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Victory at Sea for the Holy See!

      In today's editorial we go back to that great Battle of Lepanto where the undermanned Christian fleet overcame insurmountable odds to throttle the Islam threat, preventing the Turks from spreading Mohammedism throughout Europe. This was effected through the intercession of the Blessed Mother via the Holy Rosary which Pope Saint Pius V had called the faithful to pray. He declared tomorrow the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary in honor of Our Lady of Victory and victory is what we can achieve if we continue to use this weapon faithfully. For today's commentary, entitled No victory is possible without a price and the price of victory is only possible through prayer - especially the Rosary! , click on CATHOLIC PewPOINT.

No victory is possible without a price and the price of victory is only possible through prayer - especially the Rosary!

      "Victory" is such a defining word. Derived from the Latin victus which is the pluperfect of vincere "to conquer." Of course the greatest conquest was by Jesus who conquered sin through the Cross and His Resurrection. In all other conquests weapons have been the key ingredient in achieving the goal whether it were clubs and stones in ancient times or high-tech military artillery in our present age. With all the controversy over gun laws and the NRA here in America and the debate about licensing "Saturday night specials," there is a weapon we don't need a licence for and which we can carry at all times. It is one guaranteed to stun and derail our enemy...to achieve victory. There's no waiting period, no shakedown, no fears when we use this special weapon. We're referring, of course, to the Holy Rosary. Tomorrow is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, dating back to 1571 in honor of the great Victory of Lepanto which saved Europe from Islamism through the recitation of the Rosary given to Saint Dominic by the Blessed Mother in 1208. Pope Saint Pius V declared tomorrow the feast of Our Lady of Victory and that was changed later to the universal Church as Our Lady of the Rosary. Lepanto was one of the last great naval battles waged in the Gulf of Corinth between the heavily favored and feared Ottoman Turks who espoused the Moslim belief and a gutty band of forces provided by King Philip II of Spain, termed the Holy League and commandeered by Don Juan of Austria who was, in truth, the illegitimate brother of Philip. Casualties were great on both sides for 7,500 Christians lost their lives, but the Turks lost 30,000 and that staggering amount for a sea battle ended their domination forever as a power on the Mediterranean. Right out of David and Goliath the undermanned, but determined Christian fleet managed to outmaneuver and overthrow the superior Turkish armada not because of their skills or ability, but chiefly because God heard His Mother's pleas for help and, because millions had turned to Our Lady through the Rosary at Pius' request, victory was achieved for the good guys. Pius died the following Spring and every pontiff since his successor Pope Gregory XIII has emphasized the devotion to the Rosary, but few have given the Rosary more emphasis than Pope John Paul II. Totally dedicated to the Mother of God, he reiterates over and over the need to pray the Rosary. Today, on the brink of the new millennium, there is a need for Our Lady's intercession like never before in history. The time is now to truly commit to her special devotion. Here in the USA, the "culture of death" demoralizes our society from the White House and Wall Street on down as well as in our own Holy Church where heresy, apostasy and schism infiltrate, ravaging our sanctuaries. Never has the Rosary taken on a more urgent need. Our Lady, in her countless messages, has said the Rosary "is our strongest weapon against the forces of evil" and that it will be "the links of the Rosary chain that will bind satan." There can be no greater finite victory than the ultimate defeat of the evil one which will mark the great Triumph of the Immaculate Heart which Mary first promised at Fatima and ever after that. This glorious victory will usher in the Reign of the Sacred Heart, the New Pentecost, the Age of the Holy Spirit, the Third Reign of the Third Millenium. Whatever you call it, while the ultimate conquest will be being reunited with God in Heaven, this triumph to come will be a victory above all victories on this feeble earth. As we all know, October is dedicated to Our Lady and "Respect Life." It is an ideal time to begin if one has not already committed to praying the Rosary daily. For those who have committed to this cause, don't stop! Please! The only way to end abortion, to rid the senate of pro-abortion senators is through prayer not physical confrontation. Our Lady has promised that if we pray the Rosary from our hearts, our prayers will be answered! Only through Mary's intercession will we weather the storms ahead. From Lepanto to the present, one thing is abundantly clear: any significant successes for Christian nations and cultures throughout history have occurred when Our Lady has been invoked. That is what "victory" is all about!

