Fontgombault Sermon for the Feast of Saint Benedict in Summer: "We should take note of our social regression: God has been eliminated from the States and societies."

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

Fontgombault, July 11, 2021

Gaudeamus.
Let us rejoice.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My dearly beloved Sons,

On this Sunday, from the very first word of the introit, the Church invites us to rejoice. Is that so astonishing? Sunday is quintessentially a day of joy. After a week of work, man is invited by God Himself to rest. Such is the commandment, or more exactly the word, a word of love, which God addressed on Mount Sinai to the people He had just brought out of Egypt:

"Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works. But on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou  shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." (Ex 20:9-11)

God had just set His people free from Pharaoh, and He did not want greed for lucre to shackle it, and lead it through a ceaseless frenzy of work to forget its Maker. The seventh day therefore became the day on which man would remember that he had been freely liberated by God from bondage.

For Christians, Sunday has been enriched with a new gift. Man, who from the very beginning had rebelled against God, had to be liberated from another form of bondage, a deeper, more universal, and multifaceted one, that is, sin. Man needed to be reconciled with God, with the design God had prepared in His immense love for His so puny creature: eternal beatitude, that is to say, life in communion with God, the vision of God for eternity. Such is the reward of rewards, to which God in His goodness calls us.

Fontgombault Sermon on Dedication of the Abbey Church: Before building a "common home", we need to acknowledge the God Who designed it

Anniversary of the Dedication of the Abbatial Church

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

Fontgombault, October 12, 2019

Hodie in domo tua.

Today in thy house.

(Lk 19:5)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My dearly beloved Sons,

Today’s Mass exhibits a great scriptural richness. The readings and the sung pieces run through the Bible from its very first book, Genesis, to the last one, the Apocalypse, centred around a same theme, God’s dwelling with men. Such is indeed the place in which we are, and the consecration of which we celebrate, a dwelling of God with men.

The opening chant is taken from the book of Genesis: “How awesome is this place. This is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven.” (Gn 28:17) Jacob uttered these words after he saw in a dream a ladder set up between earth and heaven, on which angels were ascending and descending. God then gave him as his inheritance this place, which Jacob called Bethel, House of God; there he set up a stone for a pillar, a memorial for this encounter. In the lesson, the vision of the Apocalypse brings us into the heavenly Jerusalem, this place which we yearn for. This is at the end of time the new abode of God with men. God is dwelling in their midst. The Gospel takes us into the house of Zacchaeus, the place of a conversion. This tax-collector in the pay of the Romans had taken a certain advantage of his position to get rich. Jesus comes and visits him, thus bringing salvation to his house. Last, the offertory describes the episode of the building of the first Temple of Jerusalem. David had collected all its elements, but the construction was Solomon’s responsibility. At the end of the work, God took possession of the house. This text fits nicely in the liturgy at this moment, and it evokes the qualities of heart expected from those who wish to offer something to God, joy and simplicity.

All these texts depict various houses, either built by God or by man, offered to God so that He may dwell in them. For that matter, may each true abode, each house of truth, joy, and peace, be anything else than a place in which God is dwelling?

The feast of the Dedication makes us look beyond the houses of the world in which we are living. The words “a common European house” are sometimes used, without much success for that matter, to stir up interest for an administrative and economical Leviathan in the pay of global finance. There are also the nations, inheritors of their history and geography, the regions, cities and villages. Last, there is the house, the abode, the place where a family is gathered. The earth and the universe, created by God, are also abodes.

A priest on his knees amid the “gilet jaunes”

    H/T Chiesa e Post Concilio

An image that has no need of comments and which represents all the priests, and men and women of good will, who, in these tremendously grave times continue to pray for Italy, France, Europe and the entire world…

De Mattei: The Two Souls of the Yellow Gilets

Roberto de Mattei
Corrispondeza Romana
December 12, 2018

The “reverse turn” of Emmanuel Macron’s République en Marche,  confronted by the advance of the “gilets jaunes”, reveals the significance of the protests which have erupted in France over the last few weeks. 

The prime target of the protest was the arrogant French President, who, in his discourse to the nation on December 10th had to admit the failure of his policies. But Macron is the embodiment of the European technocratic powers and his failure, moreover, is the economic and social muzzle imposed on France by the Eurocrats. The political winners of this arm wrestling, for the moment, are the defeated political parties of the 2016 presidential elections. The  Rassemblement National of Marine Le Pen and La France insoumise of Jean-Luc Mélenchon ( which had obtained 47% of the votes in the first ballot against Macron’s 24% and were defeated in the second ballot) have now been vindicated.

