Fr. Z's Blog

Our lives can change in the wink of an eye.   Read Matthew 24, why donchya.  “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.”

Today is the Feast of St. Clement, Pope and Martyr.  We don’t really know much about him for sure.  We have his letter to the Corinthians, which demonstrates the very early authority of the See of Rome with other communities.  We have his relics in Rome because they were brought by Sts. Cyril and Methodius.

The account of his death is a good example of marvelous hagiography.   When Clement was exiled to what is now modern Sebastopol, he found there a community of Christians.  He got on well, despite the horrid conditions.  They had to walk some 6 miles for water.  Clement prayed up a miraculous spring.  And he started to convert people, so Trajan had him drowned in the sea with an anchor chained to his neck.

The people wanted to recover his body, so they prayed and the sea withdrew 3 miles.  Walking out they found a marble chapel that had a tomb with an inscription: “You have given a dwelling to Your martyr Clement in the sea O Lord a temple of marble built by the hands of angels.”  Each year the sea withdrew 3 miles so people could visit his chapel, except during a 50 year period.  That’s when Cyril and Methodius arrived.  They prayed and the relics miraculously surfaced.  Some went to Constantinople and others to Rome.

It is also the Feast of Bl. Miguel Pro.  I would like to have celebrated his day today according to Cum sanctissima but the cult of Blesseds is not in general universally permitted.  Some communities and local churches can, but unless there is a connection we shouldn’t.   I guess I could have said, “HEY!  COVID!” and gone ahead.

Anyway, the Wuhan Devil aside, Miguel Pro was martyred during the Mexican government’s persecution of the Church in the 1920s.  He was arrested on false charges of plotting to assassinated President Calles (spit here). He was really killed for being a Catholic priest.  As he stood awaiting the volley of the firing squad, he said, “¡Viva Cristo Rey! Long live Christ the King!”

At the beautiful shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe near La Crosse, WI, there is a side altar with a relic of Miguel Pro and, over the altar, a fine painting of the martyr after the black and white photo taken of him moments before his execution, his arms in cruciform. I bought a copy of the painting, which hangs in my living room as a reminder of what can happen.

Yes, this can happen again.  And FAST.  This was within living memory.

I also have an original framed large poster from the Chinese Cultural Revolution.  Just to remind me… also in living memory.

“Scatter the old world build a new world!”

I’ve used the image of the New catholic Red Guards to describe the papalatrous sycophants who carry water for Francis and, de facto, the global population reduction agenda of Jeffrey Sachs et all.  It is interesting, in a ghastly way, to see revealed how various threads are woven together.

In the Church and in the world… threads intertwine.

Vatican… China… rise of Marxist/Maoists in these USA… riots in the streets… population reduction agenda of Bill Gates, etc…. Jeffrey Sachs… Vatican again… COVID-1984 (aka Wuhan Devil)… “reset”… rise of Communists in Congress… contact tracing… galactic cheating in the election… Vatican (again) – endorsing Biden (who as yet isn’t anything except a soul at risk of Hell)… pictures of Xi in Chinese churches… attacks on church buildings… government denial of Church services… China militarizing… demonic gender and transgender theory… smashing of statues… calls for “struggle sessions” against Trump supporters… big tech locking out free speech of one side… social distancing… lockdown… face diapers… lockdown… false statistics… lockdown…

Just tell me that what happened in the time of Clement and what happened in the 1920’s in Mexico and what happened in China in the 60’s and 70’s can’t happen again… and fast.

Convince me.

Meanwhile, I will continue to pray Title XI, Ch. 3.

UPDATE:

Yeah and there’s THIS, from the guy who has concentration camps.  Xi wants a global tracking system using QR codes to monitor people exposed to the Coronavirus…which came from China.   Now think about Biden… and China…

Biden… and China….