“There are few authentic prophetic voices among us, guiding truth-seekers along the right path. Among them is Fr. Gordon MacRae, a mighty voice in the prison tradition of John the Baptist, Maximilian Kolbe, Alfred Delp, SJ, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”
— Deacon David Jones
The Vatican Today: Cardinal George Pell’s Last Gift to the Church
In 2022 Vatican reporter Sandro Magister wrote of a memorandum by an anonymous author named Demos that circulated among cardinals who will elect a future pope. The identity of Demos is now revealed.
Jeff Grant | CNS
In 2022 Vatican reporter Sandro Magister wrote of a memorandum by an anonymous author named Demos that circulated among cardinals who will elect a future pope. The identity of Demos is now revealed.
February 15, 2023 by George Cardinal Pell with a Forward by Father Gordon MacRae
Forward: After publishing “Paths I Crossed with Benedict XVI and Cardinal George Pell” one week ago, I received a letter from Sheryl C. Collmer, a writer for Crisis Magazine from Tyler, Texas. Readers may recall that Sheryl was my intermediary with Cardinal Pell during his unjust imprisonment as described in that post. The following is an excerpt from her recent letter:
“I know you were heartbroken, as was I, at the news of Cardinal Pell’s death. … I had also been disappointed that he had not published much after he was released from prison. I was expecting perhaps a gun-blazing, fire-spouting, verbal whirlwind of orthodoxy. I think I was hoping he would ‘rescue’ the Church from the downward spiral we are in. … But when I read the ‘Demos’ letter, BAM! There is the Pell I was hoping for! The reason I admired Cardinal Pell from the first was because he was a fighter for the truth.”
When I learned that the author of the “Demos” (Greek for “people”) letter was Cardinal Pell, I felt compelled to share this with our readers. What follows is Cardinal George Pell’s last gift to the faithful.
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The Vatican Today
Commentators of every school, if for different reasons … agree that this pontificate is a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe.
The Successor of St. Peter is the rock on which the Church is built, a major source and cause of worldwide unity. Historically (St. Irenaeus), the Pope and the Church of Rome have a unique role in preserving the apostolic tradition, the rule of faith, in ensuring that the Churches continue to teach what Christ and the apostles taught. Previously it was: “Roma locuta. Causa finita est.” Today it is: “Roma loquitur. Confusio augetur.”
(A) The German synod speaks on homosexuality, women priests, communion for the divorced. The Papacy is silent.
(B) Cardinal Hollerich rejects the Christian teaching on sexuality. The Papacy is silent. This is doubly significant because the Cardinal is explicitly heretical; he does not use code or hints. If the Cardinal were to continue without Roman correction, this would represent another deeper breakdown of discipline, with few (any?) precedents in history. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith must act and speak.
(C) The silence is emphasised when contrasted with the active persecution of the Traditionalists and the contemplative convents.
The Christo-centricity of teaching is being weakened; Christ is being moved from the centre. Sometimes Rome even seems to be confused about the importance of a strict monotheism, hinting at some wider concept of divinity; not quite pantheism, but like a Hindu panentheism variant.
(A) Pachamama is idolatrous; perhaps it was not intended as such initially.
(B) The contemplative nuns are being persecuted and attempts are being made to change the teachings of the charismatics.
(C) The Christo-centric legacy of St. John Paul II in faith and morals is under systematic attack. Many of the staff of the Roman Institute for the Family have been dismissed; most students have left. The Academy for Life is gravely damaged, e.g., some members recently supported assisted suicide. The Pontifical Academies have members and visiting speakers who support abortion.
The lack of respect for the law in the Vatican risks becoming an international scandal. These issues have been crystalized through the present Vatican trial of ten accused of financial malpractices, but the problem is older and wider.
(A) The Pope has changed the law four times during the trial to help the prosecution.
(B) Cardinal Becciu has not been treated justly because he was removed from his position and stripped of his cardinalatial dignities without any trial. He did not receive due process. Everyone has a right to due process.
(C) As the Pope is head of the Vatican state and the source of all legal authority, he has used this power to intervene in legal procedures.
(D) The Pope sometimes (often) rules by papal decrees (motu proprio) which eliminate the right to appeal of those affected.
(E) Many staff, often priests, have been summarily dismissed from the Vatican Curia, often without good reason.
(F) Phone tapping is regularly practised. I am not sure how often it is authorized.
(G) In the English case against Torzi, the judge criticised the Vatican prosecutors harshly. They are either incompetent and/or were nobbled, prevented from giving the full picture.
(H) The raid by the Vatican Gendarmeria, led by Dr. Giani in 2017 on the auditor’s (Libero Milone) office on Italian territory was probably illegal and certainly intimidating and violent. It is possible that evidence against Milone was fabricated.
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(A) The financial situation of the Vatican is grave. For the past ten years (at least), there have nearly always been financial deficits. Before COVID, these deficits ranged around €20 million annually. For the last three years, they have been around €30-35 million annually. The problems predate both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict.
