Now I know why I like the Pope so much.

A boor.  David Teniers the Younger

"Let it be known he preferred to stay with the heretics and, no doubt, enjoy their wine."

Someone said he is quite the boor:

If you need further proof Pope Humble hates to be in the middle of good Catholics and avoids them whenever he can, you only need to google a bit, and look at the last events in Caserta.

And then Francis does go to Caserta, and regales us with the usual heresies about extra ecclesiam omnia salus, according to his utterly heretical, now twenty times repeated ideology. But this post is not about that.

Francis is then eating and drinking with the Proddies, and he enjoys both activities so much – presumably, the second one more – that he decides to continue to eat, drink and be merry and simply cancel his next appointment, where he was supposed to meet some nuns and, I have read, children and other faithful. - Source

I'm kind of like that myself.

Seriously - people exaggerate and read stuff into everything the pope does and says.  Although I agree, it does appear that he likes to hang out with outsiders.   When people do that, they are accused of all sorts of things, and often condemned.

Just imagine Christ, "eating and drinking with the Proddies, and he enjoys both activities so much – presumably, the second one more – that he decides to continue to eat, drink and be merry and simply cancel his next appointment..."

Quite the boor.

St. Francis of Assisi loved the Chapel of Our Lady of the Angels more than any other place ...

Aside from the Holy House at Loreto, the Portiuncula is my favorite too.

When I was little I used to make drawings of the chapel and then I'd construct models out of cardboard boxes.  Outdoors I tried to make hermitages from branches and junk and pretend they were attached to the chapel.  I'd just sit there or walk around, praying my rosary or a condensed version of the Little Office of Our Lady.  As an adult, when I finally was able to visit the Portiuncula on pilgrimage, I was deeply moved.

A bit of history from Fr. Angelo Mary:

The beautiful Feast of Our Lady of the Angels, commemorates the dedication of the little chapel known as the Portiuncula (Little Portion) or Our Lady of the Angels.  It was the third Church St. Francis rebuilt after Our Lord spoke to him from the Cross and ordered him to “rebuild the Church.”  St. Bonaventure says that the three churches prefigured the three orders he later founded: First Order (the friars); Second Order (the Poor Clares); Third Order (the secular participants in the life of the Order).  Thomas of Celano, the first biographer of St. Francis, quoted above, also writes:

For there had also been built in that place a church of the Virgin Mother who merited by Her singular humility to be, after Her son, the head of al the saints.  In this church the Order of Friars Minor had its beginning, there, as on a firm foundation, when their number had grown, the noble fabric of the order arose.  The holy man loved this place above all others; this place he commanded his brothers to venerate with a special reverence; this place he willed to be preserved as a model of humility and highest poverty for their order, reserving the ownership of it to others, and keeping only the use of it for himself and his brothers. - Mary Victrix

As is well known, St. Francis obtained from Our Lady what is known as the Portiuncula Indulgence - or Great Pardon of Assisi - which can be gained by any of the faithful  on The 2nd of August from Midnight to Midnight.  For information on the plenary indulgence, go here.

Altarpiece, Porziuncola 

Church music director fired after getting engaged...

Really?  That's what you're wearing?  

Really?

It's just wrong.  I would be embarrassed.  As Karen Walker would say, "Honey, what's going on here?  What's with the white shirt dresses?"

Actually the photo of Collette and his partner (shown at top) was taken at the Vatican, right after the proposal.

Let me just say I think gay marriage is really, really dumb - and very queer - in every sense of that word.  And then - to go before a camera looking like that ...  And they're old.

What?

Here's the story...

Colin Collette got engaged to his longtime partner in Rome last week. But after announcing his big news, he was fired Monday from the Holy Family Church in the suburb of Inverness.

Collette was the music director for the church. 

The Archdiocese of Chicago issued a statement saying it was aware of the situation at Holy Family and would not comment on an individual's personnel issues.

