Author Archive: Ian De Cotta

When the devil sends text messages

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Despite its immense good, social media also opens doorways to demonic possession

To make a killing at the box office, film producers are known to stretch the truth and sensationalise facts about real persons. This is especially true of The Pope’s Exorcist in which Russell Crow plays the lead character, Fr Gabriele Amorth.

While key elements of the world-renowned exorcist’s work are there, filmmakers took licence to paint him as a swashbuckling hero in scenes that belong to movie genres like those in the Marvel Universe.

But demonic attacks on people are not fiction and if any film comes close to depicting the reality of this, it is the 1973 original film, The Exorcist, which Fr Amorth apparently gave the thumbs up.

It showed scenes of a girl levitating, spinning her head 360 degrees and speaking in a foreign language in the voice of the Devil. Such phenomena, exorcists say, are what they often encounter in demonic possession cases. Dark spiritual forces harassing and oppressing people, and taking over homes, things and even animals are also not uncommon.

The devil and evil spirits, it seems, have kept up with technological advances and are now using devices such as the mobile phone to deceive their unsuspecting prey.

This may be incredulous to many of us, but last week a religious sister pointed me to a 2017 story about the devil sending text messages while an Exorcist in the Philippines was speaking with a possessed woman.

The Devil uses technology to lure victims

The recipient of the demonic messages was the woman’s companion who was in the room at the time and the demon told him to not believe what the Exorcist, Fr Jose Francisco Syquia, was telling her. Syquia, who studied and trained under Fr Amorth, heads the 170-strong Philippine Association of Catholic Exorcists, the largest in Asia.

The incident involving Syquia piqued my interest because this is the first time I’ve come across a story of the Devil manifesting on an electronic communication device.

The mobile phone is our primary means of instantly connecting with family, relatives and friends all over the world today and this episode is significant as it shows the dark flip side to the immense good digital technology offers us.

This fact has not gone unnoticed in the ongoing Synod in Rome and is one of the topics under discussion. The introduction to Module B2 of the Instrumentum Laboris on the Church’s digital mission notes:

The digital environment is a culture, a “place” where people – all of us – spend a significant part of our lives. As Pope Francis says in Christus Vivit, it “has had a profound impact on ideas of time and space, on our self-understanding, our understanding of others and the world, and our ability to communicate, learn, be informed and enter into relationship with others” (CV 86).

The Instrumentum Laboris, though, also cautions that:

We are also aware of many things in that environment that are not of God. We are not naïve. In “Toward a Full Presence”, this May’s Pastoral Reflection by the Dicastery for Communication on interaction on Social Networks, the algorithms that condition and filter the networks for economic gain are well analysed. Like all missionaries, we need to know where the pitfalls and deceptions lie.

American Exorcist Fr Gary Thomas first raised the alarm of demonic activity in the digital environment as far back as 2011. Then, he warned, the Internet had and still has dangerous doorways that lead to the demonic harassment, oppression and, worse, possession of people. He highlighted that websites dedicated to the occult, witchcraft, Tarot cards, psychics and séances were increasingly exposing young people to demonic influences.

Fr Thomas went on to say that pornography, and drug and alcohol abuse were the common footholds for the devil to ensnare victims. Other exorcists such as Amorth, Syquia and Chad Ripperger have also said the same, especially those who habitually engage in acts of mortal sin.

Fr Thomas lists 9 demonic openings and 4 spiritual weapons to keep them at bay.

Cracks in moral and spiritual life invite demonic infestation

An immoral and impure spiritual lifestyle such as syncretism – incorporating Catholic practices with pagan or occult ones like Feng Shui and the wearing of amulets – provide the Devil with openings to begin harassing a person that ultimately leads to possession (Must watch: Exorcist Fr Daniel Estacio’s video below).

When Fr Thomas warned about the presence of evil in the Internet, social media had yet to have a dominant presence it has today, as it only flourished and festered during Pope Francis’ pontificate. As he was on the receiving end of some of the vilest fake and misinformed accusations up til today, the Holy Father is well placed to authoritatively speak about the impact of its dark side.

Speaking to the International Catholic Legislators network two months ago, Christ’s Vicar says that while the goal of social media networks is to “connect people” and much good takes place in them, they also breed destructive attitudes.

We also need to be vigilant, for sadly many “dehumanizing” trends resulting from technocracy are found on these media, such as the deliberate spread of false information about people – fake news, the promotion of hatred and division – “partisan” propaganda, and the reduction of human relationships to mere algorithms, not to mention a false sense of belonging, especially among young people, that can lead to isolation and loneliness.

This misuse of virtual encounter can only be overcome by the culture of authentic encounter, which involves a radical call to respect and to listen to one another, including those with whom we may strongly disagree.

Pope Francis

Pope Francis zooms in on an important point that many netizens have experienced all too often. How many times have we met people in person and find them amiable, only to find them morphing into the complete opposite on Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media networks?

In their interaction with others on digital networks these good-natured friends become abusive and aggressive bullies. How many times have others said the same of us? How often have we been the authors of falsehood and calumny, especially against the Pope, Magisterium and Church?

The reality is that the computer hides us behind a screen and takes away the personal element of interaction with its innate safety mechanisms to temper uncharitable behaviour. Interacting in the virtual world can trigger our basest human inclinations to sin, such as the “deliberate spread of false information about people” and to dehumanise our neighbour, as Pope Francis points out.

These harmful attitudes, if not reined it or goes unchecked, can present footholds for demons to latched on and enter our lives.

The young are especially vulnerable. Citing a study done in 2000, Fr Syquia says it found that children aged 10-17 had only one-third of face-to-face encounters with other people compared to similar age groups from past generations.

When a person gets isolated, the devil starts to work on the mind. The young start to have all these thoughts that make them feel depressed and alone. Only 30-percent human contact? That’s what the devil desires. The internet has no morality and a child would tend to search for what titillates his senses. So, he jumps from one [medium] to another, trying to sustain a high similar to a dopamine hit.

Exorcist Fr Jose Francisco Syquia

He says spending much time surfing the web can put a young mind in a hypnotic trance and they become open to diabolical influences and auto-suggestion.

Adults are not spared these dangers because the Devil does not make exceptions. How, then, can we overcome demonic influences lurking in the digital space to ensnare us? The online universe is irreversibly entrenched in our daily lives and we cannot win this Spiritual Battle on our own.

We need God’s help because only He can provide us protection against the enemy. We need to first ask for His Grace of humility, gentleness and charity in interacting with other users on social media.

Filipino Exorcist Fr Daniel Estacio details the openings for demons to enter our lives.

To avoid the digital universe is to close the door to a new way of evangelising. Catholics need to have a presence there or it would be a big opportunity missed.

As the Synod wisely acknowledges on this new path:

It is said that we are in a moment of transformation in the Church, that the inherited model no longer works for speaking to the digital age. It is suggested that, in this transitional era, the Church should be built from the peripheries, there in the Galilee of non-believers and the wounded, where those yearning for God do not know how to call upon Him. Our experience is that the digital culture holds much of this “new Galilee”, and that the Lord is there, ahead of us, taking the lead, as Pope Francis says.

Fr Thomas recommends four important elements must be present in our lives to protect us from demonic infiltration.

1) Relationship with Jesus Christ

2) A life of faith in prayer, adhering to the teachings of the Church and studying Scriptures

3) The Sacraments to anchor our life of faith

4) Mary’s presence in our lives through prayer to invoke her help, and calling on St Michael, the angels and saints to defend us in Spiritual Warfare.

I’d add that on waking up to each new day our prayers to God must also include invoking Our Lady’s powerful protection for us and our families, and for St Michael, our Guardian Angels and the saints to defend us against Satan and all evil spirits.

Prayer to St Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

The three Synods, but only one matters

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Listen and follow the Holy Spirit, not those sowing confusion in the Church

At Wednesday’s (Oct 11) Synod press briefing, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea’s Grace Wrackia (main photo, in red) stood out because what she said encapsulates the essence of what is taking place at the Vatican: Listening.

The first Christian missionaries to arrive in her homeland on the northern tip of Australia in 1845 were Marists from the Society of Mary. Since then, she tells us, the country of over eight million today has grown to 20 Dioceses in Papua New Guinea, with another three in the Solomon Islands (Population: 707, 8510). Both have a combined total of 23 Bishops.

About 25% and 20% of their respective population are Catholic. How this happened in Papua New Guinea, a country of a thousand tribes speaking 840 languages – which is the most diverse in the world – is nothing short of a miracle.

Before Christianity arrived, Wrackia says spirituality of four elements dominated the Melanisian community, as the Papua people are collectively known. These elements are community living, an integrated worldview, harmonious relationships with the cosmos and spiritual and physical beings, and religious rituals.

These elements enabled my ancestors to embraced Christianity, especially Catholicism. That way of life continues to live today in my generation, but it is a struggle to keep these elements together because of so many influences we have had – from the period of colonisation to currently globalisation and secularisation. This has affected the integrity of community living.

Grace Wrackia of Papua New Guinea

Still, Wrackia, adds that despite these developments, community living is very much alive in her country. They continue to live in communion with one another, and this, she points out, resonates with the three pillars of Synodality – communion, participation, and mission – where they see each other as family. For the Melanisians, their view of family and relationship extends beyond bloodlines, ethnicity and geography.

Giving a heartfelt nod to Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality, Wrackia, says, “For so many years we have been listening. Now we’d like to speak and we’d like you to listen. We have something to give to the world. And what we give is from our heart is our way of living, living in communion, living together and building relationships.”

Listening and changing how we think

It is listening to such witnesses as Wrackia, that moved Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, Archbishop of Québec (Canada), who was also present at the press briefing, to share his experience of “enrichment” during the Synod at the Vatican’s Paul VI hall.

“The methodology we are using is directed towards listening to the Lord, His Word, His presence in every baptized person, and this allows us to be open to the other and to the others. We can find nuances, change what we think, and that is how we see that God is working and is working in all people.” He adds that living all this on a personal level “leads me to adjust, to refine, to change my thinking a little”.

The Canadian Cardinal’s words resonate with what Pope Francis said about the Synod – that the Holy Spirit, and no one else, is its Protagonist, not only during the assembly at the Vatican, but in the mystical Body of Christ in the entire world right from the start.

So why has there been resistance, and even opposition, to this event that Pope Francis launched in the autumn of 2021, a negativity that continues to this day?

I woke up this morning to a message from a friend, who posted a defiant meme he saw from a prominent Catholic theologian, who has a large following. The theologian used the Synod’s official image and changed the actual tagline of “Walking Together” to “Falling Together.”

If the Holy Spirit is the One moving everything in the Synod, such antagonistic behaviour, including the recent dubias of five Cardinals, can only be described as contrary to this Divine movement.

But before we conclude their actions are the work of the Devil, please stop there.

God endowed men and women with free will, and the good or evil choices we make are entirely ours and not Satan’s. Baptism cleanses us of original sin, but it does not free us from finding sin attractive.

This defect, called concupiscence, is part of our fallen human condition that responds to the allure of sin. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2515) teaches: “Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin. It unsettles man’s moral faculties and, without being in itself an offence, inclines man to commit sins”.   

So, leave the poor devil alone and don’t blame him as the cause for all the wrong choices we make. It does not mean, though, he will not exploit our concupiscence and tempt us to choose sin instead of the Grace of Christ. After all, if he had the audacity to tempt Our Lord in the desert, we are chicken feed to him.

But Christ has shown us the way, which is to keep our eyes focused on Him because without Him, we can do nothing that is pleasing to God. As St Paul entreats us in Ephesians 6:10, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” 

Our goal, therefore, must be to shut out all the disruptive noises directed against Pope Francis and the Synod. The Holy Father started the Synod to prompt the Church to find a better way of moving forward to listening to our brothers and sisters, no matter who they are, where they come from and the state they are in.

The ‘three’ Synods

It seems at this point in time, though, there are three Synods going on simultaneously: the synod of mainstream Catholic and non-Catholic media, the social media synod and the actual Synod in Rome.

