Moslems: Their Beliefs, Practices and Politics - Part 2

Following on from our recent blog post entitled Moslems: Their Beliefs, Practices and Politics, we are pleased to deepen the study of this important subject loosely based upon an article published by the Italian priest and scholar Don Curzio Nitoglia who is connected to the journal SiSiNoNo.

Prologue

To understand what is happening today in regard to the Western World and the Middle East we must understand the main branches of contemporary Islam. They are a) Pan-Arab nationalism, and, b) Takfiri Jihadism which has roots in both the Middle Ages and the nineteenth-twentieth centuries.

It must be recognised that Classical Arab culture (not the religion of Islam, especially when interpreted in its fundamentalist and fideist form derived from Al-Ghazali) is not a course or rough Bedouinism, devoid of substance and depth (which Al-Ghazali reduced it to), which is how it is commonly presented by a politically-correct Western media today.

In fact Classical Arab culture is humanistic and scientific (originating in India and China and then transmitted to Europe by way of Arabia). Arabic Aristotelian philosophy (Avicenna, Averroes) touched great heights of development in the Middle Ages before its decline. The decline, primarily theological, philosophical and exegetical, influenced by the philosophy of Al-Ghazali, became far-reaching, but didn’t replace the Classical Arab culture that underwent a revival under social Pan-Arab nationalism. Pan-Arab nationalism is fundamentally opposed to Takfiri Jihadism which is bankrolled by the USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

In the Middle Ages Thomistic metaphysics, based on Aristotle, corrected and purged Arabic philosophy of its rationalistic defects and also perfected the doctrine of being as the final act of essence.

The philosophy of the West, which is the theoretical foundation of Neo-Conservative politics, is Enlightenment Empiricism influenced by Nominalism leading to Agnosticism, and which, according to St. Pius X, is “the evil of the modern world” and the basis of theological Modernism.

So Empiricism is radically opposed to sound scholastic philosophy, theology and metaphysics. The mediaeval Arab world was only imperfect in respect to it, but not opposed to it.

Eventually, if we study a) mediaeval Jewish metaphysics (especially Maimonides), which despite some healthy theological and metaphysical principles borrowed from Aristotle, Averroes and Avicenna, flows into Nihilism, and b) contemporary Jewish philosophy (Buber and Levinas) which is Subjectivist, Structuralist and Nihilistic, it is clear that there exits a radical incompatibility between them and right reason, sound theology and divine revelation.

When we objectively and dispassionately study mediaeval Arab, Jewish and Christian metaphysics and Western Empiricism, we find that a much greater opposition to classical Greek-Roman metaphysics and to Christianity (patristic, scholastic and social doctrine) comes from Jewish Nihilism (Maimonides), Anglo-American Neo-Conservative ideology (Burke, Strauss, Kristol, Popper, Hayek, Mises and Friedman) and Zionism (Buber and Levinas), than from the metaphysics of mediaeval Arabia and modern Pan-Arab nationalism.

By going back to the origins of current events we can distinguish:

1)      The incompatability in religion between Christianity and Islam, which is, however, less than that which exists between the Gospel and Hebrew Talmudism;

2)      The affinity between mediaeval Arab and Thomist metaphysics, which are to one another as potency is to act, and less perfect to more perfect;

3)      The irreconcilability of Western Agnosticism with right reason and the Christian Faith, which stand against each other as black and white, yes and no;

4)      The unitary design of Jewish-Anglo-American Globalism which uses the Takfirism-Salafism-Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia to undermine and destabilise the foundations of lay Arab States, causing division and chaos in countries once socially and economically ordered and not morally corrupted by the immanent subjectivism of Western modernity.

The existing branches of Islam

Classical Islamic theology and culture was formed in Arabia in the seventh century. Towards the end of the thirteenth century it began to decline and towards the end of the eighteenth century, with the expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt, came the eruption of European Enlightenment modernity.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1917 and the fragmentation of the Arab world into French/Anglo colonies there was a renaissance in the Arab world in the form of a social-orientated nationalism as a reaction to the forced establishment in Palestine, in 1948, of the State of Israel.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1990, a radical anti-nationalist, and anti-Arab, Islamicist ideology funded by the United States, the Gulf States and Israel, with some co-operation from Turkey, became prominent. These Islamicists were first deployed in the 1979-89 proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and have been operating as a proxy force in Chechnya ever since, in Iraq since the Second Gulf War of 2003, in numerous countries afflicted by the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ that began in earnest in 2011, and in the central regions of Africa.
To be continued.

