Bishop: Church will not bend to radical agendas

By Tanya Connor  | The Catholic Free Press

WEBSTER – Attempts to curtail the Catholic Church are prevalent in the United States.
Bishop McManus made this point in his homily at the closing Mass of the Worcester Catholic Women’s Conference Saturday at St. Joseph Basilica. 
Our country, in some ways, is filled with institutions and social movements – such as the political left, cultural and academic elites and media – that have an agenda to curtail the Catholic Church, he said. “We are the last institution in American society that will not bend the knee” to their radically secular social and political agenda, and this infuriates them.
The devil’s greatest lie to Adam and Eve was that they would be like gods, he said. There is one God, and we are creatures destined to spend eternity with him. Jesus, the only savior, promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.
Conference speakers also raised concerns about the current issues and suggested ways of addressing them. Participants rejoiced in what they heard and experienced there.
“I keep having great conversations with people who love their faith as much as I do,” said Candace Jaegle, of Christ the King Parish in Worcester.
Speaking of St. Joan of Arc, on whom the conference focused, she said, “We totally need her to fight this spiritual battle. … It’s definitely spiritual warfare. The more we’re mindful of that, we won’t be intimidated.”
“Basically what we are battling is good and evil,” commented Deborah Horn, of All Saints Parish in Ware, who’s devoted to St. Joan of Arc.
“The speakers were wonderful,” said Teresa Sebastian, of St. John Paul II Parish in Southbridge, who helped with the WCCA-TV information table in the vendors’ section. “I loved that we got a chance to go to confession.” Mass was wonderful, enhanced by the beautiful church and choir, almost as if it was in Latin, she said.
“My sister-in-law in Australia and my nieces in Texas are all envious because we got to meet Sister Dede,” she said. She said she’d texted them a photo of Sister Deirdre Byrne, one of the speakers, and her sister-in-law responded, “There’s hope for the world if all these young women are waiting to talk to her.”
Sister Deirdre spoke briefly about her work and faith. Now superior of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts community in Washington, D.C., she is a retired colonel of the U.S. Army Medical Corps and has been a missionary surgeon.
She told of providing medical care for Mother Teresa in the United States, being an army doctor and a missionary in Sudan, Haiti, Iraq and Palestine, and being at the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001. But the worst atrocity she has seen is the atrocity in a mother’s womb - abortion – she said. Asked during the question and answer period how she would counsel women about being in the military, Sister Deirdre said, “The military is a wonderful place to experience the love of Christ.” People saw something in her, she said, and she could educate them about spiritual matters. But, she said, “you can never go against your religious conviction,” if you don’t want to receive the vaccine.
Asked what she would say to priests about the pro-life issue, Sister Deirdre spoke of prayer by abortion clinics, and how her brother, Bishop William Byrne, bishop of Springfield, is frequently at such places.
“I think they lead by example,” she said. “We have to pray that our bishops stay strong … and to ask them to guide our priests. And, if they’re not doing it,” you go pray there.
Asked how to fight mandates to get vaccines “tainted with aborted fetuses,” Sister Deirdre suggested the website truthforhealth.org.
When a listener mentioned the danger of physician assisted suicide becoming legal in Massachusetts, Sister Deirdre said that Pope John Paul II demonstrated how to die with dignity.
“It’s a sin … to hasten someone’s death,” she said. “It all reflects the murder of the child in the womb.”
Another speaker was Father David Gunter, a Marian Father of the Immaculate Conception who gives parish missions.
He said the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. was the end of an age, and now we are coming to the end of another age, facing the prelude of a day of wrath and judgment; but the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph.
There are parallels between St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and our time, he said. Paul wrote for a broader audience about imminent judgement.
Father Gunter, whose religious congregation promotes Divine Mercy as revealed to St. Faustina Kowalska, said the saint was called to proclaim God’s mercy, after which would come a day of justice.
God’s kingdom will come fully when the Divine Will is accomplished on earth as in heaven, he said.
He called for putting on God’s armor (Eph. 6:10-17). The helmet protects the mind, so one can think in spiritual realities, not as the world thinks. Girding one’s loins refers to wearing one’s garment so as to be ready for action. The breastplate protects one’s heart from desiring evil.
Father Gunter said one can put on this armor by going to confession, praying the rosary, receiving the Eucharist in a state of grace, studying Scripture and Church teaching, turning off the television and fostering a deeper devotion to the Holy Spirit, asking for discernment.
“I feel that his talk was absolutely essential, because a lot of people don’t understand what is happening now,” Elaine Luzzetti, of Immaculate Conception Parish in Lancaster, said after Father Gunter’s first talk.