Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Astute Deviation Attention




An Astute Deviation of Our Attention!


Dear friends,


In order to help us to be not just “innocent as doves”, but also “wise as serpents” (Mt 10:16), which is often the harder part, especially today in a world filled with the beautiful easy lies of “the father of lies” (Jn 8:44), I took the time to summarize some of the wisdom brought to light by the group, “Catholics for the Common Good” (http://www.ccgaction.org/).


I find it very interesting, if not divinely providential, that in the Gospel for the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, which was the day of the beginning of the Synod on the Family (October 4, 2015), one finds the very clear and unequivocal words of Christ: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mk 10:9). Also in the same Gospel Jesus tells us: “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mk 10:15). Do the bishops who are seeking to reform the Sacrament of Matrimony “receive the kingdom of God like a child” and do they consider the point of view of the child, or do they even mention “what is best and needed for the children of separated and divorced Catholics”?!?


I find it very interesting, if not divinely providential, that the day of the beginning of the Synod on the Family coincides with the Feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi (October 4, 2015) whose name Cardinal Bergoglio took as his name as Pope. For it was to Saint Francis that God revealed a prophecy about the false pope:
2. “The power of the demons will be greater than usual, the immaculate purity of our religious community and of others, will wither to the point that very few Christians will want to obey the true Sovereign Pontiff and the Roman Church with a sincere heart and perfect charity. At the decisive moment of this crisis, a personage not canonically elected, raised to the Pontificate, will endeavor to administer shrewdly to many the MORTAL POISON of his error.”
7. “Some preachers will keep silent about the truth and, denying the truth, they will trample upon the truth. The sanctity of life will be held in derision by those who only profess it outwardly, and for this reason Our Lord Jesus Christ will send them not a worthy Pastor, but a destroyer.”


In last month’s “Spiritual Food 1509” (http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2015/09/the-false-pope-will-fall-silent.html; http://wordbelife.blogspot.it/2015/09/spiritual-food-1509.html), I quoted Our Lady of Good Success at Quito, Ecuador (January 20, 1610):
Thus I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and shortly after the middle of the 20th century…the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals… As for the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and deeply profaned. FREEMASONRY, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the aim of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin and encouraging procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church… IN THIS SUPREME MOMENT OF NEED FOR THE CHURCH, THE ONE WHO SHOULD SPEAK WILL FALL SILENT.”


While men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat…” (Mt 13:24-43). Those men who have more responsibility are more culpable for sleeping while the enemy sowed weeds among the wheat!


Even though by now that the weeds of destruction are all over the place in our society today, we must NOT give up, even though it is much more difficult now. As Jesus’ parable tells us, God will “Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn” (Mt 13:30).


As Our Lady told us over four hundred years ago, “the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and deeply profaned”.


These weeds sown by our enemy have changed the true meaning and purpose of marriage, making it very difficult to help people today rediscover the indisputable reality of marriage that we can verify by God’s plan for creation and that is stamped right in our very nature. Thus what was taken for granted by a more Christian culture 60 or 70 years ago, today we need a language that will not presuppose that the person you are talking to necessarily embraces faith, and yet be consistent with what faith reveals. We are looking for a language that really touches reality. Because do not most people today think that marriage is about two adults being happy together? That is the argument that is being used. If marriage is defined this way, it doesn’t necessarily have to be between a man and a woman; it can be between any two consenting adults. So what’s wrong with that perception of marriage? A survey shows that 58% think that marriage is only the public recognition of a committed relationship; thus for these people it would be discriminatory to restrict marriage between a man and a woman.


There has been an astute deviation of our attention by the ones who have taken control of the motors of the culture (the mass media, the schools and religious institutions) in the last several decades, and now we must likewise make an astute deviation of our attention back to the reality that God has implanted in His creation! In this fierce but underhanded battle, it is very important to be “wise as serpents”, not just “innocent as doves” (Mt 10:16) which is the easier part.


