[null, null, {"document_url": "http://lefleurdelystoo.blogspot.com/2008_11_23_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/RwVOqtEj0fI/AAAAAAAAAI0/PF4UXoxPnRY/S220/MA+surveilance.jpg", "src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/RwVOqtEj0fI/AAAAAAAAAI0/PF4UXoxPnRY/S220/MA+surveilance.jpg", "formatted_filename": "MA surveilance", "alt_text": "Marie-Antoinette la Reine-Martyre", "rendered_width": 170, "rendered_height": 220}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://lefleurdelystoo.blogspot.com/2008_11_23_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/S9nrZ1vvPnI/AAAAAAAAEQo/HWbGaMqIHjM/S150/babyinthewomb1.jpg", "src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/S9nrZ1vvPnI/AAAAAAAAEQo/HWbGaMqIHjM/S150/babyinthewomb1.jpg", "formatted_filename": "babyinthewomb", "alt_text": "...Original Sin is not a Capital Crime.", "rendered_width": 150, "rendered_height": 117}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://lefleurdelystoo.blogspot.com/2008_11_23_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/SFgeTcA74QI/AAAAAAAABPE/1brs1GH321g/S150/maid+of+heaven.jpg", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/SFgeTcA74QI/AAAAAAAABPE/1brs1GH321g/S150/maid+of+heaven.jpg", "formatted_filename": "maid of heaven", "rendered_width": 150, "rendered_height": 150}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://lefleurdelystoo.blogspot.com/2008_11_23_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/SFgf3UcBYpI/AAAAAAAABPM/lSAwhuce1J4/S150/Mistress+of+the+Revolution.jpg", "src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/SFgf3UcBYpI/AAAAAAAABPM/lSAwhuce1J4/S150/Mistress+of+the+Revolution.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Mistress of the Revolution", "rendered_width": 150, "rendered_height": 150}, null, {"document_url": "http://lefleurdelystoo.blogspot.com/2008_11_23_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/SFgdx4l1k5I/AAAAAAAABO0/i5zMDNLvZFQ/S150/Trianon.jpg", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/SFgdx4l1k5I/AAAAAAAABO0/i5zMDNLvZFQ/S150/Trianon.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Trianon", "rendered_width": 150, "rendered_height": 150}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://lefleurdelystoo.blogspot.com/2008_11_23_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/STA5f360YOI/AAAAAAAACVY/EgfuvtQS9ks/s320/JajkowskiWide.jpg", "src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/STA5f360YOI/AAAAAAAACVY/EgfuvtQS9ks/s320/JajkowskiWide.jpg", "formatted_filename": "JajkowskiWide"}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://lefleurdelystoo.blogspot.com/2008_11_23_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/SS7tQl56qUI/AAAAAAAACVI/AhvUBqXhO-s/s320/La_Vierge_Miraculeuse_de_la_rue_du_Bac_.jpg", "src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/SS7tQl56qUI/AAAAAAAACVI/AhvUBqXhO-s/s320/La_Vierge_Miraculeuse_de_la_rue_du_Bac_.jpg", "formatted_filename": "La Vierge Miraculeuse de la rue du Bac"}, null, {"document_url": "http://lefleurdelystoo.blogspot.com/2008_11_23_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/SS7uHPCiRbI/AAAAAAAACVQ/ppVsTO4Waik/s320/La%2BM%25C3%25A9daille%2BMiraculeuse.png", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RMP5gGGaNA0/SS7uHPCiRbI/AAAAAAAACVQ/ppVsTO4Waik/s320/La%2BM%25C3%25A9daille%2BMiraculeuse.png", "formatted_filename": "La BM C A daille BMiraculeuse"}, null, null, null]
Of Turkeys...

Christine has a few thoughts on Thanksgiving and the Mass and gaining perspective...

This is true...

de brantigny
Posted by Brantigny at 2:01 PM No comments: Links to this post Our Lady of the Angels (OLA) School Fire, December 1, 1958

I grew up in Chicago. Being born in 1955 (yes I am 53) I went to Catholic Schools in this Diocese. By the time I went to St Alphonsus the changes written in blood were just starting to take effect. I remember the good sisters, (many of whom are now in Heaven because of serving time in purgatory with me). Arriving in Kindergarten in the fall of 1960 the memories of that fateful day remained clear and fresh in the minds and hearts of the Sisters. I quite remember the weekly fire drills and the workmen installing sprinklers in the halls and the classroom.

