The Troulbe with Jesuits, Part V

From the Cardinal Newman Society... and yes, Georgetown is a Jesuit school.

A canon law petition asking Cardinal Donald Wuerl to rescue Georgetown University's Catholic identity or declare that it can no longer refer to itself as Catholic was delivered to the Archdiocese of Washington today, a group of Georgetown alumni, students, parents, faculty and others has announced.

 Distinguished Georgetown alumnus William Peter Blatty, an Academy Award winner and author of The Exorcist, announced in May 2012 the formation of the Father King Society and its plans to file a complaint under the Catholic Church's canon law.  The completed petition documents abuses of Catholic identity at Georgetown University and non-compliance with Church law for Catholic universities.

Highway to HELL!

From the Catholic News Service:

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- Charging motorists to use existing roads is immoral, and the new toll-road system in South Africa should be suspended immediately, said the justice and peace department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference.

South Africa's Parliament is set to pass a bill that will amend the law on road tolls and allow for the electronic collection of tolls and the prosecution of those who fail to pay.

 They called for an immediate independent inquiry and said motorists should not pay the toll fees "until all the matters of concern have been addressed appropriately."

So let me get this straight....the Bishops think charging a fee is IMMORAL? They use that word a lot....I don't think it means what they think it means.

And then to combat this IMMORAL thing, the Bishops want people to BREAK THE LAW? Who's in charge of this group?

Bishop A. Gabuza

Worldwide Eucharistic Adoration, June 2

From the Catholic News Service:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican officials are making strategic phone calls to some of the world's most far-flung dioceses, trying to verify that in each of the world's inhabited time zones there will be an organized hour of eucharistic adoration coinciding with 5-6 p.m. Rome time June 2.

Pope Francis will preside over adoration and benediction in St. Peter's Basilica beginning at 5 p.m. June 2, the date most dioceses in the world celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord.
To celebrate at the same time as the pope, Catholics in Mumbai would begin at 8:30 p.m., those in New York would begin at 11 a.m., in Seattle at 8 a.m., in Honolulu at 5 a.m. and at 1 a.m. June 3 in Sydney.

I'm not sure - if it's 11AM in New York, it's 10AM here, right? But according to this link it's really 11AM because of Daylight Savings Time.


While dioceses are free to organize the hour of prayer and adoration as they please, he said Pope Francis has chosen a specific prayer intention for each half hour of the service. The first, Archbishop Fisichella said, will be for the church and its mission of mercy; the second for the needs of those who suffer, including victims of war, the unemployed, the sick, immigrants and prisoners.

Speaking of Pots...This One's Cracked

Part of his biography:

Roger Vermalen Karban is a priest of the Belleville, Ill., diocese and pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Renault, Ill.

Father Rog wrote an article for what the Acts of Apostasy calls "The National Catholic Distorter" and Father Z calls the "National Schismatic Reporter " in which he discusses how we see "God" He writes,".Though we Christians contend we faithfully keep the Ten Commandments, we have no problem, for instance, with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling with its classic “old-man God” imagery.

Those who attempt to create an image of Yahweh will automatically be limiting God to human concepts. How tall is Yahweh, what gender, what color?

 Christians have a parallel problem depicting the risen Jesus. Paul tells us the risen Jesus, as God, is quite different from the historical Jesus. The historical Jesus was limited to the age, culture and gender in which he ministered. He was a free Jewish man. The risen Jesus is a “new creation,” neither slave or free, Jew or Gentile, man or woman. He/she’s totally other.

In 2000, NCR held a contest inviting people to submit an up-to-date picture of Jesus. The winning artist, Janet McKenzie, gave us a portrait in which no one could be certain of Jesus’ gender, race or nationality. Quite biblical."

Hey, even I knew he was quoting out of context there.Gallatians:

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Father Roger makes it sound like Jesus was some sort of androgynous Son of God. "Totally other" this!

Pot? Meet Kettle.

From the Associated Press:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The president of Ohio State University (Gordon Gee) said Notre Dame was never invited to join the Big Ten because the university's priests are not good partners, joking that "those damn Catholics" can't be trusted, according to a recording of a meeting Gee attended late last year.
 
"The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they're holy hell on the rest of the week," Gee said to laughter at the Dec. 5 meeting attended by Athletic Director Gene Smith and several other athletic department members, along with professors and students.
"You just can't trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that," said Gee, a Mormon.

Wait...is that THE Ohio State that has a cheating football team?


COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State players broke the rules and got to play in the Sugar Bowl anyway. Jim Tressel knew about infractions and let it all happen.
Now the Buckeyes and new coach Urban Meyer will pay for it next season.
The NCAA hit Ohio State with a one-year bowl ban and additional penalties Tuesday for violations that started with eight players taking a total of $14,000 in cash and tattoos in exchange for jerseys, rings and other Buckeyes memorabilia.

Dessault Aviation's Feast of St. Joan of Arc, May 30

They don't make saints much more interesting than Joan of Arc, if by "interesting" you mean "hard core warrior". Fist of all, she was visited by Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret. They told her to make Charles VII King of France by taking over his army and defeating the English, which she did.

 Jeanne d'Arc by P.A. Le Brun de Charmettes (L'Orléanide-1819)

Charles VII was the son of Charles VI, who was also known as Charles the Mad - he occasionally thought he was made of glass. Anyway, Joan was one of the last to leave the field after a battle with the Burgundians and was captured. The Burgundians sold her to the British, who put together a sham heresy trial

 Joan interrogated in her prison cell by Cardinal Winchester. By Hippolyte Delaroche, 1824, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France.

. She was found guilty (mainly because she kept wearing men's clothing) and was burned at the stake. Twenty years later her conviction was overturned, but she remained dead. She was canonized in 1920. She used to dictate letters and sign them...and three of her signatures still exist!

Islamic Outreach, Part XI

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

 The Catholic World News reports:

 The Holy See’s chief diplomat at UN offices in Geneva has told the UN Human Rights Council that over 100,000 Christians are killed each year because of their faith.

Several of these acts have been perpetrated in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia, the fruit of bigotry, intolerance, terrorism and some exclusionary laws,” Archbishop Tomasi added.

Who could he be talking about? Buddhists? Zoroastrians? Hindus? I guess we'll never know.

Little Old Winemaker - Gone

The BBC reports that product scarcity has forced Venezuela’s “only wine maker” to stop selling wine to the Catholic Church, which is already suffering from a shortage of consecrated bread as flour is increasingly hard to come by and wheat is only imported from abroad.

Only one wine maker? That's hard to believe. Where is going to go?

In case you were wondering, the Volstead Act (which fleshed out the 18th Amendment, also known as "Prohibition") allowed for the making of sacramental wine.

Leaders of the World

Compare and Contrast.

 

Rain by Shel Silverstein

I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I lie in my bed
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,
I walk very slow,
I can't do a handstand--
I might overflow,
So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said--
I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head. 

 

Ministry of Silly Walks' Feast of St. Maximinus of Trier, May 29

St. Maximinus was Bishop of Trier, Germany beginning in 332 A.D.

He was probably born in Silly France, near Poitier. And we all know what's in Silly...

Woe are Us! We Are All Out of Priests!

Turns out...we're not. The 2013 Pontifical Yearbook and the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (annual statistics of the church) was presented to Pope Francis recently and some of the information is surprising (the data is based on 2011 numbers).

Take priests. Ten years ago, there were 405.067 Catholic priests. Well, what do you know? There are now 413,418 of them. I credit the Clericus Cup! There are 39% more from Africa and 32% more Asian priests.

But the pool is drying up, right? Wrong. Ten years ago there were 112,244 men in formation. Today there are 120,616 (+7.5%).

Deacons. We need deacons. Well....ten years ago there were 29,000 permanent deacons. There are now 41,100. 97% of them are in the United Sates or Europe.

You Are Convicted of Murder, Assault, Battery, and Littering

I am sending you to jail - we can not tolerate littering.

From the BBC:

"A Roman Catholic parish priest at an elite French ski resort has been stripped of his Church functions for refusing to renounce Freemasonry.

Fr Vesin has been parish priest of Sainte-Anne d'Arly Montjoie in Megeve since 2004, according to another French newspaper, Le Messager. 

In an interview in January, he set out liberal views of the Church's role. He said he favoured allowing some priests to marry and said he had refused to endorse a demonstration against same-sex marriage in Paris."

I Am SOOOOO Glad I Don't Live in Los Angeles

The Byzantine Rite as practiced in the Moscow Patriarchate on Good Friday, and the modern Los Angeles Pontifical Liturgy.The only bad thing I can say about the Byzantine Rite is the sleigh bells on the thurible have to go. The only GOOD thing I can say about the LA thing is....well, not a thing. Absolutely nothing.

I actually got to witness part of a rite at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir, Russia.

