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November 13, 2005
Blessed Charles de Foucauld
David Scott on de Foucauld, in the Pittsburgh Catholic
Celebrating the beatification in Africa
The Pope's Angelus address today:
This morning, at the Basilica of St Peter’s, the servants of God, Charles De Foucauld, priest, Maria Pia Mastena, founder of the Institute of Sisters of the Holy Countenance and Maria Crocifissa Curcio, who founded the Congregation of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the child Jesus, were declared Blessed. They join the abundant ranks of Blesseds who were proposed during the Pontificate of John Paul II for veneration by the Church community in which they lived, in the awareness of all that was strongly emphasized by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. This is that all baptized people are called to perfection in Christian life: priests, religious and lay people, each according to his charisma and specific vocation.
In effect, the Council paid great attention to the role of lay people, dedicating to them an entire chapter – the fourth – of the Constitution Lumen Gentium on the Church, to defining their vocation and mission, rooted in Baptism and Confirmation and directed towards “seeking the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God” (n.31). On 18 November 1965, the Fathers approved a specific Decree on the apostolate of the laity, Apostolicam actuositatem. This highlighted above all that the “fecundity of the apostolate of the laity depends on their vital union with Christ” (ivi 4), that is, on a robust spirituality nourished by active participation in the Liturgy and expressed through the gospel beatitudes. Professional competence, the sense of family, a civic sense and social virtues are all very important for lay people besides. Inasmuch as it is true that they are individually called to transmit their personal witness, especially precious in places where the freedom of the Church is hindered, the Council insists on the importance of an organized apostolate, necessary to make a mark on the public mentality, on social conditions and on institutions (cfr ivi, 18).
Speaking of making a mark on the public mentality...hopes for a million to march in Spain against the Socialist party policies.
Hundreds of thousands of people from across Spain, accompanied by Popular Party officials and Catholic bishops, will march through the streets of Madrid on Saturday in what is likely to be the largest protest against the Socialist government's policies since it took office in April last year.
The association of Catholic parents, which is organizing the march, estimates that a million people may participate.
Demonstrating against a reform of the Spanish education system that would change the way religion is taught in schools, protesters will begin their march at 5pm from the Plaza de Neptuno, ending an hour later at the Puerta de Alcalá. Mariasela Álvarez, a former Miss World from the Dominican Republic and the presenter of a television talk show on the Catholic satellite channel Popular TV, will address the crowd at the end of the march, and call for the government to retract the new education law.
The demonstration provides the latest evidence of deep-rooted tensions between the government and Catholics and conservatives over a wide range of social issues. Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega herself traveled to the Vatican in secret on Thursday to meet with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, with whom she reportedly discuss the Spanish government's relations with the Church.
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Spain has been riven between left and right since the Enlightenment. The present Spanish government has apparently learned nothing from Spanish history. God help Spain.
Posted by: Donald R. McClarey at Nov 13, 2005 11:43:26 AM
"In effect, the Council paid great attention to the role of lay people, dedicating to them an entire chapter – the fourth – of the Constitution Lumen Gentium on the Church ..."
"Professional competence, the sense of family, a civic sense and social virtues are all very important for lay people besides."
Three religious are honored, so what's with all the remarks about 'laity'. It has a bit of a defensive ring about it. As it should, I guess, when religous honor
themselves.
Posted by: CB at Nov 13, 2005 2:46:49 PM
Amy,
Greetings
Hope you dont mind me letting you know here that I wrote an item on this Saturday's demonstration in Madrid. Organizers say 2 million showed up, the regional government said a little over 1.5 million, while the Spanish government not surprisingly said, there were only around 450,000. Here is the link, if you don't mind.
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=124&id=2119
Paz
Robert Duncan
Posted by: Robert at Nov 13, 2005 3:10:21 PM
"Three religious are honored, so what's with all the remarks about 'laity'."
Gee, do you maybe think the Pope might be concerned that ordinary lay Catholics not write off holiness as something that's just for the pros, like monks and nuns?
And it's not a bad thought. I just came across somebody (on Amazon?) who thought from his review of The Imitation of Christ that Thomas a Kempis thought salvation was only for the cloistered. Because, you know, us Catholics think crazy stuff like that.
"It has a bit of a defensive ring about it. As it should, I guess, when religous honor themselves."
So being a martyr, living a life of heroic virtue, founding an order, and inspiring hundreds of others by one's life and writings is insufficient saintliness now?
Look, I sympathize with "we need more lay saints". But that doesn't mean "being a religious means you shouldn't get beatified". Especially since, by that reasoning, we'd have to stop worshipping Jesus. After all, he spent a lot of time as a wandering rabbi, not strictly a layman.
