ARE YOU BECOMING A HYPOCRITE, MY BROTHER?

A Christian woman, praying one evening in tears before her crucifix, was surprised by her daughter, who, throwing her arms around her neck, said to her tenderly: “You are suffering, mother. But tell me what troubles you.” – “My daughter,” sadly replied the mother, “pray for your brother.” – “Does he no longer love you?” – “I am sure that he still loves me, but he no longer loves God; and you know, my child, that when the love of God is driven from the heart, the love of family and of duty quickly departs also.”

A useful piece of information

The young girl, when alone in her own room, prayed for a long time before retiring to rest.

The next day God caused to come into her hands one of those books, modest missionaries, which, borne upon the wings of angels, go forth to sow good seeds.

She found several pages in it which were like a revelation to her, and, taking her pen, she wrote, somewhat in the style of what she had been reading, the following lines:

A FEW QUESTIONS TO WHICH I BEG MY BROTHER TO REPLY THIS EVENING

How is it that my brother, so grateful for the smallest attention from his sister, so thoughtful in giving her pleasure, so ingenious in framing gracious words and affectionate thanks, forgets God so easily. He, to whom he is indebted for a loving mother, a competence which places him beyond the reach of want, health which permits him to enjoy life? How is it that he never says to Him, “I thank thee;” nor even a short prayer at the beginning or the end of the day?

Is my brother becoming ungrateful?

How is it that my brother, so exact in fulfilling all his obligations, so industrious when at his work, so submissive to those who can advance his interests, violates with so much indifference the solemn laws of God and the Church, allowing his mother and sister to go alone to Mass on Sunday, and alone to the Table of the Lord? He knows, nevertheless, that there is an express command for the performance of these religious duties, and he has not forgotten that several times he publicly renewed the solemn promises made for him at baptism.

Is my brother about to break his own word?

Will my brother prove faithless to his word? How is it that my brother, who has received a Christian education, who has not lost his faith; who knows well all that he owes to God and the Church; who could prove, if necessary, the perfect lawfulness of her authority; yet dares not to make any open profession of his religion, not even a simple sign of the cross; permits in his presence, without remonstrance, lying and blasphemous attacks upon God, the Church, and the priesthood?

Will my brother become a coward?

How is it that my brother – so discreet before his sister, so proud of her candour and purity, promptly silencing in her presence the least objectionable word – reads in secret, removed from the eyes of his mother, things he would not permit his sister to read, frequents society forbidden to his sister, and which he tries to hide from his mother?

Will my brother become a hypocrite?

How is it, finally, that my brother, so loving to his mother, so tender to his sister, so happy heretofore in living with them, seems at times to fly from their caresses, to cast down his eyes before them, amuses himself far from the family fireside, and exhibits impatience and weariness when circumstances force him to remain with them.

Will my brother become forgetful of love?

Oh! my brother! answer thy sister.

And the young girl, kneeling for a moment before the statue of the Blessed Virgin in her room, presented the little leaf to her, as if asking her to bless it. She then placed it on her brother’s desk.

Before the evening meal, which reunited the mother, brother, and sister, the young apostle waited anxiously at the door of the drawing room…

The brother enters, and, hastening to his sister, his eyes filled with tears, takes both her hands in his, and embracing her most affectionately, says: “Sister, I come to give you an answer: Before separating we will all say our evening prayers together.”

Sorrowful mothers and sisters, know you not some heart which vice has not yet quite corrupted, and to whom these lines would be of service?

– From: Golden Grains, Eighth Edition, H.M. Gill and Son, Dublin, 1889

 

HOW GOD’S EXISTENCE CAN BE PROVEN FROM THE GOVERNANCE OF THE WORLD

“We see that things which lack knowledge, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result.

Hence it is plain that they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly.

Now whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is directed by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.”

– St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica; in The Path from Science to God, Fr Roger Nesbitt, faith pamphlets

 

HOW GOD’S EXISTENCE CAN BE PROVEN FROM POSSIBILITY AND NECESSITY

“We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, since they are found to be generated, and to be corrupted, and consequently, it is impossible for them to be and not to be. But it is impossible for these always to exist, for that which can not-be at some time is not. Therefore, if anything can not-be, then at one time there was nothing in existence.

If anything can not-be, then at one time there was nothing in existence

Now if this were true, even now there would be nothing in existence, because that which does not exist begins to exist only through something already existing. Therefore, if at one time nothing was in existence, it would have been impossible for anything to have begun to exist; and thus even now nothing would be in existence – which is absurd.

Therefore, not all beings are merely possible, but there must exist something in the existence of which is necessary.

But every necessary thing either has its necessity caused by another, or not. Now it is impossible to go on to infinity in necessary things which have their necessity caused by another, as has been already proved in regard to efficient causes. Therefore we cannot but admit the existence of some being having of its own necessity, and not receiving it from another, but rather causing in others their necessity. This all men speak of as God.”

– St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, in The Path from Science to God, Faith Pamphlets

 

 

HOW GOD’S EXISTENCE CAN BE PROVEN BY THE NATURE OF EFFICIENT CAUSE

“In the world of sensible things we find there is an order of efficient causes. There is no case known (neither is it, indeed, possible) in which a thing is found to be the efficient cause of itself; for so it would be prior to itself, which is impossible.

Now in efficient causes it is not possible to go on to infinity, because in all efficient causes following in order, the first is the cause of the intermediate cause, and the intermediate is the cause of the ultimate cause, whether the intermediate cause be several, or one only. Now to take away the cause is to take away the effect.

Therefore, if there be no first cause among efficient causes, there will be no ultimate, nor any intermediate, cause. But if in efficient causes it is possible to go on to infinity, there will be no first efficient cause, neither will there be an ultimate effect, nor any intermediate efficient causes; all of which is plainly false. Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God.”

– St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, from: The Path from Science to God, a pamphlet by Roger Nesbitt (faith pamphlets)

 

HOW GOD’S EXISTENCE CAN BE PROVEN BY MOTION

“It is certain, and evident to our senses, that in the world some things are in motion. Now whatever is moved is moved by another, for nothing can be moved except it is in potentiality to that towards which it is moved; whereas a thing moves in as much as it is in act.

For motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality. But nothing can be reduced from potentiality to actuality, except by something in a state of actuality.

Thus that which is actually hot, as fire, makes wood, which is potentially hot, to be actually hot, and thereby moves and changes it.

Now it is not possible that the same thing should be at once in actuality and potentiality in the same respect, but only in different respects.

For what is actually hot cannot simultaneously be potentially hot; but it is simultaneously potentially cold.

It is therefore impossible that in the same respect and in the same way a thing should be both mover and moved, i.e. that it should move itself. Therefore, whatever is moved must be moved by another. If that by which it is moved be itself moved, then this also must need be moved by another, and that by another again. But this cannot go on to infinity, because then there would be no first mover, and, consequently, no other mover, seeing that subsequent movers move only in as much as they are moved by the first mover; as the staff moves only because it is moved by the hand. Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, moved by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.”

