Just a note on Fr. William Wert, O.Carm. and the safe havens religious orders have provided for men like him.

William Wert, O.Carm.

I think there ought to be a moratorium on admitting homosexual men to Holy Orders.

What about religious life?  I don't know.  In the past,  men with homosexual inclination have entered religious orders more or less in good faith, sincere faith, and they were accepted in good faith.  Somehow, a few religious orders became something of a refuge for gay men.  Not a few of these were ordained and left for greener pastures, getting themselves incardinated as secular priests in metropolitan dioceses, some even formed their own religious groups, or apostolates, others found 'jobs' teaching, or found assignments in chanceries, as well as jobs in the private sector, while remaining priests, keeping their own house.  Most claimed to support Catholic teaching on sexuality.  Those who became vocation directors or superiors of their orders, made exceptions for the men they discerned fit for religious life, despite the fact Rome counseled against admitting men with homosexual inclination. 

The SSA superiors may have recognized, with the Church, that the orientation is objectively disordered, but otherwise, gay/SSA is just another variant in human sexuality.  There is a consensus amongst them that it is simply a way of being - it is ontological - therefore it forms the basis of one's identity.  It doesn't matter how one got to be gay - one just is.  Likewise, they identify with the men they accept and approve, and find a means of support in their unique reform of religious life.

Unsubstantiated claims you say?  Not at all.  There is literature and studies to back up my assertion.  That is not my point here however - I simply want to remind people of how and why these things keep happening.  As well as the inconvenient, contradictory message this sends to the world:  A Church condemns homosexual behavior and same sex marriage, refuses employment to SSA persons who live together, yet her ministers ordain homosexual men, permitting them to work in formation for seminarians and or religious life, approving religious foundations, and so on.  It makes no sense.

I'm so tired of this subject, and I really don't have any more to add to what I've already said so many times in the past regarding gay priests.  Homosexual, SSA, gay, ex-gay - whatever term you want to use is fine with me.  They are here and they are queer... and some act out.

Here's a little bit of history on Wert.

Current story:

William C. Wert, now 56, had a recurring sexual relationship with a 14-year-old Nokomis boy in which the two exchanged explicit text messages that became key pieces of evidence for the prosecution.

 

“What was interesting of course was that we had the text message back-and-forth which showed kind of the context of the relationship,” said Assistant State Attorney Dawn Buff, who prosecuted the case before Circuit Court Judge Frederick Mercurio.

“You see how he's wooing him and how he's engaging this child in a relationship.”

Wert had been in jail without bail since his arrest in February 2011 and will face a minimum sentence of 37 years in prison with a maximum of life in prison.

 

Wert lived in a Carmelite Catholic Order property in Venice, but his affiliation with the church was kept from jurors, whose deliberation ended Friday afternoon after a four-day trial.

 

The family of the victim sued the Order of the Carmelites, claiming the Catholic order was aware of Father Wert's past conviction for touching a 14-year-old boy on the inner thigh, but still allowed him to move to the Carmelites' home in Venice. - News source

 

Background:

William C. Wert made his Solemn Profession in the Roman Catholic Order of Carmelites in 1980 and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1986. In 2004, Fr. Wert was named  Prior of Whitefriars Hall in Washington DC, which is a house of formation for the Carmelites. 

          In this position as the Director of Formation, he oversaw all the levels of
formation for the Carmelite students. He continued in his role as coordinator for the
Province's vocation team. Wert belonged to the Province of the Most Pure Heart of
Mary, Roman Catholic Order of Carmelites. The headquarters are located in Darien
Illinois. Carmelites from this province serve in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois,
Kansas, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Canada, Mexico, and Peru.

Wert was charged in 1997 with the sexual abuse of a 14-year old boy in Washington DC.
In September 2007, he was convicted of simple assault and sentenced to 180 days in jail
and 5 years probation. In February 2011, eight additional charges of lewd and lascivious
conduct as well as committing a sex offense on a young boy between the ages of 12 and
15 years old. - Finish reading here.

William C. Wert, a 53-year old Catholic priest and a member of the Order of Carmelites, may have abused more children in the Venice area, according to law enforcement officials. Police found evidence on his computer that other children may have been victimized by the priest.Wert already faces eight charges ranging from lewd and lascivious on a child to committing a sex offense against a minor.

