Pope Francis Endorses Courage!

It happened at the General Audience.

December 29, 2021.  Catholic media pretty much ignored it.

"“Courage is synonymous with fortitude, which together with justice, prudence and temperance is part of the group of human virtues called ‘cardinal,’” Pope Francis said. 

“It is a common misconception to consider courage a virtue exclusive to the hero,” he added. “In fact, the daily life of every person — you, me, all of us — requires courage: one cannot live without courage. Courage to face the difficulties of every day.” 

“In all times and in all cultures we find brave men and women, who in order to be consistent with their beliefs have overcome all kinds of difficulties, enduring injustice, condemnation, and even death,” he stated." - CNA

Some of my friends always feel slighted that Pope Francis seems to ignore Courage Apostolate, never officially endorsing the group.  Rather he praises Sr. Jeannine Gramick, New Ways Ministry and Fr. James Martin  for their outreach to LGBTQ persons who either do not agree with Catholic teaching and the principals of Courage, or resent those who consider Courage the only path to sanctity for gay people, and of course to those who reject Catholic teaching on sexuality outright and yet desire to live in communion with the Catholic Church.  It's another sign of contradiction on so many levels.

Seriously, when the Holy Father applauds 'courage' he is endorsing the faithful Christian who lives his life in courageous witness to Catholic teaching.  How can we not see that?  “It is a common misconception to consider courage a virtue exclusive to the hero,” he added. “In fact, the daily life of every person — you, me, all of us — requires courage: one cannot live without courage. Courage to face the difficulties of every day.” 

My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.

Again, to understand the Holy Father, we need to turn to the Gospel, in this case Luke and the story of the prodigal son - and in this instance, the father's gentle rebuke to the older son.

He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him.
He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.
But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’
He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. - Luke 15

In fact, that whole chapter reveals the Holy Father's method.  Calling souls, inviting them into the 'wedding feast' because the Father wants his house to be full - when the Bridegroom comes, he will separate the good from the bad.  

Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. - Matthew 22

Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.

I'm convinced the Pope recognizes that many go out to be with those on the peripheries, to accompany them, to be present, despite the risk of scandal and misunderstanding.  Some make mistakes, others remain faithful and sacrifice a great deal, but all are sinners in need of mercy - just like me.

This closeness is beautifully exemplified by the Little Sisters of Jesus, especially one the sisters who recently passed away, her name, Sor Barbara.

Last farewell to Sor Barbara, the 'sister of Muslims', in a mosque in Hermel (Lebanon)
At the funeral of Barbara of Jesus, the Shiites recited an invocation of Islam, Al-Fāti ḥa, which constitutes the first surah of the Quran, by the soul of the religious who worked in the poorest neighborhoods
A poster synthesized the popular feeling: «All the people miss it as a model of devotion, charity and purity»
Christians also mourn the death of the sister: “Great sorrow on earth and great joy in heaven for the passing of sorrow
During the years of the Lebanese conflict, that house represented a symbol of peace and peaceful coexistence for the inhabitants of the area. - Source

 

Sor Barbara of Jesus

 

There is another nun who does similar work with transgender persons in Argentina - a Discalced Carmelite, la Hermana Monica Astorga.  I've written about her before, when the Holy Father praised her work, as well.  We all know the Holy Father is against gay marriage and gender ideology, yet he praises the sort of outreach, accompaniment these religious do.  It is a sign of contradiction.

La hermana Mónica Astorga

The New Evangelization.

It is obvious that the Holy Father has a different perspective on evangelization than what we have been accustomed to - one that is closer to the mission and vocation of the Missionaries of Charity and followers of St. Charles de Foucauld.  I may be wrong, but it is how I understand the Pope.  Pope Francis' letter to Sr. Jeannine:

December 10, 2021
Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL

Dear sister,

Many thanks for your letter. It made me happy to receive the news about your 50th anniversary.

Your letter reminded me of “the style” of God… God has his own style to communicate with us. And we could summarize that style in three words: closeness, compassion, tenderness.

