The Holy Spirit is certainly speaking at the Synod, but only through those who exhibit the above heavenly gifts in their interventions. Through those who do not, He is not, for Jesus Himself said, ‘By their fruits, you shall know them’. Is the fruit of the Holy Ghost confusion and error or clarity and truth? ‘But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth.

Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio; “Even if there were ‘no prince, no prophet, no sacrifice’, still Jesus Christ would be with His people, yes, even unto the End of Time, to the consummation of all the ages, because those who believe in Him, those who worship Him, those who uphold His Teachings, they are the Catholic Church.”   Let us examine just one, among the plethora…

Since Hilary has been posting up tunes, I thought I would add a little Central European flair by introducing you all to Disco Polo. When the rest of Europe becomes thoroughly unpleasant for Catholics, little bands of us westerners may find ourselves knocking on the iron gates of Hungary and Poland. Naturally, they will not be happy to see us, for as immigrants we will threaten the social cohesion of their nations, and our explanation that the notion of a nation-state is “Sooooo 1919” won’t help us very much.

This quote has been alluded to quite a great deal in the recent past, of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. It is, as we watch events unfold in Rome, quite incredible… ‘From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge—a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity.

“Struggling to understand”? Or are they getting the message loud and clear? Every day I stare at Facebook in growing shock and horror at what is being said in the left-wing Catholic press. I mean, it’s really out there. It is so out there, I am wondering how I am ever going to look these people in the face again. How long have these people not believed in the sacrament of marriage?

on the other hand… ~

Err… yeah… that’s kind of what we’ve been worried about. Faithful bishops ask Catholic bloggers to abandon panic mongering “’We read the blogs,’ the archbishop said, ‘and I have one thing to say to those with deep concerns: #BishopsGotThis.” Ahem… you were saying? ~

I think it is easily discernible how old I am from these selections. I suppose it is also possible to estimate which social set I ran with in the 80s. Yes, I had very, very big hair, some of which was dyed pink. I once got my foot broken at a punker gig. It was one of these illegal things where the band just rented an empty warehouse for the evening and word of mouth spread the news around (this was before cellphones or Facebook events pages).

The other thing also is that as the Synod begins to wear on, there’s an awful lot of people right now, faithful Catholics, who are becoming concerned, and many laypeople aren’t really sure what they can do. And they feel right about that because there really isn’t anything they can do on the temporal level. We can certainly pray; as we’ve said on the Vortex every day, be sure to pray your Rosary specifically for the Synod, specifically for the Church.

I write this with “fear and trembling”. I am a poor, miserable sinner and I am a priest who shall one day render an account “for every idle word,” and an account for the souls entrusted to me. Much, much greater is the responsibility of a bishop. He is personally responsible for the preaching and teaching of all priests and deacons who give a Sunday homily in his diocese. They cannot speak a word without the authority that the bishop-ordinary gives them.