      Speaking of victory, the weapon of the baseball bat has been used this year for what it was meant to be utilized for - hitting the horsehide out of the park rather than battering heads in domestic disputes and gangland violence. Credit men like Mark "Big Mac" McGwire and Sammy "Say it's so" Sosa who gave us all plenty of thrills and chills in a season never to be forgotten; a season that brought to the surface what's right with America in the face of the atrocities in Washington, D.C. But now Sammy and Mark have put their bats aside as four other teams play on for the ultimate crown of Major League Baseball. The perennial favorite is the American League's New York Yankees with their millions-dollar lineup and record wins total going against last year's runner up the Cleveland Indians who came oh-so close to beating the Marlins. In the National League you've got the traditional October participants in the Atlanta Braves and that Cinderella San Diego team from the left coast who gets no prime time respect from the networks. But that's okay, we're pretty giddy around here today because our Padres are in the National League Championship Series against the dreaded Braves owned by pro-abortionist Ted Turner. While we're pulling for our swingin' friars to upend Turner's boys and then put it to the Yanks or Tribe, a Heavenly world series would have been the Padres and Angels - a I-5 series since the two teams are just 75 miles apart in Southern California. The Pads have been to the promised land once back in 1984 when they lost to the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. The Anaheim Angels have never made it to the ultimate show to the chagrin of its previous owner Gene Autry who passed away fittingly on the Feast of the Guardian Angels this past Friday at the age of 91. Like another great American cowbow Roy Rogers who we wrote about a few months ago in these pages, Autry was an icon. In fact, he was the last of the Cowboys who, oddly enough got his start back in 1920 through the help of probably America's most famous cowboy Will Rogers who will forever be remembered for "I never met a man I didn't like." Talk about Christ-like! With the passing of Autry, we're left with yet another void of good people who influenced the youth of America in the right way. It's another sign of the times that all the good role models are dying out. While it is our loss that ol' Gene is gone, now he's with that great team above where victory is assured because the Angels always win!

      Very few are pulling for the Angels baseball team now because it is owned by that conglomerate known as the Disney Corporation which is a far cry from another who gave us values and hope as youngsters - Walt Disney. Today Disney is a megamogul who controls practically everything, including the ABC Network. That is why it was surprising that Sunday night on 20/20 they did such an excellent job in bringing viewers a 45 minute feature on little Audrey Santo, the paralyzed victim soul in Massachusetts. Our thanks to Sister Mary Lucy Astuto for notifying us of it being on television. She has visited little Audrey numerous times and was the first to inform us about her experiences years ago. We'd always known about Audrey and the mystical oils that flow throughout Audrey's room but the piece Sunday night revealed something not everyone truly knew - that Audrey's mother Linda Santo is the real saint through all this. Talk about a female Job! She never gave up her faith despite her husband leaving her for a time, her daughter in a permanent coma, contracting breast cancer, having to sell her home and raising not only Audrey but five other kids as well. Through it all she remains stronger than ever in her faith, always there for Audrey, always there for her family, always there for her husband who, like the prodigal son, returned repentant, and always there for those who come in fervent prayer and hope. Nevermind the rock, movie and sports idols, Linda Santo is the true role model! Despite the cynicism of skeptical 20-20 host Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer seemed genuinely convinced and the piece by correspondent Lynn Schurr was A++. The best aspect of this heart-rendering piece was that all subjects interviewed were sincerely convinced that these phenomenas surrounding Audrey are from God. An even better result was that they didn't ask the opinion of perennial American Catholic expert Richard McBrien, the liberal, radical priest from Notre Dame who seems to be the media's darling for bashing the Church from within. We do know that several years ago McBrien on the same network during a Nightline segment said, and we quote, "The sooner we get rid of the rosary beads, the better off the church will be." What's so sad is so many Catholics believe him. Evidently he never heard of Lepanto. Evidently he doesn't realize what victory really means. Evidently he has no concept of the word "intercession." And, because of that, even though he is a theologian, he must have skipped Mariology 101. No victory is possible without a price and the price of victory is only possible through prayer - especially the Rosary!