Posted by: Maureen at Nov 13, 2005 5:38:06 PM
in the case of Charles de Foucauld, there are many "lay groups" that follow his inspiration.
but the Pope is giving these weekly angelus talks on the graces of Vatican ll, which will celebrate 40 years of its ending this month. and recently he has been reflecting on the universal call to holiness which received new impetus from the council. so in context his remarks make sense and do not have a defensive tone or other agenda.....?
Posted by: patrick at Nov 13, 2005 6:24:57 PM
Try as I may, I cannot figure out what the goood fruits of Vatican II are. The 10 nuns in our parish convent left, one of the parish priests left the priesthood, the Msgr was discovered to be not so celibate after all, the confessional was made a storage room,
the school principal is a non believer.
Posted by: Innocent III at Nov 13, 2005 8:11:30 PM
That's a fruit of the Spirit (or should I say Ghost?) of Vatican II as interpreted by a bunch of spiritual adolescents, not Vatican II itself.
Posted by: JonathanR. at Nov 13, 2005 8:38:58 PM
I blame the Novus Ordo Missae for both Spanish Fascism and the neglect of the laity.
Posted by: F. C. Bauerschmidt at Nov 13, 2005 8:57:43 PM
ETWN (or maybe Ignatius Press) put out a small budget film about Foucauld. It is truly a blessing that Foucauld is now "Blessed."
Posted by: Fagan at Nov 13, 2005 10:48:48 PM
F. C. Bauerschmidt:
"I blame the Novus Ordo Missae for both Spanish Fascism and the neglect of the laity."
You forgot Poland....
To say nothing of global warming and acid reflux disease.
Posted by: Richard the Adequate at Nov 13, 2005 10:55:44 PM
And, yes, I have it on good authority that the Novus Ordo was a plot by freemasons to destroy the Church! LMAO
Tom Haessler
Posted by: Tom Haessler at Nov 13, 2005 11:27:30 PM
I'm very excited about Charles de Foucauld's beatification. I'm praying that he'll be spared the pious ninny type of hagiographers so that the full truth of his life before his conversion and his subsequent heroic virtue can inspire the great sinners among us, especially myself!
Tom Haessler
Posted by: Tom Haessler at Nov 13, 2005 11:30:41 PM
I was captivated to read about the Life of Blessed Charles of the Desert. Somebody, I don't even know who, once gave me a well-used book titled "The Sands of Tamansarett" it is a beautiful testimony to God's grace working in this man - also much clearer than the low budget film mentioned above - I remember watching it once or twice in a twiliight state (I know not whether the sleep was induced by the movie or if I was just simply out of it at the end of a long day)
I can sympathize with "Innocent III". Much fruitiness was carried out "in the spirit of the council." We should be cautious, however, as to what we attribute to Vat II and what were merely casualties of the sexual revolution and the culture wars, esp. 1968. Hindsight is 20/20 and how was Good Pope John to know that when he "opened the windows" the church would be filled with the stench of post-modern rot? I am not defending, but trying to be fair. On the other hand, look at those places where the council was implemented in a thorough and genuine manner (and here I am thinking specificially of Krakow) such did not suffer in the way so many have in the U.S. and Western Europe.
Posted by: Fr. Totton at Nov 13, 2005 11:38:27 PM
"I blame the Novus Ordo Missae for both Spanish Fascism and the neglect of the laity."
To quote Amy: "I'm sure that if I put up a post that simply said 'it's raining' somebody would blame it on the Novus Ordo".
Heh.
Posted by: Veronica at Nov 13, 2005 11:59:54 PM
Msgr Anibigal Bugnini, was the person who with 6 protestant ministers created the Novus Ordo Missel. He was a 32nd Degree Freemason.
I think this is the reason many Catholics have a hard time believing the Novus Ordo Mass is valid or not.
Posted by: Innocent III at Nov 14, 2005 12:08:46 AM
The Church has been run from the beginning by a pack of cowards and deniers of Christ, and yet here we are.
I think this is the reason many Catholics have no trouble believing that the Novus Ordo Mass is valid.
Posted by: Maureen at Nov 14, 2005 4:59:45 AM
Charles de Foucauld - always makes me think of Brideshead Revisited.
Posted by: mb at Nov 14, 2005 10:59:27 AM
Cowarads and deniers from the start? I do not agree.
The arch modernists took power in 1958,and still hold power.
