Facing the Fiscal and Moral Cliff with Courage: We Need New Thomas More's for the Third Millennium

11/28/2012

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do so would not only have dishonored God and led his family and so many others astray, but that it would have given tacit assent to the emerging despotism of his age.

He was brought to trial for his fidelity to the Truth. Oh, as is always the case with persecution against Christians, it was framed as a charge against the "positive law". There, this outstanding lawyer defended the Truth for which he would later give his life. Thomas used the occasion of the Courtroom, where he had practiced his trade, to defend the Truth and its obligations in the temporal order.

In the eloquent words of Blessed John Paul II, who proclaimed him not only the Patron of all lawyers but the Patron of all politicians, "he made an impassioned defense of his own convictions on the indissolubility of marriage, the respect due to the juridical patrimony of Christian civilization, and the freedom of the Church in her relations with the State."

He was found "guilty", even though he was a guardian of true innocence. That unjust verdict brings shame upon every unjust tribunal and misuse of governmental power. Thomas More was martyred for his moral coherence, his fidelity to the Catholic Christian faith. He was beheaded by the minions of a temporal leader who had abused his office and wielded the awful sword, the power of the State (which has as its very source God Himself) to inflict evil against those who refused to bow down in idolatrous worship of lies.

Thomas faced his executioners with the very same dignity he had shown in life, speaking with humor and affection to them even before they beheaded him. After his death it was found that he had left these words in the margin of his Book of Hours: "Give me your grace, good Lord, to set the world at naught...to have my mind well united to you; to not depend on the changing opinions of others...so that I may think joyfully of the things of God and tenderly implore his help. So that I may lean on God's strength and make an effort to love him... So as to thank Him ceaselessly for his benefits; so as to redeem the time I have wasted..."

We need to reflect on how we are living our own Catholic faith in the midst of an increasingly hostile age. We face a similar challenge to that which faced St. Thomas More as our culture continues its decline. The attacks on true marriage are increasing in their severity. We are being invited to compromise for our own convenience and tempted to accept the rulings of Judicial Oligarchs and Alchemists who think that they can change the nature of this institution by the stroke of a pen.

Their collaborators in political office, some of whom are apostate Catholics, are now beginning to wield the figurative sword of temporal power against us. The recent HHS Mandate which threatens the fundamental human right to religious freedom is the tip of an iceberg. The truths taught by the Catholic Church, and revealed within the common patrimony of the Natural Law, are rejected in an age struggling under what was called by Pope Benedict XVI a "Dictatorship of Relativism."

The most egregious example is the rejection of the truth concerning the dignity and inviolability of ever human life. This fundamental Right to Life is taught by the Natural Law and confirmed by medical science. Yet it is denied by those in control of the power of the State, and the blood of the innocent flows. Thomas More is a man for this season. He calls us to live a unity of life. He calls us to moral coherence and integrity. He calls us to the opposite of retreat; he calls us to courage. We need New Thomas More's for the Third Millennium.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Thomas More, Courage, courageous, fiscal cliff, moral cliff, marriage, Right to Life, human dignity, HHS Mandate, culture war, men, manly spirituality, religious freedom, Deacon Keith Fournier

