Vatican City, Mar 13, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- She begged and scrounged for food in the forest; she drank water from a stream with dead bodies in it; she wrapped grass on her feet in order to walk long distances in the hot sun in order to survive, facing starvation and malnourishment, all before the age of six.
Now, Mirreille Twayigira is a licensed medical doctor hoping not just to save lives, but to inspire young women worldwide – particularly those in her same situation – by showing them there’s hope, and that life is more than the tragedies they face.
While some might label her life “a tragic story” due to the suffering and loss she faced as a young child, Twayigira said others might choose to call it “a story of courage and perseverance.”
However, “I choose to call it a story of hope, a story of God…from ashes to beauty, (like) a beautiful stained glass window.”
Twayigira was among several speakers at the March 8 Voices of Faith women’s gathering in the Vatican, marking International Women’s Day.
First held in 2014, the VoF conference was established in response to Pope Francis’ call to “broaden the space within the Church for a more incisive feminine presence.”
Gathering women from around the world, this year’s VoF took place at the Vatican’s Casina Pio IV, headquarters of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, and featured testimonies of women from around the world, including Syria and Burundi, who shared their stories of perseverance, highlighting the importance of building peace in a world filled with conflict.
In her testimony, Twayigira noted that when war broke out between Tutsis and members of the Hutu majority the government, leading to mass killings of the Tutsi tribe, she was just three years-old.
Although she doesn’t remember much about the war itself when it started, she remembers the day she got the news that her father had been killed.
“I remember being told that my father had been killed, his body being brought home wrapped in this blue tent,” she said, noting that she was too young to fully understand what was happening on the day of his burial.
Before the war, “we were a big, happy family. Our house was next to our grandparent’s house, so my sister and I used to spend our days with uncles and aunts…so it was a beautiful and happy childhood,” she said.
After her father’s death, however, this changed dramatically.
“My family knew that it was no longer safe for us, so they had to pack and leave,” she said, explaining that at first, they fled to another district of Rwanda, thinking they would be safe.
However, after just a short time her younger sister, who was just one-year-old at the time, got sick and, because her family didn’t have access to medicine or proper nourishment due to the war, she passed away.
After her sister’s death – which marked the second time she had lost a sibling, since an older sister had died before Twayigira was born – the family fled through Burundi to a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“In the camp I was a very happy kid,” she said, “but this all ended when I encountered more loss.”
While in the camp, her mother fell ill and “one night she was gone.” However, Twayigira said that despite the tragic death of her mother, “life had to go move on,” so she and her grandparents continued to move forward.
But just two years later, in 1996, they had to leave because of war in the DRC, which is when “I began to experience a life that is unimaginable,” she said, recalling how she had her grandparents fled the camp with bullets flying over their heads, and took refuge in the forest.
“We only survived by begging for food,” she said. Her grandparents begged from locals in nearby villages, and at times were given moldy bread to eat. When begging wasn’t enough, “we even had to eat roots from the forest.”
“I remember sometimes we had to drink water from rivers with dead bodies floating in it,” she said, noting that their situation had become one of the “survival of the fittest.”
They had long distances to walk going from village to village and in search of another camp, many times walking on rough terrain. When the weather was too hot for their bare feet, they bunched up grass and tied it to their feet in order to be able to walk.
“We escaped death from so many things: from hunger, bullets, drowning, wild animals, you name it. No child should go through what I went through. In fact, nobody should go through what I went through,” she said.
Eventually the family made their way to another refugee camp, “but life would not be better there,” she said. While there were some soldiers protecting them, they would take young boys and train them to fight, and would take girls either as companions for the night or, at times, as wives.
Most of the boys leave refugee camps “with some sort of trauma,” she said, noting that when it came to the girls, some got pregnant, and others were made to be servants.
“The only reason I survived this is because I was very little,” Twayigira said. Due to the ongoing war, she and her grandparents traveled to nearby Angola before eventually ending up back in the DRC for a period of time.
However, with no improvement to the situation and no end to the war in sight, they again made their way to Angola for the second time. But when they arrived, “my grandma was very tired, and as for me, I was very malnourished.”
“You can imagine a big tummy and thin brown hair, and swollen cheeks and feet,” she said, describing herself as a young girl.
Twayigira recalled that her grandmother died shortly before they reached the refugee camp in Angola, and that had they not arrived when they did, “I was also almost gone.”
