"Popes meet with world leaders. Presidents visit Popes. Ho hum."

When the President met the Holy Father...

 I don't think it was ho hum at all.

I watched BBC coverage of the event - the coverage went 12 minutes and the commentary was detailed and very much focused upon the Obamacare policies and the Vatican's objection to the restraints upon religious freedom the health care initiative poses.  BBC stated the Vatican made it clear the Pope is concerned as well, and that the Holy Father brought up the touchy issues related to life and religious freedom issues. Media knows what the issues are and what they mean for American Catholics.  The BBC was not at all dismissive of the papal audience.  Unlike the rancorous comments filtered through segments of the Catholic blogging core.

I may be wrong, but I do not remember the press covering President Bush's visits to the Vatican with MSM anchors in Rome to report on it as extensively.

BBC coverage here.

I tend to view such encounters as having a deeper spiritual effect: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."*

On a lighter note, Deacon Kandra focuses on Pants.

Deacon's post asks what you should wear to meet the Pope ...  If you are a woman of course, since Susan Rice showed up in black with the requisite mantilla - but she wore pants.  Deacon didn't strike me as making a negative comment - but I got the impression he thought it was a strange look.

There are protocols that are dated and maybe not necessarily enforced.  Some women show up without a mantilla - Angela Merkel for instance.  Pantsuit yes - but Merkel did not wear a mantilla - maybe heads of state are not obliged, but Queen Elizabeth wears a veil.  (Although even Hilary Clinton wore a dress with a mantilla as First Lady.)  Anyway, women in Europe wear pants - just like American women do - I bet a black pantsuit is considered acceptable.  The dress mantilla had to make it even more acceptable for Rice.

Susan Rice looked great.  I've seen women at Mass looking much worse - jeans and running shoes, a parka, yet they have a mantilla slapped on.

Mantillas go with everything.

What?

* "Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." - The Little Prince

I don't think I will ever figure it out.

How did they get that cat to drive?

From some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the Catholic Blogosterium ...

Church of St. Foy

The fissure.

I can't recall where, but I came across a headline which stated the Catholic blogosphere is the most significant contribution to the Church in recent history - or something like that.  I think such self-congratulations are vain and misleading.  Online writers are easily pumped up and imagine their influence to be much greater than it really is.  Despite what their site meter and donation meters tell them, the majority of ordinary Catholics do not subscribe to Catholic blogs or news portals.  Take a poll - a real one - I'm sure the results would be far different than what your blog stats tell you.  Most people do not even read or subscribe to Catholic print media, not to mention diocesan newspapers.

Bloggers love to take credit for all sorts of things - I may be mistaken, but I think not a few congratulate themselves on the resurgence of the Extraordinary Form of Mass, exposing sex scandals in the clergy, and now days interpreting exactly what the Pope should be saying - or something like that.

Pope Paul VI had no way of knowing how prophetic his words were.  Many have pondered what exactly he meant by his words, "from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the Church ..."  I'm not seriously suggesting I know exactly what he meant, and to be sure, I'm not suggesting he meant the Internet would be the fissure, the portal which emits the smoke of Satan - I'm just saying it seems to me, not a few Catholic bloggers are emitting a foul odor, if not the smoke of Satan into their nearly schismatic version of the Church.

Just sayin'.

As I mentioned to a friend,  I try to give people a long leash on my blog, but I can't tolerate abuse against the Holy Father.  (Just like I never allow comments against Our Lady, the Blessed Sacrament, and so on.)  It seems obvious to me, many people online today expose themselves to bad teaching coming from bad websites. Anyone who reads and believes what sites such as Novus Ordo Watch publishes is exposing himself to genuinely anti-Catholic writing. In a way Michael Voris is right to refer to some of these sites as Catholic porn because they sow misinformation and doubt, which embeds in the memory and taints one's perception.  Hence, they are unstable, tossed about, doubting everything and extinguishing all hope for the future.  Worse, they see the death of their enemies as the biological solution to their discontent and objection to such persons and organization they perceive limit their religious freedom and rights.


In the throes of His sacred Passion, Christ said, "Put away your sword!"


It is obvious that many people online are unstable in the faith they proclaim.  Not a few are recent converts, recent 'recovering dissidents' and their initial fervor and convictions can be easily shaken.  I know of a few bloggers who have fallen away, left the Church.  A couple returned to pagan cult - Wicca - some have gone to other sects, others back to a disordered life.  Not a few of these folks were flaming evangelists, ritual thumping traditional Catholics, even holy contemplatives.  Remember Christ told the disciples who wanted to call down fire from heaven that they knew not what spirit they were - he also reminded them that he saw Satan fall from the highest point of the angelic host, falling from the sky like lightening.

Today's first reading at Mass is a precaution to all of us:  

Moses spoke to the people and said:

“Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ...take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.” - DT 4: 1-9

Those who mistrust Moses and the prophets, as well as those who mistrust Christ's Vicar on earth, need to remember what Christ, in today's Gospel assures us - that not one iota of the law will be dispensed with:

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” - Mt 5: 17-19

All of us should keep in mind how Aaron and Miriam were punished for murmuring against Moses. [Numbers:12:1-16]  Miriam was struck with leprosy - signifying the contagion spread by gossip and murmuring.  If you teach others to murmur, watch out.

Just sayin'

BTW: Comment moderation is on.

Just don't inhale.

Speaking of nuns...

Look at these old habits.  The sisters had no peripheral vision and you could hardly see their faces.  

"Go and learn the meaning of mercy" ... Because some people online don't get it.