The Pope and Jus soli: He will have to answer to history and God

Chiesa e Post Concilio

August 21, 2017

The Pope and Jus soli: 

Political interference -- Francis will have to answer to history and God

A position that will inevitably trigger off much debate. In his message for The World Day of Immigrants and Refugees, to be celebrated  on January 14, Pope Francis has explicitly sided in favour of jus soli: “At the moment of birth, nationality and regular access to primary and secondary education  should be recognized and certified.” Bergoglio has also shown his support for jus culturae inasmuch as he has asked for the recognition of the right to complete an educational path in the host country. 

Psychiatrist, Dr. Alessandro Meluzzi,  who was interviewed by Intelligonews, has harshly criticized what the Pope said:

What do you think of the Pope’s appeal in favour of jus soli?

“I think the Pope should talk about jus soli in Vatican City. There he could distribute passports to all the people he wanted, seeing as it is a Sovereign State.  As regards citizenship in the Italian Republic, on the contrary,  I find  this an improper and very serious interference since the Law of Papal Guarantees (1877).”

THE ULTIMATE INTERVIEW to Understand all About Pope Francis: Marcello Pera, Italian politician and close Ratzinger friend

Benedict XVI greeting Marcello Pera

Marcello Pera is an influential intellectual in Italy. A former president of the Italian Senate, he is a close friend of Benedict XVI, and even co-authored a book of lectures with him on the decay of the West (Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam)

In an interview with Naples newspaper Il Mattino, published on July 9, 2017, Marcello Pera presented what can reasonably be called the general view of Pope Francis by the wide moderate spectrum of Italians, and Europeans, of all classes.

***

"Bergoglio just wants to do politics, the Gospel does not matter at all"

Pera: "The indiscriminate welcoming [of migrants] risks exploding tensions"

Il Mattino

Naples, July 9, 2017

Interview by Corrado Ocone

Pope Francis, in a new exclusive interview granted to Eugenio Scalfari for "Repubblica" intervenes in the political debate with strong and explosive opinions that at one time would be considered "leftist". This time, the Pontiff turned to the great of the earth assembled in Hamburg for the G20, opposing as a matter of principle to every policy intending to control and limit mass immigration from poor nations to Europe. In order to better understand the ideas, and above all the political and media action of the Pope, in relation to those of his predecessor, we have posed some questions to the former President of the Senate Marcello Pera. He, a [classical] liberal and Catholic, has, as it is known, shared many ideas with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (even writing in four hands with him a book: Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam, Mondadori, 2004).

Mr. President, what is the judgment you have reached regarding the continuous calls made by Pope Bergoglio on the welcoming of migrants? An indiscriminate, unconditional, total welcoming?

"Frankly, I do not get this pope, whatever he says is beyond any rational understanding. It's evident to all that an indiscriminate welcoming is not possible: there is a critical point that cannot be reached. If the Pope does not make reference to this critical point, if he insists in a massive and total welcoming, I ask myself: why does he say it? What is the true end of his words? Why does he lack a minimum of realism, that very little that is requested of anyone? The answer I can give myself is only one: the Pope does it because he hates the West, he aspires to destroy it, and he does all he can to reach this end. As he aspires to destroy the Christian tradition, Christianity as it has realized itself historically.

Another Day, More Muslim-inspired Tragedies

Nine dead, dozens injured in the Berlin Christmas Market: may they rest in peace.

In the Turkish capital, the Russian ambassador is slaughtered under the cry of, "Allah is great."

Each day, the Muslim brutality increases in intensity and shock -- and an emasculated Western media becomes increasingly afraid of identifying the culprit. The culprit is Islam. There is no other. The religion of the scimitar, of violence, of murder, of sexual perversion will always be Islam.

May the sweetness of the coming Baby Jesus convert the hearts of Muslims and secularists alike, so they can one day recognize that Jesus Christ is the Lord, and that only He is able to make all things new.

It's official: Christ, the King of Poland!