Soon afterwards we would be also facing the threat of the Cuban missle crisis, and our practices would swich to air raid drills for missle attacks...

It was one of the Worst School Fires In U.S. History On December 1, 1958, a fire broke out in the basement of Our Lady of the Angels catholic school in Chicago, educational home to approximately 1,600 students in Kindergarten through 8th grade. The school was a two story structure built in 1910 but remodeled and added to numerous times in the intervening years. While legally in compliance with the fire safety laws of the time, the school was woefully unprepared for any kind of fire. There was only one fire escape, no sprinklers, no automatic fire alarm, no smoke or heat detectors, no alarm connected to the fire department, no fire-resistant stairwells and no fire-safe doors from the stairwells to the second floor. While the building's exterior was brick, the interior was made almost entirely of combustibles - stairs, walls, floors, doors and roof - all wood. The floors had been coated and re-coated many times with flammable petroleum based waxes. There were NO fire alarm switches in the north wing, and only two in the entire school, both located in the south wing. While there were four fire extinguishers in the north wing, they were mounted 7 feet off the floor, out of reach for many adults and virtually all of the children. The single fire escape was near one end of the north wing but to reach it required passing through the main corridor, which became filled with suffocating smoke and superheated gases. With it's 12-foot ceilings, the school's second floor windows were a daunting 25 feet from the ground, should someone decide to jump. Thus, the scenario for a tragedy was set.

Was It Arson?

Although the cause has never been officially determined, all indications point to arson. A boy (age 10 at the time, and a fifth grader in room 206) later confessed to setting the blaze, but subsequently recanted his confession. He was more afraid of confessing to his mother and step-father than to the police.

The boy confessed to setting numerous other fires in the neighborhood, mostly in apartment buildings. In his confession, he related details of the fire's origin that had not been made public and that he should therefore not have known. While there was strong evidence that he was indeed the culprit, neither he nor anyone else was ever prosecuted, at least in part because the catholic judge in the case felt he should protect the Church.

Officially, the cause of the fire remains unknown.

The fire started in the basement sometime between 2:00 and 2:20 that cold December afternoon, in a cardboard trash barrel at the foot of the northeast stairwell. The fire burned undetected for an estimated 15 to 30 minutes, gradually filling the stairwell with super hot gases and smoke. In the intense heat, a window at the foot of the stairwell shattered, giving the smoldering fire a new supply of oxygen. The wooden staircase itself burst into flames and, acting like a chimney, sent super hot gases, fire and smoke swirling up the stairwell. The first floor landing was equipped with a heavy wooden door which effectively blocked the fire and heat from entering the first floor hallway. But the second floor landing had no doors - the fire, smoke and heat were free to roam the second floor halls at will. As the fire was climbing (consuming) the stairway, a pipe chase running from the basement to the cockloft above the second floor false ceiling gave the superheated gases a direct route to the attic, where the temperature rapidly rose higher and higher until it finally reached ignition temperature. Almost as though planning a coordinated attack, the fire swept through the halls of the second floor in the north wing of the school, and flashed through the cockloft above the classrooms. By the time the students and their teachers in the second floor classrooms realized there was a fire, their sole escape route (the center hallway) was all but impassable. For 329 children and 5 teaching nuns, the only remaining means of escape was to jump from their second floor windows to the concrete and crushed rock 25 feet below, or to pray for the fire department to arrive and rescue them before it was too late. Recognizing the trap they were in, some of the nuns encouraged the children to sit at their desks or gather in a semi-circle and pray. And they did - until the smoke, heat and flames forced them to the windows. But there were no firemen to rescue them. Some began jumping - others fell or were pushed.

Finally, firefighters arrived and began rescuing children from the second floor windows, but the hellish conditions in some of the classrooms had become unbearable, and children were stumbling, crawling, clawing and fighting their way to the windows, trying to breathe and escape. Many jumped, fell or were pushed out before firefighters could get to them. Some were killed in the fall, and scores more were injured. Many of the smaller children were trapped behind the frantic crowds at the windows, blocking any chance to escape through a window. Many of the little ones who managed to secure a spot at a window were then unable to climb over the three-foot-high window sills, or were pulled back by others frantically trying to scramble their way out. Helplessly, firefighters watched in horror as classrooms still filled with frightened children exploded in flames, instantly killing those who remained.

