Oh, Beautiful Lady, Why Do You Weep?

     A day or two ago, I stumbled across a blog of some really amazing political cartoons by Me & Folly.  They have some great conservative political commentary through their cartoons over on their blog.  Check it out, here.  Just the other day, they posted this cartoon, in honor of the re-election of President Barack Obama.

Here she sits, Lady Liberty, an icon of our great nation, weeping in sorrow over what this election might mean for the United States.  And as shocking and representative as this image is in the outcome of this past election, let me offer you another image, of greater significance to compare.

This photograph is a picture of the statue of Our Blessed Mother in La Salette, France on the site where she appeared to two little children, Melanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, on September 19, 1846.  According to the children, they found this Beautiful Lady weeping in Her hands.  She wept the entire time she spoke to the children.  Why was this Beautiful Lady weeping so?  She was crying for Her children, Our Lord's children, because we have become so lost and have turned so far away from Our Lord.  She was weeping because She knew that Our Lord was going to punish us for our disobedience, for our rejection of His Commandments, and for our loss of love and faith.  She knew and She came to warn us.  What She had to say to these little children has gone mostly unheeded, except for a few.  What She warned would come to pass has been all but dismissed and, in recent years, redefined.  The leaders in the Catholic Church haven't wanted you to hear Our Mother for fear that you might "worry" or become "overburdened."  Well, American Catholics, it's too late now.  Our Lady Liberty weeps now because she is finally realizing that what Our Blessed Mother said is true.  If you don't know what Our Blessed Mother said, or if you aren't sure of the significance of it, I'll clarify it here.

     When Our Mother appeared on the Alps in Southern France in 1846, she spoke very seriously and sweetly with these two little, poor, uneducated children.  She gave them messages to take back to the bishops of the Church and secrets to be revealed only when She wanted them to be known.  Many of the messages Our Blessed Mother told the children were very disturbing.  In these messages, Our Lady warned that the whole world would suffer loss of faith, decline of morals, waging of war after war, poverty, and devastation.  While most of her messages have to do with France and the French Revolution in the 1850s, She made some dire predictions that would effect the entire world.  And while some priests and religious have continued to discredit what Our Mother said to little Melanie in the fields that day, I am inclined to believe the entire message.  And while there is much to read in Our Lady of LaSalette's messages, I specifically want to highlight something that applies to our times, in our beloved United States, and in the Modern Catholic Church.  After that, you can read Our Lady's messages and decide for yourself if what she said is true or not.

In the year 1864 Lucifer, together with a great number of devils, will be loosed from hell; little by little they will abolish the faith, and that even in persons consecrated to God; they will so blind them, that without a special grace, these persons will take on the spirit of these evil angels; a number of religious houses will lose the faith entirely and cause many souls to be damned.

     Why in the heavens would Our Blessed Mother mention the year 1864?  It seems like such an arbitrary number, doesn't it?  But a pretty quick search of history, reveals that 1864 was pretty significant for the Devil's work.  It was this year, that the Communist Karl Marx, in political exile in England, was able to exert his influence through the International Working Men's Association.  Where he had previously been isolated and ostracized, Karl Marx, through his journalism experience, was able to draft and launch a platform that would eventually become what we know as Communism.  In September of 1864, workers from across Europe met and organized to address the political and social plight of the working class.  And it was through this newly founded organization that Marx's was able to frame his political and social ideas in a way that seemed positive and hopeful.  He drafted his platform and set it in motion in his Inaugural Address, and thus, as Our Lady foretold, a great number of devils were loosed from hell.  

