It wasn't Catholic and they weren't married in a church and, and, he was married before, and, and, she's not Catholic, and, and, I'm against it.
What?
Nice looking wedding pictures though.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Why I didn't attend the Clooney-Alamuddin wedding.
It wasn't Catholic and they weren't married in a church and, and, he was married before, and, and, she's not Catholic, and, and, I'm against it.
What?
Nice looking wedding pictures though.
Fired Minnesota gay music director Jamie Moore hires attorney... NOT!
Garrett Manzi and Jamie Moore
UPDATE 9/28/14:*Jamie Moore, who was music director at St. Victoria for more than 17 years before he quit at the request of church leaders, decided Friday not to pursue legal action against Archbishop John Nienstedt, according to his former lawyer.
“I think he was in a very good position to challenge the termination because of the reason that was given and that was marital status,” Clayton Halunen said Sunday, explaining that Minnesota churches are allowed to discriminate based on sexual orientation but not on marital status.
“I’m very disappointed in the decision,” Halunen added. “I think if had we had a favorable result ..... it would have helped many others in the LGBT community to preserve their employment if they choose to get married.”
Moore has not spoken publicly about his dismissal and could not be reached Sunday. - KAREN ZAMORA , Star Tribune Updated: September 28, 2014
H/T Rick Notch
* * *
Original PostI don't get it.
He seemed so gracious upon receiving the Archbishop's request that he resign his position:
"I'm not surprised. I'm sad and I was hopeful that I could continue in my career at St. Victoria but it wasn't a surprise. I've known since I started at St. Victoria in February of 1997 that this could be a possibility at some point," Moore said Wednesday night in an interview.
Jamie has to leave because he married his long-time partner, Garrett, last weekend.
When Archbishop Nienstedt got wind of it he called for Jamie's resignation.
"It's against Catholic Church teaching to be a partnered gay man, it is also very much against Catholic Church teaching to marry that man," Jamie said knowing this was a likely outcome. - Source
Call in the lawyers.A music director who was asked by a Catholic church in Victoria, Minn., to resign after marrying his longtime partner has now hired the attorney who represented former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe on discrimination issues.
Minneapolis attorney Clayton Halunen* said Friday that he was retained by Jamie Moore after St. Victoria Catholic Church asked Moore to resign following his wedding last weekend to his longtime partner.
On Friday, Moore was still listed on the St. Victoria directory, but Halunen said Moore has resigned as requested. He declined to comment any further and said Moore would not be available for comment.
However, he told Fox 9 News on Thursday that he’s preparing to sue Archbishop John Nienstedt for “aiding and abetting discrimination,” adding that Moore was fired not because he was gay but because he married. Halunen said Minnesota churches are allowed to discriminate based on sexual orientation but not on marital status. - Source
That was quick.
Jamie Moore knew he could be terminated or asked to resign if he married his partner - or as he stated: "I've known since I started at St. Victoria in February of 1997 that this could be a possibility at some point."
I was hoping he would simply walk away.
Ka-ching!
To learn more on Wrongful Termination Law, go here.
*Prayers have been answered - Jamie Manzi-Moore is not suing.
*Prayers have been answered - Jamie Manzi-Moore is not suing.
Friday, September 26, 2014
This is just a test: Outbreak of respiratory illness escalates among children - baffling scientists...
I bet it is just a test by the Government ...
An outbreak of respiratory illness first observed in the Midwest has spread to 38 states, sending children to hospitals and baffling scientists trying to understand its virulent resurgence. - Finish reading here.
Or what if ...
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Pope Francis, the wisdom of the desert.
What's wrong with the Church.
Besides Larry?
“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I knew I was cheap.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Remember Our Lady of Ransom, O sweet virgin Mary, that never was it known, that anyone who fled to thy protection,
implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided...
September 24
Feast of Our Lady of Ransom
Or, Our Lady of Mercy.
Today's feast of Our Lady is primarily celebrated in South American countries and in Spain. It is the titular feast of the order of friars known as the Mercedarians, founded by St. Peter Nolasco. St. Raymond Nonnatus was also a member of this order, founded to ransom Catholic slaves held captive by Muslims.
Unlike today, when there is no bargaining with terrorists, in those days ransom would be paid to free those held captive. St. Raymond exchanged himself for such and was enslaved for a time. The Saracens pierced his lips with a padlock to prevent him from speaking about the Catholic faith. He himself was later ransomed by his fellow Mercedarians.
Things do not seem to have changed much with Muslim-Christian relations...
Another interesting factoid about devotion to Our Lady of Ransom - or Our Lady of Mercy as she is known since Vatican II: During the English persecutions under the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, devotion to Our Lady of Ransom enjoyed a greater fervor in the hopes of bringing the Church of England back into "Our Lady's Dowry".