The first two, full of false and biased opinions not based on facts, are disproportionately weighed against Pope Francis and the Synod. Unfortunately because of the powerful influence they yield, they have been able to sway many well-meaning Catholics, including not a few prelates, clergy and theologians, to their point of views. What those who have read or viewed the misleading content have done is to only repeat all the misinformation they’ve consumed without, I suspect, doing any due diligence to verify the actual facts.

Fortunately, there are honest Catholics who have done this work and thanks to them, we can get a complete picture of what is going on.

One of these is Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton, who across the Atlantic Ocean in Canada, gives a good analysis of the so-called three synods, which all Catholics of goodwill ought to listen to. He speaks on the programme, Synod Anxiety: Archbishop Speaks Out on the Synod, Changes in Doctrine, and Dubia Questions, which was released earlier this week. Watch the video below.

Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton on the so-called three Synods.

Another podcast worth watching and listening to is that of well-known theologian Michael Lofton Faith and Reason’s programme, Will the Dubia Cardinals Stop This Chaos?, on his Youtube Channel.

Michael Loton questions the intentions of five Cardinals and their dubias.

Perhaps, newly created Polish Cardinal Gregorz Ryś, 59, best sums up the opposition to Pope Francis and the Synod in an interview he gave earlier this month. The following is the full quote from His Eminence.

I don’t want to defend the pope. I want to follow him and to obey his teaching. He’s Peter; not me. When I am asked about all this (opposition to Pope Francis), I usually answer that we behave completely unjustly toward the pope because the opposition to him is always based on one or two phrases taken out of context. I always ask [the pope’s critics]: Have you read ‘Evangelii Gaudium’? What do you think of it? ‘Evangelii Gaudium’, not the one or two sentences that he said to the journalists on the plane, is the program for Francis’ pontificate and for the church.

Cardinal Gregorz Ryś

Adds the Cardinal, “I noticed only one week ago when he was in Marseille, Francis gave a speech that in my view is one of the most important speeches he has given as pope, and I looked in the Polish newspapers and blog sites for at least a summary of it, but there was nothing. Nothing!

“On the other hand, there was much criticism of the pope after his speech to young Russian Catholics in St. Petersburg. But nobody speaks about his real speech to them. He gave a long speech; he spoke half an hour, and he offered them all his teaching from the World Youth Day in Lisbon, knowing that they couldn’t go to Lisbon. It was a wonderful speech again, but they only look at one sentence that he added on at the end. This is unjust. It is completely unjust how we treat Francis in our discussions [in Poland].”

We need to ask a question of ourselves: How many of us are among the unjust when it comes to Pope Francis and his Synod?

Our worldview is shaped by what we choose to read. A follow-up question is: Are we being honest when we selective read, watch or view content because they affirm our preconceived views? If we are, and propagate this, then, we risk misleading Catholics who look up to us for our opinions.

Don’t be the one who leads innocent sheep astray.

Synod not primed to finding solutions to issues

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Assembly is about new way of doing Church, approaching problems: Card Ambongo

When a child falls by the wayside, is disobedient, rebellious and frequently returns home late, the first thing loving and concerned parents usually do is to find the reasons behind the errant behaviour.

Few, if any, ground children for misdeeds or use the “spare the rod and spoil the child” tool, although some parents still swear by this.

Instead, the preferred option is to ponder questions not only of their son or daughter but if there are negative external factors influencing their children. Or, if they, as parents, have somehow made missteps along the way.

To discover the reasons requires listening to the child speak and understanding the root cause of his errant behaviour. It could reveal he feels unloved. Perhaps his parents have not been attending to his problems and needs. Once they are able to identify the causes, the next step is to how to address them in the right way that doesn’t compromise his or their own good.

A doctor can only prescribe the right medication if he accurately diagnoses his patient.

This is exactly the steps the ongoing Synod in Rome is taking. It consists of the first two steps: listening and identifying the most pressing issues the Church faces today. The third step on how to address them is likely to take place after the second of the final phase of the Synod is completed in Rome next October.

Synod is about new way to approach problems

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa, Congo, emphasises this point that the Synod is not geared to “resolve particular problems” in the Church, but to explore ways to discuss and address such issues. “There are a lot of people who believe that this Synod will bring solutions to all problems,” he adds during a news conference on Saturday (7 Oct 2023) at the Vatican at the end of the first week of the Synod.

“But the Synod will define the new way of ‘doing’ Church, the new way of approaching problems, what the problem is but also how in the spirit of synodality we will approach that problem.”

Ambongo is not saying anything new. In fact, when the official Synod handbook was issued on 7 Sept 2021, it spelt out the way the assembly of all Catholics will be conducted and its objective from the parish and diocesan levels to the continental and universal phases.

The objective of this Synodal Process is not to provide a temporary or one-time experience of synodality, but rather to provide an opportunity for the entire People of God to discern together how to move forward on the path towards being a more synodal Church in the long-term.

Thus, the teaching authority of the Pope and the bishops is in dialogue with the sensus fidelium, the living voice of the People of God (cf. Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church, 74). The path of synodality seeks to make pastoral decisions that reflect the will of God as closely as possible, grounding them in the living voice of the People of God (ICT, Syn., 68).

Chapter 1.3 (Handbook) What is the aim of this Synod? Objectives of the Synodal Process

On knowing the Will of God, Ambongo says, “People cannot easily say, ‘I know the will of God,’ that would be truly pretentious. That is why the Synod rightly chose the method of discerning.”

This, he adds, entails seeking together “that which seems today and right now the best solution” to a given issue.

The Synod, therefore, opens a path to listening to the “living voice of the People of God”. Only then, the teaching authority of the Pope and the bishops will proceed in seeking to make pastoral decisions that “reflect the will of God”.

So, why were there questions raised that the Synod will do otherwise, especially in the five dubias five cardinals submitted to Pope Francis “if synodality can be the supreme regulatory criterion of the permanent governance of the Church?” This was posed on the backdrop of contentious issues regarding the blessing of same-sex unions and women’s ordination.

Cardinal Ambongo says the Synod will explore ways to address issues

If any person of goodwill had carefully read the handbook, these questions would not have been raised at all because it is clear the Synod will not be making any pastoral decisions, let alone doctrinal ones.

At the Saturday press conference, Cardinal Fridolin reemphasises this point, “We are here for a synod on synodality. Synodality does not mean expressing personal opinions, but walking together. On the LGBT question, the Lord himself will show us the way through collective discernment.”

One wonders how many who gave weight to the dubias and repeated them actually read the Handbook? It would be good and charitable if they did.

Why not only bishops can vote at Synod

Another issue that sparked heated debate was about Synod voting rights given to not only bishops, but to other clergy, and male and female religious and lay persons.

As we have already established, the Synod will not be making or is in a position to make any decision that will bind the Church. We were given a clearer picture just before the start of the synod what the votes were tied to.

During the month-long Synod cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, lay women and men will be broken up into 35 working groups. Each will have between 10 and 12 people, including 14 groups working in English, eight in Italian, seven in Spanish, five in French and one in Portuguese.

Dr Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and president of the assembly’s Commission for Information, added that each group will be asked to draft a short report on their conversation. They will then vote on whether it accurately reflects the discussion and then choose someone to read it to the whole assembly.

After a discussion of all the reports in the full assembly, each group will then decide whether or how to amend their reports before turning them into the synod secretariat for inclusion in a summary report on that section of the synod’s work.

The votes, therefore, has nothing to do with any pastoral or doctrinal matters that the Church must abide with but rather about if the reports accurately reflect their respective discussions.

As we continue to seek information on the progress of the Synod, we must tab on trusted and accurate news outlets, one of which is certainly from the press conferences that Dr Ruffini’s team puts together each week.

Seeking views from suspect outside sources, Catholic or otherwise, that tell a different story skewed towards their opinions or even agendas are unhelpful to ordinary Catholics and can mislead them and create divisions in the Church.

The Synod, the fallen and the righteous

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With the Holy Spirit in charge at Assembly of Bishops, the fallen will not be forgotten

After a month recuperating at home from surgery to my legs, I decided to get off my haunches today and do some cycling, the only exercise my doctors permit as it does not entail standing up too much.

A short time after I started, my bike grazed the bicycle of a lady and sent me tumbling on a path. Fortunately, I was wearing a helmet that prevented any head injury that could have been serious.

As I laid on the ground, I waved my hand in protest at the lady. She got off from her bike, scolded me for my carelessness and went off, without attempting to help me up. Perhaps she was right that it was my fault, but I thought she could at least help me get up, even if she did not know I have a medical condition.

Instead, an old man who was passing by extended his hand to me, enquired if I was all right, dusted dirt off my clothing and picked my bike up. He advised me to check if the bike was not damaged before I got on it to continue my journey. I thanked him for his kindness.

On reflection, I wondered how many of us were either one of the three in different circumstances in our lives. How many times did we think others who fell were at fault and berated them for being down, not considering if they had fallen because they were wounded people? I will be the first to concede I have been guilty of this.

The bigger question, though, is: how often have we been like the old man, who offered a hand to a fallen human being to get a person get back on his or her feet again and didn’t care if that individual was at fault?

The Synod and the three Gospel parables

As I pondered these questions, my thoughts turn to the ongoing Synod in Rome, where among other things the Assembly of Bishops, other clergy, religious men and women, and laity, are also discerning about people living on the Church’s fringes, even outside of Her.

Unfortunately, there are Catholics, including at the top of the hierarchy, who pay only lip service to aid the fallen and wounded and have spoken out against this Synod.

In my thoughts, three instructive Gospel narratives come to mind where Jesus Christ teaches about the boundless Mercy of God and condemns the rigidity of the Laws of Moses the Pharisees forced upon the Jews, but not upon themselves.

Read: The Name of God is Mercy

These Gospel stories were about such fallen people, who in their day, were also excluded in the life of the Jews and forbidden to participate in their religious rites.

The disadvantaged people in Christ’s parables all happened to be women: prostitutes, divorced women whose husbands could end marriages but not them, and those considered physically unclean. The affected women could not but accept their fate.

Christ’s answer to such rigidity is summed up in Matthew 19:8-9 when the Pharisees questioned Him why Moses permitted men to divorce their wives. In excoriating them He says, “Moses permitted you to divorce because your hearts are so hard and stubborn, but originally there was no such thing.”

In Luke 7:36-50 Simon the Pharisee was given a lesson in God’s mercy when he wondered if Christ was really a prophet in allowing a tearful woman, a known sinner, to anoint His head and feet with expensive perfume.

Christ, who was invited to Simon’s home for a meal, answered His host with a parable:
“A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he forgave them both. Now which of them will love him more?” The Pharisee answered, “The one, I suppose, to whom he forgave more.” And Christ said to him, “You have answered correctly.”

To a haemorrhaging woman who pushed through a crowd to touch His garment and was healed, Christ, in His compassion, tells her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:25-34)

Those living on the Church’s margins must be heard at the Synod

Christ the Alpha and Omega at the Assembly

In his opening remarks on the first day of the Synod, Pope Francis reminds the Assembly that “The protagonist of the Synod isn’t us, but the Holy Spirit,” emphasising that He is the protagonist of Church life” that “leads the Church forth,” is “maternal” and “guides us by the hand and consoles us.” He adds that if the Spirit is in charge, it is a good synod, and if He is not, “it is not”.

Reinforcing the Holy Father’s words, Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak of Alexandria, Egypt, adds the Holy Spirit makes Christ present at the Synod. He emphasises how the Lord continues to show His love for the Church and has inspired the Synod.

“Let the centrality of Christ therefore be the guiding thread of this synod. Let Him be the Alpha and Omega of our discussions, let him be the light that illuminates our debates, let him be the final put of all our efforts. I am praying so the synod will succeed in achieving His own goals.”

If Pope Francis and Patriarch Ibrahim are right – and why shouldn’t they be – then every Catholic must submit to Christ’s actions in the Synod. He is Our Lord, isn’t He?

As it happened, a few notable Cardinals have chosen to throw doubts over the Assembly and not a few supposedly “faithful” Catholic media have done the same. Their actions have caused many Catholics, especially in the Western sphere, to speak and write about the Synod in negative tones.