Michael Cain, editor

Rome's Bishop takes rook and pawn as French King moves to checkmate

      Throughout history not all Popes were the holy, sincere and dedicated pontiffs we have today. Such was the ambitious and obstinate Pope Benedict VIII who would stop at nothing to defeat his enemies even at the expense of the Church. But he was not the only treacherous one for the king of France Philip IV was just as crafty and deceitful as the Church was thrown into turmoil at the turn of the fourteenth century. For the seventy-fifth installment titled Pope Benedict VIII: Turning the Church into a chess match, click on THE HISTORY OF THE MASS AND HOLY MOTHER CHURCH.

INTRODUCTION
      In the aftermath of the naive, simple and short pontificate of Pope Saint Celestine V, his successor Pope Benedict VIII was more of a manipulator and facilitator of friction both within the Church and outside in political circles, especially in France where the French monarch and Benedict waged a fierce war of words that ultimately led to the downfall of the latter as the toll of toil and trial took its measure of both men. It was the beginning of French interference that would ultimately lead to the Babylon exile in Avignon during most of the fourteenth century as we shall see in future episodes. Boniface was an enigma to all. A generous patron of celebrated artists, which included the noted Giotto, and a great contributor to the Canons of the Holy See and highly organized governing-wise, he created enemies wherever he ventured. Lost in the shuffle of all the shady dealings with this pontiff was the fact he decreed the Jubilee Year of 1300. Nevertheless, he will not go down in papal annals as a great Pope or a holy one, but rather one whose ambitions proved to be his eventual downfall as you will see below.

Pope Benedict VIII: Turning the Church into a chess match

      Whereas Pope Saint Celestine V was a simple, pious, humble and naive man, his successor Pope Boniface VIII, 193rd successor of Peter, was just the opposite. Boniface was Cardinal Benedetto Caetani, the same papal advisor who had sent Celestine to the wolves, so to speak, and then renegged on his promise to the holy pontiff to allow him freedom to return to his beloved hermitage. While Caetani was not a bad pope or a bad man, he was a master politician, complicated, proud and very alert to capitalizing on situations or cutting off any opposition before it could mount a force. This was his trademark throughout his rise through the ranks. Born in Anagni around 1235, he came from an aristocratic family of the Campagna which allowed him the privilege of studying law at the University of Bologna. With this prestige he became papal notary under Pope Nicholas III and his successor Pope Martin IV was so impressed that he made Caetani a cardinal deacon. Pope Nicholas IV elevated Benedetto to cardinal priest in 1291, then dispatched him to France where he exhibited his aggressive diplomatic skills in championing the rights of mendicant orders in the great battle between the dioceses and the Franciscan and Dominican Orders. Paris was his stage and his abrassiveness was evident, but his manipulating style came through loud and clear and the end result was that he produced results. This reverberated back to Rome where Nicholas appointed him as canonist. When Nicholas died on April 4, 1292 the papacy was vacant for two years. During that time, though there was no official Supreme Pontiff, it is widely suspected that Caetani ran things from Rome while trying to garner support from the other cardinals for his nomination. The main problem was the aristocratic family split among the cardinals. When the compromise hermit Celestine V was selected the Colonna family came into prominence and, along with Celestine, favored the Spiritualists within the mendicant orders, specifically the Franciscans - which was a strict adherence to the rule Saint Francis of Assisi had originally established but which, had been challenged and relaxed. The manner in which Caetani betrayed Celestine and his annulment of most of the privileges granted by Celestine fostered an intense hatred of Boniface VIII by the Colonna family and the Franciscan Spirituals after that. But that did not deter the aggressive and clever Boniface who managed to defeat the Colonna family through the alliance of other powerful families and demolish the Colonna's fortress at Palestrina. Ruthless in his methods, Boniface sought to strengthen his power among other barons, but France stepped in and distracted the ambitious pontiff.

