.

Couples planning church weddings this spring will soon be saying, “I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.” Such people are only willing to start a family under certain conditions: if bride and groom both agree to be together until death, remain sexually faithful, and promise to support the children and each other in a marital home for life.

The Catholic Church, our culture, and the civil laws used to recognize that keeping these vows was a good thing, but with no-fault divorce, that has all changed. Don’t we all know a faithful spouse and good parent who had been a defendant in a no-fault divorce? These faithful spouses are separated from their own children most of the time and ordered to pay child support for a second household in which they are not even allowed to live.

I’m not shocked that the animalistic sexual liberation ideologues don’t lift a finger to try to protect children and faithful spouses from typical no-fault divorce. But I’m disappointed at the indifference of the Catholic pastoral leadership that celebrates all these church weddings. Catholic leaders are silent bystanders when members of their own flock force no-fault divorce on their families, against the will of the other spouse who has been faithful.

There is now a formal way to get the Catholic Church off the sidelines and involved. Mary’s Advocates, our non-profit, pro-marriage organization, is offering a “Vindicate Rights Petition” so a faithful spouse can use canon law to formally ask the Church to intervene.

For those who profess to be faithful Catholics, forcing no-fault divorce on one’s family is untenable, according to The Catholic Code of Canon Law. In the U.S.A., however, the Church response is commonly to offer the ‘pastoral care’ of giving annulments. An annulment, a decree of invalidity of marriage, is an official statement from a Catholic Tribunal in which they say the couple was never married in the first place. What child of divorce wants that kind of ‘pastoral care’ when one parent chooses to abandon marriage and force a family break-up?

Two forward thinking Catholic Canon lawyers are supporting the “Vindicates Rights Petition.” Canon Lawyer, Fr. Chuck Zmudzinski, C.P.M., J.C.L of the Fathers of Mercy in Auburn Kentucky describes the pastoral landscape from his perspective. “Now that almost every marriage that appears before the Church’s tribunals in the U.S. ends up being declared invalid, I fear that many pastors take the side of the spouse who wants to divorce and remarry and actually encourage divorce and annulment, leaving the abandoned spouse with little or no recourse, and the children of the broken home are the greatest victims of this injustice.” … “There should be a serious effort by the pastors to bring the offending spouse to repentance and save the marriage.”

Canon lawyer, Philip C. L. Gray, J.C.L, from Hopedale, OH, describes what he sees happening to Catholics when one wants divorce, “In the vast majority of cases today, divorce has become an ‘easy out’ to avoid responsibility, pass blame, obtain revenge, or somehow justify problems in the marital relationship or between parents and children.” After Gray reviewed the Vindicate Rights Petition, he says, “The legal and doctrinal foundations for these petitions are well established. In my opinion, unless a petition in a particular case suffers from a defect identified in law, these cases should be accepted and heard. Not doing so would express a departure from the expectations of the Natural Law and the Ordinary Magisterium of the Church.”

Natural laws are the life-principles that we are all ordained to follow, whether we consciously think about it or not. It is natural for every married couple to have disagreements and challenges, but it is not natural for one unsatisfied spouse to force the permanent break-up of his or her own family. Children, by nature know this, and the Vindicate Rights Petition is a way to involve the Catholic Church in keeping families together. Dissatisfied spouses should work on bettering their marriage, rather than abandoning them, and it is time for the Catholic Church to start formally telling them just that.

