VIDEO: "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran!"

Walt feels the need to post something more about the Israeli (read: American) attack on Iran than the little cartoon which appeared here this morning. We can poke fun at the Ayatollahs and mad mullahs all we like, but to say that we have to get them before they get us... that's just wrong! In his latest Remnant Underground video, Michael Matt tells us why supporting "Christian Zionism" is a big mistake, and what we must do to save our country.

But first, this overture. Those of you who grew up with the music of the Golden Age of Rock, the kind featured in American Graffiti, will have noted with sadness the passing of Brian Wilson, the musical genius behind The Beach Boys, who died a few days ago at the age of 82. RIP. This is one of my favourite Beach Boys hits.

What, you may wonder, is the connection with the attack on Iran. Read our headline again, quickly, or better yet, sing it... the way the Beach Boys did! No wonder Mr Matt uses it to preface his thoughts on the mistake of joining the endless Middle Eastern war.

Dear Christian friends -- Catholic and otherwise -- Mr Matt has shown the flaws in the argument for joining in the Jewish war on Iran. It's not that Mr Matt or we here at WWW are anti-Semitic. It's simply that this war goes against everything we, as Christians, profess to believe. Now you know.

Footnote: This video is an edited version of AMERICA FIRST?? TRUMP BOMBS IRAN_ MAGA Divided, Neocons Delighted, Israel Wins, published on Remnant TV on 22 June 2025. Mr Matt's report on the latest Chartres pilgrimage and the great Catholic Revival now shaking Europe have been omitted. Click here to see the full-length (44:15) video.

Notre Dame in flames: part of the Great Chastisement?

One of the most famous Roman Catholic cathedrals in Paris -- in the world, really -- has been severely damaged by a horrendous fire which raged through the building most of yesterday. The blaze toppled the spire and destroyed the roof, but much of the interior survived and the structure remains intact. That so much of the building was destroyed is a tragedy. That so much, including the organ and almost all of the priceless treasures and relics -- including the Crown of Thorns -- can be restored, is a miracle.

A tragedy and a miracle, occurring simultaneously, at one of the most holy sites of Western Christendom. How can that be? What does it mean? Is God trying to tell us something?

For traditional Catholics, this truly awful (in the true sense of the word) event, occurring as it did in Holy Week, the last week of Lent, can only be regarded as a clear sign of God's displeasure with His Church and His people. The mainstream Catholic Church in France is moribund. The great cathedrals and basilicas are visited almost exclusively by tourists. The parish churches are all but empty. The vast majority of nominal Catholics go to church only to for baptisms, marriages and funerals, an many ignore even those sacraments. The majority of Catholic Christians, even if they keep the Faith in their hearts, have turned their back on the Church.

God is displeased, to put it mildly, so He and His Blessed Mother (after whom the great cathedral is named) have given us yet another warning. The fire at Notre Dame can and should be seen as another installment of the Great Chastisement of which Our Lady spoke when She appeared at Fatima in 1917.

On October 13, 1917, in the moment before the great Miracle of the Sun, the Blessed Virgin said, "People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more for He is already too much offended." Our Lady warned of the gravest consequences if this warning is not heeded. The greatest consequence and ultimate chastisement for unrepentant souls is the eternal punishment of hell. It was in order to prevent the eternal damnation of souls redeemed by the Blood of Our Divine Savior Jesus Christ that His Most Holy Mother came to Fatima.

But the Blessed Virgin's request that people "amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins" was not heeded. Our Lady of Fatima told Blessed Jacinta that "wars are punishments for sins of the world." It was revealed to the holy priest Père Lamy that World War One was a punishment specifically for “blasphemy, the desecration of marriage and Sunday labour". In the apparition of July 13, 1917, Our Lady warned that "The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the reign of Pius XI." And so it -- World War II -- came to pass.

But we must remember that World War II was only the beginning of the threatened chastisements. If people do not repent and amend their lives then more severe chastisements will follow. The threatened punishment of the world "by means of war, famine, persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father" is a far more general prophetic warning that has only been partially fulfilled. Whether or not it will take place is contingent on the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of Our Lady's requests.

Our Lady revealed to Sister Lucia the sign that would indicate the onset of the impending chastisement. “When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is going to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father." An "unknown light like this one, perhaps?