Today if you define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, a permanent union that is open to life and it prepares them for receiving children as a gift, and it provides a firm foundation for raising the children, the majority of the people in our society today do not understand or believe this definition of marriage after being surrounded by the weeds that the collaborators of our enemy have sown especially in the last 50 or 60 years. We have already largely separated sex from having children, from procreation, after the invention of “the pill” (1960) and after the great rebellion against Humanae Vitae (1968). Marriage has become pretty adult centered because of no fault divorce, and other things in society. So this traditional definition of marriage no longer resonates with many people’s experience and how they viewed marriage today. Marriage has become pretty adult centered because of no fault divorce, and other things in society. So this traditional definition of marriage no longer resonates with many people’s experience and how they viewed marriage today.


THE SOLUTION, simple but difficult, is the novelty of rediscovering the words of Christ: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3-4). The view of the child is what everyone is forgetting about today, the rights of the child. “I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and under standing and revealed them to babes” (Mt 11:25; Lk 10:21). We must help people rebuild themselves to become childlike. Because the child knows reality. If you talk to a child about abortion, they cannot even conceive of it; it’s absurd. By the time they are in high school, they are starting to see the other side of the issue. And we pick up baggage of the culture along the way on this issue. So we need to find a language of the culture. Our Lady of Guadalupe spoke a language of the culture to the people in South America. It also really starts with realizing that things are not true merely because the Catholic Church teaches it. The Church teaches it because it is first true. And there are some things that we can know without the benefit of divine revelation. We have to develop an attitude that we can speak in these basic terms, so that picking up the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Sacred Scripture is to help us have a deeper understanding of that reality that we already know.


Marriage is not just about two adults being happy together; THERE’S THE PROSPECTIVE OF THE CHILD. The child has an interest in the marriage of Mom and Dad, but the child has no voice in the current debate. Thus we must put ourselves in the place of the child which will lead us to understand that the Church teaches that the child has a fundamental right to be born into a family with Mom and Dad united in marriage. A child has a right to know who is his father and who is his mother and has a right ideally to be raised in a communion of love. Sometimes it does not work out that way, because of death, because of other situations. But the child really has an interest in the marriage of Mom and Dad. As Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II spoke about marriage, marriage is a communion of persons, communion of man and woman, leading to a communion between parents and child. And there is not a closer communion than that between a mother and child in the womb.THE CHILD HAS THE RIGHT to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up within marriage: it is through the secure and recognized relationship to his own parents that the child can discover his own identity and achieve his own proper human development” (Donum Vitae; http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html).


That’s the religious language; that’s our understanding of the beauty of Catholic teaching. “The Catholics for the Common Good” are trying to offer the foundational definition of marriage in terms of reality that might help people today understand the great reality of marriage. A simple definition of marriage from a reality point of view might be:
MARRIAGE IS AN INSTITUTION BASED ON THE FREE CHOICE OF A MAN AND A WOMAN THAT NOT ONLY UNITES THEM WITH EACH OTHER BUT ANY CHILDREN BORN FROM THE UNION.


This is the only institution, marriage, which is recognized, that unites a man and a woman with the children born of their union, and unites the child with the mother and father. It you redefine that institution out of existence, you are defining out of existence the institution which unites the children with the mother and the father.


It is in the public interest, in the common interest, of every child without exception, to be united to their Mom and Dad. The only reason that a good government would take an interest in marriage is to protect the common good, the rights of children, to be united with and to promote to the extent possible, healthy marriages. In the past the law has tried to protect women and children from exploitation. It is clearly in the public interest from not only an economic, but a psychological and emotional stand point, to the benefit of children, to be raised in a stable environment with a married Mom and Dad. There has been a terrible impact of fatherless homes on children, not only economically in terms of the children living in poverty, but from an educational, psychological and emotional stand point. There has been done great damage to kids from being raised in fatherless homes.