Collette finds the Archdiocese response troubling because he says his relationship was far from private. He says his partner -- also a Catholic -- has even read scripture at the church.

"Everybody was welcome. That was our hallmark. All are welcome. Well, that's all changed now. That's become a lie," Collette said. - Source

Quite seriously, this is where solid catechesis is necessary.  Yes, all are welcome, but if you work for the Church, if you have a 'ministry' in the Church, you have to live according to Catholic teaching and strive to live a faithful life.  Everyone sins, everyone can sin, and they can be reconciled through the sacrament of penance.  The Church does not approve or recognize same sex marriage, or homosexual acts.  Christian marriage is a sacrament, it is a communal, public event.  Simulating marriage in a same sex relationship is not Christian marriage, albeit now a civil public event.  It is a source of scandal.  Scandal is NOT a problem of prudishness or spiritually immaturity or narrow mindedness.  As the catechism makes clear:

2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor's tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense. - CCC

Mr. Collette should have known the consequences.  The pastor of the parish should have counselled him beforehand - especially since, as Collette stated,  "his relationship was far from private."

St. Alphonsus Ligouri, a kindly saint.

The Saint's tomb.

Scapular of St. Alphonsus.

St. Alphonsus, pray for us.

If you wish to strengthen your confidence in God still more, often recall the loving way in which He has acted toward you, and how mercifully He has tried to bring you out of your sinful life, to break your attachment to the things of earth and draw you to His love. - St. Alphonsus

The Pope will visit Albania in September.

Albania schedule here.

I bet he tells the pilot to stop at Medjugorje on the way home.

Oh!  Oh!  Bonus bet:  I bet he does a surprise canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa then too.  Maybe not.

A Catholic blogger on Pope Francis and "the end of Catholicism".

Pope Francis, Roberto Ferri

I came across Nick's Catholic Blog last night and was very much consoled.  It appears not all so-called 'traditionalist Catholics' are worried about Pope Francis.  What a relief.

I didn't check the date of the post and only this morning realized it was posted last October, nevertheless, I haven't seen any recent publication that says the author has changed his mind.  That said, his post speaks for itself and what he has to say still holds, as far as I'm concerned.  Some excerpts:

I'm starting to get sick to my stomach with the non-stop slew of posts with gloomy-themed comments regarding Pope Francis. Why are so many Catholics, especially among traditionalists, so worried about Pope Francis? Ever since the election of Francis a storm of radically disappointed gloom-filled traditionalists has surged, and it's really soured my experience at certain blogs. Now before I go onto make any further comments, I don't want people fallaciously accusing me of blindly supporting anything and everything the Pope does and treat it as pure gold. I don't do that, but more importantly, that's not the point. The point is that people are blowing things way out of proportion, and I fear it's leading them to the brink of apostasy. That's what's more concerning, and I'm surprised more people aren't alarmed by that eminent danger. (I'm alarmed.)

I'm just going to say what my gut is telling me the real problem is here. Coinciding with the rise of traditionalism was the death of Bl. John Paul II and the election of Benedict in 2005. The election of Benedict was a huge sigh of relief for the traditionalist blogosphere, since he had a well known track record of wanting to clean things up in the Church, despite whatever flaws he also had.

Of course, things completely were shaken up with Benedict's sudden "resignation," and traditionalists were terrified that all the progress made through Benedict could be undone in an instant, sending us right back to the nightmarish 1970s. And their "fears" were "confirmed" when Francis walked out on the Papal balcony. From that instant, a very ugly and gloomy raincloud came over the traditionalist movement and just parked itself there. The most slanderous things I've heard were spewed in comment boxes; people assumed the absolute worst. After a day or so I couldn't take it and basically stopped following many big name traditionalist blogs. It was just strange the way all the hope and overall good direction the Church was going were eclipsed by folks assuming the worst. (I think this is where what some jokingly referred to as 'evil-trads' manifested.)

[...] 

