Bishop of Largest Portuguese Diocese on Christmas: Our Lady not really a Virgin Francis meets Manuel Linda, current bishop of Oporto (Porto), Portugal The Portuguese website "Observador", one of the most important news and opinion websites in the country, published a special Christmas interview with the Bishop of the most populous diocese in Portugal, Oporto (Porto), Manuel Linda, and another theologian, a priest called Anselmo Borges. [Update: the wicked bishop has tried to hide his declarations by adding "clarifications" to the original piece; therefore, in order to preserve historical record, the original piece has been posted in our Repository.] In it, they dismantle all "myths" related to Christmas, including its December date ("probably September"...), but the greatest scandal of all is the direct attack on several Dogmas related to the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the purity of His Immaculate Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. The main passages are translated below (tip: local reader): "He [Christ] was conceived by Mary and Joseph as any other person... Virginity is only associated with Mary as a metaphor to prove that Jesus was a very special person." ... The Bishop of Oporto tells the Observador website that, "we should never refer to the physical virginity of Mary." "The Old Testament says many times that Jesus was to be born of a maiden, a daughter of Israel, who was simple, poor, and humble. But this is truly just a reference to the full devotion of this woman to God.The gift of being mother of God was given to Mary because she had an undivided heart.What matters is full giving of herself,"explains Bp Manuel Linda. And he adds, "There certainly are women with a ruptured hymen who are more virgin in the sense of full devotion to God than some with an intact hymen." RORATE: in better days, this heretic and blasphemer would be thrown out of his place by enraged Catholics, thrown into the sea for such grievous offenses against Our Lord, the All-Holy Virgin, and Holy Mother Church. Where's the Catholic laity of Portugal? Linda was named auxiliary bishop of Braga by Benedict XVI in 2009, and was named Military Ordinary of Portugal by Francis in 2013, and again named by Francis this year as the titular bishop of Oporto, one of the most prestigious positions in the nation of Fatima. Labels: Portugal By New Catholic at Wednesday, December 26, 2018 https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2018/12/bishop-of-second-largest-portuguese.html
Praetorian posted in the ViF thread a link denying this statement here; http://motheofgod.com/threads/the-vatican-has-fallen.10058/page-550#post-231562 He links to a FatherZ entry. I would post it here but it is rather long; http://wdtprs.com/blog/2018/12/upda...claims-about-the-perpetual-virginity-of-mary/
Yes indeed padraig. Just to clarify, that the sermon that this Padre delivered is a pretty poor attempt it seems to patch over what he is alleged to have said in the original article. Father Z goes into this a bit in his analysis of it and posts the transcript of the Homily he delivered.
It makes one wonder, just how many priests and Bishops believe such things and only recently have been caught teaching this sort of thing to their parishioners? It seems that the dogma of the faith has not been preserved wholly in Portugal. Which leads one to ponder what that etc... meant after all.
So many scandals because of a lack of faith. The Bishop must not pray the Rosary as he would never have said such horrible things about our Lady. Diabolical. And at Christmas -- Even though he retracted and made an oath of fidelity what he said initially has been reported and sent out around the world. I wonder if there is anything I can do today to make reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? She is so beautiful and pure yet people continue to pierce her heart with horrible blasphemies.
I would always have a certain distant respect for someone , an Atheist, a Free Mason, a Heretic or whatever who openly and publically stands up for what they believe in. I would on the other hand have no respect whatsoever for someone who hides and lies about what they truly believe in for whatever reason. It is tricksy and wicked and sneaky. These people are true snakes.
I saved this picture some time back but don't remember the source. It's supposed to be a close depiction of what the Mother of God actually looked like while on earth.
Many mystics have described Our Lady from visions. Physically, I mean. I don;t want to sound unduly cynical but these tend to vary; sometimes wildly. The best description I ever heard came from Medugorje when someone asked Our Lady the question, 'Why are you so beautiful?' To Which the Queen of Heaven answered, 'I am beautiful because I love'. Which for me is the perfect answer; it is not the outside but the inside that is important. It is the same for us all. it is the inside , not the outside that is important. Which is why I go to mass each day I dearly love to look at the saints who surround me; some of them just shine like crazy.
Where I live, they simply do not speak of or define what the Immaculate Conception or the Assumption means. They simply spin thier homily around some social justice or immigration story.
I think Our Lady can appear in many ways, just as she appeared as a Native American maiden at Guadalupe. I am not sure of the Church teaching on this (if there is any), but I think this may be one of the abilities of our resurrected bodies. Obviously, Our Lord and Our Lady had a true physical form they appeared in, but in a very real way they transcend race and physical differences.
I think we tend to see things through our own eyes. So, if I were Polish I see with Polish eyes. If French, French. It Italian, Italian. ..and so on. In a similar way we would tend to look to Our Lady's virtues through own own eyes. So , say and Italian sees Our Lady as the Madonna. A French Person as a Theological message carrier and so on. We tend very much to see others through our own eyes. I think we see this in the Gospels with Jesus. Each saw Jesus through the lens of their own eyes. I have six brothers and three sisters; each of us have our own particular take on my mother and father and I think looking back on it each of us related to them in their own way. With Jesus and Mary I often find in prayer that they are often laughing at the things I say. I wouldn't expect others to find this. Each of us is different. My own parents were the same that often laughed at me and with me. Each of us is different. If we were not different why would God have troubled to make us?