We might ask why are fatherless homes going to be affected by the redefinition of marriage? What has been the effects of no fault divorce, redefining marriage as just an adult centered institution, as a commitment as long as both parties are happy? Children have been separated from marriage. Today there is a real crisis; people just are not getting married. With women under 30, more 50% of children are born outside of marriage.


Marriage is something we not only need in the law, which gives us authority to promote it, but we have to all be directed toward promoting the understanding of what marriage is. We must rediscover why marriage is so important as the foundation of the family, and evaluate every law, every institution, every curriculum by how well it promotes men and women marrying before having children. The promoters of the culture of death have done the exact opposite in sowing their very destructive weeds in the last several decades.


We are talking about these TWO DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDINGS of what the reality of marriage is. The majority of people today think that marriage is nothing more than the public recognition of a committed relationship between two adults, and for the benefit of the adults. If people think that marriage is only the public recognition of a committed relationship, it is unreasonable to restrict marriage to a man and a woman, because there is no reason for this restriction. However, that’s not what marriage is! In reality, marriage unites a man and a woman with each other and any children born from their union. That summarizes section 1603 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for adults. But when you say that marriage unites a man and a woman with each other and any children born from the union, that’s a fact! That’s what marriage does. That’s what it is. We know this. It’s the fact that it has been recognized by every culture, every society, and every religion since the beginning of time. And that correlates with our own experience because we all have a desire for connection with our own Moms and Dads.


We are taking the approach of safeguarding the reality of the child, to try to put ourselves in the place of the child! Because if you are going to redefine marriage as only between adults, then it doesn’t matter who my mother is or who my father is! But we all want to know our origins. We all would like to be raised in a loving relationship. To know my origins and to be loved by my married Mom and Dad is the deepest desire in all of out hearts. Even for children who don’t know their father and mother, who have been separated for various reasons, there is that longing and desire, to know where they are from. Adopted children, as they become older, they are appreciative, as far as it may be discovered, where are their origins, where is their real natural mother and father.


This is our experience of God’s plan for creation stamped right in our nature. Each of us is an eternal witness of the one flesh union of our Mom and Dad for eternity. That’s reality; that desire for that connection, is part of that experience. And this is independent from believing or not believing in God. The recognition of marriage is the recognition of this reality!


We must try to find reality based language for our culture today, filled with very destructive weeds of deception, that is consistent with what faith has revealed, but not necessarily based on faith to come to the awareness of the reality of what marriage is.


The reality of creation came before revelation. Reality exists; divine revelation gives us a deeper understanding of that reality that we already know, and we can already experience. We must continually strive to reinforce that we have to become childlike. We tend to look at things, analyze problems and think about things from the prospective of the adult. When we do that, we’ve got all kinds of baggage from the culture, our prejudices, our biases, and things of that sort (weeds!), that really help obscure what reality is. So we must start thinking and training ourselves to start thinking from the prospective of the child that is within each of us, so that we can see reality, so that we can contemplate reality, and then share the fruits of our contemplation with our children and our family members, our friends, our coworkers. That’s the evangelization of culture.


What has transpired and what is currently obscuring our understanding of the reality of marriage is really making it difficult for us to establish relationships which lead to healthy marriages. Every child is at risk today of adopting false premises and concepts from the culture that really affect the choices they make in life, which do not lead to good healthy marriages as the foundation of their family. The shift in people’s views about marriage is clearly leading to the breakdown of marriage today which is leaving so many families with fatherless homes, that is creating havoc. It’s really an issue of social justice and an imperative to us to address the issue of marriage and work to rebuild a marriage culture.


True Christians today are being accused of not tolerating same sex couples who want to marry, of restricting them. People are very nervous; they do not want to talk about what is being proposed about same sex marriage. What “Catholics for the Common Good” say is, don’t talk about this proposal. These new proposals have nothing to do with marriage. We can’t learn a thing from talking about relationships between couples of the same sex and why they don’t qualify for marriage. Why in the world has this become an issue at the Synod on the Family; who is maneuvering and manipulating the Synod and why is Pope Francis remaining silent about this deviation of the proper priorities and of values and of the misguided attention which leads us away from the real solution for families today?


