people and leaving them discouraged,” stated Thomas McKenna, president of Catholic Action for Faith and Family and director of the campaign.
“Politics alone and the rhetoric of men and women cannot solve the moral crisis facing America and the world. Above all we need Divine assistance,” McKenna continued. “What better way to defeat the evils of abortion, euthanasia, murder, homosexual marriage, terrorism and so many other evils in our world than by uniting a spiritual army across many continents, ‘Rosary Warriors,’ to besiege Heaven with prayer?” said McKenna.
In a message to the supporters Cardinal Burke wrote: “The first temptation Satan uses to break us down is discouragement. This temptation is only an illusion, for Christ alive within us always gives us courage, even in the most trying of times. In such times, as today, we must pray more than ever, especially in the presence of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and all throughout the day. Be courageous, my beloved brothers and sisters! Stand fast with sure Hope! Let us together, storm Heaven with steadfast prayer, through Operation Storm Heaven…”
On the first day of each month Cardinal Burke will join the campaign members in spirit by celebrating a Mass and praying a Rosary for the designated intentions. Members of the hierarchy and clergy are also encouraged to join and pledge their Mass intentions and rosaries.
Would His Holiness object? He talks a lot about Satan. It is one of the few things the secular world finds distasteful in this papacy. Pope Francis may not like the good cardinal but I don’t see anything here that would trouble him.
3,525 rosaries were given as a gift of Prayer for the “new” pontiff, yet he see’s a negative and dwells on it…counting!
Despite our leadership we will storm Heaven with millions of rosaries! All counting to convert the hearts of heretics.. where ever they may reside.
Cardinal Burke is a Holy man!
Have faith, dear Catholic friends, in faith.
This appears to be an idea from heaven itself, simple, yet perfect in its answer to the diabolical blitzkrieg running through God’s Church.
I am not a Pope Francis devotee but I am interested in justice so where does the idea that Pope Francis disfavors the Rosary come from? This article says otherwise so where is the evidence that he is troubled by devotion to Our Lady through the Rosary.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2014/05/19/two-moments-awakened-in-pope-francis-a-deep-devotion-to-our-lady/
David Spaulding.
It’s in counting the prayers, I believe.
See link.
I linked to an example in the post, as Philip referenced.
I am just not reading it the same way. I am not seeing a Pope who dislikes the Rosary, I am seeing an ungrateful man who doesn’t see the saying of Rosaries for him as a sacrifice.
David Spaulding.
“…an ungrateful man who doesn’t see the saying of Rosaries for him as a sacrifice.”
Could be!(?) Who knows. Clarity is a foggy day when trying to decipher some of our Holy Father’s messages.
Maybe it’s just me?
@David: My take was that the Pope dislikes the thought of “counting” Rosaries as an offering. He all but said that the counting of rosaries is a silly, old-fashioned custom that enlightened, contemporary Catholics would never dream of doing.
David Spaulding, I do know that P. Francis privately evidences devotion to the Rosary—although he seems to generally de-emphasize his personal devotion publicly, that is, he doesn’t so emphatically preach that personal Marian devotion to “the common man.” That may be that it is that old Jesuit thing of keeping your personal devotions private, in line with Matt. 6:6 (“When you pray, pray in secret..”).
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But you wonder why, because virtually every pope, in particular from Benedict XV to even John XXIII, emphasized the daily Rosary for every Catholic. In an age penetrated by socialist secular-atheism, how would the daily Rosary hurt?
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However, either he or his handlers are responsible for his image of primarily being a secularist, social-action type pontiff—and you can contrast that with Card. Burke’s decided emphasis (shown above in this snippet) that the Church and the Faith are a matter of knowing Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and the BV Mary . I agree: I was deeply dismayed this past June for his virtual ignoring of the devotion to the Sacred Heart (he mentioned it in a private audience once; then perhaps on one other occasion)—this a devotion that every other pope [most notably: Leo XIII, Annum Sacrum (1899); Pius XI (two encyclicals: Miserentissimus Redemptor, 1928; Caritate Christi Compulsi, 1932), Pius XII (Harietis Aquas, 1956] and of which devotion John XXIII, JP2, Benedict XVI, even Paul VI, wrote on often and exhorted upon repeatedly). You come to Francis and you cannot ignore the break there. This is definitely where P Francis’ talk and his social-action deviate from his publicly demonstrated focus on a profoundly Catholic devotion, just as a comparative example.