The first fire department units had arrived within four minutes of being called, but by then the fire had burned unchecked for as long as 30 minutes and was raging out of control. Also, they were delayed upon arrival because they had been incorrectly directed to the Rectory around the corner, and lost valuable minutes repositioning their trucks and hose lines after realizing the true location of the fire. The south windows of the north wing overlooked a small courtyard surrounded by the school on three sides, and a seven foot iron picket fence on the fourth side. The gate in the fence was locked -- firefighters could not get to the children at the south windows without first breaking through the gate. They spent a valuable minute or two battering the iron gate with sledge hammers and a ladder, before it finally gave way. Between the delayed discovery and reporting of the blaze, the fire-friendly school and the misdirection of the fire units, the firefighters arrived too late. Although they rescued more than 160 children from the burning inferno, many of the children they eventually carried out of the school that day were dead. Some of the bodies were so badly burned that they literally broke into pieces when firemen attempted to pick them up.

Eighty-seven children and three nuns died on December 1, 1958 as a result of the Our Lady of the Angels fire. Three more critically injured children died before Christmas followed by two more in 1959, the last one on August 9. In the end, 92 children and 3 nuns perished, bring the ghastly death toll to a staggering 95.

Our Lady of the Angels school passed a fire department safety inspection only weeks before the fire, because the school did not have to comply with all fire safety guidelines due to a grandfathering clause in the 1949 standards. Existing schools were not required to retrofit the safety devices that were required in all newly constructed schools. In the only positive outcome of the tragedy, sweeping changes in school fire safety regulations were enacted nationwide, no doubt saving countless lives in subsequent years.

But for the innocent victims of Our Lady of the Angels, it was too late.

God remember them and grant them Peace,

About the above photo, Fireman Richard Scheidt carries the lifeless body of 10-year-old John Jajkowski out of the fire-ravaged school soon after the fire is brought under control. The heart-breaking job of removing the young victims has begun.
This photograph became the defining image of the Our Lady of the Angels fire, seen around the world, and made into a moving fire prevention poster.

John was an accomplished musician - he played the accordion and sang in the boy's choir. He planned to be a priest.

Photo ©1958, Life Magazine

There will be a memorial Mass ,this Sunday November 30, 2008 at 2:30 P.M. at

Holy Family Family Church
1080 W. Roosevelt Rd.
Chicago, IL.
Posted by Brantigny at 12:52 PM 1 comment: Links to this post Labels: Dec.1 1958 Chicago, OLA fire


Fête de la Médaille Miraculeuse La Vierge de la rue du Bac à Paris, France


La médaille est un signe qui nous attire la protection de la Sainte Vierge Marie, si nous la portons, et surtout si nous la portons au cou.


Le samedi 27 novembre 1830, la Vierge Immaculée apparut à sainte Catherine Labouré, Fille de la Charité, et lui confia la mission de faire frapper une médaille dont elle lui révéla le modèle.

« Faites frapper une médaille sur ce modèle, dit la Vierge, les personnes qui la porteront avec confiance recevront de grandes grâces, surtout en la portant au cou. »

Si donc vous aimez la Vierge et si vous avez confiance en sa Puissante intercession :

- Portez toujours sur vous la médaille pour vivre dans la grâce de Dieu et jouir de la protection de la Vierge Immaculée.

- Dites chaque jour l'invocation de la médaille: « Ô Marie conçue sans péché, priez pour nous qui avons recours à vous »


La médaille connut immédiatement une diffusion prodigieuse. D'innombrables grâces (c'est-à-dire bienfaits du Ciel. protection, guérisons, prévention d'accidents ou de malheurs) furent obtenues. Depuis 1830, cette médaille s'est répandue dans le monde entier et elle a reçu le nom de Médaille miraculeuse.


Il y a quelques années, un prêtre déposa dans la boîte à gants de sa nouvelle voiture deux Médailles miraculeuses qu'on lui avait offertes. Deux ans plus tard, sur l'autoroute, il fit un accident sur un pont très élevé ; la voiture fit sept fois des tonneaux sur une hauteur de 32 mètres. Le prêtre et son compagnon ne furent pas même blessés. Mais quelle stupéfaction, lorsqu'ils virent qu'ils avaient, chacun sur ses genoux une des deux Médailles miraculeuses !