Requesting the interventions / intercessions / wisdom /guidance /directions /help /assistance of all the SFOs, all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, all the wonderful Saints and angels I regularly entreat assistance from to please ask God and help to continuously,relentlessly,unceasingly, ever more powerfully: re-envigorate/revitalize/ fully restore/ continuously renew all our manufacturing and high tech industries, the entire space program, science and math education plus ever more powerfully pour out infinite vast oceans of: [wisdom,prudence,guidance,directions,help,assistance,[clarity,lucidity,depth of knowledge,know how,understanding] and increasingly [powerfully drive,propel: perfectly,pristinely safe,fully secure, with truly zero harmful emissions, zero harmful spent fuel, zero harmful by-products: [nuclear fussion, fission, gravity antigravity, the ability to extract hydrogen from large bodies of water] sources of energy and [water desalinization & purification] on huge scales, metals and alloys fully capable of easily handling the widest temperature spreads encountered in space flight yet allow interior cabins to remain perfectly cool & safe, the entire space program, biofuels made from sources that do not harm the available food supplies or prices of food- to accomplish all of this. Please also completely and permanantly eradicate,purge,cleanse Sally of every fiber / cell / and form of cancer & associated tumors -indeed all vestiges of such cancer in her and ever more increasingly fully strengthen and continuously revitalize, re-envigorate Sally’s entire overall immune system and enlist it into the battle to provide iron clad protections and defenses for her entire being from all viruses, all harmful bacteria, and all and any from of cancer /tumors etc. Calling on all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, all the Secular Franciscans from earliest beginnings of the order till the end of time, Saints [Padre' Pio, Ven. Solanus Casey, Brother Andre', Mother Theresa, Vincent DePaul, Thesesa of Avila, John of the Cross, Dymptha, Peregrin, the Little Flower, Bernard of Clairveau,Benedict - ever more increasinigly: intercede, intervene, halp, assist, guide, direct so as to assure the fullest realization of all of the above and all my prayers for all the wonderful intentions I regularly lift to almighty Gode -forever. Finally please continuously,relentlessly, unceasingly fully bring to birth and continuously sharpen and hone to ever increasing degrees,levels of perfection, excellance, adeptness, bringing absolute mastery, absolulte command, pristine expertise: in all aspects [down to the finest details] of writing & pruducing truly heavenly guided, directed, inspired: prose, poetry, verse, writings, music, piano, keyboard, organ, rhyme, rhythm, meter, tempo, beat, analogy, punctuation, grammar, syntax, line, timing, character development, place, setting, building an ever more increasingly truly powerful, effective, precission: vocabulary, and a vocabulary of rhyme, symbol, allegory, metaphor, synonyms, homonyms, antonyms, etc.

By chuck
2/11/2012

[…] … great article that everyone should read […]…

When it comes to the internet, our company has found out it is essential to experience a spotlessly clean general web appearance in the world of the web….

Usually composers don’t praise themselves on their own websites, but as long as these compositions are associated with holy events, we can assume that these are not only inspired works of music but have the power to lead not only the Middle East but the world itself in its own humble way towards peace as well. When and if the world is truly saved at some point in time, people should remember and thank this wonderful initiative. That is why it should be preserved for posterity.

If you look at their recent release, many of their claims similar to faith based movements of the past.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *

What part of this do you oppose?

In the tradition of Oscar Romero and Father Roy Bourgeois; we should stand up on behalf of those suffering.

The best “manual” I know of for finding solutions to housework is Home Comforts – the art and science of keeping home by Cheryl Mendelson.

And a book that helped me a decade or two ago (has it been that long?) that is still relevant today: Is there life after Housework – a Revolutionary Approach to Cutting your cleaning time by 75% by Don Aslett.

Of course, after 6 kids, many dogs, homeschooling and many hobbies – I can tell you those books are more emergency aides than guiding my lifestyle.

Of course, after 6 kids, many dogs, homeschooling and many hobbies – I can tell you those books are more emergency aides than guiding my lifestyle.

2.Daughter Asmitha, who is rebellions and violent and fear of cats that peace prevails upon her and she devotes herself to the Catholic faith and Sunday mass and prayers and is blessed with a Catholic God fearing spouse with good jobs.

Yet, most of our RC Bishops remain silent and unresponsive during a time when their bold leadership is needed the most. Catholic news sources would you now please put the spotlight on RC Bishops so that they will be prompted to take positive action too. Hopefully RC Bishops turn away from silence, inaction or even blatant coverups and start to follow Voris’ example and respond to very unpleasant revelations of infidelity within the Church by thoroughly investigating turpitude, addressing these matters publicly, and taking corrective action. Jesus Christ calls the Church Militant to be bold defenders of the faith in thought, word, deed and prayer. Jesus called RC Bishops to be fearless generals on the battlefield leading us in spiritual warfare against “evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Each and every RC Bishop must live up to that calling and for those unable the Pope needs to replace them by Bishops who will. Preventing the loss of souls to satan and hell demands nothing less.

