Non Tasarmi, Fratello!

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!” Hillaire Belloc

Monday, August 31, 2015

Let Us Bow Our Heads.....

And select our Fantasy Football team.

Labels: ,

Islamic Outreach, Part LXIX

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 response:

You must say with a sincere heart: ‘We will be your subjects; we will give you our strength’. You must in person come with your kings, all together, without exception, to render us service and pay us homage. Only then will we acknowledge your submission.
And if you don’t observe God’s command, and if you ignore my command, I shall know you as my enemy. Likewise I shall make you understand. If you do otherwise, God knows what I know!
Now you should say with a sincere heart: ‘I will submit and serve you and Thou thyself, at the head of all the Princes, come at once to serve and wait upon us! At that time I shall recognize your submission.

HA! Just kidding! That's what Guyuk Khan wrote to Pope Innocent IV in 1246 when the Pope asked the Great Khan to stop killing so many people.




.

Labels: , ,

Friday, August 28, 2015

Terrorist Alert!

Sayeth the next President of the United States, Hillary Clinton:

Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups. We expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world. 
 
Katherine Timpf explains:

For the record: The “extreme” Republican views Hillary refers to here are opposition to things like abortion and public funding for Planned Parenthood. Terrorists, on the other hand, believe it is actually okay to rape and murder women. The two hardly seem comparable.
 
TERRORIST ALERT! 
 
 

Labels: , ,

Sunkist Oranges Feast of St. Augustine, August 28

The City of St. Augustine is the nation's oldest permanently occupied European settlement, having been founded by the Spanish in 1565.

 
On Sept. 8. 1565, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles came ashore and named a stretch of land near the inlet in honor of Augustine, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on whose feast day - Aug. 28 - land was sighted. The location has been pinpointed in recent years by archaeologists from the University of Florida as being where the present-day Mission of Nombre de Dios and the Fountain of Youth stand, several blocks north of the City Gate and the Castillo de San Marcos.

Labels: ,

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 41

Seattle University may say it is a Catholic Jesuit school, but that does not mean it really is a religious institution, says the National Labor Relations Board.
On Thursday, the federal labor law enforcement agency ruled that the school was not exempt from the NLRB's authority and its adjunct professors could therefore unionize.


The ruling clears a path for a vote by the adjuncts, who work at non-tenure-track positions that are also lower-paying than full professorships despite often involving heavy course loads. About half of the school's 700-member faculty are adjuncts. Service Employees International Union Local 925 has been seeking to represent them.
The university had sought a religious exemption from the National Labor Relations Act. It cited the Supreme Court's 1979 NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago ruling, which held that the board's authority doesn't extend to "schools operated by a church to teach both religious and secular subjects."
The chain of events stemming from the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) unconstitutional oversight of Catholic colleges has taken a predictable turn, with the latest ruling stating that professors at Seattle University do not perform a religious function within the Jesuit university.
As has been the case with other NLRB rulings against Catholic colleges, the regional Board’s recent unconstitutional interference into the affairs of Seattle University has exposed Catholic identity concerns. This week, the NLRB upheld its decision that the University is not exempt from federal oversight.
- See more at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4331/Jesuit-University%e2%80%99s-Faculty-Not-Held-to-Religious-Standards-Government-Finds.aspx#sthash.RtsP0fqT.dpuf

Labels: ,

Are You Drinking With Me, Jesus?

 Are you drinkin' with me Jesus
I can't see you very clear
If you're drinkin' with me Jesus
Would you buy a friend a beer.




Cardinal William Levada, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has admitted to an "error in judgment" after he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Police in Hawaii, where he was visiting, stopped Cardinal Levada after they observed him driving erratically. He was released on bail and will be required to appear in court to face formal charges in September. 


Cardinal Levada, a California native, was Archbishop of Portland, Oregon, and then of San Francisco before he was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. He resigned that post in 2012 at the age of 76, and now lives in retirement in San Francisco.

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

St. Maria Goretti U.S. Tour!

From September to November of this year the major relics of St. Maria Goretti will make a pilgrimage to the United States.  Named the “Pilgrimage of Mercy,” it is the first time that her body travels to the USA.



While St. Maria is universally known as the Patroness of Purity, her greatest virtue was her unyielding forgiveness of her attacker even in the midst of horrendous physical suffering, a forgiveness that would completely convert him and set him on a path to personal holiness.  In March 2015, His Holiness, Pope Francis, announced an Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy beginning December 8, 2015. This visit of the major relics of St. Maria Goretti is an effort on the part of the Holy See and Treasures of the Church to prepare and catechize the United States for this great celebration in the life of the Church.