With just the two of them left, Twayigira explained that her grandfather eventually decided to travel to a different refugee camp in Zambia, because he heard they had a better school.
Despite such a long journey and so much loss, her grandfather moved again for no other reason “than to give his granddaughter a better education,” Twayigira said. She recalled that her grandfather “really believed in me so much. He never once said, ‘she’s just a girl, let me not waste my time on her.’”
After spending a few years in Zambia, the pair decided to make yet one more move, this time heading to a camp in Malawi that had better living conditions and even better schools. They arrived in September 2000.
Twayigira immediately enrolled in school once she arrived, making several new friends and, for the first time since they had left, was happy to have adequate food and shelter.
Being able to do well in her classes “would give me joy. Because at least I got to make some people proud, and I was very happy,” she said. Twayigira was eventually selected to join a Jesuit-run school, with all fees paid for by the Jesuit Refugee Service.
When she finished school in 2007, Twayigira’s grandfather fell ill, passing away just a few days after.
“I cried uncontrollably, badly, but life had to go on, and although I was in so much pain with the loss of my loved ones, it did not stop me from working hard,” she said, “because I knew that my future, it was not certain, I did not know what my future had, but I knew that my hard work would pay off.”
In 2009 she studied for the national final exam in Malawi, and finished among the top 6 students in the country. At the awards ceremony, the Chinese embassy offered a number of full-ride scholarships to study in China for the top students.
Twayigira was one of the students selected and, despite being a refugee with no citizenship status or passport, was able to get her paperwork in order with the help of the Jesuits at her school, a Catholic radio station and even the Malawian parliament.
She then moved to China and studied the language for a year before officially beginning classes in Chinese. She has since graduated and is currently working as a medical intern in Malawi.
While there were many times she wanted to give up along the way, Twayigira said she persisted, because at a certain point she realized that “God spared my life” not to keep it for herself, but because “there are people that I was meant to serve.”
“Before I went to China, I used to think I was just this girl with a tragic past…but when I got to China I realized that I’ve got a story to tell; a story of God and his love, a story that can change somebody’s life.”
As a doctor, Twayigira said she feels she can give even more. But in addition to her medical duties, she also looks for opportunities to speak in schools to try and “raise hope among the youth, especially refugee youth.”
She said that in the future, she hopes to work more directly with refugees, “because I believe I have a lot to share, having gone through what they’ve gone through.”
“Now this is my story…but unfortunately for many, theirs is just in the tragedy part,” she said, explaining that many refugee children don’t even have access to adequate housing let alone higher education.
Even those who do get a good education don’t necessarily have the same opportunities, Twayigira said, so “their hopes are just crushed.”
In order to change the situation, she said war itself has to end: “why not end all this violence, and I’m not talking about people from other countries coming in to invade our own countries, I mean why wait for an outsider to come to stop hurting, and killing?”
“Is the money or power at the expense of their blood really worth it? I don’t think so,” she said, adding that the only way to really resolve conflict is with “forgiveness, mercy and love.”
“Is there such humanity in us, or have we become robots?” she asked. “What is happening to innocent kids is completely unfair, and it needs to stop and I believe it starts from within us: from love, forgiveness and mercy.”
People in situations similar to hers need to know “that they are loved by God and people around them. They need to know that they matter, that there is hope for them, that they have a purpose in life,” she said, noting that this stems not only from having the basic needs met, but above all from education.
In an interview with CNA after her talk, Twayigira stressed the importance of education, saying it’s “really the key to everything, because if not educated, many girls don’t even know their value.”
However, with a good education women learn that “okay, I’m not worthless and someone can’t just come and step on my foot. I am somebody,” she said, adding that a proper education helps women to step into decision making positions where they can change things.
“I believe that once a girl is educated, that means you’re actually educating the whole family. Because a woman, you raise your children, they’re with you all the time, you know that whatever they get is what you teach them,” she said.
“So if a woman is educated that means the whole family will get quality advice from their mothers. So educating a girl is actually educating the whole country.”
Twayigira said she was happy to be able to speak at the Vatican, since the event was streamed live. She voiced her hope that people can hear her story “and not just feel sorry for me, but also see ways they can help other people like me to get a better education or a safe place, or open their homes to refugees like me.”
She said she also hopes other young women and girls from around the world will be able to see and hear her story, and to know that “it’s all possible…I believe that I’m a pillar of hope for them.”