Their approach to the Synod seems at odds with Christ’s promise to be with His Church till the end of time (Matthew 28:20) and that the Holy Spirit will guide Her to all truth (John 16:13). Do they not take Christ’s promise seriously or worse lost faith in Him? Only each one of them, respectively, can answer this question truthfully.

Pope Francis has explained what the Synod is and isn’t. Quoting St John Chrysostom he says, “the ‘Church and Synod are synonymous’, inasmuch as the Church is nothing other than the ‘journeying together’ of God’s flock along the paths of history towards the encounter with Christ the Lord, then we understand too that, within the Church, no one can be ‘raised up’ higher than others. On the contrary, in the Church, it is necessary that each person ‘lowers’ himself or herself, so as to serve our brothers and sisters along the way.”

(“Church” means both gathering [systema] and synod [synodos]’ – St John Chrysostom, Explicatio in Ps 149 ([PG 55, 493])

The poorest and those excluded from the Church

In 2019, two years before the Synod began, the International Theological Commission studied synodality in the life and mission of the Church and in paragraph 108 stated:

It is worth remembering these dispositions: participation in the life of the Church centred on the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation; listening to the Word of God in order to enter into a dialogue with it and put it into practice; following the Magisterium in its teachings on faith and morals; the awareness of being members of each other as the Body of Christ and of being sent to our brothers and sisters, first and foremost to the poorest and the most excluded.

The weary and the oppressed must be brought back to the Church

In his homily for the Solemn Mass at the opening of the Synod, Pope Francis reiterates this point, saying, “We do not need purely natural vision, made up of human strategies, political calculations, or ideological battles. We are here to walk together with the gaze of Jesus, Who blesses the Father and welcomes those who are weary and oppressed.”

The poorest and the most excluded among us in the Church are whom Pope Francis has taken a special interest in since the start of his pontificate 10 years ago. They will be foremost in the minds of those at the Assembly because they are mentioned prominently in all the continents’ final documents (Read Asia’s submission).

As the Synod takes every step in Rome, what each of us needs to ask of ourselves is who we are in this important juncture in the life of the Church.

Are we like the old man in the start of this commentary who, like the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) did not judge the wounded and fallen stranger, and instead offered aid and made sure the man was well taken care of? Or are we like the priest and Levite who chose to walk away and let the man die?

It is an important question we need to answer.

Mercy: Pope Francis’ mission for the lost sheep

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Since his election in 2013, the Holy Father has sought those on the Church’s margins

“We need to enter the darkness, the night in which so many of our brethren live. We need to be able to make contact with them and let them feel our closeness,” says Pope Francis.

This is the way of the Divine Shepherd who would leave an entire flock behind in search of the one lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7). In making this point, the Holy Father recalls the Gospel of Luke 17:11-19 and Matthew 8 when Christ ignored Jewish religious decrees and went out of His way to heal lepers, who were declared impure, cast out from societies and had to live in isolation.

According to the Law of Moses, lepers had to be excluded from the city and encampments (Leviticus 13:45-46) and forced to dwell in places that were deserted. In addition to suffering from the illness, they faced exclusion, marginalisation and loneliness.

This excerpt from the Gospel shows us two kinds of logic and thought and faith, Pope Francis points out. On the one hand, he adds, there is the fear of losing the just and saved, the sheep that are already safely in the pen. On the other hand, there is a desire to save sinners, the lost, those on the other side of the fence.

“The first is the logic of the scholars of the law,” says the Pope. “The second is the logic of God, who welcomes, embraces and transfigures evil into the good – transforming and redeeming the lost, and transmuting condemnation into salvation.”

The above is taken from the 2016 book, The Name of God is Mercy, which is a wide-ranging interview with Pope Francis by Vatican Insider journalist Andrea Tornielli. His quotes from it are used extensively in this article.

As the title of the book reveals, the Vicar of Christ has chosen to follow the way of Christ since his election in 2013 as Shepherd of the Universal Church. “Mercy” has been the cornerstone of his pontificate.

“Mercy is real. It is the first attribute of God,” says the Pope. “Theological reflections on doctrine or mercy may then follow, but let us not forget that mercy is doctrine.”

Tracing the footsteps of Christ right from the start, the Holy Father has been reaching out to “the outcast” who have been marginalised to the fringes of the Church – divorced Catholics, those with same-sex attraction and others considered not leading lives that are consistent with Church teachings.

He recalls one such individual when he was a parish priest in Argentina, a Catholic mother with young children whose husband had left them. When she could not find regular work and in desperate times, he says, she had to prostitute herself to feed her children.

Pope Francis has consistently called for these people living on the fringes and who can’t receive the Sacraments, to be included in the spiritual life of the Church. God, he teaches, will go to great lengths “to enter the heart of man, to find that small opening that will permit Him to grant grace. He does not want anyone to be lost. His mercy is infinitely greater than our sins, His medicine is infinitely stronger than our illnesses that he has to heal”.

It is only when the Church embraces such Catholics and journeys with them in their difficulties that they will feel God’s love and His longing for them, as the father of the prodigal son did.

The Good Shepherd desires all to be saved.

Be Shepherds, Not Scholars of the Law

“God is a careful and attentive Father, ready to welcome any person who takes a step or even expresses the desire to take a step that leads home,” says the Holy Father. “He is there, staring out at the horizon, expecting us, waiting for us. No human sin – however serious – can prevail over or limit mercy.”

In pointing the way for the Church to follow the way of Christ, he says the Church is called on to pour its mercy on all those who recognise themselves as sinners, to assume the responsibility for the evil they have committed and who feel in need of forgiveness.

The Church does not exist to condemn people but to bring about an encounter the visceral love of God’s mercy. I often say that for this to happen, it is necessary to go out: to go out from the church and the parishes, to go out and look for people where they live, where they suffer and where they hope.

Pope Francis

The Holy Father emphasises the Church is a field hospital ‘that goes forth’ and exists where there is combat and not a solid structure with all the equipment where people go to receive treatment for both small and large infirmities. The Church, he adds, “is a mobile structure that offers first aid and immediate care, so that its soldiers do not die. It is a place for urgent care, not a place to see a specialist.”

The Pope refers to Scriptures extensively, in particular, the New Testament and the parable of the Prodigal Son in his call for mercy to help marginalised people return to the fold. Even so, this has not prevented some Catholics, including prominent theologians, from accusing him of trying to change doctrine. Others have even called him a heretic.

The Holy Father answers such detractors in Chapter VI, Shepherds, Not Scholars of the Law, of the book, which is instructive on how the Church must be in the Gospel as Christ founded Her.

“I would like to mention another conduct typical of the scholars of the law, and I will say that there is often a kind of hypocrisy in them, a formal adherence to the law that hides very deep wounds. Jesus uses tough words; he defines as ‘whited sepulchers’ those who appear devout from the outside, but inside, on the inside … are hypocrites.

“These are men who live attached to the letter of the law but who neglect love; men who only know how to close doors and draw boundaries. Chapter 23 of the Gospel of Matthew is very clear on this; we need to return there to understand what the Church is and what it should never be. He describes the attitudes of those who tie up heavy burdens and lay them on other men’s shoulders but who are unwilling to move so much as a finger; they are those who love the place of honour and want to be call master. This conduct comes when a person loses the sense of awe of salvation that has been granted to him.”

Pope Francis has put the Mercy of God, front and centre of his pontificate. But he is following in the footsteps of his immediate predecessors.

In opening the Second Vatican Council, Pope St John XXIII said, “The Bride of Christ prefers to use the medicine of mercy rather than arm herself with the weapons of rigor.” After him, St Paul VI revealed the essence of his spiritual life in the synthesis proposed by Saint Augustine: poverty and mercy.

Saint John Paul II took it a step further with his encyclical, Dives in Misericordia, in which he affirmed that the Church lives an authentic life when it professes and proclaims mercy, the most amazing attribute of the Creator and Redemptor, and when it leads humanity to the font of mercy.

And, finally, Pope Benedict XVI, emphatically said that “Mercy is in reality the core of the Gospel message; it is the name of God himself, the face with which he revealed himself in the Old Testament and fully in Jesus Christ, incarnation of Creative and Redemptive Love.

“This love of mercy also illuminates the face of the Church, and is manifested through the Sacraments, in particular that of the Reconciliation, as well as in works of charity, both of community and individuals. Everything that the Church says and does shows that God has mercy for man.”

At the Synod, the voices of the marginalised will be heard

Not forgotten in the coming Synod

It is no coincidence, then, the Church’s epic journey of mercy has arrived at the Synod on Synodality that Pope Francis launched in 2021. It is entering the final phase with the first of two sessions of the assembly of the world’s bishops next month in Rome from 4-29 October, with the second session exactly a year later.

In preparation for these final sessions, dioceses around the world conducted their respective “listening” of Catholics, in and outside the Church, over the last two years. The aim is to identify the challenges the Church faces in a world full of confusion and distortion.

It is not surprising, too, that although the theme is “For a Synodal Church: communion, participation and mission,” those who are “forgotten”, “marginalised” and “excluded” in the Church are mentioned several times throughout the 60-page handbook.

As the Body of Christ, we must keep an attentive ear to what the Holy Spirit wants to communicate to the Church. No, the Synod will not and cannot change doctrine, as some detractors have been claiming. If anything at all, and if the Holy Spirit wills it, our understanding of them will become clearer.  The message of “mercy”, I believe, will stand out.

Fear not, Christ entreats us, for He promises that “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16:13).

The Search For Freedom: A witness to Hope

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BOOK REVIEW: Fr Peter Hung’s journey from fugitive and refugee to the Priesthood

Basic military training is tough. Anyone who has been through it will testify to this. Recruits go through this to toughen them up so that they will defend their homeland without fear when they need to. The fittest among them are invited to undergo further training, which is the most punishing in the world, to become elite troopers.

Only about 30 percent of those who go through this demanding course ultimately earn the prestigious Special Forces badge. They are the ones who take on the riskiest operations, often behind enemy lines, to eliminate threats to their armed forces, countries and civilian population.

The armies of the world battle and defend against flesh and blood enemies. But the deadliest foes we face are not humans, but supernatural beings in the spiritual realm. It is a far more deadly battle that has eternal implications. It is a fight between the Army of God and the dark forces of Hell – Satan and his demons – for every human soul that God loves so deeply and wants to save from damnation.

To answer God’s call, Fr Peter had to leave his family in Vietnam

The formation of Christ’s priestly warrior

In this tussle between good and evil, God has formed and is continuously forming His Army in the visible world. Among them are elite warriors who go through extreme regimens to strengthen the human soul to withstand and counter the evillest attacks.

As I read and edited Fr Peter Hung’s book, The Search for Freedom, I can’t help but see the turmoil he went through on his journey to the priesthood along the lines of Special Forces training. In his case, God the Holy Spirit, as I see it, was forming him to be one of His elite spiritual warriors to save souls from the forces of Hell.

While God calls upon His Church Militant journeying in the world to holiness as weapons against the powers of darkness, some – lay, clergy and religious – are set aside to endure immense suffering for a special purpose. And it is my belief, Fr Peter is one of them.

His first encounter with turmoil came in the aftermath of the Communists’ takeover of Vietnam in 1975, when they prevented him from studying in the seminary to become a priest. To achieve their objective, the Communists forced Peter to join the ranks of their army to fight a war in Cambodia, which would have meant certain death for him.

The Search for Freedom tells his story of how through God’s Grace, he eventually managed to flee the Communists’ clutches and become a fugitive. Living alone in the jungles of Vietnam and hunted like an animal, he came to the point of despair and wished that death would visit him to end his torment.

But God was actually forming Peter to be resilient in his faith and spirit. He gave His priest-in-waiting the Grace to endure the unforgiving Vietnamese jungles before leading him out of the country in a rickety boat through a treacherous, stormy sea. It was a journey the young Peter and his fellow escapees were convinced would end in the sinking of the boat and their eventual death by drowning.

This, though, wasn’t in God’s plans for He guided the boat to its final destination – a camp for Vietnamese refugees on Pulau Bidong, which is an island off the north-western coast of Malaysia. There, Peter had to go through further trials as he had to see many of his compatriots find passage to third countries with ease because they had relatives living in those places.

