“I could not leave Bolivia without first seeing you”. - Pope Francis to prisoners and their families.
The Pope struck a personal note from the start when he suggested the prisoners might be asking themselves: “Who is this man standing before us?”…”A man who has experienced forgiveness”, he replied, “a man who was, and is, saved from his many sins. That is who I am”. - RV
The Holy Father often reminds me of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and her little way of confidence and love. What the Pope said to the Bolivian prisoners echoes her desire that souls understand the excess of God's merciful love - even for the greatest of sinners, and that it is not reserved for the few.
"Even if I had committed all possible crimes, I would still have the same confidence; I would feel that this multitude of offenses would be like a drop of water thrown into the flaming furnace of God's love." - St. Therese
. Does he intend to visit their victims? Modern Popes have a questionable record on meeting victims unless all media are fibbing or are silent. I read that neither he prior to being Pope nor John Paul II would generally meet with victims of sex abuse. Yet John Paul met with the man who shot him. Francis should tell the prisoners to make restitution if they killed and left a woman a widow with children. Or does he just say the sweet. Where I grew up, two people were murdered in separate years within a block of my house....a friend's sister and the perfect hardware store man...he told you what you needed instead of the thing you were ssking for. The murderer of Kathleen served 5 years in New Jersey. He came out and bragged about it in the wrong bar of Irishmen. They shut the bar and removed all his teeth without the benefit of pain killers or extraction tools....just fists. Yes they were wrong and sinned. But so do Popes when they prefer criminals to victims. No....I did not grow up in East Hampton near Billy Joel. 4th marriage for Billy....is he beyond the Synod's mercy. I think yes. He does not have irreversible habitation due to her being pretty.
ReplyDeleteVisiting the imprisoned is one of the corporal works of mercy. And that's Pope St. John Paul. No idea of your point about Billy Joel. His soul is in God's hands.
DeleteI liked Billy Joel's music - but never cared for him. I always forget the wife's name in Uptown Girl - the model - never cared for her eiher. I love NY State of Mind though. They're phonies.
DeleteSo anyway. Meeting the victims - missed that in the Gospel - I think he said - "You visited me when I was in prison." I think the victims may be covered under the Good Samaritan act and the caring for widows and orphans directive? ;)
Seriously though, when I was a little kid and kids at school and neighbors made fun of me because my dad tried his vocation as a crook and thief and over-all threat to the family, and was in and out of jail - it kind of made for a shameful childhood which might tempt others to wonder why the nuns in school didn't correct the kids who shouted at me in church, 'your father's a jail bird' - but you know what - I learned at an early age to suck it up and offer it up.
In Bolivia kids can be and are in prison with their parents - I think the little girl in the photo may appreciate this visit in years to come.
No doubt victims have rights and there is pastoral concern and attempts at reparations and consolations - but victims are not conveniently gathered in one spot to receive papal consolations.
That said, victims are being taken care of monetarily here and in other dioceses, as well as getting to meet with clergy, and so on. I also thought that Francis has addressed the issue of victims? I don't know? Was it he or Benedict who met with victims?
It is an unjust world all around - is there a victim's association one can donate to? What?
Nan,
DeleteGod understands perfectly why I don't always use Saint for John Paul II. And I believe he's in Heaven after the deeply caustic experience of purgatory between his death and his canonization. He was served with a law suit in 1985 by the parents of the Lousiana victims in the Gauthe case. And he was informed further in the mid 1980's of the sex abuse crimes. He should have raged against the very phenomenon like Christ driving out the money changers and should have ordered all Bishops to turn such men over to the police immediately. He did not. I can only find him doing one thing...
tightening seminary enquiries into men in the future. Then he went back to sleep on the matter and refused to listen to warnings about Cardinal Groer in Austria and Fr. Macial Maciel DeGollardo who he called a sure guide for spiritual direction who turned out to be sexual with two genders inter alia while under vows. John Paul II wrote and he traveled and he wrote and he traveled. Cardinals are electing Popes who don't like administration but like the life of thinking and authoring. So we have chaos but an extensive library. TOB lectures were being written by him while children were being raped by priests who told them it was God's will. He accepted the cross of illness in old age with faith. That's the only part of him that strikes me as saintly. I see no Catholic on the blogs praising any other side of him they want to emulate.
“Eso no lo sabía” - I didn't know about the Gauthe case.
DeleteThe rest is just plain perplexing - I can't defend it.
Correction. Billy Joel's wife will give birth this summer. They may have irreversible habitation afterall varying with the Bishop if they were Catholic. But they're not. Governor Andrew Cuomo officiated at the ceremony. What?
ReplyDeleteJust looked it up - Christie Brinkley. Phonies. My take on most celebrities like them:
DeleteThe worthless are prized highly by the sons of men. - Psalm 12: 9
In case anyone missed this - the Pope visited victims of another type in Paraguay:
ReplyDelete"On Saturday he made changes to his schedule as well, deciding to include an afternoon visit to the “Saint Rafael Foundation”, which cares for poor patients with AIDS and cancer, has a rehabilitation clinic, three centers for abandoned and abused children and homes for the elderly." - CNA