      He sought to make a name on the international scene and this proved to be his achilles heel. He tried to intervene as an arbitrator between England's King Edward I and France's King Philip IV. Both in Britain and France the Church was being pressed to help finance and support the war and the bishops and clergy complained bitterly that they were being squeezed for funds that were being taken away from the Church and their own projects. The Pope got tough and issued a papal bull which forbid the clergy from contributing to the monarchs without papal approval. But he was in over his head because Edward retaliated by forbidding the clergy from practicing the faith, including the Sacraments and Philip cut off shipments of gold out of the country. The latter was a crucial move because the Holy See received considerable revenue from France through the exporting of the precious metal. Realizing he was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, Boniface blinked and relented. In order to appease Philip IV he made the gesture of canonizing the king's grandfather King Louis IX who truly deserved the acclimation as saint for the life he lead as ruler, crusader, father, husband and friend of the poor and downtrodden.

      Meanwhile, the Colonna family, intent on revenge, took advantage of Boniface's misfortune and circulated throughout Europe a long list of the crimes they felt Boniface was guilty of committing. But this backfired because of the Boniface's crafty collusions with other powerful barons who convinced many of the European princes that the charges were false. While Boniface gloated over this trump he failed to see what was sneaking up behind him. Two of the Colonna-influenced cardinals took up refuge in Philip's court and convinced the king that Boniface was plotting against the monarch. Philip used that to turn the tables on the Church and began milking the clergy for more than the allotted tithing. Boniface countered by ordering the bishop of Pamiers, France to preach a crusade against the king. Philip's move was to have the bishop incarcerated, then composed a counterfeit papal bull which really put Boniface in a bad light: In it the Pope was supposed to have decreed that he was the head of France and that all Frenchmen had to bow to the Pope. Boniface rallied by issuing a real Papal Bull warning the French monarch of such treachery and deceit, withdrawing the exemptions he had granted earlier, and called a synod of the French bishops in 1302 to meet in Rome to determine what direction to take with this dilemna with the king. During the synod is when Boniface ushered his landmark Papal Bull Unam sanctam which basically stated that the Pope is not in charge of secular matters but in all things relating to the Church he is in charge. This decree has withstood the test of time as it is the case today as then that all Catholics are subject to the Pope in regards faith and morals.

      During this time the Flemish dealt Philip a brutal defeat at the Battle of Coutrais, but that did not deter the French ruler from remaining stubborn to Boniface's actions. Boniface threatened to deliver the final blow of bell, book and candle to the French monarch with his prepared Papal Bull Super Petri solio if reconciliation could not be reached, but Philip didn't blink. He had already recruited the armies of the Colonna family headed by Sciarra Colonna aided by Guillaume de Nogaret, Philip's new advisor, to march into Anagni where Boniface's quarters were and capture the Pope, which they did. Boniface was quite willing to be the martyr, exclaiming to Nogaret, "Here is my neck, here be my head, I offer it to you as God so deigns." Fearing he would be remembered as a martyred Pope that would further his own political cause in the eyes of the people, Nogaret opted to imprison him instead. Sciarra and others within the Colonna family hated Boniface so much that they argued vehemently that Boniface should die. This fued between Nogaret and Sciarra proved to be Boniface's break for while they were fighting in-house, one of the anti-Colonna leaders Cardinal Nicholas Boccasini from the rival Orsini family rescued him and drove the Colonna family from Anagni. After resting in the Orsini refuge, Boniface returned to Rome on September 25, 1303 under protection of the Orsini family but, demoralized over the events that had transpired and spent physically from the ordeals, died on October 11th, 1303.

      While Boniface's exploits politically were ruthless and cunning and met with deserved defeat, his contributions spiritually were surprisingly pious and did contribute somewhat to the growth of the Church. He was known to go in prayer at least for two solid hours daily and used his brilliance as a canon lawyer to compose the third part of the Corpus of Canon Law as well as extending the five books of Pope Gregory IX's Liber extra with his Liber sextus. It was Boniface who reorganized the curial administration and gave a catalog system to the Papal Library as well as setting up a new system for the Vatican archives. While he greatly curtailed the progress made by mendicant orders and gave more preference to the diocesan secular priests, he did establish universities , most notably the Sapienza University in Rome. He was a fervent patron of the arts and commissioned many works of art including numerous statues of himself which should not be so surprising considering his personal vanity and pride. In the long run, this man of intelligence was not as smart as some may have given him credit for since he was often blinded by revenge, insensitivity to others and, basically, had no real friends. In the end he died alone and friendless and few mourned his death as they had so many pontiffs before and after him, such as Pope Blessed Benedict XI who we shall cover next week.

