Hey England, We're Back!

Pope Benedict XVI and some English priests and seminarians.

Catholicism Returns to the Cathedral of York

For the first since Henry VIII stole the cathedral of York from the Catholic church, a Catholic Mass was celebrated this week in the ancient church. When he took the church Henry stripped much of its wealth for his mistress, Anne Boleyn, who processed through it at her wedding, pregnant with the pretender of the throne, the future Elizabeth I. Once queen, Elizabeth vandalized the massive shrine by removing any semblances of Catholicism including defacing the graves of the dead. Now 500 years later, a Roman Catholic High Latin Mass was allowed by the Anglican occupiers in this formerly Catholic cathedral dedicated to St. Peter, the first Pope. 900 attended. Slowly, slowly England drifts back to her mother faith.

New English Priests

About 500 years ago St. Thomas More was executed for remaining loyal to the Pope. The Church of England bishops urged him to spare his life and join them in apostasy. His monies and home were confiscated. He was imprisoned. He died remaining loyal to the King but also the Pope. "I am the King's loyal servant, but God's first" were some of his last words. Today, 50 Church of England priests have left their church to become Roman Catholic priests and are studying for the priesthood on the former site of Thomas More's home. He who laughs last laughs best indeed.

Cuba 2011

When does "The Revolution" need a revolution? Answer: When the new ruling class becomes as entrenched and self serving as the ruling class it destroyed to achieve power. Today, Cuba needs a new Fidel Castro, only this one must truly love the people and return basic human rights...freedom to assemble, travel, politically choose, worship God, and pursue an economic dream. This new Castro must destroy the aging Communist privileged class that strangles the island nation for their own welfare. The blueprint is given by history. A nation waits. A people so destroyed have little time or energy for a revolution without a leader. This is not middle class Egypt 2011, France 1789, America 1776, or Tunisia 2011. This is China 1949, Russia 1917, Cuba 1959. Cuba needs a new and better Fidel Castro if its torture heroic people are to be rescued. Teddy Roosevelt did it in 1898. We thought Fidel 1 did it in 1959. we were wrong. Cuba waits...

The Wreckage

How do you begin... what went wrong? How could an institution so strong, so organized, so historic, so moral, so wealthy, so powerful...just collapse? The picture shows all that remains of a Catholic school in modern Cuba. Destruction from outside...Fidel and his communists. Yes the altar boy, Jesuit trained Fidel Castro grew up to all but erase his church from his nation.
Today, another generation of altar boys are erasing Catholicism. This time it is in America. This time it is not a famous dictator, a Catholic kid who turned bad. This time it is the innocent. Holy boys presented to the church by loving trusting parents only to be sexually molested by sick men ordained as priests. Small in number but devastating beyond anticipation these pedophiles and those bishops who protected them are bankrupting the church financially and morally. Once again they reprove the historic fact that real destruction of the church does not come from persecutors but from its own priests. Probably every heresy was begun by a priest. Today, Holy Mother Church bleeds in America but is being reborn in Cuba.

Silent Soldiers in The Snow

The sun sets at the monastery on a cold brief Winter day. The bells wait. Like soldiers in the snow they wait to remind us of the glory of the Creator Who is present at all times and in many ways. Soon it will be time for vespers. The bells will call everyone to thank the Creator for another day of life. After vespers the chapel will again be empty. Only the dancing shadows of the vigil light flickering before the icon of the Blessed Virgin remain. Outside, the snow slowly turns from white to blue under the rising moon. The bells stand at attention. So much of the secular world holds no attraction from this peace.

United We Stand

Torn over issues of female clergy, the practice of homosexuality, declining Sunday services attendance, and some of its former churches turning into mosques, the Anglican Churches of England and Scotland were required by the Queen to welcome Pope Benedict XVI at former Catholic institutions lost when stolen by Henry VIII in the 16th century. Indeed, the current Queen Elizabeth is probably named after Elizabeth I who was excommunicated by the Pope also in the 16th century. Again, history surprises us in our lifetime. Many thought the Soviet Union, the "Iron Curtain" and the Berlin Wall would out last us and our children, but in an historical instant they were all gone.

Now we have the Pope welcomed by Queen Elizabeth to visit the former Benedictine monastery of Westminster Abbey, and the actual courtroom where Thomas Moore was sentenced to death because of his loyalty to the Vicar of Christ, the Roman Pontiff. Four hundred years ago Catholic priests were hung, disemboweled and quartered for the "crime" of being a priest. Henry VIII stole, looted and destroyed 600 Catholic churches and monasteries. Now the Roman church returns to declare blessed, John Cardinal Neuman who left the Anglican priesthood, converted to Roman Catholicism and became a cardinal. A Pope honoring an Anglican who converted to Roman Catholicism in England under the witness of the schismatic Archbishop of Canterbury... historically unthinkable but now a reality.

One senses that the Christians of Europe are possibly finally reuniting. Devastated by Nazism, Communism, Secularism and now a growing Islam, Christians are seeing an urgency and duty to save Europe's Christian soul and identity. Perhaps our lifetime will witness the spectacular once again...a reuniting of Protestantism, Anglicanism, the Roman and Orthodox churches.