Saint Maria Goretti, a Saint For Poor, Young Girls.

July 6 marks the Feast of Maria Goretti, patron saint of chastity, rape victims, girls, youth, teenage girls, poverty, purity, and forgiveness.

"Not only is he a martyr one who refuses to deny a truth of the faith, but he who dies for the sake of some virtue, or to avoid sin against any commandment." - Saint Thomas Aquinas 

Maria was the daughter of a poor Italian tenant farmer, who had no chance to go to school and never learned to read or write. Her threshold of faith was tested at the tender age of eleven years when she was willing to undergo death rather than participate in a sin against God. Her attacker was a neighbor and would-be-rapist, 18-year-old Alessandro, who stabbed her 14 times. Maria was taken to a hospital and during this time, she was most concerned with the welfare of her mother, forgiveness of her murderer and her welcoming of Viaticum, her last Holy Communion. She died about 24 hours after the attack.


St. Maria Goretti was canonized by Pope Pius XII before the largest throng of people- over 200,000- ever to attend a canonization ceremony. It was also the first time in history that a mother, Assunta Goretti, was present for the canonization of her own daughter! 

Pope John Paul II in a Homily commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the virgin-martyr's birth, he emphasized her importance for our own troubled times: "She did not flee from the voice of the Holy Spirit, from the voice of her conscience. She rather chose death. Through the gift of fortitude the Holy Spirit helped her to 'judge"- and to choose with her young spirit. She chose death when there was no other way to defend her virginal purity. Maria Goretti's blood, shed in a sacrifice of total fidelity to God, reminds us that we are also called to offer ourselves to the Father. We are called to fulfill the divine will in order to be found holy and pleasing in His sight. Our call to holiness, which is the vocation of every baptized person, is encouraged by the example of this young martyr.

"Today, we thank the Blessed Trinity for this young life, and for the martyrdom which crowned it. Through her life and heroic death, the Son of man was glorified at the beginning of our century. 'Blessed be God in His Saints'." (L'Osservatore Romano- English ed., 10/7/91)

Feast of Saint Anthony Zaccaria, Reformer and Promoter of the Eucharist

Saint Antonio Maria Zaccaria born 5 July 1502 ( died 1539) was an Italian Catholic priest and early leader of the Catholic Reformation, founder of the Barnabites and a promoter of the Passion of Christ, the Eucharist and the renewal of the religious life among laity.

The Catholic Reformation consists of reforms and movements within the Church in the periods immediately before Martin Luther and before the Council of Trent  (1545-1563.) The efforts grew out of criticism of the worldliness and corruption of the papacy and clergy during the Renaissance. Martin Luther used the Catholic Reformers' proposed reforms as a basis for  his attack on abuses in the Church.

Even before the official start of the Catholic Reformation, others like Saint Francis of Assisi were already making progress. While Francis never intended to found an order but when followers came to share his life, he saw it as the will of the Lord. In May 1209 went to Rome to see pope Innocent III. Innocent reigned at a time of remarkable corruption in the Church. Many bishops, priests and religious had become landed gentry, more concerned with their material possessions than fullfiling their pastoral responsibilities. Most of the clergy were poorly educated in the faith and rarely preached, and many were given to lives of debauchery.

At the same time that Martin Luther was attacking abuses in the Church, a reformation within the Church was already being attempted. Among the early movers of the Counter-Reformation was Anthony Zaccaria.  He received a medical doctorate at 22, and while working among the poor of his native Cremona in Italy, was attracted to the religious apostolate. He renounced his rights to any future inheritance, worked as a catechist, and was ordained a priest at the age of 26. Called to Milan in a few years, he laid the foundations of three religious congregations, one for men, one for women, and an association of married couples. Their aim was the reform of the decadent society of their day, beginning with the clergy, religious, and lay people.

Anthony encouraged such innovations as the collaboration of the laity in the apostolate, frequent Communion, the Forty Hours devotion, and the ringing of church bells at 3:00 p.m. on Fridays. His holiness moved many to reform their lives, but as with all saints, it also moved many to oppose him. Twice his community had to undergo official religious investigation, and twice it was exonerated.

Paul III was the first pope to respond to attacks of abuse in the church.

convening the important Council of Trent (1545–63), described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation and used in part to address the challenges of the Protestant Reformations

 The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort arising from the decrees of the Council of Trent. The effort produced apologetic and polemical documents, heresy trials, anti-corruption efforts, spiritual movements, the promotion of new religious orders, and the flourishing of new art and musical styles.

Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality.