He had no one living outside of Vietnam and faced a years-long wait in limbo. At Pulau Bidong, Peter’s faith was edging towards a cliff. He had almost given up all hope when after eight months on the island, Australian officials in 1982 offered him sanctuary in their country. It was a surprise development because Peter could not speak a word of English and not knowing anyone there, he would have had difficulty assimilating into Australian society.

I’ve known Fr Peter since he was a Redemptorist seminarian in Melbourne. His mentor and our family’s close friend, Father Patrick John O’Neill (1932-2007), reached out to us in the mid-1980s for this young seminarian to spend his vacation with us in Singapore as he was unable to return to Vietnam to visit his parents.

When Peter came to us, he hardly spoke a word of English, and all we knew then was that he was one of the original Vietnamese “Boat People” who fled the brutal Communist regime in his home country. Over time, he became part of our family, an adopted son of my parents and our brother.

It was only when Peter was able to converse fluently in English that we began to learn the horrors of what he went through as a seminarian in Vietnam.

Fr PJ O’Neill mentored Peter in his journey to the priesthood.

From wishing death to saving souls

That he went through extreme trials and tribulations is an understatement. I believe God did not permit him to go through this if it wasn’t to aid Fr Peter’s formation for greater things to serve His Will against the forces of evil.

Fr Peter has since earned a doctorate in moral theology and lectures on the subject. He also has an academic interest in human cloning and stem cell research, and has written a book, Advancing the Culture of Death: Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide, from the perspective of the Catholic Church’s teachings.

In recalling his treacherous journey to the priesthood, Fr Peter says, “The journey to find God, that I have experienced in my life, has not been an easy one. There were times when I had fallen into a deadlock, with no way out, no hope, and I did not feel the presence of God in the darkness of life. At that time, I only wished that God would allow me to die in peace, so that I could be united with Him in heaven.

“Death for me at that time would help me to release my own sufferings, which I was constantly facing every day during that time, while I was a fugitive. Since living without freedom, without future, without education and without being able to live together with your loved ones in the family, life can be meaningless and boring. One may wish to stop living. Probably in such situations, sometimes death could be the better option and that thought flashed through my mind.”

This book also offers glimpses of his life after he was ordained priest, as he shares how he was drawn closer to Jesus Christ through the love of His Blessed Virgin Mother. We learn that through all his trials and tribulations, even as a priest, how the Holy Spirit has been at work forming him to follow God’s Will to be a disciple of Christ. He has faithfully answered the Saviour’s Great Commission to spread His Gospel and lead all people to God in His offer of Salvation to eternal life, and the book, The Search for Freedom, is part of his mission.

Fr Peter is God the Father’s Special Forces spiritual warrior in the Militant Church: to strengthen believers in their faith in Him and for unbelievers to find Him in Jesus Christ.

He is a witness to hope for people who toil under the weight of trials and tribulations that if they endure, the Holy Spirit will transform them into spiritual warriors according to His Will, which ultimately leads to abundant joy in heavenly riches.

Fr Peter’s book, The Search for Freedom, is available at Amazon

Enter the Kingdom of Heaven as a child

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The way to eternal life is to be like innocent little ones before the Father

One of my favourite saints is St Joseph of Cupertino ((1603-1663) because he was the quintessential village idiot. He was such a dunce that nobody wanted him, not even his mother. Ridiculed for his intellectual and social difficulties, Joseph sought to join a religious order to find acceptance and survive. But many rejected him. Except one that admitted him into their order and assigned him only menial tasks. Even such simple chores proved difficult for Joseph to accomplish satisfactorily and he was eventually asked to leave the order.

Joseph’s ineptitude and low intelligence, though, did not stop God from choosing him to be His priest who gave himself up entirely to a life of devotion to the Lord and His Church. His life was marked with simplicity, innocence and obedience, and such was his holiness that he was canonised in 1767, about a century after his death.

There is no shortage of such men and women in the mould of St Joseph of Cupertino.

The illiterate saints whom God chooses

In Asia, there is Korea’s St. Agatha Kim A-gi (1787-1839), who longed for baptism even though her intellectual disability made it impossible for her to learn the faith. Even the Hail Mary was too much for her. When asked to recite various prayers, Agatha would reply, “I only know Jesus and Mary.”

No matter how hard she tried, Agatha couldn’t memorise anything and was denied baptism. She lived during the persecution of Christians in Korea and was arrested and ordered to denounce her faith under torture. Her response to her torturers was the same, “I only know Jesus and Mary.” She was baptised in prison shortly before her martyrdom.

There were other countless saints who could not read and write, such as Juan Diego of Guadalupe, Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes, Catherine of Siena, Joan of Arc, and China’s Zhang Huailu, to name a few. But they were giants of the faith and not ignorant of Christ. St Catherine has even become a Doctor of the Church!

St Zhang (1843-1900), who was baptised in his sixties, said, “No matter what happens, I do love God with my whole heart. God saves my soul. It doesn’t matter that I cannot read.”

They seemed to be the anomaly to St Jerome’s teaching that the Bible is an instrument “by which God speaks every day to the faithful” and becomes a stimulus and source of Christian life for all situations and for each person.

To make his point, St Jerome wrote to a young noblewoman from Rome, saying, “To read Scripture is to converse with God: ‘if you are praying, you are speaking with the Bridegroom, if you are reading, it is He who is speaking to you.’”

In his catechesis on 14 November 2007, Pope Benedict XVI further quotes the saint that “The study of and meditation on Scripture renders man wise and serene.”

But how do we reconcile the wisdom of St Jerome with the illiterates of the world? There are many in poverty-stricken countries, namely in Asia, Africa and Latin America, who do not have access to education. For them, it is a luxury to be able to learn how to read and write. There are also others who may have gone to school but are not cut out for intense learning.

Are these people relegated to not knowing Christ more deeply?

In a word, no. God does not exclude anyone from knowing Him.

Christ says those who have childlike faith are the poor in spirit who rely on God’s providence to provide for their needs (Matthew 11:25)

The Mass teaches and preaches the Gospel

From the beginning of time in the Old Testament and in the Gospel to the first millennium of Christianity, the principal way of coming to know the Word of God is through hearing from learned ministers of the Word. This was and is still the chief means of transmitting the Good News of His Salvation.

When Christ issued the Great Commission to His disciples, He said to them, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

Elsewhere in the Gospel, He commanded them to “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation”. (Mark 16:14-16, Luke 24:46-48) because “He who hears you, hears me … will have eternal life.” (Luke 10:16, John 5:24)

The key words are “teach” and “preach”, and today we are fed these in the liturgies. This is the point that Benedict XVI in the first part of his catechesis on St Jerome on 7 November makes, “The privileged place for reading and listening to the Word of God is the liturgy, in which, celebrating the Word and making Christ’s Body present in the Sacrament, we actualise the Word in our lives and make it present among us.”

In the Mass, the Gospel is proclaimed alongside the readings of the Old Testament and Book of Psalms in the Liturgy of the Word. All three are preached and expounded during the homily. In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit makes present all the saving events of Christ’s Paschal Mystery: from His institution of the Holy Eucharist and Passion to Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven.

At the Mass, all – those who can’t read and those who can – encounter God to know Him even more deeply.

Where else do we come to know Christ?

We continue to learn about Him in the various devotional prayers, especially in the Rosary where the most important milestones of His life – from birth and mission to His Passion, Resurrection and Ascension – are respectively recalled and meditated upon in the Joyful, Light, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries. The Divine Mercy Chaplet also teaches us about God’s inexhaustible mercy to save sinners, even the most wretched, through the Passion of His only Son.

The liturgies and devotional prayers give every Catholic access to know God that is already written down in the Bible. The lowliest among us, who for one reason or another cannot be literate students of Scriptures, are not excluded from knowing Him.

We must be committed to hearing the Gospel

What is required, though, is an unrelenting commitment to hear and receive Him in the Mass and leading a devout prayer life, just as Saints Joseph of Cupertino, Agatha Kim A-gi, Zhang Huailu and others like them did.

God meets us where we are, regardless of whether we are fortunate to get an education or not. He never stops doing so and gives us the grace to know and have faith in Him.

For those who have the capacity to grow in intellectual faith, the onus is on them to teach others about the written word in the simplest terms. Because as Christ tells us in His prayer to the Father in Matthew 11:25 that although the Lord of heaven and earth has hidden these things from the wise and the learned, He has revealed them to little ones.

Having intellectual faith is commendable and encouraged for those who can rise to the demands of acquiring knowledge. But unless we become like the “little ones” it is not enough to get us to heaven.

This is because those who are childlike before the Father – as the simple Christian is – have, through His grace, the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 18:3

Main image: Rad Penamora, Unsplash

The Rosary: A powerful weapon against evil

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With Christ the focus of prayer, the Blessed Virgin teaches us to contemplate His face

(Editor: The Month of October is dedicated to Mary and the Rosary. Today, 7 October, we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Read the origins of this feast: Battle of Lepanto)

Padre Pio or Saint Pius of Pietrelcina was known for his great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and fervently prayed her Rosary every day. He had several of the beads within reach so that he could easily pray it anytime, day or night.

One day he discovered the ones he kept under his pillow were not there and called a priest, Fr Onorato of San Giovanni Rotondo, for assistance and famously said, “Young man, get me my weapon, give me my weapon.”

To Padre Pio, born in 1887 and died 81 years later in 1968, the Rosary prayer is a powerful tool against Satan and his demonic minions. But the Italian Franciscan Capuchin priest and mystic was not the first or only Catholic to regard the Rosary as a spiritual weapon against the forces of evil.

Countless Popes since the 13th century up till the present time have similarly hailed the power of the Rosary as such. Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) in his encyclical, Ingravescentibus Malis, called it “a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight”.

In summoning all Catholics to pray the Rosary on 29 Sept 2018, Pope Francis said it “is the weapon against the Great Accuser (Satan) who ‘goes around the world seeking to accuse.’ Only prayer can defeat him.”

The Rosary is among the most powerful prayer that God, through His Mother Mary, has put in our hands to send the devil fleeing in fear in his attempts to disrupt our full Communion with God. It ranks high in the Church’s spiritual armoury, as Pope St John XXIII points out, “The Rosary is the glory of the Roman Church. As an exercise of Christian piety, it takes its place among the faithful after the Mass and the Sacraments.”

But what makes the Rosary prayer so powerful a spiritual weapon that forces demons to tremble in fear and scoot?

Pope St John XXIII ranks the Rosary after the Mass and Sacraments.

With Christ at the centre, heresies are destroyed

The most important point to remember is that every prayer we recite is addressed to God, even if we asked the saints to intercede for us. But Mary’s intercession is special and extraordinary.

And the Rosary prayer the Mother of God gave us is fully Christocentric because she puts her Son, Christ, at its centre and focus. And this is what gives the Rosary its potency.

But we need to step back and journey nine centuries in history to appreciate this fully.

Heresies are false doctrines that contradict Church teachings the devil uses to pollute the minds of Christians. And in the 13th century, the Albigensian heresy wreaked havoc among the faithful in Europe. It got its name from Albi, a city in southern France, where it originated.

The propagators of the heresy were the Cathari, a dualist religious movement there, who taught the falsehood that only the spiritual is good and that everything material is bad. In other words, they were spreading the lie that the human body, which God created, is evil, and every person’s soul is imprisoned in it.

To combat this false teaching, the Spanish priest Dominic Guzman went to France in 1208 to preach against it but his attempts largely fell on deaf ears. Exasperated, he retreated into a forest near Toulouse and entreated God to provide him with the means to overcome the heresy. It was there in his solitude of prayer that the Mother of God appeared to him.

The Virgin Mary instructed Dominic that he must preach her Psalter to succeed against the Albigensian heresy. The Marian Psalter is a meditative prayer the Cistercian monks had then just developed consisting of 150 Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers.

Read also:
Mary: The Mother God gives the world
Hail, Full of Grace
The power of the Hail Mary

Mary told Dominic her Psalter prayers must be accompanied by stories of Christ’s life – His Incarnation, Death, and triumphant Resurrection – that will debunk the Albigensian heresy. In Dominic’s hands the Psalter, which became known as the Rosary or literary “wreath of roses”, successfully defeated the heresy. It led to countless conversions and miracles.