But the physical chastisement of which Our Lady warned -- the endless wars and natural disasters bringing about the "annihilation of nations" -- is not the most frightful aspect of the chastisement foretold in the Secret of Fatima. Even more frightful is the spiritual chastisement foretold in the Secret.

The persecution of the Church that will take place will be like none other that has ever taken place in all the history of the world. That which is seemingly impossible will take place, yet it is foretold in the unpublished part of the Third Secret and in Sacred Scripture. According to the late Cardinal Mario Luigi Ciappi, "In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top."

We have been warned that partisans of the Devil will occupy the Roman Curia under a Masonic antipope! The late Father Malachi Martin stated that he read the Third Secret of Fatima in early February 1960. Our Lady's words, he said, foretold a future "pope" -- an imposter who would usurp the See of Rome while being completely under the control of the Devil. Thus will arise a counterfeit "Catholic" Church -- a counter-church, an anti-church -- the "dragon, whose tail swept down a third of the stars of Heaven and cast them to the earth" (Apocalypse 12:4) -- i.e. one third of the Catholic hierarchy under the leadership of a heretical antipope.

Father Martin said these "partisans of the devil" -- the "third of the stars of Heaven" -- masquerading as "Catholic" clergy are secret members of a sect consecrated to the Devil. They will gain control over the Vatican apparatus, he warned, and establish the "Catholic" branch of the established and compulsory religion of the New World Order. True Catholicism will be outlawed, and the remnant of faithful Catholics will be subjected to the most ferocious persecution that there will have ever been in the history of the world.

Father Paul Kramer wrote that Catholics will not be welcome in the new "Civilization of Love". The exclusivism of their dogmas will cause them to be viewed as dangerous "fanatics" and "terrorists" -- a mortal threat to the ecumenical unity and "peace" of the New World Order. Thus, the real Catholic Church will be treated as an outlaw organization, and a threat to world peace.

The Church's status will therefore be as it was during the Roman persecutions, when She was viewed as a subversive and criminal organization. There will be laws enacted to punish non-conformist practitioners of "outmoded" pre-conciliar forms of religion that threaten world "peace"’ (the neo-pagan ecumenical order of the Civilization of Love) by their divisive attachment to dogmatic exclusivism which leads to inquisitional "persecutions" and religious wars and crusades. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? And yet these anti-Catholic sentiments were already "trending" decades ago.

Catholics will be told that they may avoid the chastisement, with its persecution and martyrdom, by embracing "Catholicism v.2", by "engaging" with the "new and improved" Church, the "new Rome" which will be in communion with the Great Ecumenical Church that will unite all religions. Pope Francis increasingly reveals to wondering Catholics his Big Idea -- Drawing All Faiths Together, because "we all worship the same god" (which is heresy). Drawing All Faiths Together... DAFT!

Father Kramer concludes that those who will have the grace and fortitude to hold fast to their Catholic Faith will refuse to abandon the true traditional Catholic religion. For this refusal they will be regarded as incorrigible fanatics and obstinate schismatics. They will be universally despised as the enemies of the Civilization of Love, and they will be blamed for the failure of the New World Order to achieve universal peace, love, unity and harmony. Their fate is depicted in the vision of the Third Secret: for their refusal to embrace the false religion of ecumenism and religious liberty, the Pope, clergy and Catholic faithful will be systematically hunted down and brutally exterminated.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II declared that "the message of Fatima imposes an obligation on the Church." In view of the incalculably catastrophic consequences of non-compliance with Heaven's request, Bishop Rudolf Graber declared that to ignore the message and the requests of Our Lady of Fatima is tantamount to a "crime against humanity."

The desecration of Catholic churches and sanctuaries by pagan worship and the mingling of the true religion with false religions is the signal that the chastisement will take place in the immediate future. The desecration of the sanctuary, of God's Holy Place -- by turning it into a mere tourist attraction, for instance -- is a sacrilegious and blasphemous act of impiety that demands immediate punishment in strict justice.

The real lesson to be taken from the fire at Notre Dame de Paris is that God cannot be patient any longer in the presence of the sacrilegious abominations that are now being perpetrated in Catholic churches and sanctuaries. It is for just this kind of sin that He declares: "Therefore I also will deal with them in My wrath: My eye shall not spare them, neither will I show mercy...nor will I have pity: I will requite their way upon their head." (Ezechiel 8:18, 9:10)

Poll: Most Canadians think Islam, Sikhism bad for their society

Just heard from Agent 3 for the second time this week. In the third week of October (he writes) he responded to a poll conducted by the respected (and politically neutral) Angus Reid organization. Since the subject was "social issues", Agent 3 responded with alacrity (and very quickly too), but, since he figured the poll was being taken on behalf of Canada's Liberal government, he didn't expect to see the results published.