Our Lord tells us, "It is mercy I desire, not sacrifice."

Lately many people online seem to have a problem understanding the concept of mercy.  I'm always surprised by that.  Even some priests.  One in particular, when he was newly ordained, understood mercy very well.  Like many others online, he now seems to think mercy is misunderstood, abused or taken for granted, even a sort of 'cheap grace'.  That's sad.

The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy. The word and the concept of "mercy" seem to cause uneasiness in man ... Bl. John Paul II

I think it would be good to go back and read what Blessed John Paul II wrote about mercy, and to study the Devotion to the Divine Mercy more closely - and even more importantly, to 'practice' mercy in our lives, and to pray the chaplet - as a means to learn the meaning of mercy, as well as obtain mercy for ourselves and others.

I've always understood Christian mercy as "divine love moved by (human) misery" which is the meaning of the word, misericordia.  God, who is rich in mercy, rushes to meet his prodigal son even before the son is able to confess and express his sorrow for his sin.  God's mercy seeks us and meets us even when we are caught in the brambles of sin.  The shepherd stoops down to grasp the lost sheep.  The Gospel is alive with mercy.  That is the "Good News"!

Today examples of mercy are needed - in real life.

For priests, perhaps the confessor St. Leopold Mandić is one such example.

Like an early desert father - he took upon himself the penances others thought he should be giving his penitents.  Isn't that kind?  Isn't that generous?  Isn't that love?  Isn't that mercy?  Carrying one an others burdens.  Being moved with pity by the weakness of our brothers.  St. Leopold made himself available for confession - like a watchman, he waited at the gates to reconcile those who passed by.

A couple of quotes from St. Leopold...

"Some say that I am too good. But if you come and kneel before me, isn't this a sufficient proof that you want to have God's pardon? God's mercy is beyond all expectation."

"Be at peace; place everything on my shoulders. I will take care of it." He once explained, "I give my penitents only small penances because I do the rest myself."

"A priest must die from apostolic hard work; there is no other death worthy of a priest."

Leopold suffered from esophagus cancer, which would ultimately lead to his death at age 76. On July 30, 1942, while preparing for the liturgy, he collapsed on the floor. He was then brought to his cell, where he was given the last rites. Friars that had gathered at his bed began singing the Salve Regina and saw that Leopold died as they sang "O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary." - Source

Padre Leopoldo wrote on a picture of the Blessed Virgin in 1927: "I. Fr. Leopoldo Mandie Zarevic. believe that the Blessed Virgin as Co-Redemptress of the human race is the moral cause of all grace - everything we receive comes from her fullness. "On one occasion he solemnly wrote: "The August Mother of God is in truth Co-Redemptress of the human race and source of all Grace. In fact, on the one hand we have in her the most perfect obedience to God's laws and, after her Son, the most perfect innocence: He, impeccable by His nature, she, impeccable by Grace. On the other hand we see her as Our Lady of Sorrows, as He was the Man of Sorrows. If, therefore, by eternal decree of God, the Immaculate Virgin was the moral victim of sorrow as her Son was the physical victim, and if God's avenging Justice found no shadow of fault in them, it follows: inevitably that they were paying the price of the sins of others, that is of mankind."

Showing mercy is a kindness.  Sometimes we can suffer something for other sinners unrepentant, unconverted, unconfessed - those far away.   We can pray and make sacrifices for sinners who have no one to pray for them.

It seems to me it is not enough to define mercy - we need to have mercy, to show mercy, to practice mercy.  Without counting, without measure, giving our shirt and our coat as well, going not one mile, but two, three, seven times seventy out of our way.

Before His own townspeople, in Nazareth, Christ refers to the words of the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." - Dives in Misericordia

The Singing Nun

I bet some people were wondering if I was going to write about Sr. Cristina, huh?

Everyone else seems to have posted on her debut on the Italian version of The Voice.  (I don't watch the American version either.)

She was good.  She sang Alicia Keys really, really well.  When Sr. Cristina was highlighted on CBS News I think they commented on her shoes.  Nun shoes.  Sensible shoes.  Kind of like running shoes.  She wore her habit.  You always hear complaints about nuns not wearing habits - she wore her habit.

I do not have one word of criticism.  She covered it well.  She was sweet and her sisters in the wings were full of joy over her making a splash on television in the recognition of her God given talent, as well as her witness to the Gospel - taking a romantic song and singing it to Christ, her Spouse.  What a novel witness.  The judges and the audience were deeply moved.

Singing nuns aren't new, however.  Monastic communities make albums.  The Daughters of St. Paul sing the Beatles.  Then when I was little, there was the Singing Nun - the Dominican who became famous for "Dominique" - later played by Debbie Reynolds in the film.  Who can forget Sr. Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act - that could be true.

Not a nun, but a friar, Fr. Stan Fortuna, CFR makes music - he's famous for Catholic hip hop.  Then there is the Rapping Padre.

Whatever works.

Unfortunately some people didn't like it.  I agree with Deacon Kandra who wrote:

Many of us have hearts tightly sewn shut—almost incapable of moving, let alone mustering anything resembling a beat. - On that singing nun and the “acid bath of ingratitude”

Song for this post here.

Ave Maria

I wonder if the Angel Gabriel wasn't more afraid - or in awe - than the Blessed Virgin was at the Annunciation?

Happy feast day!

Thirty four years ago today ...

Archbishop Oscar Romero assassinated, March 24, 1980.

He was martyred during the holy sacrifice of the Mass, at the elevation of the Precious Blood.