Ayons la médaille dans la voiture... mais surtout autour du cou ! Il ne faut donc pas la jeter, mais la respecter.

Capucins de Morgon

"O , Marie conçue sans péché, priez pour nous qui avons recours à Vous"

La Vierge Miraculeuse de la rue du Bac

Miracles opérés avec la Médaille Miraculeuse

"La protection de Notre-Dame s'étend aux plus lointains pays. Un missionnaire du Congo belge trouve un jour, dans un village beaucoup d'enfants malades. Ils ont les pieds enflés. On suppose qu'ils ont été piqués pendant la nuit par de petits serpents.

Le Père n'a pas sur lui de remède contre le venin. L'idée lui vient de mettre au cous de tous les malades la médaille miraculeuse. Rapidement la fièvre baisse, l'enflure disparaît. Tous les enfants guérissent et l'on ne revit jamais de serpents venimeux dans ce village.

La prière de Notre-Dame est toute puissante. Elle peut guérir, convertir, écarter les bombes, préserver de tout danger.

si on le peut, il faut aller prier Notre-Dame rue du Bac, dans cette chapelle ou Elle est venue, près de cet autel ou Elle a dit que des grâces seraient répandues sur tout le monde.

Là, devant ses mains ouvertes d'ou tombent les bienfaits, devant aussi cette statue (ci-dessus) ou elle tient le globe de la terre dans ses mains, il faut lui demander beaucoup.

Ste. Catherine Et la Médaille Miraculeuse
par Agnès Richomme
Belles histoires et Belles vies -Numéro 9

Le Bon Dieu et la Sainte Vierge,


Et n'oubliez pas de la faire bénir par un prêtre !
Seul un prêtre peut bénir votre médaille !(La Webmaster)

Encore? Cliquez ici...
Posted by Brantigny at 1:44 PM No comments: Links to this post Liberalism: Sin, Iniquity, Abomination


By Rev. Fr. Horacio Bojorge, S. J.

This essay by Rev. Fr. Horacio Bojorge has been published in Spanish by Ediciones del Alcázar, Buenos Aires, under the title El Liberalismo es la Iniquidad—La Rebelión Contra el Padre (Liberalism is 'the' Iniquity-The Rebellion Against the Father.)

Many authors have exposed the failures and flaws of Liberalism, its historical and philosophical precedents, and consequences. In this exposition we shall analyze the concept of liberalism as sin. This is what liberalism really represents: a systematic rebellion against Divine Paternity. In the classic sense of the word, Liberalism is an abomination.

Liberalism is not simply a sin but 'the' sin. Therefore, when we call it "a sin", we could misunderstand it as just another sin among many. In reality, liberalism is the sin par excellence, root, base and pinnacle of all sin.

By introducing this brief precision I believe I have interpreted correctly the ultimate intention of Fr. Felix Sardá i Salvany, who titled his work Liberalism is Sin [1]

The thesis

When I say that Liberalism is 'the' sin, the quintessential sin; I intent to advance one step closer to the comprehension of the type of sin we are dealing with, and the reason why Liberalism must be defined in that unique way.

My thesis could be summarized as follows: Liberalism is 'the' sin, because Liberalism is intrinsically evil. It is the sin against the Holy Spirit, the rejection of the Son, and the rebellion against the Father.

We need to understand the importance and depth of this affirmation. Liberalism is the direct sin against Christ and the Father. Consequently, it is a sin against the Holy Spirit. We shall see later that this is the sin that is called "the iniquity" in the New Testament, the sin of the Devil. The book of wisdom says that by envy—by ακηδία [1] of the Devil—death entered the world and those who belong to them, experience that death when they rebel against God, [2] and just like the Devil they aspire to place themselves in the place of God. They are also in accordance with the Devil in his negative to serve God. This is the sum of all evil, the supreme iniquity. Its complete manifestation is reserved for the Time of the End. This is what Saint Paul calls "The Mystery of Iniquity" (Mysterium Iniquitatis.) [3]

Liberalism is exposed as a manifestation of the mystery of iniquity, denounced by Saint Paul as a force acting incipiently in a covert manner already in apostolic times.

We will return to this topic and examine it in more detail. However, it is convenient to define in advance the concept of iniquity. According to the New Testament, iniquity consists in rejecting Jesus Christ and the revelation of God the Father, as agents of man's life and salvation. Iniquity is the opposition to the Holy Spirit by an impure spirit. It is therefore a direct sin against the Holy Spirit.

