Fr. Z's Blog

My heart goes out to the people harmed in the recent terror attack in Manchester, England.

As the usual reportage goes on, I’ve been getting messages on my phone from a friend which underscore something important not being well addressed in the media.  The messages, filled with frustration and not a little anger run along the line of…

“I’m sure the British will organize a beautiful and moving and above all INCLUSIVE memorial service in Manchester… They’ll organize a moving and INCLUSIVE memorial service.  The Choirs!!!  The Vestments!!! The Royals!!!””

The point: We must not be content to “sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of”… our neighbors.  We must act.

What to do?

There’s more.

On Facebook, my friend Fr. Jeffrey Keyes posted something that resonates with the same frustration and anger but on a different cleft.

H/t Beverly Stevens
WARNING: RANT
I do not want to see flowers laid outside the Manchester Arena. I do not want to see Facebook profiles with sympathetic screens. I do not want to see people crying on TV.
I do not want to hear politicians & prelates denounce ‘terrible acts’. I do not want to hear people decry that ‘we won’t succumb to fear’. I do not want to read people scolding others for ‘bigotry’. (News flash: Islam is NOT a race. It is an ideology masquerading as a religion.)
I want to see people GET A CLUE.
Our culture is heading down the crapper, and quick. Why? Because parents take their little girls to see ‘Ariana’ who boasts about getting ‘f**ked so hard I can’t walk.’
Yep. And what happens when this culture of MIDDLE CLASS DEBAUCHERY crashes headlong into the serpent of radical Islam?
Manchester. Paris. Orlando. San Bernadino. Nice. Berlin. On and on and on and on.
Westerners, we cannot hire enough police or field a big enough military to fight this.
The only answer is to return to MORALITY. Yep, that awful, terrible word. And while I am at it: RESPONSIBILITY.
END RANT

I don’t think the ranter is merely “blaming the victims”.    It’s more than that.  That ranter also wants us not to be complacent.

What to do?

First, action is required, thoughtful action in line with what Benedict XVI wrote in his Message for the World Day for Peace in 2005 (for 2006).

Also, I have in mind that this is the 100th anniversary year of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima.  Consider what Ven. Fulton Sheen said about Fatima and Islam back in 1952.  Sheen thought that Mary, who appeared in Fatima, is the key to the conversion of Islam.  In The World’s First Love (US HERE – UK HERE) Sheen wrote:

Mary is for the Moslems the true Sayyida, or Lady. The only possible serious rival to her in their creed would be Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed himself. But after the death of Fatima, Mohammed wrote: “Thou shalt be the most blessed of all the women in Paradise, after Mary.” In a variant of the text, Fatima is made to say: “I surpass all the women, except Mary.”

[…]

The missionary effort of the Church toward this group has been, at least on the surface, a failure, for the Moslems are so far almost unconvertible. The reason is that for a follower of Mohammed to become a Christian is much like a Christian becoming a Jew. The Moslems believe that they have the final and definitive revelation of God to the world and that Christ was only a prophet announcing Mohammed, the last of God’s real prophets.

At the present time, the hatred of the Moslem countries against the West is becoming a hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return and, with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world power. Moslem writers say, “When the locust swarms darken vast countries, they bear on their wings these Arabic words: ‘We are God’s host, each of us has ninety-nine eggs, and if we had a hundred, we should lay waste the world with all that is in it.'”

The problem is, how shall we prevent the hatching of the hundredth egg? It is our firm belief that, the fears some entertain concerning the Moslems are not to be realized, but that Moslemism, instead, will eventually be converted to Christianity — and in a way that even some of our missionaries never suspect. It is our belief that this will happen not through the direct teaching of Christianity, but through a summoning of the Moslems to a veneration of the Mother of God. This is the line of argument:

The Koran, which is the Bible of the Moslems, has many passages concerning the Blessed Virgin. First of all, the Koran believes in her Immaculate Conception and, also, in her Virgin Birth. The third chapter of the Koran places the history of Mary’s family in a genealogy which goes back through Abraham, Noah, and Adam. When one compares the Koran’s description of the birth of Mary with the apocryphal Gospel of the birth of Mary, one is tempted to believe that Mohammed very much depended upon the latter. Both books describe the old age and the definite sterility of the mother of Mary. When, however, she conceives, the mother of Mary is made to say in the Koran: “O Lord, I vow and I consecrate to you what is already within me. Accept it from me.”

When Mary is born, the mother says: “And I consecrate her with all of her posterity under thy protection, O Lord against Satan!”

[…]

This brings us to our second point, namely, why the Blessed Mother, in this twentieth century, should have revealed herself in the insignificant little village of Fatima, so that to all future generations she would be known as “Our Lady of Fatima.” Since nothing ever happens out of heaven except with a finesse of all details, I believe that the Blessed Virgin chose to be known as “Our Lady of Fatima” as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Moslem people, and as an assurance that they, who show her so much respect, will one day accept her Divine Son, too.

Evidence to support these views is found in the historical fact that the Moslems occupied Portugal for centuries. At the time when they were finally driven out, the last Moslem chief had a beautiful daughter by the name of Fatima. A Catholic boy fell in love with her, and for him she not only stayed behind when the Moslems left, but even embraced the faith. The young husband was so much in love with her that he changed the name of the town where he lived to Fatima. Thus, the very place where Our Lady appeared in 1917 bears a historical connection to Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed.

[…]

Sheen has quite a bit more on this topic.  (Aside… had you read that before?  His position isn’t much advertised, is it.)

So, an action item that all of us can perform would be to take Mary’s messages at Fatima serious and do serious penance and reparation for sins against Her Immaculate Heart.  Reparation is the core of the Fatima messages and ongoing phenomenon that is Fatima.  We are only, as Sr. Lucia said, in the “third day” of the Fatima “week”.  Mary said that, if we heeded her messages, many disasters could be avoided.

Consider one of the points that was stressed in Our Lady’s messages at Fatima:

“Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend our Lord very much.”

Our Lady didn’t specify what those fashions are, but I think, like Justice Potter Stewart, “we know it when we see it”. If Our Lady and Our Savior are offended by some “fashions”, imagine what they think about the lyrics of songs by “Ariana”, hinted at in the guest rant above.  And it was at her concert, or rather cacophony, where the the terror snake killed the innocent.

Nations must act to deal with the larger threats.  The terror snake’s head must be crushed, and that will require force and, alas, blood.

Also, it wouldn’t hurt to follow the course suggested by Sebastian Gorka in his thoughtful book Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War by Sebastian Gorka. (US HERE – UK HERE).

Let us recognize that this is a religious war that is being waged.  More on that HERE. Also, let us find ways to discredit the Islamic terror brand.

Meanwhile, what do we do?

We – as individuals and as groups, such as parishes and dioceses – must plan and organize to do serious penance and reparation for the sins against Mary and her Immaculate Heart.

Consider, dear readers, taking on some mortifications.

Consider making the Five First Saturday Devotion.

Consider learning more about the Fatima messages.

Consider doing a thorough examination of conscience and then…

GO TO CONFESSION

The moderation queue is ON.