– St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1, 2, 3, in The Path from Science to God, by Roger Nesbitt (Faith Pamphlets)

 

 

“THOU ART PETER, AND UPON THIS ROCK I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH” – THE POPE, THE VICAR OF CHRIST

“‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also on heaven’ (Matthew 16:18-19).

JESUS MADE SIMON PETER THE FOUNDATION STONE OF HIS KINGDOM

Jesus made Simon Peter the rock or foundation stone of His kingdom. In the mind of Jesus all power in His kingdom, the power to teach the divine message, the power to rule men unto salvation, the power to sanctify men for salvation, all these powers were to be centralised in Simon Peter and his successors to the leadership of the apostolic college.

THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM

That the early Christian community recognised this is a historical fact. It was at Peter’s suggestion that the other Apostles elected Matthias to take the place left vacant in the apostolic college by the defection of Judas. It was Peter who first preached the establishment of the kingdom on Pentecost Sunday. It was Peter who worked the first miracle to testify to the power of Jesus Christ. It was Peter who punished Ananias and Sapphira for attempting to deceive the first Christian community at Jerusalem. It was Peter who admitted the first Gentiles into the new kingdom. At the Council of Jerusalem it was Peter who decided to what extent Gentile converts to the kingdom were bound by the old Mosaic Law. It was to Peter that St Paul went seeking confirmation of his own call to preach the Gospel. So great was his authority among the earliest members of the kingdom that even St Paul boasts of having induced Peter to accept his own position on a matter of discipline.

THE SUCCESSION

Peter died as Bishop of Rome, and the Bishops of Rome succeeded to his leadership of the whole Church. Thus it is that we see the Popes, the Bishops of Rome, exercising in the Kingdom of God through the centuries the authority which Jesus had entrusted to Peter.

ST CLEMENT’S LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

So it was that Clement of Rome, at the end of the first century, sent a letter to the Christians at Corinth asking them to restore to office the priests whom they had illegitimately deposed. His wishes were fulfilled by the Corinthians. In fact, they held his letter in such esteem that it was read during liturgical celebrations just as the letters of the original Apostles. This recognition of the authority of the Bishop of Rome is all the more remarkable since St John, one of the original Apostles, was still alive at Ephesus, much nearer to Corinth than Rome.

‘MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH RECEIVE THE FULL TEACHING OF JESUS FROM THE BISHOPS OF ROME’

At the end of the second century Pope Victor threatened to excommunicate the Asian bishops who refused to celebrate Easter on the date used by the rest of the Church. On the urging of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, Victor did not carry out the threat. But the very fact that Victor threatened to do so, and the fact that Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna, and therefore a man acquainted with the traditions of the Church both in the East and in the West, felt it necessary in the interests of concord to urge him not to do so, testify to the recognition of his power to rule the whole Church. It should be mentioned also that Irenaeus gives testimony to the fact that members of the Church receive the full teaching of Jesus from the Bishop of Rome.

‘IT IS ST PETER WHO SPEAKS THROUGH THE POPE’

In the third century two bishops of Spain who had been accused of loss of faith appealed to Pope Stephen I. Similarly Pope Dionysius asked Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria, who was suspected of adhering to the Sabellian heresy, to make a profession of true faith.

THE COUNCIL OF NICEA

Even though the Council of Nicea – in 325 the first general or ecumenical council of the Church – was summoned at the order of the Emperor Constantine, it was the two legates of the Bishop of Rome who presided. Toward the end of the same fourth century Pope Siricius reminded the bishops of Spain that it is St Peter who speaks through the Pope.

THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON

In the fifth century the General Council of Chalcedon accepted the famous dogmatic letter of Leo as a statement of the true faith against the Monophysite heresy and proclaimed, ‘Peter has spoken through Leo.’ And, as we have previously seen, it was Pope Gelasius who during this century pointed out to the emperors that the Church held its power to rule from God and, thus, independently of the civil authority.

POPE GREGORY THE GREAT

In the sixth century Pope Gregory the Great reorganised the Church in Italy and sought to promote the reform of the Church in Gaul. It was Gregory who sent Augustine of Canterbury to convert England to the true faith.

THE THIRD COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE

In the seventh century the third council of Constantinople accepted the teaching of Pope Agatho against the Momothelite heresy. In the eighth century Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the West. Nicholas I excommunicated the bishops of Trier and Cologne for sanctioning the second marriage of King Lothair. He also intervened in the Photian schism at Constantinople and restored Ignatius to the bishopric of Constantinople.

THE PAPACY WAS INVOLVED IN A LONG STRUGGLE WITH SECULAR RULERS FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE CHURCH FROM CIVIL AUTHORITY

From the ninth century on, the Papacy was involved in a long and serious struggle with secular rulers for the independence of the Church from civil authority. This struggle reached a climax in the reforming efforts of Pope Gregory VII, who succeeded in freeing the Church from the ’emperor’ King Henry IV of Germany.

THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE BEGINNING NATIONALISM IN THE SECULAR SPHERE

From this time on, the power of the Popes was supreme in matters of religion and Western Christendom generally recognised the supremacy of the Church over the State. But the situation changed after the conflict between Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) and Philip the Fair of France. Philip, in an effort to strengthen the French monarchy, sought a great measure of control over the Church in France. Boniface resisted his efforts, but without success. In the fourteenth century the Popes made the mistake of taking up residence at Avignon, within the borders of France. This gave the Papacy the appearance of being too favourable with the French. When finally the Popes returned to residence at Rome after the death of Pope Urban V, the French King Charles V disputed the election of Pope Urban VI and induced some French cardinals to elect Robert of Geneva as Pope Clement VII. This was the start of the Great Western Schism. Until the election of Martin V in 1417 Christendom was troubled and confused at the sight of rival claimants to the See of Peter. In 1417 there were three claimants to the Papacy. This unfortunate situation gave rise to the ‘Conciliar theory,’ the idea that a general council is superior to the Pope. Though Jesus Himself had made Peter and his successors (the Bishops of Rome) the supreme heads of His Church, the schism, coupled with the beginning of nationalism and the consequent desire of some nations (at least on the part of their sovereigns) to achieve independence of the divinely constituted authority of the Popes, gave impetus to the theory that a general council was superior even to the Pope. As a consequence the Popes had to fight against this attempt to destroy the foundations of authority in the Kingdom of God on earth. Pope Eugene IV found it necessary to dissolve the Council of Basel, which pretended to have authority over the Pope himself.