Surprise! The poll of nearly 2000 Canucks was conducted in partnership with Faith in Canada 150, powered by Cardus, a think tank. It's a non-denominational initiative "designed to engage Canadians and their institutions in a rich and robust conversation on faith in our common life." They took the poll, it seems, to see what impact their efforts to Draw All Faiths Together (DAFT) have had, and released the results earlier this week... even though the results were disappointing to those who believe people of all "faith communities" should get in a big circle and sing "Kumbaya".

The survey found that Canadians are divided over whether religious diversity is healthy for the country, and consider Islam, in particular, to be a negative force. 26% of respondents said increasing religious diversity is a good thing, while 23% said it is bad. (Agent 3 didn't say which group he fell into, but we can guess, can't we.) 44% said diversity brings a mix of good and bad, and the remaining 7% were unsure or, being Canadian, too polite to say how they really feel.

Questions about respondents' views on particular religious groups revealed strong anti-Islam sentiment. 46% of those polled said Islam is damaging Canada, while only 13% per cent said it is beneficial. 20% either did not know or care to say (see above), while 21% said the "Religion of Peace" has no real impact. The pollsters said the results are in keeping with "a well-documented pattern. Namely, if Islam is involved, a significant segment of Canadians will react negatively."

Catholicism, Protestantism, evangelical Christianity and Judaism all had overall positive ratings. The only other religion with an overall negative score was Sikhism, with 22% calling it damaging and 13%. Bad news for Jagmeet Singh, the new leader of Canada's socialistic New Democrats, who makes a big point of being a practising Sikh, wearing his very tall orange turban as a kind of visual punctuation mark.

Angus Reid, the founder and president of the eponymous institute, said he found it "disheartening that Canadians are not more committed to the freedom of religion enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms." Only a slight majority — 55% — of respondents said freedom of religion makes Canada a better country, while 14% said the freedom makes Canada worse and 21% thought it has no impact. Mr Reid told an interviewer, "I think the low number of Canadians who celebrate the fact that we have religious freedom is very troubling and really speaks to the forces of secularization that are at work in Canadian society."

Mr Reid sees in the results a "potential for intolerance" towards believers, especially adherents of minority religions. Asked whether various groups' influence was growing or shrinking in Canada, respondents identified Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism as growing. Canada's more established religious groups were all seen to have a shrinking influence.

Ray Pennings, executive vice-president of Cardus, said he thinks "what we're talking about is a public narrative." He found significance in the finding that the two groups seen negatively are also those with visible religious symbols such as the hijab and turban. (The poll was taken in the same week that the Québec National Assembly passed Bill 62, which restricts the wearing of religious headgear when providing or receiving public services.) "Is it a discomfort with the particulars of their faith," Mr Pennings asked, "or is it a discomfort with the fact that they’re different than us?"

The pollsters asked about that -- about "cases where religious practice intersects with the public sphere". There was solid opposition to the niqab, a garment worn by some Muslim women that covers the entire face except the eyes. 49% of respondents said a woman in a niqab should be prohibited from visiting a government office and 29% said she should be discouraged but tolerated. Only 22% said the woman should be welcomed.

As is frequently seen on questions of religion, opinion in Québec was strongest on many of the questions. Fully 55% of Quebec respondents said Islam is damaging, and it was the only region where more people considered Judaism damaging (22%) than saw it as beneficial (11%). Québécois were most opposed to the niqab, with 68% saying it should be banned in government offices, which is the gist of Bill 62. They were also the most likely (31% vs 23% nationally) to identify increasing religious diversity as a bad thing.

Amazing! Vatican cardinal calls for conversion of Muslims (but not Jews)

Walt hasn't written much lately about the crisis in the Roman Catholic Church because there is such turmoil over homosexuality, paedophilia, the admission of divorced-and-remarried Catholics to the sacraments etc. that it's hard to focus on just one issue. Some Traditional Catholics are close to committing the sin of despair as they watch Pope Francis the Humble lead the faithful away from the truths that the Church held for 1900+ years, until the disaster of Vatican II.