(B) The Vatican is facing a large deficit in the Pensions Fund. Around 2014 the experts from COSEA estimated the deficit would be around €800 million in 2030. This was before COVID.
(C) It is estimated that the Vatican has lost €217 million on the Sloane Avenue property in London. In the 1980’s, the Vatican was forced to pay out $230 million after the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. Through inefficiency and corruption during the past 25-30 years, the Vatican has lost at least another €100 million, and it probably would be much higher (perhaps 150-200 million).
(D) Despite the Holy Father’s recent decision, the process of investing has not been centralized (as recommended by COSEA in 2014 and attempted by the Secretariat for the Economy in 2015-16) and remains immune to expert advice. For decades, the Vatican has dealt with disreputable financiers avoided by all respectable bankers in Italy.
(E) The return on the 5261 Vatican properties remains scandalously low. In 2019, the return (before COVID) was nearly $4,500 a year. In 2020, it was €2,900 per property.
(F) The changing role of Pope Francis in the financial reforms (incomplete but substantial progress as far as reducing crime is concerned, much less successful, except at IOR, in terms of profitability) is a mystery and an enigma.
Initially the Holy Father strongly backed the reforms. He then prevented the centralization of investments, opposed the reforms and most attempts to unveil corruption, and supported (then) Archbishop Becciu, at the centre of Vatican financial establishment. Then in 2020, the Pope turned on Becciu and eventually ten persons were placed on trial and charged. Over the years, few prosecutions were attempted from AIF reports of infringements.
The external auditors Price Waterhouse and Cooper were dismissed and the Auditor General Libero Milone was forced to resign on trumped up charges in 2017. They were coming too close to the corruption in the Secretariat of State.
The political influence of Pope Francis and the Vatican is negligible. Intellectually, Papal writings demonstrate a decline from the standard of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict. Decisions and policies are often “politically correct”, but there have been grave failures to support human rights in Venezuela, Hong Kong, mainland China, and now in the Russian invasion.
There has been no public support for the loyal Catholics in China who have been intermittently persecuted for their loyally to the Papacy for more than 70 years. No public Vatican support for the Catholic community in Ukraine, especially the Greek Catholics.
These issues should be revisited by the next Pope. The Vatican’s political prestige is now at a low ebb.
At a different, lower level, the situation of Tridentine traditionalists (Catholic) should be regularised.
At a further and lower level, the celebration of “individual” and small group Masses in the mornings in St. Peter’s Basilica should be permitted once again. At the moment, this great basilica is like a desert in the early morning.
The COVID crisis has covered up the large decline in the number of pilgrims attending Papal audiences and Masses.
The Holy Father has little support among seminarians and young priests and wide-spread disaffection exists in the Vatican Curia.
The Next Conclave
The College of Cardinals has been weakened by eccentric nominations and has not been reconvened after the rejection of Cardinal Kasper’s views in the 2014 consistory. Many Cardinals are unknown to one another, adding a new dimension of unpredictability to the next conclave.
After Vatican II, Catholic authorities often underestimated the hostile power of secularization, the world, flesh, and the devil, especially in the Western world and overestimated the influence and strength of the Catholic Church.
We are weaker than 50 years ago and many factors are beyond our control, in the short term at least, e.g. the decline in the number of believers, the frequency of Mass attendance, the demise or extinction of many religious orders.
The Pope does not need to be the world’s best evangelist, nor a political force. The successor of Peter, as head of the College of Bishops, also successors of the Apostles, has a foundational role for unity and doctrine. The new pope must understand that the secret of Christian and Catholic vitality comes from fidelity to the teachings of Christ and Catholic practices. It does not come from adapting to the world or from money.
The first tasks of the new pope will be to restore normality, restore doctrinal clarity in faith and morals, restore a proper respect for the law and ensure that the first criterion for the nomination of bishops is acceptance of the apostolic tradition. Theological expertise and learning are an advantage, not a hinderance for all bishops and especially archbishops.
These are necessary foundations for living and preaching the Gospel.
If the synodal gatherings continue around the world, they will consume much time and money, probably distracting energy from evangelization and service rather than deepening these essential activities.
If the national or continental synods are given doctrinal authority, we will have a new danger to world-wide Church unity, whereby e.g., the German church holds doctrinal views not shared by other Churches and not compatible with the apostolic tradition.
If there was no Roman correction of such heresy, the Church would be reduced to a loose federation of local Churches, holding different views, probably closer to an Anglican or Protestant model, than an Orthodox model.
An early priority for the next pope must be to remove and prevent such a threatening development, by requiring unity in essentials and not permitting unacceptable doctrinal differences. The morality of homosexual activity will be one such flash point.
While the younger clergy and seminarians are almost completely orthodox, sometimes quite conservative, the new Pope will need to be aware of the substantial changes effected on the Church’s leadership since 2013, perhaps especially in South and Central America. There is a new spring in the step of the Protestant liberals in the Catholic Church.