     That evil, repugnant, godless philosophy called Communism has many names, most specifically Socialism but one you may not have heard of---Communitarianism.  Communism has all but taken root in the entire world, and now, under another term of President Barack Obama, Socialism is set to become the new norm in the United States of America.  Oh, sure.  You've heard people proclaim that Communism is dead.  They will jump up and down insisting that Communism died with the last thud of the bricks from the collapse of the Berlin Wall.  Oh, Catholics will tell you that Pope John Paul II dedicated his Papacy to dismantling Communism.  These same people will tell you that Ronnie Reagan and Maggie Thatcher tirelessly and doggedly forced an end to that vile social, economic, and political system called Communism.  But they are all wrong.  Communism is not dead.  Communism lives on and it continues to invest every nation and every institution on earth, including the Catholic Church, just as Our Blessed Mother said it would.

     So pay attention my dear American Catholics!  Each year, our nation grows more and more socialistic in practice.  Almost half of American citizens depend on the government to do something for them:  Social Security, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, student loans, public schools, school lunches, day care subsidies, unemployment, disability.  Each year the programs grow and the people become less dependent on themselves and their families and more dependent on the government.  And there is nothing to be done.  The train has left the station, folks, and it ain't gonna stop until individuals have lost their personal sovereignty.  But of course, every American knows this.  And that is why there was so much backlash against another Obama term.  And who helped him get re-elected?  Why, the Catholics, of course!

    You see, just as Our Blessed Mother told little Melanie and Maximin, the priests, bishops, and religious will slowly become infected with the Communist spirit that they will lose the faith entirely and souls will be damned!  Once upon a time, Popes defended the Church from evil.  In 1878, Pope Leo XIII condemned the rising ideas of communism in Quod Apostolici Muneris.  He was certainly not trying to play nice when he called the socialists and communists a "wicked confederacy."  He exposed their plan for all to see--the overthrow of civil society.  He showed us how they work.  He condemned their ideas: refusal to acknowledge God, absolute equality of all men in rights and duties, sexual freedom, greed, materialism, and their assaults on the natural right of property.  Not only did Pope Leo XIII condemn the evil scourge of communism, he also forbid Catholics from becoming involved in any organization that promoted such ideas. In fact, Pope Leo XIII recognized that the ONLY defense against the spread of communism across the world was the One True Church:  Since they know that the Church of Christ has such power to ward off the plague of socialism as cannot be found in human laws, in the mandates of magistrates, or in the force of armies, let them restore that Church to the condition and liberty in which she may exert her healing force for the benefit of society. 

     But is the Catholic Church speaking like this now when socialism is running rampant throughout society and beginning to take root in the United States?  Nope.  Instead she is busy bringing the cause of sainthood forward for Communists!!  Just today, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops lead by the ever jovial Cardinal Dolan announced that they intend to canonize Dorothy Day, the communist turned communitarianist.  In case, you have never heard of Dorothy Day, let me share with you a few things I discovered on my own.

     Dorothy Day was born in New York at the turn of the 20th century.  She spent her 20s roaring through the 20s and embracing every feminist ideal that was popular in her day.  She had multiple sexual relationships, an unwed pregnancy, and an abortion.  She had been a nude model and was a member of the American Socialist Party.  She was a journalist, a peace activist during WWI, and a champion for women's suffrage.  She is by all signs, a model for modern women feminism.  It was perhaps her daughters illegitimate birth that led Ms. Day to her "personal" conversion, as she had her daughter baptized a Catholic.  In 1932, she met up with a man who shared her cause and together they established a newspaper called the Catholic Worker, which became a vehicle for her to promote her ideas regarding Catholic social justice.  Throughout her life and career, Dorothy Day, through her newspaper, which later became a movement, she continued to criticize the capitalist economic system, she supported the rising trade unions which were calling for worker's equality, she challenged the Catholic Church to embrace pacifism, and she insisted that Our Lord's teaching was one of non-violence and peace.  She spent her life leading causes such as ending nuclear war, opposition to WWII and Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, and working with Cesar Chavez' United Farm Workers.  In short, throughout her entire life, Dorothy Day, in spite of claiming she had a conversion, continued to live, embody, and promote socialist ideals.  In fact, I don't believe she ever recanted her communist beliefs or apologized for her actions even until her death in 1980.

