Thursday, September 8, 2016

From VOCAL reader: Is the $91 million Obama refugee grant to the USCCB tied to bishops’ silence on Hillary?

From almost the end of the column:  “Catholics are witnessing the bureaucratic deconstruction of the pro-life movement in chanceries and the elevation of migration and immigration in its place,” Yore concluded, and instead, “Catholic children are learning about the sin of littering, the importance of tree hugging and sexual hugging in the latest Vatican sex education curriculum.

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews
 After leaked documents show billionaire George Soros has been trying to purchase influence with Catholic Church leadership in the United States and Rome to advance his “progressive” agenda, details continue to surface that raise the question of just how successful Soros may have been in his quest. The massive funds coming to the USCCB from the Obama Administration over pet issues such as refugees ($91 million) have some wondering if that is a reason for the bishops' virtual silence on Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton's atrocious record on life and family.
The American Catholic hierarchy is elevating other causes to primacy in place of the life issue, a new report says, “relegating the pro-life ministries to the doctrinal ash heap and committing funds and personnel to promote environmental and migration issues.”
“Migration pays very well,” said attorney and international child rights advocate Elizabeth Yore, “pro-life pays nothing.”
Thousands of federal grants and contracts come from the Obama administration to the Catholic Church, Yore says in the report, but in particular, hundreds of millions of dollars in fiscal year 2016 alone found their way to the USCCB, Catholic Charities, CRS, and the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), “jaw dropping grants to carry out the Obama agenda.”
“We’ve got the most virulently anti-life administration in the history of the United States,” Yore told LifeSiteNews. “And the Catholic Church is propping up the administration.”
Added by VOCAL
“I find it very troubling that the Church is cooperating with the Obama administration,” she said.
Three of the grant recipients comprise an ongoing fiscal relationship between the U.S. bishops and Obama’s administration, Yore said in the report published by The Remnant.
The figures available on the USASpending.gov website show the USCCB garnering more than $91 million for refugee resettlement programs, more than $202 million going to Catholic Charities, which also serves refugees, and the Boston-based ICMC getting more than $17 million in government funds stipulated entirely for U.S. refugee resettlement.
LifeSiteNews did not hear back from the USCCB from an inquiry for comment on Yore’s report.
“The size of these grants is enormous,” Yore told LifeSiteNews.
Catholic observer Deal Hudson, Ph.D, publisher and editor of The Christian Review, echoed Yore’s concern that the nation’s bishops had become too beholden to the Obama administration, stating, “It appears that the bishops' conference has become a virtual vendor of the federal government.”
Hudson had also detailed in his column last month at the Christian Review how the U.S. church is helping the Clinton/Kaine ticket with its silence.
Two weeks later, Hudson lamented the failure of Catholic bishops and clergy to reasonably respond to the Clinton candidacy and pro-abortion Democrat platform, writing, “Yes, there are some bishops and priests reminding Catholics to consider the abortion issue in casting their ballots, but the number is pitifully small, resulting in virtual silence from the Church.”
Yore said things have changed from the days of U.S. Catholic missionary forerunners Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini establishing charities where the Catholic faith was evangelized.
“That’s not what’s going on,” she stated. “It’s a bureaucracy that’s going on.”
The Obama administration’s agenda with the Syrian refugee crisis has become the Church’s mission, but Yore said Middle Eastern Christians make up only a tiny fraction of the refugees; otherwise, the federal contracts would be in jeopardy.
“Along comes mega-billionaire George Soros as the global architect of an international mass migration policy that fills the Catholic Church coffers and floods Europe and America with Muslim refugees,” Yore said. “Wake up, Catholics! The USCCB and its partners are quietly assisting the Obama administration in resettling into the United States tens of thousands of Muslim Syrian refugees.”

