Remembering the Martyrs in the Colesseum

The death of Christians in the Roman Colesseum, torn apart by wild animals or quartered by Roman gladiators, was part of the cultural narrative in the 1950s. That has changed. Not only does mention of the Christian martyrs risks cancelling, but the more zealous of the left are asserting it never happened. It is just Christian propaganda. Contradicting long held facts about the past is a common strategy of the Marxists when something does not fit their agenda.

Well-known Italian historian, Roberto de Mattei, has an excellent essay about the Christian martyrs in the latest edition of Remnant Newspaper. Bringing the Christian martyrs back into the frame is long overdue.

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Martyrs of the Colosseum Assist Us in Battle

Written by  Roberto de Mattei | Remnant Columnist

persecution

THERE IS NO place in the world that expresses the redemptive power of the Cross like the Colosseum, where the Christian martyrs triumphed over the Roman Empire by their deaths. It should not surprise us therefore that anti-Christian hatred, which is renewed throughout the ages, has come today to the point of denying that the blood of the martyrs was ever shed at the Colosseum at all.

The Flavian Amphitheater, or the Colosseum as it was called in the Middle Ages and later because of the greatness of its size, is the work of the Flavian emperors. The construction was begun by the Emperor Vespasian and inaugurated by his son Titus in the year A.D. 80; later work was carried out by Domitian, the younger brother of Titus and the last emperor of the Flavian dynasty. The amphitheater was built for the gladiatorial games, in which the pagan world reached the peak of supreme cruelty. However, beginning with the edict of Nero in A.D. 67, Christianity was proscribed by the Empire, and three centuries of bloody persecutions began, which concluded only with Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313. Domitian was, after Nero, the first great persecutor, and under his reign the Colosseum began to be the scene of the martyrdom of Christians.

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The failure of Victoria’s Court of Appeal – Cardinal Pell

In a previous comment, I wondered what motivated Victoria’s Court of Appeal judges, Anne Ferguson and Chris Maxwell, to reject Cardinal Pell’s appeal. I watched the delivery of the verdict. I was stunned to the point of feeling faint. I could not believe what I was hearing from the smug mouth of Ferguson with her superior ‘Karen’ airs. I asked whether it was incompetence, ideology or spinelessness that was the motivation. Damon Johnston’s article below on the appalling record of the Appeal Court under Maxwell suggests incompetence was the problem.

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Victoria’s Court of Appeal savaged in landmark legal study

JULY 23, 2020 The Australian

DAMON JOHNSTON VICTORIAN EDITOR

Victoria’s Court of Appeal has been rocked by a landmark legal study finding that 18 criminal judgments under its president, judge Chris Maxwell, have been overturned by the High Court.

The report, by Victoria’s former chief crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert QC, concluded that during Justice Maxwell’s reign the court had “cast off its near-perfect record”.

“The first 10 years of the Court of Appeal in its criminal jurisdiction saw its judgments affirmed on 10 occasions and reversed twice by the High Court,” Mr Silbert writes in his report, published in the Australian Law Journal.

“The next 14 years (under Justice Maxwell) have seen the Court of Appeal’s judgments reversed 16 times and affirmed on six occasions, with a large number of its decisions criticised, particularly in … sentencing.”

Continue reading The failure of Victoria’s Court of Appeal – Cardinal Pell

Promoting Catholic Fiction

I have heard complaints that not enough Catholic writers are producing novels or books dealing with religious and moral issues . It used not to be like that. My reply is that some of us who toil away writing novels and non-fiction works receive little support from those in a position to provide encouragement and promotion. I acknowledge that News Weekly and AD2000 reviewed my books, as did the Annals. So it is with delight and congratulations that I provide a link to Brisbane’s Catholic Leader who reviewed a new novel by a Catholic writer.

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Canberra author uses fiction to evangelise Church’s teaching on marriage

THERE was a time Catholic fiction novels ruled library shelves, and Canberra author Veronica Smallhorn believes it’s time for a renaissance.

The mum of three has released her first novel, A Channel of Your Peace, which tells the story of a young woman whose life turns upside down when her fiancé of five years confesses to having an affair with a co-worker.

Published by an American company that promotes “Theology of the Body fiction”, A Channel of Your Peace is Ms Smallhorn’s attempt to write fiction novels for young women with a central Catholic storyline.

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Pride and Prejudice again

I often wonder what Jane Austen would have thought of the intense interest in her writings more two hundreds years further on. I wonder whether it had entered her mind that her books would gain a worldwide audience, and her popularity only grow. On the second, I think the answer would be a definite no. It never occurred to her. On the evidence, all she hoped for was the publication of her novels and their acceptance.

On the first, I think she would have been stunned, flabbergasted – and appalled. Appalled at the interpretation by some who attribute political views to her she did not hold. Feminists have given her the status of a feminist icon while the evidence speaks against this.

