Cardinal against Cardinal: Heads exploding over the Synod.

Everything online has been, is, and will be about the Synod...

I suppose it's something to write about and get passionate about - but I don't see how all the arguing and name calling and fear mongering accomplishes anything?  Phantom fears.  How can worrying and complaining about something that hasn't even happened yet be profitable?  "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

Of course, it really is our business to discuss it - especially since "there is a sensum fidelium" worth considering. Cardinal Kasper pointed that out in his interview.

Contrary to what his critics have been saying, I think Cardinal Kasper actually makes sense.

“Everyone is free to express their own opinion, that's not a problem for me. The Pope wanted an open debate and I think that this is something new and healthy, which is very helpful for the Church.” - Cardinal Kasper Interview, CNA

Although he wasn't happy about the book written by the five Cardinals.  It seems to me that book, zealously promoted by Fr. Z, would come under the heading 'free and open debate'.

One thing the Synod will most definitely have to address is the problem of homsexualism, same sex marriage, gender ideology, and other screwed up concepts aiding and abetting the destruction of the family.

“Maybe I was imprudent. But many people are saying so, 

you can hear it in the streets every day. 

I don't want to judge anyone, 

but it is obvious that there are people who are not 

totally in agreement with this Pope, 

something that is not new and already happened 

during the Second Vatican Council, 

when many where against the aggiornamento 

of John XXIII and Paul VI.” - Kasper

Fr. Z fisks the Kasper interview here.

Vatican visitation of Bishop Finn

This is an interesting development in the reform process of Pope Francis.

Fr. James Martin said the visitation demonstrates "that Pope Francis is prepared to take a step that has been long overdue: holding bishops accountable for their roles in the abuse crisis. It is an absolutely essential step."

Depending upon the way media 'spins' these stories, especially social media, gossip and negative reaction is inevitable, and unavoidable.  It is best to take all such speculation with a grain of salt and allow the process to take place.  It shouldn't be open to public speculation anyway.  In former times, the reform of the hierarchy/clergy must have been equally as upsetting and disorientating - but the Church came through it.

As NCR noted, Bishop Robert Finn, (is) the first Catholic prelate to be found criminally guilty of shielding a priest in the ongoing clergy sexual abuse crisis.  Readers may or may not be familiar with the unfortunate case, but Bishop Finn was never jailed (nor should he have been) for his failure to report a suspected former priest accused of producing child porn.

The Vatican investigation underway is to determine whether or not Bishop Finn is fit to be a leader.  Bishop Finn has been criticized both within and outside the diocese, and his critics would be happy to see him replaced.  The story here.

Perhaps the St. Paul/Minneapolis Archdiocese is next in line for a Vatican visitation?  Just wondering.

"I know well I must render an account of everything - from the beginning of my life as well as this later part - unto the last penny, when God will search Jerusalem with lighted candles, and it is already late - the day far spent - to remedy so much evil and harm..." - St. John of the Cross

The Pope mentioned "the reality of the abandonment of the elderly" - a reader, a nursing home worker wrote to me about that...

A difficult life.

Years ago, after I left the monastery and attempted to live as a pilgrim - more in the poustinik sense of the Russian vocation, I worked in a small nursing home in Roxbury, Boston - to earn enough to support myself in a room on Beacon Hill and to put aside enough to move to Italy to follow in the footsteps of St. Benedict Joseph.

The nursing home where I worked was a nightmare of abuse and neglect.  I started out as the janitor and when the cook didn't show up for several days, I filled in - the residents and staff liked my cooking and I was given that position.  A Little Sister of Jesus I was acquainted with took over as janitor.  She was so appalled by the conditions, she quit...

I know the bad side of nursing homes, as well as the good side of the better ones.  However ... there is always suffering - no matter how nice the residence, no matter how wonderful the care.  As Pope Francis pointed out yesterday in his address to the elderly:

But there is also the reality of the abandonment of the elderly: how many times we discard older people with attitudes that are akin to a hidden form of euthanasia! The culture of discarding human beings hurts our world. We discard children, young people and older people under the pretense of maintaining a "balanced", economic system the center of which is no longer the human person, but money. We are all called to counter this culture of poisonous waste! 

We Christians, together with all people of good will, are called to patiently build a more diverse, more welcoming, more humane, more inclusive society, that does not need to discard the weak in body and mind. On the contrary we need a society which measures its success on how the weak are cared for. - Pope Francis meeting with the elderly.