SOROS -ACORN founder too.VOCAL
There has been no opportunity for a discussion about this, she continued, and if there was nothing to hide, then Americans should know how many refugees are being settled in the United States. But there are huge numbers and no pictures.
“When in doubt, follow the money,” said Yore, a member of the Heartland Institute delegation to protest the Vatican exclusion of all scientific opinions and reliance on population control experts. “This ecclesial trail is flush with cash.”
Yore said that given the Obama mass refugee resettlement program has been so lucrative for the USCCB, and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s plan to suspend the Muslim refugee migration program into the United States would be quite costly for the bishops, it therefore is no surprise the bishops have been silent on the pro-abortion Clinton candidacy.
Individual bishops have been critical of Donald Trump, however, and Yore said as well it’s no surprise that the Catholic bishops, under Vatican direction, are promoting the migration of Muslim refugees into the United States.
“It’s no surprise that New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan criticized Trump by writing that “Nativism is alive, well – and apparently popular!” she recounted.
“It’s no surprise that Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas condemned what he called the “déjà vu of immigrant bashing,” Yore continued, “reminding his diocesan Catholics of Trump’s words.”
And further, she said, “It’s no surprise that LA Archbishop Jose Gomez opined that Trump’s stance on immigration “is not right.”
“Catholics are witnessing the bureaucratic deconstruction of the pro-life movement in chanceries and the elevation of migration and immigration in its place,” Yore concluded, and instead, “Catholic children are learning about the sin of littering, the importance of tree hugging and sexual hugging in the latest Vatican sex education curriculum.
It’s expected that the Bishops’ Conference will keep silent about Clinton while also criticizing Trump for his position on Syrian refugee migration, she said, opting to not bite the hand that feeds it. 
“We hear much about ‘vote your conscience,’” Yore said. “This isn’t about conscience, folks. It’s about their checkbook.”

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

BREAKING: Leaked e-mails show George Soros paid $650K to influence bishops during Pope’s US visit

VOCAL:  Saul Alinsky's  "pal", George Soros is no longer hiding in the bushes like he used to.  The "Puppet Master" is the Billionaire always pulling the strings by donating lots of money and starting many groups in which to hide doing his business to control and manipulate the Catholic Church. 

This hard push of George Soros is because he wants Hillary Clinton to be elected President and his input would further confuse Catholics as to who they could vote for.  

In 2007, Stephanie Block, with Catholic Media Coalition and a writer for Spero News for decades, has been informing us about Saul Alinsky and the "Faith in Public Life" network that is trying to destroy our Church.  She visited three venues, one in Portland then Salem and finally to the Baker Diocese where she met with Bishop Vasa after another workshop. 

You can go to the VOCAL main page and look up Stephanie Block, George Soros and Saul Alinsky.

Mary Jo Tully and Monsignor Lienart and Archbishop Vlazny were/are devotees of Saul Alinsky, according to sources. Alinsky started in Chicago where they are from and the Office of Justice and Peace is a conduit for teaching this error to Oregon Catholics.    "Saul in the Family"
is an interesting post on Saul Alinsky. 

Stephanie Block would be willing to travel to Oregon for speaking engagements.  Exposing Saul Alinsky is one of her missions.


August 23, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Leaked emails through WikiLeaks reveal that billionaire globalist George Soros - one of Hilary Clinton's top donors - paid $650,000 to influence Pope Francis’ September 2015 visit to the USA with a view to "shift[ing] national paradigms and priorities in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign." The funds were allocated in April 2015 and the report on their effectiveness suggests that successful achievements included, “Buy-in of individual bishops to more publicly voice support of economic and racial justice messages in order to begin to create a critical mass of bishops who are aligned with the Pope.”

The monies were granted to two US entities that have been engaged in a long-term project, according to the report, of shifting “the priorities of the US Catholic church.” Grantees were PICO, a faith-based community organizing group, and Faith in Public Life (FPL), a progressive group working in media to promote left-leaning ‘social justice’ causes. Soros has funded left-wing causes the world over and was just found to have been funding an effort to eliminate pro-life laws around the globe.

Board Minutes from the May 2015 meeting of Soros’ Open Society Foundation in New York reveal that in the planning stages of the papal visit initiative, the group planned to work through one of the Pope’s key advisors, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, naming him specifically in the report. In order to seize on the opportunity provided by the Pope’s visit to the US, says the report, “we will support PICO’s organizing activities to engage the Pope on economic and racial justice issues, including using the influence of Cardinal Rodriguez, the Pope’s senior advisor, and sending a delegation to visit the Vatican in the spring or summer to allow him to hear directly from low-income Catholics in America.”

In 2013 Cardinal Rodriguez endorsed PICO's work in a video during a visit from PICO representatives to the cardinal's diocese. "I want to endorse all the efforts they are doing to promote communities of faith," he said, "... Please, keep helping PICO."