     Some say that Ms. Day was no longer a communist, that she did a great service for the Church, especially the poor.  But I say this is purely an attempt to mislead Catholics.  In fact, let me share with you her own words from her own newspaper in 1948:

To see only the good, the Christ, in others!  Perhaps if we thought of how Karl Marx was called "Papa Marx" by all the children on the street, if we knew and remembered how he told fairy stories to his children, how he suffered hunger and poverty and pain, how he sat by the body of his dead child and had no money for coffin or funeral, perhaps such thoughts as these would make us love him and his followers.  Dear God, for the memory of that dead child, of that faithful wife, grant his stormy spirit a "place of refreshment, light, and peace."
And there was Lenin.  He hungered and thirsted and at times he had no fixed abode.  Mme. Krupskaya, his widow, said that he loved to go into the peace of the pine woods and hunt mushrooms like old Mrs. Dew down at Easton did, and we with her one October.  He lived one time in the slums of Paris, and he lived on horse meat when he had meat, and he started schools for the poor and the workers.  "He went about doing good."  (For reference see this link.)

    Here is your new saint, modern Catholics!  Your new saint has told you to forget about the millions of CATHOLICS who were slaughtered by the Bolsheviks and Vladimir Lenin.  Is that the good he went about doing, Ms. Day?  Are we supposed to forget about it the repression, the gulags, the forced migration?  Are you so blind, Catholic faithful, that you cannot see what Our Lady of LaSalette warned you about your bishops and priests???

     Just as this is a dark day for the United States of America, this is an even darker day for the Catholic Church.  Yes, Our Lady is weeping.  She is weeping because their is nothing left for us to do.  The devil has been unleashed.  The Catholic Church, who once stood in armor battling evil, particularly communism in all its forms, is now either silent or embracing the very evil itself!  Our Lord is going to punish us very severely and soon.  The United States and the Catholic Church are about to suffer the same fate---we are all about to be chastised.  What can us Americans do to prepare for the economic and social depravity we are about to face at the hands of our socialist government?  Stock up on food and supplies.  Keep some cash on hand.  Find a safe place to go when it all comes crashing down.  What can Catholics do to prepare for God's wrath over the desecration of His Altars and the loss of faith of His holy priests?  Find a True Mass.  Wear Our Lady's Scapular.  Pray a daily Rosary as Our Lady of Fatima told us.  Keep your family close.  There is nothing left for us to do.

    May God have mercy on the United States and on His faithful Catholics!

     Our Lady of LaSalette, pray for us!

Don't Look Now! The Emperor Has No Clothes!

     It has been some time since I posted.  I apologize.  I've had a mother to care for and a handful of children to homeschool.  It's been a rough two months.  But as issues with my mother are improving and the children are managing, I thought I'd write some more on politics as I had promised in the summer.
     I had wanted to write a lot of things, particularly about the history of Catholics in the United States, but recent events of the Catholic Bishops in the U.S have come to the forefront.  And I think it's a good opportunity to address what is wrong with the modern Catholic Church and why so many Catholics are ignorant of their faith and confused about how to cast a vote in this upcoming election.

     