In our day it seems to me it would be good if the devotion was revived and given greater attention, considering the continued threats of terrorism, and above all, the ongoing persecution of Christians in Muslim lands. Our culture is faced with many moral afflictions as well, such as addictions to vice and various obsessive-compulsive disorders. Our Lady of Ransom would seem to be an efficacious title one might use to implore the Blessed Virgin's help to obtain freedom from those sins which most ensnare us.
"Implore the Blessed Virgin's help to obtain freedom from those sins which most ensnare us."
September 24 ... "Keep your mind in hell, and despair not ..."
An Orthodox saint...
It seems to me what he says is not so different from saints like Padre Pio. Pio lived bearing the wounds, the sufferings, the rejection and persecution of Christ. That is kind of like 'keeping your mind in hell' when you think about it. The sufferings Christ endured was the chastisement that makes us whole - that which unites us to God.
St Silouan, elder of Mt Athos (1938) (September 11 OC)
He was a Russian peasant who traveled to Mt Athos and became a monk in the Russian Monastery of St Panteleimon. He lived so simply, humbly and quietly that he might be forgotten had not Fr Sophrony (Sakharov) become his spiritual child and, after the Saint's repose, written a book describing his life and teaching: St Silouan of Mt Athos, one of the great spiritual books of our time. It was through Fr Sophrony's efforts that St Silouan was glorified as a Saint.
Following a vision of Christ Himself, St Silouan withdrew to a hermitage to devote himself entirely to prayer; but he was called back to serve as steward to the monastery. Though he now supervised some two hundred men, he only increased his prayers, withdrawing to his cell to pray with tears for each individual worker under his care. For more than fifteen years he struggled with demonic attacks during prayer until he was almost in despair. At this point Christ spoke to him in a vision, saying 'The proud always suffer from demons.' Silouan answered 'Lord, teach me what I must do that my soul may become humble.' To this he received the reply, Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not. Silouan made this his discipline in every moment of his life, and was granted the grace of pure prayer. He said that if he ever let his mind wander from the fire of hell, disruptive thoughts would once again plague him. In his humiliation he was filled with a pervasive love for all — he said many times that the final criterion of true Christian faith is unfeigned love for enemies, and that 'to pray for others is to shed blood.' - Orthodox Saints
Some day I hope to write about how some people protest too much on their blogs and publications - specifically in reference to being gay and Catholic. If they believe that earlier Catholic writers on the subject of gay and Catholic were over-psychologized, the new gay Catholic writers tend to be over-theologized/mythologized on the issue. Although I suppose that's what sells books and garners speaker engagements.
Keep your mind in hell and you won't have problems with chastity.
Keep your mind in gay and you will still want ... Ah! What did a guy on his way to perfection say to me once? I'm gay and I try to be chaste, "but I still want @*ck."
Chick?
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
St. Pio of Pietrelcina
From a letter sent by Padre Pio on September 12, 1968 to Pope Paul VI:
"I offer to you my prayers and my daily suffering, so that the Lord may comfort you with his grace,
to continue defending the eternal truth that never changes with the times change.
I thank you for the clear words in the "Humanae Vitae" (The encyclical letter 'Of human life')
and confirm my faiths and my unconditional obedience." - Source
I am convinced Padre Pio is one of the most important saints for our time.
Years ago I had a vivid dream of Padre Pio - which means more to me now than it did then. Otherwise, I didn't have a very intense devotion to him, even though I visited San Giovanni Rotondo as a pilgrim and asked his intercession many times in novenas and aspirations. Now that I'm older, his life makes more sense to me. "He participated daily in the physical sufferings of the wounded Christ" - since the end of WWI - for 50 years. With persecution, "humiliation and rejection" besides.
I remember how several priests I encountered in my life used to speak of Padre Pio in a condescending manner, frequently distancing themselves from devotees, regarding them as naive and 'overly pious'. He didn't fit in with contemporary theology. So I remained pretty much a secret admirer throughout the '70's and '80's. My attraction and love for Padre Pio was based upon my conviction that he was a refuge for sinners more than a living crucifix or wonder-worker. He was so devoted to the conversion and reconciliation of sinners. No matter how gruff he appeared, or severe his counsels sounded to me, I sensed his seraphic love for souls. So simple - so great. He said he would do more after his death than he did in life and I trust that promise. In the fullness of charity, not one sinner could he ever reject - why? Because no servant is greater than his master - who is Mercy Himself.
Anyway. May he pray for all of us... may he obtain for us the grace of deep conversion, the forgiveness of sins and perseverance in grace.
On September 22, 1968 Padre Pio celebrated his last Mass. The wounds disappeared.
The wounds had disappeared on September 20, 1968 on the fiftieth anniversary of their appearance."
After last Mass, looking at the crowds in church: "oh my children! My dear children."
In thanksgiving for the graces given to St. Pio and the edifying example of his life, as well as the many graces obtained through his intercession.
Feeling sorry for yourself? Your Bishop doesn't appreciate you? Worried about Cardinals sent into exile? Ordered to turn in your ermine cappa magna? Just remember how they treated Padre Pio.