Schism is not likely to occur from the left, who often sit lightly to doctrinal issues. Schism is more likely to come from the right and is always possible when liturgical tensions are inflamed and not dampened.
Unity in the essentials. Diversity in the non-essentials. Charity on all issues.
Despite the dangerous decline in the West and the inherent fragility and instability in many places, serious consideration should be given to the feasibility of a visitation on the Jesuit Order. They are in a situation of catastrophic numerical decline from 36,000 members during the Council to less than 16,000 in 2017 (with probably 20-25% above 75 years of age). In some places, there is catastrophic moral decline.
The order is highly centralized, susceptible to reform or damage from the top. The Jesuit charism and contribution have been and are so important to the Church that they should not be allowed to pass away into history undisturbed or become simply an Asian-African community.
The disastrous decline in Catholic numbers and Protestant expansion in South America should be addressed. It was scarcely mentioned in the Amazonian Synod.
Obviously, a lot of work is needed on the financial reforms in the Vatican, but this should not be the most important criterion in the selection of the next Pope.
The Vatican has no substantial debts but continuing annual deficits will eventually lead to bankruptcy. Obviously, steps will be taken to remedy this, to separate the Vatican from criminal accomplices and balance revenue and expenditure. The Vatican will need to demonstrate competence and integrity to attract substantial donations to help with this problem.
Despite the improved financial procedures and greater clarity, continuing financial pressures represent a major challenge, but they are much less important than the spiritual and doctrinal threats facing the Church, especially in the First World.
Demos
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Note from Father Gordon MacRae: Cardinal Pell had another final message for Catholics: “Be not afraid.” It was on his coat of arms. Please share this important post, which gives much hope to faithful Catholics concerned for the future of the Church. You may also like these related posts:
Paths I Crossed with Benedict XVI and Cardinal George Pell
Priests in Crisis: The Catholic University of America Study
One of our Patron Saints, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, founded a religious site in his native Poland called Niepokalanow. The site has a real-time live feed of its Adoration Chapel with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. We invite you to spend some time before the Lord in a place that holds great spiritual meaning for us.
Click or tap the image for live access to the Adoration Chapel.
As you can see the monstrance for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is most unusual. It is an irony that all of you can see it but I cannot. So please remember me while you are there. For an understanding of the theology behind this particular monstrance of the Immaculata, see my post “The Ark of the Covenant and the Mother of God.”
Lead, Kindly Light: A Christmas Card to Our Readers
Abraham first heard God 21 centuries before the Magi followed a star to Bethlehem. We now live in the 21st century after. At the center of all faith Christ is born.
Abraham first heard God 21 centuries before the Magi followed a star to Bethlehem. We now live in the 21st century after. At the center of all faith Christ is born.
December 21, 2022
Note from Fr. Gordon MacRae: Dear Readers, Some elements of our Annual BTSW Christmas Card may seem a bit familiar to you. We have used some of these elements in our posts of Christmas past. Since 1949, The Wall Street Journal has published as its top editorial each Christmas Eve an outstanding piece of writing from the late Vermont C. Royster, the WSJ’s former Editorial Page Editor. His yearly repeated Christmas essay is “In Hoc Anno Domini,” (In this year of the Lord). It is one of the finest examples of historical Christian writing I have encountered, and one of the most faith-filled. Mr. Royster was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was a two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. So at the expense of sounding a bit pretentious, if The Wall Street Journal can get away with publishing an annual Christmas gem, then so can I.
I begin our Christmas Card this year with Vermont C. Royster and his “In Hoc Anno Domini.”
When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.
Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.
But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression — for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?
There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?
Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.
And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.
So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.
But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.
Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
— Vermont C. Royster, The Wall Street Journal, December 24, 1949
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The liturgies of Christmas set out in the Roman Missal and Lectionary express the spirituality of the entire ecclesial body of the baptized into the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our communal past and hopeful future.
The Mass at Night for the Christmas Vigil begins with a moving recitation of the Roman Martyrology which places the Birth of the Messiah into a real historical context:
The twenty-fifth day of December when ages beyond number had run their course from the creation of the world, when God in the beginning created heaven and earth, and formed man in His own likeness; when century upon century had passed since the Almighty set his bow in the clouds after the Great Flood, as a sign of covenant and peace — In the twenty-first century since Abraham, our father in faith, came out of Ur of the Chaldees; in the thirteenth century since the people of Israel were led by Moses in the Exodus from Egypt; in the tenth century since David was anointed King; in the sixty-fifth week of the prophecy of Daniel; in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad; in the year seven hundred and fifty-two since the founding of Rome; in the forty-second year in the reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus, the whole world being at peace
— Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and when nine months had passed since His conception, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judah, and
was made man.