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1 - 7 of 7 Comments

blacksheep09
5 months ago
I reflect in these dark times St. Pauls 2nd letter to St. Timothy Ch. 3 para 1- para 9; we are neck deep in goat dropings and need to secure the close targets, our families, our neighbors, and the people whom fill the pews. I still want to throw-up when I pass a vehicle in the parking lot boasting with a bumper sticker voting for evil, yet the owner is attending Gods worship services.
Bill Sr.
5 months ago
There should be a name for these people who claim to be Catholic and consistently vote for candidates who espouse the abolition of every moral value and precept held by the Church as essential to our faith. I am told there are also Christians of other denominations who fall into the same category of misguided or misinformed loyal subjects of big government.
How long will it take for us to admit Christian values had to be dismantled and our sacred trust in gospel truth had to be distorted if evil could ever enter our ranks disguised somehow as promoting tolerance, fairness, or social justice? This is exactly how it always happens.
In this case Progressive Liberalism posing as a benevolent arm of government took over the once proud party of the poor man turning the Democratic machine into the mouthpiece for the clever perversion of Christian charity. How else could we have ever come to the new normal where mothers are given the RIGHT to kill their babies?
Virginity and chastity are now considered weird scruples of the past and the sanctity of marriage is irrelevant with most couples living together until they feel comfortable with the arrangement. Parents today send their children off to government schools where they are indoctrinated into accepting the notion that what they are being taught may be contrary to what their mothers and fathers think or believe but they should be thankful because this is a new and enlightened age they are becoming a part of which offers freedom from the constraints of outdated moral concepts.
Christians who are either actually unaware of these facts or have chosen to ignore the obvious change in direction our nation are not followers of Christ, they are wanderers in the wilderness of worldly confusion and delusion purposely constructed for them by the prince of darkness and his legions of elitists who have bought into the humanistic myth of a godless Utopia.
Maybe that is what we should call the lost or wandering Christians of today, Christians Looking for Utopia on Earth... less Christ or…….. CLUEless.
Staff
5 months ago
We had a Thomas More and we spat on him and mocked him every step of the way... And he was only humbly doing the will of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum - the Magna Carta for the working man - and the will of its reiteration in Pope Pius XI's Quadragesimo Anno! What to do for the fiscal cliff is all there! You can read more about it at the site of the most neglected American saint and most like Thomas More in America with over 40 million weekly listeners! Father Coughlin! Go now to www.FatherCoughlin.com
Emma
5 months ago
"We were warriors on the frontlines, standing unafraid
Now we're watchers on the sidelines
While our families slip away
Where are you, men of courage?
You were made for so much more!
Let the pounding of our hearts cry
We will serve the Lord!
We were made to be couraaaaaageous! ".....(Casting Crowns)

So, where are you men of courage? God bless you all!!
mike robertson
5 months ago
Catholic democrats, based on their voting record, must dislike More. He put God first. His first obedience was to God's laws. Getting another person's money at the hands of the government was not the most important thing. I assume I speak for many Catholics when I say I feel like More would feel if he had been around today. I still believe what my parents and Church taught me fifty years ago. But the world has fallen so far from obeying God, I no longer feel like I am in the majority-as I did feel half a century ago. I am made to feel like a bigot because I believe no one has the right to take innocent human life. The man Catholic democrats voted for advocates killing kids even after they survive the attempt to kill them in their mom's womb. I am called a phobe because I accept what God calls true marriage. Catholic democrats voted for one who says God is wrong on the subject. And I stand with God's Church as it fights against the Catholic democrats' candidate who is ordering the Church to abandon her adherence to God's laws under the guise of health care. Catholic democrats can continue to stand on the opposite side of the Church on these matters and remain loyal to the administration they supported. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
rafaelmarie
5 months ago
IT IS IMMORAL TO SPEND MORE THAN YOU HAVE.

IT IS IMMORAL TO BE A SLOTH AND HAVE GOVERNMENT SUPPORT YOU.

IT IS IMMORAL TO COMPLETELY IGNORE THE GREAT SOCIETAL SIN OF ABORTION, BECAUSE YOUR PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL PASSIONS ARE ANGRY AGAINST THE RICH, WHILE YOU IGNORE THE POVERTY OF YOUR SPIRIT IN IGNORING THE SILENT CRIES OF THE UNBORN!

MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR DECREPIT SOULS!
abey
5 months ago
Through the Apostasy of Henry VII, in the iniquity that was at work, commenced the taking up the Yoke of Freemasonry by the "crown" mixing it with its religion to apolitical church leading to the Biblical prophecy relating to 'Meggido" in all those wicked & false beliefs of Ancient Egypt nothing but to slavery, against which is the war, the Spiritual war of Christ.

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