Saint Nuno de Santa Maria Alvares Pereira

At 10 a.m. on Sunday 26 April, third Sunday of Easter, the Pope will celebrate the Eucharist in St. Peter's Square and canonise five Blesseds, including one of the Blesseds of the Order of Malta, Nuno de Santa Maria Alvares Pereira (1360-1431), Portuguese religious of the Order of Friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Although Saint Nuno later in life entered the Carmelite Order he was for a number of years a Knight of Malta and his feast celebrated by the Order on April 1st.

Let us ask now Saint Nuno Alvares Pereira to give us his courage and his piety to fight for the cause of Our Lady and the Holy Church so threatened in our days, even when we must fight against great odds. Also let us ask Our Lady to restore Christendom and establish her Reign, so that those magnificent values that existed in the time of Blessed Nuno can once again shine in society.

Here is an excerpt of an article from Inside the Vatican,

Almost a century ago, Pope Benedict XV beatified Nuno (January 23, 1918), and proposed him as a model for the Catholic soldiers then engaged in combat during World War 1. So one Pope Benedict, the 15th, beatified Nuno, and a second, Benedict XVI, will canonize him.

Nuno is considered the founder of the Bragança Royal Family Dynasty of Portugal which ruled from 1640 until 1910. (Nuno’s daughter, Beatriz, married Alfonso, son of John I, whom he helped bring to power, starting the Aviz Dynasty.) The majority of Catholic royal families in Europe and Brazil claim lineage from him, including the recently beatified Charles of Austria, the last Hapsburg Emperor. Queen Isabella of Spain was one of Nuno’s granddaughters.

Nuno even had descendants in the British royal family: Isabella’s daughter (his great-granddaughter) was Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII, and her daughter (his great-great-granddaughter) was Queen Mary Tudor. Catherine of Aragon had many miscarriages, a still-born daughter and three short-lived sons before giving birth to Mary. King Henry VIII, desirous of a male hair, sought permission from Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) to annul his marriage to Catherine, but Clement refused, leading Henry to divorce her and break with Rome, beginning the Anglican Church.

Another descendant was Catherine of Bragança, wife of King Charles II (all his children were illegitimate to mistresses) who conversely became a Catholic on his deathbed in 1685.

Blessed Nuno is most highly regarded in his country for masterminding the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385. There, Portugal, in concert with England, stopped an invasion by Castile. Both allied nations were then in obedience to Pope Urban VI in Rome, whilst Castile and France followed the Antipope of Avignon, Clement VII(1378-1394). Nuno fought and won many other battles between 1383 and 1411, and, after peace was established with Castile, Nuno participated in the expedition in 1415 to Ceuta in North Africa, an action that was considered the first European missionary effort.

Equine monuments to him are scattered throughout Portugal and in many former Portuguese overseas colonies. Long before the introduction of the Euro, his effigy was on Portugal’s currency. He was made the 3rd Count of Ourém in 1383, and his main feudal castle was in Ourém, the county where Fátima is located. He believed prayer, penance and commitment to the poor and needy, to be the true calling of nobility and, following the death of his wife, Nuno entered a Carmelite monastery he had established, taking the religious name Friar Nuno of Saint Mary.

He was renowned for his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and is considered the Founder of the Secular Order because the secular Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, better known as the Confraternity of the Holy Constable, which he founded in Lisbon to support his work with the poor with contributions from its noble members, eventually evolved into the present Carmelite Third Order. This original Confraternity was re-established last year on November 6 (Nuno’s Feast Day) and hopes to be an active branch of the Secular Order providing funds for work with the poor and homeless of Lisbon in remembrance of Dom Nuno.

When fighting the Castilians, he was renowned for his fairness to his enemies, and three times crossed the border to feed the peoples in the neighboring kingdom during famines, and to provide for the widows and orphans of the war.

Interview on Cause for Canonization of Bishop Sheen

The following is an interview with Raymond Arroyo and Fr. Andrew Apostoli on the cause for canonization of Archbishop Sheen.
Part 2 of the interview.

Should the Church Adapt to Modern Culture to Survive

In response to an editorial in the Chicago Tribune by Obama's campaign co-chair William Daley was this comment.