She said one of her hopes coming out of the conference is not only to encourage young women in her situation to have hope, but also that the people who have the power and resources to change things will see that they “can actually do something under-privileged people like I was.”
“Their actions can change somebody’s life for the better, never to be the same,” she said.
[…]
What bravery…. Having been persecuted in his diocese, he was persecuted by his Church, with nothing to lose, he speaks truth! May God grant him good health and many more years.
He is a 93 year-old irrelevant Chinese. I take offense to the fact that he demands respect while he denigrates the laity. Both Pope Francis and Pope Leo have castigated clericalism.
Vincent, please.
The ad hominem fallacy is just that: a fallacy.
Cardinal Zen’s age and nationality are absolutely irrelevant.
Try addressing the excellent points he makes.
Amen!
Racism and ageism are always out-of-place;
very especially in Catholic World Report.
I am greatly heartened — and totally relieved — that Cardinal Zen has said what needed to be said about Bergoglio’s synodolatry scam.
This is a historic moment for our Church.
Using the worthy cardinal, the Holy Spirit has deigned to spare us from sheer evil once again.
Thanks be to God.
Amen!
Thank God for what cardinal Zen speak out for a lot other people do not dare or can not speak or not have the chance to speak.
The guy is bitter! Pope Francis is gone. Why does he have grievance with a dead person. Why doesn’t he say it to Pope Leo’s face since it’s Leo’s pontificate that has carried on synodality???
We read that the synodal process was an “insult to the dignity of the bishops,” that the Orthodox Churches will never accept such a process having “the importance of the Synod of Bishops,” and that “some cardinals wanted the concept of synodality to be further clarified.”
Two clarifying comments and a clarifying question:
FIRST, from the back bleachers, this proposed clarification: All it takes is a few termites below the waterline…
…As in the fatal opening-wedge footnote in Amoris Laetitia (2015), or the upending wording in the synodality Vademecum (2020) casting the diocesan Successors of the Apostles “primarily as facilitators”, or the officiously “unofficial, spontaneous, non-scandalous blessing” of “irregular couples” slipped into Fiducia Supplicans (2024), or the gratuitous few words “never appropriate” slipped into Mater Populi Fidelis (2025) and requiring immediate clarification.
SECOND, “synodality” must be decisively clarified as a “style” of interpersonal engagement rather than an insidious project to replace the balanced and “hierarchical communion” structure of the Church (Lumen Gentium) with what Cardinal Zen accurately sees as a halfway-house model into post-Catholic congregationalism.
THIRD, considering the body language of the Church—even without actual words—now might we be finally relieved that the current and proposed annual “consistories of cardinals” replaces (!) the recent synodal proposal (early 2025) for another structured (not merely a needed interpersonal “style”) round of geographic “synods”—diocesan, regional, continental—all institutionalizing a self-validating and grand finale synod-on-a-synod-on synodality “ecclesial assembly” in 2028?
The process IS the message?
SUMMARY: Consistories of ALL cardinals and not simply the well-placed/replaceable termites(?)–partly to advance greater/restored harmony among the Holy See’s internal dicasteries, and guarding the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church from ever being annexed into an emerging “spheres of influence” model of global politics. Westphalia (1648) with the earlier Henry XIII and the later der Synodal Weg has been bad enough.
The charity of clarity…
Typo: Henry VIII.
Cardinal Joseph Zen is a holy bishop, a forthright and honest man, a courageous seeker of the truth and tells it like it is. When he was Bishop of Hong Kong, he fought for his people. He, along with his friend, Jimmy Lai, has been a thorn in the side of the CPP (Chinese Communist Party) for years. They even arrested him in 2020 on some trumped-up “collusion with foreign policy charge” under their new “security law” in order to muzzle his critiques of their communist regime and persecution of Catholics. This man is a fighter and a staunch Catholic.
As for “synodality”, it is a concept which does not mesh with Saint Pope Paul VI’s vision. The synod of bishops which Paul VI had established is no longer a synod of bishops; under Pope Francis, it has become a get-together of lay people, who think they can change two thousand years of Catholicism.
What is wrong with just following the teachings of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus-Christ? What is wrong with following the Fathers of the Church? Bishops are supposed to lead their flock to Christ. What is this kowtowing to the whims and desires of every Tom, Dick and Harry who has an opinion on how the Church should change? “Listening” to the people can be a two-edged sword. In my own parish, more than half the parishioners are in favor of LGBTQ rights, women priests and deacons, etc…Yet, they are the first ones to get in line for communion (handed out by a lay woman no less, under the pretext of helping the priest).
