Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 1:57pm

PopeWatch: Archbishop Vigano

From Lifesite News:

 

What we are witnessing in these hours is dramatic — certainly throughout Italy, but in a tragically exemplary way, in Rome, the heart of Catholicism.

The scenario is all the more disconcerting as what is at stake is not only public health but the salvation of souls — and for some time now we, as Pastors, have stopped inflaming the hearts of our faithful with the desire for eternal salvation. We have thus deprived them of those supernatural gifts which make us capable of facing trials here below, even the assaults of death, with the power of faith and that spark of inexhaustible and unshakable hope which comes to us from our yearning for the destiny of glory for which we were created.

The statements of the Italian Episcopal Conference, those of the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, as well as the surreal and spectral images that have come to us from the Vatican, are many expressions of the darkening of the faith that has struck the heights of the Church. The Ministers of the Sun, as St Catherine of Siena was fond of calling them, have caused the eclipse, and delivered the flock to clouds of thick darkness (cf. Ezekiel 34:12). 

Regarding the measures of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI): when those issued by the State were still limited only to at risk areas, to certain activities and at precise times of day, the CEI had already cancelled the totality of public liturgical celebrations in all the churches of the territory, helping to fuel fear and panic and depriving the faithful of the indispensable comfort of the sacraments. It is difficult not to think that such a measure was suggested to the president of the CEI by the one who, protected by the Leonine Walls, has been dreaming for seven years now of an outgoing, rugged, field hospital Church, which does not hesitate to embrace everyone and to get dirty.

Cardinal Bassetti, so eager that he seems more zealous than the king, appears to have forgotten a very important lesson: that the Church, in order to serve the common good and the State, must never give up being herself, nor fail in her mission to proclaim Christ, our only Lord and Savior. She must beware of obscuring her divine prerogatives of Wisdom and Truth and in no way abdicate the Authority that comes to her from the Sovereign of the kings of the earth, Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The ecclesial events of these hours have manifested clearly — if there was still any need — the tragic subjection of the Church to a State that is striving and doing all it can to destroy the Christian identity of our Italy, by enslaving it to an ideological, immoral, globalist, Malthusian, abortionist, migrant agenda that is the enemy of man and of the family. The goal of this agenda is the destruction of the Church, and certainly not the good of our country.

The courage and wisdom of ardent priests and lay faithful has partly remedied the absence of an authoritative voice and heartening gestures from the Vicar of Christ and from pastors. 

Open, throw open wide the doors to Christ! Open, throw open wide the doors of our churches so that the faithful may enter in, repent of their sins, participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and draw upon the treasury of graces that flow from the pierced Heart of Christ, our only Redeemer who can save us from sin and death.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò

Translation by Diane Montagna

Go here to comment.  Why not simply advise people not to come if they are fearful or of greater risk?  Elderly priests could be granted permission to not say the Mass in public.  Shutting down Masses is simply not necessary. The Truth Faith is being ill served.

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Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Tuesday, March 17, AD 2020 4:53am

Exactly correct. Closing the churches and suspending celebration of the sacraments was the dream of atheists from the Jacobins to the Leninists to the present-day hollow-hearted tech-theists: and now the very hierarchy of the Church is willingly facilitating it.

Mass should not cease to be celebrated, unless it is NOT transcendent and NOT a timeless sacrifice. As said before, Mass can be celebrated without distribution of communion if conditions are so serious as to warrant it: daily attendance at Mass without communicating has been a centuries-old tradition, often the practice of St Ignatius Loyola and his followers, even though they were priests themselves, and of many others. And there is no good reason at all to suspend confessions and baptisms, as has been done in the dioceses of the SF Bay Area (with some exceptions by a few, very few pastors) and other dioceses. Appropriate precautions can reasonably be employed.

I think, as Archbishop Vigano piercingly observes, an agenda that comes from the top by a man with very little love for the cultic ritual of the Church has been deftly imposed.

DJH
DJH
Tuesday, March 17, AD 2020 5:02am

“Elderly priests could be granted permission to not say the Mass in public.”
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I barely know any who are not elderly and in suspect health. The few I have seen who are younger do not seem to be of robust constitution.
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And it all further cements my belief that what we call “The Catholic Church” long ago ceased to be part of God’s Kingdom and became part of earth’s varied political power structures.

OrdinaryCatholic
OrdinaryCatholic
Tuesday, March 17, AD 2020 5:28am

The Catholic Church IS God’s kingdom on earth and nothing will change that no matter how hard her clerics try. The Church was STILL founded on Peter despite his denying Christ, His Church continued to spread the Truth no matter that his apostles fled and deserted Him in His time of need, and His Church did not fall in failure despite Judas betraying Him and killing himself in the process. If the Church was not defeated in her shakey beginnings then neither shall it be defeated now.

Just because the Church’s members may be savagely corrupt and sinful doesn’t mean Christ will go against nor has he gone against his promise of keeping her safe. She is and will always be part of God’s Kingdom. Do not judge the Church by her members but by her founder, Christ.

ken
ken
Tuesday, March 17, AD 2020 8:01am

What’s amazing to me is the number of parishes that have cancelled confession. My parish still has robust confession hours with multiple priests. Our adoration chapel remains open. The church remains open during the daytime.

Bob Kurland, Ph.D.
Admin
Tuesday, March 17, AD 2020 9:33am

Ken, you’re fortunate. Churches and chapels in our diocese (Harrisburg, PA) have been closed. The local 24 hour adoration chapel has been closed. Virtual Mass, anybody?

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Tuesday, March 17, AD 2020 9:33am

The banality of “good intentions.”

OrdinaryCatholic
OrdinaryCatholic
Tuesday, March 17, AD 2020 10:45am

Do the Middle Eastern Catholics cancel Masses or risk life and limb to go to Mass and try not to be killed by Muslims? Do loyal Chinese Catholics cancel their Masses to avoid risking their lives with incarceration, torture or worse?

We have a lot to learn from these faithful Catholics. Our Churches are not sporting events, entertainment venues nor restaurants. They not one of the non-essential gatherings. Do not cancel Masses

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Tuesday, March 17, AD 2020 12:55pm

Do not fall in with the surrender monkeys. The Eastern Catholic Churches’ bishops have not issued any such edicts suspending the Liturgy or the Sacraments/Mysteries. If you live near an Eastern Catholic Church, this is THE opportunity to attend a Liturgy in the Ruthenian/Melkite/Maronite/Ukrainian/Romanian/Syro-Malabar/Coptic Catholic Church.

Our Latin Mass at Most Precious Blood of Jesus has been suspended for at least two weeks. Bah, humbug on the ban. I’m still going to Church.,

Amy Parr
Amy Parr
Tuesday, March 17, AD 2020 9:13pm

I have yet to hear, from any of the Bishops of this country who have pulled down the shades in their dioceses, a public statement that, as priests, fully capable of conducting Mass in private, and thereby enjoying the consolation of the sacraments currently denied to the laity, they have resolved to abstain, in solidarity with the laity.

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