This rejection can be explicit or implicit. Explicit like that of the Jews and others who deny the validity of the Christian revelation in history. Implicit, like that of the practical atheists, or those who are indifferent, or those who do not oppose the truth but simply consider truth implicit, and relegate it to the bin of unnecessary, or inconvenient things that are hard to explain.

A recent example

Let me propose an example to show which types of silence, omission, or forgetfulness I am referring to.

His Holiness Benedict XVI introduced a small modification in the text of the Theme of the Fifth Conference of the Episcopate in Latin America and the Caribbean. The title of the theme that was presented to him was: "Disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ, so that our peoples may have life".

The Pope added two words: 'in Him', changing it to "Disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ, so that our peoples may have life 'in Him'".

With this smallest addition of two words ('in Him') the Pope called our attention to something fundamentally essential. If that something would have remained implicit, it could have covered a dire ambiguity in the comprehension of the expression "may have life".

To have life 'in Him' means to have the fullness of life as sons. The life announced by Jesus Christ. The goal of the disciple's mission remains defined explicitly by its objective: "so that they may have life 'in Him'".

This inspired addition, introduced by the Vicar of Christ, prevented the whole theme of the Conference, (and even the Conference itself) from being infected by that kind of Gramscian reductionism, that limits the life of man to a purely material existence. That immanentist reduction that has its roots in Rationalism, Naturalism, and Liberalism, finding its final form in Marxist Materialism.

I would be satisfied if, at the end of my exposition, I had been able to explain the nature of the sin of Liberalism, helping to comprehend better the nature of the danger avoided by the Pope, when he reminded us that the goal of our missionary work is to aid the peoples to have life in Christ through the message of God the Father. That life is the fullness of life that we can only have 'in Him'. Such life consists of entering in communion with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, by means of the Holy Spirit.

Notice how, at the bottom of that vague imprecision in the original phrase—at the root of that casual omission—lay something that could have been wrongly construed as an essential part of the Gospel. That ambiguity left just enough room for a surreptitious infection of the message with the Liberal concept that separates human life from its life in God. In that Naturalist vision, the ultimate horizon in the life of man is merely the quality of life.

That silence could have been particularly damaging if its origin would have been a forgetting of the essential. It would have been demonic if its origin would have been a conscious aversion towards the essential.

Félix Sardá i Salvany: Liberalism is sin

Before going any further it is necessary to define, as a fundamental point of reference, the diagnostic given to us by Fr. Félix Sardá i Salvany in his work "Liberalism is Sin". There Fr. Sardá writes:

Liberalism, whether in the doctrinal or practical order, is a sin. In the doctrinal order, it is heresy, and consequently a mortal sin against faith. In the practical order, it is a sin against the commandments of God and of the Church, for it virtually transgresses all commandments. To be more precise: in the doctrinal order, Liberalism strikes at the very foundations of faith; it is heresy radical and universal, because within it all heresies are comprehended. In the practical order it is a radical and universal infraction of the divine law, since it sanctions and authorizes all infractions of that law.

It follows, therefore, that Liberalism denies the absolute jurisdiction of Jesus Christ, who is God, over individuals and over society, and by consequence, repudiates the jurisdiction which God has delegated to the visible head of the Church over each and all of the faithful, whatever their condition or rank in life. Moreover, it denies the necessity of divine Revelation and the obligation of everyone to accept that Revelation under pain of eternal perdition. It denies the formal motive of faith, viz., the authority of God revealing, and admits only as much of revealed doctrine as it chooses or comprehends within its own narrow capacity. It denies the infallible magistracy of the Church and of the Pope, and consequently all the doctrines defined and taught by this divine authority. In short, it sets itself up as the measure and rule of faith and thus really shuts out Revelation altogether. It denies everything which it itself does not proclaim. It negates everything which it itself does not affirm. But not being able to affirm any truth beyond its own reach, it denies the possibility of any truth which it does not comprehend. The revelation of truth above human reason it therefore debars at the outset. The divinity of Jesus Christ is beyond its horoscope. The Church is outside its comprehension. The submission of human reason to the Word of Christ or its divinely constituted exponent [the Catholic Church, especially the Pope] is to it intolerable. It is, therefore, the radical and universal denial of all divine truth and Christian dogma, the primal type of all heresy, and the supreme rebellion against the authority of God and His Church. As with Lucifer, its maxim is, "I will not serve." Such is the general negation uttered by Liberalism. From this radical denial of revealed truth in general naturally follows the denial of particular dogmas, in whole or in part (as circumstances present them in opposition to its rationalistic judgment). Thus, for instance, it denies the validity of faith by Baptism, when it admits or supposes the equality of any or all religious cults; it denies the sanctity of marriage when it sanctions so-called civil marriages; it denies the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff, when it refuses to accept as laws his official commands and teachings and subjects them to the scrutiny of its own intellect—not to assure itself of their authenticity, as is legitimate, but to sit in defiant judgment upon their contents.