[T]he Catholic blogosphere as a whole missed an excellent opportunity to take some real gems out of the Pope's words. Again, this isn't to say everything he said was pleasant to hear, but he actually provided some badly-needed insight into serious problems in the world. (Yes! Yes! Yes!)  - Read more here.

That last statement still holds as far as I'm concerned.

It's all good.

Pray for the Holy Father.

Santa Maria della Strada

Our Lady of the Way (Santa Maria della Strada) patroness of the Society of Jesus.

The late medieval mural of Santa Maria della Strada was on an external wall of the small chapel of Our Lady of the Way in Rome. It was here that Ignatius prayed and eventually set up the headquarters of his new Society. Ignatius would have known the image well and, throughout his life, has a particular devotion to Our Lady under whose patronage he placed the Society of Jesus. - Source

The feast of St. Ignatius

Everything is good.

St. Ignatius is good.

The Pope is good.

The Jesuits are good.

The Church is good.

God is good.

Nothing to worry about.

Our Lady Zeitoun

When Mary appeared in Egypt 

she was welcomed by Coptic Christians, 

the Protestant Church, the pope's envoy, 

and the Muslim population.

Yesterday I was reminded of Our Lady's apparitions in Egypt after I received the following in an email:

The Holy Family Latin Church in Gaza has just received an evacuation order warning them that Israei is planning to bomb their neighbourhood tonight. In a message, a priest writes: " The church of Gaza has received an order to evacuate.. they will bomb the Zeitun area and the people are already fleeing. The problem is that the priest Fr George and the three nuns of Mother Teresa have 29 handicapped children and nine old ladies who can't move. 

"How will they manage to leave?? If anyone can intercede with someone in power, and pray, please do it. We are trying.. may our impotence be taken up by his Omnipotence!!"
The House of Christ in Gaza, is a care home dedicated to looking after disabled children. The disabled children were removed from the care home into the Holy Family Church recently because Israel was targeting the area. 

The parish appeal for prayers.

Prayers for Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Kenya, and every region threatened and oppressed by Islamist militants. 

The Whole World Needs to STOP and LOOK and SEE what ISIS is doing to humanity.

Shiite Youths BEG FOR MERCY BEFORE THEY WERE MASSACRED BY ISIS

Story here.

Repent and pray.  

Pray the rosary, unite your sacrifices and prayers to all who suffer, to all victims of these atrocities.

It is like the massacres of Rawanda.

Pray.

Prayer from today's First Reading:

Let my eyes stream with tears
day and night, without rest,
Over the great destruction which overwhelms
the virgin daughter of my people,
over her incurable wound.
If I walk out into the field,
look! those slain by the sword;
If I enter the city,
look! those consumed by hunger.
Even the prophet and the priest
forage in a land they know not.

Have you cast Judah off completely?
Is Zion loathsome to you?
Why have you struck us a blow
that cannot be healed?
We wait for peace, to no avail;
for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.
We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness,
the guilt of our fathers;
that we have sinned against you.
For your name's sake spurn us not,
disgrace not the throne of your glory;
remember your covenant with us, and break it not.
Among the nations' idols is there any that gives rain?
Or can the mere heavens send showers?
Is it not you alone, O LORD,
our God, to whom we look?
You alone have done all these things. - Jeremiah 14:17-22 

Art: Paul Stilwell

This is true ...

Something from Fr. Z ...

Dear readers, there are some things that we sinners get ourselves into which have no easy fixes. Some things, as a matter of fact, can’t be fixed at all. We have to accept the consequences of our actions and then get on as best we can, even suffering and asking for grace to bear the burden. Some people have heavy crosses indeed. God is with them. He works with them. We must be willing to bear crosses and ask God’s help and mercy, sometimes for the remainder of our earthly lives. I have a doctor friend who once has a dissatisfied patient lament, “Do I have to take these pills forever?” ”No,” came the answer, “Just until you die.” This is how it goes for some people. - Fr. Z

I agree.

