Welcome, Guest
You have to register before you can post on our site.

Username
  

Password
  





Search Forums

(Advanced Search)

Forum Statistics
» Members: 298
» Latest member: austintxaxdo8021
» Forum threads: 6,951
» Forum posts: 12,932

Full Statistics

Online Users
There are currently 383 online users.
» 0 Member(s) | 381 Guest(s)
Bing, Google

Latest Threads
St. Alphonsus Liguori: Da...
Forum: Easter
Last Post: Stone
10 hours ago
» Replies: 8
» Views: 11,624
Fourth Sunday after Easte...
Forum: Easter
Last Post: Stone
10 hours ago
» Replies: 6
» Views: 14,920
The Catholic Trumpet: The...
Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
Last Post: Stone
10 hours ago
» Replies: 0
» Views: 41
Livestream: 4th unday aft...
Forum: May 2025
Last Post: Deus Vult
Yesterday, 11:19 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 75
Fr. Hewko, Catechism: "He...
Forum: Catechisms
Last Post: Deus Vult
05-16-2025, 09:26 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 64
Fr. Hewko's Sermons: "To...
Forum: May 2025
Last Post: Deus Vult
05-16-2025, 09:31 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 116
Another Catholic church a...
Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
Last Post: Stone
05-16-2025, 07:01 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 127
Louis Veuillot: The Liber...
Forum: Uncompromising Fighters for the Faith
Last Post: Stone
05-15-2025, 09:30 AM
» Replies: 10
» Views: 1,238
It’s Time to Purchase you...
Forum: General Commentary
Last Post: Stone
05-15-2025, 09:28 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 171
Fr. Hewko's Sermons:Octav...
Forum: May 2025
Last Post: Deus Vult
05-14-2025, 05:32 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 149

 
  Fourth Apparition at Fatima - August 19th
Posted by: Stone - 08-14-2021, 08:47 AM - Forum: Our Lady - Replies (1)

Taken from "The True Story of Fatima" by John de Marchi (PDF here). 
See also Fr. Hewko's excellent sermon on this August apparition of Our Lady at Fatima here.



VII. Fourth Apparition

[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3...%3DApi&f=1]


The Magistrate

The village of Fatima belongs to the County of Ourém. At the time of the apparitions, the Administrator of the county, or Chief Magistrate, was Artur Oliveira Santos, a man of tremendous political power. All administrative, political and sometimes even judicial power was centered in his hands. Though he was a man of meager education and a tinsmith by trade, he had been in politics since his youth. A baptized Catholic, he had abandoned the Church at the age of twenty to join the Masonic Lodge of Leiria.

Later, he founded a lodge at Ourém of which he was the head. What added to his power was the fact that he published a local newspaper by which he endeavored to undermine the faith of the people in the Church and the priests.

When he heard about the apparitions of Fatima, he realized the effects they might have among the people. He realized, too, that if he allowed the Church to rise to new life in his county, he would be laughed to scorn by his friends and Masonic brethren. He was confident that his immense power and the cringing spirit of the people would enable him to quickly crush this new religious fad in the beginning.

Although the citizenry of the county did cringe in fear before this all-powerful magistrate, there was one man who, when the good of his children and the good of the Church was threatened, had no fear. He would stand up boldly before any man in the interest of truth and justice. This man was Jacinta’s father.

“My brother-in-law and I had both been summoned to appear at the County House, with Lucia, at twelve noon, August the eleventh,” Ti Marto reported. “Compadre Antonio and his daughter arrived at my house early in the morning before I had finished my breakfast. Lucia’s first question was. ‘Aren’t Jacinta and Francisco going too?’”

“Why should such little children go there?” Ti Marto replied. “No, I will answer for them.”

Lucia ran to Jacinta’s room to inform her cousin of the summons they had received and how she feared she would be killed. “If they kill you, tell them that Francisco and I are like you and that we want to die too,” Jacinta cried.

Lucia and her father did not wait for Ti Marto, but went on ahead of him. Senhor dos Santos did not want to take a chance on being late and arousing the anger of the Magistrate. Lucia rode the donkey, and as she rode along she thought how different her father was from Ti Marto and her other uncles. “They put themselves in danger to defend their children but my parents turn me over with the greatest indifference so that they can do
with me whatever they wish. But patience!” Lucia comforted herself, “I expect to have to suffer more for Thy love, O my God, and it is for the conversion of sinners.”

Ti Marto walked to the County House alone. When he reached the square in front of the house, he saw Lucia and her father waiting there. “Has everything been settled already?” he inquired, thinking they had finished their audience with the Magistrate.

“No, the office was closed and no one was there.” It was some while before they discovered that they had come to the wrong building. Finally they came before the Magistrate.

“Where is the boy?” He shouted right away at Ti Marto.

“What boy?” Ti Marto said. He continues to tell us what went on. “He did not know that there were three children involved, and as he had sent for only one, I pretended that I did not know what he meant. ‘It’s six miles from here to our village,’ I told him, ‘and the children can’t walk that distance. They can’t even stay on a donkey’ (Lucia had fallen from the donkey three times on the journey). I had a mind to tell him some more things; imagine, the children so small wanted in court!

“He flared up and gave me a piece of his mind. What did I care! Then he began to question Lucia, trying to pry the secret out of her. But she didn’t say a word. Then he turned to her father, demanding, ‘Do the people of Fatima believe in these things?’”

“‘Not at all. All that is just women’s talk.’ Then the Magistrate turned towards me to see what I would say.

“‘I am here at your orders and I agree with my children!’

“‘You believe it is true?’ he sneered at me.

“‘Yes, sir, I believe what they say.’ He laughed at me, but I didn’t mind. The Magistrate then dismissed Lucia, at the same time warning her that if he did not learn her secret, he would take her life.”

The interview ended and they left for home.

Ti Marto thought he was through with the Magistrate. It wasn’t as easy as that. The Magistrate had only begun the execution of his plans. It was almost time for the next apparition and this all-powerful official determined to prevent it at any cost.

“Monday morning, the thirteenth of August,” Ti Marto recalled, “I had just begun hoeing my land when I was called home. As I entered the house I saw a group of strangers standing there, but that no longer surprised me. What did surprise me was finding my wife in the kitchen looking so worried. She didn’t say a word, only motioned me to go to the front room. ‘Why the hurry?’ I said good and loud. But she kept waving me away.

Still drying my hands, I went into the room, and who was there but the Magistrate! ‘So you are here!’ I said.

“‘Yes, of course, I want to see the miracle, too.’

“My heart warned me that something was wrong.

“‘Well let’s go,’ he said, ‘I’ll take the children with me in my carriage. As Thomas said, seeing is believing!’ He was uneasy and glanced about nervously. ‘Haven’t the children come home yet? Time is passing. You had better call them!’

“‘They don’t have to be called. They know when they are supposed to bring back the sheep and get ready.’ The children arrived almost at once and the Magistrate began urging them to go in his carriage. The children kept insisting it was not necessary.

“‘It’s much better,’ he repeated, ‘for we’ll get there faster and no one will bother us on the way.’

“‘You all go to Fatima,’ he capitulated, ‘and stop at the rectory because I want to ask the children a few questions.’ As soon as we got to the rectory, he shouted to us from the balcony, ‘Send up the first!’

“‘The first? Which one?’ I snapped right back. I was upset by the premonition of some evil.

“‘Lucia,’ he said arrogantly.

“‘Go ahead, Lucia,’ I said to her.” Ti Marto would remember this day well.

The Pastor was waiting in his office. He had changed his mind towards the apparitions. Now he considered them not the work of the devil, but plain inventions. He would call Lucia to task, making sure that the Magistrate would realize he had no responsibility in these events. “Who taught you to say the things that you are going about saying?”

“The Lady whom I saw at the Cova da Iria.”

“Anyone who goes around spreading such wicked lies as the lies you tell will be judged and will go to Hell if they are not true. More and more people are being deceived by you.”

“If one who lies goes to Hell,” answered the little girl, “then I will not go to Hell for I don’t lie and tell only what I have seen and what the Lady has said to me. And as for the crowd that goes there, they go only because they want to. We don’t call anyone.”