Wert was convicted of sexual abuse on a minor in Washington DC in 2007. According to the Carmelites, Wert was living in a Carmelite retirement home in Venice, just blocks away from Venice's Epiphany Cathedral at the time of his arrest. While Fr. John Welch, the Carmelite supervisor in charge of Wert stated that he was living at the retirement home because it had "no proximity" to children, Ephiphany Cathedral School is a mere four blocks away from Wert's residence. - Source
 

My comments.  Oddly enough Wert was busted around the time the Corapi story broke - no relationship of course, but it was a hard blow, nonetheless.  Additionally, another priest was arrested in Wert's diocese for indecent conduct:

First, there was the arrest of Carmelite priest Rev. William Wert for committing a sex offense against a minor.More charges against Wert were filed as we learned that Wert had been in trouble for similar sex abuse issues while stationed in Washington DC. Next, a Polish priest incardinated in the Diocese of Venice was arrested in a Sarasota park for exposing his genitals to an undercover officer as well as grabbing the officer's genitals. - ibid

Wert's taking advantage of a 14 year old boy is shameful.  The homosexual goal is to remove that aspect from the 'orientation' as well as the acts.  That's just as disordered.  Gay/SSA priests and religious are enablers, and they often provide safe haven for their offender brothers.


Instruction from the Holy See:

Deep-seated homosexual tendencies, which are found in a number of men and women, are also objectively disordered and, for those same people, often constitute a trial. Such persons must be accepted with respect and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. They are called to fulfil God's will in their lives and to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter[8].

In the light of such teaching, this Dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question[9], cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called "gay culture"[10].

Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women. One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies.

Different, however, would be the case in which one were dealing with homosexual tendencies that were only the expression of a transitory problem - for example, that of an adolescence not yet superseded. Nevertheless, such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the diaconate. - Holy See
 

 

 

Pope Benedict gets a kitty...

This is Contessina, the Pope's favorite cat.  I read that she gets to move in with him now that he will not be living in the papal apartments. 

I can't believe he couldn't have a cat while reigning Pontiff. 

Oh Canada! Supreme Court rules Biblical speech condemning homosexual behavior is hate speech.

“The ruling and the reasoning [of the court] is terrible, they actually used the concept that truth is not a defense.”

Ottawa, Ontario – The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Biblical speech opposing homosexual behavior, including in written form, is essentially a hate crime.
On Wednesday, the court upheld the conviction of activist William Whatcott, who found himself in hot water after distributing flyers regarding the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexuality throughout the Saskatoon and Regina neighborhoods in 2001 and 2002. 

 [...]  

The Supreme Court of Canada declared Wednesday that oftentimes, it is impossible to say that one loves the sinner and hates the sin. It asserted that the hatred of the act was inseparable from hating the person or person group.  (There is the catch.)  

[...] 

While speech opposing homosexuality remains legal in the United States, some note that the nation is heading in the same direction as Canada, as discrimination laws are being enforced by state Human Rights Commissions across the country.

A number of incidents have made headlines in recent years where American businesses have been punished for their refusal to accommodate the homosexual lifestyle, such as the story of a photographer in New Mexico that was forced to pay $700 in fines for declining to shoot a same-sex commitment service, to the Vermont bed and breakfast owners who settled a lawsuit with two lesbians who were told by an employee that they could not hold their commitment service on the property. A Kentucky t-shirt screening company was also recently punished for declining to complete a work order involving t-shirts that were to be worn at a local homosexual pride parade. - Finish reading here.
 

Coming to a Supreme Court near you. 

So when I can't pay the fines, will I be put in prison?  Or executed?  I'd rather be executed.


 

Andrew Sullivan

Mind in the gutter...

I have maybe read Andrew Sullivan once or twice when other people have linked to him, but otherwise, I'm not interested.  Too political, as Sarah Palin might say.  Truth be told, I'm not a big fan of gay bloggers and what they have to say.  I know! 

Mark Shea posted a reference to the Sullivan story yesterday where Sullivan claims that Pope Benedict is gay, and he bases that assumption upon Benedict's working relationship with Archbishop Ganswein, his secretary/assistant. I couldn't comment on Mark's post because I wouldn't be able to do so with charity. I'm still outraged by Sullivan's claims, especially after a friend sent me an article from Huffington Post covering it. It is wicked. It is evil.

For gay men it is all about sex.