We may then say of Liberalism: in the order of ideas it is absolute error; in the order of facts it is absolute disorder. It is, therefore, in both cases a very grievous and deadly sin, for sin is rebellion against God in thought or in deed, the enthronement of the creature in the place of the Creator. [4]

The road to follow

Fr. Sardá i Salvany tells the truth. There is more, though a lot is implicit in the precise diagnostic of the Spanish apologist. The first consequence we that Liberalism is 'the sin' in a specific sense: it is 'the iniquity' identified in the New Testament as the setting in place of the supreme anti-Christian, anti-God evil. The seed of that iniquity lies hidden in history waiting to sprout a virulent manifestation. This is also an eschatological sign, because it is the cause of the final dissolution of mankind an the preamble to the reign of the Antichrist.

As we shall see, Saint John defines 'that sin' as η ανομία (ē anomía 'the iniquity'). This sin is particular and unique, this η ανομία (indifferent negligence that makes no difference between good and evil) always appears in the New Testament as a characteristic of the Antichrist and the End of Times, the Final Judgment, or the παρουσία (parousia) of Our Lord Jesus Christ. From the beginning of the Church it is applied to the rejection of Jesus Christ and God the Father, whom the Son comes to reveal. Saint John affirms that in his First Letter:

"... many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour [...] This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also." [5]

That denial or rejection was experienced by Jesus Christ Himself during his life. He defined it as a "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit". [6] The same rejection was experienced by all the apostolic ecclesial communities, because it is present and operates within them. Saint John and also Saint Paul interpreted its nature in the light of the words of Jesus. They announced its recrudescence in the End of Times.

One example of evil language

As a sample of the language of the modern iniquity, please read what was said by David Friedrich Strauss, Pastor and Theologian, self-appointed arbiter of what we should consider an acceptable Christ:

As long as Christianity is considered like something given to Mankind from outside itself; Christ as something who came from Heaven; His Church like an institution for the forgiveness of sins by means of His blood; Christianity will be understood in a Jewish way and the Religion of the Spirit will continue to be fleshly. Christianity will only be understood when we recognize in it a Mankind made more aware of itself than it has ever been aware so far: that Jesus is only that Man in Whom that profound conscience was manifested for the first time like a force determinant of His whole life and His whole being; and that sin can be erased only by access to this new conscience. [7]

The rebellion against the Father

The aforementioned words of Saint John, teach us that lastly, 'the sin', the worse evil, is the rejection of God the Father, the rebellion against a God-Father. That rejection and rebellion are manifested in the rejection of the Son (sent by the Father,) and of those disciples sent by the Son. The Son is rejected because the Father is also rejected. The Father is rejected by those seeking to avoid being subject to Him by filial obedience.

We must remember that the rejection of both obedience and subjection to God's government of human affairs has long established biblical roots. Remember the people of Israel who wanted to be freed from the lead of Moses [8]. Later, the Israelites asked Samuel to give them a King, like the kings of the neighboring nations.
God interpreted that request as an intent of secularization of political life, a form of early liberalism: "They have not rejected you, they have rejected Me, so that I don't rule over them." [9] Certainly, the Israelite monarchy would come to be the history of the infidelities of the chosen people to their Covenant with God, with the kings they have asked for, acting as leaders of the apostasy.
In the New Testament we find the Parable of the Murderous Vineyard Workers. They kill the son to take possession of their master's vineyard for themselves.
Let us recall the words of Jesus: "He who receives you, receives me, and he who receives me, receives the One who sent me." [10] Also, inversely: "He who rejects you, rejects me; and he who rejects me, rejects the Father who sent me." [11]
The rejection of God found in the Old Testament continues manifesting itself, as reported in the New Testament, in the form of a rejection of God the Father.