Among the most influential reforming figures of the Counter-Reformation included Pius V, Gregory XIII, and Sixtus V. Saints Charles Borromeo, Philip Neri, John of the Cross, Teresa of Ávila, Francis de Sales, and Vincent de Paul

Prayer to Saint Anthony Zaccaria 

Saint Anthony Zaccaria, helper of the poor and the sick, you who devoted your life to our spiritual welfare, listen to my humble and hopeful prayer.

Continue your work as doctor and priest

by obtaining from God healing from my physical and moral sickness, so that free from all evil and sin, I may love the LORD with joy,.fulfill with fidelity my duties,

work generously for the good of my brothers and sisters, and for my sanctification.

Amen.

Schismatic Catholic News Agency Report German Catholics are leaving the Church in hordes

Schismatic and Anti-Pope Francis
Catholic News Agency's AC Wimmer 'reports "400,000 Germans Quit Catholic Church as Talks Between Vatican, Synodal Way Continue - While this represents a decrease from the 522,000 departures in 2022, the trend remains alarming for Church leaders and Catholics alike."

Then, to prove his point, Wimmer, rattles a number of statistics: " Currently, there are 20,345,872 Catholics registered in Germany. If trends persist, the number could drop below 20 million in 2024.

Moreover, only 6.2% of Catholics regularly attend Mass: This translates to approximately 1.27 million practicing Catholics in a country of over 80 million, CNA Deutsch noted."

The 'report'  is then shamelessly repeated by 
  National Catholic Register and others.  It's like the National Catholic Reporter

'reporting' that Church leaders and Catholics alike, are alarmed at number of fallen angels: Saint Paul tells us in Romans Chapter 10 that "But not everyone has heeded the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what was heard from us?” Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. “Their voice has gone forth to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

Catholics in Germany, whether those leaving the Church, or those who decided to stay, have heard the good news - yet some decided to leave - its a free will world! Free to choose good or evil. Free to doubt, like Doubting Thomas. Whether Germans, Americans, Russians or Chinese.

The Church is not a theme park or an entertainment center in need of modern marketing practices. The Church (CCC 778) is both the means and the goal of God's plan: prefigured in creation, prepared for in the Old Covenant, founded by the words and actions of Jesus Christ, fulfilled by his redeeming cross and his Resurrection, the Church has been manifested as the mystery of salvation by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. She will be perfIIected in the glory of heaven as the assembly of all the redeemed of the earth (cf. Rev 14:4).

In Eph 2:19, Saint Paul makes it clear all who so choose, are fellow citizens; 
"Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Eph 2:19. Even Doubting Thomas became a believer: "But Thomas said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” JN 20:24

The Church teaches (CCC 2148) that one sin has been declared in all three synoptic gospels by Jesus himself as "unforgivable" – blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.


Whoever says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (Mat 12:31-32)

All sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. (Mk 3:28-29)

Every one who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. (Lk 12:10)

The Holy Spirit is the personification of God's love and, as such, "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us," (Rom 5:5). This gift of love that has been poured into our hearts is the agent of forgiveness offered to us by God (CCC 734). In other words, through the Holy Spirit, we receive forgiveness for our sins, which finds its source in the sacrifice of Jesus ( CCC 735).

Rather than remaining dormant in our hearts, the Holy Spirit offers us help to access that forgiveness. It is from the Holy Spirit that we receive gifts and fruits that form our consciences, enabling us to know right from wrong so that we may follow his will, leading us on the path to Heaven. It is the Holy Spirit who inspires us to act rightly, but perhaps more importantly, he is also the agent of change in our hearts who inspires conversion when we act wrongly. Our response to the Holy Spirit's urgings prompts us to be sorry for our sins and seek out God's infinite mercy.

The Catholic Catechism also  teaches (391)  that "behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called "Satan" or the "devil".The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing."


The Church further teaches (CCC 1730-1735) God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. "God willed that man should be 'left in the hand of his own counsel,' so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him."

Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts.

Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.

As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach.

The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin."

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British Lords, Celebrities, including Bianca Jagger, author Tom Holland, musical eminence Julian Lloyd Webber, and media executive Sir Nicholas Coleridge, among others.

Call on Vatican to Preserve ‘Treasure’ of Latin Mass.

In an OpEd piece in Schismatic  National Catholic Reporter
Joanne M pPierce Opines that " as a specialist in medieval Christian history, I am aware that, since antiquity, many theologians, preachers, monastics and other Christians have embraced the role of humor as a valuable part of Christian spirituality."


But you don't need to be a specialist on medieval history, Catholics are not surprised and it's not just humor- just read the Catholic Catechism