RU 07/2007 - PORTUGAL, FRANCE

- PORTUGAL: The worst news of the last years is surely this one, announced in big letters on the front pages of major media in Europe: "Portugal voted for abortion". The country of the Most Holy Virgin Mary , that country which "will keep the faith", throws itself into the abyss and will kill its children! What is it exactly? 59 % voted in favour of the baby murdering, 40 % against it, but there were 56.4 % of abstentions. This last data mitigates somehow the horrible sentence, since with more than 50 % of abstentions, the referendum is not legally coercive for the legislator. But too bad, the government is socialist, of the worst red-revolution type. Even though the initial governmental plan failed - to introduce abortion by means of a referendum by the Portuguese people, while washing its hands of the blood of the babies like Pontius Pilatus - , Prime Minister Jose Socrates declared that 'the message of the Porguguese people' appeared clearly to him: so he would introduce abortion very soon by legislative way. A children's game, since he has the absolute majority in the parliament, another catastrophic mistake which the Catholic authorities let arrive. It's necessary to state that since the beginning of the referendum campaign, the bishops of Portugal were ambiguous: the cardinal patriarch of Lisboa Mgr Jose Policarpo (another Jose!) had opened the dance while recommending abstention to the undecided ones. The question of abortion would not be a religious question, he said, but only a question of fundamental ethics (?). "For sure, I don't make any voting recommendation", announced the cardinal. According to him, the Church would not make campaign: "The physicians and family fathers must defend it, not the bishops." - After that, some bishops took the opposite stand, while declaring themselves in favour of the "no", in one word the episcopal cacophony was total. This is serious, concerning a question of that dimension! And even suicidal. I reality, it would have been necessary to make it absolutely clear to the Portuguese faithful, practicing at nearly 80 % the Catholic faith while going every Sunday to mass, that the one who would vote for the legal murder of the babies would be excluded 1) from the Holy Communion ("excommunicated"), 2) from marriage ceremony in the church, 3) from the extreme unction and the funeral in the Catholic cemetery. But nearly no one spoke like this, at a moment when the Church should have spoken with only one firm voice. Now we shouldn't wonder about the result. These shepherds are traitors, let's say it clearly. And not only traitors of the Catholic faith, but assassins of babies, gravediggers of Portugal, and the worst: they cooperated with the enemies of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, queen of Portugal. Didn't cardinal Ratzinger declare, some years before becoming pope (while making himself some serious enemies under the bishops) that this generation of bishops would not change and should disappear, in order to make room for a new and more courageous clergy? So he should make them disappear, 'subito', 'schnell', since the terrifying shout of the innocents goes up until Heaven! - (ru)