Heresies of Liberal origin

Within the Christian world—including the Catholic world—there were produced certain forms of religious liberalism. This religious Liberalism, criticized by John Henry Cardinal Newman, produced deviations and heretic theologies containing the rejection of God the Father that we observe and suffer even today.

One of them was the so-called Deism. Deism accepts God as a Creator, a Supreme Architect. But, once the house has been constructed, God leaves it in the hands of its inhabitants. He does not keep any relation with them, leaving them without the possibility of communion or closeness. Deism was a Naturalist, Rationalist rejection of the Christian revelation. It believed in a Creator God with whom there is no possible communion or communication.

Cardinal Pie cleverly diagnosed that, rejecting the communion with a God that invites us to commune, "it is nothing but the fear of vertigo produced by the wondrous heights that God calls us to climb." [12] That fear to the sublime union, will later invade all dimensions of human life, giving origin to Liberal individualism, the master-slave dialectic substituting Christian brotherhood, class warfare, and finally, the dictatorship of the envious that will impose the hatred of the best [13] and the tyranny of Equalitarianism in the name of Democracy.

From Jesus 'without Father' to Jesus 'against the Father'

A further consequence of religious Liberalism has been the Reductionist vision of Christ, in the style of the one proposed by David Friedrich Strauss we read earlier. This Jesuanism presents a historical Jesus separated from the Christ of the faith, with no reference ever being made to the Father as the final goal of the Gospel's message.

In the theological-pastoral discourse emerging from that proposition, the Father is relegated to a silent, implicit role. The Father is only explained when someone demands an explanation.

The Dominican Father Le Guillou has said about that contemporary Jesuanism:

"This places [...] Christ, not with the Father, but in lieu of the Father. In that way we see the vague design of a kind of Christicism, or Jesuanism (generally leaving the name of the Father silent) that tries to pass for real Christianity." [14]

Saint Paul teaches us: "But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?" [15] That which is not preached is not believed. That is the horrific consequence of leaving the Father in an implicit role, falling outside the conscience of both preacher and faithful.
This fact has been pointed out by Monsignor Josef Cordes in his work: The Eclipse of the Father, in these words:

"When one asks the great contemporary theologians of both confessions (Protestant and Catholic) about the Father of Jesus Christ, one acquires a surprising perspective: the researchers think more frequently and more markedly about 'God' that in the "Eternal Father'. If one calculates the statistical average of how many times the word 'Father' is used in the Father-Son relationship, the word is sadly relegated." [16]

This is the result of the liberal contagion that has affected the common sense of culture and overflows to the faithful, affecting them and the preachers as well. Once could say, extending the words of Saint Paul: How will they preach if they don't believe?

The Jesuanism, or pastoral criticism, is frequently proposed by the Protestant sects and ecclesial communities. Protestants preachers heard in tents and radio programs come to mind. Their message is the announcement of Christ as the personal savior, without a reference to the Father, nor the entering in communion with Him as the point of completion of the salvation they announce.

That same illness has been extended among, and penetrates into the common sense of Catholics, priests and theologians included. I refer you to your own experience in hearing the preachers in our own temples.

Something caught my attention in the final message of the Conference of Aparecida—please note that I am not referring to the magnificent Final Document of the Conference, but to the Final Message, a sort of draft of the Final Document written by the Ad Hoc Commission—In this Final Message, different from the later, final document, the Father ends up relegated to an implicit role in the whole opening part, the doctrinal-kerygmatic speaking of Jesus (10 times,) or Lord Jesus (1 time,) or Jesus Christ (4 times.) In the message the Father is mentioned three times. He is never mentioned in the first part, where Jesus Christ is presented, but later after passing over the doctrinal-kerygmatic moment, in the parenthetical context of the fourth and fifth sections. In this manner Jesus Christ is presented predominantly as Jesus, without an explicit reference to His Father.

The contrast with the original discourse of Benedict XVI is remarkable. There, Benedict XVI reiterates explicitly, that the Father is the goal of the evangelizing process to which the Conference of Aparecida is calling. [17] That is reflected in the Final Document.

This phenomenon I have been describing so far—the growing detachment of Jesus from the Father in pastoral preaching—is emphasized until it reaches a form of paroxysm in the diffusion of Freudian psychoanalysis.