You're Dead...Now What?

American Bible Challenge TONIGHT!

The Dominican Sisters of Mary have made it to the final round! The show airs tonight on the Game Show Network (Channel 71 on DIRECTV) at 8PM.  Their winnings will go to a retirement fund for retired nuns.
I actually got two of the three Judges correct using the WAG method.

The Cardinal and His Beer

 Christoph Cardinal Shonborn , Archbishop of Vienna, has revealed that his favorite beer is CARDINAL Draft! It used to be made at the Cardinal Brewery in Fribourgh, Switzerland until it got bought out and then bought out again - the new owner is Carlsburg. Cardinal draft is rumored to be very popular with the Swiss Guard.

Clericus Cup Final

The Martyrs of Pontifical North American College beat  the Legionaries of Christ's Mater Ecclesiae College, 1-0, to take the Clericus Cup for the second year in a row. I credit the fans as much as second-year seminarian Andrew Mattingly of the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph's, Missouri who scored the lone goal. He dedicated the goal to Mary the Mother of God.

Islamic Outreach, Part X

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

 Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Bangui





 From Catholic Culture::


"In recent weeks, Islamist rebels who assumed power in the Central African Republic in March have kidnapped the rector of the cathedral in the nation’s capital as well as the archdiocesan chancellor.
Calling members of the new regime “religious extremists with evil intentions,” Bishop Albert Vanbuel of Kaga-Bandoro decried “the deliberate program of desecration and destruction of religious buildings, especially Christian ones.”"

Altar Boy Cassocks

For the feast of Pentacost, the altar boys....er, servers....wore red cassocks. Is that OK? I just assumed it was, but here's what Father Z has to say about it:

"This is a matter of aesthetics.   Back in the day colored cassocks were tolerated by the Sacred Congregation for Rites.  To my mind it is a thing of fairly small importance."

I wonder what he would say about the boys from Our Lady of the Snows in (of all places) Sri Lanka?

 I think it would be cool if they were discalced.

Give That Chicken Fat Back to the Chicken!

Fr. Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi

The National Catholic Reporter calls it "the most important beatification of the early 21st century". On May 25th, Father Puglisi will be beatified in Palermo, Sicily. The NCR explains:

Puglisi later took over as pastor of San Gaetano Parish in the rough-and-tumble Palermo neighborhood of Brancaccio. He became famous for his strong anti-Mafia stance, refusing to take their money for feast day celebrations and not allowing dons to march at the head of processions. He strove to keep youth out of their reach, discouraging them from dropping out of school, robbing, drug-dealing and selling contraband cigarettes. He also declined to award a contract to a construction firm backed by the Mafia for the restoration of his church.
He understood he was playing with fire. Members of a social improvement group in his parish found the doors of their houses torched and got menacing phone calls. Puglisi himself received multiple death threats and, according to the testimony of one of his hit men (who later confessed), Puglisi's last words were: "I've been expecting you."

So why is this important?

Historically, the church has recognized martyrs only if they were killed in odium fidei, meaning hatred of the faith. In effect, the test has been the motivation of the assailant, not the victim. Puglisi, however, is being recognized as a martyr who died in odium virtutis et veritatis, meaning hatred of virtue and truth. His assassins' motives had nothing to do with opposition to Christianity -- indeed, they understood themselves to be good Catholics. Yet Puglisi's reasons for standing in the firing line had everything to do with his faith.
The category of "hatred of virtue and truth" has always existed in classical theology. Over the centuries, writers have sometimes invoked it, for instance, to explain why the church regards St. John the Baptist as a martyr, who died not for refusing to renounce Christ but for criticizing Herod's immoral conduct.
The Puglisi beatification means it's being revived and potentially could accommodate many other similar situations.

 An unrelated fact...Palermo's soccer team wears pink uniforms.

I Am a _________Catholic. You Are a ________One.

From the Patheos blog, Bad Catholic:

When I modify the word “Catholic” with some preceding description — be it traditional Catholic, liberal Catholic, or faithful Catholic — I do a disservice to the Catholic Church. Perhaps there are times when a concise modification is good, true, and beautiful, but on the off-chance that you — like me — are doing your Catholicism wrong, have a reason to quit your modifying: It’s usually a reaction which unintentionally gives credence to the thing reacted against.

Ironically, I had just finished reading a story about Cardinal Dolan and his thoughts about Governor Cuomo (NY) and his plan to expand abortions in the state.