And it wasn't until the papacy of Paul VI that St. Pio was exonerated and liberated.
In the summer of 1960, the Holy Office of the Vatican dispatched an apostolic visitor to investigate Padre Pio...
...anxiety about Padre Pio stemmed from a set of audiotapes surreptitiously recorded in the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in San Giovanni Rotondo that purported to document improper relations between Pio and a group of lay sisters, who formed a kind of protective guard around him. Keepers of the Padre Pio cult, they controlled access to the future saint, handled money coming in for the hospital, and appeared to have free run of the monastery at all hours.
The apostolic visitor, Monsignor Carlo Maccari, left San Giovanni unimpressed by the person of Padre Pio and horrified by the cult that surrounded him, which he thought, according to his report, smacked of “idolatry and perhaps even heresy…religious conceptions that oscillate between superstition and magic.” - Source
For a time it looked like Padre Pio would live out his remaining years being treated as a miscreant.
But Paul VI changed things around rapidly. The Pope was not averse to St Pio. As Cardinal of Milan, Paul VI had sent a request for prayers to Padre Pio in 1959. In 1964, Pope Paul intervened with the CDF and ordered that Padre Pio be allowed to practise his ministry “in complete freedom” and that he was not to be confined “like a criminal”. - Source
How did St. Pio act when he was 'imprisoned' and maligned?
Saint Pio's response:
"God's will be done,"...then he covered his eyes with his hands, lowered his head, and murmured, "The will of the authorities is the will of God." - Source
Monday, September 22, 2014
Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed ...
Luke 8: 16-18
Just think about that when you worry too much about the lives of others ...
And mind your own business.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Abbey Roads contra blogdum ...
Go forth and proselytize the living hell out of them!
I almost got sucked down that vortex of negative speculation and gossip and the sky-is-falling. I strongly urge readers to go to confession, talk to your spiritual director, or a good, solid, holy priest. Don't go to strangers online. Don't listen to me or any self-guided apologist/evangelist/mystical twit online. A few days ago a good priest with a blog said to take the miraculous stories associated with a certain saint 'with a grain of salt'. I say take his blog with a grain of salt. Take my blog with a grain of salt. Take those who cajole and condemn the bishops and even the pope with a grain of salt. If you have a simple, ordinary pure faith and deep piety - avoid reading blogs written by the disgruntled and the rude rad-trad-gic alienated grumblers - be they ordained or un-ordained disorderly.
Spiritual desolation, in contrast, is an experience of the soul in heavy darkness or turmoil. We are assaulted by all sorts of doubts, bombarded by temptations, and mired in self-preoccupations. We are excessively restless and anxious and feel cut off from others. Such feelings, in Ignatius’s words, “move one toward lack of faith and leave one without hope and without love.”
The key question in interpreting consolation and desolation is: where is the movement coming from and where is it leading me? Spiritual consolation does not always mean happiness. Spiritual desolation does not always mean sadness. Sometimes an experience of sadness is a moment of conversion and intimacy with God. Times of human suffering can be moments of great grace. Similarly, peace or happiness can be illusory if these feelings are helping us avoid changes we need to make.
For people who are trying to live a life pleasing to God, the good spirit strengthens, encourages, consoles, removes obstacles, and gives peace. The evil spirit tries to derail them by stirring up anxiety, false sadness, needless confusion, frustration, and other obstacles. - Discernment of spirits.Now about those bishops.
St. Alphonsus Liguori had some things to say that may be helpful to consider in our time. There have always been problems in the Church, bishops and pastors have been exiled, founders of religious communities kicked out of their own orders, and so on. Christ promised us everything - 'and persecutions besides'. We need the perspective of God - we judge as humans judge and fail to see the divine purpose behind his providential designs.
As regards my opinions concerning the present state of the church with relation to the election of the new Pope, what opinion of any weight could a miserable, ignorant, and unspiritual person like myself possibly give? There is need for prayer and much prayer. All the human science and prudence that there is cannot extricate the church from the present state of relaxation and confusion in which every section finds itself; the all-powerful arm of God is necessary.
As regards the bishops, very few of them possess genuine zeal for souls. Almost all religious communities – and one could omit the “almost”– are relaxed. As a result of the present state of general confusion, observance has collapsed and obedience is a thing of the past. The state of the secular clergy is still worse: so, in a word, there is a need for a general reform of all clerics and ecclesiastics if there is to be any improvement in the present great corruption of morals among the laity.
I assure you, my friends, that I desire, like yourself, to see remedies for so many and such unfortunate situations. In all this matter a thousand ideas circulate in my head which I feel like telling everybody about. But, mindful of my own unworthiness, I have not the effrontery to publicize them lest I should appear to wish to reform the whole world. So I share these ideas with you not from any arrogance but for my own peace of mind. - St. Alphonsus
So knock it off.
As Bob and Penny always said: We love you family!
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