Yes. Human social institutions change and come and go. Capitalist economic institutions didn't really exist 2000 years ago; other types of economic institutions predominated. Representative democratic political institutions didn't really exist 2000 years ago; other types of political institutions predominated. Religions are also human social institutions. That the Catholic Christian institution still exists after 2000 years is remarkable. Its persistence probably is a result of the Church's successful adapting itself to other changing institutions in the world. Is it, then, reasonable to expect that the Church will continue forever? Is it reasonable to expect that the Church will even continue for much longer, especially if it insists on refusing to associate with the social institutions of today and tomorrow? Can it survive if it fails to find ways to 'live with' underlying consensus assumptions that support other predominant social institutions of our time? Is the noise about ND's speaker a sign of stress in the Church, resulting from some Church factions' inability to adapt to modern social realities?

The answer to the last question is Yes. There is a stress within the Church but it comes from the faction of dissenters who refuse accept the authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church on the question of faith and morals. Throughout it's history there have been those who became infatuated with the customs of the day. The Arian heresy was one of those times. Many in the Church turned to this heresy no doubt due in measure to its popularity. The Protestant revolt was another and most of England followed Henry into apostasy, including most of the clergy. Today we are living with the re-emergence of the Modernist heresy, which St. Pius X aptly called the "synthesis of all heresies."

The writer incorrectly asserts that the Catholic Church is just a human social institution. The Church exists and will always exist because it was founded by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Therefore it is a Divine, not human, institution and will exist forever despite the fear of those who predict it's demise for refusing to "get with the times." Still it is true that it may not always be a large institution. Christ Himself questioned whether there would be any faith when He returned.

It has not survived for 2000 years because it adapted to the culture around it, it survives for the opposite reason, because it is counter-cultural. It stood in opposition to everything pagan Rome believed and was persecuted because of it. Yet the Church survives and Rome died. Today a pagan culture has re-appeared that parallels that of ancient Rome and once again the Church faces persecution. But now as before the Church will survive and it's enemies will disappear.

Many people like to throw out quotes from the Gospel, like a previous comment; "judge not lest ye be judged." Yet the Gospel is full of paradoxes. Jesus said that, but he also said He came to cause division. "Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter into my kingdom, only those who do the will of my Father." "I have not come to bring peace but a sword." Jesus warned his disciples that they wouldn't always be warmly received when they preached. Their mission was to preach the Gospel and to those who would not listen, Jesus instructed them to kick the dust from their sandals and leave that city.

In many of Gospels passages people went away who could not or would not accept this or that teaching of Jesus, even after He told them what was necessary for their salvation. But Jesus did not call them back to dialogue or find common ground. In fact at one point Jesus turned to his Apostles and asked them if they too wanted to leave. Peter's reply was clear, "to whom shall we go?"

The incessant cry from the enemies of the Faith, to "dialogue," to "reach consensus" is simply a deception meant to maintain the status quo for those who oppose the teachings of the Church. If they are unable to silence it, at least they hope to marginalize the Church's voice. The Devil once tried this tactic when he tempted Jesus in the desert. "All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me." But Jesus replied, "Begone, Satan: for it is written: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve."

The Delight of Morning Mass - Belloc

The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc is regarded by many as his greatest prose work. Written in 1902 it details a journey he made on foot from Lorraine, down through the Moselle valley, through part of Switzerland, and across the Lombard plain to Rome.

One of the discursive essays of his journey describes his disappointment upon arriving in a small village only to discover that he has missed morning Mass, "for what is a pilgrimage in which a man cannot hear Mass every morning?" Of all that he read on the life of St. Louis he wishes he would have had the chance to speak to him of his habit of getting Mass daily whenever he marched down south. Belloc found this custom to be most delightful though he was at loss to explain the reason for this delight. He continues his narrative with this attempt at understanding,

Of course there is a grace and influence belonging to such a custom, but it is not of that I am speaking but of the pleasing sensation of order and accomplishment which attaches to a day one has opened by Mass; a purely temporal, and, for all I know, what the monks back at the ironworks would have called a carnal feeling, but a source of continual comfort to me. Let them go their way and let me go mine.

This comfort I ascribe to four causes (just above you will find it written that I could not tell why this should be so, but what of that?), and these causes are: --

1. That for half-an-hour just at the opening of the day you are silent and recollected, [an advantage of the Traditional Latin Mass] and have to put off cares, interests, and passions in the repetition of a familiar action. This must certainly be a great benefit to the body and give it tone.