"Dolan went so far as to suggest that Cuomo might not be considered a Catholic in good standing if goes forward."

 I hear that term a lot....but what does "in good standing" mean? Does it mean you haven't committed any mortal sins, or that you go to Church pretty much every Sunday, or you're mostly a good person? I don't know.

In good standing?

This Feast Day Brought to You By....

From The Eye of the Tiber:

"Alameda, CA–Following a string of church closures around the country, St. Stephen Parish in Alameda, California has announced plans to have their upcoming Pentecost Mass sponsored by Tostitos. The move comes just months after Los Angeles Bishop Jose Gomez officially changed the name of the city’s cathedral from Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to The Buffalo Wild Wings Cathedral....

 Other recent sponsorships include The San Diego County Credit Union Feast of St. John Lateran, The Dixieline Lumber Solemnity of St. Joseph the Worker, and the controversial Godaddy.com Fat Tuesday Mass."

Let's try it! Today is the Feast of St. Benedict Joseph Labre. Butler's Lives of the Saints says, "Benedict continued his not-so-aimless wandering for several years, neglecting to take care of his personal hygiene and wearing rags. This naturally led people to avoid him, providing the privacy he wanted for his prayers."

I hereby proclaim today is the Irish Spring Feast of St. Benedict Labre!

Cherubim and Seraphim

I was reading a parody on CatholicVote.org which included this:

We were going over the purgatory numbers for last quarter and all of a sudden the door bursts open and in flies one of the seraphim.  Or maybe cherubim, I don’t know, hard to tell sometimes.

 

Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones (top to bottom)

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Cherubim:

 The word cherub (cherubim is the Hebrew masculine plural) is a word borrowed from the Assyrian kirubu, from karâbu, "to be near", hence it means near ones, familiars, personal servants, bodyguards, courtiers. It was commonly used of those heavenly spirits, who closely surrounded the Majesty of God and paid Him intimate service.





Seraphim:

 The name, a Hebrew masculine plural form, designates a special class of heavenly attendants of Yahweh's court.

 Although described under a human form, with faces, hands, and feet (Isaiah 6:2, 6), they are undoubtedly existing spiritual beings corresponding to their name, and not mere symbolic representations as is often asserted by advanced Protestant scholars. Their number is considerable, as they appear around the heavenly throne in a double choir and the volume of their chorus is such that the sound shakes the foundations of the palace.

Two-fer! Feast of St. Dymphna AND St. Isidore the Farmer!

St. Dymphna is the patron saint of those with mental and nervous disorders. Not that she was off kilter - her dad was. After Dymphna's mother died, her dad sent his messengers out and about to find a woman of royal breeding who was willing to marry him AND looked like his dead wife. Surprisingly, he got no takers. So he decided to marry his daughter, Dymphna, instead. Again...surprisingly... she didn't like the idea so he whacked her head off. She was only 15 at the time.

St. Isidore was a farmer, but he had an edge - angels helped him plow the fields. He also reportedly raised someone from the dead and made a spring pop up in an arid field.

St. Dymphna

He also seemd able to make things appear - from Wikipedia:

One snowy day, when going to the mill with corn to be ground, he passed a flock of wood-pigeons scratching vainly for food on the hard surface of the frosty ground. Taking pity on the poor animals, he poured half of his sack of precious corn upon the ground for the birds, despite the mocking of witnesses. When he reached the mill, however, the bag was full, and the corn, when it was ground, produced double the expected amount of flour.
                                                                                                               
                                                                                                        St. Isidore and hoe

Isidore was married to Santa Maria de la Cabeza (St. Mary of the Head). She was called that "because her head (conserved in a reliquary and carried in procession) has often brought rain from heaven for an afflicted dry countryside." 

 So if you are a farmer with a mental or nervous disorder....today is your day!

Feast of St. Matthias, May 14

From Catholic Online

After the Ascension, the apostles needed a replacement for Judas Iscariot. Peter set the criteria - a man who had been a disciple of Christ from His baptism by John through the Ascension. Two guys met the criteria - Matthias and Joseph (also called (Barsabbas). Since the apostles did not profess to know God's will in the matter, they prayed over it. No...well, maybe. But they DID cast lots. And Matthias was the winner!

Therefore, according to Wikipedia:

According to old tradition, St. Matthias's Day is said to be the luckiest day of the year. This is because Matthias was the saint who was chosen by lot to replace Judas Iscariot It has therefore been seen as a good day on which to buy lottery tickets or to participate in activities such as that.

