Vatican Cardinal Burke: ‘We’re well on the way’ to Christian persecution in the U.S.

Life Site News ^ | 11-28-11 | John-Henry Westen

[ReformationFan]

VATICAN, November 28, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One of the highest ranking cardinals in the Vatican has said that the United States is “well on the way” to the persecution of Christians. Cardinal Raymond Burke

Cardinal Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St. Louis and now the head of the Vatican’s highest court, told Catholic News Agency that he could envision a time when the Catholic Church in the U.S., “even by announcing her own teaching,” is accused of “engaging in illegal activity, for instance, in its teaching on human sexuality.”

Asked if the cardinal could even see American Catholics being arrested for their faith he replied, “I can see it happening, yes.”

In his remarks to several U.S. Bishops meeting with him Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI made similarly emphatic warnings about the U.S. The pope told the bishops that “the seriousness of the challenges which the Church in America, under your leadership, is called to confront in the near future cannot be underestimated.”

He added: “The obstacles to Christian faith and practice raised by a secularized culture also affect the lives of believers.”

In the interview published today, Cardinal Burke declared that “it is a war” and “critical at this time that Christians stand up for the natural moral law.” Should they not, he warned, “secularization will in fact predominate and it will destroy us.”

Pope Benedict too urged the bishops of the United States to speak out in defense of morality. “The present moment can thus be seen, in positive terms, as a summons to exercise the prophetic dimension of your episcopal ministry by speaking out, humbly yet insistently, in defense of moral truth, and offering a word of hope, capable of opening hearts and minds to the truth that sets us free,” he said.

[Salvation]

LOL! But I understand you on this topic. Hope that’s OK with you — or are you teasing?

[mas cerveza por favor]

Catholics used to be confirmed as “soldiers of Christ”. The Vatican dropped that phrase because it is too mean. It should be reinstated.

This phrase was never dropped from Catholic traditionalist confirmations.

[Guardian Sebastian]

Salvation, I don't think that Tzar meant that there is no longer the sacrament of Confirmation, but that the children are no longer taught that they will become “soldiers of Christ” as we were taught.

A few things I can see that will be very troubling for the church in the next few years is the problem that Catholic hospitals are going to run into under Obummercare, refusing to marry same sex couples and preaching against homosexuality.

[GOP Poet]

This is very true. This is one reason I am so grateful to have the honor of singing purely Christian Christmas music at many secular venues this Christmas season in a major US city. I will sing about Christ until the day I die to as many people as possible. They can jail me, reject me, taunt, and kill me. I will never stop.

[Salvation]

Posted on FR from:  The Essentials of the Catholic Faith, Part Two: Channels of Grace, Confirmation

Sacramental Character.  The Church stresses that the indelible seal received in Confirmation is really a new character. It is not merely a deepening of the baptismal character. The Church’s tradition teaches that the confirmation character gives the power and the right to perform actions which are necessary in the spiritual battle against the enemies of the faith. These enemies are the world, our own proud intellect and will, and the evil spirit.

Moreover, the Church does not hesitate to say that Confirmation changes the simple members of the kingdom of Christ into soldiers of Christ. St. Ignatius, in his Spiritual Exercises, expresses this idea forcefully in the invitation that Christ extends to His chosen followers.

My will is to conquer the whole world and all enemies and thus to enter into the glory of my Father. Whoever, therefore, desires to come with me must labor with me in order that following me in pain, he may likewise follow me in glory (The Kingdom of Christ).

The character of Confirmation confers on the baptized the strength they need to live up to Christ’s expectations of the Mystical Body on earth, which is the Church Militant.

 

 

snip

 

Three words in the Church’s definition of Confirmation bring out the unique effects of this sacrament. They are to “witness to Christ,” and “spread and defend the faith.” On each of these three levels, Confirmation strengthens a Christian and imposes the obligation to witness, spread, and defend. Let us now examine them in detail.

1. In order to be able to witness to Christ, Confirmation deepens a person’s faith by making Christ better understood, more clearly perceived, and more firmly believed in as the Son of the living God who became man to redeem the world. In a word, Confirmation strengthens our conviction of mind by enabling us to say with St. Paul: “I have not lost confidence, because I know who it is that I have put my trust in, and I have no doubt at all that He is able to take care of all that I have entrusted to Him until that Day” (II Timothy 1:12).
   