2. That the Mass is a careful and rapid ritual. Now it is the function of all ritual (as we see in games, social arrangements and so forth) to relieve the mind by so much of responsibility and initiative and to catch you up (as it were) into itself, leading your life for you during the time it lasts. In this way you experience a singular repose, after which fallowness I am sure one is fitter for action and judgment.

3. That the surroundings incline you to good an reasonable thoughts, and for the moment deaden the rasp and jar of that busy wickedness which both working in one's self and received from others is the true source of all human miseries. Thus the time spent at Mass is like a short repose in a deep and well-built library, into which no sounds come and where you feel yourself secure against the outer world.

4. And the most important cause of the feeling of satisfaction is that you are doing what the human race has done for thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years. This is a matter of such moment that I am astonished people hear of it so little. Whatever is buried right into our blood from immemorial habit that we must be certain to do if we are to be fairly happy (of course no grown man or woman can really be very happy for long--but I mean reasonably happy), and, what is more important, decent and secure of our souls. Thus one should from time to time hunt animals, or at the very least shoot at a mark; one should always drink some kind of fermented liquor with one's food--and especially deeply upon great feast-days; one should go on the water from time to time; and one should dance on occasion; and one should sing in chorus. For all these things man has done since God put him into a garden and his eyes first became troubled with a soul. Similarly some teacher or ranter or other, whose name I forget, said lately one very wise thing at least, which was that every man should do a little work with his hands.

Oh! what good philosophy this is, and how much better it would be if rich people, instead of raining the influence of their rank and spending their money on leagues for this or that exceptional thing, were to spend it in converting the middle-class to ordinary living and to the tradition of the race.

Now in the morning Mass you do all that the race needs to do and has done for all these ages where religion was concerned; there you have the sacred and separate Enclosure, the Altar, the Priest in his Vestment, the set ritual, the ancient and hierarchic tongue, [Latin] and all that your nature cries out for in the matter of worship.

Working With The Poor

A wonderful religious, Sister Jean Theurauf has been living in one of the poorest and troubled areas of Minneapolis for over 20 years. She brings a perspective on social justice that is different from most, she lives what she believes. She understands the plight of those around her and knows that the solution is more than slogans,

. . . one can't help but conclude there's a devasting disease corroding our nation. It's a disease of the soul destroying the heart of our country. A more powerful balm than money is required to heal this disease.

Here are some other thoughts of Sister Jean, the "How" of Charity.

Perhaps the time has come for us to realize we can no longer do charity by working for the poor or going to them. We need to change our prepositions and start working with the poor. Yes, it's the human contact in this world that counts.

Mission isn't bringing Jesus to people, but recognizing where He already is. We must believe all people are beautiful. We believe Jesus has already come. He has created, redeemed, and loved. We know His Love continues. Our challenge is to help make His Love, which is already here, become real.

Land O Lake's Effect on Catholic Higher Education

From Diogenes at Catholic Culture comes this article on the effect of the Land O' Lakes declaration in 1967. Here is an excerpt of the text and you can read the rest here.

Notre Dame University’s invitation to honor President Obama at this year’s graduation ceremony has caused quite a roil among conservative Catholics and the pro-life community. Your Uncle Di was certainly in a tiff when he first learned about it. George Weigel called it a “very bad thing”. Candace De Russy observed that it is “perfidious”, that is, faithless, or treacherous. Bill McGurn dubbed it “incoherent.” ( You can read a list of remarks here and here.)

However, after his initial upset, your Uncle Di recalled that little declaration made over forty years ago by the Notre Dame administrator-in-chief, Fr. Theodore Hesburgh. It was forty years ago when the leaders of the major Catholic universities agreed to the Land O’Lakes rebellion of 1967.

Notre Dame’s Fr. Hesburgh was the rebels’ alpha male who ceremoniously announced that Catholic colleges and universities should be independent of, and no longer submissive to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church in their teaching and research functions, if they wanted to be “effective.” Evidently, the Notre Dame trustees, and the bulk of its faculty wanted the school to be “effective”—that is, well thought of in the editorial pages of the New York Times. They accepted the terms of rebellion. The ties to the Church were kept in name only.

This was all clearly and piously set forth in the second sentence in the Land O’Lakes declaration:

To perform its teaching and research functions effectively the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself.