Cardinal against Cardinal

Some Catholics appear to be worried, up in arms about reports on the discussions between Cardinals over the question of admitting divorced and remarried persons to Holy Communion. In an interview recently, Cardinal Burke said that he hopes Cardinal Kasper will correct his 'error' on the matter.

There is still time.

These are discussions - not decrees. The Synod hasn't even started yet.  The official discussions and debates haven't even taken place yet.  Lay people are paying way too much attention to the media reports, the interviews, the 'leaks' - and they are creating a furor over rumor and gossip.

Journalists are paid to write about this stuff, as John Allen does here:

It’s cardinal vs. cardinal, round two, on the issue of allowing Catholics who divorce and remarry without an annulment -- a declaration from a church court that their first marriage was invalid -- to receive the sacraments.

Round one came in January, when Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, coordinator of Pope Francis’s “G8” council of cardinal advisers, took on German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the pope’s doctrinal czar.

Müller had published a piece in the Vatican newspaper seeming to close the door to any change, prompting Rodriguez Maradiaga to take him to task in an interview with a German newspaper.

“I say, my brother, the world isn’t like this, and you should be a little flexible when you hear other voices,” the Honduran prelate said.

Now, we have more crossfire between two princes of the church, though in this case the testy public rebuke is coming from someone who upholds the traditional discipline: Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, widely seen as a strong conservative and one of the late John Paul II’s key advisers on bioethics and marriage and family issues.

Caffarra gave a lengthy interview this week to the Italian newspaper Il Foglio, in which he was asked to respond to a speech given by German Cardinal Walter Kasper during a recent two-day session for all the world’s cardinals with Pope Francis. In that speech, which he called an “overture,” Kasper floated the idea of readmitting the divorced and remarried to communion after a period of penance.

Asked about that idea, Caffarra bluntly said it fails to answer a “very simple” question: What about their first marriage? - Boston Globe

Read it.  Think about it.  But wait for the Synod to start, and then wait for it to be completed.  Wait for the decree which results to be promulgated, rather than speculate on what could happen.  Quit scaring people and causing trouble.

In the meantime pray.

And pay attention to what the Pope actually says:

In extemporaneous remarks to members of Carollo, an Italian association of broadcasters, Pope Francis said that the “sins of the media” are misinformation, calumny, and defamation. The last two, he said, “are grave, but not as dangerous as the first.”

The Pope said that calumny (which involves falsehoods) “is a mortal sin” and defamation (which involves truths that unjustly damage a person’s reputation) “is a mortal sin." - CWN

Here's one.

Seinfeld's Fr. Curtis.

If you don't go to church because you don't like religious people, be careful!

Hell's full of them.

I just made that up!

Here's a topic for doh-nutz and coffee after Mass: Is Fred Phelps a saint?

All are welcome. - Gather us in.

Doh-nutz!

I know Mr. Phelps died, but I don't know where he is.  May he RIP.  The Catholic Church wouldn't, couldn't proclaim him a saint because he placed himself outside the Catholic Church.  In fact he despised Catholics.  As a 'hyper-Calvinist' I suspect he believed he was predestined and therefore among the elect already.  I don't know about stuff like that.

I mention Phelps because of his position on the evils of homosexuality.  Phelps was an extremist, no doubt about that - wrathful, perhaps in his own valuation, he had the spirit of an Old Testament prophet.  I rather think he was more or less fanatical in the sense of the New Testament, born-again, start-your-own-church-Bible-banger sort of way.  Yet his 'teaching' bore some similarities to medieval sermons and writings of some of the great saints in the Church.  Which is why I asked, facetiously mind you, is Fred Phelps a saint?

No sin in the world grips the soul as the accursed sodomy; this sin has always been detested by all those who live according to God...Deviant passion is close to madness; this vice disturbs the intellect, destroys elevation and generosity of soul, brings the mind down from great thoughts to the lowliest...They become blind and, when their thoughts should soar to high and great things, they are broken down and reduced to vile and useless and putrid things, which could never make them happy...Just as people participate in the glory of God in different degrees, so also in hell some suffer more than others...for this is the greatest sin. -St. Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444) - Fighting Irish Thomas

Priest and prophet forage in a land they know not.

Tom O'Toole wrote a post reminding Catholics of what the saints had to say about homosexuality - the quote above is from his post.  It is good to remind ourselves of that.  I've done posts on a couple of saints Tom highlights myself, to great accolade, I might add.  I'm kidding of course.  I remember writing about Peter Damian's treatise, Hot Night in Gommorah, or something - the exact title eludes me at the moment.  And Pope St. Pius V and how burning homosexuals at the stake was seen as a perfect penance in his time.  Such posts are always a big hit.  NOT.  Even laced with humor some readers find that stuff offensive in the extreme.

All kidding aside, Tom's post is an excellent reminder that homosexual behavior really is a serious, grave sin, a mortal sin.  Some saints have said it is the worst sin.  Obviously, Churchmen rarely talk that way any longer.  (The reactions to Pope Francis' and Cardinal Dolan's interviews demonstrate that, much to the chagrin of some.)  As we have been told repeatedly, todays emphasis is on conversion.  The Biblical, 'T'raditional teaching hasn't changed - "the tone has changed."  Some people would probably favor a Fred Phelps approach, others would like bishops and priests to preach like St. Bernadine of Siena and other 'hardliners'.  I can understand that.