And I am thinking of your 50 years of ministry, which were 50 years with this “style of God,” 50 years of closeness, of compassion and of tenderness.

You have not been afraid of “closeness,” and in getting close you did it “suffering with” [compassion] and without condemning anyone, but with the “tenderness” of a sister and a mother.

Thank you, Sister Jeannine, for all your closeness, compassion and tenderness.

I pray for you. Please do not forget to pray for me. Greetings to Yayo (Obdulio).

May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin protect you.

Fraternally,

Francisco

Sr. Jeannine

 

It's a remarkable recognition and turn from the many censures Sr. Jennine has suffered in her outreach.  Because of those, I at times lacked charity and understanding towards her, New Ways and even Fr. Martin on occasion.  I apologize for that and pray in reparation for my sins against them.  I have lived my life in a great struggle to live according to Catholic teaching on sexuality and marriage, and I have no regrets - except for the times I failed to do so - or thought I was better because of it.  Thank God for the grace to recover through the Sacrament of Penance and the Eucharist, and for this Pope who has taught me so much.

'If I had not been accepted in Carmel, I would have entered a Refuge (for fallen women) and lived out my days there, unknown and despised among the poor penitents.' - St.Therese of Lisieux

Oh My! Look at the time - it's 2022

New Year means nothing to me.

Just a new calendar.

Nothing new here.  So.  We're all caught up then?

I spend too much time on FB and monitoring Twitter.  Although most of my FB time is spent watching home improvement videos, along with arts and crafts videos.  Otherwise I come across Catholic posts which generate controversy over fake news and conspiracy theories, which annoy me and sometimes I comment or post on it here, only to have my POV ignored.  Sometimes I form an opinion without knowing the facts and when I do, I sometimes moderate my tone.  I should really just shut up.

It's kind of fascinating having been on social media for so many years.  I've learned a lot, especially about others, no doubt others have learned a lot about me as well.  Knowing aspects of one's private life and beliefs contradicts what many people thought they knew about you - that works both ways of course.  

Now that I'm old a lot of that no longer matters.  At least I hope it doesn't.  Friending and unfriending on social media is absolutely meaningless.  People I have never met or knew once upon a time in the workplace are not friends in the sort of flesh and blood sense - therefore when they unfriend me, it's fine.  Unfriending means they never knew me in the first place - they believed me to be someone they wanted me to be.  Hence they were never friends in the first place.  

I was looking for something I once wrote on friendship.  Especially as it applied to same sex friendship.  It is an issue that has been gravely exaggerated due to the fact that same sex couple may now legally marry, although the Church cannot recognize SS marriage.  It's also been a concern to some Catholics if two men or two women share a house - are they lovers?  I've wasted much time on that subject, but again, those who did not know me, never understood what I was saying.  To be sure, it never should have been an issue and now, in 2022 it no longer is.

That said, I came across an extraordinary statement made by a former Priory of a monastic community who had been accused of certain improprieties with a member of his community.  I don't want to get into details of the scandal - both men have distanced themselves from me because I have shared my reflections on their situation and considered both actors were sufficiently aware of the objective boundary violations within the relationship.  The former prior unfriended me simply because I questioned the authenticity of his vocation within a vocation, for various reasons.  That's another story.

I do have to conclude there probably is something to the whistleblower's accusations and the prior's behavior.  A little thing the prior wrote, which I copied and pasted for a post I did, thinking it just might help people understand a chaste, same-sex friendship between laymen, could be very telling.  The link to the author's 2012 blog post has since been deleted.  The quote:

"... one must have friendships in life. [ . . .] Let yourself love. There is no danger so long as the spirit of prayer exists in you. And young priests have hours of loneliness that are very hard. They need affection and tenderness. If you don't give it to them, they will go looking for it just anywhere.

Also, at certain hours we need someone to show us affection: a mother, a sister, a brother. Otherwise, if the heart is not anchored, it goes anywhere at all, and is lost." - One must have friendships in life.

I believe this is significant, and ought to be reassuring to the whistleblower that something inordinate was involved in their rather small, albeit intimate community.

A long post about nothing.