"I hope Pope Francis continues to talk, loudly, about the elderly ..."

I received a comment from a friend of the blog who works in a nursing home operated by religious.  Even in these homes, all the minuscule needs of the residents cannot possibly be met, and due to the stresses of daily life, the anxieties of residents and caregivers can tax patience and charity.  It is very challenging work.  As is life.

Anyway, my friend's comment helps us understand more deeply the difficulties involved in nursing care.  Perhaps the most overlooked and under appreciated are those good people who work in dietary and housekeeping, performing the most menial yet essential tasks.  Their work is hidden and often humbling, not always well compensated nor appreciated - nonetheless it is honorable and dignified work, exalted in the eyes of God.

The testimony of a care-giver.

"I hope Pope Francis continues to talk, loudly, about the elderly - in fact, I wish he would visit 'some' nursing homes on his visit the United States, or while visiting anywhere. Conditions are .... sort of ... awful ..... in the sense that the really old all get warehoused. Although the good homes give the visual sense of an up-scale college dorm, it is still just very difficult. 

I do not see many/any of the residents calling upon their reserves of spiritual strength: I see them clinging so hard to life, becoming increasingly needy, often verbally/physically abusive to staff/nursing, fussy in all their superficial needs, and, generally, exhaustively demanding. 

Yesterday, in the oh-so-nice dining room (where it is 80 degrees and I nearly melted from the physical work in this heat for hours) I was actually ready for their arrival after Mass... the one day that almost all of them get assistance in getting wheeled in, the only day that the nuns who own the place show up: family members come: the priest is there: always, the food is amazingly good, which is helpful as I still go to a food bank and hope I can continue to qualify for $100 a month food stamps: I went to work there knowing I'd be able to eat there. An important thing, when people everywhere in the US are vastly underpaid, as am I, at 8.60 an hour. 

The thing is: this population is a cash-cow for the nursing home/medical industry: even for nuns, which surprised me....none of whom are 'nice' to the workers. Ever. Despite everything, the staff are unfailingly kind to the residents. me, included. 

This rant is because....I really do not understand why the elderly themselves seem to never reflect on their end-of-life status.  There is never a mention of death, and when it occurs it is so quickly swept away.  Nary a word of reconciliation with one's state, nary a suggestion that to be kind to others is not an adage to be thrown out the door upon reaching 80 (or 70, in some cases). 

It is extremely stressful: if this is read, I am sure most of you have gone through the last years, moments of your parents/partners lives, and know what a run-away train it can be. It is, really, the time when it is most, most essential to speak and pray about Mercy. In my mothers last years, she wrote poetry almost every day and it was usually addressed to God, and full of questions about why she was still alive ( she died shortly after her 93rd birthday), as well as intimate thanks to Him. I have a box-full. Well, that's how I know that awareness of one's state and impending death is possible.

Of course I do feel compassion, most/much/some of the time... I'm always aware of the fact that these often pitiful people have an angel nearby, their witness, all these years, and I wonder about it all. Pneumonia used to be called 'the old persons friend': now, with much medical intervention, it is no longer. Old age is a very sorry state, a time when one is so dependent upon others for the most intimate of needs - a time, I have seen, not of peace, prayer, acceptance, penance, but rather one of lashing out in anger that the 'good years' of strength, power, independence are no more. A time of surliness & often rage. And no, I am not speaking of the ones with dementia - but of those just like us, with all of these human failings often just under that thin surface. I do not know the purpose of this rant of mine, but to respond to the Pope - to please speak even louder, and explain it all to me.

This is my day off, I'll be back up at 4 am Tuesday to get to work.  Today I must finally get an on-sale phantom hydrangea into the hole I dug a week ago. There is a Mass at 6 pm I can get to, as I work every weekend (I get 50 cents an hour more for working weekends) and I'm too exhausted to get to Mass..." - Signed: C

Many thanks to my friend and all of those who do this work - it is so much more than just a job.  God reward you!

Do the right thing. The Catholic music director, Jamie Moore did.

I'm really impressed with this story.

Jamie Moore married his boyfriend, was asked by Archbishop Nienstedt to resign, and he did.

Evidently an attorney offered to represent him in a lawsuit against Nienstedt.  Jamie said no.

The pastor of his church, Fr. Bob White, explained to the parishioners what happened.

Weekend masses at St. Victoria included comments from the Rev. Bob White about Moore’s departure, which the pastor said was like losing a loved one. “It’s a deep loss,” he told the Carver County congregation at a 10:45 a.m. mass. White called Moore his friend and the “voice of the church.”