Or is it the less popular opinion but still allowed in the Catholic Church?

Pachomius

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7dXqQTIh3EJZjc1NWUwN2ItOTM1Ni00YTc4LWI2NjctMzVjYzQ1ODE0YTgy&hl=en_US&authkey=CL-orvQC

“Mr.” Corapi was a fraud from the get-go. “Rad Trads,” delighted when he exploited their anger, shamelessly defended him against the bishops to whom Catholics are obliged to pledge their fealty. Now he has betrayed those whom he duped and, more tragically, he has betrayed Christ the High Priest by abandoning the priesthood for what he obviously hopes will amount to big bucks more than thirty pieces of silver. It is time for those who defended this charlatan to apologize to the bishops of our Holy Church.

Would you sing Happy Birthday to someone while at Calvary…at the foot of the cross of Jesus?

Regardless of your answer, it is exactly the same thing. That is if the Church is correct on her teaching about what the Mass is.

“Unfortunately, alongside these lights, there are also shadows. In some places the practice of Eucharistic adoration has been almost completely abandoned. In various parts of the Church abuses have occurred, leading to confusion with regard to sound faith and Catholic doctrine concerning this wonderful sacrament. At times one encounters an extremely reductive understanding of the Eucharistic mystery. Stripped of its sacrificial meaning, it is celebrated as if it were simply a fraternal banquet.” (Blessed John Paul II’s Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, paragraph 10)

“Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority. (Sacrosanctum Concilium, Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, paragraph 22, #3)

I do believe we hurt the environment on a daily basis, however, I do not believe that CO2 is causing Global Warming, climate change or global climate disruption. My reason: Earth is not a closed system and there are unforeseeable variables that man will not see or understand. Yet we can draw up a computer model and claim the debate is over…

Further I want to ask for prayer for Kathi, who is working as an artist as hobby, it would help her a lot if she would get good feedback and find some customers. She does need this kind of support to grow, in faith.

For a close person, to lose weight, out of health reasons.

For Erwin, a lame man who is very angry and trying to hurt others, for deep peace.

For Armin, who left his wife and little children for another woman, for healing of his marriage.

For Julia and Erika, who lead a coworker of mine in a wrong way, to see their own faults, to learn from these. For the grace of becoming christians, for truth and the will to keep their word.

For Bernhard and Alfred, to converse to Jesus, to stop all magic and esotheric things, to stuop betraying others. They got rich by using unfair methods to grow in business.

For the conversion of Margit, Monika, Raimund, Vicky, Hubert and Sabrina. All are without catholic faith, please pray that Jesus may give the grace of conversion, of a good confession and prayer life.

Thank you for all prayers,

Yours sincerely,
W.

Please pray much for them.

Thank you, God bless you,
yours sincerely,
Werner

I wish the Legionaries of Christ would take their magazine back.

Alex

Dear Planet Catholic,

Here is some info about a new documentary in production which be of interest to your many followers and readers! God Bless and Thank you!

Cloistered:God’s Women of Steel is a new documentary about the Nuns at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Al. They pray for the world 24/7.

http://www.cgwosthemovie.com
@cgwosthemovie

Pray for me and my sister for the exam
I am hoping to build a house on my wife’s property .Further I intend to sell my property. I have received a good offer for that. Due to not receiving promotions and stagnated in same position for some time I am trying for new job. Pray for these intentions .Let divine directions come upon me in the name of JUSUS
My wife, daughter (3 years) and I very often fall sick
Pray for our healthiness

We should keep several things in mind.

First, a good priest is concerned for the salvation of souls, not for his own hide. As a good father, he will be concerned with the possible harm to the faithful under his care, rather than with the possible harm to himself as the accused.

Second, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, a person of integrity will request without hesitation being placed in administrative leave until an accusation of this nature is properly investigated.

Third, we should presume the accused innocent until proven guilty and reserve judgments until the investigation of the accusation is complete.

