Brian McCallMarch 2020 Edition Now Available – Preview HERE
Dear Friends of Catholic Tradition,
Every year on March 17, we celebrate the feast of St. Patrick, the great Apostle of Ireland. Although a simple commemoration in the universal Church, this day is a great feast on Emerald Isle.
St. Patrick represents the great paradox of Christianity. Having been kidnapped by pagan Druids, he was made a slave. After years of servitude, he finally made his escape from the land of darkness and paganism. And yet, after having received Holy Orders, his desire was to return to this island of slavery. Behind the pagan superstitions, he saw the hearts of the Irish people whom he understood were oppressed by their pagan Druid masters. He wanted to return to liberate them from the bondage of paganism and sin. Freedom from the Druids came from the slave Patrick.
He took the island like lightning. The light of Christ, which he first lit on the Hill of Slain in defiance of the pagan ritual that forbade the lighting of fires on the pagan feast of darkness, quickly spread over all of Ireland, transforming it into the Land of Saints and Scholars. The seed he sowed took deep root. When the fruits of his missionary work were assaulted by the English Protestants, who attempted to wipe out Catholicism in Ireland, the Irish remained true to the Faith of their fathers.
Tragically, what the English could not persecute into oblivion over the course of four centuries, the spirit of Vatican II has done in a mere half-century. The Land of Saints and Scholars elected an openly sodomite prime minster. Its great national seminary at Maynooth, which supplied priests around the world, is mired in sexual abuse scandal and essentially closed its doors (at least as a seminary) due to so few vocations. The Irish responded to Protestant English persecution with more generosity of vocations and holiness. To Vatican II, the Irish capitulated and lost the Faith. And now, Ireland is an eager member of the globalist EU and the new Conciliar Church, governed by a pope who promotes paganism without objection by the sons and daughters of St. Patrick.
This year on March 17, let us pray to St. Patrick that he might once again save Ireland (and the universal Church) from the darkness of paganism as he did in the fifth century. We at Catholic Family News, thanks to your support, will continue to do our part to work for this restoration of the Church. You can do your part by subscribing to the paper, or renewing your existing subscription, and encouraging friends and family to do likewise. You can also share our videos, including our “Weekly News Roundup” shows, with your connections on social media (subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the “Notifications” bell for reminders). Together, we can share the beauty of the Church that St. Patrick would recognize as Catholic.
In Christ the King,
Brian M. McCall, Editor-in-Chief
Matt Gaspers