White explained the process that led to Moore’s resignation and expressed his hope that the congregation would come together. He received a standing ovation as he left the podium to begin the mass.

“How he came to this decision is consistent with the man I’m proud to call my friend for the last 18 years,” White said. “He did it in a way that was an expression of who he is and how he lives.” - StarTribune

Rejecting a lawsuit, and quietly resigning in obedience to the Archbishop's request is a faithful response from Jamie Moore.  Fr. White's comments to the congregation is a wonderful testimony as well.

I wish them well.

Invoke the Angels.

If we do not struggle, we will be defeated. - Pope Francis

Geezer day at the Vatican...

Funny - Pope Francis didn't mention "the biological solution" - not even once?

No wonder all the 25-30+++ year old trad-lodytes despise him.

(Vatican Radio) A brilliantly sunlit St. Peter’s Square was the scene Sunday morning for a great gathering of senior citizens – and especially grandparents – who had come to Rome to be with Pope Francis, to exchange life stories and hear the Holy Father’s reflections on the importance, the struggles, and the beauty of life in the old age. People of every state in life were present: elderly clergy and religious, including Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI; single people; married couples, including a couple of elderly refugees from Iraq, Mubarak and Aneesa Hano, Christians from the country’s north who have been forced to flee their home by Islamic State militants; and widows and widowers.

“Old age, in particular, is a time of grace,” said Pope Francis, “in which the Lord will renew His call: He calls us to preserve and transmit the faith, calls us to pray, especially to intercede; calls us to be close to those who maybe in need.” The Holy Father went on to warn against losing sight of and appreciation for the inestimable worth of those, who are in the twilight of life. “A people that does not have care for [the elderly], that does not treat them well, has no future: such a people loses its memory and its roots.” - VR

Save the elderly-save the world.

Put that on your bumper sticker.

Why I didn't attend the Clooney-Alamuddin wedding.

It wasn't Catholic and they weren't married in a church and, and, he was married before, and, and, she's not Catholic, and, and, I'm against it.

What?

Nice looking wedding pictures though.

BREAKING NEWS: Pope Francis Announces Opening ...

Of a door...

I think maybe I could attend that.

Fired Minnesota gay music director Jamie Moore hires attorney... NOT!

Garrett Manzi and Jamie Moore

UPDATE 9/28/14:*

Jamie Moore, who was music director at St. Victoria for more than 17 years before he quit at the request of church leaders, decided Friday not to pursue legal action against Archbishop John Nienstedt, according to his former lawyer.

“I think he was in a very good position to challenge the termination because of the reason that was given and that was marital status,” Clayton Halunen said Sunday, explaining that Minnesota churches are allowed to discriminate based on sexual orientation but not on marital status.

“I’m very disappointed in the decision,” Halunen added. “I think if had we had a favorable result ..... it would have helped many others in the LGBT community to preserve their employment if they choose to get married.”

Moore has not spoken publicly about his dismissal and could not be reached Sunday. - KAREN ZAMORA , Star Tribune Updated: September 28, 2014 

H/T Rick Notch

* * *

Original Post


I don't get it.

He seemed so gracious upon receiving the Archbishop's request that he resign his position:

"I'm not surprised. I'm sad and I was hopeful that I could continue in my career at St. Victoria but it wasn't a surprise. I've known since I started at St. Victoria in February of 1997 that this could be a possibility at some point," Moore said Wednesday night in an interview.

Jamie has to leave because he married his long-time partner, Garrett, last weekend.

When Archbishop Nienstedt got wind of it he called for Jamie's resignation.

"It's against Catholic Church teaching to be a partnered gay man, it is also very much against Catholic Church teaching to marry that man," Jamie said knowing this was a likely outcome. - Source

Call in the lawyers.

A music director who was asked by a Catholic church in Victoria, Minn., to resign after marrying his longtime partner has now hired the attorney who represented former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe on discrimination issues. 

Minneapolis attorney Clayton Halunen* said Friday that he was retained by Jamie Moore after St. Victoria Catholic Church asked Moore to resign following his wedding last weekend to his longtime partner. 

On Friday, Moore was still listed on the St. Victoria directory, but Halunen said Moore has resigned as requested. He declined to comment any further and said Moore would not be available for comment. 