“Is it true that the Lady has confided a secret to you?”

“Yes, but I can’t tell it. But if Your Reverence wants to know it, I shall ask the Lady and if She gives me permission, I will tell you.”

The Magistrate cut in as his plans would be spoiled if Lucia was allowed to return to the Cova to ask permission to tell the Pastor the secret. “But those are supernatural matters,” he said with finality.

“The whole thing was a hoax and sheer treachery on the Magistrate’s part,” Ti Marto continued. “When it came time for my children to go in, he said, ‘That’s enough. You may go; or better, let’s all go for it’s getting late.’

“The children started down the stairs. Meanwhile, the carriage was brought right up to the last step without my noticing it,” Senhor Marto reported.

“It was just perfect for him, for in a moment, he decoyed the children into it. Francisco sat in front and the two girls in the back. It was a cinch. The horse started trotting in the direction of the Cova da Iria. I relaxed. Upon reaching the road, the horse wheeled around, the whip cracking over him, and he bolted away like a flash. It was all so well planned and so well carried out. Nothing could be done now.”

In the carriage, Lucia spoke up first, though timidly, “This is not the way to the Cova da Iria.” The Magistrate tried to make the children believe that he was taking them first to see the Pastor of the church at Ourém to consult with him. As they rode away, the people along the road realized that he was stealing the children and stoned him.

Immediately, he covered them with a robe. When he reached his house, gloating over his success, he grabbed the children out of the carriage, pushed them inside and locked them in a room. “You won’t leave this room until you tell me the secret,” he warned them. They did not answer him a word.
“If they kill us,” Jacinta consoled the other two when they were alone, “it doesn’t matter. We’ll go straight to Heaven.”

Instead of an executioner with axe in hand, the wife of the Magistrate came and proved herself very kind to the three little children. She took them from the room, gave them a good lunch and let them play with her children. She also gave them some picture books to look at.


The “Hoax”

Meanwhile rumors had spread through the village that the devil would appear this time at the Cova da Iria to cause the earth to open up and swallow all those who were there. In spite of the rumor, however, many persons traveled to the holy spot. Maria da Capelinha was among them. She gives an eyewitness account of what went on.

“I was not afraid. I knew there was nothing evil about the apparitions because if there were, the people would not be praying at the Cova. My constant prayer as I walked along was, ‘May Our Lady guide me according to God’s Holy Will.’ The crowd at the Cova on August thirteenth was even larger than in July.

“About eleven o’clock, Lucia’s sister, Maria dos Anjos, came with some candles to light to Our Lady. The people prayed and sang religious hymns around the holm oak.

The absence of the children made them very restless. When it became known that the Magistrate had kidnapped them, a terrible resentment went through the crowd. There is no telling what it might have turned into, had it not thundered just then. Some thought the thunder came from the road; others thought that it came from the holm oak; but it seemed to me that it came from a distance. It frightened us all and many began to cry, fearing they were going to be killed. Of course, no one was killed.

“Right after the thunder came a flash, and immediately, we all noticed a little cloud, very white, beautiful and bright, that came and stayed over the holm oak. It stayed a few minutes, then rose towards the heavens where it disappeared. Looking about, we noticed a strange sight that we had already seen and would see again. Everyone’s face glowed, rose, red, blue, all the colors of the rainbow. The trees seemed to have no branches or leaves but were all covered with flowers; every leaf was a flower. The ground was in little squares, each one a different color. Our clothes seemed to be transformed also into the colors of the rainbow. The two vigil lanterns hanging from the arch over the holy spot appeared to be of gold.

“When the signs disappeared, the people seemed to realize that Our Lady had come and, not finding the children, had returned to Heaven. They felt that Our Lady was disappointed and hence they were exceedingly upset. Resentment grew in their hearts.

They started towards the village, clamoring against the Magistrate, the Pastor and anyone they thought might have had anything to do with the arrest of the children.”

Everything had been so beautiful but the sense of frustration at not having the children for the apparition made the people seethe with anger and roar out, “Let’s go to Ourém to protest. Let’s go and drench everything with blood. We’ll get hold of the Pastor, for he is just as guilty... And the Regedor, we’ll settle accounts with him.”

Ti Marto, meanwhile, had gone to the Cova da Iria, and when this shouting of the people grew louder and louder, though he considered both the Pastor and the Magistrate guilty, he felt inspired to intervene in the tumult.

“Be calm, men, be calm.” He shouted with all his might. “Don’t hurt anyone. Whoever deserves punishment will get it. All this is by the power of the One above.”

Indeed, the One above also intervened to preserve for His Mother the name of Fatima forever gracious and unstained, as is evidenced by the letter which the Pastor wrote the following day for the newspapers. It was published a few days later.

“The rumor that I was an accomplice to the sudden kidnapping of the children... I repel as an unjust and insidious calumny... The Magistrate did not confide the secret of his intentions to me...

“And if it was providential, for such it was, that the authority succeeded in taking the children away furtively and without resistance, no less providential was the calming of the spirits, excited by this devilish rumor. For otherwise the parish would have been mourning her Pastor today.

Certainly, it was through the Virgin Mother that this snare of the devil did not strike him dead...

“The authority wanted the children to reveal a secret that they have told to no one...

Thousands of witnesses say that the children were not necessary for the Queen of the Angels to manifest Her power. They themselves will testify to the extraordinary occurrences which have now so deeply rooted their belief... The Virgin Mother does not need the presence of the Pastor to show Her kindness; and this itself should explain my absence and apparent indifference regarding a case so marvelous and sublime ...”


The Ordeal

The children spent the night of the thirteenth in loneliness and prayer, beseeching Our Lady that they might have the strength to remain faithful to Her always. When morning arrived, however, they were all taken to the County House where they were 40 put through relentless questioning. The first to quiz them was an old lady, who used all her cunning and wiles to learn their secret. Later, the Magistrate tried bribes, offering them shiny gold coins; he made all kinds of promises to them and threatened them with every sort of punishment, but the children would not give in. This kept up all morning, broken only by lunch. They were put through the same inhuman “third degree” all afternoon. Finally, the Magistrate told them he was going to put them in jail and have them thrown into a tank of boiling oil.

When they reached the jail, poor little Jacinta began to cry her eyes out. Lucia and Francisco tried to comfort her.

“Why do you cry, Jacinta?” Lucia said.

“Because we are going to die without ever again seeing our parents. None of them have come to see us, neither yours nor mine. They don’t care for us anymore. I want to see my mother, at least.”

“Don’t cry, Jacinta,” Francisco interrupted, “we are offering this sacrifice for sinners.”

Then the three raised their hands towards Heaven, repeating together, “My Jesus, all this is for love of You and for sinners.”

“And for the Holy Father,” Jacinta put in, not wishing to forget any request of Our Lady, “and in reparation for the offenses against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

There were many men imprisoned in the jail at that same time, and not one of them, no matter how hardened a criminal he might have been, could remain unmoved at the sight of the three little children. Each of the men took his turn trying to console the children or to shake them from their purpose of retaining the secret.

“Why don’t you tell it to him?” “Why should you care?”

“Never,” Jacinta said, “we would rather die.”

The children did not seem to mind in the least their being imprisoned in jail. But seven-year-old Jacinta could not accustom herself to the thought of dying without first seeing her mother. To distract her, the prisoners began singing, playing the accordion and dancing. They tried to get the children to dance with them, and one very tall man picked up Jacinta in his arms and danced around with her. The thought of Our Lady flashed through her mind; dancing was not the right preparation for Heaven. So Jacinta made the man stop; she took the medal from around her neck, asked the man to hang
it from a nail on the wall, then she knelt with Francisco and Lucia to say the Rosary.

Embarrassed and ashamed, the prisoners also got on their knees. One man still kept his hat on. Francisco got up, went over to him and said, “When we pray, we take our hats off.” The man took it off and dropped it on the floor. Francisco picked it up and laid it on the bench.

Soon, they heard steps outside. A guard entered, looking at the children, he barked, “Come with me.”

Again they were taken to the County House and put through the third degree.

Jacinta was called in first, “The oil is already boiling. Tell the secret... otherwise...”

