Airplanes, Winter Pictures & Poor Clares

TIA,

Let me see if I understand this news report titled "US Senate Shoots Down Bid to Halt Sales of F-16s, Tanks to Egypt."

We're going to give our most sophisticated weapons to a pro-radical, jihadist, America-hating Muslim Brotherhood regime. If we did not do this for the formerly stable Egypt because we did not want to favor Mubarak, why are we favoring today's new regime where we're not sure who's going to finally be in control? Does it not look like we are giving our Muslim enemies a way to bury us after killing us with our own weapons?

I believe this is beyond insanity with regard to having a death wish for America's national security. What will the few allies we still have left in the world think when they see an America playing Russian Roulette with freedom?

     Gary Morella

Dear TIA,

Salve Maria!

I found this interesting picture on how the Cristeros portrayed Christ the King. Certainly it is a majestic display!

     C.C.

Dear TIA-Team,

Whoever said that the post-conciliar Church doesn't have the missionary spirit anymore has never been to the Swabian village of Allmendingen. There, Holy Mass is even being celebrated at an outdoor swimming pool!

After all, when Christ commanded "teach ye all nations", he surely didn't mean to exclude the sun worshippers…

Kind regards,

F.R., Germany

Dear TIA,

I am sending to you and your readers this slide-show with beautiful winter pictures and music to let you relax a little.

Enjoy it,

M.E.

TIA,

I'm surprised that in his last article on the Pope making his favorites climb to high positions, Mr. Guimaraes didn't include Charles Brown who was made an archbishop last January 6 and sent to Ireland as nuncio:

Brown was named Titular Archbishop of Aquileia and nuncio to Ireland on 26 November 2011, and was ordained to the episcopate by Pope Benedict XVI on 6 January 2012, In an interview given in October 2012, Brown describes his appointment to Ireland. "I was thunderstruck and flabbergasted in the autumn of 2011 when Cardinal Bertone [the Vatican Secretary of State] presented me with this new mission and said that the Holy Father had personally requested me to do it," he says. "I will do whatever the Holy Father asks me to do – that goes without saying – but of course I thought there might be others who would be better for the job and who had more experience.

For more on Brown check here andhere (a 27 minute video)

Here’s another female raving about the young George Clooney look alike:

Once upon a time the role of Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland was reserved for aging, stooped Italian clerics with broken English. It was a ‘peach’ of a job: elderly priests who were tired of the traffic and never-ending tourism of Rome were only too happy to spend their last years among docile, obedient Catholics in Dublin.

They would stroll around Dublin’s O’Connell Street dreaming of lasagna and prosecco, while grannies and teenagers alike would line up and go on bended knee for a blessing from the Vatican’s representative in Ireland… Benedict personally consecrated Charles Brown an archbishop; a very rare move for B16, who has only consecrated three other bishops since he became pope six years ago. The newly elected Archbishop Charlie is an Irish American who hails from New York and is very proud of Irish heritage. He is handsome in a vaguely George Clooney way and fresh looking for his fifty-two years. (original here)

A.P.

TIA,

There is no question that there is a crisis in the Church and that many religious orders are declining.

HOWEVER, there are also glimpses of hope. Please check out this video of a cloistered Poor Clare religious community in Spain that was almost extinct and, thanks to the holy leadership of their 43-year-old prioress, is now overflowing with vocations. They are orthodox and celebrate the Novus Ordo.

Please watch this video so that you don't become totally depressed and demoralized regarding the crisis in the Church. The Church will survive this crisis because our Lord said she would!

M.R.T.


Dr. Horvat responds:

M.R.T.,

I am afraid your news is outdated. Since the time that video was made, that group of nuns is no longer part of the cloistered Poor Clares of Lema, but have spun into a charismatic, non-contemplative religious congregation named "Jesu Communio." They have a new blue habit, but the same charismatic spirit infused by the prioress you praise.

The new Order was approved December 8, 2010, by the Apostolic See. At right is a picture of one of their logo-symbols from their website of the sisters reaching up for their New Age looking spouse. The testimony of Mother Veronica is “Our evangelization is the New Evangelization of the youth.” She said the Order is following the counsel of John Paul II, who told religious contemplatives in Avila that convents should open themselves to the world, being centers of “Christian shelters for youth in looking for a simple life compared to that offered by the consumer society.”

This change in vocation does not surprise me after viewing the video you sent. Instead of giving me hope, it served to confirm the crisis in the Church. It seemed to me that it was only a matter of time before the charismatic spirit of those Poor Clares would result in exactly what happened: a new community dedicated to action in the world, not contemplative and not dedicated to prayer for the conversion of sinners and glory of God.

All the gestures, bobbing, smiles, dancing around, happiness on demand, living in the spirit are components of the charismatic movement, or ‘New Evangelization’ being promoted by Benedict XVI and the Vatican today.

This new spirit is something different from that of the past; everything relies on feeling and moving in the spirit, vs. fidelity to doctrine and strict discipline. Thus, I would say, it is not a sign of hope, but part of the destruction of the Church as planned by the progressivist agenda.

Cordially,

Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D.