St. Augustine of Hippo

"St. Augustine was born in 354, at Tagaste, in Africa. he was brought up in the Christian Faith, but without receiving Baptism.

An ambitious schoolboy of brilliant talents and violent passions, he early lost both his faith and his innocence. He persisted in this irregular life until he was thirty-two.

Being then at Milan professing rhetoric, he tells us that the faith of his childhood had regained possession of his intellect, but that he could not as yet resolve to break the chain of evil habit.

One day, however, stung to the heart by the account of some sudden conversions, he cried out, 'The unlearned rise and storm Heaven, and we, with all our learning, for lack of heart lie wallowing here'.

He then withdrew into a garden, when a long and terrible conflict ensued. Suddenly a young fresh voice (he knows not whose) breaks in upon his strife with the words, 'Take and read;' and he lights upon the passage beginning, 'Walk honestly as in the day'.

The battle was won. He received Baptism, returned home, and gave all to the poor. At Hippo, where he settled, he was consecrated bishop in 395. For thirty-five years he was the centre of ecclesiastical life in Africa, and the Church's mightiest champion against heresy; whilst his writings have been everywhere accepted as one of the principal sources of devotional thought and theological speculation.

He died in 430.

Reflection - Read the lives of the saints, and you will find that you are gradually creating a society about you to which in some measure you will be forced to raise the standard of your daily life".

Down But Not Out

The Carmel Books website is currently down so some maintenance work can be carried out.

Hopefully it will be back up again by the weekend, which is more than can be said for the infamous and blasphemous 'crucifix' of Cevo.

"The exposition of this crucifix, a work done by the Hierarchy of Brescia, on September 20th, 1998, at a sports field in Brescia, was the symbol of the 'beatification' and 'canonisation' of Paul VI, which John Paul II, on that occasion, presented as granted and a sure thing".

Sick Society

Over a sixteen year period at least 1,400 vulnerable children under the care of Rotherham Social Services were gang-raped and otherwise sexually abused, abducted, beaten, intimidated, and trafficked to other towns and cities to endure more of the same.

Politicians and police knew about it for years but did nothing. Media Presstitutes also knew about it for years but kept an almost implacable silence.

Those 1,400 children constitute 2.5% of Rotherham's 56,000 children.

But that's not all. The 1,400 abused children are only counted from amongst those under the supposed care of the local Social Services. An NSPCC publication from 2000, Child Maltreatment in the United Kingdom: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, states that as a whole an horrific 16% of children in the UK under sixteen years of age suffer sexual abuse.

Remember the months upon months of ceaseless Presstitute Propaganda about alleged widespread Catholic sexual abuse of children? Lurid headlines and grim stories about the Irish Reform Schools (where it turned out that over the thirty-four year period covering the 170,000 children who attended the schools 369 children, 0.2%, had been sexually abused)?

That's 369 children too many, of course, but compared to the staggering prevalence of sexual abuse in non-Catholic society there's no comparison.

But, of course, this latest report and the recent revelations about the very disproportionate numbers of Zionist career politicians allegedly involved in a Westminster paedophile ring will soon be brushed under the carpet and forgotten about in tomorrow's fish and chips wrappers.

It's because the perpetrators are.... well, it's because they're not Catholic.

Saint Louis, King of France

" The mother of Louis told him that she would rather see him die than commit a mortal sin, and he never forgot her words.

King of France at the age of twelve, he made the defense of God's honour the aim of his life. Before two years, he had crushed the Albigensian heretics and forced them by stringent penalties to respect the Catholic Faith.

Amidst the cares of government, he daily recited the Divine Office and heard two Masses, and the most glorious churches in France are still monuments of his piety. When his courtiers remonstrated with Louis for his law that blasphemers should be branded on the lips, he replied, "I would willingly have my own lips branded to root out blasphemy from my kingdom". The fearless protector of the weak and the oppressed, he was chosen to arbitrate in all the great feuds of his age, between the Pope and the Emperor, between Henry III and the English barons.