As in ALL these cases, I have always said that if such accusations were ever made against me AND I was innocent, I would challenge my accuser to a polygraph examination alongside myself in a public plaza for everyone to witness. Whenever, I do not see this type of candid and open response, doubts do arise as to the innocence of the accused.

We should pray for a thorough, ethical and fair investigation of the accusations. And we must be prepared to accept the outcome whatever it is.

However, regardless of Fr. Corapi’s guilt or innocence, it will always be just to applaud and give him credit for all the good he has done. You don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Neither do you destroy a man because he succumbed to temptation in a moment of weakness. If he did something wrong he “earned” and should accept the punishment, in the exact same way he “earned” our admiration and applause for the good he has done.

Let us never forget that the failings, shortcomings or sins of a member of the Church, be he a Pope or a layman, do not in the least diminish the holiness of the Church’s teachings nor the validity of the Church’s mission.

Above all, let us keep him, and all our clergy, constantly in our prayers. May Almighty God help them to be virtuous and brave!

Octavio Lima

We should keep several things in mind.

First, a good priest is concerned for the salvation of souls, not for his own hide. As a good father, he will be concerned with the possible harm to the faithful under his care, rather than with the possible harm to himself as the accused.

Second, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, a person of integrity will request without hesitation being placed in administrative leave until an accusation of this nature is properly investigated.

As in ALL these cases, I have always said that if such accusations were ever made against me AND I was innocent, I would challenge my accuser to a polygraph examination alongside myself in a public plaza for everyone to witness. Whenever, I do not see this type of candid and open response, doubts do arise as to the innocence of the accused.

We should pray for a thorough, ethical and fair investigation of the accusations. And we must be prepared to accept the outcome whatever it is.

However, regardless of Fr. Corapi’s guilt or innocence, it will always be just to applaud and give him credit for all the good he has done. You don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Neither do you destroy a man because he succumbed to temptation in a moment of weakness. If he did something wrong he “earned” and should accept the punishment, in the exact same way he “earned” our admiration and applause for the good he has done.

Let us never forget that the failings, shortcomings or sins of a member of the Church, be he a Pope or a layman, do not in the least diminish the holiness of the Church’s teachings nor the validity of the Church’s mission.

Above all, let us keep him, and all our clergy, constantly in our prayers. May Almighty God help them to be virtuous and brave!

Please explain what heterosexual marriages are losing.

Also, I grew up catholic with parents who followed doctrine, I had no attention to my emotional needs after the age of 14, because I was gay and it was taboo. Was I not penalized just for feeling a certain way?
Yet, you think that I was treated “dignity” and that my presence was a “gift”?

It ain’t true, growing up gay is one way to see exactly how unchristian this doctrine is.

Thanks,

Suzanne

PATRICK
4A ANNANAGR
S.PURAM
TRICHY 620020 TN INDIA

FYI. Steve Ray linked to our Comic Series from his blog here… http://www.catholic-convert.com/2010/12/07/7609/

Louis

A pessimist is never disappointed.

A new phenomenon in religion is becoming more prominent as each year passes. It is a syncretist movement aiming at the union of all those who believe in God. This phenomenon goes far beyond the so-called ecumenical movement, which strives to unify all those who call themselves Christian. Before the Roman church took the ecumenical movement seriously, she generally alluded to it disparagingly as pan-Protestantism. The new movement is blessed by some of the hierarchs of the Roman church as the pro Deo (for God) movement.

It is interesting to note in this connection the changing vocabulary of the Vatican. Some recent popes have made much use of the terms Il Padre Commune (“The Common Father”) and La Casa del Padre Commune (“The Father’s House”– the Vatican) in their appeals to bring Christians back home. In establishing this new activity, the Pope now describes Rome as the Patria Commune, the “Common Fatherland” for all believers. However difficult it may be for Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews to regard Rome as their “common fatherland,” the idea is that a new secretariat will make them feel that they now “belong.”

The activities of the pro Deo group, which no doubt pave the way for a new secretariat, seem to have been chiefly confined to organising international banquets, called agapes or love-feasts, thereby changing the character of the meetings of the early Christians, which were certainly closed to non-Christians.

