Tea at Trianon: The Mission of the Family

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, October 16, 2015

The Mission of the Family

From Church Militant:

African archbishop Thomas Msusa from Malawi is excited and optimistic that married life and family life will be strengthened at the Synod.

While much of the media coverage thus far at the Synod has been focused on scandal and confusion over changes to Church teaching on marriage and family, bishops from Africa have been consistent in their stance on upholding the Church's teaching as marriage between a man and a woman.

Despite rapidly declining marriage rates in much of Europe and North America, Africa's marriage rates and birth rates are doing extremely well, as the countries bishops hold firm to these critical moral teachings of the Church.

This is the case despite the rampant indoctrination by Western countries and the United Nations that are pushing abortion, homosexuality and contraceptive practices throughout much of Africa, a ploy that faithful African prelates have been vigorously fighting against.

Even with the destruction of family life in the West, African prelates are so zealous and committed to upholding the family structure that it prompted Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, to boldly state last month, "I have a conviction: It will be Africa, and therefore the Church, who will save the family." (Read more.)