In 1248, to rescue the land which Christ had trod, he gathered around him the chivalry of France, and embarked for the East. There, before the infidel, in victory or defeat, on the bed of sickness or a captive in chains, Louis showed himself ever the same - the first, the best and the bravest of Christian knights. When a captive at Damietta, an Emir rushed into his tent brandishing a dagger red with the blood of the Sultan, and threatened to stab him unless he would make him a knight, as the Emperor Frederick had Facardin. Louis calmly replied that no unbeliever could perform the duties of a Christian knight. In the same captivity he was offered his liberty on terms lawful in themselves, but enforced by an oath which implied a blasphemy, and though the infidels held their swords' points at his throat, and threatened a massacre of Christians, Louis inflexibly refused.

The death of his mother recalled him to France; but when order was re-established he again set forth on a second crusade. In August, 1270, his army landed at Tunis, and, though victorious over the enemy, succumbed to a malignant fever. Louis was one of the victims. He received the Viaticum kneeling by his camp-bed, and gave up his life with the same joy that he had given all else for the honour of God".

Works of Mercy

The catechism teaches us that the works of mercy are:

Corporal Works
To feed the hungry
To give drink to the thirsty
To clothe the naked
To harbour the harbourless
To visit the sick
To visit the imprisoned
To bury the dead

Spiritual Works
To convert the sinner
To instruct the ignorant
To counsel the doubtful
To comfort the sorrowful
To bear wrongs patiently
To forgive injuries
To pray for the living and the dead

Who could not be moved and raise a prayer of thanksgiving to Heaven to see the Russian convoy of relief trucks defy the international Neo-Con directed attempt at genocide against civilian populations by use of heavy munitions (including the white phosphorus incendiary bombing of urban areas), and the destruction of food and water supplies.

Pray, St. George, Patron of England and Russia, that Russia (and England!) will be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which Feast was celebrated yesterday, 22nd August, when the convoy crossed the border.

RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY STATEMENT ON THE START OF THE DELIVERY OF HUMANITARIAN RELIEF AID TO SOUTHEASTERN UKRAINE

"The endless delays hampering the initial deliveries of the Russian humanitarian relief aid to southeastern Ukraine have become intolerable.

A lorry convoy with many hundreds of tonnes of humanitarian relief aid, urgently needed by the people in these regions, has been standing idle for a week now on the Russian-Ukrainian border. Over this period, the Russian side has made unprecedented efforts in all areas and at all levels in order to complete the required formalities. We have met all conceivable and inconceivable demands of the Ukrainian side and have submitted to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) exhaustive lists of food, drinking water, medications, essential items and diesel generators due to be delivered to Lugansk, where they are urgently needed by women, children and the elderly. These people are experiencing the horrors of daily artillery attacks and air strikes that have resulted in an increasing number of killed and wounded and destroyed the entire vital infrastructure in the area. Time and again, we met requests to check and recheck the shipment route, to coordinate procedures for the shipment’s delivery, and have signed the required documents with the ICRC. We have provided all essential security guarantees and have ensured similar guarantees on the part of the self-defense forces. These guarantees apply to the Russian convoy as well as other humanitarian relief aid being sent to Lugansk by the Kiev authorities.

At the same time, Kiev has delayed granting its formal consent required by the ICRC for several days, while repeatedly inventing new pretexts and stepping up attacks on Lugansk and Donetsk that involve military aircraft and heavy-duty armored vehicles, targeting residential areas and other civilian facilities. Over the past few days, the Ukrainian side has been launching ballistic missiles, including the deadly Tochka-U missiles, ever more frequently.

On 21 August, the situation appeared to have been resolved when the Ukrainian authorities finally informed the ICRC of their readiness to start clearing humanitarian shipments for prompt delivery to Lugansk. The Ukrainian side officially confirmed its unconditional consent for the convoy to start moving during a phone conversation between the Foreign Affairs Ministers of Russia and Ukraine. On 20 August, customs clearance and border control procedures were launched at the Donetsk checkpoint. On 21 August, however, this process was stopped, with officials citing much more intensive bombardment of Lugansk. In other words, the Ukrainian authorities are bombing the destination and are using this as a pretext to stop the delivery of humanitarian relief aid.

It appears that Kiev has set out to complete its “cleansing” of Lugansk and Donetsk in time for the 24 August Independence Day celebrations. It seems increasingly credible that the incumbent Ukrainian leadership is deliberately delaying the delivery of the humanitarian relief aid until there is nobody left to deliver this aid to. Quite possibly, they hope to achieve this result prior to the planned 26 August meetings in Minsk.

