[Catholic Caucus] St. Patrick Sparked a Fire

Church Militant ^ | March 16, 2019 | Fr. George Rutler

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St. Patrick Sparked a Fire

The holy patron of our archdiocese was a contemporary of St. Augustine. While Augustine of north Africa became one of the greatest Doctors of the church, Patrick of Roman Britain humbly called himself uneducated, even though he was schooled in France by St. Germaine of Auxerre and possibly St. Martin of Tours, and was given books by Pope St. Celestine I.

Patrick, after six youthful years as a slave captured by Irish pirates, embarked upon the conversion of the Druid tribes. He did not chase the snakes out of Ireland because there were none, nor did he explain the Holy Trinity using a shamrock, for that would have been a Partialist error inconsistent with the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed formulated just a few years before his birth. But he sparked a fire that spread the Gospel light to many parts of the world. The largest number of people who claim Patrick for their patron are Nigerians, converted by heroic Irish missionaries. The number of baptized Catholics in Nigeria has soared from 19 million in 2005 to 53 million today. There are two thousand priests and nearly 4,000 Religious, along with a boom in vocations.

An Irish commentator and playwright recently called Ireland 'The Most Anti-Catholic Country on Planet Earth.'Tweet

In contrast, despite many worthy witnesses, the majority of Irish people failed to heed the warnings of St. John Paul II when he became the first pontiff to set foot on the soil of Eire. He preached to 1.25 million faithful at a Mass in Phoenix Park, Dublin. Last year, Pope Francis offered Holy Mass in the same place, and fewer than 130,000 showed up. Four months later, the Druids returned and defiantly danced in the streets when abortion was legalized. The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) was elected while publicly living in perverse contempt of the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. The chief seminary of Maynooth has the lowest numbers of students since its foundation in 1795. Its rector of 15 years abandoned the Faith and now conducts an esoteric cult in Arizona. An Irish commentator and playwright recently called Ireland "The Most Anti-Catholic Country on Planet Earth." This would seem to be hyperbolic, given persecution in Muslim lands, China and North Korea, but it bespeaks the adolescent rebellion of a population moved by an anger unlike the cool detachment of calculating governments.

 

This is a warning to Catholics in the United States, because such is what happens when religion is only a political and ethnic sentiment. The St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City has become a bibulous charade of St. Patrick. While contingents advertise their contempt for his Gospel, Nigerians honor St. Patrick in a different way. A few weeks ago, Nigerian soldiers under attack by the Islamic terrorists Boko Haram, did not masquerade as leprechauns drinking green beer. In a Zamiza forest, they knelt and chanted as their chaplain raised aloft for adoration the same Blessed Sacrament with which Patrick had faced the Druids.

 

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