The third crusade, according to Fr. Alain Lorans in "What are the results of the Rosary Crusade?" (Documentation Information Catholiques Internationales, April 17, 2010), had as its goal "the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Supreme Pontiff and all the bishops of the Catholic world, in accordance with the message of Fatima in which Our Lady herself announced the final triumph of her Immaculate Heart." Lorans reports:
To date we have only a provisional count, as all the results have not yet been tallied. However, DICI is delighted to announce to its readers, in this exclusive news report, that the goal of 12 million rosaries, which were to form a crown of 12 stars for Mary, Queen of Heaven, has been surpassed by far, since more than 18 million rosaries have already been reported. Among the districts that sent in their results, we should note the generosity of the United States (5,351,500), Africa (2,815,350), Asia (2,538,200), and France (2,529,670). Next come Canada (717,000), Germany (680,000), South America (536,480), Switzerland (411,000), Australia (402,000), Mexico (332,800), Italy (215,000), Ireland (136,190)….Time will tell whether the petitions of the third Rosary Crusade are answered in ways as dramatic as were the first two.
Once a definitive count is obtained, this crown of rosaries recited around the world, over the course of nearly a year, will be presented to the Holy Father by Bishop Fellay. Profound thanks to all the Rosary crusaders for their admirable Marian fervor!
Related: "Germany: Father Schmidberger Speaks about the Meetings with Rome" (DICI, March 11, 2010)
[Disclaimer: See Da Rulz ##7-9 and "Policies" in Liturgical Position Statement]
Very interesting!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised at the time that the third crusade was for the consecration of Russia rather than the re-union of the Church and the SSPX. I wonder if Pope Benedict would consider it or if he believes that it was already done as Our Lady asked back when the whole world was consecrated.
I wondered about that, too, Rachel.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, we should be consecrating the Catholic Church, and leave Russia to the prayers of the Russian Orthodox. We have enough to deal with much closer to home. From my present perspective, this Fatima stuff seems plain foolish and useless. Pray instead for the Pope and the Church, for Light in the darkness.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,689761,00.html
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100418-26613.html
Sad to say, even some of our 'traditionalist' leaders apparently need to repent - what is going on?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/20/AR2010042002445.html
As for SSPX Father Schmidberger comments, "there is no other God but the Most Holy Trinity, no other Lord but Jesus Christ, we do not worship the same God as the Jews", - well, can't we perhaps just say that the Jews of today worship the same God as Catholics do, but not in the best way i.e., in the 'wrong' way with incomplete understanding? Otherwise, Schmidberger sounds a bit off.
Perhaps Pope Benedict and the SSPX would do better to fix the Church; as it stands, it appears Satan has the upper hand - schism, stupidly, lies, sin and corruption everywhere.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI understand your sentiments. I will not speak to the Fatima issue here, though I think that has to be considered on its own merits as a Marian question. I do agree that the church has plenty of issues to deal with in the West, independently of her concern for Russia. Still, the RC Church is the universal Church and can't simply exclude from consideration the Eastern lands under predominantly Eastern Orthodox purview.
The main question you raise of interest to me is the question of whether the God of the Jews is the same God as that of Christians. The knee-jerk reaction, I think, is to say that we share the same God, particularly in view of the intimate relationship between the two Covenants and Testaments. Peter Kreeft shares this view and extends this theological ecumenism to include Muslims, as worshipers of the "same God."
I used to teach a university course on world religions in which I would broach this subject at the beginning of the course, along with the question whether there is such a thing as "religion" of which Christianity is a species. The deeper one goes into these questions, I think, the more problematic the notion becomes that we all share a common genus ("religion") of which we -- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, not to mention Hinduism, and Buddhism -- are species. Likewise, the notion of a common "God."
On the face of it, it looks like we could say that we (Christians, Jews, and possibly Muslims) share a common "God" but have variously differing conceptualizations of Him. That's a common way of characterizing the relationships, I believe. Yet there are huge problems with that.
First, it may be that the early Christians, who were Jewish converts to the Christian Faith, could be viewed as sharing the same God, but moving into a different (New) covenantal relationship with Him. But once we move beyond that into subsequent Judaism, which explicitly rejects Jesus as the Christ and Messiah, problems emerge; just as there are problems once Christians begin negotiating their trinitarian understanding of God with Muslims or Jehovah's Witnesses.
Can we say that we worship the "same God" with differing understandings of Him if we do not agree on a common principle of arbitration between the conflicting understandings? How can we claim to know that this God is the same God otherwise? It seems to me to pose a problem.
Granted, we can agree on certain characteristics of God in our respective understandings of Him -- His transcendence, goodness, mercy, omniscience, omnipotence, etc. But beyond that, the conceptualizations break down into rival conceptualizations. And if we can't agree on those, how can we agree that the God "beyond" these rival conceptualizations is "the same" God? The prospect begins to appear almost Gnostic.
The middle story turned out to be incorrect: http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/04/former-vicar-general-in-archd-of-munich-denies-taking-the-fall-for-the-future-pope/
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest, no wonder you're disgusted by the sex abuse scandal, but that wasn't the topic of the post. Your argument presents a false dichotomy between dealing with one issue or the other. It's a huge Church with lots going on; we can deal with both issues and lots more besides.
And I would never say it's "plain foolish and useless" to be concerned with whether Russia has been consecrated when Our Lady herself requested it in strong terms in 1917:
"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world."