However, he told Fox 9 News on Thursday that he’s preparing to sue Archbishop John Nienstedt for “aiding and abetting discrimination,” adding that Moore was fired not because he was gay but because he married. Halunen said Minnesota churches are allowed to discriminate based on sexual orientation but not on marital status. - Source

That was quick.

Jamie Moore knew he could be terminated or asked to resign if he married his partner - or as he stated: "I've known since I started at St. Victoria in February of 1997 that this could be a possibility at some point."

I was hoping he would simply walk away.  

Ka-ching!

*Moore's attorney, Clayton 'Halunen recently represented Chris Kluwe, who threatened to sue the Vikings for more than $10 million because the team wouldn’t release its full investigation into his claims that the team has a culture of discrimination. Last month, the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement. The team agreed to donate $100,000 to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups; Kluwe didn’t receive any money in the settlement.'

 To learn more on Wrongful Termination Law, go here.


*Prayers have been answered - Jamie Manzi-Moore is not suing.

h/t Ray

This is just a test: Outbreak of respiratory illness escalates among children - baffling scientists...

I bet it is just a test by the Government ...

An outbreak of respiratory illness first observed in the Midwest has spread to 38 states, sending children to hospitals and baffling scientists trying to understand its virulent resurgence. - Finish reading here.

Or what if ...

Pope Francis, the wisdom of the desert.

“The Egyptian Fathers of the desert said that vanity is a temptation against which we must battle our whole life, because it always comes back to take the truth away from us. And in order to understand this they said: It’s like an onion. You take it, and begin to peel it – the onion – and you peel away vanity today, a little bit tomorrow, and your whole life your peeling away vanity in order to overcome it. And at the end you are pleased: I removed the vanity, I peeled the onion, but the odour remains with you on your hand. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to not be vain, to be true, with the truth of reality and of the Gospel.” - Pope Francis

What's wrong with the Church.

Besides Larry?

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I knew I was cheap.

Remember Our Lady of Ransom, O sweet virgin Mary, that never was it known, that anyone who fled to thy protection,

implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided...

September 24

 Feast of Our Lady of Ransom

Or, Our Lady of Mercy.

Today's feast of Our Lady is primarily celebrated in South American countries and in Spain. It is the titular feast of the order of friars known as the Mercedarians, founded by St. Peter Nolasco. St. Raymond Nonnatus was also a member of this order, founded to ransom Catholic slaves held captive by Muslims.

Unlike today, when there is no bargaining with terrorists, in those days ransom would be paid to free those held captive. St. Raymond exchanged himself for such and was enslaved for a time. The Saracens pierced his lips with a padlock to prevent him from speaking about the Catholic faith. He himself was later ransomed by his fellow Mercedarians.

Things do not seem to have changed much with Muslim-Christian relations... 

Another interesting factoid about devotion to Our Lady of Ransom - or Our Lady of Mercy as she is known since Vatican II:  During the English persecutions under the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, devotion to Our Lady of Ransom enjoyed a greater fervor in the hopes of bringing the Church of England back into "Our Lady's Dowry".

In our day it seems to me it would be good if the devotion was revived and given greater attention, considering the continued threats of terrorism, and above all, the ongoing persecution of Christians in Muslim lands.  Our culture is faced with many moral afflictions as well, such as addictions to vice and various obsessive-compulsive disorders. Our Lady of Ransom would seem to be an efficacious title one might use to implore the Blessed Virgin's help to obtain freedom from those sins which most ensnare us.

 "Implore the Blessed Virgin's help to obtain freedom from those sins which most ensnare us."

September 24 ... "Keep your mind in hell, and despair not ..."

An Orthodox saint...

It seems to me what he says is not so different from saints like Padre Pio.  Pio lived bearing the wounds, the sufferings, the rejection and persecution of Christ.  That is kind of like 'keeping your mind in hell' when you think about it.  The sufferings Christ endured was the chastisement that makes us whole - that which unites us to God.

St Silouan, elder of Mt Athos (1938) (September 11 OC)

He was a Russian peasant who traveled to Mt Athos and became a monk in the Russian Monastery of St Panteleimon. He lived so simply, humbly and quietly that he might be forgotten had not Fr Sophrony (Sakharov) become his spiritual child and, after the Saint's repose, written a book describing his life and teaching: St Silouan of Mt Athos, one of the great spiritual books of our time. It was through Fr Sophrony's efforts that St Silouan was glorified as a Saint.