Fraternising With The East

To those familiar with the history of the Roman Catholic missions in recent centuries, the idea of fraternising with oriental religions is not completely new. Throughout the seventeenth century and well into the eighteenth a bitter controversy raged between certain Jesuit missionaries and their opponents about what is sometimes called “Chinese rites.” In fact, the desire to transform Catholicism into an oriental cult, though within certain limits, began with the Jesuit missionary De Nobili (1577–1656) early in the seventeenth century. He assumed the saffron robe of the monk, observed Brahmanic rites and fasts, and tried to be as much like a Brahman as possible. In China the Jesuit missionaries later attempted to use similar methods in order to make themselves as completely oriental as possible.

Despite fierce opposition, the methods of De Nobili were approved for a time. But all these attempts to “naturalise” Roman missions in the East were finally suppressed by the bull of Pope Benedict XIV (1675-1758), Omium Sollicitudinem, in 1744. After this decree, the Roman missions in the East were destined to become like so many Latin colonies planted on foreign soil. This has often been deplored in modern times, and no doubt the recent Vatican approach may be seen as a return to the “assimilation” attempts of previous centuries.

Evangelicals do not always realise how spiritually satisfying to some Roman Catholic intellectuals is the idea of assimilating and adapting all human cultures–and to some extent all religions–inside one vast theocratic Roman Catholic Church. Karl Adam (1876–1966) in his Spirit of Catholicism (1954) has tried to show how much this is a part of the modern Roman Weltanshauung.

An increased impetus in this direction comes from a growing consciousness that the Catholic-Protestant divisions seem to be lessening and that many world cultures are still outside the range of Catholicism, especially of a Catholicism identified with Western culture. Some have begun to ask if African and Asiatic cultures might have something in their philosophy, theology, and mysticism, as well as in the less difficult fields of music and art, that might be included under the name “Catholic.” Certain Roman apologists might boldly assert that these cultures “belong” to the Catholic idea.

Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), chiefly through his posthumous book, The Phenomenon of Man (1955), has become the prophet of a new evolutionary outlook, centering the climax of world development in the formation of a new creation in Christ. This would imply for some– among them, no doubt, Arnold Toynbee (1889–1975) with his synthesis of world history– the idea of a convergence of religions, however repellent this might seem to many.

I first came upon this extension of ecumenism into pan-deism among some Roman Catholic scholars interested primarily in the “reunion of the churches,” Roman, Orthodox, Anglican. This was just before Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) brought out his encyclical, Mortalium Animos (1928) which was seemingly directed against the World Council of Churches and the ecumenical movement generally. These were condemned as “pan-Protestantism.” Yet even then a number of Roman scholares had already made public the idea that the Church Catholic is “Jewish, is Moslem, is Buddhist, is Taoist.” The idea behind this was the concept of a true catholic or universal order of religion that must be able to include the highest aspirations and achievements of all religions and cultures. It was felt that the same ecumenical spirit that sought to bring together the historically separated Christian churches should be able to reach out the religions of Asia, of Africa through Islam, and to the Jewish diaspora.

An obvious bond with Jews and Muslims through the Old Testament was recognised. The “Our Father” of the Christian was also the God of the Jews and the Allah of the Muslims. It was explained that to unite with Hindus and Buddhists, Christians should explore the hidden reality– the “ultimate reality,” the infinite, the absolute, the everlasting, the all-pervading spirit that marks the religious experience of the Orient. Many felt that Western culture has lost the sense of a living and inspiring presence in intimate religious experience and “knowing,” because this is not regarded as something for the ordinary believer but is rather the privilege of an esoteric few, called “mystics.” Some religious observers in the Roman church have believed that just as contact with non-Roman churches might have a salutary and broadening influence on many Roman Catholics, so also for people of Western culture, contact with the religious experience of the East might lead to the vitalising effects of the “inner light” and the “inner presence,” which seem so essential a part of the oriental religious outlook.

Surprisingly, some have seriously declared that this universal outreach should include even atheists, on the plea that many so-called atheists are in reality seekers after God in their own perverse way.

