St. Oliver Plunkett was born on 1 November 1625 into an influential Anglo-Norman family at Loughcrew, near Oldcastle, Co Meath. In 1647, he went to the Irish College in Rome to study for the priesthood and was ordained a priest in 1654. The arrival of Cromwell in Ireland in 1649 initiated the massacre and persecution [...]
St. Oliver Plunkett was born on 1 November 1625 into an influential Anglo-Norman family at Loughcrew, near Oldcastle, Co Meath. In 1647, he went to the Irish College in Rome to study for the priesthood and was ordained a priest in 1654. The arrival of Cromwell in Ireland in 1649 initiated the massacre and persecution of Catholics. Cromwell left in 1650 but his legacy was enacted in anti-Catholic legislation. During the 1650s, Catholics were expelled from Dublin and landowners were dispossessed. Catholic priests were outlawed and those who continued to administer the sacraments were hanged or transported to the West Indies. To avoid persecution, Plunkett petitioned to remain in Rome, and in 1657 became a professor of theology.
When anti-Catholicism eased, Plunkett returned to Ireland. In 1657 he became archbishop of Armagh. He set about reorganising the ravaged Church, and built schools both for the young and for clergy whom he found ‘ignorant in moral theology and controversies’. He tackled drunkenness among the clergy, writing ‘Let us remove this defect from an Irish priest, and he will be a saint.’
In 1670, he summoned an episcopal conference in Dublin, and later held numerous synods in his own arch diocese. However, he had a long standing difference with the archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot, over their rival claims to be primate of Ireland. He also antagonised the Franciscans, particularly when he favoured the Dominicans in a property dispute.
With the onset of new persecution in 1673, Plunkett went into hiding, refusing a government edict to register at a seaport and await passage into exile. In 1678, the so-called Popish Plot concocted in England by Titus Oates led to further anti-Catholicism. Archbishop Talbot was arrested, and Plunkett again went into hiding. The privy council in London was told he had plotted a French invasion.
In December 1679, Plunkett was imprisoned in Dublin Castle, where he gave absolution to the dying Talbot. Taken to London, he was found guilty in June 1681 of high treason on perjured evidence from two disaffected Franciscans. On 1 July 1681, Plunkett became the last Catholic martyr in England when he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. He was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years.
Amos 2:6-10, 13-16 Psalms 50:16-23 Matthew 8:18-22 Amos 2:6-10, 13-16 6 Yahweh says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Israel, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have sold the upright for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals, 7 because they have crushed the heads of [...]
Amos 2:6-10, 13-16
Psalms 50:16-23
Matthew 8:18-22
Amos 2:6-10, 13-16
6 Yahweh says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Israel, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have sold the upright for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals, 7 because they have crushed the heads of the weak into the dust and thrust the rights of the oppressed to one side, father and son sleeping with the same girl and thus profaning my holy name, 8 lying down beside every altar on clothes acquired as pledges, and drinking the wine of the people they have fined in the house of their god. 9 Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, he who was as tall as the cedars, as strong as the oaks; I who destroyed his fruit above ground and his roots below. 10 It was I who brought you up from Egypt and for forty years led you through the desert to take possession of the Amorite’s country
13 Very well! Like a cart overloaded with sheaves I shall crush you where you stand; 14 flight will be cut off for the swift, the strong will have no chance to exert his strength nor the warrior be able to save his life; 15 the archer will not stand his ground, the swift of foot will not escape, nor will the horseman save his life; 16 even the bravest of warriors will jettison his arms and run away, that day! -declares Yahweh!
Psalms 50:16-23
16 But to the wicked, God says: ‘What right have you to recite my statutes, to take my covenant on your lips,
17 when you detest my teaching, and thrust my words behind you?
18 ‘You make friends with a thief as soon as you see one, you feel at home with adulterers,
19 your conversation is devoted to wickedness, and your tongue to inventing lies.
20 ‘You sit there, slandering your own brother, you malign your own mother’s son.
21 You do this, and am I to say nothing? Do you think that I am really like you? I charge you, indict you to your face.
22 ‘Think it out, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart without hope of a rescuer.
23 Honour to me is a sacrifice of thanksgiving; to the upright I will show God’s salvation.’
Matthew 8:18-22
18 When Jesus saw the crowd all about him he gave orders to leave for the other side. 19 One of the scribes then came up and said to him, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go.’ 20 Jesus said, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’ 21 Another man, one of the disciples, said to him, ‘Lord, let me go and bury my father first.’ 22 But Jesus said, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.’
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2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being. Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, “if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward [...]
2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.
Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, “if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual…. It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence.”
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Please feel free to leave your Prayer petitions and know that members of this online Catholic community will pray for your intentions. Also, please remember to pray for the intentions of others, the forgotten holy souls in purgatory, and for the Holy Father’s Intentions! LORD, hear our Prayers! . .
Please feel free to leave your Prayer petitions and know that members of this online Catholic community will pray for your intentions. Also, please remember to pray for the intentions of others, the forgotten holy souls in purgatory, and for the Holy Father’s Intentions!
LORD, hear our Prayers!
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