Father Ignatius Anderggen has written:

Freudian psychoanalysis, as a method and technique, is intrinsically in solidarity with its fundamental intent of reaching a full awareness of the rebellion of man against God the Father, the rebellion rooted in the unconscious structure of those vices and passions of man that have not been restored by grace. This intention of Freud, and also of Nietzsche, consists in their conscious opposition against God and their pretension of taking God's place." [18]

Will continue soon...


[1] ακηδία, pron. ah-ceh-dee-ah; meaning negligence, indifference, for the wicked are indifferent, make no distinction between good and evil. Latin acidĭa, derived from the same Greek word.

[2] Wisdom 2, 24.

[3] 2 Thessalonians 2,7.

[4] Félix Sardá i Salvany, El liberalismo es pecado, (Liberalism is Sin), Ediciones Cruz y Fierro, Buenos Aires, 1977. Colección Clásicos Contrarrevolucionarios 2. Cited from the Spanish edition in c. III pp. 32-34.

[5] 1 John 2, 18-23.

[6] Mark 3, 29.

[7] David Friedrich Strauss, Das Leben Jesu, für das deutsche Volk bearbeitet (The Life of Jesus for German Working People), Leipzig 1864, p. 18.

[8] Exodus 32, 1: When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Up, make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."

[9] 1 Samuel 8, 7; Cfr. Luke 19, 14 `We do not want this man to reign over us.'

[10] Matthew 10, 40.

[11] Luke 10, 16.

[12] Alfredo Sáenz, El Cardenal Pie. Lucidez y Coraje al Servicio de la Verdad. (Cardenal Pie. Lucidity and Courage in the Service of Truth). Editorial Gladius, Buenos Aires. 2nd. Ed. 2007, p. 276.

[13] See the study by Helmut Schoeck, La Envidia. Una Teoría de la Sociedad (Envy. A Theory of Society). Ed. Club de Lectores, Buenos Aires 1969.

[14] M. J. Le Guillou, O.P. El Misterio del Padre. Fe de los Apóstoles (The Mystery of the Father. Faith of the Apostles). Gnosis Actuales. Editorial Encuentro, Madrid 1998, p. 196.

[15] Romans 10, 14.

[16] Mons. Paul Josef Cordes, El Eclipse del Padre (The Eclipse of the Father), Editorial Palabra, Madrid 2003, 1967, cited in p. 167.

[17] In the discourse of Benedict XVI the reference of Jesus Christ to the Father is very clear. Jesus has come to reveal the Father. The discourse expresses clearly this relation of Jesus to the Father in three main passages.

1-By pointing at what must be done by the Conference of Aparecida with the situation faced by the Latin American Continent at this point. "A new situation is being analyzed here in Aparecida. Facing these crossroads, the, the faithful expect of this new Conference, a renewal and revitalization of their faith in Christ, our only Teacher and Savior, who has revealed to us the unique experience of the Father's infinite love for mankind."

2-By pointing at Jesus as the one who reveals God: "For the Christian the nucleus of the response is simple" Only God knows God, only His Son, Who is God, is from God, true God can know Him. "He who is 'in the bossom of the Father', has revealed Him."

3-By pointing at the charism and the mission of those religious and consecrated people: "remind your brothers and sisters that the Kingdom of God has arrived already; that justice and truth are possible if we are open to the loving presence of God our Father, of Christ our Brother and Lord, and the Holy Spirit our Consoler."

[18] Fr. Ignatius Andereggen: Santo Tomás de Aquino- Psicólogo (St. Thomas Aquinas-Psychologist). Sapientia, 205 (1999) 59-68. R. Fr. Andereggen refers these affirmations by Sigmund Freud to: Totem y Tabú (Totem and Taboo), Buenos Aires 1993, 155-156.

[19] Mons. Paul Josef Cordes, El Eclipse del Padre (The Eclipse of the Father), Editorial Palabra, Madrid 2003, 1967, p. 179.

Thank you Carlos. However, I have to remind you that if liberialism is a sin, then an elected government is sinful. It places the state in the supreme authority over the lives of the people (subjects). Is it not as if the children give the parents authority to raise them? http://lefleurdelystoo.blogspot.com/2008/09/democracy.html

A tip of the beret to you...

Posted by Brantigny at 4:16 PM 3 comments: Links to this post