What was Our Lady of Good Success (Quito, Ecuador; January 20, 1610) telling us over 400 years ago for our times? In this supreme moment of need for the church, the one who should speak will fall silent.” Because if “the one who should speak” approves openly what has been promoted by the Freemasonry, “the Sacrament of Matrimony … will be attacked and deeply profaned”, many people will wake up if sex outside of marriage is officially approved. Satan is not stupid! To lead as many souls to hell without waking them up until they are in hell, sex outside of marriage will be approved in the Church around the world by way of the silence of the pastors of the Church, especially the most important pastors of the Church. Behold the “astute deviation of our attention”!
Negligent religious leaders are often afraid to speak freely and say what needs to be said – for fear of losing favor with people. As Truth himself says, they are certainly not guarding their flock with the care expected of a shepherd but are acting like hirelings, because hiding behind a wall of silence is like taking flight at the approach of the wolf. These are the people whom the Lord is reproaching through the prophet, when he says: ‘THEY ARE ALL DUMB DOGS, THEY CANNOT BARK’ (Is 56:10) … If a religious leader is afraid to say what is right, what else can his silence mean but that he has taken flight? Whereas, if he stand firm in defence of his flock, he is building up a wall for the house of Israel against its enemies. And so again the sinful people are told: ‘Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you; they have not exposed your iniquity in order to provoke you to repentance.’ …” (Pope St. Gregory the Great; Office of Readings; Sunday, Week 27 of OT).


What kind of men are they who, fearing to hurt those they speak to, not only do not prepare them for imminent temptations, but even promise the happiness of this world, which God did not promise to the world itself?...” (Sermon of St. Augustine on the Shepherds; Office of Readings; Sunday, Week 24 of OT, Friday).


We have to go back and start from the beginning as Jesus told the Pharisees (Mt 19:8). When we use the terms forced on us by the highly controlled mass media today about the issue of marriage, it makes true Christians sound like our only interest is preventing same sex couples from marrying, and that this issue is merely about the participation of same sex couples in marriage. But really in fact that obscures the reality, the fact, that marriage is being redefined. There is no such thing as same sex marriage in the law. It is being redefined, and when it is redefined it eliminates from the law the only institution that unites kids with their Moms and Dads. Is this not what many of the recently promoted bishops and cardinals are doing and did at the Synod on the Family last October 2014?!?


Many states in the USA are being coerced and manipulated to redefine marriage to accommodate same sex couples which eliminates the only institution in the law that unites kids with their Moms and Dads. The laws about marriage up to now have enabled us, with legal support, to promote men and women marrying before having children, and to safeguard the union not only of the married man and woman but also the union of the parents with their children! Thus those who want to redefine marriage have really a bigoted position to advocate against a woman and a man marrying and having a stable union to welcome children so children can know who their Dad is and who their Mom is. That becomes discrimination when marriage is redefined and eliminates children from the law, from the equation.


For more in depth explanation of this attempt to find reality based language for our culture today, and to take back marriage for our children and families, visit: Catholics For The Common Good (http://www,ccgaction.org/).


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After having offered this very brief summary of the situation today regarding the institution of marriage, which is “attacked and deeply profaned” (Our Lady of Good Success; Quito, Ecuador; January 20, 1610), we might be able to understand better what Cardinal Burke, a canon lawyer, said about what the current Catholic reformers are saying: “Oh, we’re not questioning the indissolubility of marriage at all. We’re just going to make it easy for people to receive a declaration of nullity of marriage so that they can receive the sacraments.” But to this, Burke said, “IS A VERY DECEPTIVE LINE OF ARGUMENT which I’ve been hearing more now in this whole debate.”