Jacinta, like Our Lord before the judges, remained silent.

“Take her away and throw her into the tank!” yelled the inquisitor. The guard grabbed her arm, swung her around and locked her in another room.
Outside the Magistrate’s office, while waiting their turn, Francisco confided to Lucia, “If they kill us, we shall soon be in Heaven. Nothing else matters. I hope that Jacinta does not get scared. I should say a Hail Mary for her.” He took off his cap and said a prayer.

The guard, watching the children, was puzzled at the boy’s behavior. “What are you saying?” he demanded.

“I am saying one Hail Mary for Jacinta, to give her courage.”

The other guard came back and led Francisco into the Magistrate’s office. Grabbing hold of the boy, he shouted, “Spit out the secret. The other one is already burned up; now it’s your turn. Go ahead, out with it.”

“I can’t,” he replied, looking calmly into the eyes of this new Nero. “I can’t tell it to anyone.”

“You say you can’t. That’s your business. Take him away. He’ll share his sister’s lot.”

The boy was taken into the next room, where he found Jacinta, safe and happy.

Lucia was convinced that they had been killed. Thinking that she was next to be thrown into the burning cauldron of oil, she trusted in her heavenly Mother not to desert her, but to give her the courage to be loyal and courageous, even as Francisco and Jacinta had been.

Though Lucia did tell the Magistrate something of what happened in the visions, even as she had told her parents and the Pastor, she kept the secret part to herself. It was a solemn promise to Our Lady and she would rather die than break it. The Magistrate was not satisfied with this little bit. He wanted to know the secret. After her interrogation, Lucia too was locked in the room where the other two were. How happy they all were that they had persevered in their unwavering fidelity to Our Lady.

The Magistrate did not yet give up. The guard came in to remind them that soon they would be thrown into the burning oil. The thought of being able to die together for Our Lady made them all the happier. The Magistrate finally admitted, after further fruitless questioning, that he could accomplish nothing. Then out of fear of what the enraged people might do, he himself took them in his carriage to Fatima, hardly realizing that the Church was celebrating on that day the Feast of the Assumption.


The Secret

When the people filed out of church, after attending Mass on the Holy Day, they congregated in the yard. The one topic on all lips was what had happened to the children.

As Ti Marto came out, they all asked, “Where are the children?”

“How do I know,” he replied, “maybe they took them to Santarém, the capital. The day they kidnaped them, my stepson, Antonio, went with some other boys to Ourém,and he saw the children playing on the veranda of the Magistrate’s house. That’s the last news I heard.”

He had hardly said these words, when someone shouted, “Look, Ti Marto, Look! The children are on the rectory balcony!”

Ti Marto recalls his feelings. “I can’t say how quickly I got there and swept Jacinta in my arms. I couldn’t say a word. Tears ran down my face, wetting the child’s face.

Francisco and Lucia both threw their arms around me, saying, ‘Father, your blessing! Uncle, your blessing!’ (as the custom is in Portugal, when children return home after an absence).

“A public official and underling of the Magistrate approached me. He shook, from head to foot. I never saw the like before. ‘Here you have the children!’ he said. I wanted to speak my mind but I restrained myself and remarked, ‘This might have come to a sorry end. They wanted the children to contradict themselves, but they failed. Even if they succeeded, I would always say they spoke the truth.’”

The people in the churchyard were in an uproar, shaking their fists, swinging their staffs. Everyone was restless. The Pastor left the church immediately, and started up the stairs into the rectory. Suspecting that Ti Marto was stirring up the people against him, he said in rebuke, “Senhor Manuel, you scandalize me.”

“I knew how to answer him then,” recalls Ti Marto, and the Pastor went into the house. Ti Marto could not at the time realize the noble role the Pastor was playing that day. Ti Marto then turned to the crowd in the yard and, still holding his little Jacinta in his arms, he shouted, “Boys, behave yourselves! Some of you are shouting against the Senhor Prior, others against the Administrator, and still some against the Regedor. No
one is to blame. The blame lies with lack of faith and all has been allowed by the One above.”

The Pastor heard this and was very pleased, so he said from the window, “Senhor Manuel speaks very well; he speaks very well.”

The Magistrate had gone to the inn, and when he returned, seeing the crowd and Ti Marto on the balcony of the rectory, he shouted at him, “Stop that, Senhor Marto!”

“All right; all right. There is nothing wrong.” The Magistrate then went into the Pastor’s office and called Ti Marto in.

The rage of the people had subsided. The generous Pastor was allowing the people to believe that he had shared in the abduction of the children in order to save the Magistrate. The prudent words of a man of faith had the power to keep the crowd below under control. It was a fine proof of the power of religion, and the Pastor did not miss his chance to point out the fact to the Magistrate. “You must realize, Senhor Administrator,
that religion is a necessity also.”

As Ti Marto was leaving, the Magistrate turned to him, saying “Senhor Marto, come and have a glass of wine with me.”

“Don’t bother now, thanks.” However, he noticed a group of young men on the street, armed with staffs. It made him fear that they might clash with the Magistrate. It was better that everything end in peace, so he stood at the Magistrate’s side, thinking within himself that it might be the wise thing to accept his invitation.

“I am grateful,” the Magistrate said, realizing what he was doing. He felt safe. “You ask the children if I did not treat them right.”
“All right. All right... There’s no hard feelings. The people think more of asking questions than I do.” Just then the children came down the stairs, and headed for the Cova da Iria without losing a moment. The people began to go home and the Magistrate and Ti Marto went to an inn.

Of their conversation over the wine Ti Marto later recalled, “The whole thing bored me very much, for he was trying to convince me that the children had told him the secret. ‘Very well, very well,’ I said, ‘They did not tell it to their father or mother, but they did tell it to you!’”

With that the matter ended for the time being. It is important to note, however, that the interrogation of the children served one purpose that was providential. Since everything became a matter of official record, the Magistrate unwittingly made the existence of a secret revelation undeniable.
The Nineteenth of August On the following Sunday, the 19th of August, the children, according to their custom, went to the Cova da Iria after Mass. There they said the Rosary, then returned to Aljustrel. After lunch, Lucia, together with Francisco and his elder brother John, left for a place called Valinhos, not far away, where they intended to spend the afternoon.

The afternoon passed quickly, but towards four o’clock, Lucia became aware of the signs that always immediately preceded the apparitions of Our Lady: the sudden cooling of the air, the paling of the sun, and the typical flash. The children had already been having a wonderful premonition that they were to experience the supernatural again.

Now Our Lady was about to come and Jacinta was not there! Lucia called out to John, “Go quickly and get Jacinta! Our Lady is coming!”

The boy did not want to go. He too wanted to see Our Lady. “Go fast,” Lucia insisted, “and I will give you four pennies, if you bring Jacinta back with you. Here are two now, and I’ll give you the other two when you return.”

John took the pennies and started running home. When he reached his house, he called in, “Mother, mother, Lucia wants Jacinta!”

“Aren’t the three of you enough for your games? Can’t you leave her alone for a minute?” the mother answered back.

“Let her come, little mother. They want her there now. See, Lucia gave me two pennies to make sure I would bring her.”

Two pennies! That was a lot of money for little children to give away so easily. “What does she want Jacinta for now?”

Wriggling like an eel, John burst out, “Because Lucia has already seen the signs in the skies and she wants Jacinta there in a hurry.”

“God be with you; Jacinta is at her godmother’s house.”

John bolted off to get her. There, he whispered the news to Jacinta, and together, hand in hand, they raced over to Valinhos so as not to miss Our Lady. Just as John and Jacinta reached the field, a second flash rent the air. A few moments later, the brilliant Lady appeared over a holm oak (a slightly taller one than that at the Cova da Iria). The Lady was rewarding the children for their fidelity.

“What do You want of me?” Lucia asked.

“I want you to continue to come to the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth and to continue to say the Rosary every day.”

Lucia then told Our Lady of her anguish that so many disbelieved in the reality of Her presence. She asked Our Lady if She would be willing to perform a miracle so that all might see and believe.