The post operative report on the funding to influence the papal visit comes in the 2016 report entitled, Review Of 2015 U.S. Opportunities Fund. The Soros group was pleased with the result of their campaign and saw statements by various bishops against presidental candidates who are using "fearmongering" - likely a reference to the GOP lineup, and perhaps Trump specifically - as one outcome of their efforts. “The impact of this work and the relationships it has fostered can be seen in the broad range of religious leaders hitting pointedly back at presidential candidates for their use of fearmongering,” the report said.

Additionally, the summary report says their funding was helpful to counter “anti-gay rhetoric” in the media. The “efficacy of the media campaign can be seen in the team’s ability to react to and counter the anti-gay rhetoric following the Kim Davis story (the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for defying a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples whom the Pope visited),” the report states.

The grant specifically targeted the ‘pro-family’ agenda, redirecting it from defending marriage to being concerned with income equality. “FPL’s media, framing, and public opinion activities, including conducting a poll to demonstrate that Catholic voters are responsive to the Pope’s focus on income inequality, and earning media coverage that drives the message that being ‘pro-family’ requires addressing growing inequality,” says the May report.

Attorney Elizabeth Yore, who served on the Heartland Institute Delegation that traveled to the Vatican in April 2015 to urge Pope Francis to re-examine his reliance on UN population control proponents who promote climate change, spoke to LifeSiteNews about the Soros initiative. “Catholics serve as a huge and influential voting block in the U.S. election,” she said. Soros, she said, is “using the head of the Catholic Church to influence this key voting block,” with the “bully pulpit of the papacy” to ensure Hilary Clinton’s election.

Yore pointed out “this is not the first time that the unholy alliance of Soros and the Vatican successfully collaborated on a political project.” In 2015, she recalled, “the Soros operatives, embedded in the Vatican, directed Pope Francis’ Environmental Agenda, by delivering for Soros and the UN, an Apostolic Exhortation on Climate Change, and a prized papal endorsement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Pope’s apostolic blessing on the Paris Climate Treaty.”
In terms of the Soros goal of shifting the priorities of the Catholic Church away from moral absolutes, two US bishops stand out as champions of the move. San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy has repeatedly stressed changing the Church’s priorities and has had the backing of Pope Francis’ ‘favored son,’ Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich. McElroy created a furor at the U.S. Bishops Conference meeting last November over his attempt to change a document instructing Catholics on how to vote.

McElroy made a pointed argument that the document was out of step with Pope Francis’ priorities -- specifically, by putting too much emphasis on abortion and euthanasia, and not enough on poverty and the environment.  Cupich later praised McElroy’s intervention as a “real high moment” for the conference and supported the move to put degradation of the environment and global poverty on par with abortion and euthanasia.

Concluding their report reflecting on the success of the grant to influence the papal visit, the Soros group was very pleased with the results. Looking to the future, they are excited that the long-term goal of shifting the priorities of the Catholic Bishops in the United States “is now underway.”

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

My mother was advised to abort me, says Cardinal Burke in new book

Thank you Lord for Cardinal Burke. 


The cardinal said the devil tries to sow doubt in Catholics' minds about defending human life publicly.

Cardinal Raymond Burke has revealed that his mother was advised to abort him.

In a new book-length interview with the French journalist Guillaume d’Alançon, Cardinal Burke says that when his mother was pregnant with him, she became seriously ill and a doctor advised her to have an abortion.

According to Cardinal Burke, the doctor said: “You already have five children, it is important for you to be in good health so as to take care of them”.

“My parents refused,” says the cardinal, who is now chaplain to the Order of Malta. “My parents told him that they believed in God and that Christ would give them the necessary help. My mother gave birth to me, and everything went well.

“I was therefore quite touched by this question of defending human life, because I could very well have been killed.”

In the book, entitled Hope for the World, Cardinal Burke argues that the “ferocious attack against life today” results from “the distortion of the sexual act by contraception”, and urges Catholics to defend human life.


He adds: “The devil, of course, wants to discourage us: he tries to sow doubt in our minds about defending human life publicly. And he subtly tempts us to remain silent, to mute our conscience, to tell ourselves that we are personally against abortion but do not have to express our faith and moral convictions in public.”

Elsewhere in the book, the cardinal claims Barack Obama “wants to push the Church back behind the walls of her church buildings”. He appears to be referring to the legal battles over President Obama’s healthcare mandate, the ongoing conflict surrounding religious freedom, and the administration’s demand that public schools, including Catholic ones, adopt gender neutral bathrooms.