  Following a vision of Christ Himself, St Silouan withdrew to a hermitage to devote himself entirely to prayer; but he was called back to serve as steward to the monastery. Though he now supervised some two hundred men, he only increased his prayers, withdrawing to his cell to pray with tears for each individual worker under his care. For more than fifteen years he struggled with demonic attacks during prayer until he was almost in despair. At this point Christ spoke to him in a vision, saying 'The proud always suffer from demons.' Silouan answered 'Lord, teach me what I must do that my soul may become humble.' To this he received the reply, Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not. Silouan made this his discipline in every moment of his life, and was granted the grace of pure prayer. He said that if he ever let his mind wander from the fire of hell, disruptive thoughts would once again plague him. In his humiliation he was filled with a pervasive love for all — he said many times that the final criterion of true Christian faith is unfeigned love for enemies, and that 'to pray for others is to shed blood.' - Orthodox Saints

Some day I hope to write about how some people protest too much on their blogs and publications - specifically in reference to being gay and Catholic.  If they believe that earlier Catholic writers on the subject of gay and Catholic were over-psychologized, the new gay Catholic writers tend to be over-theologized/mythologized on the issue.  Although I suppose that's what sells books and garners speaker engagements.

Keep your mind in hell and you won't have problems with chastity.

Keep your mind in gay and you will still want ... Ah!  What did a guy on his way to perfection say to me once?  I'm gay and I try to be chaste, "but I still want @*ck."

Chick?

St. Pio of Pietrelcina

From a letter sent by Padre Pio on September 12, 1968 to Pope Paul VI:

"I offer to you my prayers and my daily suffering, so that the Lord may comfort you with his grace,

to continue defending the eternal truth that never changes with the times change.

I thank you for the clear words in the "Humanae Vitae" (The encyclical letter 'Of human life')

and confirm my faiths and my unconditional obedience." - Source

I am convinced Padre Pio is one of the most important saints for our time.

Years ago I had a vivid dream of Padre Pio - which means more to me now than it did then.  Otherwise, I didn't have a very intense devotion to him, even though I visited San Giovanni Rotondo as a pilgrim and asked his intercession many times in novenas and aspirations.  Now that I'm older, his life makes more sense to me.  "He participated daily in the physical sufferings of the wounded Christ" - since the end of WWI - for 50 years.  With persecution, "humiliation and rejection" besides.

I remember how several priests I encountered in my life used to speak of Padre Pio in a condescending manner, frequently distancing themselves from devotees, regarding them as naive and 'overly pious'.  He didn't fit in with contemporary theology.  So I remained pretty much a secret admirer throughout the '70's and '80's.  My attraction and love for Padre Pio was based upon my conviction that he was a refuge for sinners more than a living crucifix or wonder-worker.  He was so devoted to the conversion and reconciliation of sinners.  No matter how gruff he appeared, or severe his counsels sounded to me, I sensed his seraphic love for souls.  So simple - so great.  He said he would do more after his death than he did in life and I trust that promise.  In the fullness of charity, not one sinner could he ever reject - why?  Because no servant is greater than his master - who is Mercy Himself.

Anyway.  May he pray for all of us... may he obtain for us the grace of deep conversion, the forgiveness of sins and perseverance in grace.

On September 22, 1968 Padre Pio celebrated his last Mass. The wounds disappeared.

The wounds had disappeared on September 20, 1968 on the fiftieth anniversary of their appearance."

After last Mass, looking at the crowds in church:  "oh my children! My dear children."

In thanksgiving for the graces given to St. Pio and the edifying example of his life, as well as the many graces obtained through his intercession.

Feeling sorry for yourself? Your Bishop doesn't appreciate you? Worried about Cardinals sent into exile? Ordered to turn in your ermine cappa magna? Just remember how they treated Padre Pio.

And it wasn't until the papacy of Paul VI that St. Pio was exonerated and liberated.

In the summer of 1960, the Holy Office of the Vatican dispatched an apostolic visitor to investigate Padre Pio... 

...anxiety about Padre Pio stemmed from a set of audiotapes surreptitiously recorded in the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in San Giovanni Rotondo that purported to document improper relations between Pio and a group of lay sisters, who formed a kind of protective guard around him. Keepers of the Padre Pio cult, they controlled access to the future saint, handled money coming in for the hospital, and appeared to have free run of the monastery at all hours. 

The apostolic visitor, Monsignor Carlo Maccari, left San Giovanni unimpressed by the person of Padre Pio and horrified by the cult that surrounded him, which he thought, according to his report, smacked of “idolatry and perhaps even heresy…religious conceptions that oscillate between superstition and magic.” - Source

For a time it looked like Padre Pio would live out his remaining years being treated as a miscreant.

