The Evisceration of John Paul II?

The plot of this Pontificate thickens, as news of the summary and forthwith firing of two pillars of the Pope John Paul II Institute in Rome, Monsignor Livio Malina and Father Jose Noriega, who have built up the marvellous educational apostolate, which has done so much good under the patronage of the great pontiff in both the earthly and now heavenly phase of his life.

Yet Saint John Paul II must be shaking his head in beatific glory as he witnesses what seems to be the vitiation of the Institute. The reason given for the aforementioned firings is that the fundamental moral theology program has been removed, as if that explains everything. Yet one wonders how ‘marriage and family’ will be taught without a moral foundation, but under this current Magisterium, one has almost ceased to wonder. Readers may correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t think Pope John Paul’s Veritatis Splendor – on the principles of the moral life, in some ways his most important work – has ever been quoted in this current pontificate.

Meanwhile, to add insult to injury, every professor at the Institute has been suspended, to be reinstated, perhaps, on a one-by-one basis. This seems not just an attack on the Institute, but on the very legacy of Pope John Paul himself.

How can this be, you might ask, in these days of workers’ rights and contracts and tenure? Well, it seems, plenipotentiary power has been given to the new ‘Grand Chancellor’ Archbishop Vincenzio Paglia, who has the authority to restructure the entire program, built up over decades, and to hire and fire at will. The will of the prince is indeed law.

We will see where this all goes, but, to put it mildly, things do not bode well, and dark, ominous clouds are on the horizon. God’s people are indeed perishing for lack of truth, and the places in which one may find that truth clear and unalloyed are rare, and getting more so.

To the catacombs, perchance, to teach and form whom we may. As was predicted, a remnant will remain, faithful and true. God never said the road would be easy, but He always promised a way.

I am off on the Saint Anne’s pilgrimage tomorrow along the old Opeongo Line, run by a former student now a priest, and will take your intentions along, in what way I am able.

Carney’s Amoral Majority

After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→

Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress

This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→

A Tale of Two Benedicts

A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→

My Name is Bernadette

April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→

The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus

As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→

Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów

We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→

Saint Gemma Galgani

On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→

An Ideological and Improper Translation

I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→

Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers

Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→