Because you don't violate the first commandment if it's done in honor of a saint.

St. Matthias is the patron saint of the diocese of Gary, Indiana and Great Falls, Montana.  Makes you wonder how they picked him.

Islamic Outreach, Part IX

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

Yesterday, Pope Francis conducted for the first time the venerable rite for the canonization of saints. He said, " Today the Church proposes for our veneration a group of martyrs who were called together to the supreme witness to the Gospel in 1480. About 800 people, who survived the siege and invasion of Otranto, Italy, were decapitated on the outskirts of that city. They refused to deny their faith and they died confessing the risen Christ."

Want to take a guess as to who killed them?

As the headline at FatherZ's blog states:

Pope Francis canonizes the Martyrs of Otranto, slain by Islamic invaders

TheTrouble With Jesuits, Part IV

The Prime Minister of Ireland is a guy named Enda Kenny, who, though proclaiming he is a Catholic, is moving Ireland towards legalized abortion.

From the Irish Times:

The Catholic bishops said they were concerned that hospitals could be forced to provide abortion and that there was no room for conscientious objection at an institutional level.

“This would be totally unacceptable and has serious implications for the existing legal and Constitutional arrangements that respect the legitimate autonomy and religious ethos of faith-based institutions,” the Catholic Bishops said in a statement.

They also denounced the argument that abortion should be legislated for in the case of a pregnant women with suicide ideation. 

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Anyway, the JESUIT institution of Boston College has invited Mr. Kenny to give the commencement address at graduation this year. Archbishop O'Malley of Boston is NOT amused - and will not attend the ceremony. Good on ya, Cardinal!

Jesus...What a Prankster!

From the wedding feast at Cana...

Islamic Update, Part VIII

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

Pope Tawadros II, the 118th pope of the Coptic Church of Egypt

From Fox News:
 
A mass exodus of Christians is currently underway.  Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other.
We are reliving the true history of how the Islamic world, much of which prior to the Islamic conquests was almost entirely Christian, came into being.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.”  In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”

Everbody Loves Pope Francis

Except for maybe the baby at the end of the video...

Catholic Angst

From Acts of Apostasy

.

Islamic Outreach, Part VII

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

From UCA News:
Malaysia -Christian leaders on Wednesday condemned a billboard election campaign by the ruling party, Barisan Nasional, which they say depicts churches as usurping the authority and name of Allah, and which could be seen as a license for violence against them.

 Reverend Eu Hong Seng, chairman of the Christian Federation of Malaysia, said the billboard campaign conveyed a “despicable and heinous” anti-Christian message that could threaten churches over their use of the term Allah for God.


He said the threat was a real one given recent church burnings and threats to burn copies of the Bahasa Malaysia language bible.

Feast Day of St. James the Lesser, May 3

St. James is the patron saint of hat makers.I'm sure there's a reason, but I don't know what it is. Anyway, in honor of St. James, I present....CARMEN MIRANDA!

Buddhist Outreach

OK, Pope Francis hasn't said anything about reaching out to the Buddhists. Bu this is from the Catholic World News:

"Bishop Raymond Wickramasinghe of Galle (Sri Lanka) is seeking the prayers of the faithful worldwide as the nation’s Christians and Muslims suffer persecution from Bodu Bala Sana (BBS), the “Buddhist Taliban.”
The Fides news agency reported that Buddhist monks were involved in 50 attacks on Christians in 2012. One prelate, Bishop Rayyappu Joseph of Mannar, suffered slight injuries when stones were thrown at him in September."

I'm also keeping an eye on the Mennonites...

Why We Pray the Rosary

Mary giving you the "Jesus doesn't like it when you're not nice to me" look.

Snoopy Dance!

From the Curt Jester:

"Towards the end they had the children come up to the altar to donate money that had raised for the homebound. While this was happening the pianist started playing “Linus and Lucy” – yes the Peanuts theme song. If my jaw had been physically capable of dropping to the floor, it would have. At first I thought “That hymn they are playing sound vaguely familiar” until I realized what is was with certainty. Thankfully Snoopy did not come out to dance on the ambo.
This flows from the idea of providing a soundtrack for the Mass. That silence must never occur and that constantly something must be playing. At least that is the only explanation that comes to mind for me that cold lead to playing the Peanuts theme. The four-hymn sandwich was not enough so a bunch of musical Hors d’oeuvre must be added. Next we will get background music for the “Liturgy of the Bulletin” which occurs at the end of many Masses."