“The federal government is trying to reduce religious liberty, contrary to the Constitution of the United States,” Cardinal Burke says in the interview.

“President Obama wants to push the Church back behind the walls of her church buildings and to prevent her applying her law to her own hospitals and schools.

“He claims that the Church may not intervene on the question of abortion, of homosexuality, but that the state alone must manage these questions.”

Cardinal Burke has previously said Obama seems to be “a totally secularised man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies”.

In the book, which covers the cardinal’s own life, his thoughts on the history of the Church in his lifetime, and the current situation in the Church and the world, Cardinal Burke talks about “the rejection of God and the culture of death”.

He argues that the French Revolution began a process of secularisation which has led to “the grand capitalism of those who adore mammon” and to Marxism. “All those who have turned away from Christ have seen that Satan is a bloody tyrant,” the cardinal says.

He says that Protestant and Anglican communities compromised with the world in the 1930s by accepting contraception. But he believes that in the 50s and 60s, the Catholic Church was also weakened because Catholics took the faith for granted and were swept up by “a very strong but erroneous feeling of human progress”.

The cardinal, who was made a cardinal and prefect of the Vatican’s highest court by Pope Benedict XVI, cites Benedict’s analysis of “the dictatorship of relativism”. The cardinal says the “greatest danger” today is “the loss of a sound metaphysics and, consequently, of a sense of an objective reality”.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

"Treason, or Infiltration from the Very Beginning? Lucifer’s Unceasing Attacks on the Church" by Alice von Hildebrand




“He knows that he is running out of time”

From its very beginning, the holy Bride of Christ has been the butt of devilish attacks. In fact, Lucifer is paying her a compliment: he knows that to direct his poisonous arrows at sects which, born today, will be buried tomorrow, would waste his ammunition.
The Roman Catholic Church alone is the rock upon which Christ has built his Kingdom; she is the only one who never stops waging war on the satanic kingdom whose motto is “non serviam” (“I will not serve”). This duel will end in its total defeat and will be gloriously replaced by “I am the handmaid of the Lord.”


The Church was bound to be the victim of treason, starting with one of the Twelve. The evangelists warn us that the closer we come to the end of time, the more will Satan’s rage manifest itself, for he knows that he is running out of time. Has Christ not warned us when he said: “When I come back to the earth, shall I find some faith left?” Thus history repeats itself: whereas Peter, James and John were sound asleep in Gethsemane while Christ was sweating blood, Judas was very alert, guiding those who had been ordered to arrest Jesus.

That the 20th century has the doubtful honor of being the bloodiest of all centuries, cannot be denied. Thanks to the mind-boggling development of technology, many of us have closed our eyes to the fact that the Evil One saw these very inventions as a superb tool in his hand and managed to control the new media, entertainment, and “education,” thereby winning millions and millions of souls without much effort.


Trojan Horse in the City of God. DietrichI recall that when the atomic bomb was invented in the 1940s (a gnat compared to the means of destruction now available), the first thought that came to my mind was that, being told in the Gospel that the world will be destroyed by fire, it was now quite conceivable that man might be the culprit: what a superb victory of death over life, of non-being over being. When Nazism was defeated in 1945 and “peace” was proclaimed, many fell into the illusion that men, now realizing that they could destroy the world, would unite forces to guarantee that it would never happen.

Alas, Satan, working underground, started promoting a new means of destruction which he presented as a “glorious victory of freedom” — the efficiency of which would put atomic bombs to shame, and carrying the noble titles of progress, choice, and liberation from the shackles of the past. I am referring to Roe vs. Wade — a decision legalizing abortion in the USA — a day of such darkness that it sealed the radical moral decadence of a once-great country.


Statistics showing the number of babies murdered by their mothers – and recalling the glorious title that Adam gave to Eve, the “Mother of the living” — make one sob. The legalization of abortion puts both Stalin and Hitler “to shame” — devilish as they were, they were just beginners by comparison.
But worse than that: the crimes of both dictators were condemned; whereas the crime par excellence — murder of the innocent by their own mothers — is now accepted and praised: a magnificent victory of women over their own bodies and the burden of pregnancies that could prevent them from competing with men.

This is what in some way makes this crime surpass all preceding ones: we justify the murder.