As I wrote last month:
It is very interesting that in the proposals of these bishops to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion without doing all they can “to avoid the near occasion of sin”, THERE IS NO MENTION OF WHAT IS BEST AND NEEDED FOR THE CHILDREN of separated and divorced Catholics. In these proposals, which are totally contrary to the teachings of the Church, there is only mentioned what the adults want and desire! Do these proposals of these bishops help people progress toward greater love of God and neighbor in self-sacrifice, or greater love of self and less love of God and neighbor?


I hope this brief article helps us to see through the “very deceptive line of argument” being presented by the many bishops, recently promoted by Pope Francis, at the Synod on the Family this month, October 2015! Which bishops are promoting the TRUE, authentic Gospel of altruism, which is love of God and neighbor, and which bishops are promoting a FALSE, non authentic gospel of disguised egoism, false love, false mercy and misguided compassion, which does great harm? “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2Cor 11:14).


If you would like to hear and see synthetically both sides of the argument in interviews with Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Kasper, watch on Youtube:
World Over - 2015-10-01 – Synod Preview Cardinals Raymond Burke & Walter Kasper with Raymond Arroyo” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiCz0Jv4KYE).


Thus it is very important for us to not let our attention be deviated by the highly controlled mass media from the real fruits of the Synod so as to only consider the nice words or rhetoric (leaves of the tree) as Jesus told us (Lk 6:44; Mt 7:16-18). Considering the power of the mass media, I wrote last month:
Those who will remain faithful to God’s saving laws will be considered evil and cruel and will be less and less tolerated as we have seen throughout human history.
God revealed to Saint Francis of Assisi these prophecies:
6. “Those who in spiritual fervor will embrace piety with charity and zeal for the truth, will suffer persecutions and insults as if they were schismatics and disobedient. Because their persecutors, urged on by the evil spirits, will say that in this way they render a great honor to God in killing and removing from the face of the earth such pestilent men. But the Lord will be the refuge of the afflicted and He will save them, because they hoped in Him. And then in order to respect their Head, they will act according to the Faith and they will chose to obey God rather than men, gaining for themselves eternal life; they will fear nothing, and they will prefer to die rather than consent to error and perfidy.”


The work of the devil will infiltrate even the Church in such a way that one will see CARDINALS OPPOSING CARDINALS, bishops against other bishops… The church will be full of those who accept compromise …(Our Lady of Akita, Japan; October 13, 1973; http://blogcristianocattolico.blogspot.com/2008/01/la-madonna-di-akita-giappone.html).


As I wrote last month:
In this search for the Truth, it is very important to understand well the most basic tenets of our faith, such as, the Church is the handmaid of the Truth and not the Author of the Truth. Thus a group of bishops cannot change the Ten Commandments or the words of Christ Himself, even in a sly covert way, with beautiful rhetoric filled with false love, false mercy and misguided compassion, which ends up in the long run in hurting the ones committing the sin, those around them and our whole society in which we live. Very few Catholics today, immersed into relativism, realize that to change, even an “iota” of the saving laws of God (Mt 5:18; Lk 16:17; Mk 13:31), will bring very great destruction to eternal souls. Wars were fought in the first centuries of the Church due to disputes over the doctrine of the Church; now very few Catholics even care. If we are not alert with much prayer and study, the same old tricks of our adversary, with different dressings, will be used to lead us astray and away from God Who is the Truth and the Way to eternal life. This is why we cannot rest until death, because our very intelligent enemy does not rest even at night; our enemy works in the dark!”


Father Joseph Dwight


P.s.


As I find time, I will publish on the web the complete book, “To The Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons”, from the writings of Don Stefano Gobbi. Many bishops have given their Imprimatur to this book. You will find in these messages of Our Lady revealed through Don Stefano Gobbi a resemblance to the writings of Saint Louis de Montfort, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and to the messages of Our Lady of Fatima.