     In case, the above image is not familiar to you, this is a photograph taken on October 18, 2012 at the 67th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner in New York.  Okay.  So what?  Who is Alfred E. Smith anyway?  And why is this dinner occasion for Bishops to cozy up to politicians?  Interesting questions, really, with answers I had to research myself.
    First just who is Alfred E. Smith?  Most notably, Al Smith was the Governor of New York in the 1920s.  He was a Catholic and he was elected 3 times in New York to guide and serve the people of that state.  Al Smith was an Irish Catholic, born in Manhattan, and a member of  the Democratic Party political machine called Tammany Hall.  In spite of his involvement in Tammany Hall, Al Smith was smart enough to separate himself from it, expose the organizations corruption, and propose necessary reforms in the State of New York.  This made him both popular and unpopular, but made him a favored candidate for President in 1928 against Herbert Hoover.  Unfortunately, the religious sentiment across the country proved doom for the Democratic party ticket with a New York Catholic at is head and a Southern Protestant underneath.  The campaign was rife with problems and it brought to the forefront anti-Catholic bias in this country, particularly in the South.
     Anti-catholic sentiment was nothing new to the United States.  The first permanent settlements in the United States were made up of English and German Protestants fleeing their own persecutions.  They brought with them the propaganda and hatred borne out of Martin Luther's Protestant Revolt.  Catholics were routinely accused of horrible crimes, banned from communities, and prohibited from owning property, home educating their children, or participating in political activities.  There was, of course, the theological prejudices accusing the Catholic Church of being the "Whore of Babylon" and the accusations that Catholics, themselves, were Satan worshippers and idolaters.  In fact, it was dangerous in the early years of our Nation to be a Catholic.  
     Aside from the theological differences, many people in the Colonies feared the secular mindset of Catholics, in general.  It is perhaps why the Protestant legislators in the colonies enacted laws prohibiting Catholics from voting or holding office.  Catholics were primarily unafraid of a monarchical form of government.  They weren't opposed to municipalities governing with Catholic ideas or theology.  In fact, from a Catholic theological and political perspective, this was necessary.  As such, the Catholics weren't necessarily in support of freeing themselves from rule of a King, even if that King was not Catholic or corrupt.  It posed a great problem for the Protestant colonists in the colonies and there was always propaganda floating around to humiliate and isolate Catholics in the United States.
     As Catholic immigrants began flooding the United States in the 1800s, anti-Catholicism reached it's peak.  Protestant preachers ignited the flames in there sermons across the country.  They called for prohibiting Catholics from settling in many places and continued to ostracize them.  Across the country, churches were burned, Catholics were killed, and tempers flared.  It was a very nasty time in American history, and one of the only ways for U.S. Catholics to defend themselves was to fight back and separate themselves from the Protestants.  The U.S. soon became a nation divided between Catholics and Protestants.  
      One way the Catholics sought to defend themselves was through the school system.  In 1875, Pope Pius IX wrote a letter to the U.S. Bishops cautioning them of the danger to the souls of their children in the public schools.  In 1897, Pope Leo XIII issued an Encyclical insisting that Catholic children be educated in Catholic schools by Catholic instructors.  And as anti-Catholic sentiment continued to rise, it was this instruction that the Catholics in New York took seriously.  Tammany Hall, the political machine in which Alfred E. Smith was made, invested millions of dollars in Catholic schools across the country.  This caused such a controversy in the United States, that political cartoons sprung up further inciting the anti-Catholic bias in this country.  This was a very dark time for Catholics.
     Yet, in spite of the Catholic hatred in the country, Alfred E. Smith won the Democratic nomination for President in 1928.  And his nomination let loose another hailstorm of anti-Catholic sentiment, particularly in the South, where the KKK rose up in loud protest.  Of course, the campaign was doomed to fail, with Al Smith receiving merely 87 Electoral College votes.  In spite of the Democratic platform of improvements in education, federal money for farmers, and an end to Prohibition, the Republicans fostered the sentiment made by a Southern preacher:  "No subject of the Pope should be allowed to become President."  Even members of his own party campaigned against him out of fear that he would make America a Catholic nation.  
