Vigil of the Ascension

Come Holy Spirit!

I'm happy Ascension is moved to Sunday - the Paschal Season is extended - while the novena to the Holy Spirit begins nine days before Pentecost either way.  Everything is a grace.

Figueiredo Report

Follow the path of truth wherever it may lead...

Someone needs to get film rights for this.

I guess the news broke today, and so far, the only place I noticed anyone writing about it was on Facebook.  Today the shit hits the fan, once everyone reads Monsignor Anthony J. A. Figueiredo's report.  Figueiredo was Cardinal McCarrick's secretary, so I think he's rather credible.  I respect his intentions as he expressed them in his introcuctory notes:

It is my firm hope that this information will help the Church as she further endeavors to create a culture of transparency. This report, which may form the first of others, is a contribution to the wish of Pope Francis and the Holy See “to follow the path of truth wherever it may lead” in terms of the ongoing McCarrick investigation (Pope Francis, Philadelphia, USA, September 27, 2015; Press Statement of the Holy See, October 6, 2018). It aims to help the US Bishops in their promise last August to “pursue the many questions surrounding Archbishop McCarrick’s conduct … we are determined to find the truth in this matter” (Statement of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, President, USCCB, August 1, 2018). - The Figueiredo Report

As I wrote on FB, one quote from McCarrick, more or less defending his conduct (inviting or choosing a seminarian or young priest to share his bed) echoed the claims by Michael Jackson, defending similar conduct. The quote from McCarrick is very much like Michael Jackson's denial of wrong doing when he said, "The most loving thing to do, is to share your bed with someone."

McCarrick: "“I do recognize that in one particular [case] I had been at fault in an unfortunate lack of judgment. I have always considered my priests and seminarians as part of my family, and just as I have shared a bed with my cousins and uncles and other relatives without thinking of it being wrong, I had done this on occasion when the Diocesan Summer House was overcrowded. In no case were there minors involved, but men in their twenties and thirties.” - The Figueiredo Report

What could be more wholesome or natural?

"I have always considered my priests and seminarians as part of my family..."

This is important ...

"When I am so convinced about some negative aspect of my life, I sometimes sink into despair. I must put my trust in your love and abandon myself to you.

When I am so convinced about some negative aspect of another’s life, I am sometimes inclined to detest them and to stay away from them.

Then I must stop to contemplate your love for me. Why do you love me, Lord, when I feel disdain and disgust for my brothers and sisters?

Give me the courage to see things as you see them, Lord, and to love unconditionally. Only then will true communion be realized.

Often, behind a facade of courtesy and attentiveness there exists a hidden dissension, which weakens communion and renders it insincere.

Lord, you are infinite patience.

You are limitless understanding.

Your love is eternal." - Venerable Francis Xavier Nguyên Văn Thuân

I think it is true that saints find us, and choose us, or at least are sent to us by Divine Providence.  I was looking through my book shelves for something when I noticed Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan's book The Road to Hope.  I have had it for at least 12 years and never read it, when I saw it, I thought I should read it.  Then on Friday the above meditation from Magnificat popped up, and really spoke to my heart.  Last night I retrieved the book, remembering how I used to buy every new book someone recommended or I thought would be a good guide for the spiritual life.  I'd read them and go on to the next book, only for the books to land on a shelf.  This is why now, at my age, I usually ignore recommendations about this new author whose insights are a sort of cure-all for what bothers me, or can shed light on the evil in the Church.  After all, how many books can one read?  I did that years ago with St. Therese, I collected and read everything that she ever wrote, as well as so many authors who wrote about her, but I found out that her simple writing - all by itself - was enough to know her and understand her.

I keep the Imitation close, and the Bible closer, and reference my Carmelite Doctors when necessary, but that's about it.  Although it looks as if Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan will be close to me for awhile  now as well.  His love of the Church is deeply encouraging.  He could never find it in himself to attack the Holy Father in the way critics do today.  Never.

"An apostle respects higher authority even when he or she could show the authority that a mandate is unsuitable.  In the presence of others, an apostle always treats a superior with respect.  Disobedience and duplicity are inexcusable." - Francis Xavier Nguyên Văn Thuân

Remembering.