Russia is outraged by the blatant external manipulation of the international experts involved in preparing this operation. An endless succession of contradictory and mutually exclusive signals and messages we have been receiving is a true indication of behind the scenes games for purposes that have nothing to do with accomplishing a set humanitarian objective. Those who are holding the reins and hampering efforts to save human lives, to mitigate the suffering of sick and wounded people neglect the basic principles of society. We have called on the UN Security Council to promptly declare a humanitarian armistice, but these proposals are being invariably blocked by those who pay lip service to universal human values. Last time, this happened on 20 August, when the United States and some Western members of the UNSC declined to issue a statement in support of a ceasefire during the delivery of humanitarian relief aid to Lugansk by Russian and Ukrainian convoys.

We hereby state once again: All the required security guarantees regarding the passage of the humanitarian convoy have been provided. The ICRC has officially recognised these guarantees. The delivery routes are known, and they have been checked by an ICRC mission. The documents have been drawn up. The shipments have long been ready for inspection by Ukrainian border guards and customs officers who have been waiting at the Donetsk checkpoint in the Rostov Region for a week now. The capitals that display heightened concern for the situation in southeastern Ukraine are well aware of this. The endless artificial demands and pretexts have become unconscionable.

It is no longer possible to tolerate this lawlessness, outright lies and inability to reach agreements. All pretexts for delaying the delivery of aid to people in the humanitarian disaster zone have been depleted. The Russian side has decided to act. Our humanitarian relief convoy is setting out towards Lugansk. Naturally, we are ready to allow ICRC officials to escort the convoy and to take part in distributing aid. We hope that representatives of the Russian Red Cross Society will also be able to take part in this mission.

We are warning against any attempts to thwart this purely humanitarian mission which took a long time to prepare in conditions of complete transparency and cooperation with the Ukrainian side and the ICRC. Those who are ready to continue sacrificing human lives to their own ambitions and geopolitical designs and who are rudely trampling on the norms and principles of international humanitarian law will assume complete responsibility for the possible consequences of provocations against the humanitarian relief convoy.

We are once again calling on the Ukrainian leadership, as well as the United States and the European Union, which are exerting their influence on Kiev, to promptly launch negotiations in southeastern Ukraine and start complying with the accords formalised in the 17 April 2014 Geneva Statement by Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the EU on stopping the use of force, mitigating the humanitarian situation and immediately launching nationwide dialogue that would involve all Ukrainian regions". 

The Immaculata - Our Ideal

"To draw near to her, to become like her,
to allow her to rule over your heart and soul forever,
so that she might live and work through men,
so that she might love God with our hearts.
To belong to her unreservedly - that is our ideal !

To shine forth into our surroundings,
to win souls for her,
so that our neighbour's will open their hearts to her,
so that she might rule all hearts
beating everywhere in the world,
without distinction of race, nationality, or language,
and that she might be in all hearts
that would ever exist, until the end of the world -
that is our ideal !

And that her life might extend and grow
in every soul that exists now or shall be,
that is our precious ideal !"

   -   St. Maximilian Kolbe.

Our Lady of Knock

21st August, is the Feast of Our Lady of Knock.

Heaven chose, in 1879, to present a vision to the Catholic world which relates very much to our modern times.

At a parish church in Knock, Ireland, appeared a Heavenly vision of an altar with The Sacrificial Lamb atop, and Our Lady accompanied by St. Joseph, Patron and Protector of the Universal Church, head bowed in prayer on one side, and Our Lord's beloved apostle St. John the Evangelist on the other, Holy Scripture in hand, preaching from The Apocalypse.

No words were audible to the throngs of villagers who saw the vision, and interpretation of the Heavenly vision remained a mystery for generations.

In hindsight it is now easily understood that the vision at Knock was a prophetic warning from Heaven of what was to befall the Church Militant.

Instead of this vision, centred upon the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, appearing inside the church, or even inside the sanctuary as would befit this particular vision, Heaven chose for it to appear on the outside of the church, on an outside gable wall.

In hindsight, it is easy for faithful Catholics to see today that Heaven was showing us a time when the Holy Sacrifice would no longer typically be found inside official church buildings but pushed to the outside. A time when the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass would no longer be found inside the typical structure of the Church; to all appearances cast out - yet still mysteriously and integrally attached to the Church.. For where the True Mass is found, will be found what remains of the True Church, not only because of the Holy Sacrifice itself, but because the traditional Catholic liturgy contains and reflects the essential doctrinal belief of the Church.