The statement has become mere fine print over time after it was buried in the marketing flourishes of the university public relations machinery. It is, nevertheless, the academic version of Non serviam. At the very least, it leaves aside Catholic teaching on artificial contraception, embryonic research and abortion—the flash points for the current outrage. But beyond the hot button moral teachings of the Church, this declaration positions the entire corpus of Catholic doctrine as negotiable elements within the “academic community itself.”

Unless the academic community itself determines to accept the truth that God is “… the Father, the Almighty,…” the assertion has no claim over the intellectual life of the school. The entire Nicene Creed and the corpus of Church doctrine is simply irrelevant to the intellectual life of the school unless, until, or as long as the academic community itself makes it relevant. The academic community itself is no longer a disciple, it is the magisterium.

If Church teaching on abortion becomes a problem, the academic community itself can decide to minimize it. If the doctrine on the Incarnation, or the eternal paternity of God the Father is a problem, well, here today, gone tomorrow.

According to the Notre Dame administration, the academic community itself contains all teaching authority within the confines of the school. The Pope and the bishop have no teaching authority inside the school except that granted to them by the academic community itself. Arguably, God has no authority at Notre Dame—unless the academic community itself sees fit. To claim otherwise would be a violation of “true autonomy.” God forbid!

The Notre Dame administration has never repudiated the Land O’Lakes rebellion. Naturally, Notre Dame does not require its theology faculty to submit to the Mandatum set forth in the encyclical Ex Corde Ecclesia. Indeed, its current president has rendered the Mandatum a shell game.

Laetare Medal To Be Awarded to Mary Ann Glendon

This morning the University of Notre Dame has announced it will bestow it's highest honor, the Laetare Medal, to Mary Ann Glendon, the recent U.S ambassador to the Vatican at this year's graduation together with the honorary degree which will be given to President Obama. According to the report from Whispers in the Loggia UND states these awards occured independently of each other with the Laetare medal decision being made before last Christmas. Odd then how this announcement comes out just two days after the scandal created by the decision to give President Obama an honorary degree this year.

Now following the reason of Fr. Jenkins in allowing the Vagina Monologues on campus,

"Notre Dame's policy on controversial events rests on the conviction that truth will emerge from reasoned consideration of issues in dialogue with faith, and that we will educate Catholic leaders not by insulating our students from controversial views, but by engaging these views energetically, in light of Catholic teachings.”

are we to assume that there will be reasoned debate on the pro-life issue, given these two speakers respective differences? And certainly Ambassador Glendon's defense of life would only end up leaving Pres. Obama embarrassed in the eyes of the Catholic students who must reasonably conclude that his pro-death arguments are at variance with the Catholic Faith they were taught during their past 4 years. Now why would UND put the President of the United States in a position of being mocked or subject to derision when he thought he was coming to receive an award and make a nice speech. That doesn't sound very charitable.

So we must conclude then that such a debate will not take place and that President Obama will leave with his honorary degree and that UND will have further eroded its claim to be a Catholic university. Like Pilate who was no doubt an effective administrator and governor, they can wash their hands and say well we find no wrong here. After all didn't we uphold the pro-life position by honoring Mary Ann Glendon too?

Notre Dame to Honor Pres. Obama with Honorary Degree

For those who have been paying attention, like so many other Catholic colleges and U's the University of Notre Dame long ago ceased to be the Catholic university it was renowned to be. Of course there are many faithful Catholic students, alum, and professors of the University. But ND as an institution long ago sold its soul to be accepted by the modern liberal elite while continuing to live off the fame of its proud history.

The most recent scandal involves the granting of an honorary degree by the ND Law School to President Obama who will also give the commencement address this year. While some will point out that this is consistent with past practice of other President's giving the commencement address, including the past 4, none of the others was given an honorary degree.

While he talks a good game about his concern for social justice, what exactly has he done as Senator or President to alleviate the plight of the poor and the working class? Yet without doubt he has made a made it a priority to reverse every pro-life executive order he could get his hands on. For all his talk about dialogue on the issue of abortion he has made the most extreme pro-abortion cabinet appointments possible. Most recently his first judicial appointment is no moderate on abortion.