What Is The Goal

We may perhaps ask what is the ultimate aim of the Curia in promoting the pan-deist movement. Undoubtedly, certain Roman Catholic thinkers have a sincere desire to promote greater unity and peace in the world. Such thinkers envisage ecumenism as a fulfillment of Christ’s prayer, “That they all may be one.” Their beliefs and education convince them that unity implies submission to one authority, and this submission is taken to be a divine mandate to include everybody in the one sheepfold of the pope. The same thinkers accept as a natural prerogative Rome’s promotion of world unity by any religious means whatever. Thus they do not necessarily discern in Rome’s ecumenism and pan-deism a project for world dominion. Yet this danger certainly exists.

Evangelicals should remember that the bull of Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam (1302), still exists and is generally taught as an infallible utterance in Roman seminaries. In this bull the pope proclaimed that to attain salvation every soul must be subject to the Roman pontiff. He also promulgated the doctrine of the “two swords”– the spiritual and temporal– by which he affirmed the the pope as vicar of Christ had supreme power not only in religion but in all things temporal.

And finally, evangelicals should not forget that the basic justification for the world ambitions of the papacy as interpreted by the Curia is still a misinterpretation of Jeremiah 1:10:
“See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.”

A new phenomenon in religion is becoming more prominent as each year passes. It is a syncretist movement aiming at the union of all those who believe in God. This phenomenon goes far beyond the so-called ecumenical movement, which strives to unify all those who call themselves Christian. Before the Roman church took the ecumenical movement seriously, she generally alluded to it disparagingly as pan-Protestantism. The new movement is blessed by some of the hierarchs of the Roman church as the pro Deo (for God) movement.

It is interesting to note in this connection the changing vocabulary of the Vatican. Some recent popes have made much use of the terms Il Padre Commune (“The Common Father”) and La Casa del Padre Commune (“The Father’s House”– the Vatican) in their appeals to bring Christians back home. In establishing this new activity, the Pope now describes Rome as the Patria Commune, the “Common Fatherland” for all believers. However difficult it may be for Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews to regard Rome as their “common fatherland,” the idea is that a new secretariat will make them feel that they now “belong.”

The activities of the pro Deo group, which no doubt pave the way for a new secretariat, seem to have been chiefly confined to organising international banquets, called agapes or love-feasts, thereby changing the character of the meetings of the early Christians, which were certainly closed to non-Christians.

Fraternising With The East

To those familiar with the history of the Roman Catholic missions in recent centuries, the idea of fraternising with oriental religions is not completely new. Throughout the seventeenth century and well into the eighteenth a bitter controversy raged between certain Jesuit missionaries and their opponents about what is sometimes called “Chinese rites.” In fact, the desire to transform Catholicism into an oriental cult, though within certain limits, began with the Jesuit missionary De Nobili (1577–1656) early in the seventeenth century. He assumed the saffron robe of the monk, observed Brahmanic rites and fasts, and tried to be as much like a Brahman as possible. In China the Jesuit missionaries later attempted to use similar methods in order to make themselves as completely oriental as possible.

Despite fierce opposition, the methods of De Nobili were approved for a time. But all these attempts to “naturalise” Roman missions in the East were finally suppressed by the bull of Pope Benedict XIV (1675-1758), Omium Sollicitudinem, in 1744. After this decree, the Roman missions in the East were destined to become like so many Latin colonies planted on foreign soil. This has often been deplored in modern times, and no doubt the recent Vatican approach may be seen as a return to the “assimilation” attempts of previous centuries.

Evangelicals do not always realise how spiritually satisfying to some Roman Catholic intellectuals is the idea of assimilating and adapting all human cultures–and to some extent all religions–inside one vast theocratic Roman Catholic Church. Karl Adam (1876–1966) in his Spirit of Catholicism (1954) has tried to show how much this is a part of the modern Roman Weltanshauung.

An increased impetus in this direction comes from a growing consciousness that the Catholic-Protestant divisions seem to be lessening and that many world cultures are still outside the range of Catholicism, especially of a Catholicism identified with Western culture. Some have begun to ask if African and Asiatic cultures might have something in their philosophy, theology, and mysticism, as well as in the less difficult fields of music and art, that might be included under the name “Catholic.” Certain Roman apologists might boldly assert that these cultures “belong” to the Catholic idea.

Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), chiefly through his posthumous book, The Phenomenon of Man (1955), has become the prophet of a new evolutionary outlook, centering the climax of world development in the formation of a new creation in Christ. This would imply for some– among them, no doubt, Arnold Toynbee (1889–1975) with his synthesis of world history– the idea of a convergence of religions, however repellent this might seem to many.

I first came upon this extension of ecumenism into pan-deism among some Roman Catholic scholars interested primarily in the “reunion of the churches,” Roman, Orthodox, Anglican. This was just before Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) brought out his encyclical, Mortalium Animos (1928) which was seemingly directed against the World Council of Churches and the ecumenical movement generally. These were condemned as “pan-Protestantism.” Yet even then a number of Roman scholares had already made public the idea that the Church Catholic is “Jewish, is Moslem, is Buddhist, is Taoist.” The idea behind this was the concept of a true catholic or universal order of religion that must be able to include the highest aspirations and achievements of all religions and cultures. It was felt that the same ecumenical spirit that sought to bring together the historically separated Christian churches should be able to reach out the religions of Asia, of Africa through Islam, and to the Jewish diaspora.

An obvious bond with Jews and Muslims through the Old Testament was recognised. The “Our Father” of the Christian was also the God of the Jews and the Allah of the Muslims. It was explained that to unite with Hindus and Buddhists, Christians should explore the hidden reality– the “ultimate reality,” the infinite, the absolute, the everlasting, the all-pervading spirit that marks the religious experience of the Orient. Many felt that Western culture has lost the sense of a living and inspiring presence in intimate religious experience and “knowing,” because this is not regarded as something for the ordinary believer but is rather the privilege of an esoteric few, called “mystics.” Some religious observers in the Roman church have believed that just as contact with non-Roman churches might have a salutary and broadening influence on many Roman Catholics, so also for people of Western culture, contact with the religious experience of the East might lead to the vitalising effects of the “inner light” and the “inner presence,” which seem so essential a part of the oriental religious outlook.

Surprisingly, some have seriously declared that this universal outreach should include even atheists, on the plea that many so-called atheists are in reality seekers after God in their own perverse way.

What Is The Goal

We may perhaps ask what is the ultimate aim of the Curia in promoting the pan-deist movement. Undoubtedly, certain Roman Catholic thinkers have a sincere desire to promote greater unity and peace in the world. Such thinkers envisage ecumenism as a fulfillment of Christ’s prayer, “That they all may be one.” Their beliefs and education convince them that unity implies submission to one authority, and this submission is taken to be a divine mandate to include everybody in the one sheepfold of the pope. The same thinkers accept as a natural prerogative Rome’s promotion of world unity by any religious means whatever. Thus they do not necessarily discern in Rome’s ecumenism and pan-deism a project for world dominion. Yet this danger certainly exists.

Evangelicals should remember that the bull of Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam (1302), still exists and is generally taught as an infallible utterance in Roman seminaries. In this bull the pope proclaimed that to attain salvation every soul must be subject to the Roman pontiff. He also promulgated the doctrine of the “two swords”– the spiritual and temporal– by which he affirmed the the pope as vicar of Christ had supreme power not only in religion but in all things temporal.

And finally, evangelicals should not forget that the basic justification for the world ambitions of the papacy as interpreted by the Curia is still a misinterpretation of Jeremiah 1:10:
“See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.”

We just attended Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Sylva,
North Carolina. Our son in law teaches at the Cherokee Indian School in Cherokee. It is so beautiful there this time of year. I have been to a retreat at Maggie Valley, and I will be praying that the time there is fruitful and restorative for all of you. God bless you.

All my love in the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Joan Haselman
http://www.familyland.org
http://www.ourladyofamerica.org

John 5:47 But if you don’t Believe his writings, how will you Believe my words?”

John 6:29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you Believe in Him whom He has sent.”
John 6:69 We have come to Believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”