"Liturgy and faith are interdependent. That is why a new rite was created, a rite that in many ways reflects the bias of the new (Modernist) theology. The traditional liturgy simply could not be allowed to exist in its established form because it was permeated with the truths of the traditional Faith and the ancient forms of piety. For this reason alone, much was abolished and new rites, prayers and hymns were introduced ... [Mgr. Klaus Gamber, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy, Its Problems and Background].

Lex orandi, lex credendi ..... the law of praying is the law of believing.

When one is changed, so does the other. When the God-centred and sacrificial liturgy of the Church is 'officially' abolished and replaced by a man-centred celebration permeated with the seeds of 'integral humanism' and 'universal salvation', so do they believe - in contradiction and opposition to the Catholic Faith.

St. Bernard

20th August - "Bernard was born at the castle of Fontaines, in Burgundy. The grace of his person and the vigour of his intellect filled his parents with the highest hopes, and the world lay bright and smiling before him when he renounced it forever and joined the monks at Citeaux.

All his brothers followed Bernard to Citeaux except Nivard, the youngest, who was left to be the stay of his father in his old age. 'You will now be heir of everything,' they said to him as they departed. 'Yes,' said the boy, 'you leave me earth, and keep Heaven for yourselves; do you call that fair?' And he too left the world.

At length their aged father came to exchange wealth and honour for the poverty of a monk of Clairvaux. One only sister remained behind; she was married, and loved the world and its pleasures. Magnificently dressed, she visited Bernard. He refused to see her, and only at last consented.to do so, not as her brother but, as the minister of Christ. The words he then spoke moved her so much that, two years later, she retired to a convent with her husband's consent, and died in the reputation of sanctity.

Bernard's holy example attracted so many novices that other monasteries were erected, and our saint was appointed abbot of that of Clairvaux.

Unsparing with himself, he at first expected too much of his brethren, who were disheartened at his severity; but soon perceiving his error, he led them forward, by the sweetness of his correction and the mildness of his rule, to wonderful perfection.

In spite of his desires to lie hid, the fame of his sanctity spread far and wide, and many churches asked for him as their bishop. Through the help of Pope Eugenius III, his former subject, he escaped this dignity; yet his retirement was continually invaded: the poor and the weak sought his protection; bishops, kings and popes applied to him for advice; and at length Eugenius himself charged him to preach the crusade.

By his fervour, eloquence, and miracles, Bernard kindled the enthusiasm of Christendom, and two splendid armies were despatched against the infidel. Their defeat was only due, said the saint, to their own sins.

Bernard died in 1153. His most precious writings have earned for him the titles of the last of the Fathers and a Doctor of Holy Church.

St. Helena

"It was the pious boast of the city of Colchester, for many ages, that St. Helena was born within its walls; and though this honour has been disputed, it is certain that she was a Romano-British princess.

She embraced Christianity late in life; but her incomparable faith and piety greatly influenced her son Constantine, the first Christian emperor, and served to kindle a holy zeal in the hearts of the Roman people.

Forgetful of her high dignity, she delighted to assist at the Divine Office amidst the poor; and by her alms-deeds showed herself a mother to the indigent and distressed.

In her eightieth year she mad a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, with the ardent desire of discovering the Cross on which our Blessed Redeemer suffered. After many labours, three crosses were found on Mount Calvary, together with the nails and the inscription recorded by the Evangelists. It still remained to identify the true Cross of Our Lord. By the advice of the bishop, Macarius, the three were applied to a woman afflicted with an incurable disease, and no sooner had the third touched her than she arose, perfectly healed.

The pious empress, transported with joy, built a most glorious church on Mount Calvary to receive the precious relic, sending portions of it to Rome and Constantinople, where they were solemnly exposed to the adoration of the faithful.

In the year 312, Constantine found himself attacked by Maxentius with vastly superior forces, and the very existence of his empire threatened. In this crisis he bethought him of the crucified Christian God Whom his mother Helena worshipped, and kneeling down, prayed God to reveal Himself and give him the victory.

Suddenly, at noonday, a cross of fire was seen by his army in the calm and cloudless sky, and beneath it the words, 'In hoc signo vinces' - 'By this sign thou shalt conquer'.

By divine command, Constantine made a standard like the cross he had seen, which was borne at the head of his troops; and under this Christian ensign they marched against the enemy, and obtained a complete victory.