One of the things that we were taught, back in the day, was that we should go forth and preach the Gospel of Christ to all nations. We were called to proselytize, to seek the conversion of non-believers, including the Jews who refused to accept that the Messiah had come. Indeed we used to pray for the conversion of the Jews and the heathens as part of our Good Friday liturgy. But no more.

Now the "Holy Father" delights in sitting down, even kneeling down with imams and muftis and rabbis and the leaders of other "faith communities", which, he tells us, are co-equal with what we believed to be the One True Faith. After all, we're told, we all pray to the same God, no matter whether we call him Jehovah or Yahweh or Allah. And all faiths can lead us to Heaven, if there is a heaven, because we don't really believe in Hell anyway. That kind of thinking is called Syncretism or Indifferentism. And it is heresy! Every day, Pope Francis leads us deeper and deeper into heresy!

Thus is came as something of a shock to read news of a recent pronouncement by Kurt Cardinal Koch, who, as President of the Pontifical Council for Christian University, is the Batican's point man on the "ecumenical relations" file. At an interfaith meeting in Cambridge, Cardinal Koch said... wait for it... that Christians are called to seek the conversion of all Muslims!

“We have a mission to convert all non-Christian religions' people," said the prelate, adding that this imperative extends even to jihadis responsible for persecuting Christians in the Middle East. My immediate reaction: Does the Pope know about this? Cardinal Koch is supposed to be one of Francis' closest advisors, yet he seems to be contradicting the false ecumenism that the Pope has been preaching almost since Day One of his pontificate.

In the very next breath, though, Cardinal Koch made an exception for the Jews. The duty to evangelize applies to all Christians in their relations with all other faiths, he said, except Judaism. He acknowledged that Christians share with both Jews and Muslims a reverence for the traditions of faith handed down from Abraham. But he said that "we cannot deny that the view of Abraham in Jewish and Christian tradition and the Islamic tradition is not the same." While Christians acknowledge the covenant God made with the Jewish people, the same cannot be said of the Islamic faith. Thus, he explained, "we have only with Jewish people this unique relationship that we do not have with Islam." So leave the Jews alone, then.

As a Traditional Catholic, Walt is all for reaching out to non-believers, including Muslims and Jews. But I'll go a step further and suggest that we start with the modernist, post-conciliar bishops (including the Bishop of Rome) and priests who seem to have lost their grip on the tenets of the Faith of our fathers. Grab your Baltimore Catechisms, boys, and get out there and make those converts!

Footnote: You'll be interested (if not pleased) to know that all of the 499 Syrians who have been granted refugee status in the USA so far this month are Muslims, according to the CNSNews service. Not a single Christian has been granted that status. Since the beginning of the current fiscal year, 2235 Syrian refugees have been welcomed (sort of) into America. Just 10 of them -- less than one-half of 1% -- have been Christians. There's no need, then, to leave the USA to find Muslims to convert!

Western and Muslim societies "irreconcilably different", poll finds

Here's a real news flash for you. Western and Muslim societies are different. They have different religions, different customs, and different value systems. And, according to polling data being discussed at the Metropolis Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies, most Canadians -- Muslim and non-Muslim alike -- think the differences are "irreconcilable".

Whether it’s the rise of Islamic State zealots, the killing of free-speech advocates in Paris and Copenhagen or disputes over niqabs, the polling, done by Leger Marketing, shows Canadians share in the growing global anxiety about sectarian conflict. 63% of Canadian Protestants, 62% Jews, 60% of Catholics and 46% of the non-religious believe Western and Islamic societies cannot be reconciled. Even 42% of Canadian Muslims believe the contrast between the West and Islamic cultures is too great to be bridged.

Jack Jedwab, vice-president of the ACS which commissioned the Leger polls, called the findings "a huge blow to interfaith dialogue". He said the belief of a majority of Canadians that the West and Islamic society are locked in inevitable antagonism echoes the thesis of Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of Political Order. Way back in 1992, Prof. Huntington predicted -- correctly, as it turns out -- that people’s cultural and religious identities would be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world.

The Pew Research Center keeps track of such things. Its new report -- "Latest Trends in Religious Restrictions and Hostilities" -- confirms that worldwide social hostilities involving religion reached a six-year peak in 2012 and have remained basically stuck at that level.
Almost three in four global citizens, Pew reports, live in countries where religion-fuelled conflicts run the gamut from vandalism of property and desecration of sacred texts to violent assaults resulting in deaths and injuries.