In this Culture of Death era, when Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson nearly lost his job by quoting St. Paul's teaching on homosexuality, it's unlikely Pope Francis or many—if any—bishops will publicly proclaim the Catholic Church Fathers on the same subject. Due to a combination of concentration on compassion owed the homosexual person, trying to stay politically correct, or perhaps even fearing jail time for a homophobic hate crime, the clergy have largely begged off talking about the not-so-pleasant consequences of the sexual act. Still for the sake of seeing the incredible continuity of Church teachings through the ages, it's now necessary to revisit these directives that both agree with Paul's warnings to the Romans and Corinthians and at the same time would make his skin crawl. - Tom O'Toole

However, today the Catechism still teaches the truth about homosexuality and all forms of sexual immorality.  The documents from the CDF, especially from Cardinal Ratzinger in the Pontificate of John Paul II reiterate Church teaching, while affirming Sacred Tradition and Biblical authority on the sin of homosexuality and its consequences.  The teaching is there.  Pope Benedict was confident of that fact in his Pontificate - since he never issued any other document aside from what was already there.  It's just not always clearly taught.  People like Tom O'Toole remind us of that fact - that it is there - on the books - but it's not always taught.

Outsiders - people outside the Church, as well as some inside the Church - prefer to reject the notion of sin and punishment. Likewise, the culture has lost the sense of sin.  We all know that.  Religious and non-religious people alike know that - "All have gone astray - there is not a good man left."

Priest, prophet, forage in a land they know not.

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. 

We love you!

The time of mercy can't eclipse the truth.

Calling people to repentance doesn't mean banging them over the head with how horrible they are, or yelling, "You're going to hell if you don't repent."  Mercy is not exacted in hostility and contempt and scare tactics.  The sinner is easily repelled, often because deep down the sinner understands his alienation, his anxiety.  By contrast, the encounter with mercy - with Christ - consoles, embraces, and sees.  It is the light of Christ that enlightens the soul.  Every sinner who has experienced conversion can most likely tell you the moment he first believed, the exact moment he met Jesus... much like the Samaritan woman in today's Gospel when our Lord revealed himself to her - "I am he, the one speaking to you."  (She was still a sinner!  Think of that.  " while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.")   I'm convinced that is how the conversion of sinners comes about.  As Pope Francis indicates in today's Angelus address:

“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’ In this way – the Pope explained – he cut across the barriers of hostility that existed between Jews and Samaritans, crushing the prejudice that existed in relating to women.  (Ed. note: Imagine she was another type of sinner.)

The Pope said that Jesus’ simple request signals the beginning of an open dialogue, through which, with great delicacy, He entered the interior world of a person to whom, according to social convention, He should not even have spoken to.  (Ed. note: Imagine she was another type of sinner.)

“But this is exactly what Jesus does! Jesus is not afraid. When Jesus sees a person he goes towards that person because he is filled with love. He loves all of us. He does not stop before anyone because of prejudice” he said.

And Francis explained that Jesus does not judge, but acknowledges each person making him or her feel considered and recognized, and stimulating in that person the wish to go beyond their daily ‘routine’.

He explained that the thirst Jesus speaks of is not so much a thirst for water, but the with to quench the thirst of an arid soul. Jesus – Francis said – needs to meet the Samaritan woman to open up her heart: he asks her for a drink to highlight her own thirst. The woman – he pointed out - was touched by this meeting and asks Jesus some deep questions that each of us harbor, but often ignore.

The result of that meeting at the well – Pope Francis continued – “was that the woman was transformed: leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and told the people of her meeting with a man ‘who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?’ She was so happy. She had gone to the well to draw water and she found the living water, the spring of living water welling up to eternal life. She ran to the village which had always judged condemned and rejected her and announced that she had encountered the Messiah who had changed her life” he said.

And, Pope Francis said: “each encounter with Jesus changes our life, forever”. - Pope Francis

 Sin and its consequences, judgement and damnation are important to teach - and remember - the teaching is always there.  Likewise, there will always be someone, something to remind us of it.  As I said, sinners intuit that dread within themselves as an alienation - only love and mercy can conquer such barriers.  Love alone cuts across the barriers of hostility that exist between us.  Crushing a bruised reed, quenching a smoldering wick is not the way of salvation.

I may be wrong, but I have confidence in the merciful love of God, who can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.  As the psalm says, in Christ crucified, "mercy and love have met, justice and peace have kissed."  Love makes the truth known to the soul.  Notice how our Lord evangelized, how he called the Samaritan woman to repentance - from the preface for today's Mass:

For when he asked the Samaritan woman for water to drink,

he had already created the gift of faith within her

and so ardently did he thirst for her faith,

that he kindled in her the fire of divine love. 

Without condemning her, he gently elicited from her the confession, "I do not have a husband" - and thus he kindled in her the fire of divine love...

Jesus, I trust in you.

Blood and water flowing

forth from the side of Christ,

as a font of mercy for us,

I trust in you!

Pope Francis was fortunate enough to meet Jean Vanier.

I'm sure Vanier felt the honor was his - but I suspect the Holy Father felt just as privileged.

Jean Vanier, is the founder of l'Arche, the organization where people without disabilities share the lives of those who are disabled.  They live together in community, they work together and serve one another - they share their lives together.

Before meeting with the Holy Father, Vanier was interviewed by Vatican Radio.  he had this to say:

He acknowledged a general malaise in the Church when ministering to people with disabilities. “Many people feel embarrassed before people with disability,” he said, adding that there are still priests who refuse to give Communion to people with disabilities.

“There is still work to do,” he said.

Many people also believe that one has to be a specialist to relate to people with disability. But the only need, he said, is to be human and to relate with the other with simplicity of heart.

