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April 4, 2021
Easter Sunday
Dear Friends in Christ,
Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen! This traditional Easter greeting reminds us that the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord from the dead is a most basic truth of our Faith. “If Christ be not risen again,” says St. Paul, “then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. … But now Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep” (1 Cor. 15:14, 20).
Here at Catholic Family News, the hope of the Resurrection is especially meaningful this year as Easter Sunday (Apr. 4, 2021) falls on the fourth anniversary of John Vennari’s “falling asleep” in the Lord. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again: even so them who have slept through Jesus, will God bring with Him” (1 Thess. 4:13).
Anyone who knew John could testify to his deep love for Our Lord, Our Lady, and Holy Mother Church. A faithful soldier of Jesus and Mary, John longed and worked tirelessly for the “complete restoration” promised by Our Lady at Quito (1600s) and Fatima (1917). He understood that, just as it was necessary for “Christ to have suffered…so to enter into His glory” (Luke 24:26), so also the Church must endure a bitter “passion” at the hands of her enemies — most notably, “from sin within the Church” (Benedict XVI, in reference to the Third Secret of Fatima, May 2010).
(Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò recently reflected on the passio Ecclesiæ in his Meditation on the Passion and Death of the Lord: “Our Lord says: If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you. … With this warning the Savior reminds us that His most holy Passion must also be fulfilled in His Mystical Body … both in individuals over the course of the centuries as well as in the Church as an institution at the end of time. And the correspondence between the Passion of Christ and the Passion of the Church is significant.”)
It is breathtaking to consider how much progress the Traditionalist movement has made since John’s passing. I can only imagine how excited John would be to see that a veteran Vatican diplomat, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, has joined our ranks and become a true spiritual father to all Catholics who strive to hold fast to Tradition (cf. 2 Thess. 2:14). As His Excellency says so eloquently in his Meditation in Preparation for Easter: “If we desire the peace of Christ, it is Christ Who must reign, and it is His Kingdom we must desire, beginning with ourselves, our family, our circle of friends and acquaintances, our religious community. Adveniat regnum tuum.”
How happy John would be to know that such an esteemed prince of the Church has renounced Conciliar novelties and embraced the Social Kingship of Christ!
To help us keep John Vennari’s legacy going strong, and to further the reign of Christ the King, please subscribe or renew your subscription to Catholic Family News today (see options below). And in your charity, please continue to pray for the repose of John’s soul and the welfare of his family.
Sincerely in the Risen Christ,
Matt Gaspers
Managing Editor