— The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh
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I am forced by circumstance to live in a place with men who are banished, not just from home and family and freedom, but too often also from hope. Some with even the darkest pasts have come into the light to thrill us with their stories of grace and true repentance and conversion. You have read of several in these pages and there are other stories yet to come. Some of these wounded men become saints, I am not fit to fasten their sandals. We live East of Eden, most justly so, but some not.
The Magi of the Gospel saw a star and heard good news, the very best of news: Freedom can be found in only one place, and the way there is to follow the Star they followed. If you follow Beyond These Stone Walls, never follow me. Follow only Christ.
My Christmas Card to you is this message, a tradition of sorts for Beyond These Stone Walls. My small, barred cell window faces East. It is there that I offer Mass for our readers. So my gaze is always toward the East, a place to which we were all once banished to wander East of Eden.
At the end of these cold and gray December days I step outside to watch toward the West as the sun descends behind towering prison walls. It reminds me of my favorite prayer,
Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home; Lead Thou me on.
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path, but now, Lead Thou me on.
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will; Remember not past years.
So long Thy power hath blessed me, sure it still will lead me on,
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone.
And with the morn those Angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.
— Saint John Henry Newman
This moving prayer by Saint John Henry Newman has been set to music as a tribute to Saint John Paul II:
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My favorite Christmas hymn, “O Holy Night,” was originally based on a French poem entitled Cantique de Noël by Placide Cappeau in 1843. Composer Adolphe Adam set it to music in 1847. The English version (with small changes to the initial melody) is by John Sullivan Dwight. The hymn reflects on the birth of Jesus as humanity’s redemption.
This wonderful hymn has been performed by many noted vocalists over the last two centuries. Few have performed it with more beauty and heartfelt faith than Celine Dion. Celine today suffers from a neurological disorder that may inhibit her voice. Please offer a prayer for her. Celine Dion’s beautiful voice should be long remembered for her rendition of this most beautiful of Christmas hymns.
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Some of our Readers around the world live in difficult circumstances. There are many who come to this site from Ukraine besieged by war over the last year. Many others have lost loved ones and are now besieged by loneliness. I drafted this Christmas message as a place where perhaps we could all meet for a time in this Christmas Season. One of our Patron Saints, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, founded a religious site in his native Poland called Niepokalanowa. Today the Chapel has a real-time live feed for a most beautiful adoration chapel where people around the world can spend time in Eucharistic Adoration. We invite you to come and spend some quiet time this Christmas celebrating the rebirth of the Messiah in your own life.
As you can see the monstrance for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is most unusual. It is an irony that all of you can see it but I cannot. So please remember me while you are there. For an understanding of the theology behind this particular monstrance of the Immaculata, see my post “The Ark of the Covenant and the Mother of God.”
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Note from Father Gordon MacRae:
Blessings to you all during this joyous Christmas Season. We are living in darker times, and this Christmas is like no other, but we are children of the Light and we are promised that the darkness will never overcome it. May God Bless you and keep you safe. Feliz Navidad!
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Please also visit our Special Events page.
A Priest and Prisoner in the Light of Divine Mercy
Fr Seraphim Michalenko, Fr Michael Gaitley, Fr Gordon MacRae, Marian Helper Editor Felix Carroll and Pornchai Moontri share the stage in a wondrous Divine Mercy drama.
Fr Seraphim Michalenko, Fr Michael Gaitley, Fr Richard Drabik, Fr Gordon MacRae, Marian Helper Editor Felix Carroll and Pornchai Moontri in a wondrous Divine Mercy drama.
As a young man, I depended far too much on my own resources. I recognize today in the humility of hindsight that they were never quite up to the task. But back then, I knew everything. What a dumbass I have since become! I now know nothing, and cannot write a single word except in the light of Divine Mercy. My life’s path recalls the words of Dante Alighieri as he opened his epic literary masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. His story begins in a dark forest on Good Friday in the year 1300:
“When I had journeyed midway upon our life’s path, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the way that does not stray. How can I say what wood that was, that savage forest which even now in recall renews my fear? So bitter death is hardly more severe! But to tell the good I found there, I will also tell of the other things I saw.”
In my post two weeks ago, “Wrongful Convictions: The Other Police Misconduct,” I told of some of the other things I saw — a forest of dark things like corruption and deep injustice surrounded me once. Like Dante, I cannot tell of these — though they must be told — without the light of a profoundly wonderful grace I discovered amid all that suffering.
In many posts over time, I have told snippets of the story of Divine Mercy, of how it entered midway upon my life’s journey, and of how it dramatically transcended my prison walls. I have never before put it all together in a post, and I cannot pretend to do so now because it would fill a book. Perhaps one day, if I have the tools to do so, this story will become a book. For now, however, all I have is this humble blog.