Kudos to Cardinal Zen for speaking out.
May God bless this holy man, as well as bless the man he baptized, Jimmy Lai, for standing up for the truth.
Marie Brousseau: Catholic, Biologist, Essayist, Teacher, Writer
Catholic Author of “Defending Human Dignity: Catholic Answers to Gender, Abortion and Relativity
mariebrousseau.com
Great comments.
Should we know? Closed meeting, confidentiality?
If Cardinal Zen wants to share the text of his intervention, then I do not see a problem. He provided the text to the College of Cardinals Report and gave them permission to publish it.
As one of the senior members of the College of Cardinals, he has been through more consistories than the vast majority of current cardinals. So he should be thoroughly aware of the rules, guidelines and expectations.
What is the problem that you see?
Yes, we should. Sunlight disinfects.
Cardinal Zen is a good and faithful shepherd, who lays down his life for his flock.
So is Bishop Strickland.
I note that the managers and mouthpieces of the Church establishment are mute when confronted by the truth spoken by Cardinal Zen. His testimony is public, and their meetings must be secret.
As one contributor to CWR said in his book on the sex abuse coverup operations by the Church Establishment: “Everything Hidden Shall Be Revealed.”
If they only understood that “Nondisclosure” agreements are really “Delayed Disclosure Agreements”. You can only buy a little time, not eternal silence.
My former Bishop employed them. The dirt was made public while he was alive and in at least one case in service to a priest who left the vocation and whose whereabouts were unknown when the matter was made public by an ambitious politician who used the airing of this dirty laundry as a springboard to the governor’s mansion, where he now is engaged in lawfare against the Little Sisters of the Poor.
The Little Sisters of the Poor, nine years after defeating the Obama administration in the Supreme Court over the contraception mandate, eight years after President Donald Trump issued an executive order codifying a religious and conscience exemption, are still in court over the mandate.
Because Shapiro is a bigot.
Throughout the history of our faith, an outgrowth of our Jewish roots, the prophet has stood alone proclaiming the truth to those who need to hear it. He stands alone proclaiming what needs to be said to those who don’t want to hear it. The genuineness of his message is often vindicated after his passing when it is either fulfilled or heeded. Now that the seed has been sown, time will prove its worth by its fruit. Our ears should be burning as we just overheard a private conversation that was not meant for us to hear. I just pray that we, the laymen (gender inclusive) stay out of it and allow the Cardinals to prayerfully ponder the message. The Holy Spirit does not need the pressure of lobby groups- Synodality?
How cunning the evil one. Prudence stays silent waiting for Wisdom. Wisdom speaks in Wisdom’s time. Let faith not falter. Jesus Christ is Lord !!!
Cardinal Zen openly and correctly voices what other cardinals hold, yet remain silent. Others are befuddled, trying to find just rationale in what Synodality means while wanting to be faithful to our new Roman pontiff’s adherence to Bergoglian Church philosophy.
It’s a losing scenario, a true predicament for the Church. What would synodality’s inventor and founder of the dreaded St Gallen Group, deceased Cardinal Carlo Martini say? We don’t require a seance to find out because we know by what his protege Archbishop Buenos Aires Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio intended – to paradigmatically reconfigure the Church structurally and doctrinally. But how then do we respond to Leo XIV?
One would have thought [actually meaning myself] that he would slowly and quietly ease us out of its web-like entanglement. Bishops seek to perceive their purpose in a Church that means being Church is being Synodal. What does that say when the laity and the Holy Spirit [although with gracious magnanimity awakened bishops] if not some unexpected surprise?
As it goes our eldest, active prelate Zen at 93 is increasing in wisdom while some of our younger bishops are just plain dense. Although they’re expected to grow up.
Yes, “One would have thought […] that he [Leo] would slowly and quietly ease us out of its web-like entanglement.”
Three supportive comments:
FIRST, my outlier proposal (above) is that recurring consistories of ALL cardinals—one now, another announced in six months, and others announced annually—is such an easing step. A substitute for another proposed two-year round of parallel, layered and geographical “synodal” thingies….
