TIA,

This is an open letter to Cardinal Ivan Dias who burned incense to a Hindu deity [click here]:

Your Eminence Ivan Cardinal Dias,

And the Lord spoke all these words: I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me (Exodus 20:1-5).

For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils (Psalms 95:5).

Having been condemned September 27, 235 A.D in metallum (to the mines) for his Catholic Faith, Pope St. Pontian was force-marched from the port, Othoca, to the Sardinian lead mines.

His left eye was gouged out with a dagger and the socket cauterized with molten iron. The joints of his left foot were burned to cause painful scarification thereby impairing walking. A nerve, the peroneal nerve, was severed by stabbing behind his right knee to cause a 'foot drop,' further impairing walking. He was branded on the forehead. Iron rings were soldered around his ankles then, manacled, his ankles were tethered by a heavy chain to a painfully constricting iron ring around his waist so short that he could only stoop, never to stand straight again.

After being burned, stabbed, chained and branded, he was scourged with 60 lashes against a stone obelisk, then immediately sent with pick and shovel into the choking poisonous dust of the lead mines to work 20 of every 24 hours, subsisting (between beatings) on one meal of coarse bread and water daily - until late in January 236 A.D. when he was martyred.

Rather than burn even a tiny pinch of incense before false gods or otherwise deny the one true Faith, Catholic martyrs have been flayed, grilled on a gridiron, burned, boiled, beaten, devoured, gored, racked, stoned, crushed, drowned, asphyxiated, garroted, hanged, axed, guillotined, impaled, stabbed, flogged, eviscerated, torn, quartered, pummeled, poisoned, gassed, shot, buried, frozen, starved, and worked to death.

You, Your Eminence, in burning incense before a pagan statue are one sorry excuse for a Catholic. You scourge Him anew!

And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell.'Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword (Matthew 10:28-34).

Practicing Catholics pray for your conversion, repentance, and reparation. Have courage in Christ Jesus Crucified, Your Eminence.

     Sincerely in the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts wounded by you,

     Edgar A. Suter, MD

Pope St. Pontian, pray for us!

TIA,

That was a pleasant surprise. The said cardinal [Ivan Dias] is actually lighting a lamp [click here]. It's common to have that at inaugurations in India. It's a Hindu practice and I have always felt all such stuff should be kept out of secular life.

In some places in North India the inculturation process is taken too far - application of the tilak on the forehead, singing psalms with Hindu religious tunes!

I understand it all too well. I worked in the missions for two years after having been agnostic for some years and reading about religions. Unfortunately Hindu customs are incompatible with the Catholic Faith, as they derive from Hindu philosophy which is actually an absolute Monism. The tribal [religions] are also included, with the rather primitive dances in Church.

Out here in Bahrain [on the Persian Gulf], I have the only choice of a Novus Ordo Church, which I go to reluctantly. Some observations:

• Immodesty of dress is almost a rule (of course unless the priests says something to the parishioners). I wrote to my parish priest several times. I suppose he gets the letters. No reply. I must say I have never met with him however.
  
  
• Since when has God become "Our Father and Mother" in the liturgy?
  
  
• The Charismatic Movement: I wrote objecting to it as un-Catholic. No reply. The 1/2 page invitation in the parish bulletin to a 'Life in The Spirit Seminar' sounded perfectly Protestant. I attended the first session out of curiosity. It was entirely Protestant in nature. The speaker sounded every bit of a Protestant minister. I left disgusted in an hour - not a word of Catholicism.

Imagine what kind of Catholics we have? The 'Spirit' they expect comes over them during the meeting. And what about the exclusivity of the Sacraments? They have been placed on an equal footing with -and as important as these charismatic meetings!

I won't blame them [the people] since they don't understand.

     Dr. N.R., Bahrain



TIA to the Reader:

Thanks to this clarification of Dr. N.R., the Reader can see that Card. Dias was not burning incense to the Hindu deity. He was using a candle to light a lamp in homage to it. It is good to have this detail clear.

However, it seems to us that the gravity of the Prelate's gesture is precisely the same, for we do not see an essential difference between lighting an oil lamp or burning incense in homage to that Hindu deity. Both acts pretend to acknowledge the idol as a god.

This is the reason why we published the excellent open letter by Dr. Edgar A. Suter, whose points continue to be valid and to express our Catholic indignation against idolatry.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk

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