Although there is always a remedy or help - like the pills the doctor prescribed.  Our Lady unties knots, of course - if we ask.  Sometimes we are not always healed, nor are our situations 'fixed' - but God is with us.  I often recall of what the Blessed Virgin said at Fatima when asked about a particular man, Our Lady said something to the effect he wouldn't be healed  because Our Lord did not trust him.  Nevertheless, he needed to bear his sufferings and pray and he would be saved.  At least that's how I remembered it, then I found the following which sheds more light on the story.

THE LOVE OF A FIRM AND PRUDENT MOTHER 

“ALL THE MISERIES OF POOR HUMANITY.” Since June 13, when sixty of the faithful came to attend the apparition, until this day of October 13, when there were perhaps sixty thousand – a little more or less, we are not sure – Lucy arrived at the feet of the Most Holy Virgin entrusted with an impressive list of requests: On this last day, she relates, «there were so many of them, so many! I was anxious to remember the innumerable graces that I had to ask of Our Lady...» 

AN EXTRAORDINARY FIRMNESS. What strikes us at the outset, if we consider the replies of Our Lady to all these requests, is their tone of extraordinary firmness. In all these responses, there is not an ounce of sentimentalism. 

Our Lady here speaks the language of a mother who knows her children and what their true good is, while they themselves, poor and blind as they are, very often delude themselves, mostly desiring what would contribute to their ruin: material favours, the suppression of all crosses, and in short, the immediate satisfaction of all their desires.

On June 13: «I asked for the healing of a sick person», Lucy recalls. «If he is converted, he will be healed during the year.» On July 13: Maria Carreira, this exemplary Christian, animated by such a great love for the Most Holy Virgin, asked for the healing of John, her crippled son. «He will not be healed and he will remain poor. But he must recite the Rosary every day with his family and he will be able to make a living.» And so John Carreira kept his infirmities, but he nevertheless became sacristan of the “Capelinha”, and thus spent the whole of his long life in the shadow of Our Lady’s sanctuary. Rather than healing him, Our Lady had chosen for him a life full of suffering, prayer and service.

On August 19: «I would like to ask You for the healing of some sick people.» «Yes, I will heal some of them during the year.» And on September 13: «I will heal some, but others, no, because Our Lord does not trust Himself to them.» These words may seem harsh, but their tonality is so much in line with the Gospel: «Many believed in His name, seeing His signs which He did; but Jesus did not trust Himself unto them, for that He knew all men, and because He needed not that any should give testimony of man; for He knew what was in man.» (Jn. 2:23-25) No, Our Lady of Fatima does not have “confidence in men” any more than Her Divine Son! And if She said, «Our Lord does not trust Himself to them», of those who prayed to Her with their lips, but whose heart was far from Her, what would She say, a fortiori, of Her declared enemies who glory in their impiety? 

“THEY MUST AMEND THEIR LIVES...” Finally, on October 13, Our Lady made the same response, full of sadness. Certainly, sickness is an evil, but She insists so that we finally understand: sin is a much greater evil of a completely different order, since it leads souls to eternal ruin! And just as Jesus said to the sick people that He healed, «Go, and sin no more», His Mother wishes us to be much more concerned with eternal salvation than the mere healing of the body: «I have many things to ask You: to heal some sick people and to convert some sinners, etc.» «Some, yes; others, no. They must amend their lives and ask pardon of their sins.» And taking on a sadder expression: «They must no longer offend God, Our Lord, for He is already too much offended!» - Source

I like this too:

“The image of the field hospital is very beautiful. Nonetheless we cannot manipulate the pope  by reducing the whole reality of the Church to this image. The Church in itself is not a hospital: the Church is also the house of the Father.” - Cardinal Müller

Feast of St. Martha

"Tell her to help me!"

Patron saint of complainers.





Art: Martha and George from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 

You are being manipulated.

Remember Thom?*

Social media.