“Yes,” Our Lady answered, “In the last month, in October, I shall perform a miracle so that all may believe in My apparitions. If they had not taken you to the village, the miracle would have been greater. Saint Joseph will come with the Baby Jesus to give peace to the world.

“Our Lord also will come to bless the people. Our Lady of the Rosary and Our Lady of Sorrows will also come.”

Lucia remembered Senhora da Capelinha’s request and said: “What do you wish us to do with the money and the offerings that the people leave at the Cova da Iria?”

“Have two litters made. One is to be carried by you and Jacinta and two other girls dressed in white; the other one is to be carried by Francisco and three other boys. The litters are to be used for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and the money that is left over will help towards the onstruction of a chapel that is to be built.”

Lucia then spoke to Our Lady of the sick who had been recommended to her.

“Yes, I shall cure some of them within the year.” But She went on teaching them to pray rather for the health of souls than of bodies, “Pray! Pray a great deal and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.”

The Lady took leave of Her little friends and began to rise towards the East, as before. John was disappointed. He tried hard to see Our Lady but had seen nothing. However, he heard something like “a clap of thunder similar to the firing of a gun,” when Lucia said, “Jacinta, see Our Lady is going away.” It gave John small consolation.

The three children, who had stood by helplessly at the Cova da Iria when the older people stripped the holm oak of its foliage, broke off the small branch which the resplendent robe of Our Lady had touched. John and Lucia stayed at Valinhos with the sheep while Francisco and Jacinta rushed home with the precious branch to tell their parents of the unexpected visit of Our Lady.

As they passed Lucia’s house, her mother and sister were at the door with some neighbors. “Aunt Maria Rosa,” Jacinta cried out with joy, “we saw Our Lady again! It was at Valinhos!”

“My, what little liars you turned out to be! As if Our Lady would appear to you wherever you go!”

“But we did see Her,” Jacinta insisted. “See here, Our Lady had one foot on this twig and the other on that one.”

“Give it to me. Let me see.” Jacinta gave the branch to Lucia’s mother. The mother’s face showed great surprise as she put the branch to her nose. “What does this smell of?”

she said, continuing to smell it. “It is not perfume, it’s not incense nor perfumed soap; it’s not the smell of roses nor anything I know but it is a good smell.” The whole family gathered and each wanted to hold the branch and smell the beautiful odor. “Leave it here, Jacinta. Someone will come along who will be able to tell what kind of an odor it is.”

From that moment, Lucia’s mother and her whole family began to modify their opposition towards the apparitions. Jacinta then took the branch and hurried home to show it to her own mother and father. Ti Marto tells of the occasion in his own words.

“I had taken a round of my properties on that day. After sunset, as I was drawing near my house, a friend of mine met me and said, ‘Ti Marto, the miracle is becoming clearer.’

“‘What do you mean?’ I said, not knowing anything about the apparition at Valinhos or the branch.

“‘You know, Our Lady appeared again, just a little while ago, to your children and Lucia at Valinhos. You can believe it is true. I want to tell you that your Jacinta has something special. She had not gone with the others and a boy came to call her. Our Lady did not appear until she arrived!’ I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t know what to answer, but I was thinking about what my friend said as I reached the yard of my house. My wife was not at home. I went into the kitchen and sat down. Jacinta came right in with a big smile on her face and a little branch in her hand.

“‘Look, father, Our Lady appeared to us again at Valinhos!’

“As she came in I sensed a magnificent fragrance which I could not explain. I stretched out my hands towards the branch saying, ‘What are you bringing in, Jacinta?’

“‘It is the little branch on which Our Lady placed Her feet.’ I smelled it but the odor had gone.” Our Lady did not have to perform a miracle to prove Her case to him.[1]

[1]When Lucia’s sister, Teresa, and her husband were coming into the village of Fatima, they noticed the cooling of the air, the paling of the sun and the pattern of different colors over everything, the same as happened at the Cova da Iria six days previous, when the children were prevented from going to the Cova because of their arrest and imprisonment. This was the very hour of the apparition at Valinhos.

Print this item

  “Unique Expression Of Roman Rite”: Beach Baptism With Seawater
Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2021, 02:33 PM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism - No Replies

“Unique Expression Of Roman Rite”: Beach Baptism With Seawater
[But don't let people have the Latin Mass! And certainly there are no concerns about the validity of this particular 'baptism'!- The Catacombs]

[Image: z3gd7t2jmudpo9942aw1g8iob259wbudv6706j7....ormat=webp]


gloria.tv | August 12, 2021


Father Karsten Weidisch of Münster Diocese, Germany, "baptised" in July a six year old boy on a beach while everybody, including the child's father and grandmother, was sitting in the sand. The abuse was hailed and praised on the official diocesan website and in the official diocesan newspaper.

Weidisch's liturgical attire consisted of sweatpants, a red hoodie and some stole. The event took place on Ameland, a nearby Dutch island. The "baptism" was performed with seawater. Catechism 1220 teaches that “water springing up from the earth symbolises life, the water of the sea is a symbol of death.”

Not surprisingly, Weidisch is notorious for staging homosex services which are another expression of Francis' "unique Roman Rite."

Print this item

  Lima Archbishop Has “No Need For Priests”
Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2021, 02:29 PM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism - No Replies

Lima Archbishop Has “No Need For Priests”

[Image: vz06dvmvgngoarcsbto0l579elzh21qndeh5n26....ormat=webp]

gloria.tv | August 13, 2021


Lima Archbishop Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio, 71, Peru, a Pachamama worshipper who refuses Communion to his faithful, wants to replace parish priests with lay people.

According to CatholicNewsAgency.com, he informed at a July 21 conference that he spent a month at the Vatican lobbying for lay parish administrators. Castillo wants to send the priests away to “study” for instance in Europe.

He proposes "that lay persons act as pastors or heads of churches.” His examples are [empty and dying] parishes in Europe [which are artificially kept alive with church tax money] where lay people allegedly keep the community going “without the need for priests.”

“There’s a priest who celebrates Mass for them once a week or twice on Sunday, whatever it may be; but we have to think of more egalitarian ways, closer to the [long gone] people,” Castillo fantasises.

Print this item

  August 13th - Sts Hippolytus and Cassian, Martyrs & St Radegonde, Queen of France
Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2021, 01:37 PM - Forum: August - Replies (1)

August 13 – Sts Hippolytus and Cassian, Martyrs
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

[Image: hippolito.jpg?w=300&ssl=1]

Not far from the sepulcher of St. Laurence, on the opposite side of the Tiburtian Way, lies the tomb of St. Hippolytus, one of the sanctuaries most dear to the Christians in the days of triumph. Prudentius has described the magnificence of the crypt, and the immense concourse attracted to it each year on the Ides of August. Who was this Saint? Of what rank and manner of life? What facts of his history are there to be told, beyond that of his having given his blood for Christ? All these questions have in modern times become the subject of numerous and learned works. He was a martyr, and that is nobility enough to make him glorious in our eyes. Let us honor him then, and together with him another soldier of Christ, Cassian of Immola, whom the Church offers to our homage at the same time. Hippolytus was dragged by wild horses over rocks and briars till his body was all torn: Cassian, who was a schoolmaster, was delivered by the judge to the children he had taught, and died of the thousands of wounds inflicted by their styles. The prince of Christian poets has sung of him as of Hippolytus, describing his combat and his tomb.


Prayer

Da, quæsumus onipotens Deus: ut beatorum Martyrum tuorum Hippolyti et Cassiani veneranda solemnitas, et devotionem nobis augeat, et salutem. Per Dominum.
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the venerable solemnity of thy blessed martyrs, Hippolytus and Cassian, may cotribute to the increase of our devotion, and promote our salvation. Through Christ our Lord, etc.

[Image: sancassiano-patrono-imola-a.jpg?resize=768%2C791&ssl=1]

Print this item

  Video: Philadelphia Announces DOUBLE Mask Mandate For Government Workers
Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2021, 01:19 PM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular] - No Replies

Video: Philadelphia Announces DOUBLE Mask Mandate For Government Workers
After September 1st ALL new hires MUST be vaccinated; Everyone else has to go back to masking indoors or proving vaccination status

[Image: Screen-Shot-2021-08-13-at-12.06.39-pm.png]


Summit News | 13 August, 2021


The Mayor and Health Commissioner of Philadelphia dropped an announcement Wednesday that unvaccinated city employees will need to wear two masks while working indoors and that all new hires after September 1 will have to be vaccinated.

