Solemnity of the Most Precious Blood
Daily Sermons
June 7 – Bp. Dolan – A Nice Confirmation Sermon
June 9 – Bp. Dolan – Pentecost Monday
June 10 – Fr. Lehtoranta – Pentecost Tuesday – Show Affection to the Holy Ghost
June 19 – Fr. McGuire – Corpus Christi
June 24 – Fr. McKenna – Nativity of St. John the Baptist
_________________________________________
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
I am thinking of paradoxes this Precious Blood Sunday. Our lives, our history abound in them, as does the Catholic Church, and our own country. Friday – and all weekend, I suppose – we celebrated the anniversary of the American Revolution. Today we celebrate a feast, and practice a devotion set by the Church to oppose the secret forces, Freemasonry and the “Enlightenment,” which brought about this revolution. The Precious Blood devotion was preached and promoted in early 19th century Italy by Blessed Gaspar del Bufalo, called “the Hammer of Freemasons.” The First Sunday of July was dedicated by Pius IX as the feast of the Precious Blood, in thanksgiving for his return to Rome after the Masonic revolution of 1848 had ousted him. The pope was originally somewhat liberal, and tried to accommodate modern and even revolutionary ideals. Fr. Cekada says it was an expensive learning experience.
The American Revolution was originally strongly anti-Catholic, protesting the King’s establishment of Catholicism as Québec’s state religion. Many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were rabidly opposed to the Church, which was officially illegal in the Colonies in any case. It was only through the influence of such “benign” Freemasons as George Washington, in many respects truly a noble character, that Catholicism passed from bare toleration to actual freedom, and came to prosper in our land, in an era when it was persecuted in most Catholic countries. The price paid for this was perhaps a too-ready acceptance of Masonic and Americanist ideals: liberty, democracy, equality. The subject is a complicated one, but rewards careful Catholic investigation and study. The only true liberty is found with Our Lord and His Church.
Fr. Rutler says that George III was a noble King, and moderate in his rule. Our taxes today are far higher than those against which the Colonists revolted. Government remains the locus of tyranny today, as it was in the minds of the Founding Fathers. This is always the end result for those who refuse the sweet yoke of Christ our King. We may find some relief in the recent Supreme Court decisions tramping down a bit Washington’s tyranny under Obama, but we should soberly reflect that where Christ is not, Satan reigns. “Far from believing in democracy, equality or any separation of church and state, what Satan has in mind is actually an anti-theocracy of worshiping slaves, beginning like Christ’s on earth, but continuing in hell. That’s politics.” Solange Hertz’ words, and especially the phrase
“worshiping slaves,” ring weirdly true. That’s modern life.
What a paradox, but an understandable one due to 50 years of the new religion, that the Hobby Lobby people are Protestant, not Catholic! But ours in an age in which we must content ourselves with the smallest of victories in the public forum and the world of politics. All the more important is it that we should publicly proclaim Christ the King, and Mary our Queen. No paradox here, and it is the most solid of works. Plan to process and pray the Rosary with us next Sunday evening, July 13th, for true peace and real freedom.
In the meantime, we are looking forward to the Girls’ Camp this week, a wonderful apostolate of some very dedicated ladies of our church, ably assisted by two Sisters of St. Thomas Aquinas. Thank you for your interest and support and for sending your girls for this wonderful Catholic experience. Pray for a good and safe camp to St. Maria Goretti, on whose feast day it opens on Wednesday.
Fr. Lehtoranta reports a good visit to Spain, but that he was stood up in Denmark, and ended up having to spend the night in a train station. (The same thing happened to me once, with Bishop Pivarunas, and in the same country. Is there something rotten in the state of Denmark?) Still, Father seems chipper and is visiting Norway now to offer Mass for two very small groups of faithful, before finally having a little rest with his family in Finland, where he is the only Catholic, and only valid priest. Keep him, and all of our missionary priests, in your prayers.
Fr. McKenna is driving to our revived Ss Processus and Martinian Mission in Minnesota today, and continues to North Dakota. We are happy to welcome our Nigerian missionary, Fr. Nkamuke, who joins us now for further pastoral training before returning to his native land. He hopes to make another visit to Nigeria in the Fall.
Fr. Kudriavtsev is spending some time with Fr. Trytek in Krakow, Poland, studying how to say the Latin Mass. We are grateful for all of the support received to help this priest since the Russian Revolution returned to Ukraine. The Patriarch of Moscow, a former (?) KGB agent, has recently bestowed some high Russian Orthodox honor upon the head of the Communist party! Some things never change.
Let us pray for the conversion of today’s great and mostly Godless empires, American, Russian, and Chinese. Only Christ the King can give us, and assure us, true liberty, “by the freedom wherewith Christ hath made us free.” (St. Paul)
Yours in Mary Immaculate, our country’s Patroness,
– Bishop Dolan