SECULAR RULERS WITH THEIR NATIONALISTIC AMBITIONS SUCCEEDED IN CONTROLLING CHURCH AFFAIRS IN SOME AREAS VIA LUTHER AND ZWINGLI

In the sixteenth century the Popes faced the most dangerous threat to their authority up to that time. In 1517 Martin Luther, a German monk, revolted against the authority of Rome. This sparked a movement which has become known as the Protestant Reformation. Luther, and other reformers such as Zwingli, were aided by kings and princes who sought control of church affairs. Pope Leo X did not act with sufficient force. As a consequence roughly half the Christians of Europe – chiefly those in northern Europe – left the true Church and joined heretical sects. The Council of Trent, which was summoned toward the middle of the century by Pope Paul III, by its reforming measures in the area of Church discipline and by its authoritative statement of Catholic teaching helped to stem the tide. But too much damage had already been done. And so from then until now the world is faced with the spectacle of millions of men, claiming to be followers of Jesus Christ, who will not submit in matters of discipline, doctrine or worship to the vicar of Christ, the Pope of Rome.

THE POPE, HOWEVER, DID NOT SWAP CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OR MORAL PRINCIPLE FOR POLITICAL INFLUENCE

One of the results of the so-called Reformation, with the establishment of powerful Protestant states, was that by the seventeenth century the Papacy had been reduced to a state of political unimportance. But it is to the credit of the Papacy that even though the Popes were anxious to restore Christian unity to the world they did not compromise Christian doctrine or moral principle in the effort to do so.

But the decline of papal political influence was less unfortunate than the decline of spiritual and moral influence of the Papacy which accompanied it. Basically the political power of the Papacy was only a reflection of its enormous spiritual influence. Ultimately kings and princes, such as Pepin and Charlemagne, gave grants of land and political power to the Popes because the Popes wielded great spiritual influence over the Christian people of Europe and were a stabilising factor in a war-torn world. But in time this political influence, though only in appearance, came to overshadow the spiritual force which it reflected and bolstered.

But the ‘Reformation’ struck directly at the spiritual authority of the Papacy. Up to the ‘Reformation’ the Church itself, the Church centralised in the authority of the Popes, was the first and the ultimate source of all doctrinal and disciplinary decision. But the ‘reformers’ asserted that the faith and the religious practice of every Christian was based on the right of every Christian to interpret the Bible for himself. For the divinely instituted authority of Peter the ‘reformers’ substituted the authority of the individual mind of the individual man. Naturally those who embraced this individualistic rule of faith no longer looked to Peter, in the person of the Pope, for the teaching of the message of Jesus and its application to the ever-changing conditions of history.

IT BECAME EVIDENT THAT SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES AND STATE POWER DON’T MIX

The weakness, even the falsity, of this new principle became evident very quickly in the multiplication of Protestant sects, each differing from the others in one or more points of faith or religious discipline. Moreover many of these sects, in their efforts to survive, accepted the principle that the local prince or king was the head of the Church.

CONCESSIONS TO NATIONALISM BY PROTESTANTS

This was a concession to the growing principle of nationalism. But it was also a rejection of the real supranational character of the Christian kingdom, and it represented a betrayal of the principle enunciated by Jesus Himself: ‘Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.’ It was in this spirit that the Lutherans in Germany recognised the right of the German princes to determine the religious views of their subjects and that Henry the Eighth made himself the supreme head of the Anglican Church. And so, at least for some time, what began as an emancipation of men from the authority of the Pope in the name of individual liberty became in fact an enslavement of religion to civil authority.

‘AN ENSLAVEMENT OF FAITH TO CIVIL AUTHORITY’

The loss of millions of members of the kingdom to the new heretical sects was in itself a great blow to the Church. But it had an even more insidious result. The princes of Catholic Europe were not slow to see the political advantages gained by the control which the Protestant sovereigns exercised over the Protestant churches in their domains. Anxious to make their own kingdoms as strong as possible in the face of growing nationalistic rivalries, Catholic princes also sought to control the Catholic Church within their own territories. Thus it was that in 1682 thirty-six French prelates, under the urging of Cardinal Richelieu, adopted the famous ‘Gallican Articles’ and sent them to the bishops in France. The ‘Articles’ held that the Pope is subject to a general council, the king is not subject to the Pope and that the Pope is not infallible. It is true that Pope Innocent XII succeeded in persuading Louis XIV of France to annul the ‘Articles.’ But the fact that they were disseminated at all shows that the spirit of anti-papism was to be found in Catholic France. The same tendency to reduce papal influence and enlarge the civil control of religion was shown also in the Febronianism and Josephinism which arose in Catholic Germany. All in all, these movements in Catholic countries coupled with state control of religion in Protestant countries were a concrete manifestation of the growing political theory of the absolute state, the state supreme in all the affairs of human life, even in the affairs of religion.

THE LOGICAL ‘NEXT STEP’ FOLLOWING THE PROTESTANT ‘REFORMATION’

To these religious and political counter-currents seeking to undermine the Church there was added in the eighteenth century the far more formidable adversary of rationalism in religion. The Kingdom of God is always a kingdom founded on faith, in fact on faith in mysteries which cannot be fully understood by the limited powers of the human mind. This faith is sustained in the world by the teaching authority of the Church, an authority sustained by and centralised in the Papacy. When Protestantism divorced the minds of men from this authority it was not long before these same minds were divorced from the divine revelation itself. Under the influence of Locke, Hume and Kant the message of Jesus was reduced to a purely natural religion, founded no longer on a divine revelation to man but now on the limited resources of the human mind. Since the philosophy of the time reduced the powers of the mind to the simple consideration and ordering, not of reality of real things but only of the ‘appearances’ of things, it became fashionable to hold that men could not prove the existence of God or the immortality of the human soul. In such an intellectual atmosphere men tended to become either atheists and irreligious or to found religious values purely on man’s emotions and the pragmatic necessity of supplying ease and satisfaction to these irrational emotions.

IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD…

Thus, in modern times the Papacy, seeking to preserve in the world the true Kingdom of God, has had to attempt to undo the ravages of the ‘Reformation,’ to preserve the independence of the Church [from secular power, also under the guise of Protestantism] and to assert the divine authority of the Christian revelation in the face of the attacks of rationalism. Through the General Council of Trent the Popes replied to the ‘Reformation.’ Through missionary efforts, especially under the central control of the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith (established in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV), the Papacy has carried on its divinely commissioned task to bring the Gospel to all the world. And so, in the providence of God, the losses occasioned by the ‘Reformation’ have been partly offset by the tightening of discipline within the Church and by the recruitment of members of the Kingdom in Africa, the Far East and the Americas.