      Today, the Twenty-seventh Tuesday in Ordinary Time is also the Feast of Saint Bruno, priest and hermit, and Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, virgin and religious founder, while tomorrow is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. For the readings, liturgies, meditations and vignettes of these saints and the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, click on LITURGY FOR THE DAY.

Tuesday October 6:
Twenty-Seventh Tuesday in Ordinary Time and
Feast of Saint Bruno, Priest, Hermit and Religious Founder andFeast of Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, Virgin and Religious Founder

Green or White vestments

First Reading: Job 38: 1, 12-21; 40: 3-5
Psalms: Psalm 139: 1-3, 13-15, 24
Gospel Reading: Matthew 18: 1-5, 10

Feast of Saint Bruno, Priest, Hermit and Religious Founder

      Born in 1035 in Cologne, Germany, Saint Bruno Hartenfaust became a priest and canon of the famous cathedral there, gaining great renown as an eloquent preacher. He strongly supported Pope Saint Gregory VII in his great reform, encouraging his fellow clergy members to strengthen their own morality and fight simony. Though he was appointed Bishop of Rheims, he politely declined and retired to a Cistercian monastery in 1082 where he lived practically as a hermit. He left there a few years later and traveled to Grenoble where he was given a place of solitude at Chartreuse and helped begin the Carthusian Order with its founder Robert of Molesmes. His counsel was so valuable that Blessed Pope Urban II who had studied under Bruno in Germany, called him to Rome to be the personal advisor to the supreme pontiff. However in 1092 the notorious antipope Clement III forced Bruno from Rome. He journed to Calabria in south Italy, founding a charterhouse for the Carthusian Order. Shortly before his death, in an effort to suppress the Berengarius heresy, he publicly made a profession of faith declaring the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. He died in Calabria in shortly after the turn of the century in 1101.

Feast of Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, Virgin and Religious Founder

      This Canadian-born holy woman Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, whose canonization is imminent, was born in Quebec City, Canada in 1811 as the tenth of eleven children into a good Catholic family. One of her brothers, a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate priest, asked Marie, when she turned 18, to help at his parish where she served as a lay apostle for thirteen years. With the assistance of the Oblates, she established the first parish sodality in all of Canada. In 1843 she so impressed her Bishop that he asked her to found the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, patterning it on the same religious congregation in Marseilles, France where the Oblates founder Saint Eugene de Mazenod was Bishop. In keeping with the Oblate mission of ministering to the poorest and most abandoned children, Marie Rose recruited many women to join. She died a happy death in 1849 and ten years later the Sisters expanded into the United States with a mission in Oregon. Pope John Paul II beatified Marie on May 23, 1982.

Wednesday October 7:
Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

White vestments

First Reading: Galatians 2: 1-2, 7-14
Psalms: Psalm 117: 1-2 and Mark 16: 15
Gospel Reading: Luke 11: 1-4

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

     As a result of the miraculous victory of the Christians over the superior Turk fleet in the landmark Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 produced through Our Lady's intercession from the reverently praying her Holy Rosary, Pope Pius V proclaimed the date as the feast of Our Lady of Victory. The Rosary had been promulgated since Saint Dominic was given the Rosary in a vision in the early 14th Century. A century and a half later Pius V, a Dominican, realized intuitively that this was a manifestation of the power of the Rosary and declared it a great feast. His successor Pope Gregory XIII in 1573 made it obligatory for Rome and for the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. Pope Clement XI established the feast in the Roman Calendar earmarking it for the first Sunday in October as the Dominicans had been celebrating it. In 1960, Pope John XXIII officially proclaimed October 7 as the set day and changed the name from to Our Lady of the Rosary which it has remained as to this day. Over the past two centuries the Rosary has been emphasized in the Mother of God's many, many apparitions - especially at Fatima and Medjugorje where Mary has stressed the vital importance of praying her Holy Rosary for Peace. She reiterates how it is the most powerful weapon we have, that each bead is a rose forming a beautiful bouquet she presents to God on our behalf and that each bead becomes a firm link in the chain that will bind satan forever. Outside of the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the Rosary is the most important devotion we have in Holy Mother Church.

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October 6, 1998 volume 9, no. 195   DAILY CATHOLIC