Michael Rose_s great book, Good Bye, Good Men,This satanic triumph should not be interpreted to mean that Lucifer gave up traditional forms of attack, such as the atrocious persecutions of Christians in the Middle East. But the Evil One also knows that the blood of martyrs has always fecundated the Church. In his devilish “creativity,” he realizes that “infiltration” by his cronies into the very heart of the Church is a superb road to an easy victory: the enemy should be “within.”

I will limit myself to a few remarks about the priestly scandals that have battered the Church: That many cowardly bishops, betraying their mission as shepherds, closed their eyes to this scandal cannot be sufficiently condemned. But let us also recall the cowardice of the apostles themselves: one of them was a traitor, another denied Christ three times; the others of them fled (St. John came back, but we do not know how soon).

A superficial reading of the history of the Church informs us that even though she produced a surprising number of Popes who were saints and martyrs, some of them, alas (let us think of several at the time of the Renaissance) were unworthy to sit on the throne of Peter: clearly they were careerists attracted by the dignity and the power conferred to popes. But if we compare the number of saintly Popes with the number of truly great heads of state, we shall conclude that the Church has an astoundingly good record.

bella dolls
Bella Dodd
Frontal attacks against the Church are mostly counter-productive; a more refined way of harming the Bride of Christ is to introduce into her bosom “snakes” who have neither faith nor morals, and whose mission is to spread doubt — to undermine the believers’ faith, and encourage immoral practices now fully justified according to the latest findings of social sciences.

That this infiltration has taken place and is still taking place cannot be denied, and to my surprise, is hardly mentioned at all. This is in spite of the fact that we have written testimonies such as School of Darkness by Bella Dodd, who ”converted” to Communism while studying at Hunter College, became an ardent Communist disciple of Marx and Stalin, and devoted her great talents to not only spreading Communism, but also following Stalin’s orders to penetrate Catholic seminaries and religious orders. She succeeded in bringing in some 1000 men who had neither faith nor morals (the easiest to recruit were of course homosexuals, seminaries being for them a rich hunting ground for the obvious reason that they are composed of males; the fox had been introduced into the henhouse).

Such men were superbly trained for their devilish mission. Many of them managed to gain positions of authority, and as related in Michael Rose’s great book, Goodbye, Good Men, the seminaries then turned down the applications of young men devoted to the Church, while accepting those who were “open” to views more in harmony with “modern scholarship.”


My husband and I met Bella Dodd in the sixties and we soon became friends. In the course of conversation, my husband said to Bella, “I fear, indeed I do fear, that the Church has been infiltrated.” She replied (I quote): “Dear Professor: you fear it; I know it: when I was a Communist working full time for the Party, I was in close contact with four cardinals in the Vatican, working for us. And they are still very active today.” Needless to say, we were shattered — and this explains why my husband started working on his book, Trojan Horse in the City of God.

CULTURE Hildebrand june-julyTwo key words are “up to date” and “scholarly,” superb tools used to spread both doubt and the seeds of sexual perversions. For, since original sin, lust has a devilish attraction for fallen men. How easy it is to convince “modern man” that it is high time for the Church to “liberate” herself from the choking net of prejudices prevalent in the “Dark Ages”: thanks to modern advances, we now have a broader and healthier view of problems which have burdened the Catholic conscience, and realize that many acts condemned in the past are perfectly acceptable, and even healthy, including homosexuality.

Soren Kierkegaard (calling himself the greatest Danish philosopher, while remarking that there is only one!) saw that one particularly subtle means of sapping truth is by “spreading doubt.” The serpent did not challenge the divine prohibition, he just raised a question: “Why can’t you eat of the fruit of that tree?” In other words, God has to justify Himself and His commands —therefore sapping His divine authority.