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Maximilian Kolbe was intensely motivated by his “militant” practice of Marian devotion, and that is the only thing that would survive a Nazi concentration camp and defeat it. So, why doesn’t he exhort this, and perhaps the devotion to the Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart, at least as much as his devotion to “climate-change”? You will have to answer that for yourself.
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We all need to get ready.
I’m with David Spaulding. The Pope doesn’t dislike the Rosary. He dislikes how traditionalist groups pray it. No idea why, I guess one had to be there in order to understand what was wrong with practices and disciplines in 1940, and like the reporter, I’m too young to have lived through the bad old days before everything changed and nothing changed. Maybe it reminds him of something or other.
Or maybe 1940s Argentina suggests he’s uncomfortable with being the focus of a cult of personality?
Ok, now from the sublime to the ridiculous: Francisca Chaoqui weighs in on the critics of P Francis yesterday—she, a reliable source and a “dedicated” Catholic (God help us all):
‘To put it more simply: “Many people in the Vatican want Francis dead,” said Francesca Chaouqui, the woman at the heart of a leaks scandal currently convulsing Francis’ Vatican.’
“In an interview last weekend with Italy’s La Stampa newspaper, Chaouqui said Francis’ in-house reforms and nominations have emboldened his enemies, many of whom were in the Vatican when Francis was archbishop of Buenos Aires and had a less-than-pleasant relationship with Rome.’
(From not-coincidentally-named Yahoo News, Dec. 17, 2015 by Nicole Winfield: “Pope Enters 80th Year Popular as Ever–but With Criticism”)
Reading your comments, everyone’s, it seems to come back to the horizontal favoritism spoken of last week. His vertical stabilizer is broken or is being repaired. The horizontal portion of his spiritual life is the dominant.
Oh well. Let’s assume this is all there is.
If he happens to appeal to fallen-away’s, or unbelievers, and they come into the Faith, then it’s our responsibility to be that bridge to help them to the vertical dimension that might be foreign to them. Just trying to see what good could come from this. Lemonade maybe?
I love TAC. 🙂
My problem is, I don’t remember there ever being a conflict between supporting devotions (i.e. promoting piety among the faithful) and evangelization (i.e. promoting piety in the world). The Church has the duty to do both. I guess the South American experience is a combination of outward acts of piety and inward faithlessness, where the promotion of traditional devotions serves only to alienate the marginally Catholic and not enhance the piety of the devoutly Catholic.
God bless Cardinal Burke. I will pray the Rosary on the first day of the month throughout the year for his intentions.
Leo XIII said, “So many souls, redeemed by the blood of Christ, snatched from salvation by the whirlwind of an age of error, precipitated into the abyss of everlasting death! Our need of divine help is as great today as it was when the great Dominic introduced the use of the Rosary as a balm for the wounds of his contemporaries. Seek the intercession with God of that Virgin to whom it is given to destroy all heresies.”
Here’s the link to the ‘Catholic Action for Faith and the Family’ Rosary Campaign.
http://www.catholicaction.org/take_heaven_by_storm
This is a great idea. My intention will be for Pope Francis for his return to the faith or his exit from the papacy.
During the BBC interview, Turkson, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said that “birth control” could “offer a solution” to the impacts of climate change. “This has been talked about,” he said, “and the Holy Father on his trip back from the Philippines also invited people to some form of birth control, because the church has never been against birth control and people spacing out births and all of that. So yes, it can offer a solution.” The Remnant
Climate Change Devotees…. the new CCD program.
What’s the climate in Hell?
In Heaven?
Seems the Catholic Church should be concerned about the climate change that matters most. The one where the impact is going to be LONG TERM.