TrapCast Express
TrapCast Express, it's Wednesday, March 20th, 2024.
Well, it's that time of the year again.
That time of fasting and praying.
No, I'm not talking about Lent or Passion Tide.
I'm talking about Ramadan, the annual fasting month observed by Muslims.
And that is something that is very near and dear to the heart of the people running the Diocese of Bergamo, Italy.
Italian Diocese urges Catholics to join Muslims for prayers and meals in Ramadan.
The English publication Catholic Herald reported on March 8th.
Let me read you.
Quote,
The Diocese of Bergamo issued a communique on Monday urging priests to seek out opportunities for interreligious dialogue during the holy month of Ramadan
by inviting the faithful to join in praying with Muslims and joining in the Iftar ritual meal.
The letter from the Northern Italian Diocese asks the faithful to pray for
a
continuous
realization
of all the dimensions
that make up humanity
desired by the Creator
and for
continuous growth
in the dialogue between peoples
and different faiths.
Father Massimo Rizzi,
Director of the Diocese's
Office for Interreligious Dialogue,
who signed the directive,
upset local Catholics
for dating the letter
according to the Islamic
calendar,
the 23rd of Shaban 1445.
Rizzi explained that Ramadan
was a strong time
for Muslims to promote
their religious practice
as well as a month of fasting
and prayer
and a time of feasting and sharing.
This interreligious
dialogue is a necessary
condition for peace
in the world and is therefore
a duty for Christians.
As well as for other religious
communities, Rizzi added,
quoting Francis'
apostolic exhortation,
Evangelii Gaudium.
Italian commentator
Aldo Maria Vali
criticized the diocese
for urging Catholics to pray
for Ramadan on
Letare Sunday during Holy Mass
when the Church remembers
the liberation of Israel
from Egyptian slavery
and the liberation of the
Christian people from the
slavery of Satan and sin.
In 2020,
the Pontifical Council for
Interreligious Dialogue
began encouraging Christians
to join in the Islamic
Iftar ritual meal
during Ramadan.
Unquote.
Well, what do you know?
Joining in Islamic prayers
and ritual dinners is
something not merely permitted
or encouraged,
in Novos Ordo land,
they're starting to hint
that it'll soon be mandatory.
Why, peace may just
depend on it.
Now, although the driving
force behind this in recent
years has clearly been
the teachings and initiatives
of Jorge Bergoglio,
so-called Pope Francis,
this is something that was already
anticipated by none
other than Pope
John Paul II,
as far back as
1979.
In his first encyclical
letter, Redemptor Hominis,
No. 6,
the supposed Saint Pope
wrote this, quote,
What we have just said,
regarding the importance
of ecumenism with Protestants
and Orthodox, what we have
just said must also be
applied, although in another
way and with the due differences,
to activity for
coming closer together
with the representatives of the
non-Christian religions.
An activity expressed
through dialogue,
contacts, prayer
in common, investigation
of the treasures of human
spirituality in which,
as we know well, the members of
these religions are also
not lacking, unquote.
There you have it.
John Paul II was
waiting for this since the
1970s.
It's about time
they finally got around to it.
Although, I guess
he didn't say anything about
dinner. Oh well.
But now let's move on
from Ramadan to Lent,
finally, and from Bergamo
to the Diocese of
Graz-Secho in Austria.
If you are
unfortunate enough to be subscribed
to the Daily Lenten Inspirations
the Diocese puts out via
email or WhatsApp,
then on March 7th
you received a message entitled
Under the Rainbow.
Written by a
female theologian who works
for the diocese in some kind of
spiritual, pastoral,
whatever function, and yes
she does have a long hyphenated
last name, the Lenten
Inspiration in question
contained a prayer to
the God of Diversities.
Yes, plural.
Diversities.
Come on, if we're going to have
real diversity, then
obviously diversity itself
has to be diverse.
Anyway,
the prayer reads as follows.
And this is a translation
from German.
Quote,
God of Diversities,
you make everything so beautiful.