THE CONTINUED INDEPENDENCE OF THE PAPACY OF ALL CIVIL STATES

In the face of attempts on the part of states to control the Church the Papacy has fought a long battle which is not yet, perhaps, over. The political power and prestige of the Papacy itself declined until in 1870 with the annexation of the Papal States by the newly founded kingdom of Italy it was eclipsed. Under Pius XI, in 1929, the ‘Roman Question’ was settled by the Lateran Treaty with the government of Mussolini. The tiny Vatican State was established and its rights recognised by Italy. In this way the independence of the Papacy of all civil states was formally recognised.

THE RIGHT OF THE CHURCH TO SPEAK IN THE WORLD FOR GOD IS STILL AN UNEASY ONE TO EXERCISE

But the right of the Church to speak in the world for God is still an uneasy one to exercise. This is shown by the fact that the Popes of the last few centuries have found it necessary to make concordats or agreements with modern states guaranteeing to the Church the right to function under certain limitations.

THE POPES CONDEMNED MANY INTELLECTUAL ERRORS OF MODERN TIMES

In the struggle with rationalism the Popes have found it necessary to condemn many of the intellectual errors of modern times. In this regard the Vatican Council convened by Pius IX stands out. The council affirmed clearly the ability of the human mind to discover the existence of God, and to recognise God’s message to men by the divine signs (especially miracles and prophecies) which accompany it in its journey through time. In addition it announced firmly to the world the supreme power of the Pope, the successor of St Peter, to teach, rule and sanctify men. In the face of scepticism it affirmed also the power of the Pope to teach infallible matters of faith and Christian morality.

THE HISTORY OF THE PAPACY SHOWS THAT THE WORDS OF JESUS ARE BEING FULFILLED

The history of the Papacy, then, shows that the words of Jesus are being fulfilled. The Papacy is the rock on which the kingdom is founded, founded so firmly that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Down through the centuries the Papacy has been the indefatigable defender of the independence of the Kingdom of God. Down through the centuries the Papacy has been the faithful guardian of Christian truth, protecting the kingdom against the loss of even the least element of the divine message entrusted to it by Jesus.

THE GATES OF HELL WILL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT (Mt 16:18b)

At the present moment the position of the Papacy as the Vicar of Christ is clear. In the face of political totalitarianism it stands out as the champion of the independence of the spiritual Kingdom of God. In the face of religious indifferentism, of intellectual scepticism and nihilism, the Papacy is the divinely appointed voice of supernatural religion, the champion of both reason and faith. Confronted with irreligious and misguided rationalism, the Church speaks to the world under the guidance of the Popes, the words of God, the divine revelation whose divine dimensions cannot be reduced to the narrow confines of unaided human reason, but whose mysterious depths of truth lie open to the humble eyes of faith.

NO ‘PRISONER’ HAS EVER, IN THE WORLD OF SPIRIT, BEEN MORE INFLUENTIAL IN THE WORLD AT LARGE

It is a remarkable fact that in our contemporary era, at a time when the political power of the Papacy is practically extinguished, the character of the Papacy as the rock on which Christ founded His Church can be seen with outstanding clarity. From Pius IX to Pius XI the Pope was popularly known as the ‘prisoner of the Vatican.’ Yet no ‘prisoner’ has ever, in the world of the spirit, been more influential in the world at large.

THE POPES HAVE STOOD HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE THE REST OF MEN IN THEIR STRUGGLE TO FOSTER WHAT IS BEST IN MAN

From Leo XIII to Pius XII the Popes have stood head and shoulders above the rest of men in their struggle to foster what is best in man, to safeguard and raise the spirit of man. In the midst of the political turmoil of the nineteenth century it was Leo XIII who freed the Church from allegiance to any particular form of government. It was Leo who, in the face of the Industrial Revolution and its creation of a landless, poverty-stricken proletariat, proclaimed the rights of the working man and the obligations of capital to provide decent working conditions and an adequate wage for workers. It was he also who revived the sane philosophy and theology of St Thomas Aquinas as an antidote to the intellectual errors of scepticism, naturalism and materialism.

THE PAPACY AFFIRMS THE LIBERTY OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE FACE OF THE ALL-POWERFUL STATE

Under his successor, Pius X, we see the Church strengthening itself within itself. He inaugurated a liturgical revival, urging the faithful to a greater personal understanding of and participation in the Church’s worship of God through the Mass and the Sacraments. The internal discipline of the Church was strengthened by the clarification and codification of Canon Law, the law which regulates Church discipline.

Pius XI, confronted with the attack on individual freedom by totalitarian philosophies of fascism, nazism and communism, affirmed the liberty of the individual in the face of the all-powerful state. Against the racial bias of these political philosophies, against the theories of racial superiority by blood, he affirmed the equality of all men in the sight of God. Conscious of the need of the Church to bring the message of the Gospel to all men, he encouraged the works of Catholic Action. He urged the Catholic laity to assist the bishops in the work of the apostolate, in the task of leavening an unbelieving world with the elevating yeast of Catholic doctrine and practice. Outside the Church the growth of the practices of divorce and birth control were destroying the moral fibre of society. Pius XI denounced the immorality of [artificial] birth control and asserted the sanctity and the indissolubility of marriage.

THE CHAMPIONS AGAINST THE PREVAILING MATERIALISM OF OUR AGE

During this period two great world wars showed how far the bonds of social and political action between the nations of the world had deteriorated. Benedict XV, Pius XI and Pius XII spoke clearly for peace and the cultivation of virtues which maintain peace. Though the nations did not listen, the Popes carried on a worldwide work of bringing succour to those made homeless by the destruction of war.

But the one thing that has become increasingly evident in modern times is that the Church, under the leadership of the Papacy, is the great champion of the spiritual element in human life against the prevailing materialism of the age. This is evident both in the Papal defence of what we might call specific human spiritual values and in the Papal insistence on the validity of the divine mysteries which have been revealed to the Church and which constitute the only true basis of human hope for salvation.

‘MEN AREN’T SIMPLY THE TOOLS OF A MATERIALISTIC STATE’

Thus, under Pius IX, the Vatican Council insisted on man’s ability, as a creature composed of body and spiritual soul, to discover the great fundamental truths of the existence of God and of his divinely founded Church. Leo XIII defended the dignity of all men in an age which was seeking to make men simply the tools of a materialistic state. Pius XI and Pius XII defended man’s freedom as a spiritual being in the face of the encroachment of totalitarian materialism on the sphere of man’s free spirit.

IN A WORLD HAS RETURNED TO THE OLD ERROR OF ADAM, THE ERROR OF SEEKING SALVATION BY ITS OWN UNAIDED EFFORTS…

But, best of all, in a world which has returned to the old error of Adam, the error of seeking salvation by its own unaided efforts, the Popes have, with ever increasing vigour and courage, insisted on the great revealed mysteries which the Church possesses. The worldly prophets of the time preach a universal brotherhood of men founded on the tyranny of an absolute state. Pius XII held out to the world the only possibility of achieving a true human brotherhood of men, the super-union of all men in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. In the Mystical Body of Christ men may achieve that fraternal union with one another which grace and charity make possible. In a secularist world where false prophets seek to institute a world government totally divorced from religious principles Pius XI insisted that all nations must recognise the kingship of Christ. World unity is possible only if men and nations are motivated by truly religious principles. In a world deep in despair because it has been taught that man is only matter doomed to eternal extinction by death, Pius XII fearlessly proclaimed the dignity, the spirituality and the immortality of all men in the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary, the Mother of God, body and soul into heaven. To the world’s despair he proclaimed the hope of salvation, the hope of resurrection and immortality.