By Fr. Paul McDonald

Special to Rorate Caeli

The Lord Jesus Christ Recognized as the King of Poland

Radio Maryja (@RadioMaryja) reports that the Bishops of Poland have enthroned, or, to use the bishops' more sober expression, "recognized" Christ as the King of Poland. This was done in the official presence of the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda. Many pilgrims were present in Poland for this event. Today the act will be repeated in all the Polish cathedrals and parishes. This took place yesterday, Saturday, at the Church of Divine Mercy in Krakow .

The providential and proximate origin of the act is to be found in revelations received, or said to be received, by the Servant of God Rosalia Zelkova. The Lord -- she said -- demanded that He be enthroned as King by the Polish Nation as such, and not just in the hearts of the Poles, in a particular manner, and this would have saved Poland in the war that was coming.

At first, especially after Vatican II, the idea did not find much support among the bishops. One may think that the shadow of Dignitatis Humanae was a factor, especially since the theme of the social right to religious liberty was so strong in the teaching of Pope Saint John Paul II. Another factor would have been the proximate origin, spoken of above. The same factor afflicts the Fatima Message. Under the diffused influence of theological modernism there is a diffidence even about the possibility of communications from Heaven.

But the social kingship of our Divine Lord is absolutely founded in necessary and dogmatic truths about Christ. It is not merely an element of private revelation. St. Gregory the Great said that they were heretics who denied that Christ is the King of and over everything.

You Report: Ah, August in Italy! A time for small towns, rural tours, and ... pornography in churches?!?...

Ah, August in Italy! Italians run out of the cities to spend their vacations in beautiful rural areas and small towns under the scorching sun. In most small towns, the main attraction is the local church, filled with art and beauty -- and pornographic images???...

So it was with our reader below, shocked beyond measure:

Last week, while walking the Cammino di San Benedetto, I visited the church of San Francesco in the centre of Cascia, famous worldwide for its daughter Saint Rita. The church was recently deconsecrated and for the town’s summer festival an exhibition was shown in the 12th century church, famous for its beautiful frescoes.

First Priest-martyr of the 21st Century in France

During the 9 am Mass this morning in the parish church of Saint Stephen (Saint-Etienne), in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, in the outskirts of Rouen, Normandy, France, two assailants invaded the church, held most of those inside -- including the priest and two nuns -- hostage, and, before being killed by special operations forces, slit the throat of the priest.

Martyr! The martyred priest was Father Jacques Hamel, 84 years old -- may he pray for us in heaven!

So many Christians have been martyred in recent years outside Europe, also victims of Islam: It is fitting that the first priest-martyr of Western Europe in many years comes from the Eldest Daughter.

De Mattei: Brexit and the Decline of the West

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

29th June 2016

The White Cliffs of Dover, England, as seen from Cap Gris Nez, France

The British referendum of June 23rd (Brexit) has sanctioned the definitive collapse of a myth: the dream of “a “Europe without frontiers”, built on the ruins of its national States.

The Europeanist project, launched by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, had in itself the seeds of its own self-destruction. It was completely illusory to expect the implementation of an economic, monetary union before a political union; or, even worse, to envisage using monetary integration in order to establish political unification. The plan, though, to reach political unity by extirpating those spiritual roots that bind men together was even more illusory. The Charter of Fundamental Human Rights of the European Union approved by the European Council in Nice in December 2000, not only expunges any reference to Europe’s religious roots, but has in itself a visceral negation of the natural and Christian order. Article 21, by introducing the prohibition of any discrimination related to “sexual tendencies”, contains, in nuce, the legalization of the crime of homophobia and pseudo-homosexual marriage.

England in 2016

[Picture taken in Preston, Lancashire, by Adam Ferguson for a special series of photos for the New York Times - "Pictures of a Divided Nation"]

Rorate Poll: the United Kingdom and the European Union | Brexit

The Treaty of Rome is signed in the Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii, Palazzo dei Conservatori,
Capitoline Hill, Rome (March 25, 1957)

It is quite amusing today, but there were once not a few hard Protestant Britons who rejected what was then called the European Economic Community (the "Common Market") because they saw in it a kind of "Popish plot" -- and no wonder, since the founding document of what is now the European Union was and is the "Treaty of Rome" (signed on the Feast of the Annunciation, 1957). Not to mention its obviously Marian-inspired flag.