What prompted this retelling of my Divine Mercy journey is the death of Father Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, who on this Earth became a driving force in the beatification and canonization of St. Maria Faustina and the promotion of her famous Diary. My friend, Marian Helper Editor Felix Carroll, published a moving eulogy which included this paragraph:
“Father Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, the world-renowned expert on the life and spirituality of St. Faustina — the man who smuggled photographic images of the pages of St. Faustina’s Diary out of Communist-occupied Poland in the 1970s and later documented her beatification and canonization miracles — died Thursday, February 11, 2021, from illness related to Covid 19. ... Side by side with Blessed Michael Sopocko, Pope St. John Paul II, and St. Faustina herself, Fr. Seraphim stands as a central figure who helped make the Divine Mercy message and devotion the greatest grassroots movement in the history of the Church.”
A few years ago, well into his eighties, Father Seraphim ventured from his home at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts for a drive of several hours to Concord, New Hampshire. He came to offer Mass in prison, and to interview Pornchai Moontri and me about the substance and source of our Divine Mercy journeys as we passed through the dark wood of prison.
My story, which I have told before, begins in 1988. Father Richard Drabik, MIC was Provincial Superior of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, a post from which he wrote the Preface for Divine Mercy in My Soul, also known as the Diary of Saint Faustina. You will find his Preface at the beginning of every copy of this mysterious book.
A few years later when he concluded his term as Provincial, Father Drabik was recruited to be a spiritual director for the Servants of the Paraclete Renewal Center for priests in New Mexico where I once served as Director of Admissions. Father Richard became my spiritual director for several years, and the finest one I ever had as a priest.
Grace Follows Even the Darkest Night
I will never forget the moment Father Richard stopped by my office one night early in April, 1993 to tell me that he would be leaving that week for Rome to take part in the Beatification of Sister Maria Faustina by Pope John Paul II on Divine Mercy Sunday. Father Richard invited me to write a private intention to be placed on the altar for the Mass of Beatification. Then I promptly forgot all about it.
Saint Faustina was later canonized by Pope John Paul II on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2000, a saint canonized by a saint. Now that I think of it, the saints who have had the most influence on my life as a priest and as a prisoner, and ultimately also on Pornchai Moontri’s life, were canonized by Pope John Paul II. Besides Saint Faustina they include Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Saint Padre Pio, and the Beatification of Mother Teresa.
I know the latter two do not retain their Earthly titles, but I cannot imagine calling them anything else. These influencers now also include Saint John Paul II himself who left a giant footprint on both the Church and my life as a priest.
I knew nothing of Saint Faustina when Father Richard made his request, and if he ever spoke of Divine Mercy in our sessions, I retained none of it. If memory serves, I did most of the talking in spiritual direction. I hope I have since learned to listen as well. Father Richard, like many at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy, is still in contact with me. I hope he might be reading this.
A week or so after inviting me to write my intention for the Mass of Beatification in Rome, I had forgotten all about it. Father Richard stopped by my office again on the night before his departure and reminded me of it. I was especially busy with God only knows what. I told him I would bring it to him in ten minutes. I then grabbed a piece of note paper and quickly wrote this spontaneous prayer:
“I ask Blessed Faustina’s intercession that I may have the strength and courage to be the priest God wants me to be.”
I sealed my intention in a small envelope and brought it to Father Richard. I watched him tuck it into a pocket of his jacket, and thought no more of it. The Beatification of Saint Faustina was presided over by Pope John Paul II on Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday after Easter, but it was not yet called that. It was on the day of St. Faustina's Mass of Canonization, on April 30, 2000 during the Great Jubilee Year that Pope John Paul II declared in his homily that from hereon the Second Sunday of Easter will be the day of Divine Mercy.
But none of this meant anything to me. Today, it means everything to me. By the time Father Richard returned from Rome after the Mass of Beatification in 1993, I had been arrested on false charges from the distant past, and taken away. In 1994, after refusing multiple “plea deal” offers to plead guilty and serve one year in prison, I was sentenced to a term of sixty-seven years. That story is conveyed in the post cited above.
I spent the next twelve years in the dark forest of Dante’s Inferno. I heard from no one. I communicated with few. In all that time, I somehow retained an identity as a priest. Because I maintained my innocence, I spent all that time in punitive prison housing with eight men sharing each cell. An officer in that unit saw that I had a typewriter so he asked me to volunteer to type some inventory forms for him each week. After a few weeks he asked me if I wanted something in return. He meant extra food. I asked for the use of an empty storage room for one hour on Sunday nights to offer private Mass.
A Summons to Divine Mercy
It was not what this Sergeant expected to hear. He said he would have to present the unusual request to his own supervisor. Holy Week was coming up, and I hoped I might have an approval by Easter. It came a week too late. My first Mass in prison was offered in a storage closet on April 30, 2000, which I only later learned was the first official Divine Mercy Sunday and the day Saint Faustina was canonized.
That was year six, midway in my twelve years in darkness. Six years later, I was visited in prison by Father James McCurry, who is today the Minister Provincial of the Franciscan Friars Conventual of the Our Lady of the Angels Province. Unbeknownst to me at the time, he had also been a vice-postulator for the cause of sainthood for Saint Maximilian Kolbe who was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982, the year I was ordained. Father McCurry learned of me from some other priest. He was in the area and thought he would arrange a visit.