The Philadelphia Inquirer noted the details of Mayor Jim Kenney and acting Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole’s announcement.

During a remote press briefing, Bettigole demonstrated that wearing two masks is “cumbersome,” and stated that “Luckily there is something else that you could do to protect yourself: You could be vaccinated.”

Watch: Video

More broadly, the rules in Philadelphia on masks to enter events spaces and businesses are somewhat unclear because it will fall on businesses themselves to enforce the measures. Business owners are faced with either mandating masks indoors or setting up their own vaccination status checking system for both customers and employees.

The report states:
Quote:Businesses seeking to avoid the mask mandate should have clear signage at their entrances indicating they will be verifying customers’ vaccination status… Those found out of compliance will first be warned and given time to correct, then could be forced to close and pay a $315 fine for re-inspection.

Outdoor events will see those in attendance having to wear masks if there are more than 1000 people, unless everyone is seated.

ABC6 News also reported on the new confusing mask mandate in the city.

Watch: Video

Mayor Kenney declared that “It goes without saying that none of us want to be here discussing restrictions and policies needed to stem the spread of COVID-19. The science is clear: These measures will protect Philadelphians and save lives.”

When Kenney was asked if even more restrictive policies could be put into place going forward, he replied “Not if everyone acts like a mature adult.”

“I’m upset that people just can’t act in the way they are supposed to act … and do what’s good for everybody,” Kenney continued.

”Please, just get the vaccine,” Kenney said, adding “This could all be avoided if we did that.”

This all comes just two months after the city lifted its 14-month-long mask mandate and other limits on businesses and events.

As we have noted, several other cities are beginning to enforce draconian vaccine mandates, essentially locking out those who haven’t taken the shots.

Print this item

  Fr. Ruiz: MÉXICO, EVALUACIÓN DE 500 AÑOS DE HISTORIA DE UNA NACIÓN
Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2021, 01:06 PM - Forum: Rev. Father Hugo Ruiz Vallejo - Replies (1)

MÉXICO, EVALUACIÓN DE 500 AÑOS DE HISTORIA DE UNA NACIÓN
Part I

Click HERE to download the PDF 


[Image: Capture.png]

Print this item

  USA: SSPX Refuse Letters of Religious Exemption for Conscientious Faithful Facing “No Jab, No Job”
Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2021, 12:37 PM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX - No Replies

I know not all SSPX priests based in the US are refusing to sign Religious Exemption letters but it is alarming nonetheless that the faithful are being formally abandoned by any priest in the Society in a time where there is great need to stand for what the Faith teaches and not transgress God's Commandments. 

I know of a person who approached their SSPX priest in Virginia and while he did sign the employer's form for religious exemption from the mandated vaccine, he didn't explain at all on the form why Catholics reject vaccines linked to aborted fetal cells. He just put down his phone number and signature ... 



USA: SSPX Refuse Letters of Religious Exemption for Conscientious Faithful Facing “No Jab, No Job”


CatholicTruthScotland | August 12, 2021

The Church has always emphasised the importance of following our – fully informed – consciences in matters of grave morality.

I was very surprised, then, to say  the least, to read the following information which arrived in an email from Athanasius (Martin Blackshaw):

Quote:“I have concerns about a letter from Fr. Paul Robinson (SSPX) in response to the faithful in Colorado who have been asking the SSPX to supply priest letters preventing them from being forced into vaccination in order to keep their jobs. This is the new law in Colorado that comes into effect in September. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Fr. Robinson says the SSPX priests don’t need to sign letters because the faithful have their own human rights to stand on. He attaches a template letter for them to use if they have a conscience issue with the vaccines, but reiterates the SSPX position that it approves the vaccines under certain circumstances. In other words, don’t look to us for leadership, it’s every conscience for itself and the choice is yours. Very worrying! “

Here is the link to the article on the SSPX website, [an attempt at!] justifying the use of material from aborted babies in the Covid vaccines, which we have discussed on this blog more than once, and which Fr Robinson shamelessly included in his letter of reply to those Catholics seeking a letter of exemption, on conscience grounds, from their priest. This might be interpreted as an attempt to either stifle consciences, or to otherwise deter people from refusing the vaccine.  To read our previous discussions on the subject of the SSPX support for the vaccines click here and here.

Is there any justification – however remote – for refusing to support these conscientious faithful, who are possibly at risk of losing their livelihood? Is providing a template letter and leaving them to it, good enough?

Print this item

  St. Bernard on Meditating on the Mysteries of Our Salvation (Rosary)
Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2021, 12:12 PM - Forum: Resources Online - No Replies

Print this item

  Audiobook: St. John Vianney on the Blessed Virgin Mary
Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2021, 12:11 PM - Forum: Resources Online - No Replies

Print this item

  Report: ‘Confidential’ Documents Reveal Pfizer Does Not Mandate Vaccines for Employees
Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2021, 12:07 PM - Forum: COVID Passports - No Replies

Report: ‘Confidential’ Documents Reveal Pfizer Does Not Mandate Vaccines for Employees

[Image: Pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine-covid19-getty...40x480.jpg]


Breitbart | 12 Aug 2021

Internal documents suggest the Pfizer, the drug manufacturer responsible for one the world’s leading coronavirus vaccines, does not require coronavirus vaccination of its employees.

Images of a purported “confidential” Pfizer booklet written by Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Payal Betcher indicate the company has defied President Joe Biden’s push to have private companies mandate vaccination and only requires testing of its unvaccinated employees.

“Please note that if you have declared you are not been vaccinated, decline to declare your status, or have a medial or a religious accommodation, Pfizer will require that you participate in a COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing regimen,” images of the literature read.

The documents also indicates over 80 percent of company employees opted to receive the vaccine, suggesting slightly under 20 percent of the Pfizer workforce remain unvaccinated.



The leaked documents come after Biden met with airline executives to convince them to mandate vaccinations for their employees.

“But companies have wrestled with the extent of their authority to require shots,” Reuters reported. “Among the concerns is the possibility that companies will be exposed to discrimination lawsuits as they call staff back to their desks after 18 months of pandemic-induced work from home.”

That risk has not stopped Biden’s efforts. “I will have their backs and the backs of other private and public sector leaders if they take such steps,” he said on August 3.

According to a survey by consultants at Mercer studying over 200 American companies, 14 percent require staff to be vaccinated to work in the office.

Biden stated Wednesday he has federal government lawyers looking into if he can mandate vaccinations for all Americans. “People are dying and will die who don’t have to die. If you’re out there unvaccinated, you don’t have to die,” he said July 29.

Print this item

  Biden eyes tougher vaccine rules... maybe even interstate vaccine requirements
Posted by: Stone - 08-13-2021, 12:03 PM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular] - No Replies

Biden eyes tougher vaccine rules without provoking backlash
Even as President Joe Biden becomes more aggressive in pressuring Americans to get vaccinated, he has refrained from using all his powers


ABC News | 13 August 2021

WASHINGTON -- When the pace of vaccinations in the U.S. first began to slow, President Joe Biden backed incentives like million-dollar cash lotteries if that's what it took to get shots in arms. But as new coronavirus infections soar, he's testing a tougher approach.

In just the past two weeks, Biden has forced millions of federal workers to attest to their vaccination status or face onerous new requirements. He's met with business leaders at the White House to press them to do the same.

Meanwhile, the administration has taken steps toward mandating shots for people traveling into the U.S. from overseas. And the White House is weighing options to be more assertive at the state and local level, including potential support for school districts imposing rules to prevent spread of the virus over the objection of Republican leaders.

“To the mayors, school superintendents, educators, local leaders, who are standing up to the governors politicizing mask protection for our kids: thank you,” Biden said Thursday. "Thank God that we have heroes like you, and I stand with you all, and America should as well.”

