John Vennari RIP
I have just received news from the Fatima Center, that John Vennari passed away today, may he rest in peace.
We are asked to pray for the repose of his soul, and for the consolation of his family.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him,
may he rest in peace. Amen.
May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Comments (40)
May Our Lady, to whom he was so devoted, lead him to her Son, and may he be granted eternal rest and joy.
Very sad to hear this news but certain that Our Lady will now reward one who fought tirelessly on her behalf. I have prayed for John for many weeks now asking Our Lord that if the miracle we all hoped for was not His will then He would take John straight to heaven upon death. My sincere condolences to his grieving family at this sad time.
My condolences to John’s family and I will pray for the repose of his soul.
I hope his family receive some measure of comfort from the knowledge that John was loved and respected the world-over. His tireless fight on behalf of the Catholic faith has doubtless helped millions and I would like to think that he will enjoy a magnificent heavenly reward for his efforts.
May he rest in peace.
I always enjoyed the videos John made with Fr Gruner and those posted on the Catholic Family News blog. He will be sorely missed.
My sincere condolences to his family.
John Vennari did so much to promote the full message of Fatima, and so I am very confident that Our Lady will take him to Heaven; he has been suffering for quite some time now, with his illness, but showed great faith from all I’ve read since his terminal illness was announced.
God rest his soul, and console his grieving wife and children. Requiescat in pace
Here is the beautiful tribute paid to John by the Editor of the Remnant Newspaper, Michael Matt, who knew John well:
John Vennari, Defender of the Old Faith
Dear Friends:
In your charity, please remember the repose of the soul of our brother and champion defender of Christ’s Church, John Vennari, who passed away earlier today. Quite honestly, I have no adequate words to express the magnitude of this loss just now, both for the Catholic restoration movement and for us personally here at The Remnant. John was our ally, our friend and our brother in arms. The thought of fighting in these trenches without him at our side is still just so unthinkable. Please pray for John, now and throughout the rest of Passiontide. I don’t believe it to be a coincidence that this beautiful soldier of Christ underwent his passion during the very days when we remember the passion of the One John served so well, so faithfully, so lovingly.
I so want to assure myself and my readers that John is with Christ our King right now, but I dare not because I do not know that and I will not insult his memory by suggesting anything of the kind. I therefore beg Remnant readers all around the world today to pray for the repose of the soul of John Vennari, that he will be delivered soon from Purgatory and into the arms of Our Lady of Fatima—the Mother Queen to whom he devoted so much of his life’s work.
We will, of course, have much more to say about the life and service of John Vennari. But now we mourn him along with his many, many friends all over the world. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen. John’s funeral will be in Buffalo, New York on Saturday, April 8.
All of our love, support and prayers to John’s faithful wife Susan, and his beautiful little ones—Elizabeth, Philomena, and Benedict. John’s suffering is over now, and he is in God’s hands. He has fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for John and let him be with you in heaven very soon END.
My most sincere good wishes and condolences to John’s family and my prayers go up for his early release from Purgatory, if necessary. I have no doubt that Our Lady of Fatima will take him to Heaven whether straight away or in due course, because he has worked for a very long time to promote the truth about Fatima.
May he rest in peace.
May his faithful soul rest in peace. He was a tremendous example of a strong but humble layman, so badly needed in our Church at this time. My condolences to his family.
It is with sadness hearing this news. My sincere condolences to John’s family, I will pray for the repose of his soul. May he rest in peace.
I too listened often to the videos that he made with Fr Gruner.
Rest in peace, John.
He had a big influence on me in my early days of fighting for Tradition. The best tribute to John would be for us all to increase our efforts!
Petrus,
The best tribute to John would be for us all to increase our efforts!
That is exactly right. John managed to keep his blog up to date, make videos, report on Fatima developments, even travelling to events, such as the Synod on the Family in Rome, from where he reported daily, and all the while take care of his lovely family – his children were home-schooled. So, he really gives the lie to those who claim they just don’t have time for the lay apostolate.
So, well said, Petrus. That’s a nail hit firmly on the head.
PS the Fatima Center have emailed to thank us for this thread, which they will pass on to the family, so I’m sure all of your comments and promises of prayers, will be a great comfort to John’s wife.
Editor,
It certainly is a big challenge to us all! John still kept that up when he was ill, too! It’s just too easy to think of excuses – I’m guilty of that as much as anyone. Everyone could find excuses – the CT team could have found a million excuses not to run the newsletter, Fr Gruner could have done likewise with the Fatima Center and John with the Catholic Family News.