S¯ren Aabye KierkegaardBut there are questions which, by the very fact that they are raised, condemn the person raising them: why can’t a man abuse, torture and kill a child if he enjoys doing it ? Why can’t I spit in my parent’s face, if it gives me a well-deserved relaxation? One bit of fashionable nonsense one hears in universities is “all ideas should be welcome,” making no distinction between true and false, healthy and perverse, moral and immoral. Alas, the distance separating theory from practice is a very narrow one, for when one is intellectually convinced, action is bound to follow.
To summarize: satanic attacks take two forms; one is the frontal one, challenging dogmas and openly defying the moral teaching of the Church. But the other, which has possibly always existed, is the infiltration of evil forces into the Church herself, into the clergy and all religious orders. One tempting wrong response is to accept defeat and therefore to lay down our arms, which are prayer, the sacraments, and trust in the promise that the gates of Hell shall not prevail. Turning in prayer to God, to Mary, to the glorious saints and martyrs, and eliminating cheap optimism (“It is a temporary crisis that will soon be over”), we know with certainty that God will have the last word.


from Inside the Vatican.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

The Supreme Law of the Church by Most Rev. Alexander Sample

I hope our readers will pardon a little wading into the Code of Canon Law, the system of law that governs the Catholic Church. I can’t help it — after all, I am a trained canon lawyer! Jesus teaches us in the Gospel that the two greatest commandments are love of God and love of neighbor, for sure.
But what is the greatest love we show for God and neighbor? Is it not to see as many people as possible, including ourselves, come to know the love and mercy of God and be with him one day forever in heaven?

The Church’s Code of Canon Law contains 1,752 laws covering everything from the structural organization of the Church as the people of God, the teaching of the Faith, the sacramental life of the Church, the administration of the material goods of the Church, and even penal and procedural law. But lest any of us (especially canon lawyers) forget the purpose of all of this body of law, the very last law (or “canon”) states that the “salvation of souls”, which must always be the supreme law of the Church, must be kept before our eyes.

The Salvation of Souls.

How often do we hear this language in the Church today? Not very often, I am afraid. And yet that is the very mission of the Church! To emphasize this very point, the Catechsim of the Catholic Church (# 776), quoting the Second Vatican Council, states: “As sacrament, the Church is Christ’s instrument. ‘She is taken up by him also as the instrument for the salvation of all,’ ‘the universal sacrament of salvation,’ by which Christ is ‘at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God’s love for men.’ The Church ‘is the visible plan of God’s love for humanity,’ because God desires ‘that the whole human race may become one People of God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit.’”

We are in Danger

Why am I emphasizing this point, you may ask? Because I sincerely think that we are in danger of losing our focus in fulfilling the mission that Christ has entrusted to all of us in the Church. Our ultimate mission is to bring as many people as possible into the one People of God, to incorporate them into the one Body of Christ, and be built up as the temple of God, animated by the Holy Spirit. The gift of eternal salvation is the greatest gift God has given to us, a gift that was purchased at a great price, the blood of his only begotten Son.

Jesus began his public ministry by boldly proclaiming, “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” His last words to the Apostles of his Church before his Ascension were, “Go forth and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The message is clear. Repent, believe, go forth and baptize. The essential mission is spiritual, focused on bringing people to life in Christ.

The Danger of Losing the Gift of Salvation

Throughout the Gospels Jesus speaks of the dangers of losing the gift of salvation, missing the moment of his redemption, and risking eternal punishment by rejecting the offer God has given us in the death and resurrection of his Son. One of Jesus’ most startling statements is: “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

It seems our current environment cultivates the opposite view. Our culture seems to tell us that the way to life is easy and wide, and most people find it, while to find the road to destruction is narrow and hard, and really very few people end up there. I go by our blessed Lord’s words.
Part of the reason I think that we are in danger of losing the essential and primary message of salvation of souls is based on how I see many people defining what it means to be a good Catholic.

Many people have reduced being a good and faithful Catholic to being nice, tolerant and doing good works. They think if we do service projects for the poor and needy, and don’t make any judgments about human behavior and sin, then we are fulfilling the Gospel mandate.
While it is a good and even essential thing that a disciple of Jesus care for the poor and seek justice for the oppressed in this world, there is so much more to the message of redemption in Jesus Christ. We must follow the Ten Commandments, avoid sin, and repent and seek forgiveness when we fail. Our eternal salvation depends on all these things, as Jesus himself taught. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

God’s mercy extends to all of us when we have sinned and repented. There is no limit to this mercy. It is infinite. But we must seek it. If we say we are not sinners and are not in need of God’s mercy, we make God a liar. “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:5-10)

True mercy goes beyond justice. But mercy does not oppose justice. Our mission is, only by the grace of God, to seek the salvation of our souls, and to bring as many with us to Heaven as we can, again only as God uses us as his instruments of grace and mercy. The supreme law of the Church is the salvation of souls.

– The Catholic Sentinel: