Let us heed Our Lady’s message, let us grant her requests, in order to hasten the triumph of her Immaculate Heart. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone The following homily, “Fatima: A Call to Spiritual Arms for the Salvation and Peace of the World,” was delivered by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on Oct. 7 as he consecrated the Archdiocese of San Francisco to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Introduction At this significant moment in world history, as we mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, understandably, much attention has been given to this supernatural phenomenon. I believe, though, that it is easy for us to get distracted by the sensational elements of this apparition: predictions of wars and disasters, a dancing sun, a vision of hell. We are easily intrigued with that part of the story, perhaps so much so that we miss the whole point of it, which, of course, is the message itself. A Vision of Hell and the Last 100 Years The vision of hell is a well-known moment in the story of the Fatima apparitions: the three shepherd children saw souls tormented there with agony beyond description, a vision so horrible and gruesome that they shrieked out loud with fear. It was immediately after this vision that our Lady asked for the spreading of devotion to her Immaculate Heart. Now, there are some, I’m sure, who might want to dismiss all of this as fanciful; there are even some who deny the very existence of hell. But if we think about what has transpired over these last 100 years since the revelation of this message, coupled with our failure to heed it, does it not tell us that the century through which we have just passed was nothing other than an experience of hell? To be sure, in many ways there has been great progress over the past century: one thinks immediately of improvements in technology that have increased ease and speed of communication, commerce and travel; progress in the treatment and alleviation of physical and mental illness; progress in civil rights. Yet, there have also been horrendous setbacks in other areas, and even in those very areas where progress had been made. If we think about the century we are now concluding, does it not show itself to be one that in so many ways has been a living reflection of hell, one that on so many fronts has roundly mocked God? The examples are too numerous to list here, but many come to mind immediately, beginning with two great wars that enveloped the entire world in violence and bloodshed. There have been the death camps and the genocides – not genocide, but genosides – most notoriously, the one perpetrated against the people God first chose to be His own. Who would dare to say that such barbarity is not a mocking of God? It is a century that produced the most brutal regimes in world history, and all over the face of the earth. And then there is the persecution of the Church in every decade of this century and all over the world, and now the oppression and extermination of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East and elsewhere, whose pleas for protection and justice from the international community fall on deaf ears. But we do not have to look so far away in time and space. Still fresh in our minds and heavy on our hearts are victims of the atrocity in Las Vegas just a few days ago, which tragically is only the latest and most devastating mass shooting in a whole string of such senseless violence in our country for many years now. And then there is the attack on innocent human life: our own land has been soiled by the blood of innocent children in what has become a deadly epidemic tantamount to a genocide on life in the womb; and now we are increasingly witnessing the abandonment of our suffering brothers and sisters at the other end of life’s journey. And even in our own city of St. Francis, we see in our streets people suffering from the ravages of addiction and mental illness, as well as the celebration and even exaltation of the vulgar and the blasphemous, mocking God’s beautiful plan in how He created us, in our very bodies, for communion with one another and Himself. God is roundly mocked in our very streets, and it is met with approval and applause in our community – and yet, we remain silent. What is happening to our world? In so many different ways, what was once unthinkable has become routine. The century since the Fatima apparitions now ending has mocked God, but God will not be mocked: not because He delights in wreaking vengeance on us, but because turning our backs on God only bounces back to us, leading to our own self-destruction. Now, one might argue that all this has happened, not because people are more morally depraved in our time than in times past, but rather because modern means of perpetrating violence, destruction and moral depravity are much more sophisticated and massive now than in times past. This may well be true, but if so, it points all the more to our need to heed the message of Fatima in imploring God for mercy. Our Advocate So we turn to our Lady, for at the root of all of this suffering and devastation is a spiritual disease, which, contrary to the physical and mental kind, has grown in our time and been largely left untreated. It is the disease that dethrones God and replaces Him with the “autonomous self,” making the self out to be God, creating one’s own reality for oneself. It is a disease that refuses to recognize God’s Son, Jesus Christ, as the ultimate truth and perfect icon of love. So, yes, we turn to our Lady. Now, we don’t need Mary to point the way to Christ for us. We know where he is: he’s in the tabernacle, in the sacraments, in his word, he is present in the Church. Rather, what we need is someone to pick us up and carry us to him, because we are too weak to get there on our own. And so, as Mary had a special role in mothering God’s Son, so she has a special role in mothering us into life in her Son. This twofold ministry of the maternity of our Lady – in the life of her Son and in the life of his believers – was explained insightfully by Pope St. John Paul II in his encyclical letter Mother of the Redeemer(n. 24): … there is a unique correspondence between the moment of the Incarnation of the Word and the moment of the birth of the Church. The person who links these two moments is Mary: Mary at Nazareth and Mary in the Upper Room at Jerusalem… Thus she who is present in the mystery of Christ as Mother becomes – by the will of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit – present in the mystery of the Church. In the Church too she continues to be a maternal presence, as is shown by the words spoken from the Cross: ‘Woman, behold your son!’; ‘Behold, your mother.’ In her maternal presence, Mary is there to advocate for us. We see this in a subtle depiction in the image of our Lady of Fatima. At the bottom of her robe is a star. The star can be seen as a reference to Esther in the Old Testament, whose name means “star.” Esther is the one who pleaded with the Persian king to spare the life of her people, and at great risk to her own life. The king, who had taken her as his queen, was deceived into issuing a decree ordering a massacre of the Jewish people, and in order to ask him to spare her people she had to reveal to him her Jewish identity. By her pleading with the king she saved her people. Our Lady, Star of the New Evangelization, likewise does not cease to plead for us to our King, just as she did for the poor newly married couple at Cana. This is not because we would be treated harshly by her Son if we were to approach him directly. No; rather, we must recognize that God will deal with us in strict justice unless we ask for mercy. God wants us to ask for mercy, and He wants us to ask the Mother of His Son to help us, just as she helped that couple at Cana. Heeding the Requests and the Next 100 Years For 100 years we ignored the message of Fatima; or, perhaps, it is not so much the message we ignored, for we are well aware of the warnings and the history that resulted. Rather, it is the requests we ignored. But we cannot afford to do so any longer. We have to pay attention. We have to do what she told the waiters at Cana: do whatever he tells you. And what does Christ tell us to do? He reveals this in the requests our Lady made at Fatima. It is now time to heed those requests. We might not have the power to change world history, but we can change what happens in our own families and communities if we heed the message. This next century can be radically different from the last one, but only if we heed the message and respond to the requests. Which means that what we are doing today cannot be relegated to being simply a moving event and pleasant memory in the history of our Archdiocese. Far from being something we check off on a to-do list, what we are about today is nothing less than a call to arms: to spiritual arms. We are living in a time and place of intense spiritual battle, and only in taking up spiritual arms will we alleviate the spiritual disease that is at the root of so much of the physical and mental suffering in the world today. It is time to leave the sensational aside, and respond to the requests of our Lady at Fatima. What did she ask us to do? It should come as no surprise, because it is the central part of her message wherever and whenever she appears: prayer, penance and adoration. And she was very clear at Fatima about the twofold purpose of this request: to save souls from hell, and to establish peace in the world. The message of Fatima was not only about the temporal order but, above all, the eternal order. In both orders, the stakes could not be higher: world peace and eternal salvation! I therefore call on all of the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to take to heart this threefold recipe for peace and salvation, as our Lady has asked us. A Program of Action First of all, prayer: our Lady has asked us specifically to pray the Rosary daily. I ask every Catholic in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, if you are not doing so already, to pray the Rosary every day. And I ask all families to pray the Rosary together at least once a week. Appropriately enough, we celebrate this Mass of Consecration of our Archdiocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, a poignant reminder to us of the power of the Rosary to bring about peace and even to change the course of world history. It can certainly, then, change the course of history in our own families and communities. Penance: most especially we must take up the spiritual arm of penance, for it is a powerful weapon in our spiritual arsenal that we have woefully ignored for far too long. The reform of the discipline of penitential practice in the Church, far from denying the importance of it, was meant to instill a more mature spirit of appropriating this hallmark of Christian life in the life of the individual believer. In particular, Fridays are still days of penance, as they always have been in the Church, going back to apostolic times. The faithful, though, may now choose to do some other form of fasting in place of the traditional practice of abstaining from eating meat if such a penance would be for them a greater sacrifice. I ask every Catholic in the Archdiocese of San Francisco to dedicate Friday as a day of penance in honor of the day that our Lord died for us, selecting one concrete form of bodily fasting to observe on this day, whether that be abstaining from meat or another type of food or from some type of drink they normally enjoy, or omitting a meal altogether. Our penitential practices, too, are meant to lead us to have more serious and frequent recourse to the sacrament of Penance. There can be no spiritual revival, and especially a revival of Eucharistic devotion, without a renewal in our practice of the sacrament of Reconciliation. I call on all of the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to increase the sincerity and frequency with which they avail themselves of this sacrament, and, as a minimum, to confess their sins in the sacrament at least once a month. Adoration: our Lady advocates for us, she picks us up, in order to bring us to her Son. All of our devotion, just as all of our penitential practices, must lead to adoration of God. The adoration our Lady asks for is meant to purify us of our inclinations to worship the false gods of contemporary society, and to give ourselves over to single-hearted worship of the one, true God. As Lucia said in reflecting back on her childhood experiences of receiving the revelations at Fatima: “… our adoration must be a hymn of perfect praise, because, even before we came into being, God was already loving us, and was moved by this love to give us our being.” Our consecration must therefore also bring about a renewal of our love for, and devotion to, our Lord in the most Blessed Sacrament. I ask every Catholic in the Archdiocese of San Francisco to dedicate some time each week to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. If it is not possible during the week, take some time before or after Sunday Mass to pray on your knees before our Lord present in the tabernacle. At least some time every week praying before the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – will fulfill his desire that we ask him for mercy. And of course, our Lady also asked us to observe the devotion of the First Five Saturdays, precisely right after the children received the vision of hell, when she also asked for devotion to her Immaculate Heart. The devotion consists of attending Mass and receiving Communion in reparation for sins on five consecutive first Saturdays of the month shortly after or before going to Confession, and spending a quarter of an hour praying five decades of the Rosary. Again we see our Lady’s concern to assist us in attaining eternal salvation: the point of the devotion is to make reparation for sins, especially the sin of blasphemy. I ask all of our faithful to make the First Five Saturdays a priority in their devotional life by observing it once a year. From Darkness to Light In the first reading for our Mass today, the prophet Isaiah speaks of the people who walked in darkness seeing a great light, the light that is the joy of God’s salvation. God came to the aid of His people by destroying the instruments of Assyrian oppression and sending them a king to free them. Praying the Rosary, bodily fasting, and adoration of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament: these are the spiritual arms of God that will destroy the spiritual oppression that has marred the last 100 years of world history, and that will bring us God’s mercy, the mercy that is world peace and eternal salvation. There is one more very important thing our Lady told the children after their vision of hell, not a request, but a promise: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Let us heed her message, let us grant her requests, in order to hasten that triumph, that triumph which is that of her Son over death, for she is inseparably linked to her Son, who came to win for us our eternal salvation. Her Immaculate Heart is the door that opens up for us entrance into that triumph. It is through that door that we walk from the darkness of sin and death to the light of Christ’s truth and mercy. There it is, on the other side of that door, a glorious, vast, light-filled paradise that is heaven. Her heart is the gate of heaven. Conclusion And so, appropriately, we will conclude our prayer today, after Mass, Procession and the Act of Consecration, with Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Mary is always there to pick us up and carry us to her Son; she wants to take us through her maternal heart from the darkness in which we walk to the light of her Son, and her Son wants us to allow her to do so. Let us then do that, by obeying her request to do whatever he tells us. That is, let us grant her requests, so that we may always keep our eyes fixed on him, her Son, the Son of God and Savior of the world. And so let us conclude these reflections Come then, good Shepherd, bread divine,Still show to us thy mercy sign ;Oh, feed us, still keep us thine;So we may see thy glories shine in fields of immortality. O thou, the wisest, mightiest, best,Our present food, our future rest, Come, make us each thy chosen guest,Co-heirs of thine, and comrades blest With saints whose dwelling is with thee. [Amen.]today by making our own the words of Saint ( Amen.)Thomas Aquinas, as cited by Pope St. John Paul II in his conclusion to his encyclical on the Eucharist, turning, as the saintly Pope exhorts us, “in hope to the contemplation of that goal to which our hearts aspire in their thirst for joy and peace”: #News

Let us heed Our Lady’s message, let us grant her requests, in order to hasten the triumph of her Immaculate Heart. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone The following homily, “Fatima: A Call to Spiritual Arms for the Salvation and Peace of the World,” was delivered by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on Oct. 7 as he consecrated the Archdiocese of San Francisco to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Introduction At this significant moment in world history, as we mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, understandably, much attention has been given to this supernatural phenomenon. I believe, though, that it is easy for us to get distracted by the sensational elements of this apparition: predictions of wars and disasters, a dancing sun, a vision of hell. We are easily intrigued with that part of the story, perhaps so much so that we miss the whole point of it, which, of course, is the message itself. A Vision of Hell and the Last 100 Years The vision of hell is a well-known moment in the story of the Fatima apparitions: the three shepherd children saw souls tormented there with agony beyond description, a vision so horrible and gruesome that they shrieked out loud with fear. It was immediately after this vision that our Lady asked for the spreading of devotion to her Immaculate Heart. Now, there are some, I’m sure, who might want to dismiss all of this as fanciful; there are even some who deny the very existence of hell. But if we think about what has transpired over these last 100 years since the revelation of this message, coupled with our failure to heed it, does it not tell us that the century through which we have just passed was nothing other than an experience of hell? To be sure, in many ways there has been great progress over the past century: one thinks immediately of improvements in technology that have increased ease and speed of communication, commerce and travel; progress in the treatment and alleviation of physical and mental illness; progress in civil rights. Yet, there have also been horrendous setbacks in other areas, and even in those very areas where progress had been made. If we think about the century we are now concluding, does it not show itself to be one that in so many ways has been a living reflection of hell, one that on so many fronts has roundly mocked God? The examples are too numerous to list here, but many come to mind immediately, beginning with two great wars that enveloped the entire world in violence and bloodshed. There have been the death camps and the genocides – not genocide, but genosides – most notoriously, the one perpetrated against the people God first chose to be His own. Who would dare to say that such barbarity is not a mocking of God? It is a century that produced the most brutal regimes in world history, and all over the face of the earth. And then there is the persecution of the Church in every decade of this century and all over the world, and now the oppression and extermination of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East and elsewhere, whose pleas for protection and justice from the international community fall on deaf ears. But we do not have to look so far away in time and space. Still fresh in our minds and heavy on our hearts are victims of the atrocity in Las Vegas just a few days ago, which tragically is only the latest and most devastating mass shooting in a whole string of such senseless violence in our country for many years now. And then there is the attack on innocent human life: our own land has been soiled by the blood of innocent children in what has become a deadly epidemic tantamount to a genocide on life in the womb; and now we are increasingly witnessing the abandonment of our suffering brothers and sisters at the other end of life’s journey. And even in our own city of St. Francis, we see in our streets people suffering from the ravages of addiction and mental illness, as well as the celebration and even exaltation of the vulgar and the blasphemous, mocking God’s beautiful plan in how He created us, in our very bodies, for communion with one another and Himself. God is roundly mocked in our very streets, and it is met with approval and applause in our community – and yet, we remain silent. What is happening to our world? In so many different ways, what was once unthinkable has become routine. The century since the Fatima apparitions now ending has mocked God, but God will not be mocked: not because He delights in wreaking vengeance on us, but because turning our backs on God only bounces back to us, leading to our own self-destruction. Now, one might argue that all this has happened, not because people are more morally depraved in our time than in times past, but rather because modern means of perpetrating violence, destruction and moral depravity are much more sophisticated and massive now than in times past. This may well be true, but if so, it points all the more to our need to heed the message of Fatima in imploring God for mercy. Our Advocate So we turn to our Lady, for at the root of all of this suffering and devastation is a spiritual disease, which, contrary to the physical and mental kind, has grown in our time and been largely left untreated. It is the disease that dethrones God and replaces Him with the “autonomous self,” making the self out to be God, creating one’s own reality for oneself. It is a disease that refuses to recognize God’s Son, Jesus Christ, as the ultimate truth and perfect icon of love. So, yes, we turn to our Lady. Now, we don’t need Mary to point the way to Christ for us. We know where he is: he’s in the tabernacle, in the sacraments, in his word, he is present in the Church. Rather, what we need is someone to pick us up and carry us to him, because we are too weak to get there on our own. And so, as Mary had a special role in mothering God’s Son, so she has a special role in mothering us into life in her Son. This twofold ministry of the maternity of our Lady – in the life of her Son and in the life of his believers – was explained insightfully by Pope St. John Paul II in his encyclical letter Mother of the Redeemer(n. 24): … there is a unique correspondence between the moment of the Incarnation of the Word and the moment of the birth of the Church. The person who links these two moments is Mary: Mary at Nazareth and Mary in the Upper Room at Jerusalem… Thus she who is present in the mystery of Christ as Mother becomes – by the will of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit – present in the mystery of the Church. In the Church too she continues to be a maternal presence, as is shown by the words spoken from the Cross: ‘Woman, behold your son!’; ‘Behold, your mother.’ In her maternal presence, Mary is there to advocate for us. We see this in a subtle depiction in the image of our Lady of Fatima. At the bottom of her robe is a star. The star can be seen as a reference to Esther in the Old Testament, whose name means “star.” Esther is the one who pleaded with the Persian king to spare the life of her people, and at great risk to her own life. The king, who had taken her as his queen, was deceived into issuing a decree ordering a massacre of the Jewish people, and in order to ask him to spare her people she had to reveal to him her Jewish identity. By her pleading with the king she saved her people. Our Lady, Star of the New Evangelization, likewise does not cease to plead for us to our King, just as she did for the poor newly married couple at Cana. This is not because we would be treated harshly by her Son if we were to approach him directly. No; rather, we must recognize that God will deal with us in strict justice unless we ask for mercy. God wants us to ask for mercy, and He wants us to ask the Mother of His Son to help us, just as she helped that couple at Cana. Heeding the Requests and the Next 100 Years For 100 years we ignored the message of Fatima; or, perhaps, it is not so much the message we ignored, for we are well aware of the warnings and the history that resulted. Rather, it is the requests we ignored. But we cannot afford to do so any longer. We have to pay attention. We have to do what she told the waiters at Cana: do whatever he tells you. And what does Christ tell us to do? He reveals this in the requests our Lady made at Fatima. It is now time to heed those requests. We might not have the power to change world history, but we can change what happens in our own families and communities if we heed the message. This next century can be radically different from the last one, but only if we heed the message and respond to the requests. Which means that what we are doing today cannot be relegated to being simply a moving event and pleasant memory in the history of our Archdiocese. Far from being something we check off on a to-do list, what we are about today is nothing less than a call to arms: to spiritual arms. We are living in a time and place of intense spiritual battle, and only in taking up spiritual arms will we alleviate the spiritual disease that is at the root of so much of the physical and mental suffering in the world today. It is time to leave the sensational aside, and respond to the requests of our Lady at Fatima. What did she ask us to do? It should come as no surprise, because it is the central part of her message wherever and whenever she appears: prayer, penance and adoration. And she was very clear at Fatima about the twofold purpose of this request: to save souls from hell, and to establish peace in the world. The message of Fatima was not only about the temporal order but, above all, the eternal order. In both orders, the stakes could not be higher: world peace and eternal salvation! I therefore call on all of the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to take to heart this threefold recipe for peace and salvation, as our Lady has asked us. A Program of Action First of all, prayer: our Lady has asked us specifically to pray the Rosary daily. I ask every Catholic in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, if you are not doing so already, to pray the Rosary every day. And I ask all families to pray the Rosary together at least once a week. Appropriately enough, we celebrate this Mass of Consecration of our Archdiocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, a poignant reminder to us of the power of the Rosary to bring about peace and even to change the course of world history. It can certainly, then, change the course of history in our own families and communities. Penance: most especially we must take up the spiritual arm of penance, for it is a powerful weapon in our spiritual arsenal that we have woefully ignored for far too long. The reform of the discipline of penitential practice in the Church, far from denying the importance of it, was meant to instill a more mature spirit of appropriating this hallmark of Christian life in the life of the individual believer. In particular, Fridays are still days of penance, as they always have been in the Church, going back to apostolic times. The faithful, though, may now choose to do some other form of fasting in place of the traditional practice of abstaining from eating meat if such a penance would be for them a greater sacrifice. I ask every Catholic in the Archdiocese of San Francisco to dedicate Friday as a day of penance in honor of the day that our Lord died for us, selecting one concrete form of bodily fasting to observe on this day, whether that be abstaining from meat or another type of food or from some type of drink they normally enjoy, or omitting a meal altogether. Our penitential practices, too, are meant to lead us to have more serious and frequent recourse to the sacrament of Penance. There can be no spiritual revival, and especially a revival of Eucharistic devotion, without a renewal in our practice of the sacrament of Reconciliation. I call on all of the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to increase the sincerity and frequency with which they avail themselves of this sacrament, and, as a minimum, to confess their sins in the sacrament at least once a month. Adoration: our Lady advocates for us, she picks us up, in order to bring us to her Son. All of our devotion, just as all of our penitential practices, must lead to adoration of God. The adoration our Lady asks for is meant to purify us of our inclinations to worship the false gods of contemporary society, and to give ourselves over to single-hearted worship of the one, true God. As Lucia said in reflecting back on her childhood experiences of receiving the revelations at Fatima: “… our adoration must be a hymn of perfect praise, because, even before we came into being, God was already loving us, and was moved by this love to give us our being.” Our consecration must therefore also bring about a renewal of our love for, and devotion to, our Lord in the most Blessed Sacrament. I ask every Catholic in the Archdiocese of San Francisco to dedicate some time each week to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. If it is not possible during the week, take some time before or after Sunday Mass to pray on your knees before our Lord present in the tabernacle. At least some time every week praying before the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – will fulfill his desire that we ask him for mercy. And of course, our Lady also asked us to observe the devotion of the First Five Saturdays, precisely right after the children received the vision of hell, when she also asked for devotion to her Immaculate Heart. The devotion consists of attending Mass and receiving Communion in reparation for sins on five consecutive first Saturdays of the month shortly after or before going to Confession, and spending a quarter of an hour praying five decades of the Rosary. Again we see our Lady’s concern to assist us in attaining eternal salvation: the point of the devotion is to make reparation for sins, especially the sin of blasphemy. I ask all of our faithful to make the First Five Saturdays a priority in their devotional life by observing it once a year. From Darkness to Light In the first reading for our Mass today, the prophet Isaiah speaks of the people who walked in darkness seeing a great light, the light that is the joy of God’s salvation. God came to the aid of His people by destroying the instruments of Assyrian oppression and sending them a king to free them. Praying the Rosary, bodily fasting, and adoration of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament: these are the spiritual arms of God that will destroy the spiritual oppression that has marred the last 100 years of world history, and that will bring us God’s mercy, the mercy that is world peace and eternal salvation. There is one more very important thing our Lady told the children after their vision of hell, not a request, but a promise: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Let us heed her message, let us grant her requests, in order to hasten that triumph, that triumph which is that of her Son over death, for she is inseparably linked to her Son, who came to win for us our eternal salvation. Her Immaculate Heart is the door that opens up for us entrance into that triumph. It is through that door that we walk from the darkness of sin and death to the light of Christ’s truth and mercy. There it is, on the other side of that door, a glorious, vast, light-filled paradise that is heaven. Her heart is the gate of heaven. Conclusion And so, appropriately, we will conclude our prayer today, after Mass, Procession and the Act of Consecration, with Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Mary is always there to pick us up and carry us to her Son; she wants to take us through her maternal heart from the darkness in which we walk to the light of her Son, and her Son wants us to allow her to do so. Let us then do that, by obeying her request to do whatever he tells us. That is, let us grant her requests, so that we may always keep our eyes fixed on him, her Son, the Son of God and Savior of the world. And so let us conclude these reflections Come then, good Shepherd, bread divine,Still show to us thy mercy sign ;Oh, feed us, still keep us thine;So we may see thy glories shine in fields of immortality. O thou, the wisest, mightiest, best,Our present food, our future rest, Come, make us each thy chosen guest,Co-heirs of thine, and comrades blest With saints whose dwelling is with thee. [Amen.]today by making our own the words of Saint ( Amen.)Thomas Aquinas, as cited by Pope St. John Paul II in his conclusion to his encyclical on the Eucharist, turning, as the saintly Pope exhorts us, “in hope to the contemplation of that goal to which our hearts aspire in their thirst for joy and peace”: #News

October 6, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life leaders praised the Trump administration’s “ray of sunshine” today ending an Obama-era federal requirement that religious employers participate in the provision of their employees’ contraceptives and abortifacient drugs. “At a very high level, this appears to be a common-sense, balanced rule and a great step forward for religious liberty,” Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at Becket (formerly the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty) and lead attorney for the Little Sisters of the Poor, told reporters on a call. “The rule is great, at least what I can glean of it in the first hour,” said Riezni. Today’s new rules don’t end the lawsuits religious employers brought against the government for violating their rights. But “given what the government is admitting in this document,” it seems unlikely the Trump Department of Justice will continue fighting groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, said Rienzi. Hopefully, he said, a final court order will be issued applying the new guidelines, and the issue will be put to rest. Rienzi explained that with this new rule, the federal government admitted it broke the law by trying to place an undue burden on the free exercise of religion. “This was always a big, unnecessary, and divisive culture war fight,” he said, noting there are many ways for people to access contraception without forcing Catholic nuns to participate. Rienzi explained that the new rules don’t exempt all employers from the requirement that they provide contraception to their employees – just ones with religious or moral objections. “What [Trump's HHS department] did was they added a real and true religious exemption,” he said. In May 2016, the Supreme Court ordered the government and the Little Sisters to work together to find a way for all women to have free contraception, abortifacients, and sterilizations without religious employers being forced to participate. The Obama administration had admitted to the Supreme Court that there are many ways in which contraception is accessible. “What we see today is really the resolution of that process,” said Rienzi. “The religious objectors were already protected by (court) injunctions, so everyone who was getting contraceptives through their employer will still keep getting them,” explained Rienzi, countering the liberal myth that suddenly now many corporations will try to scrap their birth control coverage. The new rule exempts from the contraceptive mandate a “small subset of people who sued who already had” protection from it as the court cases were underway, he said. He noted the vast majority of employers in U.S. have no religious or moral objection to contraception. In order for them to be able to be exempt under the new rules, they would have to suddenly say that their pro-contraception beliefs of the past five years have been wrong and that they have a religious or moral objection. Rienzi said this is extremely unlikely. “The companies who had objections to it were known,” he said. “We just need a final (court) order resolving this five-year saga,” and then the Little Sisters of the Poor won’t spend the rest of their lives with their eyes on the federal register “worrying about when next mandate will come out,” said Rienzi. Mandate was an attempt to ‘directly confront the Catholic Church’ “Today’s action is more than regulatory relief for people of faith, it is a ray of sunshine signaling to faithful Americans that they need not fear government bullying like that endured by the Little Sisters of the Poor,” said Maureen Ferguson, senior policy adviser with The Catholic Association. “After years of Obama era encroachment on religious liberty, we are finally seeing a welcome shift in government policy that once again respects the rights of conscience. Our country is made better when people of faith participate in the public square and contribute to the needs of our nation, running charities, hospitals, and schools.” “Let’s not forget that the origin of this mandate was an Obama election-driven strategy to directly confront the Catholic Church,” said Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, legal advisor to The Catholic Association. “This new rule honors the freedom to act consistent with one's beliefs.” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said the pro-life generation she represents is grateful to Trump “for following through on his promises to address the injustice created by the mandates in Obamacare.” Hawkins also praised the Trump administration for another action it took today addressing “the stealth abortion coverage in some of the qualified health plans by separating abortion, which is not healthcare, from the core list of things covered.” “Now, Americans will be informed if a plan they choose has abortion coverage in it, and they will need to pay separately for that coverage,” she explained. “Tax dollars will not be spent providing abortion coverage that people may not even know that they have in their plan.” The Trump administration’s “attacks can feel never(-)ending,” Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards wrote in a furious email to supporters after the news broke. “Women’s bodies and healthcare should not be subject to the opinion of their employer,” Eleanor Smeal of the misleadingly-named Feminist Majority Foundation wrote in an email defending the subjection of employers to contraception users’ opinions. “For right-wing, self-righteous politicians to even suggest so is misogynistic, patronizing lunacy.” In addition to undoing the HHS contraceptive mandate and separating abortion coverage from regular insurance, today the Trump administration’s Department of Justice also issued new religious liberty guidelines that indicate gender confusion is not legally protected under “sex discrimination” laws. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has already announced its plans to sue the Trump administration, arguing it’s “discrimination” for religious employers (whose employees chose to work for them) to not fund contraception. #News

October 6, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life leaders praised the Trump administration’s “ray of sunshine” today ending an Obama-era federal requirement that religious employers participate in the provision of their employees’ contraceptives and abortifacient drugs. “At a very high level, this appears to be a common-sense, balanced rule and a great step forward for religious liberty,” Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at Becket (formerly the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty) and lead attorney for the Little Sisters of the Poor, told reporters on a call. “The rule is great, at least what I can glean of it in the first hour,” said Riezni. Today’s new rules don’t end the lawsuits religious employers brought against the government for violating their rights. But “given what the government is admitting in this document,” it seems unlikely the Trump Department of Justice will continue fighting groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, said Rienzi. Hopefully, he said, a final court order will be issued applying the new guidelines, and the issue will be put to rest. Rienzi explained that with this new rule, the federal government admitted it broke the law by trying to place an undue burden on the free exercise of religion. “This was always a big, unnecessary, and divisive culture war fight,” he said, noting there are many ways for people to access contraception without forcing Catholic nuns to participate. Rienzi explained that the new rules don’t exempt all employers from the requirement that they provide contraception to their employees – just ones with religious or moral objections. “What [Trump's HHS department] did was they added a real and true religious exemption,” he said. In May 2016, the Supreme Court ordered the government and the Little Sisters to work together to find a way for all women to have free contraception, abortifacients, and sterilizations without religious employers being forced to participate. The Obama administration had admitted to the Supreme Court that there are many ways in which contraception is accessible. “What we see today is really the resolution of that process,” said Rienzi. “The religious objectors were already protected by (court) injunctions, so everyone who was getting contraceptives through their employer will still keep getting them,” explained Rienzi, countering the liberal myth that suddenly now many corporations will try to scrap their birth control coverage. The new rule exempts from the contraceptive mandate a “small subset of people who sued who already had” protection from it as the court cases were underway, he said. He noted the vast majority of employers in U.S. have no religious or moral objection to contraception. In order for them to be able to be exempt under the new rules, they would have to suddenly say that their pro-contraception beliefs of the past five years have been wrong and that they have a religious or moral objection. Rienzi said this is extremely unlikely. “The companies who had objections to it were known,” he said. “We just need a final (court) order resolving this five-year saga,” and then the Little Sisters of the Poor won’t spend the rest of their lives with their eyes on the federal register “worrying about when next mandate will come out,” said Rienzi. Mandate was an attempt to ‘directly confront the Catholic Church’ “Today’s action is more than regulatory relief for people of faith, it is a ray of sunshine signaling to faithful Americans that they need not fear government bullying like that endured by the Little Sisters of the Poor,” said Maureen Ferguson, senior policy adviser with The Catholic Association. “After years of Obama era encroachment on religious liberty, we are finally seeing a welcome shift in government policy that once again respects the rights of conscience. Our country is made better when people of faith participate in the public square and contribute to the needs of our nation, running charities, hospitals, and schools.” “Let’s not forget that the origin of this mandate was an Obama election-driven strategy to directly confront the Catholic Church,” said Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, legal advisor to The Catholic Association. “This new rule honors the freedom to act consistent with one's beliefs.” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said the pro-life generation she represents is grateful to Trump “for following through on his promises to address the injustice created by the mandates in Obamacare.” Hawkins also praised the Trump administration for another action it took today addressing “the stealth abortion coverage in some of the qualified health plans by separating abortion, which is not healthcare, from the core list of things covered.” “Now, Americans will be informed if a plan they choose has abortion coverage in it, and they will need to pay separately for that coverage,” she explained. “Tax dollars will not be spent providing abortion coverage that people may not even know that they have in their plan.” The Trump administration’s “attacks can feel never(-)ending,” Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards wrote in a furious email to supporters after the news broke. “Women’s bodies and healthcare should not be subject to the opinion of their employer,” Eleanor Smeal of the misleadingly-named Feminist Majority Foundation wrote in an email defending the subjection of employers to contraception users’ opinions. “For right-wing, self-righteous politicians to even suggest so is misogynistic, patronizing lunacy.” In addition to undoing the HHS contraceptive mandate and separating abortion coverage from regular insurance, today the Trump administration’s Department of Justice also issued new religious liberty guidelines that indicate gender confusion is not legally protected under “sex discrimination” laws. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has already announced its plans to sue the Trump administration, arguing it’s “discrimination” for religious employers (whose employees chose to work for them) to not fund contraception. #News

October 6, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life leaders praised the Trump administration’s “ray of sunshine” today ending an Obama-era federal requirement that religious employers participate in the provision of their employees’ contraceptives and abortifacient drugs. “At a very high level, this appears to be a common-sense, balanced rule and a great step forward for religious liberty,” Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at Becket (formerly the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty) and lead attorney for the Little Sisters of the Poor, told reporters on a call. “The rule is great, at least what I can glean of it in the first hour,” said Riezni. Today’s new rules don’t end the lawsuits religious employers brought against the government for violating their rights. But “given what the government is admitting in this document,” it seems unlikely the Trump Department of Justice will continue fighting groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, said Rienzi. Hopefully, he said, a final court order will be issued applying the new guidelines, and the issue will be put to rest. Rienzi explained that with this new rule, the federal government admitted it broke the law by trying to place an undue burden on the free exercise of religion. “This was always a big, unnecessary, and divisive culture war fight,” he said, noting there are many ways for people to access contraception without forcing Catholic nuns to participate. Rienzi explained that the new rules don’t exempt all employers from the requirement that they provide contraception to their employees – just ones with religious or moral objections. “What [Trump's HHS department] did was they added a real and true religious exemption,” he said. In May 2016, the Supreme Court ordered the government and the Little Sisters to work together to find a way for all women to have free contraception, abortifacients, and sterilizations without religious employers being forced to participate. The Obama administration had admitted to the Supreme Court that there are many ways in which contraception is accessible. “What we see today is really the resolution of that process,” said Rienzi. “The religious objectors were already protected by (court) injunctions, so everyone who was getting contraceptives through their employer will still keep getting them,” explained Rienzi, countering the liberal myth that suddenly now many corporations will try to scrap their birth control coverage. The new rule exempts from the contraceptive mandate a “small subset of people who sued who already had” protection from it as the court cases were underway, he said. He noted the vast majority of employers in U.S. have no religious or moral objection to contraception. In order for them to be able to be exempt under the new rules, they would have to suddenly say that their pro-contraception beliefs of the past five years have been wrong and that they have a religious or moral objection. Rienzi said this is extremely unlikely. “The companies who had objections to it were known,” he said. “We just need a final (court) order resolving this five-year saga,” and then the Little Sisters of the Poor won’t spend the rest of their lives with their eyes on the federal register “worrying about when next mandate will come out,” said Rienzi. Mandate was an attempt to ‘directly confront the Catholic Church’ “Today’s action is more than regulatory relief for people of faith, it is a ray of sunshine signaling to faithful Americans that they need not fear government bullying like that endured by the Little Sisters of the Poor,” said Maureen Ferguson, senior policy adviser with The Catholic Association. “After years of Obama era encroachment on religious liberty, we are finally seeing a welcome shift in government policy that once again respects the rights of conscience. Our country is made better when people of faith participate in the public square and contribute to the needs of our nation, running charities, hospitals, and schools.” “Let’s not forget that the origin of this mandate was an Obama election-driven strategy to directly confront the Catholic Church,” said Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, legal advisor to The Catholic Association. “This new rule honors the freedom to act consistent with one's beliefs.” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said the pro-life generation she represents is grateful to Trump “for following through on his promises to address the injustice created by the mandates in Obamacare.” Hawkins also praised the Trump administration for another action it took today addressing “the stealth abortion coverage in some of the qualified health plans by separating abortion, which is not healthcare, from the core list of things covered.” “Now, Americans will be informed if a plan they choose has abortion coverage in it, and they will need to pay separately for that coverage,” she explained. “Tax dollars will not be spent providing abortion coverage that people may not even know that they have in their plan.” The Trump administration’s “attacks can feel never(-)ending,” Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards wrote in a furious email to supporters after the news broke. “Women’s bodies and healthcare should not be subject to the opinion of their employer,” Eleanor Smeal of the misleadingly-named Feminist Majority Foundation wrote in an email defending the subjection of employers to contraception users’ opinions. “For right-wing, self-righteous politicians to even suggest so is misogynistic, patronizing lunacy.” In addition to undoing the HHS contraceptive mandate and separating abortion coverage from regular insurance, today the Trump administration’s Department of Justice also issued new religious liberty guidelines that indicate gender confusion is not legally protected under “sex discrimination” laws. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has already announced its plans to sue the Trump administration, arguing it’s “discrimination” for religious employers (whose employees chose to work for them) to not fund contraception. #News

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 6, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The Trump administration issued an order today ending the federal requirement that employers violate their consciences to participate in the provision of employees’ contraceptives and abortifacient drugs. The Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began this mandate, often called the HHS contraceptive mandate. The Little Sisters of the Poor, pro-life nuns who care for the elderly, along with Hobby Lobby and other religious entities, refused to comply. The Little Sisters of the Poor providing contraceptive and life-ending drugs and devices would explicitly contradict their mission of respecting the dignity of every human life. “HHS has issued a balanced rule that respects all sides– it keeps the contraceptive mandate in place for most employers and now provides a religious exemption,” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the Little Sisters of the Poor. “The Little Sisters still need to get final relief in court, which should be easy now that the government admits it broke the law.” The new rules, which are nearly 300 pages in total, prevent the Little Sisters of the Poor and other conscientious objectors from litigation. "The United States has a long history of providing conscience protections in the regulation of health care for entities and individuals with objections based on religious beliefs or moral convictions," the new rules state. "These rules do not alter multiple other Federal programs that provide free or subsidized contraceptives for women at risk of unintended pregnancy." The Supreme Court offered relief from the burdensome mandate to Hobby Lobby and other for-profit corporations in its 5-4 ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. President Trump promised to end the coercive mandate during his campaign. He signed a religious liberty executive order in May 2017 that seemed to begin this process, although some social conservatives blasted it for being “woefully inadequate” and much weaker than an initial leaked version. Today's new rules fulfill this executive order. “No American should be forced to choose between the dictates of the federal government and the tenants of their faith,” Trump said when he signed this order in the White House Rose Garden. He called the Little Sisters of the Poor up to the stage with him. In June 2017, a draft of a new federal regulation addressing the contraceptive mandate was released. Pro-life groups praised that leaked draft. The New York Times reported that Matt Bowman, a pro-life attorney who worked for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) before joining the Trump administration’s HHS, is the “principal author of the rules.” ADF has been one of the mandate’s strongest critics. According to The New York Times, the new regulation cites some of the many health risks of contraception as well as its availability likely promoting teen sexual promiscuity. The June leaked version of this new regulation mentioned that as well. The rule released today allows employers with religious and moral objections to contraception to not participate in its provision. This would exempt groups like the March for Life, which have expressed moral opposition to cooperating. “The new exemptions will be available to colleges and universities that provide health insurance to students as well as employees,” according to The New York Times. "After eight years of the federal government's relentless assault on the First Amendment, the Trump administration has taken concrete steps today that will once again erect a bulwark of protection around American's First Freedom – religious freedom," said Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council. "President Trump is demonstrating his commitment to undoing the anti-faith policies of the previous administration and restoring true religious freedom," said Perkins. "Last May, the president ordered the federal government to vigorously promote and protect religious liberty." HHS is "moving to make that order a reality," he said. #News

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 6, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The Trump administration issued an order today ending the federal requirement that employers violate their consciences to participate in the provision of employees’ contraceptives and abortifacient drugs. The Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began this mandate, often called the HHS contraceptive mandate. The Little Sisters of the Poor, pro-life nuns who care for the elderly, along with Hobby Lobby and other religious entities, refused to comply. The Little Sisters of the Poor providing contraceptive and life-ending drugs and devices would explicitly contradict their mission of respecting the dignity of every human life. “HHS has issued a balanced rule that respects all sides– it keeps the contraceptive mandate in place for most employers and now provides a religious exemption,” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the Little Sisters of the Poor. “The Little Sisters still need to get final relief in court, which should be easy now that the government admits it broke the law.” The new rules, which are nearly 300 pages in total, prevent the Little Sisters of the Poor and other conscientious objectors from litigation. "The United States has a long history of providing conscience protections in the regulation of health care for entities and individuals with objections based on religious beliefs or moral convictions," the new rules state. "These rules do not alter multiple other Federal programs that provide free or subsidized contraceptives for women at risk of unintended pregnancy." The Supreme Court offered relief from the burdensome mandate to Hobby Lobby and other for-profit corporations in its 5-4 ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. President Trump promised to end the coercive mandate during his campaign. He signed a religious liberty executive order in May 2017 that seemed to begin this process, although some social conservatives blasted it for being “woefully inadequate” and much weaker than an initial leaked version. Today's new rules fulfill this executive order. “No American should be forced to choose between the dictates of the federal government and the tenants of their faith,” Trump said when he signed this order in the White House Rose Garden. He called the Little Sisters of the Poor up to the stage with him. In June 2017, a draft of a new federal regulation addressing the contraceptive mandate was released. Pro-life groups praised that leaked draft. The New York Times reported that Matt Bowman, a pro-life attorney who worked for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) before joining the Trump administration’s HHS, is the “principal author of the rules.” ADF has been one of the mandate’s strongest critics. According to The New York Times, the new regulation cites some of the many health risks of contraception as well as its availability likely promoting teen sexual promiscuity. The June leaked version of this new regulation mentioned that as well. The rule released today allows employers with religious and moral objections to contraception to not participate in its provision. This would exempt groups like the March for Life, which have expressed moral opposition to cooperating. “The new exemptions will be available to colleges and universities that provide health insurance to students as well as employees,” according to The New York Times. "After eight years of the federal government's relentless assault on the First Amendment, the Trump administration has taken concrete steps today that will once again erect a bulwark of protection around American's First Freedom – religious freedom," said Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council. "President Trump is demonstrating his commitment to undoing the anti-faith policies of the previous administration and restoring true religious freedom," said Perkins. "Last May, the president ordered the federal government to vigorously promote and protect religious liberty." HHS is "moving to make that order a reality," he said. #News

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 6, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The Trump administration issued an order today ending the federal requirement that employers violate their consciences to participate in the provision of employees’ contraceptives and abortifacient drugs. The Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began this mandate, often called the HHS contraceptive mandate. The Little Sisters of the Poor, pro-life nuns who care for the elderly, along with Hobby Lobby and other religious entities, refused to comply. The Little Sisters of the Poor providing contraceptive and life-ending drugs and devices would explicitly contradict their mission of respecting the dignity of every human life. “HHS has issued a balanced rule that respects all sides– it keeps the contraceptive mandate in place for most employers and now provides a religious exemption,” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the Little Sisters of the Poor. “The Little Sisters still need to get final relief in court, which should be easy now that the government admits it broke the law.” The new rules, which are nearly 300 pages in total, prevent the Little Sisters of the Poor and other conscientious objectors from litigation. "The United States has a long history of providing conscience protections in the regulation of health care for entities and individuals with objections based on religious beliefs or moral convictions," the new rules state. "These rules do not alter multiple other Federal programs that provide free or subsidized contraceptives for women at risk of unintended pregnancy." The Supreme Court offered relief from the burdensome mandate to Hobby Lobby and other for-profit corporations in its 5-4 ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. President Trump promised to end the coercive mandate during his campaign. He signed a religious liberty executive order in May 2017 that seemed to begin this process, although some social conservatives blasted it for being “woefully inadequate” and much weaker than an initial leaked version. Today's new rules fulfill this executive order. “No American should be forced to choose between the dictates of the federal government and the tenants of their faith,” Trump said when he signed this order in the White House Rose Garden. He called the Little Sisters of the Poor up to the stage with him. In June 2017, a draft of a new federal regulation addressing the contraceptive mandate was released. Pro-life groups praised that leaked draft. The New York Times reported that Matt Bowman, a pro-life attorney who worked for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) before joining the Trump administration’s HHS, is the “principal author of the rules.” ADF has been one of the mandate’s strongest critics. According to The New York Times, the new regulation cites some of the many health risks of contraception as well as its availability likely promoting teen sexual promiscuity. The June leaked version of this new regulation mentioned that as well. The rule released today allows employers with religious and moral objections to contraception to not participate in its provision. This would exempt groups like the March for Life, which have expressed moral opposition to cooperating. “The new exemptions will be available to colleges and universities that provide health insurance to students as well as employees,” according to The New York Times. "After eight years of the federal government's relentless assault on the First Amendment, the Trump administration has taken concrete steps today that will once again erect a bulwark of protection around American's First Freedom – religious freedom," said Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council. "President Trump is demonstrating his commitment to undoing the anti-faith policies of the previous administration and restoring true religious freedom," said Perkins. "Last May, the president ordered the federal government to vigorously promote and protect religious liberty." HHS is "moving to make that order a reality," he said. #News

Although any conscious surrender to lust is a mortal sin, some are graver than others. Adultery is graver than simple fornication; incest is graver than adultery; and sins against nature are graver still. Sins against nature are opposed to the purpose of sexual intercourse, and also are “contrary to the natural order of the venereal act as becoming to the human race.”1 Since the practice of sodomy seriously undermines the moral order, it was included among those “sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance.” According to Scripture, these sins are voluntary homicide (Gen. 4:10); sodomy (Gen. 19:13); oppression of widows and orphans (Exod. 22:22ff.); and depriving workers of their just wage (Deut. 24:17ff.; J “Who am I to judge?” Opens the Way At this time of the papal statement “Who am I to judge?” and of Amoris Laetitiae, progressive clergy, including bishops and cardinals, intend to “normalize” not only adultery but homosexual practice as well. Since space does not allow us to list all the expressions of sympathy to the homosexual movement made by prominent clergymen, we will cite a few recent examples. April 7: Kevin Joseph Cardinal Farrell−who was recently chosen by Francis to head the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life−praises the book, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity, by pro-homosexual Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin. He wrote a promotional blurb for the book: “A welcome and much-needed book that will help bishops, priests, pastoral associates, and all church leaders more compassionately minister to the LGBT community.” April 12: Father James Martin was appointed by Pope Francis to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications. April 28: Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Ky., spoke at the “Catholic” homosexual New Ways Ministry symposium in Chicago. This organization has been condemned by the Catholic bishops because of its position against the doctrine of the Catholic Church. May 5 at 9:20pm: Fr. James Martin, S.J., tweeted about the Saints: “Some of them were probably gay. A certain percentage of humanity is gay, and so were most likely some of the saints. You may be surprised when you get to heaven to be greeted by LGBT men and women.” May 21: Joseph Cardinal Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, welcomed a LGBT Pilgrimage to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, N.J. The Unscientific Myth of “Homophobia” The homosexual movement employs words and concepts as semantic weapons to change individuals and society. Concepts like “compassion” are meant to build acceptance, while others, like “homophobia,” are meant to inhibit and even paralyze reactions. Taking a Principled not a Personal Stand As practicing Catholics, we are filled with compassion and pray for those who struggle against violent temptation to sin, be it toward homosexual sin or otherwise. We are conscious of the enormous difference between these individuals who struggle with their weaknesses and strive to overcome them and others who transform their sin into a reason for pride, and try to impose their lifestyle on society as a whole, in flagrant opposition to traditional Christian morality and natural law. However, we pray for them too. According to the expression attributed to Saint Augustine, we “hate the sin but love the sinner.” And to love the sinner, as the same Doctor of the Church explains, is to wish for him the best we can possibly desire for ourselves, namely, “that he may love God with a perfect affection.” (St. Augustine, Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, No. 49, www.newadvent.org/fathers/1401.htm) By affixing the “homophobic” label to its opponents, the movement hopes to both intimidate and disqualify its antagonists, brushing off their arguments based on right reason as “irrational fears.” Those who defend natural law and the Ten Commandments should scorn this dishonest tactic. They should challenge the demagogical use of the “homophobe” label by asking for the scientific basis for this so-called phobia. (It was “discovered” by a pro-homosexual psychologist intent on pushing the homosexual agenda.) “International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia” Unfortunately, the progressive clergy adopted the concepts and tactics of the homosexual movement and even uses churches and religious ceremonies to disseminate them. Thus, in the month of May, ecumenical ceremonies were held in Protestant temples and Catholic churches, as part of the “International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia.” “Prayer vigils” against “homophobia” were held, for example, in Catholic parishes and shrines in Barcelona, Seville, Milan, Reggio Emilia, Palermo, Bologna, Naples, Padua, Pinerolo, Genoa, Pistoia, and Florence. In Rome, the demonstration was held in the Piazza del Campidoglio.10 Pope Francis’ Influence Paolo Rodari, vaticanist of Rome’s daily La Repubblica, in the article titled “Porte aperte ai gay, la svolta della Chiesa. In parrocchia le veglie anti homofobia,” (“The Church’s Turnaround: Open Doors to Gays; Anti-Homophobia Vigils Held in Parishes”) explains that the Church’s new stance supporting homosexuality and “transgenderism” is due to Pope Francis. He writes: “We must ‘welcome and accompany’ homosexuals and trans[genders], ‘this is what Jesus would do today.’ The turning point came after these precise and punctual words by Pope Francis less than a year ago (October 2016), returning from a trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan. And it has infected part of the Catholic world. So much so that from the day after tomorrow until the end of May, different parishes, Italian and not, will join the World Day for the Fight against Homo-Transphobia (the first cities will be Milan and Seville).” Where Liberation Theology Comes In In the city of Reggio Emilia, the “vigil” for homosexuals and transgenders was held in the parish of Regina Pacis, whose pastor, Father Paolo Cugini, is a promoter of Liberation Theology and the subversive movement it inspired in Brazil, Grassroots Ecclesial Communities.12 Thus, in his blog we read a summary of his speech during the “Prayer Vigil for the Victims of Homophobia, Transphobia and All Forms of Discrimination [held at the] Church of Regina Pacis, Reggio Emilia, 14 May 2017.” In a language typical of Liberation Theology, Father Cugini says that “no one is judged…because ‘God is not a respecter of persons’ (Acts 10:34).” And continuing in the same vein, “God stands on the side of the little ones, the marginalized, scorned and discriminated persons.”13The fact that a person is in a public state of sin does not matter. He confirms the vaticanist Paolo Rodari’s consideration above about the influence of Pope Francis in the change that is occurring in the Church regarding the homosexual movement. “Our strength” says Fr. Cugini, “comes from the words of Pope Francis on the subject, uttered a while ago. These persons must be welcomed, not pushed away. We are going in this direction thanks to him.”14 Catholic Laymen Promote an Act of Reparation Such kindness toward the homosexuals and transgenders was not extended to Catholics who care about the Ten Commandments and strive to live according to the Faith. Let us see how a group of lay Catholics from Reggio Emilia was treated when they were promoting a penance procession on June 3, the same day a homosexual parade was held in the city. These laymen placed themselves under the protection of Blessed Giovanna Scopelli, a fifteenth century Carmelite born in Reggio Emilia, who led a life of mortification for the Church. Their initiative, soon joined by more than 1,500 people, received the support of Raymond Cardinal Burke, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, and the theologian Fr. Antonio Livi, a former professor at the Lateran University.15 From the Diocese of Reggio Emilia however, the initiative received only criticism. Fr. Goccini, in charge of the Diocese’s Youth Pastoral outreach, went so far as to say that “praying in reparation for the sins of others is an act of presumption.”16 So, would Jesus on the Cross, praying for his enemies and persecutors, be committing an act of presumption? What of Our Lady, who appeared in Fatima and asked for sacrifices as “an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended” and “for the conversion of sinners?” And what to say of so many saints that made sacrifices for sinners? Bishop Massimo Camisasca, while allowing a parish in his diocese to be used in a ceremony to support the homosexual movement, made it clear that he does not support the group of lay people who promoted the penitential procession. One reason given is that they did not ask his permission to hold a religious procession. One would expect him, in his apostolic zeal, to seek them out and find a way to hold such a meritorious act of penance.17 Keep on Fighting The Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, through a mysterious Divine permission, has gone through innumerable crises to test the fidelity of the good and increase their merits (cf. 1 Cor. 11:19). However, despite the seriousness of the Arian crisis and the Protestant Revolt, it can be said that neither equaled the present crisis in its gravity or extension. Our Lady of the Apocalypse, who hurls the chained Lucifer into the abyss of hell. But the Mystical Spouse of Christ has the promise of indefectibility. Even when Our Lord seems to sleep in the boat of Peter (Matt. 8:25-26), He is actually watching over His Church to prevent Her from losing courage and to keep Her doctrine and Sacraments within the reach of those who have true zeal and love for the Church. Therefore, we must not lose heart in the struggle to defend the doctrine and morals which come to us from the Apostles and are enshrined in the traditional Magisterium of the Popes and Councils, in catechisms and in treatises by great theologians. Let us keep on fighting while waiting for Divine intervention. Let us be ready, for the Apocalypse says: “Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds” (Rev. 22:12). May Mary Most Holy, who alone defeated all heresies, help us to remain faithful in the midst of the storm. #News