What are the worst countries in the world for sectarian conflict? According to the Pew index, India shares that distinction with... wait for it... Israel. Next on the "Very High" list are the Palestinian Territories, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt, Central African Republic, Iraq and Kenya.

What is the link which connects all the countries -- saving perhaps Sri Lanka -- on the list of "Very High" social hostility index? No prize for guessing that they all have Muslim majorities or large Muslim minorities.

What should we in North America learn from all t his? The polling done for the ACS revealed Canadians' concern about religion-related conflict is leading many to yearn for tighter border restrictions and less immigration from Muslim countries such Pakistan, Nigeria, etc etc etc.

Asked whether governments should deal with security concerns by "making it more difficult for people to come across national borders," 68% of Canadian Catholics agreed. So did 62% of Canadian Protestants and Jews, as well as 51% of the non-religious. Even 42% of Muslims agreed.

The two Leger polls of 2000 Canadians, including 500 born outside the country, were conducted in 2013 and 2014. They have an accuracy of plus or minus 2.9% 19 times out of 20. In general the polling results did not show marked differences between the responses of native-born Canadians and immigrants. Even the new-comers know a problem when they see one... even when they're part of it.

UPDATED 14/12 - Pope Francis - losing it or already lost it?

A few weeks ago, Francis Cardinal George, on his retirement as Archbishop of Chicago, said he was struggling to understand Pope Francis and the latter's puzzling and often contradictory pronouncements. In a November interview with Crux ("Covering all things Catholic"), the prelate posed a series of questions he’d like to ask Pope Francis, including whether the pontiff fully understands the way some of his statements "leave people wondering if he still holds the doctrine."

Francis did two things this week that could only have increased the wonderment -- perhaps we can even say "doubt" -- of Cardinal George but 1000s of other churchmen and faithful Catholics.

The Dalai Lama visited Rome this week, and, like most tourists, had a yen to visit the Vatican and meet the Pope. But Francis -- the great apostle of ecumenism -- refused! How strange! In the name of ecumenism, this pope has met with leaders of our separated (Orthodox) brethren, going so far as to bow low to Patriarch Bartholomew I and ask for his blessing.

Strange behaviour for someone who is supposed to be the successor of St. Peter, and head of the Church established by Our Lord Himself.

Pope Francis has also met with Jewish leaders and (of course) Muslim leaders, in the name of the false ecumenism which he preaches nowadays. (What he's promoting is actually a form of syncretism, the heretical notion that all religions are equal, all leading towards the same God. This is contrary to Catholic dogma.) But for the spiritual leader of millions of Buddhists? Errr, sorry, no. That might upset the Chinese Communists, with whom the Church is trying to coexist peacefully, in spite of the fact that they keep killing our clergy and faithful.

Further reading on WWW:
"China -- not a good place to be a democrat or a Catholic"
"Archbishop of Chicago talks about the high price of US citizenship"

But wait, there's more! Mysteriously unreported on Jeff Mirus's Catholic World News website -- I call it "The Daily Pope" -- was Francis's pronouncement this week that... wait for it... all dogs go to heaven!

"One day," the Pope said, "we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God's creatures." Amazing! It may be a popular sentiment -- great news for all animal lovers -- but it's completely contrary to Catholic dogma, which teaches us that only human beings can go to heaven, because only humans have souls!

We really must wonder, with Cardinal George, if, in his quest for praise and popularity from the world at large, the Humblest Pope Ever has abandoned completely the Catholic Faith which it is his solemn obligation to protect. God knows.

Comment from Ed.: Perhaps Francis intends  his pronouncement to be the new "dog"ma. Geddit?! 

UPDATE AND CORRECTION! - Apparently there was much soiling of shorts at the Vatican over reports that Pope Francis said all creatures can go to heaven.  Deputy Spokesthingy Fr. Ciro Benedettini said he received a number of calls on the story on Friday, and was taken by surprise because he didn't recall the Pope saying anything like that in remarks at his weekly general audience on Nov. 26.

The New York Times, which ran a story on Thursday about the purported comment, acknowledged its mistake in a correction on Friday that it had misattributed a remark made by Pope Paul VI. So that's OK then because we know that Paul VI is only a step from sainthood, so he must be in heaven and he hasn't sent down a correction.