I shudder to think what Our Lord thinks of those who are quick to find excuses!
I was praying and hoping we could have him for some more time. I see that he has done his share, and more, fought the good fight, and kept the faith. Surely he is with his friend, Father Gruner. I am so sorry for what you have to go through now, dear Vennari family. It is such a sad loss for you all. God bless you. I will pray for you and John …
Qu’il repose en paix
RIP. Prayers always.
Requiescant in Pace, John. May Our Lady reward him for his faithfulness to her and the truth of Catholic Tradition.
https://damselofthefaith.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/rip-john-vennari/
DOTF
Thank you for posting the link to your blog, where I read the beautiful account of his death from the Vennari family. I hope you don’t mind, but I copied it to share here directly (although, as always, I encourage our bloggers to visit your wonderful site as well.)
JOSEPH JOHN VENNARI, R.I.P.
(February 24, 1958 – April 4, 2017)
Dear Friends,
Joseph John Vennari died on Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 10:46 a.m. E.S.T. It is not only Passion Tuesday, but the 98th anniversary of the death of Blessed Francisco of Fatima – the first Tuesday (the day dedicated weekly to the Holy Face) in April (the month dedicated to the Holy Face).
John received the traditional Sacraments and blessings of the Church several times during the past weeks and months. On Sunday, April 2, Holy Mass was offered in his hospital room. John was able to receive Holy Viaticum one last time, as well as Extreme Unction and the Apostolic Blessing.
John died wearing the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the cord of St. Philomena, with the St. Benedict Crucifix (with the special ‘Happy Death’ indulgence attached) next to him. He died shortly after the recitation of 15 decades of the Holy Rosary and during the recitation of the ‘Commendatory’ prayers for the dying, and being blessed with Holy Water. He died with his wife Susan and a close family friend at his side. Immediately after his death, another Rosary was prayed for the repose of his soul.
Please keep the repose of John’s soul in your Masses, Holy Communions, prayers and sacrifices. Funeral arrangements will be posted shortly. May John’s soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.
Thank you and God bless you,
The Vennari Family
How amazing that John was taken on the 98th anniversary of the death of Blessed Francisco of Fatima – what a tremendous consolation that must be for his family. Wonderful.
I feel very sad to learn of the death of John Vennari. Like others, I have long admired his work, his blog, his videos, and I followed his (and Chris Ferrara’s) daily reports from the Synod in 2014-15. He will be sorely missed.
May he rest in peace.
I, too, am very sad to read of the death of John Vennari – although it is wonderfully consoling that he passed away on the anniversary of the death of Blessed Francisco of Fatima.
May he rest in peace, and his family feel God close at this time.
It’s sad that John (and Fr Gruner) won’t be here for the centenary of the Fatima apparitions – but God’s ways are not our ways.
I assure his family of my prayers for them in their grieving, and for the repose of John’s soul. May he rest in peace.
Through the mercy of God may he rest in peace and may God and His Mother and Our Mother console those near and dear to him.
The SSPX posted their condolences here – with details of the funeral arrangements.
May he rest in peace.
I can’t help reflecting on the reception he has received in Heaven and the one that will befall our errant bishops if they don’t amend their ways.
Last evening I was reflecting on Our Lady’s words regarding Francisco of Fatima: “He will have to say many Rosaries to attain Heaven” or words to that effect. I pondered on just what such a young child could have done / be doing to merit such a “rebuke”. It really is quite chilling when one thinks of all the blatant sinful lives now being led by the majority of the population.
I’m sure Our Lord said to John Vennari: “Well done good and faithful servant; enter in to the joy of your Master”. Ah, but the goats? What will befall them? I feel a sorrow for most of our bishops who, I think, are basically good men who are blinded to what is happening to their flocks. It has to be diabolical disorientation for what other explanation is there? Their neglect cannot be deliberate, surely?
Crofterlady,
I was reflecting on Our Lady’s words regarding Francisco of Fatima: “He will have to say many Rosaries to attain Heaven” or words to that effect. I pondered on just what such a young child could have done / be doing to merit such a “rebuke”
Maybe Our Lady’s answer was not intended as a specific comment on Fransisco personally, but rather she was using the question posed to her to highlight the fact that we will all need to say many rosaries to help us attain Heaven.
Or maybe Fransisco, being very young, was not good at making time for his prayers and Our Lady’s response was intended to give him encouragement in this regard.
