Old hatreds of the Church alive and well in Paris

We don't live in a carefree society. Our lives are really part of a merciless struggle against infernal powers, all the more dangerous because they are invisible and all the more powerful because they effectively influence a certain number of people. The Word of God teaches us this through the mouth of Saint Paul: "We do not have to fight against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of this dark world, against the evil spirits that are in the air" (Eph. 6:12).

The recent beatification of five martyrs of the Commune is a timely reminder of this reality. On Holy Thursday 6 April 1871, Henri Planchat was the first to be imprisoned. Many other faithful Catholics followed. For some, it was the beginning of a real ordeal.

One of the revolutionaries' hostages, Monsignor Darboy, summed up the situation for one of his companions in these words: "They don't want to kill us because I'm Monsignor Darboy and you're Mgr So-and-so, but because I'm the Archbishop of Paris and you're one of my priests".

The Archbishop imprisoned.  He was subsequently executed.

On 22 April, Pope Francis acknowledged that, in the case of at least five of them, the reason for their deaths was their profession of faith in Christ and in the truth of the Catholic Church. In the very heart of Paris, at a time when people are declaring their respect for the freedom of all to self-determination, Catholics are being massacred in a manner more barbaric than in the days of the Roman emperors.

The expression of this hatred has remained alive. A few months ago, a pilgrimage in homage to these martyrs was violently attacked by leftist protestors. Faith no longer has a place in France today.

Unshakeable fidelity to Christ therefore continues to arouse head-on opposition. Whether we like it or not, this reality is part of being Christian. Not that the Church likes suffering for suffering's sake: her ideal of life is not dolorous; but she knows that suffering is the means by which the world must be saved. The sacrifice of the Cross reveals this to us and imposes it on us.

The truth is that Christ, God made man, consented to die in excruciating suffering so that we might become "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if we suffer with him" (Rom 8:17). The Church cannot have an absolute repugnance to suffering, because it allows her to show her attachment to the truth of God, who is always ready to support us...

Father Hervé Mercury. Traditionalist priest on Corsica.

Source

Cathcon:  This is the anti-clericalism of the atheistic left, whose rhetoric on other occasions has been taken up by Pope Francis.  He is supporting the wrong side. Why?