He described Pope Francis as “super” in reference to his words and gestures regarding people with disability.

“He is the Pope of encounter in the profound sense of seeing the other as a human being, without judging,” said Vanier. “And I think he is teaching us that encounter is not about converting people or telling them something… but about looking at the other the way Jesus looks at them, with tenderness, kindness and love.” - Vatican Radio

There are one or two people with disabilities at the Mass I attend.  Sometimes they are loud and get excited.  I'm so happy they are there.  I love the variety of persons at the Masses I attend - even the noise they make.  Nothing is a distraction any longer, because we are together in prayer and worship and Holy Communion.  We are together.  Father gives Holy Communion to all who approach - the disabled - and me too.  

Is Toonces a Saints Name?

St. Toonces Felinomena*

What about Fulton?

Anyone ever hear of a St. Fulton?  Not yet, you say?  You are telling me Fulton Sheen could be canonized?  Then there would be a St. Fulton?

Really?  Having read recently that Catholics are not bound to give canonizations the absolute assent de fide we always were taught was required, why bother with saints in the first place?  Or why worry about giving kids a saints name at baptism?  Fulton Sheen wasn't given a saint's first name.  (If he's ever canonized do you think those devoted to Sheen will claim it's invalid?)  So anyway.

Why not call a kid Toonces?  When he dies, he could become the first St. Toonces - like St. Fulton.  Ah!  But is it Irish?

What?

I love the saints - for me, beatification is enough - oh heck - venerable is enough.  If someone is designated servant of God - that's enough too.  One can't be holier than the Church, can one?  Especially the Church triumphant.

Now what if someone accepts Archbishop Sheen is a saint but rejects John Paul II or Paul VI as a saint?  I mentioned the other day that some people reject JoseMaria Escriva as a saint - despite the fact he has been canonized.  You just can't make up stuff and pick and choose what you want to believe.  If you decide that the JPII canonization is not de fide - then why would anyone have to believe Pius X is a saint?

After the Council, when the new calendar was drawn up and implemented, secular media declared that certain saints were no longer saints.  That was not entirely true.  Some were simply removed from the liturgical calendar because historical evidence wasn't able to support the hagiography.  There was also the rare occasion when some saints grew out of legend, who may have been the personification of myth, and from a time when there wasn't a process as we have today. Others may have been removed from the calendar because their 'cult' may not have been as 'universal' as it once was, thus allowing more contemporary saints to take their place.  Though the calendar was reformed, the Martyrology remained and continues to expand with the times.

I may be wrong, but I think canonization implies that the saint is entered into the Canon of the Mass, although liturgical norms remain and the Canons remain intact, nevertheless, the saint's name may be inserted, such as; "with St. Toonces, and all the saints".  The new saint is venerated and invoked in prayer, that is, publicly and universally celebrated, especially liturgically - with a collect and Mass, and so on.  I may not explain the process perfectly, but you get my point that this is very serious stuff - nothing to take lightly, much less to pick and choose who or what you want to believe in, especially when it comes to the liturgical life of the Church.

I hope you can see why it is wrong to sow doubt amongst the simple believers, who are told they must pick a saints name for baptism and confirmation, and who are, by baptism, called to be a saint.  Thus, when the Church proclaims someone a saint, you better believe it.

Don't dis the saints, Poodles.


* Patron saint of drivers.  And Felinomena appears to be an Italian name.

"Why is this Nelson freak

still allowed to blog?"

The Papacy That Was.

I've been researching some historical details for a painting, a search which takes me through many websites and books in my personal library.  I was specifically looking through some books on Pope Pius XII to find a photo of him as a seminarian, and came across my copy of Sr. Marchione's Pictorial Life of Pius XII.  

I distracted myself with all the photos of Papal grandeur, now nearly completely absent from Papal ceremonies.  As everyone knows, since Vatican II, very much has changed - and since the election of Pope Francis - it is changed for good.  Popes are no longer 'prisoners' in the Vatican, slaves to courtly custom and ceremonial tradition, and so on.

I have a personal devotion to Pius XII, yet looking through the photos, one cannot help but notice that everything in the Papal court was very stiff and formal, if not forbidding.  Even during the papacy of Paul VI, royal protocol remained intact - there was a definite distance enforced between the Holy Father and ordinary people.  Pope John Paul II helped to change all of that in and through his travels, World Youth Day, the Wednesday audience, and so on.  Pope Benedict continued in that vein as well.  His taste for traditional vestments and liturgical decorum never seemed to me to present a distancing of his person from personnel or visitors, diplomats or pilgrims.  I never felt Pope Benedict intended a return to courtly protocol or royal decorum.  It seems to me this was demonstrated by his rejection of the papal triregnum as well as the sedia gestatoria, not to mention his fidelity to the celebration of Mass in the Ordinary Form.

Nevertheless, Pope Francis, in a very short time, seems to have finally extricated the papacy from the royal trappings which enveloped the Petrine Office.

I can't imagine going back.

(I found the photo of Pius XII I was looking for, BTW.)

A Pastoral Letter On Blogging From the U.K.

Using social media for abuse or to attack the reputations of other people ... a direct sin against the Eighth Commandment.

Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth described the uncharitable use of blogs, Facebook and Twitter as a “grave matter.”

Using social media for abuse or to attack the reputations of other people was a direct sin against the Eighth Commandment, forbidding people from “bearing false witness” against their neighbors, he said in a pastoral letter released March 19.

