Ted Cruz
United States Senator from Texas

*CINO, a person who is Catholic in name only.

Video Surfaces: Beto O’Rourke Attacks Catholic Church

June 6th, 2018 Matt Howerton

• 3.3KSHARES
• Share
• Tweet
• Plus
• Comment

Candidate for U.S. Senate, Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) is seen on video disparaging the Catholic Church during his time as an El Paso City Councilman in 2011.

The video begins with O’Rourke demeaning a Catholic Priest about the “moral failings of the church you represent, especially as you try to take the moral high-ground in this debate”.

The debate began over a council vote on same-sex marriage benefits which Father Rodriguez urged them to vote down in accordance with traditional teachings.

O’Rourke says, “Luckily, I don’t need your approval to move forward. I want to know why this, for you, has become the burning issue of the day… I can think of two obvious cases where the church has failed on a global level.”

He continues by alleging that the Pope went to Africa and discouraged people from using condoms before revisiting child-abuse allegations.

A member of the community, Rachel Quintana courageously came to the priest’s defense at the next meeting, saying:

“I am here not to chastize you for your obvious lack of civility and decorum nor address your permissiveness in allowing certain councilmen to personalize their attacks on certain speakers at this podium… Mr. O’Rourke, you stated at last week’s public hearings that you want to be remembered for decades for the decisions you made at city council. You will be remembered sir, for many things. Last week, you wrongfully and disrespectfully attacked Father Michael Rodriguez and the moral failings of the Catholic Church…”

Before finishing, the speaker is interrupted by Mayor John Cook:

“Thank you, your time is over. If you can’t remove yourself from the podium, I’ll have you removed.”

She is assumed to have verbalized her disagreement to which the Mayor responded:

“Right, well, you can take your freedom of speech outside.”

This blast from the past calls into question whether Beto O’Rourke is fit to serve Texas and its largest religious body of nearly 5 million Catholic Texans in the US Senate. He will face off against Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the November General Election.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FElPasoWakeUp%2Fvideos%2F755315154591041%2F&show_text=0&width=560

———- A Forwarded Message ———-

Date: Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 5:07 PM
Subject: Satanism and the Eucharist: A MUST READ!!!!

Satanism & the Eucharist

Andrew Trapp, Catholic seminarian  4/24/2004 (Now serving as a priest)

During my parish work last summer in France, one of my responsibilities was participating in a weekly prayer group for young adults who had fallen away from the Church. The last meeting of the summer, one of the guys made a surprising revelation to us all: before his conversion, he had been a full-fledged Satanist. This reflection is the true story of that conversion and what I learned from it.

“One of the most chilling moments in The Passion was during the Lord’s scourging, when Satan appears cradling a baby who slowly turns to reveal a hideous face. Here Satan is mocking Jesus and Mary by presenting himself as a twisted sort of “anti” Madonna and Child, as if to proclaim that he and his offspring have won, and not the woman and her offspring as foretold in Genesis 3:15. This is how the Evil One loves to work—Satan loves to mock God by imitating the holy and twisting it in a sick way. This past summer I was struck with this truth in a totally new way.

Nicolas had been a part of the prayer group all year long, but this was the first time that he had talked about his life before his conversion. He told us about how he became involved in Satanism while in his late teens. It enslaved him, bringing despair and utter loneliness to his life, to the point where he was tormented with thoughts of suicide. He felt trapped and helpless in its grasp. It was only through the constant prayers of his mother that he was finally freed from this slavery a couple of years ago, and he began to give his life back to Christ.

I had never met anyone like Nicolas, openly admitting a past involvement in Satanism. After the initial shock, I bombarded him with three questions, one after another. First, how did they ‘worship’ Satan? I had always heard that it was not anything like worshiping an image of Satan or singing hymns, but by having a so-called “Black Mass.” In other words, their entire service is a mockery of the Catholic Mass. Was this true, I asked him? Not a Protestant preaching service, not a Buddhist temple ritual, but an explicit mockery of our Mass? “Yes,” Nicolas told us, “that is true.”

I had also heard, I continued, that Satanists steal consecrated communion bread from their local Catholic churches which they desecrate at these black services. For example, I have heard of Catholic parishes where this is such a problem that the pastor is forced to post special attendants during Holy Communion who watch to make sure that no one receives the Eucharist and walks away without consuming the host. The Satanists take these consecrated hosts to their services—these wafers of “bread” that Catholics believe have been miraculously transformed by the Holy Spirit into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ—and desecrate them with spit, bodily waste, and other such unimaginable blasphemies. Before your conversion, I asked Nicolas, did you and your fellow Satanists steal consecrated hosts for this purpose? “Yes,” Nicolas answered, “we did.”

The poor guy probably felt like he was being interrogated by the CIA by this point, but knowing that I might never have this opportunity again, I asked Nicolas one final question. I told him that I had also heard that those who were very deep in Satanism could actually tell whether a communion host had been consecrated or not. For example, they will not steal communion bread from Protestant communion meals, nor will they steal unblessed communion bread for desecration at these “Black Masses.” It would not work because some of the Satanists would immediately recognize that it was just ordinary bread. They would be able to tell that Jesus Christ was not sacramentally present there.