Anyway, we are far from the days of European leaders who were practicing Catholics and who actually went to Mass and knew their Latin quite well -- Adenauer, and Schumann, and De Gasperi... If there is a plot now, it is more on the level of increasing secularization...

In any event, since we are also interested in current events, we wish to know your opinion on the upcoming referendum on the continuing membership of the United Kingdom in the European Union, to be held on June 23. Not what you wish to occur, but what you think will happen:

Last year, we asked you, and a majority voted for remain.
*
We ask you again today, will British voters choose to:

— Rorate Caeli (@RorateCaeli) June 14, 2016

HOPE: Celebration of the 1050th Anniversary of the Baptism of Poland

It went little noticed over the weekend by the media (including "Catholic" media) but Poland marked the critical anniversary of the nation's baptism in the year 966. If only all the nation's presidents would proclaim the truth Faith in this way.

See below for his address to the National Assembly. There is hope. 

The Passion of Europe in Holy Week - Pray for Brussels

Rogier van der Weyden
Crucifixion Triptych (in the background, Brussels in the 15th cent.)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

They have got what they wanted -- "they" being the Socialist politicians in Belgium who, for decades, in many cases making clear they were trying to influence demography for political reasons, allowed Islam to grow, become native, and grow once more, and radicalize, while at the same time alienating the Catholic culture that was the only thing which had made Belgium (that is, the unity of Dutch-speaking and French-speaking Catholics of the Low Countries) possible.

The Passion of Europe now goes on before our eyes, day after day. Let us pray for the dead today in the Brussels airport and in the Brussels subway system. But let us remember that war has come, and that it has not yet been won by Islam, as strong as it may seem today.

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Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

(Personal recess for several weeks)

Op-Ed: "Italy Already Deeply Infiltrated by Islamic Terrorism" - Let us pray!

During this Passiontide, let us pray for the slow-motion Passion of Europe.

Italy is deeply infiltrated by Islamic terrorism. The government must immediately declare a state of maximum alert.

MAGDI CRISTIANO ALLAM

Il Giornale, 13 March 2016

Pope: "Yes, we can speak today of an Arab invasion [of Europe]"

In his interview with French religious periodical La Vie, Pope Francis was asked about the current situation in Europe, and this was his response:

Sermon: "The rational response to the slaughter in Paris: Holy Mass"

On this next to last Sunday after Pentecost, my text is from the first chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah, verse 18:  “Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make you white as snow.”

Come, let us reason together.  Those are the words of God to the people of Israel.  Those are remarkable words coming from the mouth of God. Those words are astounding if you really think about them.  God, all powerful, all knowing, above creation, pure Spirit, says to his chosen people, his people that he chose for himself, his people who betrayed him so many times,: I shall be your God and you shall be my people. This God says to his people:  let’s sit down and discuss the situation in a reasonable way.  And the situation is precisely the unfaithfulness of Israel, their constant yielding to the pressures to be assimilate, to be like those surrounding them, declaring their openness to other gods but telling themselves they are doing so while remaining faithful to the one true God. A God who is totally other, who has no relationship with his people except to be inscrutable and to demand obedience would never say:  Come, let us reason together.  This is a God with whom one can have a conversation, a God who will listen to me no matter how stupid my conversation is, no matter how shallow my presuppositions.  This God does not hide himself behind some some impenetrable curtain and merely deigns to communicate to mankind by means of a quasi-angelic intermediary.  And this is because this God’s essence, his definition of his being, his essence, is love.  Let us reason together.  God can say this because he loves the people he has chosen to be his people.  His appeal to reason is founded in love.

PRAY FOR FRANCE

For the second time in 2015, now much more violently, due to the betrayal of France and Europe by their own elites, due to decades of neglect by these same elites, the ancient enemy, the always aggressive and diabolical and bloodthirsty Islam, introduced in the very arteries of the ancient lands of Christendom, exploded in the streets of Paris.

France is under a state of urgency. Its borders are shut down. The body count is still not finished. 

Pray for France. At the end of this century it will be either Catholic or Muslim, there is no third option; but whatever the end result, the process will be painful and awful. God help the Eldest Daughter!

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

EXCLUSIVE: CARD. MÜLLER'S pre-Synod presentation of Card. Sarah's book in Germany - Liturgy, Grace, Marriage, and the New Danger of Schism

"SCHISM"

Since the date of Cardinal Gerhard Müller's presentation of the German translation of Cardinal Robert Sarah's book "God or Nothing" in Regensburg, much has been said of his dire warnings that the Catholic Church may be on the verge of schism, once again originating from a confusion originated in Germany, today as in 1517.