   Conviction is the bedrock of courage: A convinced mind is the foundation for a courageous will. Every courageous witness to Christ was, in effect, a martyr for Christ, either by shedding his blood for the Savior in dying a martyr’s death, or certainly testifying to his deathless love for Christ by living a martyr’s life.
   
   
2. In order to be able to spread the faith, Confirmation develops our sense of mission and deepens our desire to share with others what others have so zealously passed on to us.
   

[RobbyS]

Leave the matter to Burke, and he would. But the matter is not in his hands. He is only one baron, so to speak, among many barons, great or small.

[Rashputin]

"Try sharing that with those with eyes that dont see, and ears that dont hear! "

If the State starts by outlawing the Catholic Church and imprisoning Bishops and Priests about a quarter of the non-Catholic Christians in this country won't be in any hurry to see the situation turned around.

JMHO

[RobbyS]

Bishops are not famous for their courage. Consider the fate of St. John Fisher, who alone stood up to Henry VIII. Lost his head. Literally.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

I find myself coming back to these threads a lot lately.

Its also worth noting that Our Lady of Kibeho (Vatican approved Apparition in Rwanda that in the early 1980s foretold the genocide there in the 1990s) strongly recommended the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows. A friend gave me one of these Rosaries (it has seven decades of seven beads each) this weekend that she got at a talk by Immaculee Ilibagiza.

[SaraJohnson]

Either Christians form effective political action groups or the Left will make us “domestic terrorists” and seriously harm us like all the commies before them have done.

Amorality is deadly to the moral.

[mas cerveza por favor]

Here is what wikipedia says about the "soldier of Christ" issue:

The "soldier of Christ" imagery, remains valid [7] but is downplayed... Then he strikes him lightly on the cheek, saying: Peace be with you) (cf. the knightly custom of the accolade). When, in application of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,[10] the Confirmation rite was revised in 1971, mention of this gesture was omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_(Catholic_Church)

Admittedly wikipedia often has a leftist bias, but its report on the post-Vatican II watering down of Confirmation is consistent with the consensus among traditionalists.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Cardinal Burke is still diligently working on the proper implementation of Canon 915. He has written a book on the Eucharist that explicitly addresses the issue. And I suspect he has other tricks up his sleeve ;-)

[mas cerveza por favor]

Do not forget Blessed Pope Urban II who launched the Holy Crusades with the slogan “Deus vult!” (God wills it!)

[Verginius Rufus]

Some historically Catholic countries have experienced periods of intense anti-clericalism sometimes amounting to actual warfare on the Catholic Church--France and Mexico, for example. When the Mexican government was waging war on the Catholic Church in the 1920s, some prominent Protestants in the US welcomed it, thinking it would make it easier for them to win converts in Mexico, and the Mexican President responsible was welcomed at the White House.

Of course the situation is different in the US because the Catholic Church has never been the religion favored by the government.

Unfortunately a lot of the Catholic bishops have been the enablers of a lot of the developments they now fear, by their support of Democratic politicians.

[Rashputin]

>i>"Unfortunately a lot of the Catholic bishops have been the enablers of a lot of the developments they now fear, by their support of Democratic politicians. "

The sled was going down the hill anyway but without a doubt they greased the skids. A good many of them seem to have taken Vatican II to mean that they could become a separate US Catholic Church in name and just another liberal Protestant denomination in reality. Had it not been for the enthusiastic support of a good many Bishops, Priests, and Nuns, as well as a good percentage of the Catholic folks in the pews, our current situation would probably have been delayed but I'm not sure it could have been avoided altogether.

Regards

[MacMattico]

I don't know if this will make anyone feel just a little better about this, but anti-Catholic remarks and attacks on all Christians and Judaism as well are what brought my family back into the church, making us not just “cafeteria Catholics”. Over the past 10 years we have become closer to our Catholic faith and have a better understanding of it then ever before. We used to take it for granted, we called ourselves Catholic, there was a physical church down the street and occasionally on holidays we would attend. But with increasingly anti-religious rantings, laws passed, and the secularization of our society, it got us up off our butts and back to church, and I wanted to learn more so I could defend my Catholic beliefs. I hope this is happening with others, as well.

[silverleaf]

aye that

the Church has contributed to its own demise by its leadership simpering and enabling rabid pro-abortion pro-adultery politicians like O’Malley Pelosi and the Kennedys

[Cvengr]

[Biggirl]

Big Difference though.

Americans of Christian faith will more likely go on the defensive.