Gay people are notorious for such delusional thinking - how many imagine that anyone who looks at them is 'after them' - interested in going to bed with them - even if they look like Uncle Fester, they can easily flatter themselves thus. Gay men can be like high school girls attracted to every cute boy they see. Because Ganswein is a handsome, virile, youthful looking man, exhibiting sensibilities and attention to an aging Pope, he has become a 'heart throb' for men and women. He is celebrated by the fashion world and gay society - clerical and lay. (You know who you are.)  St. Paul wrote about these types when he said, 'their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly delights.'

Disordered thinking.

I suspect Andrew Sullivan is projecting his prejudices and disordered sexual fantasies upon The Holy Father and his assistant. Just exactly the way gay people do in regard to Blessed Cardinal Newman and Ambrose St. John. It is shameful and demonstrates the blindness and distorted obsessions gay people entertain to convince themselves that the disorder is normal and pervasive.  It is also evidence that the orientation is intrinsically disordered.

Wicked, wicked games.

Years ago Pope Paul VI was viciously accused of being gay as well. As I've said before, gay people have a way of attributing their particular foibles and follies onto personages they are either profoundly attracted to, or, in order to defame and discredit, those whom they consider their nemesis. These accusations are beneath contempt and are without parallel, the unjust accusations against Pope Paul VI notwithstanding. This type of libel is reminiscent of the wicked men of Sodom who demanded that the two angels staying with Lot be delivered into their hands: "Bring them out to us that we may have our way with them!" [Genesis 19:5]

Curiously, Sullivan is doing exactly what gay people accuse straight people of doing, he is stereotyping and making assumptions based on personal opinion and prejudice. Sounds like hypocrisy to me.  It is not unlike the calumny leveled against Pius XII in the play, The Deputy, by Rolf Hochhuth.

Pray for Monsignor Ganswein that he may remain undaunted in his work.



Something tells me the wolves and crazies are beginning to come out during the interregnum. Be on guard and pray.

"Whattaya mean 'where am I

on this one?'"

 

The Sixth Seal...

[The sixth sealing of the papal apartments in my lifetime.]



Photo credit: Whispers in the Loggia

Sede Vacante

Order yours now!

Sizes S,M,L,XL,XXL,XXXL, and Husky

Sorry, not yet available in sweats, caps, mugs, or bumper stickers.

 

To Order

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NB: Due to high volume of traffic

website may be down - keep trying.

 

 

The Last day: The Holy Father's departure from Rome.

I prayerfully watched with sadness the Holy Father's departure from Rome.  All the major networks covered it, as well as EWTN.  NBC had excellent coverage, with Fr. Barron.

The helicopter flyover with the bells in the background was especially poignant.  There was a surreal aspect to it for me, which reminded me of the opening of Fellini's La Dolce Vita, shown below.

 

“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning..." - Benedict Joseph Ratzinger

"What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" - Romans 8

LifeSiteNews captured a few essential 'predictions' or 'prophecies' made by Cardinal Ratzinger many years ago, which were on occasion referred to throughout his pontificate.  Interestingly enough, they more or less corroborate with prophecies coming out of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the mid-1970's, in the waning years of Paul VI's pontificate.  The Charismatic prophecies were repeated at the Notre Dame Charismatic Congress around the same time.  I was there and I remember it distinctly.  I think it is worth noting that prophecies such as these are not threats or scare tactics, but are - in part - indications of what may occur, and more importantly, they offer assurance that God is with us in and through whatever befalls us.  "We know that all things work for good for those who love God,^* who are called according to his purpose." - Romans 8

What Ratzinger said...

“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.

She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes…she will lose many of her social privileges…. As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members…."

"…But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.

And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.”

Benedict's Angelus prayers this past Sunday, as reported by Vatican Insider, fit the same theme. He prayed:

“The time of testing is here. We must not use God for our own ends.” - See more here.
 

Ralph Martin and Bruce Yokum.

PROPHECIES GIVEN AT ST. PETER’S BASILICA DURING THE CLOSING EUCHARIST ON PENTECOST MONDAY—MAY 1975

“Because I love you, I want to show you what I am doing in the world today. I want to prepare you for what is to come. Days of darkness are coming on the world, days of tribulation....Buildings that are now standing will not be standing. Supports that are there for my people now will not be there. I want you to be prepared, my people, to know only me and to cleave to me and to have me in a way deeper than ever before. I will lead you into the desert...I will strip you of everything that you are depending on now, so you depend just on me. A time of darkness is coming on the world, but a time of glory is coming for my church, a time of glory is coming for my people. I will pour out on you all the gifts of my spirit. I will prepare you for spiritual combat; I will prepare you for a time of evangelism that the world has never seen.... And when you have nothing but me, you will have everything: land, fields, homes, and brothers and sisters and love and joy and peace more than ever before. Be ready, my people, I want to prepare you...” (given by Ralph Martin)

“I speak to you of the dawn of a ‘new age’ for my church. I speak to you of a day that has not been seen before....Prepare yourselves for the action that I begin now, because things that you see around you will change; the combat that you must enter now is different; it is new. You need wisdom from me that you do not yet have.