SECOND, otherwise, regarding clerical imitations of silent cigar-store-Indians, the novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac offers a diagnosis: “bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pigmies.” But, least the poster-child/court-jester and dicasterial communications advisor Fr. Jimmy Martin SJ wasn’t given a photo-op with cardinals X, Y and Z. (insert the names).
THIRD, to further clarify the meaning of “synodality,” do the lay-clerical and more-or-less autonomous synods—diocesan, regional, and then continental—suggest a parallelism less with the autocephalous Orthodox Churches and more with resurgent and intrusive Islam?
The self-understanding of very sectarian Islam is as a “congregational theocracy.” So, why not a harmonized “congregational ecclesiology”?
“bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pigmies.”
I prefer Robert Conquest’s quote as it addresses the the machinations of bureaucracies. One should never under estimate bureaucrats. They may not be intelligent, but they are shrewd, opportunistic and generally will use those powers to exploit loopholes or others.
“The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.”
― Robert Conquest
If of course Light Shoes Jimmy Martin gets his way, the parallelism won’t be with Islam or Orthodoxy, but with Out Magazine.
Re: Third. As I (an Orthodox) have said many times here, “synodality” are not like “Synods” of the Orthodox Church. Please compare:
“All autocephalous and some autonomous churches have their own church-wide holy synods, and there may also be local ones (often called eparchial synods), as well, especially if a particular church has territory spread out over a large area. Membership in the holy synod is determined by the traditions and canonical documents of a particular church. In some churches, all bishops who hold the title of metropolitan are considered members (e.g., the Church of Antioch), while in others, all active bishops—whether diocesan or auxiliary—are considered to be members (e.g., the Orthodox Church in America). Local synods typically consist of the primate and all diocesan bishops within the territory.” (‘OrthodoxWiki’)
I.e., the Holy Synod is bishop-only.
Here is a statement Metropolitan Job, the Eastern Orthodox bishop of Pisidia re so-called “synodality” and why it is not our practice:
“Speaking to the Synod on Synodality on Monday, an Eastern Orthodox bishop said the definition of synodality of the October assembly “differs greatly” from the Orthodox understanding…”
https://www.ncregister.com/cna/eastern-orthodox-synods-are-bishops-only-metropolitan-tells-delegates
Cardinal Zen is absolutely correct: no Orthodox Church would either recognize or accept it.
@ Peter Beaulieu
Guess I got here too late to respond to Beaulieu’s usually very informative replies, often laced with humorous tidbits.
Pigmies. It’s actually pygmies. I thought pigmies might be French since you reference Balzac. French for pygmies is pygmées. I say this because pygmies are honorable, resourceful people men averaging approx 4.11 in height. Many are Roman Catholic.
Since Catholicism is a major pygmy faith there’s also the inevitability of a bureaucracy. But no. The pygmies were responsible for their own parish. They themselves provide the catechists, run the parish finances, organise the programme of liturgical celebrations, make up the choir and the Mass servers without in any way being turned in on themselves. Everyone is welcome in their parish, including those who are not pygmies (ACN Inter). Far from being bureaucratic they are exceptionally community oriented.
Pygmy people likely have computers, and if so I thought it well to speak well about a growing, impressive addition to our world mystical body of Christ. Hoorah for Pygmies. Now I hope I don’t get pilloried for speaking well about our Pygmy brothers.
You spoke well; as from The LORD!
The Holy Spirit does not guide the Body of Christ down new paths – he strengthens and uplifts the flock to be obedient to the teachings of Christ and his holy gospel. Though it is encouraging to see/read/hear such stalwart, brave cardinals such as Cardinal Zen, it is just as disheartening that all of the other cardinals did not stand, and shout Amen to his honest, blunt accusations of Bergoglio’s heresy.
His Eminences makes many interesting points, including wondering if a Synod subset really expected that their fervor for the supremacy of homosexual culture would be mistaken for a Pentecostal inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
If only Pope Leo XIV had said what Cardinal Zen had said… or at least something like, “Let’s put Synodality in the rear view mirror and move on.”
The degree to which Pope Leo embraces or continues Synodality, will largely define his Papacy. There’s a risky road ahead for him and the Church.
What a man! What a cardinal! If only there were more like him. Given the extent to which he stands out, it shows how few there are like him.
God reward Cardinal Zen. Apparently one need live under the thumb of genocidal Marxism to have spine and learn to speak the plain unvarnished truth. One would hope that the marriage of devotion, intellect, experience and common sense would have come from the American Pope. Is it too much to hope that eventually it will? Or do we have to wait for the collapse of Western Civilization for the wake-up call penetrate those ears?
