"How necessary is the public square rosary?"

One might ask, "how necessary is the public square rosary?"  Or, a person might say, "I know that the public rosary certainly is a nice thing to do, but is it really as necessary as you seem to insist?"

 

    Recently, a friend showed a Catholic book to me that contained an essay written in 1935 by a Father F.J. Remler, C.M..

    The title of the essay is, "Expiation of Public and National Sins."  In this essay, Father first defines what public sin is.  Secondly, he explains God's reaction to public sin. Thirdly, in light of the first two he explains why public reparation is so necessary.

    According to Father, public and national sins are sins of a grave nature which are committed on a large scale in the nation.  He is not speaking of individual sins, but sins that are commonly practiced and accepted throughout a nation.  He lists some that sadly, were even common in his day. Among the public sins on his list were, apostasy from the faith, godless or secular education of the young, blasphemy, not keeping of the Lord's Day, immoral art, film and literature, divorce and adultery etc. 

    What would Father say about today?  The good old days were not always so good, nevertheless, the public acceptance of those sins back then pale into insignificance when compared with today. 

    The sins that Father mentions of that time period, would not even be considered to be sins today by most people.  They still are considered to be most serious and grave by the Church, but society at large doesn't even bat an eye at bad language, at missing Mass, at secular education or, at divorce and adultery.  After all, our "entertainment" industry promotes all of these vices and more.

    Today 72% of Catholics do not regularly attend Mass, talk about the sin of general apostasy. 

    Our public education system promotes lies about the Church and introduces sex education without morality, even promoting homosexual lifestyles and abortion.  Violence and drug abuse are common in education today, as is widespread plagiarism and vandalism.

    Movies such as "Hail Mary" from the 1980's, "Dogma" and "The Da Vinci Code" to name a few, openly blaspheme Our Lord, Our Lady and the Holy Catholic Church.  The virtue of Religion is openly mocked in all aspects of contemporary life. 

    Sacrilege is common, even on sites such as Ebay or Youtube.  These public sacrileges are viewed by millions adding to the offenses against God.

    The family today is in serious trouble.  Almost half of marriages today end in divorce. Besides the harm done to the spouses, the children suffer for life.  What is made worse is that both usually "remarry" invalidly if the first marriage was valid in the eyes of the Church.  This is a further serious sin, and being so common and accepted as it is today, constitutes another grievous public sin. 

    There is also the mutilation of bodies in the form of grotesque and occultist piercings and tattoos.  There are the various forms of so-called music which promote blasphemy, revolt against legitimate authority, and immorality of all kinds.  There is the Internet full of so much filth that if an innocent child happens to click on the wrong thing their mind can be filled with immoral images so horrendous that they can be scarred for life.

    There is widespread drug abuse which literally pollutes the minds of our young and not so young.

    There is widespread fornication and living together without benefit of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.  Innocence among youth today, is almost non-existent.  Today, many lose their innocence in their early teens, if not before then. 

    Besides the categories of sins Father mentioned, today the unthinkable takes place with common acceptance, if not outright promotion in society.  The overwhelming majority of women today, Catholic as well as non-Catholic use contraception, which is a deadly sin.  If that wasn't bad enough we also allow and in some cases encourage the horrific sin of abortion, which literally sacrifices the unborn on the altar of self-love. 

    Finally, there is the acceptance of homosexuality, which, according to the Catholic Catechism, is one of the sins that cries to Heaven for vengeance.  If this sin committed by an individual cries to heaven for vengeance, what about the society that accepts that vice and even considers it equal to true marriage between one man and one woman.  Homosexuals are even demanding the right to adopt children so that their corruption can be passed down to the next generation.

    Every person of good will can see just by simple observation that the above vices are taking place in our nation, and that there is a general acceptance of such vices.  Not everyone believes that these vices are "okay", but a good number of people have the erroneous opinion that what others do is none of their business. Even when the sin is public in nature, or as in the case of abortion when it involves the slaughter of an innocent  defenseless child, some believe it is none of their business. 

    Tomorrow let us continue with Father Remler's principles as to why God is so offended by these public sins and why as a result public reparation for these public sins is so necessary.