 

You need the power of my Holy Spirit in a way that you nave not possessed it; you need an understanding of my will and of the ways that I work that you do not yet have. Open your eyes, open your hearts to prepare yourselves for me and for the day that I have now begun. My church will be different; my people will be different; difficulties and trials will come upon you. The comfort that you know now will be far from you, but the comfort that you will have is the comfort of my Holy Spirit. They will send for you, to take your life, but I will support you. Come to me. Band yourselves together, around me. Prepare, for I proclaim a new day, a day of victory and of triumph for your God. Behold, it is begun.” (given by Bruce Yocum)  - Read more here.

 

(To be continued.)

H/T PML for Ralph Martin reminder.

 

 

 

The Last Day

PBS Documetary on Modern Feminism

"Makers: Women Who Make America"

I watched most of it last night.  I think everyone probably should have watched it.  It tells the story of how the culture changed - radically.

Even the feminists insist they could not have done it without contraception and abortion. 

Like I've always said, contraception is the original sin of modern culture-civilization.  It is also why the legalization of gay marriage is seen as a civil right.

MAKERS: Women Who Make America tells the remarkable story of the most sweeping social revolution in American history, as women have asserted their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity, and personal autonomy. It’s a revolution that has unfolded in public and private, in courts and Congress, in the boardroom and the bedroom, changing not only what the world expects from women, but what women expect from themselves. MAKERS brings this story to life with priceless archival treasures and poignant, often funny interviews with those who led the fight, those who opposed it, and those first generations to benefit from its success. Trailblazing women like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey share their memories, as do countless women who challenged the status quo in industries from coal-mining to medicine. Makers captures with music, humor, and the voices of the women who lived through these turbulent times the dizzying joy, aching frustration and ultimate triumph of a movement that turned America upside-down. - Makers

I used to be against gay marriage...

I have always said I'm against it, but maybe I meant something else.

Fact is, homosexual partners in exclusive relationships have more or less always thought of themselves as 'married'... they actually used that term.  Since the 1970's, some have even gone so far as to have 'wedding' ceremonies.  Ask Fr. Sirico, he knows.  So it has pretty much always existed - at least in the minds of gay people who considered themselves to be married.  Even those in open 'marriages'.  They celebrated their 'divorces' too - sort of Hollywood style - conjuring up such celebs as Liz Taylor, bouncing from husband to husband.  I had a friend whose relationship ended and the partner sued for 'palimony'.  Gay people can believe whatever they want to believe.  Just as some people think they are Napoleon.  It doesn't mean anything except to those who want to believe such things.

If two men or two women privately decide they are married, it doesn't make it real.   

What I am against is the legalization of same sex marriage.  Now that is a whole different cultural shift.  It's no longer an issue of private lives, personal behavior, personal preference. 

I'm against it.

This just in:

A long-expected bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Minnesota is making its debut at the Capitol.

Sponsors of the gay marriage bill are unveiling it at a Wednesday morning press conference. They aim to repeal Minnesota’s 1997 law that prohibited marriage between couples of the same sex.

Sponsors say the bill will exempt churches from being forced to perform same-sex weddings.

The drive to legalize gay marriage in Minnesota got a boost last year when voters rejected a constitutional gay marriage ban. Gay marriage opponents say the results of that vote don’t translate to widespread support for allowing same-sex couples to legally marry.

House and Senate committees are expected to take up the proposal soon. Gov. Mark Dayton has signaled that he would sign a bill to legalize gay marriage. - Source
 

I'm against it. 
 

Fashion Week at the Abbey: Dolce & Gabana: Ravenna Sacred Art - Tailored Mosaic

Collection photos here.

The Pope started it (Fashion Week that is) with the announcement of his white look yesterday...

What?

