Saturday, March 03, 2018

Manly-o-phobic Tradsters and Germans find the New Vatican Stamp for Easter ... Offensive.



Too gay, too buff, too manly, too sexy?

You can't satisfy the critics - ever.  How many times have I heard people complain about effeminate looking Christ images?  Yet now they complain the Vatican stamp is too manly?

Michelangelo did manly robust images of Christ - naked even - but today, with all the gossip and innuendo about gays in the Vatican, every image of a well proportioned male figure seems to be suspect of promoting homo-heresy.  I've already seen comments about how gay it is.  Yet the German bishops suggested it will cause women's hearts to beat faster. 
“The Easter stamp at least is decorated with a gym-Jesus with muscle-packed arms and toned upper body which causes women's hearts to beat faster and makes [German Archbishop] Georg Gänswein look old,” states the German bishops’ website. - Source
Traditionally most classical images of the Risen Christ are depicted nearly naked, displaying a well proportioned physique, handsome - in order to illustrate the human body in glory - a man in his prime, perfected.  The image on the stamp is not at all gym-like.  The musculature is not exaggerated or overworked.  The people who write this crap have dirty minds.  They see what they want to see and interpret it according to their own bias; 'everything is received through and according to the subject.'


Thursday, March 01, 2018

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

More on St. Gabriel Possenti

(I love this sculpture.)


Patron saint of gun nuts ... for no good reason.

My devotion to St. Gabriel goes back to 2nd or 3rd grade - he and St. Aloysius, St. Stanislaus Kostka, John Berchmans, were all special patrons to me.  All young saints.  It doesn't make me an expert on their life and virtue of course, but I'm familiar enough to know some of the apocrypha surrounding their lives.

People make things up about the saints, hagiographers embellish their lives, and write unrealistic accounts.  How many saints are considered 'gay saints' today?  With absolutely no evidence, or in some cases, misconstruing episodes or relationships in their lives according to 20th century understanding to suit an agenda.  S. Sebastian and S. Joan of Arc are perhaps the most celebrated as 'queer' saints.  Yesterday St. Gabriel Possenti was celebrated by Catholic gun cultists as patron saint of gunners and marksmen - all based upon an apocryphal story of the saint.

Last night I researched my little library and found nothing to give credence to the story.  One book in particular, printed in 1910 shortly after the beatification of Possenti, Life of Blessed Gabriel, CP by Nicholas Ward, CP, was valuable in shedding light on the question.  The book is based entirely on the positio for the cause of Gabriel Possenti.  It contains the biography of the saint, testimony of witnesses, step by step on the Work of Perfection - detailing the saints practice of the cardinal and theological virtues, as well as details of the miracles attributed to him after death.  All the evidence necessary for beatification.

The purported episode with the gun is nowhere to be found, and the story itself is not at all characteristic of the saint's conduct.  The manner in which the biography is written, with the emphasis on religious discipline makes it even more unbelievable.  The Confraters - the name used for Passionist male religious, pretty much did nothing without permission.  It's doubtful they would be wandering around town on their own, especially in a situation like the one described.

The story was inserted into his biography 25 - 30 years ago.  “As far as we can tell, it’s anecdotal,” Carrillo says of the Isola gunfight. “It appears in a particular biography written about 25 to 30 years ago, and it is not likely to be based in historical fact.

The story is promoted by the St. Gabriel Possenti Society and Society chairman John M. Snyder.  Their evidence is based upon a biography of the saint written by Rev. Godfrey Poage, C.P., who stated in the introduction to his book published in 1962, explained that, ‘nothing was said that had not been quoted by eyewitnesses, at least in the third person.’  Yeah, well.  I was around in 1962 and there was a trend to make saints appealing to modern youth and methinks the gun story was inserted to make Gabriel a bit more appealing to all American boys.  He looked a bit effeminate in the holy cards images distributed, and they certainly didn't want to promote his reputation of a 'dandy' with a taste for fashion, much less his dance expertise dance.