“We must exercise discretion, respect others and their privacy and not engage in slander, gossip and rash judgment,” the bishop wrote in the document that was to be distributed in parishes the weekend of March 22-23.

“We must avoid calumny, that is, slurring and damaging people, and not spread abroad their sins and failings,” he said.

The bishop encouraged the faithful to ask themselves “How do I use Facebook or Twitter? Am I charitable when blogging? Do I revel in other people’s failings?

“All this is grave matter,” he said. - Lifted from Deacon's Bench

We who blog cannot avoid sin.

I told you.  Although I suppose people will say it doesn't apply to us, or anyone outside Bishop Egan's diocese.  Just like some people say you can wave off the Holy Father in his off the cuff daily homilies or Wednesday audience talks.  Speaking of ignoring Catholic teaching, I just happened upon a post suggesting Catholics may not be bound to give canonisations the absolute assent de fide we were taught was required.

I really think Bishop Egan knows what he is talking about.

O God, put a guard on my mouth, 

and upon my lips an effective seal, 

that I may not sin by them.

Where words are many, sin is not wanting;

but those who restrain their lips do well. - Proverbs 10:19

Transgender claims innocence in murders of Washington State prostitutes.

"I didn't do it - he did."

Authorities in Washington State believe that a series of murders of prostitutes in 1990 were committed by Washington resident Douglas Perry. Now Perry has been captured and charged with the murders, but Douglas has become "Donna," a transgender woman who claims that she is not responsible for the murders because Douglas no longer exists. - Breitbart

Donna may have put a stop to the killings, but maybe she should be charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive, harboring a murderer, covering up evidence, as well as another murder charge for killing Douglas - in addition to the existing murder charges.

I should be a lawyer.

H/T Nan

Bill Donohue wants to march in the Gay Pride parade.

I know!

Story here.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, says he has filed an application to march in the New York City Gay Pride Parade this year. - Source

Who am I to judge?

Song for this post here.

"Yeah!  Get one of them

pink Cadillac convertibles,

I wanna sit on top of the back seat."

I wonder what St. Therese would say ...

About the so-called "Magisterium of Nuns"?

"The thought that there were some religious communities who were submitting to unjust laws against the Church promulgated by the anti-Catholic secular power, filled me (Celine) with indignation. One day in Therese's presence I exclaimed, 'My entire being rises up in in rebellion when I witness such a spirit of cowardice. I would be cut into a thousand pieces rather than belong to any of these communities or to assist them in any way.'

The Saint answered:

'We should not be concerned about such matters at all. It is true that I would be of your opinion and act perhaps in the same way had I any responsibility in the matter. But I have no obligation whatsoever. Moreover, our only duty is to become united to God. Even if we were members of those communities which are being publicly criticized for their defections, we would be greatly at fault in becoming disquieted on that account.'" - "My Sister, St. Therese" - Sr. Genevieve of the Holy Face

Sayings of The Fathers...

A hermit said, "Do not judge an adulterer if you are chaste or you will break the law of God just as much as he does. For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery' also said 'Do not judge'". - Sayings of the Desert Fathers

The Lord says it in the Gospel: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap”. This is the “generosity of heart” that the Lord presents through “the image of those going to collect grain who enlarged their aprons in order to received more”. In fact, Pope Francis said, “you can receive far more if you have a big heart!”. And he added: “a big heart doesn't get entangled in other peoples lives, it doesn't condemn but forgives and forgets” as “God has forgiven and forgotten my sins”. - Pope Francis

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

Art:  Stefano Di Stasio

Solemnity of St. Joseph

In thanksgiving for the patronage of St. Joseph.

Happy feast day!

Going out to the existential peripheries...

The so-called 'New Homophiles'.  

I haven't quite been able to understand them.  Thanks to the new video series the group is developing, and listening to their conversation - which is easier to understand than some of their writing and which can be challenging at times - many of my reservations have been quieted.  (I still don't like 'genderqueer' - but I kinda sorta get the intent.)  "They" may not all be comfortable with everything either.  From Joseph Prever, aka Steve Gershom:

My own position within the Side B world is, I think, a little weird. Ruse’s piece made me uncomfortable and annoyed, largely because it made us seem more heterodox than we are. Some Side B stuff, on the other hand, makes me uncomfortable and worried, because bits of it bear the smell of, or the smell of the danger of, self-deception: the line between “my homosexuality is a gift and a blessing because of all the gifts and blessings that have come with it” and “my homosexuality, per se, is a gift” is blurrier than I’d like. In some cases it’s not blurry at all, but just nonexistent. I don’t think I’m okay with that, but I have yet to formulate exactly why. - Source

It all kind of clicked for me when Eve Tushnet describe the church she attends in Washington.  She described it as a faithful Catholic church where all sorts of same sex attracted people attend - including some who may not be comfortable with the entire content of Catholic teaching on sexuality - yet.  The point is they are there and people like Tushnet and the others are there to meet gay people where they are at in today's reality.

It's very Franciscan - in the Pope Francis sense.*  It seems to me they are on the peripheries.  I'm more a Courage kind of guy, but there is room in the Church for another approach - so long as it is faithful.  Especially if we want avoid 'tying up burdens too hard to carry - without lifting a finger to help them' for people.  It's a different approach than Courage - but I don't think their work is a negation of Courage - just another approach.  I say that, because their video conversations really sounds like stuff Courage people discuss, and certainly what many young people discuss when it comes to living chastely and celibately.