Posted by: Innocent III at Nov 14, 2005 11:05:45 AM
Actually, I was thinking of the calumny about Monsignor Annibale Bugnini when I quipped about freemasons. Can Innocent III substantiate this in any way other than by quoting tendentious conspiracy literature that abounds on the "Catholic" schismatic far right? And now that we're on the subject of freemasons, Catholics have sometimes been able to give the devil his due. Almost everything that is right about Turkey (there are many things wrong about it too) today is due to Kemal Ataturk and his freemason buddies who put an end to Shariah law and dhimmitude after the collapse of the Ottomon Empire.
And, Maureen, I long for the comfort you so obviously experience in being able to find such great fault with the ones that Jesus empowered (through episcopal ordination) to pastor His people. I find myself comforted that there must be hope for me in a Church with so many sinners.
Tom Haessler
Posted by: Tom Haessler at Nov 14, 2005 11:29:17 AM
The massive infiltration of communists and freemasons into the Vatican at all levels is well documented, not just by those who are known as schismatics. For example, in her congressional testimony in 1953, former high ranking communist turned convert, Bella Dodd, said there were at least 4 communists in the college of cardinals.Bp Fulton Sheen persuaded her to keep their identity secret. It had 80 cardinals in total back then. She was certain there were others, but did not know who.
Today, it is safe to say the % is much higher. That gives us maybe 25-40 commuist cardinals.
One could assume good number of American bishops are also communist.
Several sleeper agents on the west coast made it very obvious as they pretended to be conservatives and once in high office, turned
the faith of their dioceses upside down.
Also, recall that in 1903, the man who almost became pope was a freemason.
Pope John XXIII was elected as a transition pope and those who knew him, knew he could be manipulated. The plotters of the Vatican II takeover had been planning such a council for decades. They waited patiently for Pius XII to leave office and went to work. John XXIII tried to end the council from his deathbed, but could not. Paul VI gave firm assurances to his fellow Cardinals he would continue the council. This got him elected.
John I was elected and set about to rid the Vatican of its freemasons and also to consecrate Russia to the Immacualte Heart. That got him killed, and it is well documented for those interested. His health was excellent. and while folks say he had a heart attack, he had low blood pressure, go figure.
John Paul II was someone who could be counted on to leave everything as is. Hence not one Bishop removed from office in 26 years, except the Pius X founder and Bishop.
One can hope and pray that a future Pope will competely abbrogate the entire set of documents known as Vatican II. From Verbum Dei to Nostra Atete, it is poorly written double talk with large portions of heretical statements mixed in, that try to undo 2000 years of Catholic teaching. As if the words of St. Paul and Jesus can be made null and void.
Posted by: Innocent III at Nov 14, 2005 12:27:22 PM
F. C. Bauerschmidt:
"I blame the Novus Ordo Missae for both Spanish Fascism and the neglect of the laity."
You forgot Poland....
To say nothing of global warming and acid reflux disease."
I think the Novus Ordo was definitely responsible for "CHiPs," especially the theme song.
Posted by: Patrick Rothwell at Nov 14, 2005 12:37:31 PM
And why have the links to the Potato Famine been so completely ignored?
Posted by: Ed the Roman at Nov 14, 2005 1:18:48 PM
Friends: wake up. The Novus Ordo is a plot by the pinko-commie-fags, doncha know?
Posted by: Jimmy Mac at Nov 14, 2005 1:43:21 PM
And, Innocent III, you forgot to mention how the Communists recruited Alec Guiness, a known homosexual, to play your namesake in BROTHER SUN, SISTER MOON. And, of course, he is presented as approving, in a moment of enlightenment from the Holy Spirit, a ragged band of showerless dolts who had trouble understanding the importance of obedience to parents and private property. The Communist plot, my friend, goes back much further than you imagine. It's even older than the Illuminati. Some exegetes are still unaware of the Communist interpolation in Acts 2: 45! And worst of all, that stalwart of CUF fame, Paul Licoudis, has actually confessed in the WANDERER two weeks ago that he was wrong - Dorothy Day was NOT a Communist, as he had previously written, but really a saint who ought to be canonized immediately! And proof positive of Benedict XVI's Communist leanings is that he owns a Steinway piano - a company owned by Jewish Communists.
Tom Haessler
Tom Haessler
Posted by: Tom Haessler at Nov 14, 2005 3:03:30 PM
Re: my remark about the Church being run from the start by "cowards and deniers of Christ"
Um... people... you did at some point in your life encounter the Passion bits of the Gospels, right?
It was a Biblical reference to the apostles. In fact, it was a funny Biblical reference, and a restatement of one of the classic arguments for the Holy Spirit's presence in the Church, and for the truth of Jesus' promise to Peter about the Church's survival.
Sheeeeeeesh, people. Remind me not to be too subtle.
Posted by: Maureen at Nov 15, 2005 2:06:10 PM