PF, unlike his 260+ predecessors, was the pope wearing new clothes. Cardinal Zen has the cajones to say that PF was theologically, morally, intellectually and managerially barren and bereft of qualification for the Holy Office he occupied.
The clothes, (documents, decisions, et al), of the dead pope need to be declared null, void and forever reversed.
Go ahead, ask me how I really feel!
He is correct. Pope Leo needs to wake up and acknowledge reality.
So essentially one brave Chinese man is left standing against overwhelming force-as if it’s 1989 all over again. Only he is willing to defend the proposition that the Church’s mandate is to make disciples of the world, not mutilate itself to become a disciple of the world.
May God Bless him with health, vitality and a peaceful death when it is his time.
Well said, dear TPR. “The Church’s mandate is to make disciples of the world, not mutilate itself to become a disciple of the world.”
I’d say: “Currently mutilating itself in the image of the world: majoring on theatrics, popularity, property, wealth, deceits, abuses, cover-ups, pseudo-synods, endless (largely futile) power-over politics & distractions.”
All SO unecessary, since Jesus’ New Covenant way is right here in print, in ‘The New Testament’ & in the saintly ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church’.
Saint JPII & Saint BXVI clarified The Truth in their brilliant CCC, that:
“Enables everyone to know what The Church professes, celebrates, lives, & prays in her daily life; confirming its (the CCC) purpose of being presented as a full, complete exposition of Catholic doctrine.”
“The Church now has at her disposal an authoritative exposition of The One & Perrenial Apostolic Faith.” To serve as: “A valid & legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion, a sure norm for teaching The Faith, & a sure & authentic text for preparing local catechisms.”
It’s noteworthy the CCC hangs on over 3,500 citations of The New Testament. Without this Holy Spirit-inspired witness, there’d be no Catholic Church!
Today, many Church leaders & their clerical troops have no fear of King Jesus Christ or the Apostolic testimony.
Yet, He warned us that on Judgment Day it would be His Word that judges.
Good Catholics are asking: “Is our leadership Catholic any more?”
We are told: “It is hard even for a godly person to be saved.”
So, what will befall these heretic teachers & false shepherds of ours . . ?
In Australia it’s Tuesday 13th of Jan. – Saint Hilary of Poitiers Day –
This great defender of The Apostolic Faith gave us words that apply NOW:
‘On the Trinity, Book III’ 15.
“Many are kept within the pale of the church by the fear of God; yet they are tempted all the while to worldly faults by the allurements of the world.
They pray, because they are afraid; they sin, because it is their will. The fair hope of future life makes them call themselves Christians; the allurements of present pleasure make them act like heathen.
They do not abide in ungodliness, because they hold the name of God in honour; they are not godly because they follow after things contrary to godliness. …
These, then, are they whom the judgment awaits which unbelievers have already had passed upon them and believers do not need… and their judgment arises from the fact that, though they loved Christ, they yet loved darkness more ( see John 3:18-19).”
Thank you.
Cardinal Zen is a hero of the Catholic Resistance to Post-Conciliar persecution:
TLM “China Deal” victims and TLM “Traditionis Custodes” victims.
God said, “Beware of false Prophets”.
Spare us from evil. Stick with the facts.
Revisit Paul VI.
Patrick A. Schmiedeler
This meditation by Gavin Ashenden may be helpful to more educated Catholics who are interested in the process of our current doctrinal decay.
https://thecatholicherald.com/article/why-i-am-not-a-catholic-priest-deus-vult
Thank the Lord we still have a few strong, holy Princes within the Church. Cdn Zen spoke exactly what needed to be said and more power to him. Likely, he eats nails for breakfast. So be it.
Don’t know about his breakfasts but, Praise GOD, Cardinal Zen most certainly dines on the heretics!
Almighty GOD calls:
“Come, I have a real Life for you, called: ‘Loving GOD by obeying GOD’.
Too many of our contemporary hierarchs & their minions answer back:
Oh, we have our own game, called: ‘Doing what we want, in Your Name’.
Another helpfully informative article on this topic (with a superb photo of Cardinal Zen – made me think of that mighty saint, Polycarp):
https://thecatholicherald.com/article/cardinal-zens-confrontation-with-synodality