But even as Biden becomes more aggressive, he has refrained from using all his powers to pressure Americans to get vaccinated. He's held off, for instance, on proposals to require vaccinations for all air travelers or, for that matter, the federal workforce. The result is a precarious balancing act as Biden works to make life more uncomfortable for the unvaccinated without spurring a backlash in a deeply polarized country that would only undermine his public health goals.

Vaccine mandates are “the right lever at the right time," said Ben Wakana, the deputy director of strategic communications and engagement for the White House COVID-19 response, noting the public's increasing confidence in the vaccines and adding that it marks a new phase in the government's campaign to encourage Americans to get shots.

Many Republicans, particularly those eyeing the party's 2024 presidential nomination, disagree and warn of federal overreaching into decisions that should be left to individuals. Biden and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, an epicenter of the latest virus wave, have spent weeks feuding over the proper role of government during a public health crisis.

There is notable support for vaccine mandates. According to a recent poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 51% of Americans say the federal government should recommend that employers require their workers to get vaccinated, while 45% say it should not.

For now, Biden has required most federal workers to attest to their vaccination status under potential criminal penalties, with those who have not received a dose required to maintain social distancing, test weekly for the virus and face other potential restrictions on their work.

Health workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Health and Human Services will be required to get vaccinated, and the Pentagon has announced that it intends to mandate vaccines for the military by next month.

The sharper federal approach comes as nearly 90 million eligible Americans still have not been vaccinated and as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, says shots are the only path for the nation to contain the delta variant.

White House officials say Biden wanted to initially operate with restraint to ensure that Americans were ready for the strong-arming from the federal government. The federal moves have been carefully calibrated to encourage a wave of businesses and governments to follow suit.

Biden administration officials briefed prominent Washington trade groups, including the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, ahead of the federal announcement in hopes their members would follow suit. White House officials have fielded dozens of calls from business executive in recent weeks about how to implement their own vaccination mandates, officials said, sharing best practices and tips for how to protect their workforces.

“Through vaccination requirements, employers have the power to help end the pandemic," White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Thursday, naming companies, universities and local governments that have implemented them.

The new restrictions appear to be having the desired effect. The rules — combined with fresh concerns about the surging delta variant — have nearly doubled the average rate that Americans are getting newly vaccinated from last month to about 450,000 per day.

Zients said the White House still has no plans to develop the infrastructure for so-called vaccine passports, despite some criticism from businesses that the patchwork of local and state verification systems leaves them without a clear way to enforce mandates. The Biden administration had promised to share frameworks for verification systems, but ultimately left them all to the private sector and local governments, in part because of political sensitivities.

Still, while more severe measures — such as mandating vaccines for interstate travel or changing how the federal government reimburses treatment for those who are unvaccinated and become ill with COVID-19 — have been discussed, the administration worried that they would be too polarizing at this time. An administration official said the interstate travel vaccination requirement was not under consideration at the moment.

That's not to say they won't be implemented in the future, as public opinion continues to shift toward requiring vaccinations as a means to restore normalcy.

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of health law at Georgetown University, said Biden would likely need to continue to turn up the pressure on the unvaccinated. “He’s really going to have to use all the leverage the federal government has, and indeed use pressure points,” Gostin said. “And I think there are a few that he can do but he hasn’t done yet.”

“The country is completely fatigued with lockdowns, business closures and masking,” added Gostin, “and vaccines are literally our only tool. We’ve tried masking, distancing, occupancy limits, even entire lockdowns now for coming along nearly two years. And the virus just keeps raging back. And the vaccines are the only thing we have now to defeat the virus. We need to use that tool and we need to use it vigorously. And I think there will be large public support for that.”

[Emphasis mine.]

Print this item

  Tyson Employees Walk Off Job To Protest Vaccine Mandate
Posted by: Stone - 08-12-2021, 12:52 PM - Forum: COVID Passports - No Replies

Tyson Employees Walk Off Job To Protest Vaccine Mandate

[Image: no%20mandate.PNG?itok=EE0ryIwM]


ZH |  AUG 12, 2021


A group of around a dozen Tyson Foods employees in West Tennessee took to the streets of Newbern on Wednesday to protest the company's new vaccine mandate.

The employees say they're risking their jobs to fight against the recent corporate decision to require all employees to take the Covid-19 vaccine, according to KFVS12.

While nobody from the group would speak on camera to news crews - citing their employment agreements, one local business owner spoke on their behalf.

"Nobody wants to be pressured to do anything, especially to their own body, that they don’t want to do," said Jill Blessing. "For Tyson to actually say, hey, get the shot or you lose your job, and some of these people, I talked to a girl who has worked here 30 years. And that’s a huge thing to put on somebody when that’s their livelihood."

Around 650 people work at this particular plant.

 

One woman, Tristin Garland, says two family members work at two different Tyson locations and are at risk of losing their jobs over the vaccine.

"It’s been very stressful for all of us," said Garland. "I am a nurse and have seen the good and bad due to this vaccine. And trying to decide between your beliefs, when you are so unsure, or keeping your job of 25 years has just been miserable for us."

Quote:Lee Doughten, who is a maintenance worker at the Tyson Plant in Union City, said he’s heard similar protests, and walkouts are being planned there. Doughten said he doesn’t want to get the vaccine and will likely lose his job in November.

“I wish the governor could stop it,” said Doughten. “We were once essential workers, and now we are expendable.” -WREG

Tyson announced last week that all of their 120,000 employees nationwide will need to be vaccinated by Nov. 1 unless they are exempted for medical or religious reasons. Around half of the company's employees are currently vaccinated, while front-line employees who receive the jab are eligible for a $200 bonus and up to four hours of pay if they are inoculated outside of work.

The protest comes one week after the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union raised objections to to the mandate because the vaccine has not been fully approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"While we support and encourage workers getting vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, and have actively encouraged our members to do so, it is concerning that Tyson’s is implementing this mandate before the FDA has fully approved the vaccine," said UFCW International president Marc Perrone in a statement.

"We believe the FDA must provide full approval of the vaccines and help address some of the questions and concerns that workers have. Additionally, employers should provide paid time off so that their essential workers can receive the vaccine without having to sacrifice their pay, and can rest as needed while their body adjusts to the vaccine and strengthens their immune system to fight off the virus."

The UFCW represents 250,000 workers in the US meatpacking and food processing industries, including 24,000 Tyson employees.

Print this item

  Priests survive Atomic Bomb through the Rosary
Posted by: Stone - 08-12-2021, 08:10 AM - Forum: General Commentary - No Replies

Print this item

  New Policy: Baltimore Archdiocese drops fees for annulments in effort to quicken the process
Posted by: Stone - 08-12-2021, 08:09 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism - No Replies

New policy: No contribution needed for annulment cases in Baltimore Archdiocese

[Image: 080521_Tribunal_SeitzInOffice_5897_900x6...68x512.jpg]
Father Gilbert J. Seitz, judicial vicar, leads the Office of the Tribunal for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)


Catholic Review | August 10, 2021


The Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Baltimore will no longer request a contribution to process an annulment case.

Archbishop William E. Lori implemented the policy change, which went into effect July 1. It was in response to a request by Pope Francis in 2015 to make the annulment process quicker and less expensive for couples.

In documents reforming the annulment process released by Pope Francis in 2015 – especially “Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus” (“The Lord Jesus, the Gentle Judge”) for the Latin-rite church – the pope’s chief aim was to reaffirm the indissolubility of marriage while offering pastoral care, mercy and a welcoming hand to people whose broken unions were defective from the beginning.

Father Gilbert J. Seitz, judicial vicar for the archdiocese, told the Catholic Review, “The Holy Father has been trying to impress upon the ministers of justice throughout the world – both in Rome and in other dioceses all over – to eliminate any and all obstacles that would keep people from approaching a Tribunal and see a resolution of the question regarding a marriage bond.

“As a result of that, Archbishop Lori thought that it appropriate, particularly in this year, as we celebrate the year of the Eucharist, that we in Baltimore take the action that the Holy Father has suggested and remove that obstacle,” Father Seitz said.

In the past, the archdiocese requested a contribution of no more than $550 per case, but the contribution was not required. “It wasn’t actually a fee; it wasn’t as if you had to make that payment or you would not receive a final decree from us,” he said.