Shortly after, Helena herself returned to Rome, where she expired, in 328".

Moslems: Their Beliefs, Practices, and Politics

Consisting of a series of articles from the original Catholic Encyclopedia regarding Islam authored by Fr. Gabriel Oussani, along with Hilaire Belloc's essay concerning 'The The Great and Enduring Heresy of Mohammed', the book Moslem's: Their Beliefs, Practices and Politics provides a useful historical background that helps give insight to current world events where Islam takes a central stage.

But little could Belloc or Fr. Oussani have foreseen that several generations later a barbaric Mohammedan sect of Wahhabist - Salafist Jihadists would be waging a worldwide proxy war of terror and destabilisation, from Afghanistan and Chechnya, to Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, and all the way down to the central regions of Africa, advancing the geo-political interests of the US-Israeli-Saudi axis who created and fund them.

When Hilaire Belloc and the Chaldean priest and historian Fr. Gabriel Oussani published their essays in the first half of the twentieth century the genocidal Zionist Occupation State of Israel did not exist, Pope Saint Pius X was telling Theodor Herzl in no uncertain terms that the Catholic Church could never support Zionism either in theory or in practice, the United States of America possessed only a small but developing world presence, and the Islamic world was divided between Sunni and Shia; the then tiny Wahhabi - Salafi sect who regard most other Moslems as being apostate and infidel having no presence outside of what would later become its Saudi homeland.

How things have changed in less than a century!

Is it not telling that the heinous massacres and Sex Jihad directed against civilian populations, including the Catholic and Orthodox communities of Arabia, have been allowed to proceed unhindered by the USA and its allies and that only when the unleashed chaos - "Creative Destruction," as they call it - comes too near to their enormous Oil interests in Erbil, northern Iraq, do they launch small token air strikes to remind the barbarian hordes to stay away?

St. Clare

"On Palm Sunday, 17th March, 1212, the Bishop of Assisi left the altar to present a palm to a noble maiden, eighteen years of age, whom bashfulness has detained in her place.. This maiden was St. Clare. Already she had learned from St. Francis to hate the world, and was secretly resolved to live for God alone.

The same night she escaped, with one companion, to the Church of the Portiuncula, where she was met by st. Francis and his brethren. At the altar of Our Lady, St. Francis cut off her hair, clothed her in his habit of penance, a piece of sack-cloth, with his cord as a girdle. Thus she was espoused to Christ.

In a miserable house outside Assisi she founded her Order, and was joined by her sister, fourteen years of age, and afterwards by her mother and other noble ladies. They went barefoot, observed perpetual abstinence, constant silence, and perfect poverty.

Whilst the Saracen army of Frederick II was ravaging the valley of Spoleto, a body of infidels advanced to assault St. Clare's convent, which stood outside Assisi. The saint caused the Blessed Sacrament to be placed in a monstrance, above the gate of the monastery, facing the enemy, and kneeling before Him she prayed, 'Deliver not to beasts, O Lord, the souls of those who confess to Thee'. A Voice from the Sacred Host replied, 'My protection will never fail you'.

A sudden panic seized the infidel host, which took to flight, and the saint's convent was spared.

During her illness of twenty-eight years the Holy Eucharist was her only support and spinning linen for the altar the one work of her hands. She died in 1253, as the Passion was being read, and Our Lady and the angels conducted her to glory.

Reflection - In a luxurious and effeminate age, the daughters of St. Clare still bear the noble title of 'poor' and preach by their daily lives the poverty of Jesus Christ.

St. Philomena

"In May 1802, excavators in the ancient Catacomb of St. Priscilla in Rome came upon an intact shelf-tomb sealed with terracotta slabs in the manner usually reserved for nobility or great martyrs.

The tomb was marked with three tiles inscribed with the following confusing words: LUMENA/PAXTE/CUMFI. However, if one places the first tile last and separates the words properly, the very intelligible Latin sentence emerges: Pax tecum Filumena, which is 'Peace be with you, Philomena'. Also inscribed on the tiles were several symbols: a lily, arrows, an anchor and a lance, which would appear to indicate virginity and martyrdom. Inside the coffin were discovered the remains of a girl of about twelve or thirteen years of age, along with a vial or ampulla of her dried blood.

Transferred to the Treasury of the Rare Collection of Christian Antiquity in the Vatican, the remains were soon forgotten by the general public, especially since no record existed of a virgin martyr named Philomena.

