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| Michael Davies and... |
The column was lively, informative, filled with faith and even laced with humour. The appeal for well wishers to resist sending him "herbal remedies" was a case in point. It revealed, as one of my sons remarked, ‘true grit from a true Brit,’ which evoked a riposte from his father, ‘Yes. But a Brit of the old school!’
The Bromley teacher, turned best selling writer, was certainly of the old school. After military service as an infantry man in the British army he devoted thirty years of his life to instructing children at Catholic primary schools in south London and still found time to embrace Catholic tradition and use his many books to carry out a staunch defence of Catholic orthodoxy. For the first time, by reading a Michael Davies expose, millions of Catholics came face to face with what he had detected soon after the end of Vatican II. The indisputable fact that the changes since the Council have been disastrous and that the Church is in a state of serious crisis.
But not every one loved him. He had to face severe, even vicious criticism. I hope his death in September 2004 sent one particular American critic who bears the sobriquet ‘Catholic writer,’ scurrying to the Confessional box. I refer to the man who, in a particularly mean, spiteful and mendacious article described Mr Davies as, ‘the Lefebvrist worm in Una Voce’ . Una Voce being the organisation set up to safeguard the Tridentine Mass and work for its extension throughout the world. Mr Davies resigned from its Presidency just before he wrote the "London Letter" mentioned above.
Of course Michael Davies must have been fully aware that as he set out to chronicle the Modernist heresy and the collapse of the Church in the West since 1960 he would upset Establishment figures who, having lost the Faith, had decided to march to the sound of another drummer: the intoxicating rhythm of relativism which leads to false ecumenism, syncretism and eventual apostasy. (more...)
Excerpt from "Medjugorje after Twenty-one Years":
ReplyDeleteThe Charismatic Connection
In 1967 the Catholic Charismatic Renewal was founded in Pittsburgh by two Catholic professors from Notre Dame University who had received what they termed “baptism of the spirit” through the laying on of hands by Protestant Pentecostalists. There is no basis in Catholic theology for this so-called “baptism of the spirit” which amounts to an eighth sacrament. We receive and
become temples of the Holy Spirit when we are baptised.
Father René Laurentin, the principal propagandist for Medjugorje, is one of the original members of the charismatic movement which he believes to be of great importance for the future of the Catholic Church. There has been a close connection between Medjugorje and the charismatic movement from its very inception. Many of the best known members of the movement have given their complete support to the authenticity of the Medjugorje apparitions during which, as a quid pro quo, it is purported that Our Lady has endorsed their movement. It is claimed that on 25 July 1982 she said: “Pray for the sick! Fast for the sick! Lay your hands on them! Administer them charismatic anointings with oil! Any layman can do it!” Father Franken asks whether this does not suggest that a layman can administer the sacrament of the anointing of the sick which is reserved for priests.
On the three days 23, 24, 25 August 1983 charismatic services were held at Medjugorje and all six seers and a number of priests and nuns of the parish received the “baptism of the spirit” Some had received it on previous occasions. Father Emilio Tardif taught the faithful to prophesy, to speak in tongues, and to sing. As mentioned above, the two locutionists, Jelena Vasilj and Marijana Vasilj have established a prayer group which the Virgin leads through them. Our Lady is also said to lead another prayer group which she directs through Ivan Dragicevic and Marija Pavolvic. The seers claim that prayer groups on the Medjugorje model should be established in every parish in the world:
"In every church community, and therefore also in every parish, prayer groups should have a mediating, assisting, and uniting task. Pilgrims should integrate in parish life at home and offer assistance, even in cases where parish priests do not yet accept the events of Medjugorje and the message of Our Lady."