Anyway, The Sartorialist featured Dolce & Gabana Fall-Winter 2013, and to my surprise the collection is based upon Byzantine Mosaics of Basilica San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy: Jewel encrusted dresses, and crowns... 

Those Italians are so religious...

This is so gross: Republicans sign briefs in support of gay marriage.

From the New York Times, wouldn't you know!

WASHINGTON — Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry, a position that amounts to a direct challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the party since the November election. - NYT
 

 

Oh!  Legal brief!  I thought they meant...

Never mind!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanking the Pope is nice...

But thanking God for the Pope is better.

Thanking and praising God for the gifts and graces the Lord has bestowed upon the Holy Father and his papacy, as well as the good he accomplished in the Church, may be more fitting.  Especially since he is only vacating the office, yet remains to serve the Lord.

That is how St. Paul did it:  "Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has bestowed on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens."  And, "I give thanks to my God every time I think of you - which is constantly, in every prayer I utter - rejoicing, as I plead on your behalf..."

I also think it may be more efficacious.

"...each man will receive his praise from God."

 

 

"Fun Bobby" for Pope

Remember "Fun Bobby" from Friends?

That could be the kind of pope Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna might turn out to be... if the photo here is any indication.  (Love that photo BTW!  How you say, so nett!)

John Allen takes a serious look at him...

Although the election of a pope is in many ways a carefully scripted process, the closest thing to a wild card this time around may well be 68-year-old Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna.

Depending on who's doing the handicapping, the erudite Dominican is either an obvious, slam-dunk contender or somebody who's basically taken himself out of the running.
Schönborn certainly has the right pedigree for the job. A member of the ancient Austrian noble family of Schönborn-Buchheim-Wolfstahl, he's one of two cardinals and 19 archbishops, bishops, priests and religious sisters his family has produced. He's not even the first Schönborn to be the primate of the Austrian church; that honor fell to his great-great uncle, Cardinal Franz Graf Schönborn, who led the Austrian episcopacy under the old Austro-Hungarian empire from his position as the archbishop of Prague. (He had previously been the bishop of Budweis -- hence he was, believe it or not, a "Budweiser.") - Source
 

Dominican - he already has the whites.  He's descended from nobility - trads like that.  And he's a Budweiser - beer drinkers of the world unite!  What's not to like?

And he's a fan of Medjugorje.

What?

I have to go paint now.
 

What will the Pope wear now? White.

What will he wear?

That was my first question after he offered his resignation. 

As most people now know, he will still wear white, a white cassock without the mozzetta/cape.  I don't like white.  I'm always afraid a modern pope will adopt the clerical suit - in white - and then look like some Southern Baptist preacher.  God forbid.  Anyway, I wish he'd gone back to black - or at least, "gone to purple, by now".  I would have.

He won't be wearing red shoes any longer either.  I've always like the red shoes.  I suppose the red hats and red cappas have to go too. 

Elijah and the Pope.

I'm painting another Carmelite icon, it will be the fifth Elijah icon I've done, this time slightly different.  Pondering the great Prophet, I was considering his 'assumption' - when he left Elisha, taken up into heaven by a fiery chariot, in a whirlwind as it were, letting fall his mantle to his successor.  I likened that image to Our Holy Father's departure to Castel Gandolfo by helicopter, which will take place this Thursday evening.

Thus, the Holy Father will ascend, leaving his mozzetta to his successor.

 

The modern Pope outfit

I fear.

 

More Papal Prophecies...

This is interesting.

Idle Speculations posted illuminations of St. Celestine V and his successor, Gregory XII from the Vaticinia de Pontificibus,  explaining:

It was a work of black propaganda falsely attributed to the mystic Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135 – March 30, 1202)  

They allegedly made prophecies regarding the popes: who was to be elected and what were their attributes or main characteristics. Many regard the work as a crude attempt to influence future conclaves.

 

Unfortunately the practice still continues today among Catholics and non-Catholics. Idle Speculations

 

Yes!  That explains so much.


 

The resignation of Cardinal O'Brien. It really is a crisis, isn't it.

That's not a question.

Fr. Blake posted profound reflections is response to Cardinal O'Brien's resignation.  It makes me sad.  If I, a layman, can be saddened, maddened by all that is coming to light in the Church, how much more deeply must be the sorrow in the hearts of faithful clergy and religious whose entire life is a living sacrifice?

