Fatima Seer Sister Lucia on the Rosary

Post Scriptus: One reader of this post repeatedly inveighed "You must be out of your mind" concerning credence to Our Lady of Fatima. Of course, it was a shrill anti-Catholic screed. Regrettably the writer of the ad hominem comment lacked the testicular fortitude to attach a name or any means to colloquy. Some profession of faith--not! The poster must have been out of his mind if he was seeking to convince anyone of his conviction. God bless his little heart.

Pope St. John Paul II on How Our Lady of Fatima Saved His Life

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on Prayer

Pope St. John Paul II was so convicted that the Blessed Virgin Marry saved his life as the first apparition of the lady in white was on May 13th 1917 and he was shot on May 13th 1981. One year after the assassination attempt, JPII gave one of the bullets lodged in his body to be melded into the crown of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Autumn de Forest to Pope Francis

Artistic child prodigy Autumn De Forest presented  a painting of the Resurrection to Pope Francis.  The 14 year old had a realistic expectation of her oeuvre. 

Pope Francis on the Resurrection and Life

President Trump on Freedom

As President Trump commemorated the 2017 National Day of Prayer by signing Executive Orders protecting religious liberty, he noted where this fundamental first freedom is derived.

Remembering English Martyrs

The Catholic Church commemorates May 4th the forty Martyrs of England and Wales. In the wake of the Protestant Reformation, England's Queen Elizabeth I intended supplant the old religion (Roman Catholicism) to the new religion loyal to the crown Anglicanism.  

From the Act of Supremacy in 1558 when Elizabeth ascended the throne to 1570 there were no Catholic martyrs for the faith.  But the English crown shifted their modus operandi  after Pope Pius V's bull Regnans in Excelsis  which excommunicated Elizabeth, the English crown began to crack down.  Five Catholics were slain for treason for plotting to overthrow the sovereign.

However, there were a slew of anti-Catholic laws which were promulgated.  In 1571, the English Crown denied the Holy See any jurisdiction, publishing anything from the Pope, forbidding "poperies" like crosses, rosaries and Agnus Dei from the the pope.  

Elizabeth also commanded that the Book of Common prayer be used in all churches.  Later, it became punishable to not attend Church of England services, draw anyone away from the state religion, teach without the blessing of an Anglican bishop or even celebrate the Catholic Mass.  In 1585, it became a capital crime to go abroad to be ordained as a Catholic priest.

One could rightly point to the 283 Protestants who were killed for their faith under Mary I were also martyred for their faith, during  an unfortunate era of intolerance in Christendom. May we now remember to have unity on essential thing,  liberty on dubious things and charity for all.

Prayer to St. Joseph the Worker