Centuries later, Pope Leo XIII (1878- 1903), in recalling this remarkable event of Dominic’s, now saint, and the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Rosary, said,

Thanks to this new method of prayer… piety, faith, and union began to return [to France], and the project and devices of the heretics fell to pieces.”

Fr Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange, a respected Dominican theologian of the 20th century, added, “What the word of the preacher was unable to do, the sweet prayer of the Hail Mary did for hearts.”

A simple, effective Gospel that Mary teaches her children

It must be stressed that Our Lady designed the Rosary to teach every human being about her Son – including, more importantly, those who are illiterate and cannot read and write. This group were in large numbers in St Dominic’s time and this is also true today in many parts of the world.

In praying the Rosary, while meditating on the Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious mysteries – and since 2002 the Luminous mystery that Pope John Paul II added – we learn Christ’s Gospel at Mary’s feet. Every mother knows their children far better than others, but Mary is extraordinarily different and special in knowing Her Son.

The Rosary places us at Mary’s feet, where she teaches us about God her Son, Jesus Christ.

As the Mother who bore the Second Person of the Holy Trinity for nine months in her womb, Mary, who was conceived immaculately, had no sin to hamper her ability to know God perfectly. She also raised Jesus and had the privilege of contemplating His face every single day, worshipping Him with all her heart.

Only she knows Christ far more and way above all the theologians and popes put together.

Mary is the perfect disciple of God and no one else in history can teach us more about the Saviour of the world than her. In the Rosary, she showers us with the abundant graces God has endowed her with to help us know Him with increasing fervour each day. Mary teaches all her children, even the illiterate, how to be Her Son’s perfect disciple.

We honour Mary in the Rosary when we welcome the Mother of God into our hearts and homes to illuminate our minds about Her Son Jesus and to give us more of Him. And this is the power behind the Marian Rosary prayer because this is how Mary, until our very last breath, raises us up to be faithful disciples and picks us up each time we fall.

This is why Satan and his forces of darkness are consumed with hatred for Mary and the Rosary. And we have witnessed and are still witnessing his diabolical attempts to discredit and attack her prayer. We have seen great numbers of non-Catholics charge that praying the Rosary is idolatry. Unfortunately, this has also swayed not a few Catholics, especially in their attempts to appease such distractors and as a result slack in praying the Rosary or no longer at all.

But we must soldier on in the face of these adversities and call on Mary, the help of all Christians, to be our shield and protector, just as she did for St Dominic during the Albigensian heresy.

As the great Marian Pope, St John Paul II, entreated all Christians, “Recite the Rosary every day. I earnestly urge Pastors to pray the Rosary and to teach people in their Christian communities how to pray it.”

Read Pope St John Paul II’s encyclical on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae

POPES ON THE ROSARY

Pope Francis: The Rosary “is the weapon against the Great Accuser who ‘goes around the world seeking to accuse.’ Only prayer can defeat him.”

Pope Benedict XVI (2005-2013): The Rosary is “the prayer of the Christian who advances in the pilgrimage of faith, in the following of Jesus, preceded by Mary … it is a means given by the Virgin for contemplating Jesus and, meditating on his life, for loving and following him always more faithfully.”

Pope John Paul II (1978-2005): “The Rosary is my favourite prayer … I would therefore ask those who devote themselves to the pastoral care of families to recommend heartily the recitation of the Rosary.”

Pope John Paul I (August 26–September 28, 1978) in Homily in 7 Oct 1973 before he was elected Pope five years later: “The Rosary, a simple and easy prayer, helps me to be a child again, and I am not ashamed of it at all.”

Pope Paul VI (1963-1978): “If evils increase, the devotion of the People of God should also increase … Pray ardently to our most merciful mother Mary by saying the Rosary during the month of October. This prayer is well-suited to the devotion of the People of God, most pleasing to the Mother of God and most effective in gaining heaven’s blessings.”

Pope John XXIII (1958-1963): “The Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nations and the entire world.”

Pope Pius XII (1939-1958): “We do not hesitate to affirm publicly that We put great confidence in the Holy Rosary for the healing of evils of our times.”

Pope Pius XI (1922-1939): “A powerful weapon to put the demons to flight” … “Kings and princes, however burdened with most urgent occupations and affairs, made it their duty to recite the Rosary.”

Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922): “The prayer of the Rosary is perfect, because of the praises it offers, the lessons it teaches, the graces it obtains, and the victories it achieves.”

St. Pius X (1903-1914): “The Rosary is the most beautiful and the richest of all prayers to the Mediatrix of all grace; It is the prayer that touches most the heart of the Mother of God. Say it each day!”

Pope Leo XIII (1878- 1903): “The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all blessings. There is no more excellent way of praying.”

Pope Gregory XVI (1831-1846): “The Rosary is a miraculous means, the most capable one amongst other means, to destroy sin and regain divine grace.”

Pope Innocent XIII (1721-1724): “The Rosary had been instituted by St. Dominic to appease the anger of God and to implore the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

Pope Paul V (1605-1621): “The rosary is a treasure of graces”

Pope Gregory XII (1406-1415): “The Rosary is a wonderful instrument for the destruction of sin, the recovery of GOD’s grace, and the advancement of His glory”

Pope Julius III (1550-1555): The Rosary is “the Glory of the Church.”

Pope Adrian VI (1522-1523): “The rosary is the scourge of the devil.”

Pope Leo X (1513-1521): The Rosary “was instituted to oppose pernicious heresiarchs and heresies.”

Pope Sixtus XI (1471-1484): This method of prayer, the Rosary, “redounded to the honour of God and the Blessed Virgin, and was well suited to obviate impending dangers”

Pope Gregory XI (1370- 1378): “The Rosary is this wonderful means to destroy sin and recover grace.”

Pope Benedict XII (1334-1342): “The Rosary is a sovereign remedy to errors and vices.”

Pope Urban IV (1261-1264): “Every day the Rosary obtains fresh boom for Christianity … There is a pious rite which, to be protected against the dangers threatening the world, consists in reciting … the Ave Maria, as many times as the Psalms of David, while saying before each decade the dominical prayer… With our Apostolic authority, we approve this psalter of the Virgin.”

Death penalty: Revisiting its inadmissibility

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Pope Francis prays for the abolition of prisoner executions worldwide

Capital punishment is a topic that never fails to evoke strong emotive opinions from those who are for or against the punishment. It is no different in the Catholic Church. Since Pentecost Day more than 2,000 years ago, She has been on both sides.

It is a worthwhile topic to revisit because many Catholics tend to take extreme either/or positions and this has led to confusion.

Pope Francis’ seems to have settled the matter. His prayer intention for September calls for all people of goodwill “to mobilise” for the abolition of capital punishment throughout the world. (Watch video)

The Holy Father has persistently pushed to eliminate executions of prisoners since 2018 when he reformulated No. 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to teach that the death penalty is no longer admissible. The previous wording read as “the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty.”

Two years later, Pope Francis doubled down on the inadmissibility of capital punishment in his encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, much to the dismay of many Catholics, including clergy and theologians, who accused him of changing Catholic doctrine.

Has he?

No, he has not. Pope Francis is only advancing the doctrine to the next level from what his immediate predecessors had developed.

At the heart of this inadmissibility, he teaches that:

… more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption. Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person’.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2267

Popes since 1969 call for end to death penalty

In 1969 Pope St Paul VI removed capital punishment from the fundamental law of Vatican City. After him, St John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, taught that “If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority must limit itself to such means …”

This teaching was reflected in his updated version of his Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1997 that Pope Francis recently reformulated.

On Christmas Day in 1998, the Polish Pope reiterated his opposition to capital punishment with the message, “May Christmas help to strengthen and renew, throughout the world, the consensus concerning the need for urgent and adequate measures to halt the production and sale of arms, to defend human life, to end the death penalty …”

Pope Benedict XVI went further when he addressed the Community of Sant’Egidio during his November 2011 general audience with the message, “I express my hope that your deliberations will encourage the political and legislative initiatives being promoted in a growing number of countries to eliminate the death penalty …”

While the Pope has not change the doctrine on the death penalty, he teaches its application is no longer admissible.

In detailing Pope Francis’ rewording of CCC 2267, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Dicastery (Congregation previously) for the Doctrine of the Faith, explains, “This development centres principally on the clearer awareness of the Church for the respect due to every human life. Along this line, John Paul II affirmed: ‘Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this’.”

So, how does this development square with the Old and New Testaments where legal punishment of personal injury did allow “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Exodus 21:23-24)? Acts 5:1–11 speaks of the divine punishment meted out to Ananias and Sapphira when Peter rebuked them for their fraudulent action (Acts 5:1–11).

St Paul, in his Letter to the Hebrews 10:28 says that “a man who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of two or three witnesses”.

In Romans 13:14 he also writes that rulers acting against wrongdoers do so as “God’s servant for your good” and “does not bear the sword in vain”.

Doctors of the Church Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus invoke the authority of Scripture and patristic tradition for the death penalty. Their peers, Saints Robert Bellarmine and Alphonsus Liguor, were also in agreement that certain criminals should be punished by death.

Despite the episode of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 and St Paul’s Hebrew and Roman letters, Christians in the early centuries avoided capital punishment in Imitatio Christi (Imitation of Christ), which was then, as it remains today, the highest standard of holiness. The Church, then, was under persecution and Christians sought to follow Christ in His virtues, and in His sufferings, even to the point of martyrdom.

Christ rejects violence

Jesus, himself, refrained from using violence. He rebuked his disciples for wishing to call down fire from heaven to punish the Samaritans for their lack of hospitality (Luke 9:55). Later he admonished Peter to put his sword in the scabbard rather than resist arrest (Matthew 26:52).

The Church’s tolerance of capital punishment came about when Christianity was legalised in 313 AD and Catholics rose to positions of governance. Christian judges, especially, were required to dispense justice, including capital punishment, according to the laws of the land, but would be in mortal sin if the Church taught against legitimate authorities bearing the sword.

The clergy, though, were prohibited from participating in capital punishment for they were teachers of the Gospel and, as evangelisers, exercise the ministry of redemption.

What recent popes, especially Francis, have done and are doing is to reorientate the Church towards when She taught against capital punishment.

In Fratelli Tutti, the Holy Father reminds us that “Pope Nicholas I (858-867 AD) urged that efforts be made ‘to free from the punishment of death not only each of the innocent, but all the guilty as well. During the trial of the murderers of two priests, Saint Augustine asked the judge not to take the life of the assassins with this argument: ‘We do not object to your depriving these wicked men of the freedom to commit further crimes. Our desire is rather that justice be satisfied without the taking of their lives or the maiming of their bodies in any part. … Do not let the atrocity of their sins feed a desire for vengeance, but desire instead to heal the wounds which those deeds have inflicted on their souls’”.

Risk of executing the innocent

A key concern of the Church and people of goodwill has always been the miscarriage of justice that results in the execution of innocent people. While data covering all countries are unavailable, a 2014 study in the United States estimates that at least 4% of executed prisoners are innocent.

No justice system is perfect and the danger of executing the innocent is always there.

Despite all the safeguards in place, no justice system is perfect and we can assume innocent lives are lost through capital punishment up to this very day in countries that practise this punishment. In repressive authoritarian systems, the death penalty is also often used as a tool for vengeance and to silence political opponents.

Addressing the 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in 2016 Pope Francis makes this point.

(Capital punishment) does not render justice to victims, but instead fosters vengeance. The commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ has absolute value and applies both to the innocent and to the guilty.

The question must be dealt with within the larger framework of a system of penal justice open to the possibility of the guilty party’s reinsertion in society. There is no fitting punishment without hope! Punishment for its own sake, without room for hope, is a form of torture, not of punishment.

Returning to Scriptures, Moses sings that God will vindicate His people with the phrase “vengeance is mine” in Deuteronomy 32:35. He adds “In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.” In St Paul’s letter to the Romans, he also emphasises they should not “repay evil for evil” (Rom 12:17).