Although any conscious surrender to lust is a mortal sin, some are graver than others. Adultery is graver than simple fornication; incest is graver than adultery; and sins against nature are graver still. Sins against nature are opposed to the purpose of sexual intercourse, and also are “contrary to the natural order of the venereal act as becoming to the human race.”1 Since the practice of sodomy seriously undermines the moral order, it was included among those “sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance.” According to Scripture, these sins are voluntary homicide (Gen. 4:10); sodomy (Gen. 19:13); oppression of widows and orphans (Exod. 22:22ff.); and depriving workers of their just wage (Deut. 24:17ff.; J “Who am I to judge?” Opens the Way At this time of the papal statement “Who am I to judge?” and of Amoris Laetitiae, progressive clergy, including bishops and cardinals, intend to “normalize” not only adultery but homosexual practice as well. Since space does not allow us to list all the expressions of sympathy to the homosexual movement made by prominent clergymen, we will cite a few recent examples. April 7: Kevin Joseph Cardinal Farrell−who was recently chosen by Francis to head the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life−praises the book, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity, by pro-homosexual Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin. He wrote a promotional blurb for the book: “A welcome and much-needed book that will help bishops, priests, pastoral associates, and all church leaders more compassionately minister to the LGBT community.” April 12: Father James Martin was appointed by Pope Francis to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications. April 28: Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Ky., spoke at the “Catholic” homosexual New Ways Ministry symposium in Chicago. This organization has been condemned by the Catholic bishops because of its position against the doctrine of the Catholic Church. May 5 at 9:20pm: Fr. James Martin, S.J., tweeted about the Saints: “Some of them were probably gay. A certain percentage of humanity is gay, and so were most likely some of the saints. You may be surprised when you get to heaven to be greeted by LGBT men and women.” May 21: Joseph Cardinal Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, welcomed a LGBT Pilgrimage to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, N.J. The Unscientific Myth of “Homophobia” The homosexual movement employs words and concepts as semantic weapons to change individuals and society. Concepts like “compassion” are meant to build acceptance, while others, like “homophobia,” are meant to inhibit and even paralyze reactions. Taking a Principled not a Personal Stand As practicing Catholics, we are filled with compassion and pray for those who struggle against violent temptation to sin, be it toward homosexual sin or otherwise. We are conscious of the enormous difference between these individuals who struggle with their weaknesses and strive to overcome them and others who transform their sin into a reason for pride, and try to impose their lifestyle on society as a whole, in flagrant opposition to traditional Christian morality and natural law. However, we pray for them too. According to the expression attributed to Saint Augustine, we “hate the sin but love the sinner.” And to love the sinner, as the same Doctor of the Church explains, is to wish for him the best we can possibly desire for ourselves, namely, “that he may love God with a perfect affection.” (St. Augustine, Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, No. 49, www.newadvent.org/fathers/1401.htm) By affixing the “homophobic” label to its opponents, the movement hopes to both intimidate and disqualify its antagonists, brushing off their arguments based on right reason as “irrational fears.” Those who defend natural law and the Ten Commandments should scorn this dishonest tactic. They should challenge the demagogical use of the “homophobe” label by asking for the scientific basis for this so-called phobia. (It was “discovered” by a pro-homosexual psychologist intent on pushing the homosexual agenda.) “International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia” Unfortunately, the progressive clergy adopted the concepts and tactics of the homosexual movement and even uses churches and religious ceremonies to disseminate them. Thus, in the month of May, ecumenical ceremonies were held in Protestant temples and Catholic churches, as part of the “International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia.” “Prayer vigils” against “homophobia” were held, for example, in Catholic parishes and shrines in Barcelona, Seville, Milan, Reggio Emilia, Palermo, Bologna, Naples, Padua, Pinerolo, Genoa, Pistoia, and Florence. In Rome, the demonstration was held in the Piazza del Campidoglio.10 Pope Francis’ Influence Paolo Rodari, vaticanist of Rome’s daily La Repubblica, in the article titled “Porte aperte ai gay, la svolta della Chiesa. In parrocchia le veglie anti homofobia,” (“The Church’s Turnaround: Open Doors to Gays; Anti-Homophobia Vigils Held in Parishes”) explains that the Church’s new stance supporting homosexuality and “transgenderism” is due to Pope Francis. He writes: “We must ‘welcome and accompany’ homosexuals and trans[genders], ‘this is what Jesus would do today.’ The turning point came after these precise and punctual words by Pope Francis less than a year ago (October 2016), returning from a trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan. And it has infected part of the Catholic world. So much so that from the day after tomorrow until the end of May, different parishes, Italian and not, will join the World Day for the Fight against Homo-Transphobia (the first cities will be Milan and Seville).” Where Liberation Theology Comes In In the city of Reggio Emilia, the “vigil” for homosexuals and transgenders was held in the parish of Regina Pacis, whose pastor, Father Paolo Cugini, is a promoter of Liberation Theology and the subversive movement it inspired in Brazil, Grassroots Ecclesial Communities.12 Thus, in his blog we read a summary of his speech during the “Prayer Vigil for the Victims of Homophobia, Transphobia and All Forms of Discrimination [held at the] Church of Regina Pacis, Reggio Emilia, 14 May 2017.” In a language typical of Liberation Theology, Father Cugini says that “no one is judged…because ‘God is not a respecter of persons’ (Acts 10:34).” And continuing in the same vein, “God stands on the side of the little ones, the marginalized, scorned and discriminated persons.”13The fact that a person is in a public state of sin does not matter. He confirms the vaticanist Paolo Rodari’s consideration above about the influence of Pope Francis in the change that is occurring in the Church regarding the homosexual movement. “Our strength” says Fr. Cugini, “comes from the words of Pope Francis on the subject, uttered a while ago. These persons must be welcomed, not pushed away. We are going in this direction thanks to him.”14 Catholic Laymen Promote an Act of Reparation Such kindness toward the homosexuals and transgenders was not extended to Catholics who care about the Ten Commandments and strive to live according to the Faith. Let us see how a group of lay Catholics from Reggio Emilia was treated when they were promoting a penance procession on June 3, the same day a homosexual parade was held in the city. These laymen placed themselves under the protection of Blessed Giovanna Scopelli, a fifteenth century Carmelite born in Reggio Emilia, who led a life of mortification for the Church. Their initiative, soon joined by more than 1,500 people, received the support of Raymond Cardinal Burke, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, and the theologian Fr. Antonio Livi, a former professor at the Lateran University.15 From the Diocese of Reggio Emilia however, the initiative received only criticism. Fr. Goccini, in charge of the Diocese’s Youth Pastoral outreach, went so far as to say that “praying in reparation for the sins of others is an act of presumption.”16 So, would Jesus on the Cross, praying for his enemies and persecutors, be committing an act of presumption? What of Our Lady, who appeared in Fatima and asked for sacrifices as “an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended” and “for the conversion of sinners?” And what to say of so many saints that made sacrifices for sinners? Bishop Massimo Camisasca, while allowing a parish in his diocese to be used in a ceremony to support the homosexual movement, made it clear that he does not support the group of lay people who promoted the penitential procession. One reason given is that they did not ask his permission to hold a religious procession. One would expect him, in his apostolic zeal, to seek them out and find a way to hold such a meritorious act of penance.17 Keep on Fighting The Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, through a mysterious Divine permission, has gone through innumerable crises to test the fidelity of the good and increase their merits (cf. 1 Cor. 11:19). However, despite the seriousness of the Arian crisis and the Protestant Revolt, it can be said that neither equaled the present crisis in its gravity or extension. Our Lady of the Apocalypse, who hurls the chained Lucifer into the abyss of hell. But the Mystical Spouse of Christ has the promise of indefectibility. Even when Our Lord seems to sleep in the boat of Peter (Matt. 8:25-26), He is actually watching over His Church to prevent Her from losing courage and to keep Her doctrine and Sacraments within the reach of those who have true zeal and love for the Church. Therefore, we must not lose heart in the struggle to defend the doctrine and morals which come to us from the Apostles and are enshrined in the traditional Magisterium of the Popes and Councils, in catechisms and in treatises by great theologians. Let us keep on fighting while waiting for Divine intervention. Let us be ready, for the Apocalypse says: “Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds” (Rev. 22:12). May Mary Most Holy, who alone defeated all heresies, help us to remain faithful in the midst of the storm. #News