But in 1805, a Neopolitan priest, Don Francesco di Lucia, travelling to Rome with his newly appointed bishop, requested and, after a brief delay, received the relics of this martyr, Philomena, to enshrine in his village church at Mugnano, near Naples.

Immediately upon the official donation of St. Philomena's sacred remains, signal favours began to be granted through her intercession and unusual events to occur.

The favours, graces, and even miracles, started to increase, even before their enshrinement at Mugnano, and they steadily grew in number thereafter - such that this holy virgin martyr soon earned the title 'Philomena, Powerful with God'.

In 1837, only some thirty-five years after her exhumation, Pope Gregory XVI elevated this 'Wonder-Worker of the Nineteenth Century' to sainthood.

In an act unprecedented in the history of the Church, she became the only person officially recognised by the Church as a saint solely on the basis of her powerful intercession, since nothing was known of her except her name and the evidence of her martyrdom".

On The Road Again

The past week or so has involved a fair bit of travelling for Carmel Books.

Two trips to London to sell books at conferences relating to Catholic Social Teaching; the first in the hall of a Catholic church in north London, the second at an event organised by Voices of Christendom at a venue in central London. Both events were addressed by John Sharpe, a founding director of IHS Press.

And in between came a trip to Kent where Dr. David Allen White, a world-renowned Catholic Professor of Literature and the author of The Horn of the Unicorn, gave a fascinating series of lectures on Charles Dickens.

So if you are organising Catholic conferences or other events and need a bookstall providing solid Catholic material themed to the meeting, please get in touch and we will help if we can.

We hope to be able to provide audio and DVD recordings of many of Dr. White's excellent conferences in future, but in the meantime readers can get a flavour of what we've all been missing from the video linked here, where Dr. White gives a fascinating lecture on prophecy in Russian literature.

The Cure d'Ars

"Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney (8th May, 1786 - 4th August, 1859) was born on the eve of the French Revolution and grew up in an age of failing faith and social upheaval.

Already a late vocation with little formal schooling or academic aptitude, he was ordained in 1815 and appointed parish priest of the village of Ars, near Lyon.

He was by no means dull, and his lack of intellectual prowess was more than compensated for by his steadfast faith, unwavering pursuit of holiness and heroic commitment to the duties and demands of his priestly office.

Only seventy years after his death he was named 'the Patron Saint of Parish Priests'.

In this definitive biography of St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, Abbe Trochu has compiled the many extraordinary facts surrounding the life and vocation of the Cure d'Ars. Shying away from popular legend and basing his book largely on the records and documents used by the Church in the official Process of Beatification and Canonisation, Trochu presents an inspiring journey into the life of the Cure that is at once marvellous and authentic.

As no one else, the author gives readers a vivid and accurate picture of this loving and generous saint, remarkable for his burning desire to make God's goodness known to a world that had hardened itself against Him - a God Whom he said was "quicker to forgive than a mother to snatch her child from the fire".

Sacred Polyphonic Sheet Music

The Catholic Institute of Arts and Letters write that it is "pleased to name English composer Nicholas Wilton a Living Master of Sacred Music.

Mr. Wilton is the Institute's first and only named Living Master in his field. The designation is based on a number of highly technical criteria. The Living Master must clearly surpass all other known contemporary composers of Sacred Music. Further, his work must represent the finest musical traditions of his particular country - quite a feat given the splendour of England's musical past.

Critics on both sides of the Atlantic, including Sir James Galway, have heaped garlands of praise upon this worthy successor of Byrd and Purcell. Wilton's sacred compositions have been performed by the choral group Magnificat, directed by Philip Cave, and other professional chorals.

All the elements of great Christian art resound in the composer's sonorous contemplations. Often referred to as a 'modern Palestrina,' Wilton's genius is nevertheless unique, a source of surprising originality, intellectual depth, and spiritual elevation all his own".

As well as being able to supply Nicholas Wilton's superb C.D. of Sacred Choral Music, sung by Magnificat and directed by Philip Cave,  we are pleased to now have in stock some of his sheet music for Holy Mass and Benediction.

Are You Still Neo-Conned?

Today comes appalling news from Iraq that the city of Qaraqosh, the largest Christian centre of population, has fallen to the barbaric Jihadists set loose in Arabia by the Neo-Con regimes.