THE ROCK OF PETER STANDS UNMOVED AS A BEACON OF LIGHT, SET IN ITS PLACE BY THE REAL WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

In this present age the Papacy stands out once again as the Rock of Peter, the Rock on which God founded His kingdom among men. The furious tides of political opinion and international disputes have stripped the Rock of political power. But this stripping has only served to reveal its essential character. In the midst of the rushing waters of materialism and barbarism, staunch against the breaking waves of war and despair, the Rock of Peter stands unmoved as the first and last champion of man and of God.”
– Martin J. Healy S.T.D., 1959 (headings in capital letters added afterwards)

 

“BACKWARD” RELIGION? IT WAS A CATHOLIC PRIEST, FR LEMAITRE, WHO FIRST PROPOSED THE “BIG BANG THEORY” IN 1927, BUT SCIENTISTS LIKE EINSTEIN AND EDDINGTON REFUSED TO BELIEVE HIM

“RELIGION, SCIENCE AND THE [POPULAR] MISCONCEPTIONS

‘For the scientist… the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been there for centuries.’ Robert Jarrow (Astrophysicist)

‘NEVER ALLOW YOURSELVES TO BECOME NARROW’

During his state visit to Britain in September 2010 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI spoke to a group of religious leaders of different faiths, not only about the need for science but also about the limitations within the scientific world. He said, ‘They cannot satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart, they cannot fully explain to us our origin and our destiny, why and for what purpose we exist, nor indeed can they provide us with an exhaustive answer to the question ‘Why is there something rather than nothing?’ Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI also warned against rejecting religion in favour of purely scientific outlook by further saying, ‘Never allow yourselves to become narrow. The world needs good scientists, but a scientific outlook becomes dangerous and narrow if it ignores the riches or ethical dimensions of life just as religion becomes narrow if it rejects the legitimate contribution of science to our understanding of the world.’

FR LEMAITRE’S THEORY

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI may well have been referring to Stephen Hawking, who writes in his latest book that no divine force is needed to explain why the universe was formed and who also argued in his book The Grand Design that physics, and not a creator, was responsible for the Big Bang.

It was indeed in 1927 that a Belgian Catholic priest Fr George Lemaitre, a Jesuit and a student of astronomy and mathematics both in Cambridge (England) and Harvard, who proposed his theory of an expanding Universe to explain the movement of the galaxies.

FR LEMAITRE ARRANGED A MEETING WITH ALBERT EINSTEIN

His studies at this point were inconclusive and he arranged a meeting with Einstein who, although interested, generally dismissed his theory; he was also suspicious of the religious implications of Fr Lemaitre’s ideas.

AFTER EINSTEIN HAD DISMISSED HIS NEW THEORY, FR LEMAITRE STILL WENT AHEAD TO PRESENT HIS FINDINGS TO THE BRITISH SCIENCE ASSOCIATION

However, in 1931 Lemaitre was invited to London by the British Science Association to discuss cosmology and spirituality. There he described his new solution… the Universe had begun from a tiny and incredibly dense singularity containing all its existing matter.

‘THE PRIMEVAL ATOM’

This he called ‘the primeval atom’ or a ‘Cosmic Egg exploding at the moment of the creation’. It wouldn’t be known as the Big Bang theory until the British physicist, Fred Hoyle, did a radio series in 1949 in which he attempted to debunk it. He failed to change many people’s minds by then, but he did give it a better name. Neither Eddington nor Einstein were persuaded by this idea – as Stephen Hawking, perhaps the world’s most famous living astrophysicist, has said, ‘few people [meaning scientists] took the idea of the beginning of the Universe seriously’.

FR LEMAITRE DIDN’T GIVE UP PROMOTING THE BIG BANG THEORY

But Fr Lemaitre was a passionate and persuasive man, and he was gaining a wider audience as he began to travel the US. He decided to surprise Hubble and Einstein by turning up to meet them both unexpectedly in 1931 and push his idea again. This time he won them over, demonstrating how their work led to his conclusion.

THE BASIS OF MODERN COSMOLOGY WAS ESTABLISHED BY FR LEMAITRE FINALLY CONVINCING EINSTEIN AND HUBBLE OF HIS THEORY

It was a dramatic event – Hawking has said that, ‘The basis of modern cosmology was established at this meeting. Looking back I can recognise this as the foundations for my own work.’

‘THE BIGGEST BLUNDER OF MY LIFE’

Einstein regarded his initial rejection of an expanding Universe as the ‘biggest blunder of my life’. The existence of God, of course, is not settled by the truth of the Big Bang theory, nor should religion rest its case on any scientific theory.

THE UNIVERSE HAD A DISTINCT BEGINNING

But what can be said is that the Big Bang fits surprisingly well with the religious idea that the Universe had a distinct beginning, willed by the Creator. Unsurprisingly, the arguments put forward by the new atheists are never truly investigated [for instance Darwin’s ‘evolution theory’ lacks any credible scientific basis whatsoever]; rather than studying the precepts of Christianity they tend to be hostile to religion in all forms, viewing it as merely a kind of superstition; they are likewise hostile to traditional claims about the nature and source of morality.

TODAY’S PICTURE – BIOETHICS

EMBRYO RESEARCHER: FACED WITH THE CHOICE BETWEEN GOD AND SCIENCE, I DITCHED GOD

In 2004 Dr John Haas, the president of the National Catholic Bioethics Centre in America met with a scientist who had cloned a human embryo. In the course of that meeting, the scientist said he had been raised an evangelical Protestant, but that at a certain point, he had to make a choice between religion and science. Dr Haas’ response was, ‘But you didn’t have to choose,’ and, like the good evangelist that he is, he began to explain. A meeting that was supposed to last for 30 minutes went on for hours.

‘NATURAL SCIENCE ON ITS OWN SIMPLY CANNOT GENERATE THE WISDOM IT NEEDS IN ORDER TO PROGRESS WITHOUT DOING HARM’

Dr Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard University Law Professor who has served on the Pontifical Council for the Laity spoke of urgent need to renew the intellectual apostolate. Dr Glendon said ‘the importance of that task has been brought home to me very concretely in the course of serving over the past year on the National Bioethics Council. Over the past several months in discussions of cloning, stem-cell research and genetic engineering, I’ve seen not only how necessary it is for theologians and philosophers to keep up with advances in natural science, but also how much the natural sciences need the human sciences – for natural science on its own simply cannot generate the wisdom it needs in order to progress without doing harm’.