What we can take away from this is that man must not exact punishment on behalf of God for His honour. He will satisfy His own wrath. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah out of vengeance for their iniquity (Gen 19).

But He withheld vengeance from Nineveh after Jonah preached to them (Jon 3).

The Almighty, and not men, knows the hearts of every person and seeks repentance from all sinners, no matter how grave their offences are. He shows mercy to those who do and rain down His justice perfectly on those who refuse.

Submission of mind and will to Pope Francis’ teaching

So, while Pope Francis is not redefining capital punishment as “intrinsically evil” and therefore always wrong, which would have changed Catholic doctrine, he is teaching that its application is no longer admissible. This is the fundamental point that many Catholic theologians, clergy and laity have not given much weight or ignored outright.

At its core, what Pope Francis is teaching is that while “Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense (CCC 2266)”, the reasons for applying the death penalty are no longer admissible. In CCC 2267 and Fratelli Tutti he makes this point that the Church “works with determination for its abolition worldwide”.

Catholic legislators and judges, therefore, would not be in mortal sin if they are required to dispense the legitimate laws of their jurisdictions. But they and all Catholics must give religious submission of mind and will to Pope Francis’ teaching on the death penalty.

Those who refuse to do so, will do well to read Donum Veritatis, the instruction that the then prefect Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s Congregation (Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued to theologians. But it is good reading for all Catholics. Key paragraphs:

28. … a particular application (is) the case of the theologian who might have serious difficulties, for reasons which appear to him well founded, in accepting a non-irreformable magisterial teaching.

Such a disagreement could not be justified if it were based solely upon the fact that the validity of the given teaching is not evident or upon the opinion that the opposite position would be the more probable. Nor, furthermore, would the judgment of the subjective conscience of the theologian justify it because conscience does not constitute an autonomous and exclusive authority for deciding the truth of a doctrine.

29. In any case there should never be a diminishment of that fundamental openness loyally to accept the teaching of the Magisterium as is fitting for every believer by reason of the obedience of faith. The theologian will strive then to understand this teaching in its contents, arguments, and purposes. This will mean an intense and patient reflection on his part and a readiness, if need be, to revise his own opinions and examine the objections which his colleagues might offer him.

According to available data, most executions take place in Asia, with China topping the global list. Only Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, Hong Kong, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have abolished the practice.

Main Image: Pexels, Koolshooters

Battle to evangelise, catechise on the Internet

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Goal of missionary work to win hearts, not minds, in the face of division

I often wonder why God chose to enter human history more than two thousand years ago in Bethlehem. Why not in our day?

Imagine, how Jesus Christ would conduct His ministry in a landscape where the Internet and social media are major gathering points for people to interact and discuss issues. Picture Him having a YouTube channel with a global audience to deliver His “Sermon on the Mount”. Visualise St Peter and the apostles managing Christ’s social media accounts as His keyboard warriors.

They would have gotten the Pharisees hotter under the collar because of His global following. It will drive them mad to shout even louder, “Cancel Him, cancel Him!” But will Christ and His Apostles bow down to their persecutors’ demands? Nope. For sure, He will engage the Pharisees and uncover their hypocrisy on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp!

We’d never know in our lifetime why He came to us on that ancient Christmas Day morning instead of now. But we, His disciples, live in this moment of history – the era of instant messaging.

What prompts me to write this column is the increasing incidences I’ve witnessed recently of frictions between people using social media to interact. It has left a trail of broken family ties and long-standing friendships.

Read: Pope Francis warns of toxicity in social media

The fight to bring Christ’s Light into the growing darkness

Communication technology has been advancing to the extent that it has made the world a lot smaller. Chatting with friends, family and even strangers halfway across the world for hours on end is almost cost-free, something that was unimaginable less that 30 years ago.

For the Church, the Internet provides an unprecedented tool to evangelise and catechise. Since the birth of the Internet in the 1990s, Popes St John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis have called on the Church to be ever present and visible on this online universe.

There is now a large presence of bishops, priests, deacons, religious men and women, and lay who are writing for Catholic news outlets, and their personal or group blogs and social media pages. Many are informative and live up to the Church’s mission of evangelising and catechising.

But just as many are misleading Catholics and we would do well to avoid them for our spiritual health. They have become channels of division and anger, especially against the Pope, his predecessors and their teaching Magisterium. They have and are pushing faithful Catholics on a path that is away from the Light.

There is now a large presence of Catholic clergy and lay on the Internet. Image: Pexels, Sora Shimazaki

To be sure, Pope Francis extols the Internet’s extraordinary possibilities in his 2019 World Communications Day message. He says the Web is “a source of knowledge and relationships that were once unthinkable,” adding that “It is an opportunity to promote encounter with others.”

But there are also major obstacles hampering the Internet from maximising its positive potential. Social media, for one, can be anti-social, anti-human and anti-Christian when they are used to increase differences, fuel suspicion, spread lies and vent prejudice.

It is too often based on opposition to the other, the person outside the group: we define ourselves starting with what divides us rather than with what unites us, giving rise to suspicion and to the venting of every kind of prejudice (ethnic, sexual, religious and other).

This tendency encourages groups that exclude diversity, that even in the digital environment nourish unbridled individualism which sometimes ends up fomenting spirals of hatred. In this way, what ought to be a window on the world becomes a showcase for exhibiting personal narcissism.

Pope Francis

A clutch of clergies, several who are popular and command a huge following in either their personal blogs or social media, are among those guilty of fuelling this division in the Church. They affirm and feed what their followers crave.

They are deeply critical of not only Pope Francis but also of John Paul II during his pontificate, especially when he initiated the historic 1986 inter-faith summit in Assisi and kissed the Koran in 1999 when he received Muslim dignitaries.

While a Pope’s private opinions and actions can be questioned, they have regularly gone beyond this. Without any serious attempt to verify facts, the Holy Father’s critics, for example, often misquote and misinterpret what the current Pope says. Every opportunity is also taken to vilify him to the point of demanding that he resigns.

The pen, as the adage goes, is mightier than the sword. Or the keyboard for that matter. As Christ warns, “what defiles us is what comes from the heart” (Matt 15:18). The apostle James reiterates this point that “the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell” (James 3:6).

Pride and prejudice

But social media discussion groups pose a greater danger to any idea of unity. They have followers that range in numbers from their tens and hundreds of thousands to millions. Catholic Facebook groups have not been spared.

The problem here is that they are populated with people with impressive learning backgrounds who yield power to sway opinions. They have influence but there are those who misuse their talents that unwittingly result in pitting Catholics against the Church and Her Shepherds.

What a Pope says and does can be misinterpreted and used to attack him online, as when Pope John Paul II kissed a Koran a the Vatican in 1999.

Their most common, and deadly, sin: Pride overflowing with big egos!

Often, the culprit of this temptation is the instant response feature of social media. In their desire to hammer the people they engage with, they post replies that demean those who oppose their views. Stepping back and letting some time to lapse are always better. If not, chances are high, interactions will end in destructive put-downs. Charity is always the victim.

This is precisely the point Pope Francis is making because social media is a double-edged sword that can either help people grow in their faith or destroy souls. What is the solution the Holy Father proposes? He first asks, “can we find our true communitarian identity, aware of the responsibility we have towards one another in the online network as well?”

A possible answer can be drawn from a third metaphor: that of the body and the members, which Saint Paul uses to describe the reciprocal relationship among people, based on the organism that unites them. “Therefore, putting away falsehood, speak the truth, each to his neighbour, for we are members one of another” (Eph 4:25).

Being members one of another is the profound motivation with which the Apostle invites us to put away falsehood and speak the truth: the duty to guard the truth springs from the need not to belie the mutual relationship of communion. Truth is revealed in communion. Lies, on the other hand, are a selfish refusal to recognize that we are members of one body; they are a refusal to give ourselves to others, thus losing the only way to find ourselves.”

Pope Francis

Truth and, I might add, humility are what we need to engage others on social media. Without a doubt, I’ve been guilty of transgressing this wisdom many times.

We need to remember that in evangelising and catechising, missionary work is about planting seeds on fertile ground. And where can we find this fertile ground? It comes from the heart that loves our neighbour to quench their thirst for God’s Truth. It certainly does not flow from one that is conceited.

Main image: Pexels, Soumil Kumar

38 million unborn babies aborted each year in Asia

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Why countries outside the US must not be too obsessed with Roe vs Wade ruling

When the United States Supreme Court reversed the decades-old Roe vs Wade case that recognised women’s constitutional right to have abortions, it received prominent news coverage around the world.

There is a sense of widespread relief among pro-life supporters. Why is this so? The latest ruling is not about abortion rights as it is about an interpretation of the US Constitution.

What the US justices ruled is that the Court’s previous decision in 1973 that the 14th Amendment protected abortion rights was “an abuse of judicial authority” and relied on “egregiously wrong” reasoning.

They returned to the 50 states the responsibility of deciding whether abortion should be allowed in their respective territories. At the time of writing, it is still legal in many states. Depending on which party is in power, who is to say Roe v Wade won’t make a comeback?

But this latest ruling has no bearing outside the United States. And Roe vs Wade should not be of any concern to Asia.

Why? Because of this grim statistic from the US-based Guttmacher Institute: The lives of 38 million unborn children killed in their mothers’ wombs each year in Asia. This includes almost six million in Southeast Asia from 2015 to 2019, which is an increase of 21% from the 1990-1994 period.

For the sake of comparison and depending on whether it’s the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or Guttmacher’s statistics are used, between 630,000 and a million mothers opt for abortions each year in the United States.

The problem as the numbers show is that this crisis is about 38 times more acute in Asia. In Southeast Asia only Brunei, Laos and the Philippines prohibit abortion outright.

In Singapore from a peak of 23,512 abortions in 1985 the numbers have steadily dropped to 4,029 (Ministry of Health) in 2020. Across the Causeway, the Federation of Reproductive Health Associations Malaysia estimates that about 90,000 pregnancies are aborted annually. The figure in Indonesia was 1.7 million in 2018, and 437,000 in Thailand during 2015–2019, according to Gettmacher’s data.

There are no official statistics for Vietnam, but the country’s news outlet, VN Express, reported in 2016 that 40% of all pregnancies in the country were terminated. This would put the number of abortions at about a million in that year which had 1.49 million live births.

Unplanned pregnancies have led many, especially impoverished women, to opt for unsafe abortion.
Pexels, Nicole Ganze

What it takes to stop the killing of unborn babies in Asia?

The answer to this is about changing hearts and minds. For Catholics, non-Catholic Christians and people of goodwill, this is the only sure-fire way to protect the lives of the unborn.

But the obstacle towards this goal is massive because not all cultures and religions believe that life begins at conception. Compounding it, legislation to provide “safe” access to abortion has been around since 1948, with Japan the first to legalise it in Asia, to curb the “population bomb” in the world’s biggest continent.

Adding to this problem, many secular governments are quick to rebuff religious teachings, especially the Catholic Church’s, as not being in touch with the times.

This point was underlined in passing the Singapore Abortion Bill in 1969 against the backdrop of too many women “resorting to dangerous do-it-yourself home procedures” or “to back-street and illegal abortionists, usually with tragic results”.

The then-Minister of Health Chua Sian Chin highlighted three main objections to the Bill, the first of which was religious:

Briefly the basis of objection is that abortions destroy the life of a foetus. Since the foetus is the beginning of human life, induction of abortion is equivalent to murder. This is a matter of viewpoint. Learned men, medical or otherwise, for centuries have not been able to agree on whether the foetus is human life.

In my view abortion is not murder. The destruction of the early conceptus differs in no essential way from destruction of the sperm cell or egg cell before the act of fertilization. No one mourns for a sperm killed by a spermatoxic contraceptive cream or an ovum permitted to die twelve hours after ovulation, because the woman from whose ovary it came knew how to prevent its survival by practising the rhythm technique of birth control.

After 53 years, is this the prevailing view today? I have no doubt it is with the growing secularism among Asians, even among not a few Catholics and in unlikely places such as in the Philippines. The Catholic majority country is under pressure from advocacy groups such as the Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network to pass abortion laws. Rogue priests often aid their cause.

What must Christians do?