His first words in the visiting room, after introducing himself, were, “What do you know about St. Maximilian Kolbe?” I knew little beyond the fact that he offered his life to save that of another prisoner in the horror of Auschwitz. We talked about that but our visit was brief. He had to catch a plane. He said he would be sending me something. A week later, a small biography of Saint Maximilian arrived along with a card depicting him in both his Franciscan habit and his Auschwitz uniform.
By that time, I had been moved to slightly better prison quarters, perhaps thanks to the Sergeant who was impressed that I asked for a place to offer Mass instead of extra food. I put the image of Saint Maximilian on the battered steel mirror in my cell. Through tears, I realized that on that same day I was a priest in prison a day longer than I had been a priest in freedom. The darkness I felt was overwhelming. I would eventually write multiple posts about the impact this Saint has had on our lives, most notably “Saint Maximilian Kolbe and the Gift of Noble Defiance.”
Shortly after Saint Maximilian arrived on the mirror in my cell, Pornchai Moontri was sent here after fourteen grueling years lost in and out of solitary confinement in a Maine prison. I was bitter and he was broken. All hope had virtually died in our lives. Providence moved Pornchai from one place to another here, and then he ended up living with me. In his moving recent guest post, “Free at Last Thanks to God and You,” he recounted the day he first walked into my cell and saw the image of Saint Maximilian on the mirror. “Is this you?” he asked.
From that moment on, we were caught up in the grasp of Divine Mercy. As you know, Pornchai became a devout Catholic and was received into the Church on Divine Mercy Sunday, 2010. Knowing the importance of this conversion for him, I was compelled to set aside all the bitterness of false witness and wrongful imprisonment that I carried like a crushing cross in my own Calvary. Confronting the brokeness of Pornchai meant also confronting my own in the light of Divine Mercy, and it salvaged my life as a priest.
Pornchai Moontri was featured, as you know, in a profoundly wonderful book, Loved, Lost, Found: 17 Divine Mercy Conversions, by Marian Helper Editor Felix Carroll. Father Seraphim Michalenko brought the book to Thailand where he presented a retreat to Divine Mercy Thailand. He read them the chapter about Pornchai, and a future, long since thought to be hopeless, was born for him.
We were also invited to take part in a series of 33-Day retreats in Father Michael Gaitley’s “Hearts Afire” program beginning with “33 Days to Morning Glory.” As a result, dozens of other prisoners followed us on this path and many were converted. I will link to the most moving of their stories at the end of this post.
And Divine Mercy has not let up — not even for a moment. I just learned that in 1994, the year I was sent to prison, Relevant Radio host, Drew Mariani, produced a film along with the Marians entitled, “Time for Mercy.” Late last month, some 26 years later, Drew Mariani interviewed me in prison. The interview is available at our “Special Events” page.
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Note from Father Gordon MacRae: Please continue to celebrate Divine Mercy this year through these additional posts with inspiring true accounts of how Divine Mercy has impacted our lives:
Coming Home to the Catholic Faith I Left Behind by Michael Ciresi
I Come to the Catholic Church for Healing and Hope by Pornchai Moontri
Catholics, Communist China, and Hope for Hong Kong
James W. Harris, a friend of These Stone Walls, writes of the state of the Church in China since a 2018 concordat between Pope Francis and the Communist government.
James W. Harris, a friend of These Stone Walls, writes of the state of the Church in China since a 2018 concordat between Pope Francis and the Communist government.
Introduction by Father Gordon MacRae
In September, 2018, Pope Francis signed a concordat with the Communist government of the People’s Republic of China. The details of the Sino-Vatican agreement have never been published. One of its known tenets, however, allows the Communist government of China to select Catholic bishops in a State-approved Catholic church while the Underground Church that remains loyal to Rome is suppressed.
With this agreement, Pope Francis stands in stark contrast to the papacy of Saint John Paul II whose role in ending Communist rule in Poland is legendary. The Sino-Vatican agreement was signed by Pope Francis one year after a September, 2017 crackdown by the Chinese government enforcing strict requirements on churches and religious adherents of the traditional Church in China.
On Christmas Eve this year, The Wall Street Journal published column by Walter Russell Mead entitled “Pompeo Champions the Faithful” about the Trump administration’s commitment to protecting religious freedom. Mr. Mead wrote:
“Persecution hangs over beleaguered Christian communities in much of the world… The most alarming developments are taking place in China… China’s Communist rulers are well aware that Christians have led democracy movements in many countries… Some of the most visible leaders of the Hong Kong protests are prominently identified as Christians.”
Thomas Farr, President of the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington, D.C., wrote in “Diplomacy and Persecution in China”, (First Things, May 2019):
“The assault on religion currently taking place [in China] under President Xi Jinping is the most comprehensive attempt to manipulate and control religious communities since the Cultural Revolution.”
