{"id":28270,"date":"2015-12-31T20:12:08","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T02:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=22466"},"modified":"2017-04-17T21:58:33","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T01:58:33","slug":"remembering-who-we-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/remembering-who-we-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Who We Are","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
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ON THE VIGIL OF THE SOLEMNITY
OF THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD<\/p>\n

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EVERY <\/strong>year, we see and hear again the familiar motto, “Keep Christ in Christmas!” as a counter to the political correctness that has neutered Christmas store displays, school plays, and public speeches. But one could be forgiven for wondering if the Church herself has not lost her focus and “raison d’\u00eatre”? After all, what does keeping Christ in Christmas mean? Making sure we say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”? Putting up a manger as well as a tree? Going to midnight Mass? The words of Blessed Cardinal Newman have been lingering in my mind for several weeks:<\/p>\n

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Satan may adopt the more alarming weapons of deceit\u2014he may hide himself\u2014he may attempt to seduce us in little things, and so to move the Church, not all at once, but by little and little from her true position. I do believe he has done much in this way in the course of the last few centuries\u2026 It is his policy to split us up and divide us, to dislodge us gradually from our rock of strength. <\/strong>\u2014Blessed John Henry Newman, Sermon IV: The Persecution of Antichrist<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As I ponder the Synod on the Family that concluded this Fall, we spoke of the “pastoral care” of the family in unorthodox situations. Important questions. But when did we speak about the “salvation” of the family?<\/p>\n

Vatican officials suddenly became emboldened and courageous\u00a0this year, but not\u00a0so much in becoming “fools for Christ”, but “fools for climate change.”<\/p>\n

As the “Year of Mercy” began in Vatican Square on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, it was not images of the Divine Mercy, the Sacred Heart, or the Blessed Mother that were beamed onto St. Peter’s facade, but wild animals replete with grunts and growls.<\/p>\n

This was followed by a Vatican Commission on “Relations with the Jews”, which concluded\u00a0that the Church no longer “conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews” \u2014a contradiction to 2000 years of biblical approach finding its roots in St. Paul. [1]<\/sup><\/a>“A Reflection on the Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of “Nostra Aetate<\/em>“, n. 40, Dec. 10th, 2015; vatican.va<\/a>; nb. the document itself says that its conclusions are “non-magisterial”.<\/span><\/span>