Feast of Bl. Charles of Austria

Lt. Colonel James Bogle, a Knight of Malta in Great Britain, together with his wife Joanna wrote a wonderful book on the life of Blessed Charles and his wife, Empress Zita. He gave a condensed version along with his first hand description of the Beatification Mass in 2004 which was published in the The Remnant newspaper in 2005. You can read the whole story here and below are a few excerpts. I also posted on him last year which you can read by following the label for this post below.

Successor of the Roman Emperors of that Roman Empire of the christened Constantine I, of the Catholic Byzantium of Justinian and, lastly, of Charlemagne, the progenitor of that empire that truly did last for 1,000 years from Christmas Day 800 AD until its dissolution under the attacks of the Bonapartist Republicans in 1806,the Blessed Emperor Charles is indeed a most fitting exemplar of Christian chivalry.

I shall recount a little of the events of these days but I first invite you to consider the time in which Divine Providence chose to unfold His revelation of the beatitude of His servant and chevalier.

The Feast Day of the Blessed Emperor Charles had been chosen by the Holy Father, at the behest of the Habsburg family, to be 21 October, being not the day of his death but rather the day of his wedding to Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma. Empress Zita herself had two sisters who were cloistered nuns in the convent of St. Cecilia at Ryde on the Isle of Wight – a Benedictine convent still much blessed by God and most worthy of a visit.

It comes therefore but 10 days before the Feast of Christ the King in the old calendar and 1 month before the same feast in the new calendar. Friday 8 October 2004is the Feast of St. Birgitta (Bridget) of Sweden, Princess of Nericia of the House of Persson, Bengtsdotter and Gudmarsson. Our Lord in vision appeared to her and
gave her the most harrowing descriptions of his Passion and of the Passion of the Blessed Virgin – harrowing but imbued with the deepest mystical significance. Our Lord was at pains to extol to her the spirit of chivalry as the safest path leading to sainthood, the spirit of disinterested and self-denying service for the common good. He said to her, in a vision: “A knight who keeps the laws of his order is exceedingly dear to me. For if it is hard for a monk to wear his heavy habit, it is harder still for a knight to wear his heavy armour.” The Blessed Emperor Charles exemplified that chivalric spirit.

This spirit is meant to signify an interior attitude of the soul to accomplish God’s will whatever the cost, a disposition of mind whereby in the revelations of St. Birgitta the faithful knight and the self-denying, cloistered and most hidden nun or monk are at one. She explains that the Christian cavalier (or lady) gives his or her life to Christ and “orders his (or her) life according to the commandments of Christ, he represses the wicked and aids the humble in the community to obtain their rights. He shall therefore enter into everlasting joy; Christ Himself is the Head of the Christian knights’ army, the Holy Cross his royal banner and Christ’s passion is the fight against the enemy of mankind and his temptations.”

Hierarchical Organization of Society

Bishop George Speltz, former bishop of St. Cloud Minnesota wrote his doctoral thesis on the importance of rural life based on the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. He brings to bear these philosophical principles on the socio-economic problems of today.

According to St. Thomas this cooperation of men as social beings is not carried on in strict equality, i.e., men do not cooperate on one horizontal plane to achieve a common good. His teaching on this question is clear. Nature doe not incline men to cooperate on one horizontal level; rather it incline them to cooperate on many diverse functional levels to form an ordered hierarchy. Men are not equal in all things, though they do possess in common a rational nature a common origin, and destiny. They differ accidentally in power of intellect, will, and of body. Consequently, they differ in their contribution to and participation in the benefits of the common good. These differences among men, St. Thomas regards as one of the necessary conditions of true order within any social or economic group having autonomous existence within the state. Thus the functional and hierarchical organization of the manor is according to man's nature. It provided for the opportunity of socio-economic cooperation on a local basis, and it provided for individual differences. As a consequence of this fact of individual differences in men, there will classes in society. But it need not be that the membership within these classes should be static. Thomistic philosophy with much reason insists that the classes which naturally form in society be subordinated one to another, is a true inner unity within a hierarchy. The absence of this ordering is a cause of many contemporary socio-economic evils.

The Bailout of Finance Capitalism

On the Remnant Newspaper website there is an online column dealing with the recent financial crisis and how to resolve the crisis according to Catholic social teaching. It is a good article to explain and understand why the violation of Catholic principles is responsible for this mess and how by properly ordering our lives on these principles we can began to restore our economy and society at large. As neither political party is willing or able to understand the nature of the problem we are justifibly pessimistic that conditions will improve anytime soon and that a greater danger lies ahead if people start to believe that solutions are to be found along socialist lines. One interesting item he mentions is the concept of "just price." We constantly hear about a "just wage" for employees but rarely the equally important concept of "just price."