Early in 2017, while living near Shanghai, China, James W. Harris discovered These Stone Walls. At the time, his outreach to us was a sign of Divine Providence. James provided helpful guidance in my efforts to assist a young friend who was stranded and delayed in the ICE deportation system while awaiting documents from the Chinese consulate so he could return to his family in China.
After graduating from Seton Hall University in 2010, James taught English at a bilingual Catholic school in Honduras. Also fluent in Mandarin Chinese, James subsequently spent several years in China where he taught English at the Hua Mao Foreign Language School. It was in China that James met his wife to whom he has been married for over six years. They have a five-year-old son.
While in China, James was also co-founder of Real English Learning, a linguistic organization formed to teach Chinese students the use of English language in business and other real life settings, and also to introduce them to Western Culture. Together, the young family left China and relocated to the United States a year before Pope Francis signed a troubling concordat with the Chinese Communist government.
Since his return from China with his family, James taught religion and Mandarin Chinese at Paramus Catholic High School in New Jersey. Today, James works in the technology field as a Senior Sales Development Representative for ThoughtSpot. I invited James to write of his experiences as a Catholic in the People’s Republic of China. Due to the nature of this post and its first-hand witness, some names, events, and locations are redacted. It is a privilege to bring to our readers the following account from James W. Harris.
Catholics, Communist China, and Hope for Hong Kong
The three and a half years I spent in China contain some of the most precious and memorable moments of my life: the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, the study of thousands of years of ancient history, the best boost to my career, and much more… but I have no plans on going back. It is unfortunate to say this about a country and place I view as my second home, though it is true, and the number one reason I am not looking to return to China is the Chinese Communist Party.
To protect the folks to be mentioned in this writing, names and specific locations will not be given. In 2012, after I broke the news to numerous people in the United States that I was about to begin a new adventure in China, several of them became nervous about my safety. They said the Chinese government was dangerous. I shrugged it off, pointing out that many foreigners from around the world were living and working in China.
Yet, while in China, I soon found out from first-hand interviews with the Chinese people the truth about the evil dictatorship of the Chinese Communist government. The first account goes back to the mid-Twentieth Century in central China. A well-liked family owned land and a farm with several hired laborers who helped with the farm work. They received word that Mao Zedong’s army was approaching the area and would kill all landlords and plunder any possessions of value that could be found.
The family began to destroy, hide, and rid themselves of every possession that they owned. They actively made themselves appear as poor as possible so that the army might spare them the fate suffered by thousands of other landowners. From that day forward, they lived an impoverished life for the rest of their lives.
Another story from the same area revolves around a man who founded and became principal of a school. Every person who knew this man while he was alive spoke highly of his integrity and good will. Since the Communist Party controlled all education as well as food distribution at the time, the school received a fixed amount of food that could be distributed to students. The rations were meager and the students were suffering.
After months of bearing with the lack of nutrition, the principal stated in an internal school meeting with his colleagues that “One steamed bun per day is not enough nutrition for the students.” A student who had heard the words of the principal informed on him with the government for being anti-communist. Soldiers came to the school, arrested the principal, and tortured him to death. For decades after this event, students and colleagues who knew the man spoke highly of him and treated his family well.
There are dozens of these stories from the 20th Century to share, but let’s fast forward to 2012 when I arrived in China. Businesses were thriving; food was abundant; cars and Western clothing were seen, and spoken English was heard, throughout the country. There were a large number of Catholic churches in the various places I visited and lived in. I thought this was quite a different Communist regime from the one that previously ruled.
The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association
While in the United States, I heard of the Underground Church in China, but for my first two years there little was spoken of it. The churches had pictures of Pope Benedict XVI and distributed his writings in addition to praying for him at every Mass. They sold Catholic books and Bibles published by a Catholic diocese and not the State-approved Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA).
All seemed well between the Catholic Church in China and the government controlled CPCA until I began to learn what was going on behind the scenes. A parishioner described to me that there are priests, who are “with the Pope” and priests who are “with the government.” “Some people say [this priest in this particular church] is with the government,” the parishioner said.
I had been told by a seminarian that the local seminary had been shut down by the government so his studies were delayed. The government does not recognize seminarians for their academic achievements and forbids societal recognition of their bachelors, masters, or doctorate degrees. The bishop of that diocese was not allowed to celebrate Mass publicly and was forced — until his death — to reside at the seminary without permission to leave.
I also attended a Christmas Eve practice session at a church to be an altar server for the Traditional Latin Mass on Christmas Day. When Christmas Day came, the Novus Ordo in Latin was offered instead. It turned out that the parish priest could not obtain permission from the government to offer Mass in the Extraordinary Form.
It became increasingly evident how government entities controlled the Catholic Church in China. Though far from the style of persecution in decades past, there was an uptick in anti-Catholic and anti-Christian activity by the Chinese government around 2015-2016. A popular Catholic pilgrimage site that I had visited in 2013 was no longer open to pilgrims because the government had closed it down.