- FRANCE: After these terrifying news, let's turn our eyes towards... Our Lady of Paris. This cathedral speaks to us about the faith of our ancestors, and we need that now. Some details: in the 6th century we find, with Gregory of Tours, the first certified mentioning of a cathedral in the City. - Then there is the council of 839 in its walls. - In 1160 Mgr Maurice of Sully, bishop of Paris, takes the decision to rebuild the Carolingian cathedral while taking up to build the church we can see today. The pope Alexander III puts the first stone in April 1163. The choir and the transept are finished in 1182. In 1250 the whole cathedral is achieved. Within 90 years, Catholic France raised this work of faith, brand-new, Gothic, of supernatural beauty (the cathedral of Cologne: 600 years of construction!). Only the names of the last two architects are known: Jean of Chelles and Pierre of Montreuil. - In August 1304, king Philippe Le Bel, after his victory over the Flemings at Cassel, entered into this cathedral on the same horse and outfitted with the same weapons that he had during the fight, in order to show his gratitude to God and the Holy Virgin Mary. - In 1449 the goldsmiths founded at Notre Dame the confraternity of St Anne and St Marcel, offering to the Holy Virgin, on each first of May, a green tree, a "may" (one didn't wait for the freemasons for that!). This tree was installed in front of the main altar of the cathedral. - In 1543 one restores the rose of the south arm of the transept which menaced to collapse. - In 1562, in order to help the king in his struggle against the Protestants, a large portion of the most beautiful pieces of the treasure of Notre Dame have been delivered, among which the golden shrine of St Andrew, the Holy Virgin's statue which decorated the main altar etc. In May of this same year, the captain of the defense of Notre Dame against the Protestants, Philibert de l'Orme, received mission to organize the interior and exterior fortifications of the cloister and to buy weapons for the defense of the cathedral. - In 1568, a woman was killed on the square by the fall of a beam from one of the two towers of Our Lady cathedral. - On February 10th, 1638, Louis XIII places of his kingdom under the Holy Virgin's protection, and Louis XIV achieved in 1699 his father's vow to build a new main altar surmounted by a Pietà (this work, spreading over 20 years, has been confided to Jules Hardouin Mansart). - From 1725 to 1729 the cardinal of Noailles restored again the rose of the south arm of the transept that gave always concerns. In 1730 the rose of the western facade was almost totally repaired. And the rose of the north transept, the most ancient and beautiful one, was rebuilt in 1782. - Notre Dame didn't escape from the fury of the revolutionaries. In 1793 the 28 statues of "kings" of the lower gallery of the western facade were pulled down. One by one, a rope was twisted around their necks and they were toppled down to the square, to mark "the people's victory over the tyrants", a gesture a hundred times repeated by Communists and post-Communists of all countries during the following centuries. Inside the cathedral, they suppressed everywhere the lily flowers, crowns and arms of nobility. The smaller spire was pulled down and, with the lead of its cover, they made bullets. All metal objects inside the cathedral were sent to the Currency. The tombs were desecrated and one removed the coffins of lead to make munitions with them. On November 10th, 1793, the cathedral becomes the "Temple of the Reason". On the top of a mountain is installed the temple of Philosophy. The Liberty, embodied by Miss Aubry of the Opera, is sitting on a hillock of greenery, dressed with the phrygian cap and armed with a pike, and receives the homage of the crowds in delirium who sing tending their arms towards her. - Shortly after, Notre Dame is put on sale for demolition. But in 1794 Robespierres institutes the cult of the Supreme Being there. On the facade of Notre Dame was written: "The French people recognizes the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul". Notre Dame was then transformed into a store of supplies and the choir became a warehouse of wine casks. After other happenings and deliria, the cathedral is given back on April 18th, 1802, to the Catholic cult, but it's then in a miserable state, empty and dark, deprived of its statues and of all its splendid furniture. To such a degree that one projected to replace the horribly mutilated facade of Notre Dame by an another one in the style of the Pantheon... But under the first Empire the works of restoration began, first inside the cathedral. - On July 29th, 1830, hundreds of rioters invaded the archbishop's residence nearby, and after having ravaged the palace, introduced themselves into the capitular room and from there into the treasure of the cathedral. Immediately, the cupboards were opened by force and everything that they contained - archives of the chapter, silverware, books, linens and ornaments - became the prey of the pillagers and was destroyed, torn and broken, except the shrines with their relics (!). It's only in 1844, following an opinion movement created by Victor Hugo and Mérimée, that the Government enacted the complete restoration of Notre Dame. The works were confided to the architects Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc who created, during 20 years of works, an almost entirely new building. - During the Commune, on May 26th, 1781, rioters heaped up in the choir of Notre Dame all chairs covered with oil, and put them on fire, but it could be extinguished. - This cathedral saw extraordinary events: in the beginning of the 13th century, St Dominique preached there. On August 18th, 1239, Saint Lewis carries solemnly to Notre Dame the Crown of Thorns which he bought from the emperor Beaudouin II, and was standing in prayer during all the night of Pentecost, before arming knight his son and 200 young men. - On December 16th, 1430, it's the coronation of Henri VI of England as king of France. - On November 7th, 1455, takes place here the opening of the process of rehabilitation of Jeanne d'Arc. - And how many royal marriages took place in Notre Dame at the time? To mention only the one of Henri de Navarre and Marguerite de Valois, in 1572 (the future Henri IV, being Protestant, waited in the court of the bishop's residence until the ceremony was finished). - The reign of Louis XIV was the one of many Te Deums! During these ceremonies, one suspended from the ceiling of the cathedral the flags which had been taken to the enemy. So France's famous captains, like Condé, Turenne, Catinat, Villars and Vendome, had become upholsterers of Notre Dame! - On April 18th, 1802, Bonaparte attended in Notre Dame the Mass celebrated by the cardinal Caprara, legate of the Pope. On December 2nd, 1804, he is crowned emperor there. For this consecration, one raised before the facade of Notre Dame, over all its width, a vast porch flanked by 2 galleries and endeavored to adapt their decor to the one of the cathedral, while installing the statues of the 46 cities invited to the ceremony, as well as those of Clovis and Charlemagne. This decor was supposed to conceal to the eyes of the emperor the mayhems done to the facade by the revolutionaries. - In 1853 was celebrated the marriage of Napoleon III and of empress Eugenie there, and in 1856 the baptism of the imperial Prince. - From the cathedral departed, on August 15th of each year, since the vow of Louis XIII in 1638, the procession in honor of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, considered since that time as the "Queen of France". - The rest of the story in one of our future RU editions! - (ru; cf. Parisian Churches, of Amedee Boinet, 1958)

- - O.A.M.D.G. - -