Media.  Decades of television, radio, cinema and print has formed our culture.  We know that.  Or at least we should.

Media influences how we think about the Pope.  Catholic social media leads the way in 'resisting him to his face'.  We know that.  Or at least we should.

Remember the recent Facebook experiment?

Remember Jeffrey from Roving Medievalist?

There is now Pentagon research which indicates social media can be used to control people like robots...

Did you know?

The Department of Defense has spent millions of dollars in recent years on research aimed at harnessing the power of social media to direct human behavior on a large scale.

Did you know?

[S]maller groups of influential individuals can be used to sway much larger populations, and social media can be manipulated to leverage their influence even further. - Read more.

Yeah huh!  So don't ask how gay marriage has achieved overwhelming approval across the United States.  Don't ask why girls dress like sluts and boys look like girls and transgendered models grace the covers of fashion magazines.

Still confused my little lab rats?

You're being manipulated.

Remember Belinda?

*Some bloggers have actually disappeared - their brains vaporized.

"Muslims should be proud of smashing idols. It has given praise to Allah that we have destroyed them." - Mullah Mohammed Omar

Taller Buddha in 1963 and in 2008 after destruction

The goal seems to be the destruction of civilization and world domination.*


The claim that Allah is pleased by the destruction of 'idols' is what the deceased spiritual leader of the Taliban said after the 6th century Buddhas of Bamiyan were destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001. - Story here.

These days, ISIS is destroying Christian churches and shrines sacred to Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Iraq.

Hundreds of years of history and tradition disappeared in a matter of seconds. ISIS militants in northern Iraq blew up the Mosque of the Prophet Jonah.

The building guarded his reported burial site, venerated for centuries by both Muslims and Christians alike. But on Thursday, it became the latest casualty in the war ravaged by extremists proclaiming an Islamic State.

Video from local residents captured the aftermath of the mosque's destruction. Entire sections of the structure collapsed. Others remained standing, but clearly damaged.

Another clip making its rounds on social media allegedly shows militants using a hammer to destroy the tombstone of the ancient, sacred site.

In late June, militants captured the city of Mosul, Iraq's second largest. The rebels have targeted Christian and Shia Muslim sites, destroying both mosques and churches. They also drove out the city's large Christian community. - Source

Oh, and this.

Syrian Al Qaeda Rebel Group ISIS Pledges to Conquer Jerusalem, Rome. - Source

*Not to worry though.

Pray for those suffering under Islamic extremist terror and religious persecution.  Pray the rosary every day.


UPDATE:  Look at what I wrote in March of 2011: Islam's "holy war" on Christians.  

Conspiracy Theoria: A quote from Siri ... Gates of Hades open ... July 27, 2014

It's true - I saw it online.

No, Cardinal Siri didn't say it.  The 'voice' said it...

Apple iPhone’s Siri function is saying that July 27, 2014, will be the “Opening [the] Gates of Hades,” or the Greek term for Hell, leading many to question why.

And then!  And then!  I found this ...

AND THIS!

They are everywhere ...

What?

I'm soooooooooooooo kidding!!!!!!!!!!!

Mass chat revisited: Liturgical dance - Spanish priest dances traditional flamenco during Mass

In 1997, Father Pepe, who will retire in September, 

danced in front of the late Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

I've known so many who could probably top this ... but anyway:

Jose Planas Moreno has brought parishioners flocking back to the Nuestra Señora del Carmen church in Campanilla, a district of Malaga, with his unusual style of worship.

Unlike across the rest of Spain where the Catholic Church has struggled with falling numbers, the priest, who is known as Father Pepe, celebrates mass to a packed congregation with queues regularly forming outside his church.

The 66-year-old curate delights the faithful by dancing the sevillanas – a traditional dance linked to flamenco – in the aisle of the church during mass.

Female worshippers leap from their pews to take a turn dancing with Father Pepe as he hitches up his white cassock, raises his arms above his head and kicks his heels. - Story here.

What?