The Catholic doctrine of the just price is another moral lens through which to view these transactions. In summary, it is a violation of justice to sell something for more than (or buy something for less than) its just price. For our purposes the definition of just price can be summarized as the general estimation of the value of human needs satisfied by the thing sold. Although in a particular case this may be difficult to calculate, it is an objective standard not based on the particular needs of a transaction participant. Just because I am very hungry, does not mean you can charge more than the common estimation of the price of a sandwich merely because I am in greater need of it. Let us apply the just price theory to the housing market.

Although Americans have been indoctrinated to think that they own their homes, such a belief is a mere delusion. A simple definition of ownership encompasses the ability to retain the possession and use of a thing. All one needs to do is fail to make a mortgage payment and he will learn that he does not own the house where he lives, as millions of Americans have been realizing daily.

It takes only a modicum of common sense to realize that if I do not pay for something I do not own it (unless it has been given to me as a gift). When a bank has paid 85%, 90% or even over 100% of the purchase price (as in negative equity mortgages) of a house how can we with a straight face claim that the consumer “owns’ that house? In substance the bank has bought the house at one price (the purchase price paid to the seller) and is reselling it over time to the borrower at a higher price.

Given the staggering amounts of money repaid over a loan’s life as seen in the chart above, can we really claim that the bank is reselling the house at its just price? This is especially true when we compare the rates of residential home appreciation over long periods of time (excluding the recent artificial bubble of value growth which has popped).

Unless the Lord Build the House

Many people are panicked and stressed by the current state of the economy. The politicians, economists, media, everyone has an opinion on, who's to blame, who can fix, how we can fix etc. But very few people (and nobody in the above groups) realize that our first step toward fixing these problems, and even those in our personal lives, can be found in Psalm 127:

Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it.

Unless the Lord watch over the city, in vain does the guard keep vigil.

It is vain for you to rise early and put off your rest at night,

You who toil for the bread you eat, when he pours gifts on his beloved while they slumber.

Children too are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are children born in one's youth.

Blessed are they whose quivers are full, they will never be shamed contending with their foes at the gate.

12 Week Old Preborn Baby Picture

I showed my 2 year old this image on a card this morning and asked him if he knew what it was. After looking closely at if for a few seconds (it was a small picture) he replied "Baby." If a small child can easily recognize that, why is it so difficult for adults?

What Are We Defending?

The duty of a knight is to defend the sick and the poor. This picture needs no commentary only prayers for the people who seek to destroy the innocent child.

Bl. Pope John XXIII - Bailiff Order of Malta

Today is the memorial for the newest member of The Order of Malta to be beatified, Blessed Pope John XXIII. After Napolean forced the Order out of Malta there was a period of uncertainty regarding the future of the Order. They relocated to Rome in 1834, later in 1879 Pope Leo XIII restored the grand mastership of the Order and then in June of 1961 after nearly 10 years of deliberation Pope John XXIII approved the new Constitutional Charter of the Order.

By this time, an important new development had been underway since the 1920s: the appointment of Knights and Dames of Magistral Grace which is to say, knights and dames, mostly outside of Europe, who were not of noble descent but by the grace and favor of the Grand Master were admitted to what had previously been a category restricted to nobility.

He also contributed to the development of the 2nd class members of the Order, those In Obedience.

When he met with the Knights in Obedience in 1961, Blessed John XXIII provided them with his own motto: Obedientia et Pax. Angelo Roncalli had adopted this moto when he was ordained a bishop, and it became the guiding principle of his life. John XXIII took these words from Cesare Baronius, who used to say them every time he kissed the foot of the statue of St. Peter.

Baronius was the most eminent historian of his day, and also a close friend of St. Philip Neri. St. Philip knew that someone with Cesare’s abilities would receive adulation (he was named a cardinal), and in many ways great and small he called his friend to a deep spirit of humility. For example, in spite of Baronius’s erudition St. Philip assigned him to work in the kitchen, so much so that Baronius wrote his name on the wall, followed by the words: “perpetual cook.”
From the example of Cardinal Baronius, Angelo Roncalli drew the lesson that obedience meant a willingness to let go of one’s own preferences, to accept whatever duties needed to be done, and not to take one’s position too seriously. In this way, obedience leads to peace. John XXIII confided at the end of his life that this was the secret of his serenity.

To enter into the Second Class of our Order should thus be understood, not as a step up, but as a step down. Pre-eminence in a Christian context is tied to deeper humility and greater generosity

Vote for Pedro

Here's a light-hearted look at campaigns.