But Paul VI changed things around rapidly. The Pope was not averse to St Pio. As Cardinal of Milan, Paul VI had sent a request for prayers to Padre Pio in 1959. In 1964, Pope Paul intervened with the CDF and ordered that Padre Pio be allowed to practise his ministry “in complete freedom” and that he was not to be confined “like a criminal”. - Source

How did St. Pio act when he was 'imprisoned' and maligned?

Saint Pio's response: 

"God's will be done,"...then he covered his eyes with his hands, lowered his head, and murmured, "The will of the authorities is the will of God." - Source

An iron gate was erected for better control of the seclusion.

U.S. airstrikes in Syria against ISIS targets have commenced.

Pray for the dying.

Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed ...

Luke 8: 16-18

Just think about that when you worry too much about the lives of others ...

And mind your own business.

Abbey Roads contra blogdum ...

Go forth and proselytize the living hell out of them!

The spiritual desolation generated in blogdum does not come from the good spirit.

I almost got sucked down that vortex of negative speculation and gossip and the sky-is-falling.  I strongly urge readers to go to confession, talk to your spiritual director, or a good, solid, holy priest.  Don't go to strangers online.  Don't listen to me or any self-guided apologist/evangelist/mystical twit online.  A few days ago a good priest with a blog said to take the miraculous stories associated with a certain saint 'with a grain of salt'.  I say take his blog with a grain of salt.  Take my blog with a grain of salt.  Take those who cajole and condemn the bishops and even the pope with a grain of salt.  If you have a simple, ordinary pure faith and deep piety - avoid reading blogs written by the disgruntled and the rude rad-trad-gic alienated grumblers - be they ordained or un-ordained disorderly.

"Discernment of spirits is a challenging task. It requires maturity, inner quiet, and an ability to reflect on one’s interior life."

Spiritual desolation, in contrast, is an experience of the soul in heavy darkness or turmoil. We are assaulted by all sorts of doubts, bombarded by temptations, and mired in self-preoccupations. We are excessively restless and anxious and feel cut off from others. Such feelings, in Ignatius’s words, “move one toward lack of faith and leave one without hope and without love.”

The key question in interpreting consolation and desolation is: where is the movement coming from and where is it leading me? Spiritual consolation does not always mean happiness. Spiritual desolation does not always mean sadness. Sometimes an experience of sadness is a moment of conversion and intimacy with God. Times of human suffering can be moments of great grace. Similarly, peace or happiness can be illusory if these feelings are helping us avoid changes we need to make.

For people who are trying to live a life pleasing to God, the good spirit strengthens, encourages, consoles, removes obstacles, and gives peace. The evil spirit tries to derail them by stirring up anxiety, false sadness, needless confusion, frustration, and other obstacles. - Discernment of spirits.

Now about those bishops.

St. Alphonsus Liguori had some things to say that may be helpful to consider in our time.  There have always been problems in the Church, bishops and pastors have been exiled, founders of religious communities kicked out of their own orders, and so on.  Christ promised us everything - 'and persecutions besides'.  We need the perspective of God - we judge as humans judge and fail to see the divine purpose behind his providential designs.

As regards my opinions concerning the present state of the church with relation to the election of the new Pope, what opinion of any weight could a miserable, ignorant, and unspiritual person like myself possibly give? There is need for prayer and much prayer. All the human science and prudence that there is cannot extricate the church from the present state of relaxation and confusion in which every section finds itself; the all-powerful arm of God is necessary.

As regards the bishops, very few of them possess genuine zeal for souls. Almost all religious communities – and one could omit the “almost”– are relaxed. As a result of the present state of general confusion, observance has collapsed and obedience is a thing of the past. The state of the secular clergy is still worse: so, in a word, there is a need for a general reform of all clerics and ecclesiastics if there is to be any improvement in the present great corruption of morals among the laity.

I assure you, my friends, that I desire, like yourself, to see remedies for so many and such unfortunate situations. In all this matter a thousand ideas circulate in my head which I feel like telling everybody about. But, mindful of my own unworthiness, I have not the effrontery to publicize them lest I should appear to wish to reform the whole world. So I share these ideas with you not from any arrogance but for my own peace of mind. - St. Alphonsus

So knock it off.

As Bob and Penny always said:  We love you family!

This close...

Road closed for repairs.