I had a really nice lady write to me about one of her children who recently 'came out'.  That's a critical time for someone - especially the new found sense of freedom one experiences.  Naturally, most people see the Church as restrictive and rejecting to gay people.  My friend is worried, as any parent would be.  What to do?  Someone just coming out may not be ready, or interested in the Courage format when they 'just come out' - but they might be inclined to listen to - or at least watch the videos offered by the Sexual Authenticity-Spiritual Friendship group.   It may help them understand they are not excommunicated for discovering in themselves an a homosexual inclination or attraction.  (Courage doesn't teach that either, but neophytes may still be in identity celebration mode, and not interested in being told, "don't say you are gay".)

That said, I think we have to avoid segregating people and groups.  Our evangelization efforts should not be 'sectarian' as it were, or devolve into factions such as the EF vs OF Mass issue.  My point with this post is to point out that I see nothing contrary to Catholic teaching in the videos promoted by this group.  Not long ago I was accused of  being a 'new homophile' - a term now becoming more or less pejorative - so I know what it feels like to be accused of not being a faithful Catholic or embracing some sort of 'homo-heresia'.  I may not agree with everything these folks say or how they express themselves, I may not always understand it, but I believe they are faithful and uphold Catholic teaching in their work.

*I want to include some things Fr. Paul Check said in an interview not long ago, which may be helpful in understanding where I'm coming from - Fr. Check was commenting on something the Holy Father said, and I think what Fr. Check said may relate to the Spiritual Friendship group:

Fr. Paul Check is Director of Courage Apostolate, and in a recent interview with CNA, Fr. Check shares his insight into what the Holy Father may have intended with his comment. Fr. Check's words are very helpful and may offer a more spiritually hospitable and conciliatory understanding of the attitude taken by the Holy Father, while putting at ease those who think the Pope made a mistake - or was indicating a change in Church teaching.

In the Scriptures, Jesus does not hesitate to teach doctrine and basic truths to large groups, as in the sermon on the mount. Yet he also “engages people in another way, a very personal way, one at a time.”

“I think that the emphasis Pope Francis is bringing to us right now is on the second way: very personally, listening to people and speaking with them and 'walking with' them, guiding them, bringing them to Christ,” explained Fr. Check.

“I am not an authoritative interpreter of the Pope's comments,” he cautioned, “but here's the way I understand them.”

The priest then turned to the story of Jesus' meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well who has had five husbands.

“Our Lord knows well that there is a moral question here that's involved, and indeed it's a chastity question. The woman is living in an 'irregular' way. But he doesn’t begin the conversation with her about the moral problem. Instead, he talks with her about her interest – and more than her interest, her desire for God.”

“So he engages her in a very personal way about something that is already resident in her heart…he speaks with her about God, and then he speaks with her about the life of God…(and) also about her desire for eternal life, which is something that we all have,” Fr. Check continued.

Jesus “engages her in this very lovely sequence, and he keeps the conversation going with her until he reaches that point when it is appropriate to say, and when she can receive, what it is that she’s about to hear about the irregular condition in which she’s living, and she doesn’t deny it.”

“But he has established a relationship with her, and I think this is very much what our Holy Father is suggesting: that we are to walk with people, to get to know them, (although) of course, we don’t have the benefit of knowing what’s in someone’s heart the way that Jesus does, so all the more reason that we have to take care,” Fr. Check noted.

“I think that personal engagement, the walking with, is something that he is proposing,” and “I think the Holy Father is very prudent and charitable in wanting to think about how people receive the message of the gospel today and to find ways in which that teaching can be announced in a way that people can receive it.” - Finish reading here.

When Pope Francis talks about evangelization, he acknowledges there will be mistakes - but they can be corrected. Pope Benedict said something similar when speaking of priests who work in youth ministry, that in searching for a way to convey Church teaching sometimes mistakes are made - but they can be corrected. Sounds a bit lenient in our day when errors abound, but 'that's the way love goes'... I think.

Just a reminder:  I'm a Roman Catholic, a single man - I'm not part of any group, sect, movement or cult.  Every thing here is simply my personal opinion and observation.

Honey!  This sounds like a cult!

What?

Calling Cardinal Dolan a what?

Yesterday I checked out a link to a blog called Motley Monk. The author, a priest I know nothing about, linked to a another blogger who called Cardinal Dolan a "jackass". I was surprised that a priest would post such a derogatory quote.

A Protestant Allegory: The four evangelists stoning the pope, 

together with hypocrisy and avarice.

We who blog cannot avoid sin.

I've read too many other blog posts which make snide remarks about the Pope and what he says and does.  I've read posts which suggest the pope suffers from delusion, that he is ignorant, incompetent, and not Catholic.

There are of course a few Catholic priests who speak and write critical commentary against bishops, cardinals and the pope.  A couple go so far as to call out bishops (not their own) in the way these bishops deal with clerics who are under their obedience.

Yesterday I came across a comment on another blog asking the administrator of the blog to go after a novice in a particular religious order because of accusations from the candidate's past.  The commenter was suggesting the author devote a blog post exposing the man.

Such posts foment suspicion and mistrust and lack charity.

It seems to me many of us who blog may be Catholic - but I'm not at all sure we are always Christian.