THE HEDONISM OF THOSE ATTEMPTING TO PLAY GOD, OR: THE ‘MOVE OVER GOD YOU ARE IN MY SEAT’ ATTITUDE

The truth regarding embryonic stem cell scientific technology seemingly has been lost on those who swear by its profound benefits with regards to its ‘curative potential’ for certain conditions; to date most of the general public will be aware, if not entirely au fait with the fact that this scientific breakthrough has broken down due to a complete lack of positive results; in short, this technology has wasted more government funds than ever due to the hedonism of those who attempt to ‘play God’ and those who believe them capable; for as long as we allow scientists and politicians to adopt the ‘move over God you are in my seat’ attitude we are spiralling deeper into the moral chaos so pervasive today.

EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH IS BASED PURELY ON FISCAL GAIN

Any orthodox bioethicist will tell us that stem cells taken from embryos are immature and only capable of producing tumours rather than cures.

PRODUCING TUMOURS RATHER THAN CURES

On the contrary, adult stem cells which are mature and present in all humans from the fully developed foetal stage, the umbilical cord and the placenta, have proven successful in various conditions, particularly in cardiac and ophthalmic medicine. Using adult stem cells from a patient whose trachea was removed due to disease, a medical scientist was able to reproduce a trachea, which was then successfully transplanted into the patient.

The difference between the research into embryonic and adult stem cell research is based purely on fiscal gain and not on ethical scientific procedures or results. Whilst millions of pounds of government funds have been and still are used for embryonic stem cell research, adult stem cell research costs a great deal less because the cells are self-donated by the patient.

God has provided all the answers; the world has provided all the errors! Religion provides the means to seek the truth whilst science provides the means to put it into practice using ethical means.

‘Religion and science are not in opposition but both on a path of truth.'(Pope Benedict).”
– This article was published in “The Crusader” (The Magazine of the Crusade of Mary Immaculate) issue March 2014 [Capital sub-headings added afterwards]. For subscriptions or for membership please visit http://www.thefriary.businesscatalyst.com (external link).

 

“WHEN HE HEARD THIS, MY FRIEND STARTED TO CRY BECAUSE HE KNEW THAT IT WAS OUR LADY WHO HAD LED HIM BACK TO HER SON JESUS”

HE STOPPED AND LOOKED AT MARY AND SAID TO HER, ‘ARE YOU REAL? BECAUSE IF YOU ARE I NEED YOU BECAUSE I’M DYING HERE!’

“… One friend of mine was leading a self-destructive lifestyle, he hated himself for something he had done in the past and he couldn’t forgive himself.

So for a number of years he drank heavily and took drugs. One night he stayed at his mum’s house and at the top of the stairs she had a picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

As he was passing it, he stopped and looked at Mary and because of the despair he was feeling he said to her, ‘Are you real? Because if you are I need you because I am dying here!’ and nothing happened so he went to bed.

NO CALL TO MARY EVER GOES UNHEARD; SOONER OR LATER SOMETHING SHE OBTAINED WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN

A VERY UNPLEASANT SHOCK

The next morning he awoke to the sound of the Hoover going downstairs in the living room. Now it was a Sunday morning and his mum would never normally clean on a Sunday.

Then he remembered that he had hidden his stash of drugs underneath the settee in that room and he knew she had found them. The rest of that day he was in fear of the confrontation that he was sure would arise because of this discovery.

Later that day his dad came up to him and asked him to come outside. Then he held out his hands towards his son. In one hand were the drugs his mum had found and the other hand was empty.

Then his dad said to him, ‘Today I’m giving you a choice, you can take your drugs and you can leave this home because we will not watch you destroy yourself any longer, or you can take the hand of the family that loves you and you can change your life and be our son again.’

That day, he decided he wanted to change and not long afterwards the love of God touched his life in a deep way and he committed himself to live for the Lord.

HE COMMITTED HIMSELF TO LIVE FOR THE LORD

A few years later he was asked to give a talk on Our Lady at his local parish and he decided to use the picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from his mum’s house. When he took it down off the wall he was surprised to find the names of all his brothers and sisters written on the back with his own name written at the very bottom.

So he went to his mum and asked why his name was written on the back of the picture of Mary? She replied, “When you were in your wildest times and I was worried sick about you and I couldn’t even sleep at night, I went on a retreat and the priest said, ‘If you are worried about your children, consecrate them to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and she will look after them because she loves them even more than you do.’

When he heard this, my friend started to cry because he knew that it was Our Lady who had led him back to her son Jesus!

St Pio always used to say, ‘Pray, hope and don’t worry.’ I think that is very good advice, because there is always some situation that will worry us and rob us of our peace if we allow it to.”
Pray, hope and don’t worry!
– This is an excerpt of an article by John Pridmore which was published in “The Pilgrim” issue October 2013. More about the Archdiocese of Southwark including vocation information at http://www.rcsouthwark.co.uk (external link).

 

POPE EM. BENEDICT’S LETTER TO ATHEISTS: “RICHARD DAWKIN’S BOOK IS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF SCIENCE FICTION”

ATHEISTS’ NEGLECT OF FREEDOM, LOVE AND EVIL

“Benedict XVI has poked fun at Richard Dawkins in a letter to an atheist, saying that the book ‘The Selfish Gene’ is a ‘classic example of science fiction’. The letter points to a quotation in the book by ‘the great Jacques Monod’, a biologist, writing about how fish exploring land would be ‘unable to move except [by] jumping clumsily, and thus creating… the selective pressure due to which would have developed the sturdy limbs of tetrapods’. The retired pope’s letter was addressed to mathematician and philosopher Piergiorgio Odifreddi, who published a book in 2011, ‘Dear Pope, I Write To You’, which challenged Benedict’s trilogy of books on Jesus of Nazareth. Extracts were published by the Italian daily ‘La Repubblica’.

‘NOT A NASTINESS SPECIFIC TO CATHOLICISM’

In the letter the Pope Emeritus said he ‘never tried to cover up’ cases of clerical child abuse. He said: ‘It’s not a reason for comfort to know that, according to sociological research, the percentage of priests guilty of these crimes is no higher than in other comparable professional categories. In any event, one must not stubbornly present this deviance as if it were a nastiness specific to Catholicism.’ Benedict XVI said he appreciated Prof. Odifreddi’s efforts to engage in a frank and open dialogue with the Catholic faith. However, Benedict said he met ‘with deep dismay’Oddifreddi’s unspecified comments about the clerical abuse scandals. Just as it is wrong ‘to be silent about the evil in the Church’, it is wrong to remain silent about the good, holy and loving service the Church has offered, he said.

GOOD, HOLY AND LOVING SERVICE OF THE CHURCH

Benedict explained that he read Prof. Odifreddi’s book ‘with pleasure and benefit’, but offered sharp criticisms of his neglect of such realities as ‘freedom,love and evil’.” (Staff reporter)

POPE BENEDICT WRITES WITH CHARACTERISTIC POLITENESS BUT DISARMING FRANKNESS

“Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has broken his public silence by dissing Richard Dawkins’s book ‘The Selfish Gene’ as a ‘classic work of science fiction’… Benedict clearly did not intend to entirely dismiss the book but to show that even atheists will have their flights of fancy and so resort to science fiction which, he says, isn’t always bad. It can be a tool of imagination, he argues, ‘with which we search to get closer to reality’.

ATHEISTS’ SEARCH TO GET CLOSER TO REALITY

The retired pope’s words came in an 11-page letter to the Italian professor of mathematics and prominent atheist Piergiorgio Odifreddi. Just as Pope Francis replied to another well-known atheist in Italy, Eugenio Scalfari, earlier this month, so Benedict answered Odifreddi…

Benedict writes with characteristic politeness but disarming frankness, and clearly relishes tackling Odifreddi’s arguments head-on.

POPE EM. BENEDICT XVI MAKES FOUR VERY IMPORTANT POINTS

He begins by saying his opinion of Odifreddi’s book is ‘rather mixed’ and that he was ‘astonished at a certain aggressiveness and thoughtless argumentation’. He then takes apart the Italian professor’s dismissal of theology as merely ‘science fiction’ by using four points:

Benedict opposes the idea that science can be reduced to just maths, asserts that theology has produced ‘lasting results’,underlines how theology helps keep religion tied to reason and vice-versa, and stresses that science fiction can occasionally serve to draw one closer to reality. He reminds Odifreddi of the Church’s many great saints and that the faith continues to lead many people to live ‘lives of selfless love, in the service of others’. He rebukes Odifreddi’s contention that Jesus wasn’t a historical figure, saying such comments ‘are not worthy of your scientific rank’. He then recommends to him authors known for their respect for historical accuracy. The Pope Emeritus points out some areas of convergence, but rejects Odifreddi’s substitution of God with nature, and chastises him for not defining nature, thereby making it ‘an irrational divinity that explains nothing’. He is ‘astonished’ that freedom is hardly mentioned and neither love nor evil appear in the book. By ignoring these fundamental questions, Benedict says, ‘your religion of mathematics [is] empty’.

‘YOUR RELIGION OF MATHEMATICS IS EMPTY’

Benedict’s decision to write to Odifreddi was particularly surprising because his initiative to reach out to atheists, the Courtyard of the Gentiles, which was launched in 2010, wasn’t initially aimed at ‘polemical’ atheists such as Odifreddi and Dawkins. Odifreddi also billed his book as a ‘Luciferian introduction to atheism’. But Benedict and Francis are generously responding because they see it as a categorical imperative of the Second Vatican Council to engage in dialogue and reach out to non-believers in today’s secular societies…” (By Edward Pentin)
– These articles were published in “The Catholic Herald” issue September 27 2013. For subscriptions please visit http://www.catholicherald.co.uk (external link).

 

COURAGEOUS CHRISTIAN SURVIVAL IN A HOSTILE ATHEIST ENVIRONMENT

THE ATTEMPTS TO KILL THE FAITH

“In the midst of this winter of atheism in the West, it is heartening to travel to distant parts of the globe and find that spring has arrived. For decades in Russia, thousands of Catholic priests, religious and laypersons were persecuted, imprisoned without trial or merely taken away and shot by the Soviet Communists in their attempt to kill the Faith. It was an experiment in state-sponsored atheism. But today you can walk into a Catholic church in Irkutsk, eastern Siberia, and find Mass being celebrated every day of the week. The experiment has failed and what Russia’s brutal Communists could not achieve is surely beyond the reach of the West’s extremist but essentially spineless secularists.

THE EXPERIMENT HAS FAILED

The Church of the Assumption in Irkutsk stands on the corner of Kirov Square. It was built in 1889, replacing the original wooden church that was burnt down in the great fire of 1879 that destroyed much of the town. Across the street is the bleak, grey government building that embodied Soviet power, the hammer and sickle still visible in the stonework. A beautiful Orthodox cathedral with six golden cupolas used to occupy the spot but the Communists tore it down in the 1930s. Remarkably, the neighbouring Catholic church survived. Perhaps its acoustics saved it, because, after stealing it from the Church, the Communists handed it over to the Philharmonic Society which to this day uses it for organ concerts. The Russian government has yet to return the stolen property and the Church is obliged to pay rent to hold daily Mass in the lower chapel and Sunday Mass upstairs in the main church.

I came across this church in the summer of 2012, on my first Sunday in Irkutsk. It was an unexpected delight to be able to attend daily Mass in distant Siberia, to meet several priests and religious as well as members of the congregation. Through them I built a picture of how the Catholic Church came to Siberia, how the Communists tried to wipe it out and how it has survived against all the odds and is now attracting new converts.

SURVIVING AGAINST ALL THE ODDS

On the opposite bank of the Angara River, up a steep road beyond the tracks of the Trans-Siberian Railway, stands the Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was consecrated in 2000 and contains a beautiful, golden statue of the Virgin Mary against a stylised map of Russia, a reference to the second secret of Fatima that spoke of the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary.

It was at the Cathedral that I met Sister Danuta, one of the four members of the Divine Word Missionaries working there alongside two Polish and one Indonesian Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters (SSpS). Sr Danuta told me that about 200 parishioners attend Sunday Mass at the Cathedral and about 40 children attend catechism classes. The Church organises marriage encounter weekends that attract even non-Catholics. Later during my stay I was to meet a group of young altar boys who had travelled from all over the vast diocese of St Joseph at Irkutsk (the Catholic Church’s largest in terms of square miles) to attend a retreat. One 17-year-old had come from Yakutsk, a journey of five days by rail and road.

SIBERIAN EXILES

Sister Danuta, who arrived in Irkutsk from Poland over a decade ago, gave me my first introduction to the history of the Church there and an insight into its contemporary conditions. She told me of the Polish uprisings of 1863 and 1864 and how the Russian Tsar exiled about 40,000 Poles, mostly Catholics, to Siberia. They included over 500 priests who were forced to stay in the isolated town of Tunka, 200km south-west of Irkutsk. In fact, the first Polish exiles to Siberia, numbering around 5,000, arrived as early as 1772, following the failed Bar Confederation, one of the first attempts to throw off the Russian yoke. More Poles were exiled following the failure of Tadeusz Kosciuszko’s revolt in 1795 and the November Uprising in 1830. Not all Catholics came under duress. Some were traders and there were Catholics amongst the worforce that built the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The first priests in Irkutsk were Jesuits who arrived in 1812 and it was they who built the first wooden church. There were about 1,200 Catholics in the Irkutsk parish at the time. In 1820 the Jesuits were expelled from Russia and the Franciscans came to replace them. By the early nineteenth century there were about 30,000 Catholics in the Irkutsk region.