The reason why modern people are bring the Blessed Virgin down to their own level is that they are not praying. If they were praying they would encounter her as she really is. They go to her with their minds rather than their hearts. They need to get on their knees to see her as she really is. But they are too proud to get on their knees.
I recall an interview given by Colm Toibin (a famous and anti-Catholic Irish writer) who went to Medjugorje. He didn't go on pilgrimage, he went to mock the pilgrims and did so mercilessly in his articles on the subject. However, he had the grace to admit that he had an 'experience' while there. When the Rosary was being prayed, he lost sense of the present and saw, in what he said he believed was strict chronological order, every single image of Our Lady that he had ever seen since he was a small child. He did not put this down to anything supernatural but to the 'hyped' atmosphere around him (poor, poor man to reject such a grace, I wish it would happen to me). I am not troubled at all by the differences in appearance reported by visionaries, the way She appears serves a specific purpose as someone said about Our Lady of Guadalupe which is so lovely and portrays; modesty, humility, gentleness, love and much more while fitting in with everything expected of a local princess in appearance and apparel. However, when I close my eyes, I see this image: She appears to be waiting for me to do something, which is the essence of so many of Her messages over the years, hopeful anticipation which I so often disappoint.
Good point padraig. As society continues to break down and memories of motherhood become for many painful memories rather than ones of love and nurturing I think that many are simply not able to materially comprehend something as simple as considering the love and respect we have for our own mothers and then reflecting on this love but between Jesus and His mother because many people have never experienced this in their own relationships. Parents today are both working in most cases and day cares are raising children in their most impressionable years. Many times as infants. Not to mention all the things of this world which affect these relationships. Jesus worked His first miracle at the behest of his mother. In good conscious one would wonder why and reflect on this because it is very significant. Science has proven that the blood of mother and unborn child co-mingle while in the womb. Our Blessed Mother could not be a sinful woman as many would like to insist because of this. Jesus is spotless, He is God in the flesh. He could no more have been created in an original sin stained vessel than God permit us in our sin even into His presence. It just doesn't work that way and if we read the Old Testament we know this from the example God gives us of the Ark killing all those who came into its presence stained with sin and not ritually cleansed. It was Our Blessed Mother who brought me to the Faith in my 40's. My protestant pastor avoided my questions on her and insisted she was no different than any other woman. I believe that she must have plead for me before Our Father because I had sinned greatly against her all my life and deserved nothing but scorn from Her. Yet, when I realized truly who she is and what Our Lord granted us when on the cross in His Mother it was nothing short of cataclysmic. It truly changed my life. I wish others could experience this who insult Her. I know that some are because She simply does not give up on any of Her children.
Yes, it's as St Paul said, 'The Spiritual man precieve's all things spiritually'. The Spiritual person see things from the inside out. The unspiritual person sees all things from the outside in. Or in otherwords one persons sees all things in terms of love, of God. The other in terms of the world. So a Prostitute will think the hole world is interested in nothing but sex. A thief will think everyone is dishonest. A politician will see all events in terms of politics..and so on. For those who are centred on God will see all things in terms of the Creator. For this is what true Wisdom is , to refer all things to God. So this is why they cannot see Mary as she really is, because they are not wise but foolish. As soon as I hear someone say, 'Mary was just like us', I know at once I am listening to someone foolish. The whole point of understanding Mary is that she not just like us. If she were just like us what would be the point of paying any attention to her. The same goes with the saints in general. The whole point is that they were different from us. So that gives us someone to emulate to follow, to aim for. Proverbs 10:13 Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has understanding, but a rod is for the back of him who is devoid of understanding. Proverbs 14:1 The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. 1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:19-21 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe
This was I think the great historic mistake of Protestantism. To place everyone on the same level. A kind of Spiritual Socialism, if you will. But souls differ in huge extent. I think the person who described this best was St Therese of Liseaux when she compared souls to different kinds of flowers. https://blog.littleflower.org/prayers/pearls-of-wisdom/st-thereses-wisdom-garden-of-souls/ St. Thérèse’s Wisdom: Garden of Souls February 24, 2015 by Society 2 Comments Taken from “Pearls of Wisdom” by M. Susan Lautenbach Jesus has been gracious enough to teach me a lesson about the mystery of the differences in souls, simply by holding up to my eyes, the book of nature. I understood how all the flowers God created are beautiful- how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not take away from the perfume of the violet or the simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wildflower. And so it is in the world of souls… Jesus’ garden. He willed to create great souls comparable to lilies and roses, but he created small ones as well… and theses must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God’s glances, when he looks down at His feet. Perfection consists in doing God’s will… in being what He would have us be. -St. Therese of Lisieux
Wow - that phrase is definitely inspired by the Holy Spirit. Protestantism a form of Spiritual Socialism. That is so true. Much to ponder.