It is one thing to teach that abortion is the killing of an unborn human life and a grave sin. It is another thing not to address the underlying causes that lead women to end their children’s lives.

As cited in Singapore’s passing of the Abortion Bill in 1969, the causes are the same everywhere: unplanned pregnancies have led many, especially impoverished women, to opt for unsafe abortion. They have nowhere and no one to turn to for comfort and advice. The fear that they are bringing a baby into dire poverty is often the trigger to kill their babies before birth.

At the height of abortion cases in Singapore in 1985, Redemptorist Father Edmund Dunne started the Family Life Society (now known as Catholic Family Life) to offer pregnancy crisis counselling and help to all women, regardless of religious background. Two years later he started Pregnancy Crisis & Support, a hotline for those in dire need of a friendly listening ear. It was the first of its kind in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Fr Dunne’s efforts led to other non-Catholic groups reaching out to women facing a pregnancy crisis. Did all this good work lead to a decline in abortions over the decades? I have no doubt it did.

But this isn’t enough. Catholics cannot twiddle their thumbs and leave the heavy lifting to those like the late Fr Dunne. It takes a village to transform hearts and minds, and if we are to achieve this, every Catholic must get on board.

It begins with catechising our fellow Catholics, especially our young, on the sanctity of life and why sex outside of marriage can only lead to knots such as unplanned pregnancies. Abortion has never been and never can be a human right. Pope Benedict XVI emphasised this point in Vienna in 2007 in his address to diplomats and representatives of international organisations:

It was in Europe that the notion of human rights was first formulated. The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right. It is the very opposite, it is a deep wound in society.

Pope Benedict XVI

Read: EU Bishops say ‘No such thing as a right to abortion’

The Jesus way to changing hearts

Faced with crisis, Catholics are often in the habit of asking, “What would Jesus do?”. That’s the wrong question because Christ left us a template on what to do. So, the question should be, “What did Jesus do?”.

Christ never forced His listeners to follow Him or do what He did. Instead, He invited people to listen to His Gospel, the Good News of Salvation. Christ spoke with love for the people who heard Him and the numbers who followed Him grew because they could not get enough of what He was teaching them. His following swelled to such an extent that it frightened the Jewish leaders into plotting to crucify Him on the Cross.

This is why activism in any form, for or against causes, never convinces anyone. Instead, it creates animosity, hatred and division.

Beyond catechising every Catholic first and creating disciples to spread this truth about the evil of abortion, we must evangelise the unbelieving world. And we must use every scientific evidence at our disposal and rope in such scientists to help us enlighten the sceptics of the world.

Read: Science on when human life begins

Only when we can speak of the Catholic truth about the beginning of life, we will have the vaccine to protect the unborn from the increasing abortion legislation to execute them before they are given a chance to live from womb to tomb.

When people realise this is what is actually written in their hearts about the reality of life and murder, then, our efforts to stop the killing of millions of babies in their mothers’ wombs in Asia and beyond can make real headway.

Deposit of Faith and the 3 Persons

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Centred on the Trinity, it is a treasury of Catholic Truths

When I started reclaiming and relearning my Catholic faith about 20 years ago, I realised what I knew was probably at Primary 4 level. In my interaction with Catholics high up the pecking order, they used terms that were foreign to me.

Some of these I learnt quickly such as Magisterium. It comes from the Latin word magister, which means “teacher”. It refers to the teaching authority that Jesus Christ gave to St Peter and the rest of the Apostles. And from them to their respective successors. The Magisterium is exercised chiefly by the pope who can do so independently and the bishops who must teach in union with him.

One term that took a while to get my head round it is “Deposit of the Faith”. The words give the impression that faith is stored somewhere, such as in a vault. Something that banks do when we deposit our money with them. But faith does not have a physical form, and it took me a few years to understand the term fully.

Deposit of Faith simply means the vast body of divine wisdom that God has manifested to His people from the Old Testament. But it was especially revealed to us in the words and actions of Jesus Christ the Incarnate Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

It embodies all the teachings of Christ that He entrusted to the Apostles with the commission to make them known to the entire world (Matt. 28:16-20). They have since passed this Deposit of Faith to their successors to this day, without any additions or subtractions to preserve the purity of what they had received from Christ.

No one can change Jesus Christ’s teachings because they come from God. They are His divine plan for our Salvation – a roadmap to eternal communion with Him. Or else like a map that has had unauthorised alterations, it will lead us on the wrong path and we will be lost forever.

As St Paul in his epistle to the Thessalonians tells us, “We thank God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13).

“Deposit of Faith” has biblical roots as it appears in the Greek version of the New Testament. In the apostle’s letters to Timothy, St Paul entreats his fellow missionary, “O Timothy, guard the paratheke (παρακαταθήκην) or deposit (1 Tim 6:20). He repeats this again in 2 Tim 14 to “guard the paratheke that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit”.

This Deposit, then, is to teach Christians everything that Christ has revealed about Himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit. It serves as a bulwark against heresies that attempt to corrupt the Truth about God and His salvific plan for the whole world.

As the principal mode of transmission of His Teachings is through oral teaching, Christ gave the Apostles a simple formula to teach and recall them from the Deposit of Faith with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. This formula is founded on the Blessed Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Here, I’ll quote Monsignor Eugene Kevane, a pioneer in the field of catechetics, from his Introduction to Teaching the Catholic Faith Today (published in 1982 by Daughters of St Paul).

What was the content of Jesus’ teaching? How did He form the minds of His disciples? A catechetical reading of the Gospels shows that He taught them to understand who He Himself is and what the religion is by which mankind is to respond to this central doctrine.

“So that they would know who He Himself is, He taught them the mystery of the Trinity. Within the Godhead of Yahweh, the One God of the Hebrew revelation, there are three equal divine Persons …

“The Trinitarian pattern of this teaching that witnesses to Him is clear from His final mandate to His apostles as founders of His worldwide Teaching Church: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Matt 28:19-20)

From the Trinity, springs forth all the teachings of the Catholic Church that are contained in the Deposit of Faith. “The Trinitarian profession of faith for baptism, with its subordinate topics for each Divine Person, became the Articles of Faith which the early Church called the Symbol and which we of the Latin Rite called the Apostles’ Creed from the Latin ‘Credo’,” Msgr Kevane wrote elsewhere.

“These Articles of Faith formed the first set of topics in the teaching. It formulated Jesus’ Deposit: it enabled his Apostles and their Successors to hand on the baptismal Profession of Faith by teaching. It was the substance of catechetical instruction then and now.”

Christ’s teachings do not change, even though the world went through a dramatic transformation in the last two thousand years. They are timeless and have addressed every issue of faith and morals in the ancient days of the Apostles and can do so now in our present day.

This does not mean our understanding of what Christ taught doesn’t develop. It does. A perfect example is the doctrine of “Outside the Church there is no salvation” or Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

This doctrine was strictly taught in its narrow sense in the early years of the Church, especially to combat erroneous teachings within and without the Church, such as the Albigensian and other heresies. But the Church gained a fuller understanding of this teaching at the Second Vatican Council.

The Fathers at the Council taught that those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart … can be saved (Lumen Gentium, 16).

In doing so, they preserved the substance of Extra ecclesiam nulla salus: That the Church is necessary for Salvation and without Her no one can be saved.

In essence, the Deposit of Faith is a treasury the Catholic Church – as guardians of the revelations of Christ – draws from to define, teach and defend the Truths about God. The four Marian dogmas, which essentially are about the Person of Christ, are such occasions when the Magisterium has unlocked this precious treasury.

In the Solemnity of the Trinity today, it is important to reaffirm this essential toolkit Christ gave His Church to lead us to God.

Our journey to Pentecost Sunday

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Travelling on the road of faith, hope and charity for TAF

It is almost a year ago since Deacon Adrian and I toyed with the idea of producing material that is easy to read for all Catholics. We had several conversations through WhatsApp and Zoom because he lives in Kuala Lumpur and I, in Singapore.

We agreed on a plan that if we were to do anything, it would be on a “Simple writing, simple reading” formula. But we had no clue initially on how to go about doing this or what medium it should be on or where we are going to get more help.

If it would be books, booklets, pamphlets or something else, was a question that continuously nagged at us.

We thought a website would be cool, but neither of us was at the level of creating one. It had been quite a while since I started my own blog, and was a little rusty. Besides, there are tons of Catholic websites on the Internet, why would anyone want to come to ours?

That was another question that had been nagging at us.

Our goal, though, is to help Catholics understand our faith better. It is not meant to teach those already neck-deep in studying Catholicism, but if we can contribute anything to their journey, that would be a bonus.

We want to cast our nets far and wide to all Catholics in Malaysia and Singapore, but primarily to those who are trying to understand and learn our faith, including students.

Our language style should, therefore, be easy to understand. As far as possible, we wanted to try and avoid terms that get people scratching their heads. This is no easy task, but we wanted to try.

In this light, we had conversations with a few Catholics who we felt were well-grounded in the faith, but that effort produced nothing. Just as our Lord Jesus Christ lamented that “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2-4)

So, instead of twiddling our thumbs, both of us prayed. We had to have faith.

During Advent last year a handful of promising names emerged. On Christmas Day I started writing at a site that hosted bloggers, just to keep our hopes alive. Then, on Ash Wednesday, two Catholics decided to join our mission: Jonathan Ho and Clement Wee from Singapore.

A few days later, Sister Shirley Chong came on board. She is a Daughters of St Paul Sister from Malaysia and based in Manila.

Our pace accelerated from then on and after several conversations, through Zoom and WhatsApp across Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, we decided to set up a website. We also agreed that we should cast our nets even further in Asia, and not just Malaysia and Singapore.

But baby steps first. We need to learn how to walk before we start jogging and then running. We also settled on our name, The Asian Fishermen, because we want to obey Christ’s Commission to everyone in His Church to evangelise. But we are going to do this through simple means and in our simple way.

As our journey crossed major Church days and seasons, we planned for our website to go live on Easter Sunday. But midway through our journey I fell ill and had to recuperate. The team decided they did not want to launch this mission without everyone on board.

So, we all agreed that the next important date available should be Pentecost Sunday, the day the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles and send them on their way to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission of spreading the Gospel to the ends of the world.

We are here, then, on this day, to do our small part in this work for Jesus Christ. None of us have any clue where we are going or how The Asian Fishermen, or TAF, will develop. But we place our faith in the Holy Spirit to lead us where He wills us to go.

A happy and blessed Pentecost!

What a Cardinal William Goh means

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Singapore Church Shepherd set to be in largest Asian bloc to elect future Popes

  • What it means for the Asian and Singapore Churches
  • What it means to be Cardinal William Goh
  • Brief History of Cardinals
  • Electing a Pope and how Conclaves came about

At the College of Cardinals meeting Pope Francis has called for on 27 August, the Singapore Catholic Church will receive its first Cardinal. Archbishop William Goh is among 21, including five other Asians, the Pope will elevate to this rank at the Consistory.

This order of bishops, who don red hats, is only second in the Church hierarchy after the Vicar of Christ. As head of the Singapore Catholic Church, Abp William, 64, will be Cardinal Priest and the sole ethnic Chinese in the College who is also the only one who speaks Mandarin. He will join the group of Electors of future popes.

What it means for the Asian Church

His rise in rank, as well as those of other Asians, should be seen in the light of the work of European Catholic missionaries who arrived in Asia in the 16th century (the region eastwards of the Middle East). Their toil to spread the Gospel has been bearing great fruits for quite some time now.

Pope Pius XII gave due recognition to the work of these European missionaries In a 1946 Consistory when he created Asia’s first cardinal, Bishop Thomas Tien-ken-sin, Vicar Apostolic of Qingdao in China. Seven years later in 1953, he gave the Red Hat to the second Asian – Archbishop Valerian Gracias, head of the Bombay (Mumbai) Archdiocese in India.

Following in the footsteps of Pius XII, John XXIII also created two, Paul VI, 11, John Paul II, 20, and Benedict XVI, 8. But it is Pope Francis who, within nine years in the Chair of St Peter, went full throttle with 20, including those in the coming August Consistory.

Francis’ reach went into Asian countries that have never had Cardinals and touched those such as Bangladesh Archbishop of Dhaka Patrick D’Rozario in 2016.