The Poor You Will Have With You Always

Recent comments from prominent Catholic voices have argued that it is better to vote for Sen. Obama despite his rabid anti-life views and his support of other evils that the Catholic Church considers intrinisically evil; embryonic stem cell research, contraception (how else do you think he plans to reduce the number of abortions?) refusal to define marriage as between man and woman. They justify this by suggesting that the abortion issue is lost, Roe v. Wade won't be overturned and besides Obama will do more to reduce abortion through his economic policies (again read massive funding for contraception and Planned Parenthood) and that by eliminating poverty we will ultimately end abortion.

Now forget for a moment that the Church has stated that there is a hierarchy of values to consider and She says that voting for a pro-death candidates even though they want universal healthcare, or oppose the war in Iraq, simply is not justified. There is something more to consider if we carefully look at their argument that abortion/Roe v. Wade are lost causes as currently fought and we must look at alternatives to ending aboriton, i.e., getting rid of poverty.

But Jesus told us that the poor you will have with you always,

And the disciples seeing it had indignation, saying: To what purpose is this waste? For this might have been sold for much and given to the poor. And Jesus knowing it, said to them: Why do you trouble this woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For the poor you have always with you: but Me you have not always.

Now clearly this does not mean we ignore the poor or that we don't try and work to alleviate the conditions and causes of poverty which we certainly must do. But it would seem that from this that our ultimate success in eliminating poverty is that that it won't happen. So what expectation can we have of ending abortion by economic means if Jesus told us "the poor you have always with you?" It would seem very slim. And as I noted a couple other times the Obama plan to solve abortion is to make contraception freely available which is contrary to Church teaching. You cannot use unjust means to solve a problem no matter how important that problem is.

In this passage we see also a hierarchy of values. Certainly the money spent on the perfume would have helped a few of "the poor" but it is more important to honor God first. As St. Thomas More said, "I am the King's good servant, but God's first." While we have an obligation to help the poor we cannot abandon the innocent to be slaughtered. We must continue to fight abortion and not despair that the cause is lost. There is no cause that is lost except for the one we quit.

The Door of God's Love Poured Out to the World

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, "the door through which the eternal love of the Father is poured out on the world" (Pope John Paul II, Homily, Solemn Eucharistic Celebration, America's Center, St. Louis, Jan. 27, 1999, n. 1c).

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been known since the earliest ages of the Church though our understanding of this devotion has grown and developed since then. In his encyclical on devotion to the Sacred Heart Pope Pius XII commented on this development.

"We are convinced, then, that the devotion which we are fostering to the love of God and Jesus Christ for the human race by means of the revered symbol of the Pierced Heart of the crucified Redeemer has never been altogether unknown to the piety of the faithful, although it has become more clearly known and has spread in a remarkable manner throughout the Church in quite recent times. ...

"But if men have always been deeply moved by the Pierced Heart of the Savior to a worship of that infinite love with which He embraces mankind ... it must yet be admitted that it was only by a very gradual advance that the honors of a special devotion were offered to that Heart as depicting the love, human and divine, which exists in the Incarnate Word" (Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Haurietas Aquas [May 25, 1956], nn. 90 and 93).

Devotion to the Sacred Heart becomes increasingly necessary in those times like our own when we see love of God growing cold and indifferent, if not openly hostile, as evidenced by numerous recent acts of desecration of the Blessed Eucharist to which this devotion is intimately united.

When Garcia Moreno of Ecuador became president he sought to save his country by consecrating it to the Sacred Heart and what blessings from Heaven were showered upon that little country. During this election year we see our country divided more than ever in so many ways. And the cause of this division is primarily a result of the moral breakdown that has been building for generations. Pray that more of our Catholic politicians follow the examples of St. Thomas More, Blessed Charles of Austria, and Garcia Moreno rather than compromising and equivocating with the world.

As the family is the basic unit of society and consequently the focus of the attack by our enemies it is necessary then that the renewal of our social life begin with the the family. We need a renewed devotion to the Sacred Heart which we can begin by enthroning the Sacred Heart in our homes. Father Mateo Crawley, the Apostle of the Sacred Heart, wrote and preached endlessly on this devotion and gave us the practical means to accomplish it. There is much wonderful information on this devotion and for an introduction I would suggest reading Archbishop Burke's four articles that were published in the diocesan newspaper of St. Louis and can be found posted at the Women for Faith and Family website.

Fr. Mateo was a priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart and they continue to be responsible for spreading this devotion and providing materials for the Enthronement and Night Adoration in the Home. You can find more information here.

I can provide no further incentive for this devotion than the words of Fr. Mateo himself,

“As the family is the necessary foundation and the original source of Christian and social vitality, I am convinced that there is no apostolate which can bring about more effectively the reign of the Lord over individuals and collectivity's than that which enthrones Him precisely as King of the Family.”