At bottom there is always hidden pride at work when criticism of the Church adopts that tone of rancorous bitterness which today is already beginning to become a fashionable habit. Unfortunately it is accompanied only too often by a spiritual emptiness in which the specific nature of the Church as a whole is no longer seen, in which it is only regarded as a political instrument whose organization is felt to be pitiable or brutal, as the case may be, as if the real function of the Church did not lie beyond organization, in the comfort of the Word and of the sacraments which she provides in good and bad days alike. Those who really believe do not attribute too much importance to the struggle for the reform of ecclesiastical ritual. They live on what the Church always is; and if one wants to know what the Church really is one must go to them. For the Church is most present not where organizing, reforming and governing are going on but in those who simply believe and receive from her the gift of faith that is life to them." - Cardinal Ratzinger: "Introduction to Christianity." Holy, Yet Mingled with Sinners: The Church of the Pope Theologian

"I wish he'd never been born."

Peter Lanza said that about his son Adam.

Such a terrible story, one can understand how he could say that, after all that happened.  I read the New Yorker story and feel so sorry for the families - Peter Lanza and all the families of the victims and survivors.  I looked for the magazine in a couple of stores this weekend, but it was sold out.  I found the story online here.

Read it.  It may help you understand why joking about taking people out and shooting them is not funny and is extremely inappropriate hyperbole.

Read it.

"I wish he'd never been born."

What caught my attention is the statement "I wish he'd never been born."  I think I understand how and why Mr. Lanza could say that.  Especially after reading the article, and of course, after learning the details of the massacre, and the innocents who were killed - I can understand.  Yet it was that statement which prompted me to read the story.

It's a terrible thing to say.

I say that, because it reminded me how my mother used to say such things to me - "I wish you'd never been born." - she had undiagnosed mental illness - most likely bipolar, and she drank.  Once she threatened to slash my throat with a kitchen knife.  I never thought she meant it - but I never felt secure in my parent's home either.  (My dad displayed life-threatening behavior as well.)  As an adult, while they were still alive, I kept a distance from them, unable to understand why they insisted they wanted me to come home to visit or stop by.  They truly never liked me - as a child I was a terrible burden for them.  I was there when they died - and they died peacefully, thanks be to God - but I never really knew them.

Anyway.

Parents, love your kids - don't leave them alone - no matter what.  Moms and dads - be good, be holy.  Don't be unfaithful.  Don't leave.  Don't divorce.  Don't hate your kids.  Don't shirk your responsibility towards them.  Love them.  Sacrifice your self for them.



Art: Stefano Di Stasio

Why I am Catholic ...

Frank Weathers.

I like how this guy thinks.  I think we are Catholic for the same reasons.

Weathers has an interesting post on Bill and Melinda gates and a possible inching towards Catholicism, as well as the hope for a death bed conversion of Fred Phelps.  Check it out here.

Like I said, I like how this guy thinks - and lives his faith.

Let's pray for one another.

Beyond Gender Ideology ... Therianthropy-Otherkin.

Dog-headed St. Christopher

I've discussed 'gender ideology', which I now call 'beyond gay', yet beyond all of that is Therian-Otherkin people - and there is a Christian version of it too.  Hold onto your shorts Richard Rohr!  But he knew that already.  Therians have their misappropriated saints too ... St. Christopher ... St Mary of Egypt ...

Mary of Egypt covered with hair.

Therianism is related to shapeshifting mythology, werewolves, weredogs, werepoodles - werepoodles!  I made that up - but it is known as kynanthropy or cynanthropy with a "C".  (Like Katherine or Catherine - you know how girls like to make the distinction?  Although Crescat is not a Therian.)

I knew a person who believed she was a dragon - I'm sure I've written about her in the past - she requested I respect her anonymity.  She had identity issues - not unlike an online married-genderqueer writer who discusses gender issues in her books and blog.  It seems to me there are similarities insofar as the person I knew believed she was a lesbian - until she became Catholic - then she went through deliverance prayers and intense spiritual direction, bringing her to a point where she believed she was free of all that.  Subsequently, she was more or less directed to dress more feminine and get rid of her butch haircut and style.  Which she did.  She also became a severe traditionalist - until she couldn't take it any longer.  I think it was only about three years into her new life of being the most knowledgeable more-Catholic-than-the-Pope-Traditionalist-Catholic, and realizing she was still a misfit - that she went back to Wicca.  That's when she soon began to figure out she was Otherkin - Therian.  I'm not sure what she is now, nor do I have any idea how she resolved the homosexual inclination.  She was a troubled soul, came from a home of neglect, abuse, and poverty.  She desperately needed to find her identity.

Since many people - like my acquaintance - generally reject the idea of psychological or moral disorders - especially as it applies to sexual desire, identity and gender, the idea that one is a dragon, a cat, even a poodle is not at all far fetched for them.  Especially when it is brewed together with a more or less novel spirituality and religious practice.  (The contemporary theory/interpretation/embodiment only dates back to the early 20th century.)  The roots of such spirituality is not Christian of course, but is derived from shamanism and earth-based religions, as well as Eastern Asian and ancient Egyptian religious cult and mystical influences.  New Age Catholics sometimes embrace these principles and they influence not a few Catholic 'mystical-bear' writers, apologists, retreat masters, and speakers.  Hence their doctrine is contaminated by the 'world's slow stain'.  One cannot trust the Holy Spirit is at all guiding them in such concoctions.

Kevin Spacey as Keyboard Cat.

Therianthropy may be likened to gender dysphoria, only Therians might call it species dysphoria.  Here is a quick wiki-overview on the subject - not exhaustive, I might add.

"Dogs are people too, Sherman."

What?

I've discussed this in the past - here.  These issues become so idiosyncratic it is nearly impossible to categorize the phenomena.  It seems to me to be a sort of manic individualism.  I'm convinced it is related to gender ideology and the push for a new anthropology.