Another comment from Ed.: Sadly, the misquote may dog Francis' papacy for years.

Muslims aren't targetting Libyan Christians, sez Vatican; they are so! sez Bishop of Tripoli

For the last week, the Vatican has been hosting one of its periodic talk-fests known as a Synod of Bishops. Roman Catholic bishops from around the world gather for a bit of lightweight theological sparring and lots of hand-wringing over the sorry state of the world and of the Church.

On February 21st, the Holy See Press Office released a statement which began:
"The Holy Father and the Cardinals have elevated to the Lord a special prayer for the many Christians who, in different parts of the world, are increasingly the victims of acts of intolerance or persecution...because of the Gospel."

The statement goes on to say:
"Unfortunately, we have noticed that many of the current conflicts are described as religious in nature, often surreptitiously pitting Christians and Muslims, while the roots of the conflicts are primarily ethnic, political or economic."
In other words, the Church is once again being politically correct by telling us that the killing of Christians by Islamic extremists has nothing to do with religion, and is definitely not some kind of jihad. Perish the thought!

Unfortunately for the relativists who infest the higher echelons of Holy Mother Church, just four days later, a bishop from Libya said exactly the opposite!

On the 25th, Monsignor Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli, told FIDES that the Libya extremists who have become stronger in the wake of the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi are targeting Christians.
"It is not clear what these extremists really want," said the prelate. "They would appear to be shedding the blood of innocent victims to get more visibility. Orthodox Coptic Christians have been their target for some time."
Bishop Martinelli specifically excluded any political or economic motives for the massacre.

Bishop Martinelli made his comments in the wake of the abduction and massacre of seven Egyptian Christians who were living in Libya. This happened on February 23rd in Benghazi, which will be remembered for the attack on the US consulate, which President B. Hussein Obama had nothing to do with Muslim terrorism.

The seven Copts were taken from their homes by armed men. Their bodies were found the next day on the outskirts of the city, riddled with gunshots to the chest and head. The Apostolic Vicar of Benghazi recovered the bodies of the victims and handed them over to the Coptic community.

Globally, the January report of the Pew Research Religion & Life Project on the presence of religious conflicts in various countries, showed a net increase in conflict, which was reported in 33% of countries surveyed in 2012, compared with 29% in 2011 and 20% in 2007. This, of course, has escaped the notice of those in the Vatican who believe that all religions are equally valid, all searching for the same Universal Truth.

Fanatical Muslim imams preach jihad against non-believers

To begin with, a mild apology for not updating the death tolls in the Islamic extremist attacks on non-Muslims in Kenya and Pakistan. Last I heard the official count was 72 in Kenya, not counting the 5 or 11 Somali terrorists nor the 137 hostages al-Shabaab (the terrorists) say are buried in the rubble. As for Pakistan, the count in Peshawar has been suspended because all counters are now occupied with yesterday's earthquake elsewhere in the sandpit.

The killing by radical Muslims of somewhere between 100 and 200 "infidels" is still drawing a few (but only a few) comments in the lamestream Western media, which doesn't follow such stories for more than a day unless the victims are (mostly) American. There's been more pissing and moaning about the dozen killed at the Navy Yard by a demented black man who was (Allah be praised) not Muslim.

Still, some commentators are actually daring to be politically incorrect enough to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the most recent terror attacks are all part of a worldwide jihad -- "holy war" -- against Christians. Writing in the Toronto Sun, Tarek Fatah [What part of Eire is he from? Ed.] asks "Have Islamist jihadis declared world war?"

It's not really a good question, but Walt will provide the answer anyway. The answer is YES.

But don't take Walt's word for it. Listen to Most Rev. Fouad Twal, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. In an interview with Oasis, a journal of the Patriarchate of Venice, the prelate lamented the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. "The major urgency now," he said "is to set straight the religious discourse of so many imams who, from within their mosques, preach violence against non-Muslims."

"We are dramatically concerned about the US threats to attack Syria," he added. "The Syrian bishops emphasize that the persecution of Christians by rebels is an objective reality."

But, Abp. Twal cautioned, it's not just the Muslims who are against the Christians. "To this pain," he continued, "is added another. The focus of attention is displaced. Nobody talks anymore about the Israeli military occupation, about the Wall, about the lack of freedom to reach the Holy Places. Meanwhile, our situation is not getting any better. From being exceptional it has become commonplace."