I asked Nicolas whether this also was true. He again replied that it is, and he told us that he could do this himself before his conversion from Satanism. A chill went down my spine. If someone were to put ten identical communion hosts in front of him, nine  unconsecrated and one consecrated, he would have been able to point directly and immediately to the host that had been consecrated. I asked him in amazement, “But how were you able to know?!?” He looked at me and the words he spoke are forever burned in my memory: “Because of the hate,” he said. “Because of the burning hate I would feel toward that host, apart from all the others.”

His words hit me like a baseball bat. Some of the saints also had this mystical knowledge of the Lord’s Eucharistic presence, but this knowledge flowed from their deep union with Christ. Nicolas, on the other hand, knew Christ’s presence because his worship of Satan had worked the opposite mystical connection to the Eucharist—he knew Jesus was there not because of his love for Jesus, but because of his deep hate. It makes my skin crawl just to think about such hatred.

This is how Satan operates. He loves to mock whatever is holy and sacred, to imitate the truth and twist it in a perverse way. The Mass is the most sacred prayer on earth, the most awesome way for us Christians to offer worship to our Lord, so Satan has his followers worship him through a mockery of that prayer. Instead of lifting the Eucharist high with adoration and loving reverence, the Eucharist is thrown to the ground with loathing and derision. Rather than knowing Christ’s true presence in the sacrament through their love, they perversely recognize Christ’s presence through their hatred.

Let’s not pretend otherwise—it is scary to hear a story like Nicolas’. It is terrifying to realize that such evil exists in this world. But more than frighten us, his testimony should give us hope, comfort, and strength. Satan does exist and he is powerful, but Jesus Christ is infinitely more powerful. Even the most wicked sinner can be brought back to the love of the Lord, through Christ’s grace and through the prayers of believers (like Nicolas’ mother!) If Satan so despises the Mass, then we should be moved to even greater devotion, preparation, and participation in Mass. If Satan so despises the Lord’s true presence in the Eucharist, then our hearts should burn with even greater love and thirst for worthily receiving Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof,

but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

I have raised chickens; it was a special joy to do so on my little ranch after I retired as Bishop of Corpus Christi.  I never had one as talented at this one, but I wish that I had.

Father Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote,

“Glory be to God for dappled things –

For skis of couple-color as a brined cow;

For rose-moles all in staple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced -fold, fallow , and plow;

And all trades, their gear and tackle  and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise Him.

xxx

83: Pope Francis and the Crisis of Confusion—Bishop Rene Henry Gracida (video segment— full audio below)

https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6792960/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/f4b209/

A few minutes into my conversation with Bishop Gracida, bishop emeritus of Corpus Christi, TX, it becomes obvious that he is direct and to the point, evidently allergic to beating around the bush. Yet, he’s kindly and thoughtful. At 95, he is hale and hearty, and is one of the very few bishops who regularly blog. His remarks, sometimes trenchant, always readable, are found at http://www.abyssum.org Abyssus Abyssum Invocat, Latin for “deep calls to deep” (from Psalm 42:7).

If you feel somewhat disoriented by some of the utterances and writings of Pope Francis, you’re not alone. If the thought of criticizing the Pope makes you uncomfortable (there are plenty of nasty professional Francis Haters online), that’s a good sign of filial devotion to the Holy Father and to the Church he visibly leads. Sometimes, though, the faithful have “the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful” (Canon 212.3).

In this regards, Bishop Gracida has some questions that fearlessly “go there.” What do I mean? The authorized biography of disgraced Godfried Cardinal Daneels of Belgium describes activities between and among cardinal electors, such as Cardinal Carlo Martini, Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and Cardinals Karl Lehmann and Walter Kasper—dubbed the St. Galen Mafia. These activities, verified by Austin Ivereigh in his hagiographic biography of Pope Francis, The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making Of a Radical Pope involve canvassing other electors to elect Jorge Cardinal Bergolio.

Well…

Bishop Rene Gracida believes, as do others, that this activity is canonically illegal under the promulgated laws in the 1996 Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, by St. John Paul II. If this is true, then the validity of the papal election may be in doubt. You read that right.

To state the obvious, I am not a canonist nor was I at the Conclave. What I know is that know that the reaction of most Catholic pundits to the notion that the 2013 election may have been invalid is met with a guffaw or a “that’s crazy talk.” It’s a gorilla in the room whose existence needs to be acknowledged before it can be dismissed as harmless.

After this interview you will:

• Have a sense of appreciation for what Ordinaries are called to as shepherds of souls
• Understand the difference between true episcopal authority as it resides in the individual bishop and the largely administrative authority of a national bishops’ conference
• Get a clear picture of a self-described “one crisis after another” life lived to the full
• See more reasons to renew your prayers for the life and health of the Church
• Understand why the sacraments must never be politicized no matter who does it
• Maybe be shaken up!