If you would like a copy of the book, “To The Priests Our Lady’s Beloved Sons”, write to:
National Headquarters
United States of America
The Marian Movement of Priests
National Headquarters
P.O. Box 8
St. Francis, Main 04774-0008
Tel. 207-398-3375


Or send an email to me at:




On the 8th of May 1972, DON STEFANO GOBBI was taking part in a pilgrimage to Fatima and was praying in the little Chapel of the Apparitions for some priests who, besides having personally given up their own vocations, were attempting to form themselves into associations in rebellion against the Church’s authority. On that occasion Don Stefano had a mystical experience called interior locution, which were repeated periodically (these locutions, by now more than 500, which are gathered together in a book entitled: “To The Priests Our Lady’s Beloved Sons”). In that first experience he felt an interior force that urged him to have confidence in the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady, making use of him as a poor and humble instrument, would gather all those priests who would accept her invitation to consecrate themselves to her Immaculate Heart, to be strongly united to the Pope and to the Church united with him, and to bring the faithful into the secure refuge of her motherly Heart. The origin of the Marian Movement of Priests stems from this simple and interior inspiration which Don Stefano received in prayer at Fatima.


The Bishop of Como, Italy, Msgr. Diego Coletti, according to the Norm of Can. 322 sec. 1 and 2 CIC, approved the Statutes of the Association of the “Marian Movement of Priests” and conferred on this association the Juridical Personality, July 10, 2013.


In these very difficult and deceptive times, Our Lady revealed through Don Stefano Gobbi:
At Fatima, I pointed to my Immaculate Heart as a means for the salvation of all humanity. I pointed out the way of return to God. But I was not listened to. Now I want to offer you my Immaculate Heart as your only refuge in the very painful moments that await you.” (November 9, 1975)
But I ask this consecration also from all the bishops, from all the priests, from all religious, and from all the faithful. This is the hour in which the whole Church must assemble in the secure refuge of my Immaculate Heart! … When I ask you for the consecration to my Immaculate Heart, it is to make you understand that you must completely entrust yourselves to me, in a total and everlasting way, that I may dispose of you according to the Will of God.” (March 25, 1984)




The “Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart Of Mary (For Religious And Laity) in the Marian Movement of Priests is:
Virgin of Fatima, Mother of Mercy, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Refuge of Sinners, we who belong to the Marian Movement of Priests consecrate ourselves in a very special way to your Immaculate Heart.
By this act of consecration we intend to live, with you and through you, all the obligations assumed by our baptismal consecration. We further pledge to bring about in ourselves that interior conversion so urgently demanded by the Gospel, a conversion that will free us of every attachment to ourselves and to easy compromises with the world so that, like you, we may be available only to do always the Will of the Father.
And as we resolve to entrust to you, O Mother most sweet and merciful, our life and vocation as Christians, that you may dispose of it according to your designs of salvation in this hour of decision that weighs upon the world, we pledge to live it according to your desires, es­pecially as it pertains to a renewed spirit of prayer and penance, the fervent participation in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the works of the apostolate, the daily recitation of the holy rosary, and an austere manner of life in keeping with the Gospel, that shall be to all a good example of the observance of the Law of God and the practice of the Christian virtues, especially that of purity.
Father, with the hierarchy and with our priests, in order thus to set up a barrier to the growing confrontation directed against the Magisterium, that threatens the very foundation of the Church.
Under your protection, we want moreover to be apostles of this sorely needed unity of prayer and love for the Pope, on whom we invoke your special protection.
And lastly, insofar as is possible, we promise to lead those souls with whom we come in contact to a re­newed devotion to you.
Mindful that atheism has caused shipwreck in the faith to a great number of the faithful, that desecration has entered into the holy temple of God, and that evil and sin are spreading more and more throughout the world, we make so bold as to lift our eyes trustingly to you, O Mother of Jesus and our merciful and powerful Mother, and we invoke again today and await from you the salva­tion of all your children, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
(with ecclesiastical approval)