And remember Francisco was 10 when he died, but Sister Lucy lived until 97 – so he had to fit in many prayers to a much shorter duration, so would have been very busy due to that!
(Of course this is all just speculation on my part).
Gabriel Syme,
It is, indeed, a mystery that Our Lady should say that Francisco would got to heaven but must first pray many rosaries, but we have to take her at her word; she doesn’t speak in riddles (except at Medjugorje!) so when she said what she said about Francisco, we have to believe that she knew God’s will in the matter and – however difficult for us to understand – we must just remind ourselves that God judges differently from the way we judge.
Having said that, your speculation makes very interesting reading! 😀
Editor,
I don’t doubt that what Our Lady said was accurate, I was just speculating that maybe Francisco isn’t an unusual case in requiring to pray “many rosaries” to get to Heaven.
I bet I will need many rosaries too – so much so that I was thinking of hiring help! Interested? 😉
Ha ha! I’d be no help – believe me!
Yes, I’m sure we all need to pray many rosaries, but I think what mystified Crofterlady, understandably so, is the fact that at such a young age, Francisco had to pray many rosaries to gain Heaven.
I remember thinking the same thing about him, and also about the young girl – friend of the seers – whom Our Lady said would be in Purgatory until the end of the world.
I remember thinking, at the time of the canonisations of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, that she, surely, couldn’t have done anything remotely to match the fact that these two popes alone, almost destroyed the Church, humanly speaking, and yet here they were, a few short years after death, being raised to the altars. Didn’t make sense.
However, all will be revealed in due course. And I really shouldn’t speak, given that I will (if I am very lucky) be the last person out of Purgatory myself! No matter how many rosaries I can fit in between now and the second date to go on my tombstone!
Cheerily Yours…
Crofterlady,
I feel a sorrow for most of our bishops who, I think, are basically good men who are blinded to what is happening to their flocks. It has to be diabolical disorientation for what other explanation is there? Their neglect cannot be deliberate, surely?
You are very charitable. I have very little through to no sympathy of any modernist bishops, certainly those of a certain age who should know better. As for your assessment of them as being “basically good men”… I’ve no desire to see the Confessional box again so soon, and will, therefore, leave my response to that sentiment unsaid 😀
I have little sympathy, though, even for young priests and bishops – such as the subject of our new thread, Bishop John Keenan of Paisley
I have little sympathy for any of them, just as I would have very little sympathy for a doctor, who, through his negligence (deliberate or not) caused the death of a trusting patient.
We really do not have to worry ourselves with motivation anyway; that is, whether the bishops’ blindness/negligence is “deliberate” or not – we can’t get into their minds in order to answer that question. What we DO know is that they are culpable. For, just as that negligent doctor should have known what he was doing when he made that (wrong) diagnosis or prescribed that (deadly) medicine, so every priest and bishop today should be aware of their responsibility to know what they are doing, what they are teaching, since they are dealing, not only with bodies, which, no matter the medics’ skills, will one day be reduced to ashes, but with souls, destined for eternal life, whether with God or in Hell.
Any first year A Level student of Theology knows that the Catholic Church has two key “pillars” of faith: Tradition and Scripture, of equal weight in working out the beliefs and practices of Christianity since the earliest times. So, there is just no excuse for the bishops today being so blind – they know, or should know, of the Fatima warnings of just this crisis situation, so my advice is to not waste your sympathy on them. I doubt if Our Lord will, at their judgment.
I know, I know, I’m a very hard wummin… But you did ask!
RIP John Vennari a very good gentleman
I’ve been praying for weeks for John’s safe passage into Heaven, and/or the healing of his colon cancer and pneumonia. May the first part of my prayer now be answered, and may he rest in peace. We will miss you, John. May you be re-united with your fellow soldier, Father Gruner.
I’m keeping John Vennari’s family in my prayers, now that he is at peace after his months of suffering.
May he rest in peace.
I’m so very sad to hear of John’s death. I’ve been praying for him during each Mass, and said the novena to St Philomena for him, but obviously God wanted him back home. I admired him so much, and his family must be devastated to lose him, but I don’t doubt that he will still be praying very hard for the relief of the Church, and that Our Lady’s wish is soon be granted. On his soul, Sweet Jesus have mercy. May he rest in peace, and may His mother, whom John loved so much, console and strengthen his family and friends.