Out of the 25 Asians currently in the College, he created 12 of them. Except for one, all were from Southeast Asia, including for the first time from the episcopal sees of Laos and Myanmar. Malaysian (2016) and Bruneian (2020) bishops were among this cohort but they have since died.

From end of August this will be total number of Cardinals in the College:

ContinentElectorsNon-ElectorsTotal
Europe8067147
North America23932
Latin America381856
Africa241539
Asia321446
Oceania422
Total201125326

This is a significant jump in Asian pope electors compared to the four previous conclaves when five were in the Sistine Chapel from which Paul VI emerged as Pope. Nine were there when John Paul I and II were chosen, and 10 were at both Benedict XVI and Francis’ elections. To put this in perspective, from the end of August Asian cardinals will have a far bigger say in who will be the next Pope. Whether he will emerge from among their numbers we do not know.

But their enlarged presence in the College will give the Asian Church’s voice more attention to evangelise a continent of 4.7 billion people that is still under 11 percent Catholic (excluding China, where statistics are difficult to compile).

What it means for the Singapore Church

A Cardinal William Goh will not change the nature of his office as Archbishop of Singapore. His episcopal see remains at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. It will be business as usual for the Singapore Church, but how Catholics address him will change. Currently, the style for Archbishop or Bishop is inherited from the British colonial days, which is “Your and His Grace” in greeting and writing. Outside of most Commonwealth countries, the norm is “His and Your Excellency”.

The British style for Cardinals is “His and Your Lordship”.

This is unlikely to be the case with Card William. After Abp Anthony Soter Fernandez was created Cardinal in 2016, a precedent was set as even the Catholic Bishops Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei styled him as “His Eminence”. This was also adopted for Brunei’s Apostolate Vicar Cornelius Sim in 2020. Both have since died in 2020 and 2021.

Vestments’ colour will also change. From amaranth red (similar to purple) for bishops, Card William will switch to scarlet.

What it means to be Cardinal William Goh

After he was consecrated and installed as the fourth Archbishop of Singapore on 18 May 2013, he told the Archdiocese Catholic News, “I am still the same old Fr William Goh, with the same passion and love for Christ and His Church.

“The office does not change me but I hope I can change the office. I will still be that Shepherd of Christ that I am called to be, to seek the lost, console the hopeless, heal the wounded, give sight to the blind, reconcile those estranged and build bridges and communion in the Church and with the rest of humanity.”

Abp William said his vision “is to work with my brother priests to renew the faithful and together with the laity, to build a vibrant and evangelical Church so that we will be the face of Christ in a world that is bereft of hope and love”.

He has done a lot since then. Setting up the Office of the New Evangelisation or ONE, is his signature centrepiece. His work in building up the Church will continue with more vibrancy and not regress as Cardinal. At heart, he is still Fr William, but some things will have to change and these are spelt out in Chapter III, The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, of the Code of Canon Law 349-359.

A few things stand out.

While the primary duty of Cardinals is to elect Popes, they are also required to assist the Holy Father collegially to deal with questions of major importance.

They may also be called as individuals to help him in matters they are familiar with or have a history of expertise. These include those living in their respective dioceses overseas. This means Card William will have to go to Rome whenever the Pope calls him if he is needed. These are instances that are outside his mission as Archbishop of Singapore.

Finally, although Card William will not live in Rome, the Pope will assign him a titular church in the city, as a symbol of his closeness to the Holy Father in assisting him in Church affairs.

Brief History of Cardinals

The custom of a group of select clergy assisting the Pope in the governance of the Church can be traced back to the 1st century when the third successor of St Peter, Pope St. Cletus or Anacletus (76–88), ordained 25 presbyters (early Church priesthood) for the city of Rome. They helped him, as Bishop of the city, to celebrate the Eucharist and administer the Sacraments in his place.

Towards the end of the 1st century, Pope St. Evaristus (97–105) divided the city’s Church’s titles or properties (today’s equivalent to dioceses) among the 25. This practice of assisting the Bishop of Rome developed in the 5th century during Pope St. Simplicius’ reign (468–483).

He arranged for some successor bishops of the original 25 to assist him at his major basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Lawrence. In time they evolved to become his confidants in the governance of the Church and matters of doctrine. The “dioceses” of these chosen bishops are known today as ‘‘suburbicarian sees”.  In later centuries they were conferred with the rank of Cardinal Bishops.

The term “cardinal” first appeared during the pontificate of Stephen III. In the Roman Synod of 769, it was decided that Popes should be elected from among deacons and cardinal priests. At the time, the 18 deacons were charged with providing for the needy in Rome. By the 12th century, each of their deaconries had a cardinal leading their work.

The role of Cardinals and their College can change as the Pope sees fit because it was his predecessors who created them. And they have changed over the centuries and recently, John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II made substantial modifications.

Pope Francis is doing the same now.

So, how Popes are elected and the role of Cardinals can change. It is the prerogative of the Holy Father to select who should be in the College of Cardinals and no one else, as he is the Vicar of Christ and the Supreme Lawgiver for the Church.

More information: Why cardinals have ranks, and how Pope Francis changed them

CNS photo/Paul Haring

Electing a Pope and how Conclaves came about

Excerpt from the 2002 edition of the Catholic Encyclopaedia

Until the 4th century the method of electing the Bishop of Rome did not differ considerably from that used in other bishoprics. The neighbouring bishops, the Roman clergy, and the laity of Rome each participated in the election.

Since the role of these various classes of electors was somewhat unclear and the office was one of extreme importance, the procedure was open to abuse.

Consequently, with the advent of the Christian Roman emperors (4th century) the imperial influence was brought to bear on papal elections.

The first important step in the attempt to reform papal elections was taken by Pope Nicholas II on 13 April, 1059, at the Council of Rome. The decree, which he published, declared that the papal electors were henceforth to be only the higher clergy of Rome (i.e., the Cardinals) with the rest of the clergy and the laity permitted merely to give approbation to the election. The emperor was likewise to be informed of the results of the election and allowed to confirm the choice that had already been made, although it was made clear that this was only a concession granted to him by the Holy See.

Provisions were made also for holding the election outside the city of Rome, if conditions warranted.

At the Lateran Council of 1179 Pope Alexander III, in the Apostolic Constitution Licet de vitanda discordia, further stipulated that all Cardinals were to be considered equal, and that a two-thirds majority of the votes was necessary for a valid election. With the passage of time, it became apparent that the College of Cardinals was on occasion prone to delay its selection of a pope and, as a result, to inflict upon the Church the harmful effects of a long interregnum.

To remedy this situation, Gregory X, by means of his bull Ubi periculum (1274), instituted the conclave system of strict seclusion to secure a more rapid papal succession. Further modifications were added in 1562 by Pope Pius IV who issued regulations regarding the method of voting in the conclave through his bull In eligendis.

Main Image: Asia News

A Confession: My return journey home

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Christ’s love and healing powers in the Confessional turned my life around

I would have gone to Hell had I died in 2004. For over two decades, I had lived a life that was not consonant with my Catholic faith. I had ticked a few boxes that earned me a ticket there. The one that was like a millstone around my neck: adultery with a married woman from another country.

Travelling on this road to perdition, the U-turn came when she, a non-Catholic, was visiting me and bought a Rosary from the Carlo Catholic bookstore next to Saints Peter and Paul’s Church at Waterloo Street.

She asked if I could get it blessed for her. It was a weekday and I replied there should be a priest in church whom we could approach to do so. In the car park, I saw that the church door was opened and the logical first place to look for him.

My instinct was spot on.

As we walked through the door Father was indeed there. He was at the pulpit delivering the homily for the evening Mass. In referring to one of the readings that day the first words I heard him say were, “Come back to me!”

It stopped me dead in my tracks and the hairs on my back stood up. I whispered to my friend that I had to stay for Mass and took a seat in one of the pews. When Mass was over, I immediately approached Father that I urgently needed to go for Confession.

As I poured my heart out in the Confessional of what had become of me and my faith, Father listened patiently. I had expected a harsh admonishment. Instead, he gave me absolution and forgave all my sins. I can’t remember what he said after that, but it went along the lines of, “Go and sin no more and give yourself entirely to God”.

I was crying throughout my Confession, especially when Father, through the mercy of God, granted me absolution. In between sobs, I could only mutter that I would. When I got out of church, I informed her what we were doing had to stop. She agreed readily after witnessing what went on with me at and after Mass (She later reconciled with her husband and both attended RCIA and were baptised Catholic).

My parents brought my brothers and me up as good Catholics and they were hurt when they saw the life I was leading. They’d probably known about the sinful shenanigans that had enslaved their son. But they never gave up on me and it was their prayers to God that moved me to mend fences with Him through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

That moment began my journey of reclaiming and studying diligently my Catholic faith. It is almost 20 years since that wonderful day and this journey will continue until I die. This is why I am still a work in progress.

In looking back recently on my career as a journalist, writer and editor, I realise that God had been training and forming me to use my skills for Him. What I have is never mine, but His.

But in returning home to the Catholic Church, I had gone through many twists and turns. The pivotal moment came in 2015 when I decided to leave my fulltime job as a Senior Correspondent with MediaCorp’s Today newspaper that paid very well.

With bills to pay and aged parents to look after, I arrived at a point where I was not sure where my next paycheck was going to come from. That day, after driving through the gates of MediaCorp at Caldecott Hill for the last time I headed to the Adoration Room at Catholic Spiritual Centre in Punggol.

In prayer, I told Jesus that I am giving Him through His Mother my new career, which I had no clue what it was going to be. And I said to the Mother of God, “You are the Boss of my life, and more than ever before my career!”. I have since never had to go out looking for projects to earn my keep. Instead, I had people calling to commission me for projects. Up till today!

God, in turn, has filled up the rest of my life with His work, in parish ministry and now with The Asian Fishermen. I have no illusions the Devil is all hunky-dory with what has been happening in my life. He is going to come back with a vengeance to thwart my work for God.

But with the Almighty on my side and the Immaculate Conception, radiating God’s power, keeping a close watch over me, I am not afraid of the Devil’s shenanigans.

I have faith in this divine protection because of Christ’s promise to those who accept His commission to evangelise and get everyone to Heaven, “Fear not, I am with you always till the end of time!” (Isaiah 41:10, Matthew 28:20)

GOD FORGIVES ALL SINS IN THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION (CONFESSION)

I am not the first wayward Catholic who found his way to the Confessional and cried like a baby while pouring out my grave misdeeds, which are mortal sins that kill the soul. Many are burdened with the same type of sins as mine. Some are even worse.

They need not suffer in silence because Christ is waiting for them to come home because all the sins of the world cannot prevent us from returning to Him, if we are truly repentant and seek His mercy and forgiveness.

After I stepped back inside the Church, I’ve met others who have travelled on the same road home.

Their experience of crying while confessing their sins and receiving absolution is the same. Also, the feeling that God had shattered the Devil’s heavy millstone hanging around our necks and instantly healed their wounded souls. This relief from the heavy burden of guilt is indescribable.

But there are also others I’ve known who were scared of stepping into the Confessional because they fear admitting their sins, especially of procuring an abortion or being a party to the killing of innocent life, a child, in the womb, and adultery.

There is no foundation for harbouring this fear. Christ tells us that all sins can be forgiven (1 John 1:7–9, Mark 3:28, Matt 12:31-32)

God is the ultimate healer, the Supreme Doctor who can cure all ailments, especially those that sicken a soul, which is beyond the ability of human doctors. It is no accident, therefore, that the Catholic Church is called the hospital for sinners because Christ has given Her the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession).

In the Church He founded, He empowered His apostles, their successors and the priests they ordained to administer this beautiful Sacrament of His mercy and forgiveness. They do this in His capacity (in Persona Christi or in the Person of Christ). This is why we are in the very presence of Christ in the Confessional and in receiving His love for us to wipe out all our sins, even the grave ones, we break down in tears.

So, if you are Catholic and being weighed down by the burden of sin, don’t suffer in silence. Ask any Catholic priest for the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) and let Jesus heal you in the Confessional.

POSED IMAGE: Pexels