This was confirmed by a priest whose cell phone was wiretapped. He was planning a pilgrimage for a group of parishioners, but on the day they were due to leave, the police arrived at the church, interrogated the priest about the pilgrimage, and told him that the group was not permitted to go. It was then that I realized that underground or above ground — all priests in China are subject to being persecuted at any time.
It was around this same time that the “de-crossing” saga began. Thousands of crosses were forcibly removed by police from the steeples and facades of churches. Apparently, a government official was jealous after seeing crosses from Christian churches present in the skyline of one area so he ordered that all crosses be removed. Thus began outright persecution of Christians and their churches in broad daylight. Parishioners who resisted were beaten or arrested. There was little they could do.
A song then began to be sung in Christian churches throughout China: “The Cross Is My Glory.” I remember singing that hymn in a church where the priest was afraid to leave lest the government show up to remove the cross from the rooftop of his church. This was not even the saddest event at that time. I received news that the body of a priest in the Underground Church was found in a river. This was the lowest that things could go, and I began seeking employment in the U.S. not long after these events took place
[Editor’s Note: It was at this time that Mr. Harris contacted Father MacRae through These Stone Walls, but he was not able to be candid then about what he had encountered in China.]
How could the Chinese Communist Party commit such grievous sins against its own people? Many may not realize it, but the Chinese government professes and embraces atheism. In order to become a member of the Chinese Communist Party, or to work for the government, one must openly and publicly adhere to atheist beliefs. Although some government officials are secretly Christian most are not and work to further the Communist agenda.
This is why I could not disagree more with the decision of Pope Francis to recognize Catholic bishops appointed by the Chinese Communist government instead of by the Vatican. What kind of bishops does the Communist Party elect? Are they bishops who would speak out against forced abortions, the killing of priests, the forced removal of crosses from churches? No. The Chinese Communist Party appoints as bishops atheists who agree to further the Communist agenda in China.
About a year ago, police began showing up in local villages throughout China. They had a two-part agenda. First, it was made illegal for parents to bring their children to church. Second, fires were started and villagers were ordered to throw their Bibles into the fires. Arrests would be made any time there was a failure to comply. This was confirmed to me by a Chinese person forced to throw a Bible into the fire.
Hope for Hong Kong
It is not by accident that we arrive today in 2020 Hong Kong where millions of people have been protesting in the streets over the last year against the overreaching arm of the Chinese Communist government. While those in mainland China have suffered decades of hiding from the government — hiding their faith, burying their Catholic objects, and having Masses offered secretly in their homes — Hong Kong up to this point had not suffered the same fate as the protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
For the people of Hong Kong, the Chinese Communist Party is more of an external force than an internal one. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are permitted in Hong Kong while barred in the rest of China. A visa is required for U.S. citizens to travel to China, but not so for Hong Kong. The list of differences between life in mainland China and that in Hong Kong is extensive. It should be no surprise that the current protests arose as China began to impose more laws on the people of Hong Kong.
Every Catholic who has been frustrated with the rise of religious persecution in China over recent years must pray for the success of the people of Hong Kong in this conflict. The alternative would be the same fate as the murdered underground priest multiplied a thousand times over the course of many years.
Hope and pray for the freedom of the Chinese people to own private property, to be educated and employed without government tyranny, and to practice the fullness of Catholic faith openly. This will not come from Beijing — neither the government nor the people. The majority of the good people of China have had their spirit of protest wiped out after decades of murder, mind control and oppression.
If anyone in China develops the spirit to resist the evil of Communist tyranny, a physical beating would be the most favorable outcome. Hong Kong, on the other hand, is a rallying point for anyone who believes that an atheistic and tyrannical government must be stopped.
Unfortunately, the events in Hong Kong are suppressed throughout the rest of China and cannot be viewed by the people there. However, there are many Chinese Americans who are hoping and praying for Hong Kong so that their heritage and former home in China may become a place of faith and freedom.
What lessons can we learn from China? How much do we tolerate evil behavior in our own country? What do we do when there is a small or large injustice committed against our faith and our freedom?
The stories I have shared in this writing took place in China, one particular country. Yet, there are forms of atheism, Communism, and many worse ideologies in every country across the globe where followers of those beliefs try to suppress religious freedom. Catholics must work harder than them all to put into practice the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Holy Church.
Thank you for reading, and God bless you.
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Editor’s Note: Visit James W. Harris on LinkedIn
Notes from Father Gordon MacRae: I am most grateful to James Harris for this outstanding and important post. Please share it on your social media as a sign of hope for the people of Hong Kong and those in mainland China who will not be permitted to read it.
These Stone Walls was once cited by Today’s Martyrs for original reporting on the suppression of human rights for a specific population: Catholic priests. I invite you to visit Today’s Martyrs for a periodic report on the suppression of rights in China and throughout the world.