There is not just blue
or pink, boy or girl,
man or woman.
No, you love all
colors and intermediate colors.
Under the radiant,
colorful rainbow you promised
us your loyalty.
Be praised by my humanity
which reflects you
in this world.
Today, I want to consciously
take note of and
appreciate people's
colorful diversity.
Unquote.
Now,
if that doesn't inspire
some serious Lenten zeal
in people.
By the way,
in the German original, the term
used for God of
Diversities is
Vielfaltengott.
Not that that makes it any
better.
In other news,
have you ever wondered what the point of
having a Pope would be if
Francis actually were one?
See, according
to
traditional Catholic teaching,
the Pope is the
Vicar of Christ, the Principle
of Unity, the
unshakable rock against which
the gates of Hell cannot prevail,
the Safeguard of
Orthodoxy, the one who
guarantees the Church's faithfulness
to her divine mission,
the Messenger of Truth
and Justice, the Defender
of Virtue, the
Sovereign and Supreme Father
and Teacher of all Christians.
The proximate
and universal rule of
faith, the supreme
visible head of the Church
and Pastor who shepherds
the flock of Christ,
who judges all
and is himself judged
by no one on earth.
All of these
descriptions reflect the pre-Vatican
II Catholic teaching on
the papacy. They are
not simply describing
what the Pope is supposed to
be.
But what by divine
institution and guarantee
he actually is
and always will be.
So, what good
is it for the semi-traditionalists,
the ones who recognize
Francis as Pope but resist
him where they deem him to have gone
off the rails, what good
is it for these recognize
and resistors to insist
Bergoglio is a true Pope
when at the same time
they understand very well
that he doesn't fit
any of these descriptions I just
listed.
And I'm not talking about his
private moral failings, which
we all have, but about his
official magisterium,
his teachings, his
laws, his rulings,
his canonizations, and so
forth. But
not to worry, Francis isn't
completely useless to the
semi-trads. The American
Recognize and Resist publication,
The Remnant, has now
found some use for their
Pope, after all.
In an article published
on September 19th,
2023,
yeah, it's already been six months,
time flies, Remnant
columnist Robert Morrison suggested
that Francis is a really
reliable indicator helping
the world locate the true
religion. It's the
only one he attacks.
The article is entitled
If You Want to Find the True
Religion, Find the Only One
Attacked by Francis.
Yeah, well,
except, of course, that's not
how the visibility of the church
works. I mean, it's not like
Christ instituted a church with
a visible hierarchy so people could
see what religion is being
condemned and persecuted by them
and then choose that one.
Seems like Morrison is
confusing the Vicar of Christ
with Caiaphas.
And the church, the mystical body of
Christ, with the synagogue of
Satan.
At the end of his article, the author
says that Catholics must
remain with Our Lady of Sorrows
by the cross until,
get this,
until God finally
defeats what Francis
represents.
That's a quote. Until God
finally defeats what Francis
represents. Well, you know, if
he's the Pope, as the
remnant believes, then it's pretty
clear what Francis represents.
Or rather, whom
he represents. Our
Lord Jesus Christ.
In his encyclical,
Mystici Corporis, number 40,
Pope Pius XII taught that
Christ rules the church invisibly
from heaven, but
quote, visibly through
him who is his
representative on earth.
Unquote.
It is
unbelievable how much
pseudo-trat junk
the remnant has been publishing
in recent years.
Sometime back, one of their writers was arguing
that God protected the church from
the Second Vatican Council
not by preventing errors
in the council, but by making
the errors obvious.
I mean, this is just
insane stuff.
I guess
they've got to keep filling their pages with
something to be able to do that.
Well, to publish a newspaper every two weeks,
but, man, they're really
scraping the bottom of the
barrel now.
And it's tragic
because all these things matter.
Words matter.
Theology matters.
Whether Francis is the vicar of
Christ or of the Antichrist
matters.
May not matter
to the remnant, but it does
matter to Catholics.
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