      After Al Smith's humiliating defeat, he attempted to run for President once more in 1932.  Of course, he lost that nomination to FDR, and he went on to become very outspoken against that President's New Deal.  He spent the rest of his life in vocal opposition to Roosevelt's New Deal policies, hoping for reforms.  He did in 1944.  In 1946, the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Spellman established the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation in memory of Mayor Smith and all the good works he had accomplished for Catholics in both politics and public service.  The goal of the foundation was and is to raise funds for the neediest people, especially children, in the Diocese of New York.  The main fundraiser for the Foundation has always been the Al Smith Dinner, the black tie affair where the wealthiest donors come for a night of fun and entertainment, with the explicit purpose of political elbow-rubbing.  Cardinal Spellman hoped to remind people of the importance and significance of Al Smith and Catholicism in our political history.  There have been only few occasions where current presidential candidates have not participated in the dinner.  In other words, it's a big deal for politicians and it's a big deal for Catholics.
     The Al Smith Dinner has a long history, then, in American politics.  It also has a long history with Catholic Charities and collecting donations for health care, schools, and food for needy families.  Perhaps these are the reasons why Cardinal Dolan saw fit to invite both the President and his rival to the dinner this year.  But for whatever reason, the Cardinal has left Catholics scandalized and confused.  Yet, this does seem to be the mantra of the modern Catholic Church---keep the faithful ignorant, confuse them more, and lead them to believe that evil is good, no matter what the degree.
     Bloggers all over the blogosphere are rightly outraged and confused by the Cardinal's actions this year.  There was a petition out to stop the Diner completely.  Others have just questioned why Cardinal Dolan would invite President Obama.  Some retained hope that Cardinal Dolan would use this as an opportunity to confront President Obama about his abortion views.     And then you've got the Catholics giving rounds of applause to His Emminence, Cardinal Dolan.      What are Catholics to make of this whole mess anyway?
     For clarity sake let's have a look at what the stink is all about anyway.  Most of the individuals in opposition to Cardinal Dolan's invitation to President Obama has to do with his view and policies on abortion, homosexual marriage, and his Marxist ideology.  They argue that the President's pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, pro-government control of health care are incompatible with Catholicism and, therefore, he should not have been invited to the dinner at all.  These same people argue that Mr. Romney should have been the only one to speak since his views are consistent with or are at-least not as extreme as the President's.  I suppose that's their opinion.  However mine is much different.
    Until the 1980s, neither abortion, homosexuality, or Marxism had been on the radar or lips of American politicians.  Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Walter Mondale, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, Al Gore, and Dick Cheney were at one time or currently are all supporters of abortion and or homosexual rights.  They have all been speakers at the Al Smith Dinner.  If these politicians have been invited and spoken at the Dinner, then why the outrage over Obama?  For what it's worth, Mitt Romney is also pro-abortion.  Why not be outraged that he was invited and spoke at the Dinner?  It's truly a puzzle to me.
     Why has there never been outrage before?  Simple.  Money.  The modern Catholic Church is no longer interested in saving souls or avoiding the cause of scandal.  The bishops and cardinals are only interested in one thing--political posturing to raise money for this project or that.  It's a real shame.  The Cardinal, if he had really taking his role as Shepherd seriously, could have refused to invite them both, and instead invited Rick Santorum who is both Catholic and unequivocably pro-life and pro-family.  He could have invited Mike Huckabee who is also.  Perhaps he could have invited Todd Akin.  Now wouldn't that have made a statement!  But no, His Emminence decided it would be best to continue to confuse Catholics by allowing them to think that Catholics can simply separate Catholicism from their life, from their political decisions, from the voting booth.
     This is a complete insult to the memory of Albert E. Smith.  There was a man who faced assault after assault for his Catholicism. Here was a  man who denounced the KKK, who openly tried to rid it's influence from the Democratic party.  He was ridiculed and derailed by members of his own party.  Why?  Only because he was a Catholic.  
     The Catholic Church has always been the last bastion of hope in the world.  She has always defended the helpless and hopeless.  She has always stood for Truth.  She has always protected her children from evil and guided them to the Son.  Yet, here we are with Cardinals hamming it up with two pro-abortion politicians telling you on one hand "This is a political dinner and we are raising money for a good cause." and on the other hand telling you "That both parties, both candidates are acceptable choices as long as you don't think too hard."  It is scandalous!
     So be careful, my Catholic friends.  You simply can no longer trust your Shepherds!  They are all wolves in disguise!

Our Lady of Fatima, ora pro nobis!