Holy Shroud was Hidden from Hitler's Grasp in Benedictine Abbey

Rome, Italy, Apr 8, 2010 / 10:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Holy Shroud was transferred from Turin during World War II to keep it out of reach of Adolph Hitler, according to a Benedictine priest in a southern Italian abbey. Monks in Avellino, Italy stored the relic until 1946 "officially to protect it from bombs, in reality to hide it from the Fuhrer, who was obsessed with it," the monk said.

Sensing the dangers posed by German officials' interest in the Shroud during a visit from Hitler to Italy in 1938, the following year the Vatican and the royal Savoy family decided to move the unique and revered cloth bearing the likeness of Christ to a locale offering more safety than the Cathedral of Turin.

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Lessons of Confidence We Learn from the Glorious Feast of Easter

Easter is a great feast day in the Church. On that day Our Lord conquered death and opened the gates of Heaven for the faithful. As joyous as Easter is, it is inseparable from Good Friday.

Our lives have moments of tremendous spiritual solace, but they also have trials and battles. In this way we imitate Our Lord. If one's life is only joys then there is something wrong, for all true followers of Our Lord must experience Calvary before Easter.

Imagine the apostles after the Crucifixion. They were petrified. Everything seemed lost to them. Our Lady alone knew and fully believed her Divine Son. She was not afraid. She consoled the apostles.

When we think that we are overcome by temptations and trials let us turn to Our Lady with confidence. She will calmly, yet immediately assist us. Even if we do not experience the palpable consolations, we should have full confidence, knowing that if we turn to her, Our Lady will always be there for us to bring us closer to her Son.

Today not only do we have our personal trials to suffer through, but we also have the Calvary that the Church is suffering. Our Lord was hated, yes hated, by the wicked. The Church today is also hated by the wicked of this time.

They do not seek correction, what they really seek is destruction. Their aim is to destroy the confidence of the faithful in the Church, thereby making Her vulnerable and susceptible to greater onslaughts.

We should resist these onslaughts with prayer, reparation and with all of our might. When we learn of a new blasphemy against Our Lord, Our Lady, or the Church, how do we react? Do we offer reparation? Do we make protest by email, by letter, by phone or even in person when possible?

The true faithful, those who are truly devoted to Our Lady, must desire to love Our Lord as Our Lady did. Every fiber of her being was focused upon Jesus and since its founding was focused upon the Church founded by Him.

Let us give proof of the devotion that we proclaim in silence by standing up to the enemies of Our Catholic Faith with all of the peaceful and legal tools at our disposal.

As the late Professor Plinio Correa De Oliveira wrote in the 14th Station of the Way of the Cross, "let me not fear because I am at the feet of Our Lady where the true followers of Thy Church always regroup and will always regroup for new victories."

Judge denies motion to dismiss for ND 88

Chicago, Ill., Apr 5, 2010 / 11:08 pm (EWTN News)

On April 1, the Thomas More Society announced that the motion they filed to dismiss on behalf of the Notre Dame 88 was denied by Judge Michael Scopelitis of the St. Joseph County Superior Court in Indiana.

The motion to dismiss was denied nearly one month after the death of Linda Schmidt, one of the 88 pro-life group members who was arrested last year at the University of Notre Dame for protesting President Obama's commencement address. Schmidt passed away in March after a battle with terminal cancer and faced court charges up until the time of her death.

“We understand Judge Scopelitis' ruling to have been a strict application of a procedural rule, and we respect that decision,” said Tom Dixon, lead attorney for the ND88, and a Notre Dame Law alumnus on Thursday. “However, he did not rule on the merits of our legal defenses or our constitutional challenges to the validity of the charges. As such, we fully plan on presenting a vigorous defense of these prayerful individuals who bravely stood in defense of the Catholic Church's pro-life teachings.”

Full story here:

http://www.ewtnnews.com/new.php?id=314

"Legacy of a Modern Knight"

This article about Norman Fulkerson's latest book, American Knight, appeared over the weekend. It was on Easter Sunday, that Col Ripley blew up the Dong Ha bridge.

A "gung ho" John Ripley as a Captain in Vietnam

By Debbie Thurman, DAILY COURIER
Saturday, April 3, 2010

This week Christians observed the Passion of Christ, the suffering servant but also the King of kings. Were he still among us, one warrior-servant whose deeply abiding faith and military prowess helped shape him into a legend — a latter-day knight — would be solemnly worshipping. He also likely would be recalling another Easter Sunday 38 years ago at almost precisely this time of year in a quaint but war-ravaged South Vietnamese village called Dong Ha.

In 1972, Marine Capt. John Ripley was in South Vietnam for the third time as one of the last American military advisers. His first two combat tours were as a rifle company commander. He was already the stuff of legend.

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They Tied His Hands Because He Did Good

Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

Why didst Thy executioners bind Thee, O Lord? What had Thy hands done, that they should be tied? Who can say, Lord, what glory these hands gave to God when they first received the kisses of Our Lady and Saint Joseph? Who can tell the tenderness with which Mary Most Holy first caressed them? With what piety they first joined in prayer? With what strength, nobility and humility they worked in Saint Joseph’s shop? These hands which were so gentle for the innocent, like Saint Joseph, and the penitent, like Mary Magdalen; these hands which were fiercely against the world, flesh and devil – why are they tied down and worn raw? What hatred and fear necessitated this? Was someone afraid to be cured or caressed? Was someone afraid of health or tenderness? Lord, only the existence of evil can explain this awful reality. However, all men tend toward evil, and their nature easily revolts against sacrifice. Once they revolt, men are capable of all manner of infamy and disorder. My Jesus, when someone says no to Thee, they begin to hate Thee. Hating Thee, they detest all goodness, truth and perfection, which Thou personified. Therefore, if Thou art not visibly present to persecute, they strike out against the Church, profane the Eucharist, blaspheme, spread immorality and preach revolt and rebellion. Thou art bound, my Jesus, and where are the lame, paralytics, blind and mutes whom Thou didst cure? Where are the dead whom Thou didst resurrect, possessed whom Thou didst free, sinners whom Thou didst lift up and the just to whom Thou didst reveal eternal life? Why are they not present to break the knots that bind Thy hands, Lord?