Anyway.  Looks like everyone does this stuff.  Fr. Z promotes gunners, Fr. James Martin promotes gays, and they all pick out patron saints to suit their causes.  Yesterday I did a post on FB calling out Church Militant again.  They did a story on a bishop calling for parishioners to let him know if an announcement wasn't read in their parishes.  They asked, "Is this right for a bishop to ask parishioners to spy on their priests?"  I responded:
This is almost funny. CM questions Bishop Olson's request for parishioners to let him know if an advisory he issued was not read at Masses. CM says the bishop is asking Catholics to spy on their priests. My comment on their post was: "Isn't that what Voris and the rest of you do yourselves? Spy on priests and bishops and publish scandal sheets?" 
Go figure.




I said in my alarm;
'no man can be trusted'
all have gone astray,
there is not a good man left -
there is no one who does good,
no, not even one. 

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Gun Nut(s) and Their Idolatrous Devotion to Plaster Saints and Guns. What?



Today is the feast of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, patron saint of youth.

Gun nuts celebrate his feast day because he has been unofficially promoted as a patron of 'hand-gunners and marksmen'.  To my knowledge this has not been approved either by the Congregation of Saints or the Passionists.

Born in Assisi, he was named after the town's patron, Francesco. In his teens, he became the center of attention amongst friends on account of his vivacious spirit - very much like his namesake, St. Francis. Frequenting parties, admired for his sense of fashion and dancing ability ... (what?) ... he was extremely popular. Yet in the midst of much temptation, he preserved a sense of devotion and remained singularly chaste. After completion of his studies, young Francesco revealed his intention to enter the Passionists, surprising his family, while leaving his friends dumbfounded.

Twice before his final decision to enter religious life, the young saint, who also suffered from poor health, promised Our Lady he would devote the rest of his life to God if she obtained his cure. Regaining his health, he twice forgot his promise. While attending a procession one day, he looked upon a banner bearing an image of Our Lady, the Madonna's eyes looked at him and he heard these words; "Keep your promise."

The saint wasted no time and entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Passion, taking the name Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. His life as a cleric was as ordinary as that of St. Therese of Lisieux, and like her, he died of consumption at the age of 24. He is truly another saint of the "little way".

St. Gabriel is also very popular in this country with Catholic gun nuts, since, as I mentioned, gun-nuts have proclaimed him to be the patron saint of hand-gunners. This is due to the fact, consistently disputed by hagiographers, that he supposedly once drove a group of mercenaries from the town his monastery was located, Isola, Italy. As the legend goes, St. Gabriel came to the defense of a young woman who was going to be sexually assaulted. Grabbing the soldier's gun, he held him at bay, shooting a lizard with one shot, the saint demonstrated his skilled marksmanship before the mockery of the insurgents. Stunned, the soldier let the girl go, while the other mercenaries were quickly persuaded to end the looting and extinguish the fires they had set. Afterwards, St. Gabriel drove them out of town, employing the guns he had confiscated from the soldiers. The townsfolk therefore  hailed him as a hero... so the story goes.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has been a long-standing advocate for gun control.
The problem, according to Catholic authorities: Possenti never shot that lizard. He wasn’t much of a marksman at all. In fact, the entire incident never even happened. Officially, Possenti is St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother and, as designated by Pope Benedict XV, the patron saint of Catholic youth. According to the Rev. Arthur Carrillo, director of the Passionists’ Office of Mission Effectiveness [...] “We’re entirely opposed to it,” says Carrillo, who works for Possenti’s order. “The reluctance we have to see this go forward is because it’s taking a political agenda and leveraging religious devotion to serve that purpose.”
“As far as we can tell, it’s anecdotal,” Carrillo says of the Isola gunfight. “It appears in a particular biography written about 25 to 30 years ago, and it is not likely to be based in historical fact.” (A Passionist colleague told the Chicago Tribune in 1987 that the account of Posseti’s reptile rampage was “highly imaginative” and noted that no other biography of the saint referenced any such incident.) - Source


At the canonization of Saint Gabriel, 
Pope Benedict XV declared him a patron saint of Catholic youth, 
of students, and of those studying for the priesthood.

Monday, February 26, 2018

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Prayers for Syria



We have school shootings - they have suffered war for seven years, and today many, many children are massacred in Ghouta.
The victims in the Eastern Ghouta include 121 children. - BBC
And now airstrikes resume after UN approves ceasefire. - BBC