An estimated one hundred thousand Catholic men, women and children from Qaraqosh and the Nineveh plains, fleeing without food or water, are desperately trying to escape the Jihadist hordes who, according to revelations by former United States CIA, DIA and NSA operative Edward Snowden, are a covert operations creation of Israel and the USA. In pursuing a 'Clash of Civilisations', by means of their tried and tested process of 'Creative Destruction', they envisage a successful conclusion to the aims sought for in their Project for the New American Century.

This would be a good time for Catholics to reacquaint themselves with two important works published during the Neo-Con wars in Iraq. 


Neo-Conned! Just War Principles: A Condemnation of War in Iraq

Neo-Conned! Again: Hypocrisy, Lawlessness and the Rape of Iraq

This two-volume anthology on the Iraq war, looks at the conflict in light of the perennial tradition of the Church's Just War doctrine, along with other legal, political, and historical considerations.

The aim of the anthology is three-fold:


(1) to recover and re-assert the true Just War doctrine in the face of its corruption by so-called Catholic Neo-Conservatives who claim a right to attack a sovereign nation that has not committed an act of aggression;

(2) to expose the sadly profound immorality of the Western Allies treatment of Iraq in the run-up to the March 2003 invasion and during the decade preceding; and

(3) to illustrate the bankruptcy of the modern political categories of 'Left' and 'Rght', "Democrat" and "Republican", "Liberal" and "Conservative", by bringing together an eclectic group of pundits, journalists, historians, and other scholars in a collection that transcends the sterile boundaries of current politics and tackles issues in view of the only criteria that matter: truth or falsehood, accuracy or error, honesty or deceit.

It is, of course, according to these criteria that the Church's moral and political wisdom has so much to offer, and no modern case better illustrates this fact than the war in Iraq and its implications under just-war doctrine.

The New Rulers of Russia

In numerous works documenting the Bolshevik Revolution such as Fr. Fahey's The Rulers of Russia, Fr. Edmund Walsh's eye-witness account of The Fall of the Russian Empire, or Professor Anthony Sutton's investigation of Wall Street and The Bolshevik Revolution, we find the all-too familiar historical pattern of Worldly Powers inimical to Christianity working together to achieve their brutal and chaotic victory over Christian Civilisation.

Almost one hundred years later, by the Grace of God, the Atheism and Materialism enforced upon an enslaved Russian Empire is being cleansed away by a resurgent religious fervour for the Kingship of Christ that would result in re-unification from a thousand-year old schism if only we had a pope... who would consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as Heaven demands.

The Powers of the World continue their genocidal ambitions of creating a New World Order, targetting civilian populations without mercy or pity, whether it be in Palestine, Africa, Arabia and now, once again, in Europe.

The unholy alliance of Banksters, of US and European Neo-Cons, of media prostitutes, of Israeli military 'advisors' training heathen Neo-Nazi cannon fodder, all currently at work on Russia's doorstep, will eventually find out that provoking a resurgent Russian Empire with a new-found thirst for the Kingship of Christ will be their undoing.

In hoc signo vinces!

Champion Scapulars for Catholic Champions Fighting Their Way to Heaven!

Catholic champion Charlie Flynn made sure his brown scapular was prominently on show to millions of BBC and YouTube viewers on Saturday night after winning a boxing gold for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games.

Charlie's scapulars are supplied by Carmel Books and made by the Sisters of Saint Joseph. Hard-wearing scapulars for hard-wearing Catholics!

At just £2.95 for a pure wool scapular, that if worn devoutly will certainly aid you in the fight to merit Heaven, you really can't go wrong.

After this shameless plug, leeching off the lad's momentous achievement, a couple of black eyes could be coming the way of Carmel Books' manager (he's already got cauliflower ears - they come naturally), so to soften the blow we'll make an appeal on Charlie's behalf.

The Catholic Champ needs sponsorship to help him prepare towards selection for the next Olympic Games. So if there are any Catholic businessmen out there who read this appeal and could possibly help sponsor Charlie - either in large part or in small part - please get in touch with Carmel Books and we'll put you in touch with Team Charlie.

Imagine a Catholic gold medallist in two years' time standing on top of a podium on a world stage with his scapular (and rosary beads? - small hint there, Charlie) and publicly thanking Our Lord for all the blessings given him. Let's help make it happen.

Website Gremlins

The Carmel Books website developed a Gremlin that caused it to go offline over the weekend. The problem has been identified and fixed and we are back online. Apologies to customers who may have tried to access the website without success over the past few days.