Jane Austen was a devout Christian, leaning to the High Church of England. Her traditional Christian beliefs, which include the idea of an ordered world, would disqualify this picture before we look at other evidence. In her novels, she savages a range of female types – the stupid, the ignorant, the neurotic, the manipulative, the deceitful, the cruel, and the list goes on. The heartless Mrs Norris in Mansfield Park is perhaps the most vile female character in English fiction.

Continue reading Pride and Prejudice again

Ben Shapiro smashes pro-abortion arguments

Ben Shapiro is an American/Jewish conservative commentator. I make the point that he is a Jew because he boldly presents himself as an orthodox Jew. His youtube video’s are well-known to conservatives around the world.

To those not familiar with the name I strongly recommend you have a look at a selection of his videos. To those who think Jews are naturally the propagators of left-wing theories, I more strongly recommend you listen to Shapiro in full flight. His thinking processes are razor sharp and lightning quick – and they defend a conservative view of the world.

An indication of his wide appeal to natural law conservatives is an article on the (deeply conservative Catholic LifeSiteNews channel summarising Shapiro’s arguments against abortion.

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Ben Shapiro smashes pro-abortion arguments at March for Life podcast

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 18, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Festivities for the 2019 March for Life kicked off Friday with a live broadcast of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” which the popular conservative commentator devoted to an overview of the case against abortion and common “pro-choice” arguments.

After taking the stage to enthusiastic cheers, Shapiro noted that this was the first time both at the March and doing a full hour themed around a specific issue, then quoted several pro-abortion statements from former President Barack Obama, including that God should “bless” Planned Parenthood.

Continue reading Ben Shapiro smashes pro-abortion arguments

An afternoon with Cardinal Pell

Wanda Skowronska, Quadrant, 14 August

It has been four months since Cardinal George Pell was freed from Victoria’s Barwon Prison on April 7, after the High Court unanimously overturned his convictions. During his 400 days in jail many people, myself among them, sent the Cardinal letters and cards of support, hoping and praying he would be soon released. Now, a few months later, I have had the privilege of sitting for over an hour with the Cardinal who had graciously agreed to a meeting.

Before me was someone who had suffered greatly, yet was relaxed, serene, courteous and witty. While we were conversing, I could not help sensing his inner peace, from deep wells of the soul. He clearly has an ongoing lively interest in books which prison did nothing to abate.  Our discussion was mainly about his dear friend Father Paul Stenhouse (right), who died on November 19, 2019, and of whom many tributes have been written.

Cardinal Pell noted the “intellectual qualities” and “very fine Catholic writing” of Fr Stenhouse, saying he was “a deeply faithful priest.” He had heard of the priest-scholar before he met him in the 1990s in Melbourne and from there came a meeting of minds in which many situations in the church and the world were discussed. Fr Stenhouse, being the editor of Annals, the longest-running journal in Australian history, put his knowledge of history and language into this doughty publication from the 1960s. There was much to discuss, the Cardinal chuckling at how his older friend insisted on driving him around Sydney, “even when he was in his 80s!”  Asked his opinion of Fr Stenhouse’s driving, the Cardinal replied calmly that “he did not terrify me.”  He recalled how they would visit friends, go to restaurants and visited Camden, where Fr Stenhouse grew up. Among other subjects, they discussed the situation in the church, how to help those suffering from religious persecution,  and their high regard for Saint John Paul II.

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Mad Marxist Andrews and his failed state

The Coronavirus: How did Victoria get so much so wrong?

Gerard Henderson, The Sydney Institute, 11 August 2020

Around two months ago I walked up a one-way street in the Sydney CBD. A young man, wearing a mask approached me and asked, firmly but courteously, if I would use the opposite footpath. I did so.

On looking around, I noticed two parked police cars and a bus. After passing the bus I looked back and saw a member of the Australian Defence Force ushering passengers into a hotel. I realised that this was a group of people returning from overseas and going into 14-day quarantine. There was an air of quiet authority about the process.

This contrasts with the apparent mayhem in some of the hotels used for quarantine in Melbourne. For reasons currently unknown, the Victorian Labor government did not put Victoria Police in charge of quarantine and did not accept the commonwealth government’s early offers to provide the ADF’s assistance.

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Call for investigation – it’s overdue

CNA Staff, Jun 27, 2020 / 02:02 pm MT (CNA).- A member of the Parliament of Victoria has urged that there be an inquiry into the treatment of Cardinal George Pell by the state’s police and judiciary, months after Australia’s High Court unanimously overturned his conviction for five alleged counts of sexual abuse.

Victorian politician calls for inquiry into investigation of Cardinal Pell

Bernie Finn, a member of the Victorian Legislative Council from the Liberal Party, said June 18 that “the integrity of the justice system in this state is very much on trial.”

“There are major questions that are desperately in need of answers. I would like to see an inquiry that is at arm’s length from Victoria Police, arm’s length from the judiciary and arm’s length from the government.”

Finn asked that Jill Hennessey, Attorney-General of Victoria, launch an investigation into former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Graham Ashton and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to discover “how we can avoid trial by media in future, how did the Court of Appeal get it so very wrong and how could an innocent man in this day and age in Victoria be jailed in the way that Cardinal Pell was”.

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