The Fatima Center has posted a lovely video in memory of John (though I’m not quite sure why they chose a Beatles tune for the background, unless it was John himself playing):
RCA Victor,
Thank you for posting the ‘In Memoriam’ video – it’s very nice indeed.
That was a Beatles tune? What was he playing? I didn’t recognize it.
“In My Life.”
Thanks for posting the video, RCA. In tears again.
May he rest in peace and May God and Our Lady of Fatima be close to his family especially at this time and always. John’s talk ‘Portugal: The Showcase of Our Lady’, was one of the finest pieces I’ve ever heard on the Fatima / Consecration issue. He will sorely missed. I hope and pray all his writings and talks will be kept available online, for future generations.
I’ve just received the following reflection on death, from the Fatima Center…
Shaken from the Dream
When someone we love dies, our sense of reality is altered for a time: it is as though all that once seemed solid loses its solidity. Objects and people melt into a waking dream and all about us appears shadowy and insubstantial. Even our own bodies and faces acquire a strange and artificial quality, as though our physical form were little more than a mask for something unseen, unknown, below the surface.
Two years ago this month, Father Nicholas Gruner died unexpectedly. And now, John Vennari, editor of Catholic Family News and a long-time friend of The Fatima Center, a man much loved by so many in the Catholic world, has been taken from us after prolonged suffering. We knew that John’s death was coming for some time. Still, death is always a shock, no matter how prepared we believe we are and no matter how long its advent has been awaited.
And with John’s death, that shift in perception, from the world of solid substances to the waking dream world, has occurred for those of us whose lives he touched in an intimate way. We know that, in a while, death will lose its sting and life will resume its pace and preoccupations. The world will regain its usual shape. But perhaps we should ask ourselves: Which is the real vision: that of the insubstantiality of the world that follows the death of a loved one, or the commonplace perception of the permanence of people and objects?
Most of us have lost the familiarity with death that was once a part of everyone’s life. Until modern times, few couples saw all of the children born to them survive until adulthood. Diseases that have now been conquered once held the field and those most dear to us could be cut down quickly. Wakes were held in family parlors and black crepe pinned to a door was a common sight. Death was no less terrible then, but people accepted mortality as normal and inevitable. Now, it seems to be an aberration.
When someone dies we feel somehow violated, as though an intruder has broken into our home and taken something precious from us. It is, perhaps, natural to feel this way, but our Faith should take account of the fact that nothing, not even our lives, belong to us. We live at God’s pleasure. This is more easily said than accepted. But its acceptance is at the heart of our religion. The world, including the lives of those we love, is not ours to enjoy as we please for as long as we please. We are all here, not as permanent residents, but as tenants with no secure lease.
These reflections may seem morbid, but that will only be so if we insist that the world should be ordered according to our likes and dislikes. When we reflect on mortality in light of the Faith, we can find a peace and consolation that is truly wonderful. Throughout the history of the Church, our great saints and teachers have reminded us that our spirits are eternal, made in the image of God. Our bodies are given us for a short time, as vehicles in which to do God’s will — or not — in this passing world.
So while what happens here is important, it is only so in the light of our spiritual destiny. It is the hereafter that should be ever before us, helping us to live “sub specie aeternitatis” — under the aspect of eternity — as the Latin phrase expresses it. The history of mankind is the sad record of failed attempts to make of this world a permanent dwelling place, a utopia based on human schemes for producing lasting happiness. But there is no lasting happiness in this world. Here, everything comes and goes; all is born and all must die. And we are told that this parade of death is the reward of sin. The physical creation was altered by the disobedience of our first parents. We are their children and heirs. But we can reclaim our inheritance of eternal life through loving Our Lord and Our Lady and doing all they ask, which is not difficult. Grace is ours if we only open our hearts to it. And if we live in grace, we can say, like St. Paul, “Death, where is thy sting?”
We miss Father Gruner and we will miss John Vennari. The importance of the work to which both Father and John devoted their lives lies in its effect on the salvation of souls, not on any temporary arrangement in this world. Russia must be consecrated, not as part of any utopian scheme, but because Our Lady made it a condition for releasing the grace She so longs to give us. Heaven’s plan is, in a sense, Heaven’s business. Ours is to live in Faith and obedience, ready to surrender all we have, including all whom we love, to the greater Wisdom that is the only light we will ever know and the only real love that will reach beyond this corruptible world and carry us into the arms of the one lasting love that embraces us all. END.
This reflection is so apt, and a timely and thoughtful reminder how fleeting our life is, here on earth. The final paragraph really says it all for me.
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