Dinge, die ich gelernt vom Der Popenfuhrer

The Catholic News Agency (CNA) finally gets around to telling us that Jesus' mom warned us about the Japanese disasters:

The epicenter of the earthquake that caused a deadly March 11 tsunami is located near the site of an apparition in which Mary warned about a worldwide disaster that could afflict humanity.

…The city of Akita, which experienced fire damage and flooding along with many parts of northern Japan, is a place of veneration for Catholics.

…Reports from Akita following Friday’s earthquake indicate that the city received significantly less damage than other parts of northern Japan, despite its proximity to the epicenter.

It's true. Der Popenfuhrer verified that it was indeed the Holy Mother and not simply a barfly trying to cage a few drinks from the pious:

The purported appearances of the Virgin Mary in Japan were reviewed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1988. During his time as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prior to his election as Pope Benedict XVI, he let stand the local bishop’s judgment that the apparitions and the messages were acceptable for the faithful.

...Two years after the last message, the statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel where the apparitions had occurred began to emit tears and drops of blood. The occurrence continued for more than six years.

Mrs. Christ also foretold a great struggle within the Church:

The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church, in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops.

Thankfully, Der Popenfuhrer has kept Satan at bay by raising up an army of strapping young altar boys.

Still, Satan's made progress in subverting the Church. According to CNA, the demand for homosexualist marriage can be traced directly back to the day Pope Paul VI first allowed mass to be conducted in English:

...is it any wonder there are Catholics in our day who operate as though their personal preferences legitimately reign supreme in such fundamental matters of faith as how one defines the sanctity of marriage? Consider, if you will, the convoluted yet not entirely unpredictable logic that the current liturgical climate has invited.

Liturgical rites are by their very nature, according to Cardinal Ratzinger, “anchored in the time and place of the event of Divine revelation.” (Spirit of the Liturgy – Ignatius Press - 2000)

Our Catholic faith likewise professes that marriage is a gift that is divinely given. (The similarities do not end there, indeed they are many, but I trust the point is well made.)

If the Church’s desire for renewal at Vatican Council II opened the door for the former to be legitimately approached as an expression of personal preference, why not the latter...

Perhaps this is why so many on the Catholic Left who embrace personal choice when it comes to things like abortion and sexual morality are often moved to outright hostility at the mere suggestion that there is value in the traditional form of Holy Mass for anyone. Could it be that they realize there is much more at stake in the liturgy than what goes on within the walls of the church building? (Ironic, is it not, given the mantra of the Left, “Stay out of my bedroom?”)

The fundamental difficulty here is that when liturgy, in practice, becomes a venue in which believers are empowered to exercise choice as a function of personal preference the stage is set for a certain “idolatry of self” to play itself out...

The social justice themed liturgy, in practice, can tend dangerously close to a quasi-religious form of secular humanism, and it is no mere coincidence that such causes as those that have come to define Reform Judaism as much as anything else - abortion on demand, gay “marriage,” and a glut of other leftist social agendas - have also found favor among the very same Catholics who resist any effort to “reform the reform” of Holy Mass today.