But none of that matters to UND, and who should be surprised. This is the same school that allowed the Vagina Monologues to be held (more than once) on campus and then thought they could spin it as trying to present opposing viewpoints on controversial issues. In the UND presidents own words,

"My decision on this matter,” Father Jenkins said, “arises from a conviction that it is an indispensable part of the mission of a Catholic university to provide a forum in which multiple viewpoints are debated in reasoned and respectful exchange--always in dialogue with faith and the Catholic tradition--even around highly controversial topics. Notre Dame's policy on controversial events rests on the conviction that truth will emerge from reasoned consideration of issues in dialogue with faith, and that we will educate Catholic leaders not by insulating our students from controversial views, but by engaging these views energetically, in light of Catholic teachings.”

Anyone think there will be a forum to discuss President Obama's support for abortion and how it stands in contradiction to Catholic teaching? Or how said University can justify honoring a person who will be responsible for the murder of millions.

Sign a petition to Fr. Jenkins voicing your opposition to this matter.
Read American Papist for more updates on this story.

UPDATE! In case it appears that I am being overly critical of UND's at its loss of faith I suggest this article at The Catholic Thing written by Ralph McInerny who has taught there since 1955 and will be retiring this year.

And finally don't be misled by certain individuals commenting on blogs trying to compare this situation with the fact that Ronald Reagan gave financial support to the El Savadoran death squads responsible for murdering and raping 3 nuns. That event took place prior to Ronald Reagan even taking office.

Happy Father's Day

In European countries like Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy they celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph as Father's Day. It seems a much better day to remember our father's than the Hallmark holiday in June.





Here is a reflection from Pope Benedict on St. Joseph given at yesterday's Vespers Service:

Although St. Joseph wasn't the biological father of Jesus, he lived his fatherhood fully in the sense that he was at the service of Christ and his human development, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today upon presiding over a celebration of vespers with local clergy and with representatives of ecclesial movements and of other Christian confessions at the Basilica of Mary Queen of the Apostles.

The Pontiff set out to reflect on the figure of St. Joseph, whose feast day the Church celebrates Thursday. St. Joseph is the patron saint of the Pope, who was born Joseph Ratzinger, and the patron of the universal Church.

Addressing those present, the Holy Father said a "meditation on the human and spiritual journey of Saint Joseph invites us to ponder his vocation in all its richness, and to see him as a constant model for all those who have devoted their lives to Christ in the priesthood, in the consecrated life or in the different forms of lay engagement.

St. Joseph, he said, "is not the biological father of Jesus, whose Father is God alone, and yet he lives his fatherhood fully and completely."

"To be a father means above all to be at the service of life and growth," Benedict XVI added. "St. Joseph, in this sense, gave proof of great devotion. For the sake of Christ he experienced persecution, exile and the poverty which this entails. He had to settle far from his native town. His only reward was to be with Christ.

"He continued: "When Mary received the visit of the angel at the Annunciation, she was already betrothed to Joseph. In addressing Mary personally, the Lord already closely associates Joseph to the mystery of the Incarnation."

Joseph agreed to be part of the great events which God was beginning to bring about in the womb of his spouse. He took Mary into his home. He welcomed the mystery that was in Mary and the mystery that was Mary herself. He loved her with great respect, which is the mark of all authentic love.

"Non-possessive love"Joseph teaches us that it is possible to love without possessing," said the Holy Father.

"In contemplating Joseph, all men and women can, by God's grace, come to experience healing from their emotional wounds, if only they embrace the plan that God has begun to bring about in those close to him, just as Joseph entered into the work of redemption through Mary and as a result of what God had already done in her."

"Joseph was caught up at every moment by the mystery of the Incarnation," reflected Benedict XVI. "Not only physically, but in his heart as well, Joseph reveals to us the secret of a humanity which dwells in the presence of mystery and is open to that mystery at every moment of everyday life.

"In Joseph, faith is not separated from action. His faith had a decisive effect on his actions. Paradoxically, it was by acting, by carrying out his responsibilities, that he stepped aside and left God free to act, placing no obstacles in his way. Joseph is a 'just man because his existence is 'ad-justed' to the word of God."

"The life of Saint Joseph, lived in obedience to God’s word, is an eloquent sign for all the disciples of Jesus who seek the unity of the Church," the Pope concluded. "His example helps us to understand that it is only by complete submission to the will of God that we become effective workers in the service of his plan to gather together all mankind into one family, one assembly, one 'ecclesia.'"

Spanish Pro-Life Poster

And Me?

Protect My Life