If people could make the contribution, the Tribunal was happy to accept it to help defray its costs to review and process the case.

Many people believed that there was a “charge” for an annulment, but that was not the case.

“If they were unable to make the contribution, under no circumstances would our service to them or our ministry to them in this matter be interrupted because of the lack of payment,” Father Seitz said. “We simply asked folks for that contribution and if they could, if their means allowed them, then we were very welcoming to receive that, but if their means didn’t allow it, then it became inconsequential.”

As a result of the new policy, there is no longer any financial contribution or financial commitment connected with the ministry the Tribunal offers to those who need it, he added.

“The concern of the archbishop, as was the concern of the Holy Father, is that any and all obstacles be removed so that folks can approach Tribunals when they have that need without being (financially) burdened,” Father Seitz said.

Since the Tribunal’s approach to finances has been so accommodating in the past, he said, some people approaching the Tribunal to begin the annulment process are not surprised that no contribution is being requested, but they are “extremely thankful that the financial burden has been lifted, especially in in the midst of a pandemic and the uncertainty of the economy. I think folks are just grateful that’s a burden that they don’t have to worry about,” he said.


Dominican Father D. Reginald Whitt, tribunal judge, left, discusses a case with Father Gilbert J. Seitz, judicial vicar, Aug. 5, 2021 in the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Office of the Tribunal. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)
The archdiocesan Tribunal processes between 150 and 180 marriage cases per year using the formal process. Father Seitz said one of the reforms instituted by Pope Francis’ 2015 letters to make the process more “user-friendly” was to eliminate “the need for an automatic appeal if a decision of a lower court is in favor of the invalidity of the marriage,” that is, to grant the annulment.

That alone made a significant difference in the speed of the process. Since each Tribunal in the Province of Baltimore – which includes much of Maryland and the states of Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia – spent time reviewing cases of nullity from other dioceses, the lesser workload allows the Tribunal to complete cases more quickly.

“Usually in the Archdiocese of Baltimore right now, as in other dioceses in the province, it would be realistic to complete a case in about six months,” Father Seitz said.

He said that resolving marriage cases brought before the Tribunal is essentially pastoral care in the form of a process in Canon Law, the law of the church.

“Our ministry, more than anything else, is about enabling people to encounter the Lord Jesus,” the judicial vicar said. “So many folks, because of the hurt and pain of divorce, feel themselves alienated from former family members, perhaps from their own family members, from the church.

“And they come to us pained and burdened with those hurts and those pains, and our hope is that in utilizing the juridic process that the church establishes in a very pastoral way, we can help facilitate some healing for those folks, which would then enable them to recognize themselves as a member of the Body of Christ, wounded but healed, and as one who has encountered the risen Jesus, wounded and healed,” he said.

“And it’s amazing what can be accomplished when you take that woundedness, and that sense of healing and share it with others.”

Father Seitz said he often reminds his staff that they can follow the legal procedures well and with untold precision, but “if we have not done it in a way that enables folks to meet the risen Christ, we have not fulfilled our service to them, as we should.”

He said one of the tactics he employs is to carefully review a request for a petition or a petition to begin a case, before launching the formal case process.

If the petition is weak, or lacks something, he won’t accept it, sometimes encouraging the minister working with the party to dig deeper into the grounds for annulment. In that way, if and when the petition is accepted and the case begins, the questions the Tribunal asks can be better targeted to get the information the judges need to make a determination.

Without that care and concern, the case could go to completion and get a negative decision. “That, to me, will only add to the hurt and pain that folks have experienced,” Father Seitz said.

Even so, the process is not always easy for those going through it, because they need to address and acknowledge some things about their failed relationship that they would prefer not to admit.

“Hopefully, we can do that in a way that folks feel safe and not judged,” Father Seitz said. “And if we do that right, we can help people to grow and heal. And that’s our first concern because ultimately that gets to their salvation.”

He said that, in some cases, the decree of nullity may also allow people to return in full to the sacraments. He emphasized that it is incorrect that all divorced Catholics are unable to receive the Eucharist. Only those who are divorced and remarried outside the church are not to receive the Eucharist.

“If we grow and heal, we can find ourselves closer to the Lord Jesus and when we are closer to the Lord Jesus, we are that much closer to our salvation,” he said.

Father Seitz said he hopes that no longer being asked for a financial contribution for the annulment process enables people to “make a financial contribution or a contribution of their talent to other needs of the archdiocese or to the wider church. Perhaps the monies that would have come to us because of our service to someone could be given to a shelter for homeless people or to further the cause of justice in the archdiocese,” Father Seitz said.

“Maybe because of our service to folks, they will find themselves in a position to contribute their time more generously to a cause that furthers the Gospel.”

To begin the annulment process, Father Seitz said parishioners can contact their local parish or contact the Tribunal directly.

For more information, visit www.archbalt.org/marriage-tribunal.

Print this item

  August 12th – St Clare, Virgin
Posted by: Stone - 08-12-2021, 07:46 AM - Forum: August - No Replies

August 12 – St Clare, Virgin
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

[Image: muslims2.jpg?w=564&ssl=1]

The same year in which St. Dominic, before making any project with regard to his sons, founded the first establishment of the Sisters of his Order, the companion destined for him by heaven received his mission from the Crucifix in the church of St. Damian, in these words: “Go, Francis, repair my house which is falling to ruin.” The new patriarch inaugurated his work, as Dominic had done, by preparing a dwelling for his future daughters, whose sacrifice might obtain every grace for the great Order he was about to found. The house of the Poor Ladies occupied the thoughts of the seraph of Assisi, even before St. Mary of the Portiuncula, the cradle of the Friars Minor. Thus, for a second time this month, Eternal Wisdom shows us that the fruit of salvation, though it may seem to proceed from the word and from action, springs first from silent contemplation.

Clare was to Francis the help like unto himself, who begot to the Lord that multitude of heroic virgins and illustrious penitents soon reckoned by the Order in all lands, coming from the humblest condition and from the steps of the throne. In the new chivalry of Christ, Poverty, the chosen Lady of St. Francis, was to be the queen also of her whom God had given him as a rival and a daughter. Following to the utmost limits the Man-God humbled and stripped of all things for us, she nevertheless felt that she and her sisters were already queens in the kingdom of heaven: (Regula Damianitarum, viii); In the little nest of poverty,” she used to say, “what jewel could the bride esteem so much as conformity with a God possessing nothing, become a little One whom the poorest of mothers wrapped in humble swathing bands and laid in a narrow crib?” And she bravely defended against the highest authorities the privilege of absolute poverty, which the great Pope Innocent III feared to grant. Its definitive confirmation, obtained two days before the Saint’s death, came as the long-desired reward of forty years of prayer and suffering for the Church of God.

This noble daughter of Assisi had justified the prophecy, whereby sixty years previously, her mother Hortulana had learned that the child would enlighten the world; the choice of the name given her at her birth had been well inspired. “Oh! how powerful was the virgin’s light,” said the sovereign Pontiff in the Bull of her Canonization; “how penetrating were her rays! She hid herself in the depth of the cloister, and her brightness transpiring filled the house of God.” From her poor solitude which she never quitted, the very name of Clare seemed to carry grace and light everywhere, and made far-off cities yield fruit to God and to her father, St. Francis.

Embracing the whole world where her virginal family was being multiplied, her motherly heart overflowed with affection for the daughters she had never seen. Let those who think that austerity embraced for God’s sake dries up the soul read these lines from her correspondence with Blessed Agnes of Bohemia. Agnes, daughter of Ottacar I, had rejected the offer of an imperial marriage to take the religious Habit, and was renewing at Prague the wonders of St. Damian’s. “O my mother and my daughter,” said our Saint, “if I have not written to you as often as my soul and yours would wish, be not surprised: as your mother’s heart loved you, so do I cherish you; but messengers are scarce, and the roads full of danger. As an opportunity offers today, I am full of gladness, and I rejoice with you in the joy of the Holy Ghost. As the first Agnes united herself to the immaculate Lamb, so it is given to you, O fortunate one, to enjoy this union (the wonder of heaven) with him, the desire of whom ravishes every soul; whose goodness is all sweetness, whose vision is beatitude, who is the light of the eternal light, the mirror without spot! Look at yourself in this mirror, O queen! O bride! unceasingly by its reflection enhance your charms; without and within adorn yourself with virtues; clothe yourself as beseems the daughter and the spouse of the supreme King. O beloved, with your eyes on this mirror, what delight it will be given you to enjoy in the divine grace! … Remember, however, your poor Mother, and know that for my part your blessed memory is for ever graven on my heart.”