From Fr. Blake:

Today's news about Cardinal O'Brien is just the latest sign of the Church's sickness. I don't know, no-one seems to know exactly what "inappropriate behaviour" the Cardinal is accused of and despite his sacking - he has been sacked by the Pope, his resignation was due to take effect next month on his 75th birthday- he is of course contesting the allegations. However, it would seem to suggest that corruption is far from merely a Roman or Curial phenomena but embraces the whole Church. We have seen it all over the world, the Lavender episcopal palaces of Cardinal Bernardin and Weakland, the cover-ups by Law and Mahony and many other American bishops, the major sexual scandals in Poland, in Austria, in Ireland, in Belgium and a score of other places. 

These are priests and bishops in a very grave state of sin, who seem to count it as nothing. These are men who are content to live in the sewer whilst ascending to the altar of God. There is not just the sin they are involved in, it is also the hypocrisy, the lies, the deceit, everything that runs contrary to the integrity of the Gospel, the betrayal of brother priests of laity, all contribute to the undermining of faith of "the little ones", "better millstone be tied around his neck ...". - Filth

I wonder if maybe we are experiencing a great mystery of light coming into the Church, illuminating our conscience as it were, revealing at first what must be purified, what must be discarded?

 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away." - Matthew 13: 47-48

Stay on board the Barque of Peter my friends.  If you feel yourself sinking, cry out for the Lord to grasp you, as Peter has done.

The Ascent of Pope Benedict XVI

Dear brothers and sisters, I feel that this Word of God is particularly directed at me, at this point in my life. The Lord is calling me to "climb the mountain", to devote myself even more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the Church, indeed, if God is asking me to do this it is so that I can continue to serve the Church with the same dedication and the same love with which I have done thus far, but in a way that is better suited to my age and my strength. Let us invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary: may she always help us all to follow the Lord Jesus in prayer and works of charity. - Sunday Angelus, Source
 

Uniting my prayer to the Holy Father's prayer, praying with him and for him, united in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. 

 

Pope Benedict's latest bombshell.

The current Pope, 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI, dropped a bombshell when he announced ...

That his Twitter account would be shut down. - Source
 

What did Fr. Z always say about the way Benedict dressed, celebrated Mass and distributed Communion?

Pope Benedict teaches by example.

and, Where Peter goes, we follow.

 

I know!

Music for this post here.

 

The best acceptance speech... Short and sweet!

She had Anne Hathaway's hair!

The Glory of the Olive

This makes so much sense... for me at least.

Respected author Elena Maria Vidal of Tea at Trianon has posted  excerpts from two other sites which offer a more serious and profound insight into the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the turbulent atmosphere the Church finds itself in these days.

I especially appreciate this reflection from Taylor Marshal which she shares:

The Agony of the Garden among the olive trees is the prelude to the Passion of Christ! The episode at the Mount of Olives is the beginning of the redemptive sorrows ending in the crucifixion and death of Christ.

So likewise, Pope Benedict's sorrowful agony as Pope may be the prelude to the final Passion of Christ's Church. His papacy is the glory of the olive because he was placed in the Agony of the Garden for the Church. All have fallen asleep. He is betrayed by his closest friends and counselors. He is all alone. He is staring into the chalice of God's wrath and he is asking that it be taken from him! - Taylor Marshall

 

The one solid apparition I have always tried to adhere to is Fatima.  There Our Lady pleaded that we pray for the Holy Father who will have much to suffer.  In these apparitions Our Lady placed special emphasis on that request, as did the seers.  It seems to me that we cannot casually dismiss the papacy as something from the past, something that must be changed or done away with.  It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that the pope is Christ's vicar and of great importance to the Church.

Likewise, many years and infidelities ago, during the Pontificate of Paul VI, I understood that the Church was indeed entering a 'dark night'... following Christ to the cross.  I believe that.  Which is why I so appreciate this observation from Alain Besançon:

Pope Benedict “finds himself in a situation similar to that of Paul VI after Vatican II, in confronting what he called ‘the self-destruction’ of the Church. - Source
 

H/T PML
 

One of the best intros to the Academy Awards...

I love Seth MacFarlane and Family Guy - I hope he does as well as Billy.

The Last Angelus

Good advice for uncertain times.

In one of his last papal tweets, Benedict wrote Sunday in English: "In these momentous days, I ask you to pray for me and for the church, trusting as always in divine providence." -AP

Some reliable media outlet should do a poll on how many people want the pope to leave and are looking forward to the conclave.  I bet we'd be surprised.