Although any conscious surrender to lust is a mortal sin, some are graver than others. Adultery is graver than simple fornication; incest is graver than adultery; and sins against nature are graver still. Sins against nature are opposed to the purpose of sexual intercourse, and also are “contrary to the natural order of the venereal act as becoming to the human race.”1 Since the practice of sodomy seriously undermines the moral order, it was included among those “sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance.” According to Scripture, these sins are voluntary homicide (Gen. 4:10); sodomy (Gen. 19:13); oppression of widows and orphans (Exod. 22:22ff.); and depriving workers of their just wage (Deut. 24:17ff.; J “Who am I to judge?” Opens the Way At this time of the papal statement “Who am I to judge?” and of Amoris Laetitiae, progressive clergy, including bishops and cardinals, intend to “normalize” not only adultery but homosexual practice as well. Since space does not allow us to list all the expressions of sympathy to the homosexual movement made by prominent clergymen, we will cite a few recent examples. April 7: Kevin Joseph Cardinal Farrell−who was recently chosen by Francis to head the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life−praises the book, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity, by pro-homosexual Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin. He wrote a promotional blurb for the book: “A welcome and much-needed book that will help bishops, priests, pastoral associates, and all church leaders more compassionately minister to the LGBT community.” April 12: Father James Martin was appointed by Pope Francis to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications. April 28: Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Ky., spoke at the “Catholic” homosexual New Ways Ministry symposium in Chicago. This organization has been condemned by the Catholic bishops because of its position against the doctrine of the Catholic Church. May 5 at 9:20pm: Fr. James Martin, S.J., tweeted about the Saints: “Some of them were probably gay. A certain percentage of humanity is gay, and so were most likely some of the saints. You may be surprised when you get to heaven to be greeted by LGBT men and women.” May 21: Joseph Cardinal Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, welcomed a LGBT Pilgrimage to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, N.J. The Unscientific Myth of “Homophobia” The homosexual movement employs words and concepts as semantic weapons to change individuals and society. Concepts like “compassion” are meant to build acceptance, while others, like “homophobia,” are meant to inhibit and even paralyze reactions. Taking a Principled not a Personal Stand As practicing Catholics, we are filled with compassion and pray for those who struggle against violent temptation to sin, be it toward homosexual sin or otherwise. We are conscious of the enormous difference between these individuals who struggle with their weaknesses and strive to overcome them and others who transform their sin into a reason for pride, and try to impose their lifestyle on society as a whole, in flagrant opposition to traditional Christian morality and natural law. However, we pray for them too. According to the expression attributed to Saint Augustine, we “hate the sin but love the sinner.” And to love the sinner, as the same Doctor of the Church explains, is to wish for him the best we can possibly desire for ourselves, namely, “that he may love God with a perfect affection.” (St. Augustine, Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, No. 49, www.newadvent.org/fathers/1401.htm) By affixing the “homophobic” label to its opponents, the movement hopes to both intimidate and disqualify its antagonists, brushing off their arguments based on right reason as “irrational fears.” Those who defend natural law and the Ten Commandments should scorn this dishonest tactic. They should challenge the demagogical use of the “homophobe” label by asking for the scientific basis for this so-called phobia. (It was “discovered” by a pro-homosexual psychologist intent on pushing the homosexual agenda.) “International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia” Unfortunately, the progressive clergy adopted the concepts and tactics of the homosexual movement and even uses churches and religious ceremonies to disseminate them. Thus, in the month of May, ecumenical ceremonies were held in Protestant temples and Catholic churches, as part of the “International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia.” “Prayer vigils” against “homophobia” were held, for example, in Catholic parishes and shrines in Barcelona, Seville, Milan, Reggio Emilia, Palermo, Bologna, Naples, Padua, Pinerolo, Genoa, Pistoia, and Florence. In Rome, the demonstration was held in the Piazza del Campidoglio.10 Pope Francis’ Influence Paolo Rodari, vaticanist of Rome’s daily La Repubblica, in the article titled “Porte aperte ai gay, la svolta della Chiesa. In parrocchia le veglie anti homofobia,” (“The Church’s Turnaround: Open Doors to Gays; Anti-Homophobia Vigils Held in Parishes”) explains that the Church’s new stance supporting homosexuality and “transgenderism” is due to Pope Francis. He writes: “We must ‘welcome and accompany’ homosexuals and trans[genders], ‘this is what Jesus would do today.’ The turning point came after these precise and punctual words by Pope Francis less than a year ago (October 2016), returning from a trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan. And it has infected part of the Catholic world. So much so that from the day after tomorrow until the end of May, different parishes, Italian and not, will join the World Day for the Fight against Homo-Transphobia (the first cities will be Milan and Seville).” Where Liberation Theology Comes In In the city of Reggio Emilia, the “vigil” for homosexuals and transgenders was held in the parish of Regina Pacis, whose pastor, Father Paolo Cugini, is a promoter of Liberation Theology and the subversive movement it inspired in Brazil, Grassroots Ecclesial Communities.12 Thus, in his blog we read a summary of his speech during the “Prayer Vigil for the Victims of Homophobia, Transphobia and All Forms of Discrimination [held at the] Church of Regina Pacis, Reggio Emilia, 14 May 2017.” In a language typical of Liberation Theology, Father Cugini says that “no one is judged…because ‘God is not a respecter of persons’ (Acts 10:34).” And continuing in the same vein, “God stands on the side of the little ones, the marginalized, scorned and discriminated persons.”13The fact that a person is in a public state of sin does not matter. He confirms the vaticanist Paolo Rodari’s consideration above about the influence of Pope Francis in the change that is occurring in the Church regarding the homosexual movement. “Our strength” says Fr. Cugini, “comes from the words of Pope Francis on the subject, uttered a while ago. These persons must be welcomed, not pushed away. We are going in this direction thanks to him.”14 Catholic Laymen Promote an Act of Reparation Such kindness toward the homosexuals and transgenders was not extended to Catholics who care about the Ten Commandments and strive to live according to the Faith. Let us see how a group of lay Catholics from Reggio Emilia was treated when they were promoting a penance procession on June 3, the same day a homosexual parade was held in the city. These laymen placed themselves under the protection of Blessed Giovanna Scopelli, a fifteenth century Carmelite born in Reggio Emilia, who led a life of mortification for the Church. Their initiative, soon joined by more than 1,500 people, received the support of Raymond Cardinal Burke, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, and the theologian Fr. Antonio Livi, a former professor at the Lateran University.15 From the Diocese of Reggio Emilia however, the initiative received only criticism. Fr. Goccini, in charge of the Diocese’s Youth Pastoral outreach, went so far as to say that “praying in reparation for the sins of others is an act of presumption.”16 So, would Jesus on the Cross, praying for his enemies and persecutors, be committing an act of presumption? What of Our Lady, who appeared in Fatima and asked for sacrifices as “an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended” and “for the conversion of sinners?” And what to say of so many saints that made sacrifices for sinners? Bishop Massimo Camisasca, while allowing a parish in his diocese to be used in a ceremony to support the homosexual movement, made it clear that he does not support the group of lay people who promoted the penitential procession. One reason given is that they did not ask his permission to hold a religious procession. One would expect him, in his apostolic zeal, to seek them out and find a way to hold such a meritorious act of penance.17 Keep on Fighting The Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, through a mysterious Divine permission, has gone through innumerable crises to test the fidelity of the good and increase their merits (cf. 1 Cor. 11:19). However, despite the seriousness of the Arian crisis and the Protestant Revolt, it can be said that neither equaled the present crisis in its gravity or extension. Our Lady of the Apocalypse, who hurls the chained Lucifer into the abyss of hell. But the Mystical Spouse of Christ has the promise of indefectibility. Even when Our Lord seems to sleep in the boat of Peter (Matt. 8:25-26), He is actually watching over His Church to prevent Her from losing courage and to keep Her doctrine and Sacraments within the reach of those who have true zeal and love for the Church. Therefore, we must not lose heart in the struggle to defend the doctrine and morals which come to us from the Apostles and are enshrined in the traditional Magisterium of the Popes and Councils, in catechisms and in treatises by great theologians. Let us keep on fighting while waiting for Divine intervention. Let us be ready, for the Apocalypse says: “Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds” (Rev. 22:12). May Mary Most Holy, who alone defeated all heresies, help us to remain faithful in the midst of the storm. #News

It’s official. Come October 14, American Catholics across the nation will be holding 20,000 public square rosary rallies to pray for solutions for America’s many problems. Volunteers recruiting captains to lead the rallies reached the 20,000 rally mark on September 25. Twenty thousand rally captains are now gearing up to lead their individual prayer rallies in a public place. They will be especially commemorating the centennial of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. The 2017 Public Square Rosary Crusade is sponsored by America Needs Fatima. Since 2007, America Needs Fatima has organized annual rosary rallies. But the historic Fatima centennial has been received with special enthusiasm and expectation. National rosary rally coordinator, Francis Slobodnik, said: “The growth of this grassroots movement of devotion to Mary is unprecedented. 20,000 Catholics agreed to organize individual rallies in their own towns. People are excited and momentum is building. And Rosary leaders see prayer as a real solution for America, because it is. “Our biggest challenge is not recruiting new captains, but rather finding the time to speak with all the people who call in and express interest,” Slobodnik said. “I am not surprised we reached our 20,000 goal in good time.” Each rally captain receives a beautiful long banner to display at their rally. The message on the banner reads: “100 years ago, Our Lady of Fatima requested: PRAY THE ROSARY. As human efforts fail to solve America’s key problems, we turn to God, through His Holy Mother, asking His urgent help.” “So many people are turning to the Fatima message for guidance because it offers a sure remedy to the insanity in our godless culture,” Slobodnik continued. “In other words, prayer, penance and conversion are the answer to our nation’s most serious problems.” America Needs Fatima is a campaign of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), which is also distributing Fatima Centennial Rosaries free of charge to Catholics and non-Catholics. To join a Rosary Rally or to receive a free rosary, call toll-free: 1-866-584-6012. #News