" PAST " ALL SAINTS DAY AND THE DEFORMATION

 

Could there be a more diverse group of people? The Saints the Catholic Church has elevated to the Honours of the Altar are an extraordinarily diverse group.

The young and the old, the halt and the lame, the hale and the hearty, the poor and the wealthy,workers and Kings, doorkeepers and Emperors,housewives and nuns, dashing young men and aged scholars -apart from their very real humanity, the only thing they have had in common is their heroic holiness and virtue.

To-day the Church celebrates their achievement of eternal life with God in Heaven. She holds them up to us as gleaming examples of the reality that we can all, no matter what our station in life, respond successfully to the universal call to holiness.

Sadly on this same date, 1st November we look back to yesterday with its concentration  on the occult and evil, when some protestants have come to choose to  commemorate the day in 1517 when the less than saintly Martin Luther nailed his personal manifesto to the church door in the German city of Wittenberg,setting in train the events which were to constitute the protestant Deformation of the Church Christ founded. This anniversary will no doubt loom larger as we approach the 500th Anniversary of the tragic event.

 

As Catholics, we need to be prepared to counter the inevitable barrage in the media. Completely devoid of interest in truth, the modern media concentrates on sensation -  sensation sells, it generates income. They will unthinkingly assimilate the word "Reformation"( most Catholics do the same) and, leaping from that springboard will, with relish, rehash clerical abuse scandals in events which mainly occurred 30/40 years ago.

 

 We need to be ready to highlight:

the reality of "Deformation"( not reformation),

the corrupt personality of Luther - drunkard,liar,vicious anti-semite,hypocrite, blasphemer,toady to political power .All of these aspects of his being we will progressively evidence often out of his own mouth( for his followers kept detailed accounts of his table talk - interestingly, we have the same knowledge of Adolf Hitler who felt such an admiration for Luther).

So let us celebrate the Saints in Heaven whilst we regret and lament the perverse life of the once obscure cleric Martin Luther. And let us be prepared to take the initiative in defense of the Truth against those who would seek to deny it and who would celebrate  the Deformation of Christ's Church. 

TONY DIXON

* PAST * STOLEN FOR GENERATIONS

 

 

Stolen for Generations

The Story of St Margaret’s Chapel, Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh is a tough, beautiful and ancient city dominated by its Castle. And the Castle, the City and their Country are dominated by the English Crown (Devolution notwithstanding). But it wasn’t always so.



Yes Edinburgh Castle is ancient, and in the heart of the Castle is a stolen Catholic Church – St. Margaret’s Chapel – the oldest building in Edinburgh.

In the early days of its independent life, King David I (A.D. 1084 – 1153) ruled Scotland. He is regarded by scholars both ancient and modern, as a truly pious King, so devoted to the Faith and to good works, that in his time he brought into being more than a dozen new monasteries. One of the greatest of these is the Cistercian Abbey of Melrose founded in A.D. 1137. Its noble ruins still inspire to Faith almost 900 years later.

The great St. Aelred of Rievaulx, in his eulogy for King David praised his justice and piety, and stated “the whole barbarity of that nation was softened…………as if, forgetting their natural fierceness, they submitted their necks to the laws which the royal gentleness dictated.”

King David’s piety no doubt flowed from the influence of his mother, the holy Queen Margaret (1045 – 16/11/1093). She was born in Hungary and was the niece of St. Edward the Confessor. She married King Malcolm III of Scotland, a widower, when in her early twenties and they had six sons and two daughters. She was canonized by Pope Innocent IV having regard for her personal sanctity, her fidelity to the Church, her religious reform efforts and her remarkable works of charity. A small example of the latter was her custom of serving the poor and orphans before she would take her own meals. Her Feast is celebrated on 16th November.

In honour of his saintly mother, in A.D. 1130, King David built on a small eminence in the heart of Edinburgh Castle, high above the capital, a beautifully simple Chapel. It is now, as we have said, the oldest building in Edinburgh. It is most moving to reflect that Holy Mass was offered in this Royal Chapel for approx 400 years until the Protestant Deformation of the Church led to the Chapel’s desecration and use as a gunpowder store (!) for about 200 years. It is now available as a wedding chapel on a commercial basis!

Our December Issue spoke of the divine power of each Mass for good and the sad evil influence of each abuse to do evil. We know that the evil done by those who stole St. Margaret’s Chapel and desecrated it still goes on, but it is incomparably overmatched by the glorious good done by any ONE of the thousands of Holy Masses celebrated at that altar.

Nevertheless it is painful to see such a beautiful, hallowed and noble place and such a gesture of fidelity, desecrated, and its altar covered by an alien cloth at the hands of the Deformers of the Church. St Margaret’s Chapel has been stolen for generations.

Ironically, those who stole our churches in Scotland had their entire Country, and Throne stolen from them by the English. But their loss of the Faith was far greater and more significant than the loss of their Country and self respect

TONY DIXON