In the Middle Ages, the Church and the rulers of Christendom -- a more appropriate name for Europe then than now -- embarked on Crusades to protect the faithful in the Holy Land and take back the Holy Places from the Jews and the followers of the Prophet.

The fashion nowadays is to call those holy wars misguided or worse. Nowadays we are urged by our religious and secular leaders to pray for those who curse us, and to reach out to embrace those who do not share our Faith. It's all about Drawing All Faiths Together... DAFT, isn't it.

Society of St. Pius X condemns beatification of JPII

The following is adapted from a communiqué of the Society of Saint Pius X District of Germany on the beatification of Pope John Paul II, which is to take place in Rome on May 1st.

What are we to think of this rapid beatification? You often hear remarks such as, “He was a great devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” or even “He was very clear on questions concerning the protection of human life,” but are these sufficient to set up his work in its entirety as an example for the Church today?

His pontificate was marred by a pronounced ecumenism. John Paul will thus enter history as the pope of humanism and of fraternity among religions.

He preached a special path of salvation for the people of the Old Testament, kissed the Koran in public, and used expressions that scandalized committed Catholics to the depths of their souls, such as the wish, “May Saint John the Baptist protect Islam.”

His gathering in Assisi has become the symbol of the meeting of all religions and introduced in the minds of Christians the “values” of freethinkers, where they are now deeply rooted. One could call that “heresy by image”: All religions lead to God. This is diametrically opposed to the words of Sacred Scripture: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned” [St. Mark 16:16].

We must not forget the gigantic concelebrations, nor should we deny the liturgical abuses during pontifical Masses which, to a certain extent, have caused a liturgical collapse hitherto unknown and have propagated in all the local Churches abuses that cry out to Heaven!

Is that a pontificate that deserves a beatification?

To defend the Faith in all circumstances against error and thereby to unify and guide Christ’s flock—that is the Lord’s command to Saint Peter, which is still valid today.

Let all who believe be welcome in the true Church

There is great rejoicing in Catholic and traditional Anglican circles this week, over the news that Pope Benedict XVI is promulgating a new apostolic constitution which will permit entire Anglican communities to be received into the Catholic Church should their members so wish.

The papal document allows for the creation of "personal ordinariates" to be headed by priests already ordained as Anglicans. This would include married priests, but presumably not openly gay priests.

The new "personal ordinariates" would be integrated into national Catholic episcopal conferences, but encouraged to preserve the distinctive aspects of the Anglican tradition. It is unclear whether the new Anglo-Catholics would be required to accept and declare their belief in Catholic dogma.

Over the course of the four and three-quarter centuries since Henry VIII split with Rome in order to get the first of his many divorces, the Anglicans have rejected Catholic positions on such major issues as transubstantiation, the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in salvation, and the supremacy and infallibility of the Pope.

In any case, the creation of the new structure has been loudly applauded in most quarters. It is heralded as a triumph of ecumenism, and a precedent for the eventual embrace by Rome of what remains of the Anglican church as well as the schismatic Orthodox churches.

Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, and Dr. Rowan Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury and primate of the Anglican Communion, issued a joint statement calling the new apostolic constitution "the fruit of years of ecumenical dialogue".

Acknowledging that recent developments in the Anglican communion have complicated the quest for reunion with Rome, the joint statement nevertheless insists that both the Vatican and the Anglican communion remain committed to the ecumenical process.

Of course there are dissenters. There were bound to be. The phrase "sheep stealing" has been bandied about. And voices of the old Tory establishment, in Britain and the colonies, are already decrying the weakening of a church which has been described as "the Tory party at prayer".

The editors of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s self-styled national newspaper, have lashed out at the Vatican’s decision.

"The Vatican's welcome of some Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church is a Trojan horse," they write. "In the face of an inflexible hierarchy, liberal Catholic voices have had little effect; the grudging loyalty of those who remain is in jeopardy. The Vatican announcement will make the Catholic Church more conservative and the Anglican church more liberal. Is that what ecumenism is meant to accomplish?"

If the result is as the editors predict, Walt is all for it. Let those who believe in the traditional Catholic Faith -- the Faith handed down to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ through the Apostles and the doctors of the Church -- come within the embrace of the Church. And let those who reject that Faith remain in the outer darkness.