In his September 1, 2015, lecture, Müller, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in the presence of Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, had much more to say - a strong lesson on how true, actual poverty (as exemplified by the life and strong and orthodox beliefs of Cardinal Sarah) is translated into "full apostolic candor and zeal", not in a false doctrine that bends to the whim of the current preference of the post-modern European. That will not do.

We leave you with our exclusive translation of the main excerpts of the original German text provided by the Vatican website:

God or Nothing

Thoughts Concerning the Book by Cardinal Robert Sarah

by Cardinal Gerhard Müller

First of all, I would like to thank Cardinal Robert Sarah for his witness to the Faith, which he presents with his book Dieu ou rien. Entretien sur la foi, which has been published just this year. At the same time, I congratulate the German-speaking world that is able now to get to know in their own language the richness of thought of a great theologian and spiritual man.

[…]

In ten circles of questions, the Cardinal reflects theologically and spiritually upon the situation of the Catholic Church in the world of today and offers not only a diagnosis, but also a therapy for the postmodern man who has no orientation any more: that is to say, the Faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Redeemer of the whole world. […]

In the liturgy, the Faith expresses itself as an immediate response to the Triune God Who reveals Himself to each person in His Incarnate Word, in His Son Jesus Christ, and Who means Himself to be seen as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. […] It is not about an external staging of rites and symbols in which man plays with himself, turns around himself, honors and adores himself – but still without crossing over into the true transcendence of God. In the liturgy, there happens the elevation of man through Grace. Because it is the opposite of an egotistical trip full of self-pity; the liturgy means to elevate one's heart to God, Whom alone deserves adoration and glorification; it is not like in a Pagan cult and myth where man flatters the gods in a servile manner, or revolts against them in a Promethean way, but it is, rather, as in Christ, where God and man encounter each other. That is how Christians worship God. “The Glory of God lives in man (who lives in Grace), but man lives in the vision of God.” That is how Saint Irenaeus of Lyon put it in the 2nd century (Adv. Haer. IV, 20, 7: Gloria enim Dei vivens homo, vita autem hominis visio Dei). The Triune God is adored, glorified, and loved, He Who Himself Assumed our flesh and Who in Jesus Christ in His truly human nature, in His human history, in His sacrificial death for us on the Cross and in His real Resurrection from the dead overcame death and the separation from God. This is the same Jesus Christ Who as the Exalted Lord meets us historically, bodily, and communally, in the Church and in Her Sacraments realistically from person to person. […]

In the age of the creeping or noisy de-Christianization of the Global Society, the true understanding of the liturgy and of its dignified celebration becomes a crucial question of survival for Christianity in the world of today and tomorrow. In order to be able to fulfill this task, one needs more than a professional knowledge of the art of the liturgy in the stricter sense. The intellectual horizon of a Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship has to have permeated intellectually the philosophical, fundamentally theological, the dogmatic and cultural, as well as political preconditions and conditions of being a Christian in modern and postmodern times. Only a deep and thorough diagnosis of the spiritual and cultural structure of the globalized world can also lead to the development of a therapy which overcomes the Nihilism – as the common denominator of all expectations and yearnings of a world without God – and thus can make the Faith in God as the reason and purpose for man to shine anew. The liturgical incapacity of the modern man – of which Romano Guardini already spoke in 1948 at the Katholikentag in Mainz – and the “crisis of the sacramental idea” in a conscience which is reduced only to the aspect of immanence (as observed by Joseph Ratzinger), both have their roots in the monistic system of a naturalism which denies the transcendental dependency of man – both in spirit and in freedom – upon the Mystery of God. Consequently, this naturalism limits man one-dimensionally and intra-worldly and it is not capable of seeing man as a listener of the word that points to a supernatural Revelation of God in the world, in history and in the spirit of man. […]

Man is oriented toward the absolute. Only where God is above and in man, there is truth in freedom and justice in love. Where man tries to take power over the absolute, he turns himself into an idol who, with the help of the clench for a totalitarian dominance, brings man sternly into line and thus enslaves him by means of a political exercise of power which makes use of the media. […]