SAINTS AND MARTYRS

ST JOSEPH KALINOWSKI

It was also from Sister Danuta that I heard for the first time of one of the many saints and martyrs numbered amongst the exiles and deportees in Siberia: St Joseph Kalinowski (1835-1907), a boyhood hero of Pope John Paul II. He was condemned to death for his part in the 1863 Polish Uprising, but the sentence was commuted to ten years hard labour in the salt-mines near Irkutsk. Carrying with him only the Gospels and the ‘Imitation of Christ’ he discovered, amidst the extreme hardships of Siberia, his priestly vocation. After returning to Poland he was ordained at the age of 47 and later did much to restore the Carmelite Order in that country. Pope John Paul II canonised him in 1991.

ALL RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY BECAME ILLEGAL

The Soviet regime took up where the Tsarist regime had left off and deported not tens, but hundreds of thousands, from Belarus, western Ukraine and the Baltic states. The 19th-century exiles had arrived on foot in Siberia. Their 20th-century counterparts came packed into goods trains. But unlike the earlier arrivals, they would not be allowed to practise their Faith openly. The 1929 Soviet constitution and the Law on Religious Associations made it illegal to try to defend religion against atheist arguments or engage in religious activity. In 1917 all education had been handed over to the state. The family remained the last and only bulwark against Soviet totalitarianism. But also, by the law of unintended consequences the mass deportations of these ‘enemies of the people’ brought a new wave of Catholics to Siberia, the parents and grandparents of the people I was now kneeling next to in this church in Irkutsk.

I tried to learn from those parishioners how their faith had remained alive over all those years. Many remembered learning prayers from their grandparents, but in many cases it was just a vague recollection… One parishioner, Margarita, told me of how she had come to the Faith after discovering a medal with the image of St Benedict. She was curious enough to research the saint, leading her to discover more about the Catholic Church until she was finally baptised.

FR BUKOVINSKI

Her husband gave me his collection of magazines entitled the ‘Siberian Catholic Gazette’ dating back to 1999. Its articles contain so many testimonies to the bravery of Catholics under communist persecution. One figure in particular stands out: that of Fr Bukovinski (1904-74). The ‘Gazette’ has published excerpts from his memoirs that tell of his work as an underground priest throughout the Soviet Union. He was imprisoned on several occasions by the Communists and came close to death in 1941 and 1949. He is now buried in the grounds of the newly opened Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima in his native town of Karaganda in Kazakhstan.

In one of Fr Bukovinski’s articles he recalls a young Latvian student from a family of deportees in Siberia. A Catholic, he secretly attended Mass offered by a Latvian priest who was conducting his mission clandestinely. The student’s professor got to know about this and ordered a meeting of students to conduct a public recantation of his anti-Soviet activities. However, once the professor had finished accusing him of going to Mass and believing in God, the student stood up and, rather than recanting, announced
, ‘I hereby state that I do believe in God and will do so till the day I die.’

‘I HEREBY STATE THAT I DO BELIEVE IN GOD AND WILL DO SO TILL THE DAY I DIE”

There was a long moment of silence in the group and then all the other students broke out into applause. His courage and defiance had impressed them although there was not a single Catholic amongst them.

SHE WAS PARTICULARLY ATTRACTED TO PRAYING THE ROSARY

In the September 2002 edition of the ‘Gazette’ there is a letter which echoes of Dostoyevsky. It is from a prisoner serving a life sentence in Solikamsk Prison Camp in the Ural Mountains. He speaks of how he recently converted to Catholicism thanks to a certain Brother Dionysus. But his mentor had since returned to Poland, leaving him in a spiritual vacuum, the only Catholic in the prison. He appeals simply for readers to write to him to break his isolation and help his spiritual development. He signs his letter, Yuri, The Sinner.

I also read Sister Aloysius’s account of her vocation. Living in the small town of Prokopyevsk, south-east of Novosibirsk, her mother chanced upon a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and started to attend secret meetings with a small group of local Catholics. The young girl, curious about where her mother disappeared to each week, began to ‘spy’ on her and found out where the meetings were being held. She was invited to join the group, and, in her turn, was converted. She was particularly attracted to praying the Rosary in front of the two icons in the family home, one of the Sacred Heart and one of the Virgin Mary. Her schoolmates found out about her Catholicism and taunted and harassed her. But she remained firm in her faith and, after the fall of Communism, became a nun with the Sisters of St Joseph. It was only then that her mother told her that she had wanted to abort her, but on the two occasions she set out for the doctor’s surgery, fortuitous events stopped her in her steps.

HER MOTHER HAD WANTED TO ABORT HER

It was in 1991 that the Church celebrated its first Christmas Mass in Irkutsk after the government had lifted the ban on public worship for the first time in decades. In the same year, Caritas opened its first centre in Novosibirsk and it continues to work along with other Catholic organisations such as St Vincent de Paul. Siberia has its own pre-seminary in Novosibirsk, opened in 1993, from where postulants graduate to the seminary in Moscow or St Petersburg.

PERSECUTION AND HARASSMENT CONTINUED

However, persecution and harassment continued. The first bishop of St Joseph’s diocese in Irkutsk, Bishop Jerzy Mazur, was denied re-entry into Russia in 2002 on his return from Warsaw and was declared persona non grata by the Putin government. The Russian Duma on several occasions has discussed ways to stop the growth of the Catholic Church in Russia and there was strong official opposition to John Paul II’s visit to Ukraine in 2001. (It was during that visit that he beatified 27 Catholic martyrs, many from Siberia.) In 1992 the Catholic parish in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (on Sakhalin island off the Far East coast of Russia) was re-opened thanks to aid from South Korean missionaries, but five years later those same missionaries were forced to leave by the authorities in Moscow…

AMIDST AGGRESSIVE ATHEISM, DO WE ALWAYS AND EVERYWHERE HAVE THE COURAGE TO STAND UP FOR GOD AND THE FAITH?

Fr Bukovinski wrote that, ‘In the Soviet Union, everything is at the service of atheism: the press, cinema, schools, theatre, radio and TV. Atheism, in one way or another addresses the people, while believers, although there are more of them, remain silent.’ He could well be describing our own society. As this aggressive atheism unfurls, how many of us will have the courage of that Latvian student in deepest Siberia and risk all by asserting our Catholic faith?”
– This article by Paul McGregor entitled “Glimpsing a miracle in Siberia” was published in “The Catholic Herald” issue August 23 2013. For subscriptions please visit http://www.catholicherald.co.uk (external link).