Not only did the Franciscan family benefit by a charity which extended to all the worthy interests of this world. Assisi, delivered from the lieutenants of the excommunicated Frederick II and from the Saracen horde in his pay, understood how a holy woman is a safeguard to her earthly city. But our Lord loved especially to make the princes of holy Church and the Vicar of Christ experience the humble power, the mysterious ascendancy, wherewith he had endowed his chosen one. St. Francis himself, the first of all, had in one of those critical moments known to the Saints, sought from her direction and light for his seraphic soul. From the ancients of Israel, there came to this virgin, not yet thirty years old, such messages as this: “To his very dear Sister in Jesus Christ, to his mother the Lady Clare, handmaid of Christ, Hugolin of Ostia, unworthy bishop and sinner. Ever since the hour when I had to deprive myself of your holy conversation, to snatch myself from that heavenly joy, such bitterness of heart causes my tears to flow, that if I did not find at the feet of Jesus the consolation which his love never refuses, my mind would fail and my soul would melt away. Where is the glorious joy of that Easter spent in your company and that of the other handmaids of Christ? … I knew that I was a sinner; but at the remembrance of your supereminent virtue, my misery overpowers me, and I believe myself unworthy ever to enjoy again that conversation of the Saints, unless your tears and prayers obtain pardon for my sins. I put my soul, then, into your hands; to you I entrust my mind, that you may answer for me on the day of judgment. The Lord Pope will soon be going to Assisi; Oh! that I may accompany him, and see you once more! Salute my sister Agnes (i.e. St. Clare’s own sister and first daughter in God); salute all your sisters in Christ.”

The great Cardinal Hugolin, though more than eighty years of age, became soon after Gregory IX. During his fourteen years’ pontificate, which was one of the most brilliant as well as most laborious of the thirteenth century, he was always soliciting Clare’s interest in the perils of the Church, and the immense cares which threatened to crush his weakness. For, says the contemporaneous historian of our Saint, Luke Wadding: “He knew very well what love can do, and that virgins have free access to the sacred court: for what could the King of heaven refuse to those, to whom he has given himself?”

At length her exile, which had been prolonged twenty-seven years after the death of Francis, was about to close. Her daughters beheld wings of fire over her head and covering her shoulders, indicating that she to had reached seraphic perfection. On hearing that a loss which so concerned the whole Church was imminent, the Pope, Innocent IV, came from Perugia with the Cardinals of his suite. He imposed a last trial on the Saint’s humility, by commanding her to bless, in his presence, the bread which had been presented for the blessing of the sovereign Pontiff; heaven approved the invitation of the Pontiff and the obedience of the Saint, for no sooner had the virgin blessed the loaves than each was found to be marked with a cross.

A prediction that Clare was not to die without receiving a visit from the Lord surrounded by his disciples was now fulfilled. The Vicar of Jesus Christ presided at the solemn funeral rites paid by Assisi to her who was its second glory before God and men. When they were beginning the usual chants for the dead, Innocent would have had them substitute the Office for holy Virgins; but on being advised that such a canonization, before the body was interred, would be considered premature, the Pontiff allowed them to continue the accustomed chants. The insertion, however, of the Virgin’s name in the catalogue of the Saints was only deferred for two years.

The following lines are consecrated by the Church to her memory:

Quote:The noble virgin Clare was born at Assisi, in Umbria. Following the example of St. Francis, her fellow-citizen, she distributed all her goods in alms to the poor, and, fleeing from the noise of the world, she retired to a country church, where blessed Francis cut off her hair. Her relations attempted to bring her back to the world, but she bravely resisted all their endeavors; and then St. Francis took her to the church of St. Damian. Here our Lord gave her several companions, so that she founded a convent of consecrated virgins, and her reluctance being overcome by the earnest desire of her holy father, she undertook its government. For forty-two years she ruled her monastery with wonderful care and prudence, in the fear of God and the full observance of the Rule. Her own life was a lesson and an example to others, showing all how to live aright.

She subdued her body in order to grow strong in spirit. Her bed was the bare ground, or, at times, a few twigs, and for a pillow she used a piece of hard wood. Her dress consisted of a single tunic and a mantle of poor coarse stuff; and she often wore a rough hair-shirt next to her skin. So great was her abstinence, that for a long time she took absolutely no bodily nourishment for three days of the week, and on the remaining days restricted herself to so small a quantity of food, that the other religious wondered how she was able to live. Before her health gave way, it was her custom to keep two Lents in the year, fasting on bread and water. Moreover, she devoted herself to watching and prayer, and in these exercises especially she would spend whole days and nights. She suffered from frequent and long illnesses; but when she was unable to leave her bed in order to work, she would make her sisters raise and prop her up in a sitting position, so that she could work with her hands, and thus not be idle even in sickness. She had a very great love of poverty, never deviating from it on account of any necessity, and she firmly refused the possessions offered by Gregory IX for the support of the sisters.

The greatness of her sanctity was manifested by many different miracles. She restored the power of speech to one of the sisters of her monastery, to another the power of hearing. She healed one of a fever, one of dropsy, one of an ulcer, and many others of various maladies. She cured of insanity a brothers of the Order of Friars Minor. Once when all the oil in the monastery was spent, Clare took a vessel and washed it, and it was found filled with oil by the loving kindness of God. She multiplied half a loaf so that it sufficed for fifty sisters. When the Saracens attacked the town of Assisi and attempted to break into Clare’s monastery, she, though sick at the time, had herself carried to the gate, and also the vessel which contained the most Holy Eucharist, and there she prayed, saying, “O Lord, deliver not unto beasts the souls of them that praise thee; but preserve thy handmaids whom Thou hast redeemed with thy precious Blood.” Whereupon a voice was heard, which said: “I will always preserve you.” Some of the Saracens took to flight, others who had already scaled the walls were struck blind and fell down headlong. At length, when the virgin Clare came to die, she was visited by a white-robed multitude of blessed virgins, amongst whom was one nobler and more resplendent than the rest. Having received the Holy Eucharist and a Plenary Indulgence from Innocent IV, she gave up her soul to God on the day before the Ides of August. After her death she became celebrated by numbers of miracles, and Alexander IV enrolled her among the holy virgins.

O Clare, the reflection of the Spouse which adorns the Church in this world no longer suffices thee; thou now beholdest the light with open face. The brightness of the Lord plays with delight in the pure crystal of thy soul, increasing the happiness of heaven, and giving joy this day to our valley of exile. Heavenly beacon, with thy gentle shining enlighten our darkness. May we, like thee, by purity of heart, by uprightness of thought, by simplicity of gaze, fix upon ourselves the divine ray, which flickers in a wavering soul, is dimmed by our waywardness, is interrupted or put out by a double life divided between God and the world.

Thy life, O Virgin, was never thus divided. The most high poverty, which was thy mistress and guide, preserved thy mind from that bewitching of vanity which takes off the bloom of all true goods for us mortals Detachment from all passing things kept thine eye fixed upon eternal realities; it opened thy soul to that seraphic ardor wherein thou didst emulate thy father Francis. Like the Seraphim, whose gaze is ever fixed on God, thou hadst immense influence over the earth; and St. Damian’s, during thy lifetime, was a source of strength to the world.

Deign to continue giving us thine aid. Multiply thy daughters; keep them faithful in following their Mother’s example, so as to be a strong support to the Church. May the various branches of the Franciscan family be ever fostered by thy rays, and may all Religious Orders be enlightened by thy gentle brightness. Shine upon us all, O Clare, and show us the worth of this transitory life and of that which never ends.

[Image: unnamed.jpg?w=463&ssl=1]

Print this item