From the schedule at the website:

Illinois/Missouri

Monday October 19 
Cathedral of St. Peter (METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS AREA)  
200 W Harrison Street
Belleville, Illinois   62220
(618) 234-1166
  • Public veneration of St. Maria begins: 7:30 am.
  • Solemn Mass celebrated in St. Maria’s honor: 7:00 pm
  • Public veneration ends: 11:00 pm

Labels: , ,

Friday, August 21, 2015

Islamic Outreach, Part LXVIII

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."

4th Century Mar Elian Monastery


ISIS fighters have demolished a monastery in central Syria, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Mar Elian monastery in the town of Qaryatain near Homs, was captured by the terrorists  from the Syrian Army two weeks ago. This week they used bulldozers to raze the holy site,
Mar Elian is also where Fr Jacques Mourad was kidnapped in May. He remains one of six clergy in Syria who have been kidnapped by rebel groups, their fates unknown.
Qaryatain is near a road linking the ancient Roman city of Palmyra, also ISIS-controlled to the Qalamoun mountains on the border with Lebanon.
ISIS has also kidnapped 230 people including dozens of Christian families after taking Qaryatain. Of those captured, 48 had been released and 110 were transferred to Raqqa province, the headquarters of the Islamist group.

Labels: ,

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Evangeli Gaudium

Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.


CNA/EWTN News).- Venezuela's ongoing economic crisis has hit the Church in a unique way: the production of Hosts fell 60 percent during the past month, affecting three states in the South American country.


Venezuelan Host Store

Giovanni Luisio Mass, prior of the Order of Poor Knights of Christ of the Temple of Jerusalem, explained to local media that the shortage of unleavened wheat flour needed to make Hosts has been acute for a month now.

According to Caracol TV, the monthly production of Hosts has dropped from 80,000 to 30,000. This drop, Mass indicated, has affected every parish in three Venezuelan states. He added that they can only send 1,500 Hosts to the parishes in the north of the country, because there is no longer enough flour to make the 8,000 they have always needed.

Several parishes, along with the local communities, have organized to search for the wheat flour needed for the Hosts.


Hey! The could order them from the Cistercians in Wisconsin. Here's the price list. Cheap!

Labels: ,

Friday, August 14, 2015

In Praise of a Franciscan, Feast of Maxilian Kolbe Edition, August 14



Labels: ,

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Swiss Bishop Forgoes a Job in a Kentucky Prison

Under heavy public pressure, a Swiss Catholic bishop has issued a public apology for a statement in which he referred to homosexual activity as an abomination and cited Old Testament passages saying that offenders should be put to death. 

Bishop Vitus Huonder

Bishop Vitus Huonder of Chur sent a 3-page letter to clerics in which he said it had been a “mistake” to make his comments—which he had delivered at a forum in Germany—“on a theological and academic level.” He said that he should have shown a draft of his talk to colleagues, who would have warned him on the likely outcry.
The bishop faces criminal complaints on charges that his statement was “inciting people to crimes” against homosexuals.

Labels:

Job Opening - Catholics Need Not Apply

 Calling all Unitarian "Ministers"! I found a job opening!



Prison officials in the state of Kentucky have told chaplains that they are not allowed to speak of homosexual activity as sinful.
The Department of Juvenile Justice revoked the credentials of a Baptist chaplain, citing his refusal to comply with a policy that forbids reference to homosexuality as sinful. Chaplains who do not agree to abide by that policy will not be allowed to work in prisons, officials said.
The Kentucky policy stipulates that "staff, volunteers, interns and contractors shall not imply or tell LGBTQI juveniles that they are abnormal, deviant, sinful or that they can or should change their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Labels: ,

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

At. Last, Something Good Out of Brazil!

A Brazilian bishop has told the faithful not to exchange informal personal greetings during the Kiss of Peace at Mass. 

Bishop Milton Kenan Junior
 Bishop Milton Kenan Junior of Barretos issued norms designed to ensure proper reverence in the liturgy, including a directive during the Kiss of Peace, the priest should not leave the altar and the faithful should “greet those persons closest to you.” He cautioned that “the rite of peace is not a time for ‘congratulations, Merry Christmas,’ ‘Happy Easter,’ or any other type of greeting.”
The bishop also said that extraordinary ministers should not substitute for ordained priests and deacons in the distribution of Communion, and “the ordained minister is not permitted to sit down during Communion time and leave the responsibility of distributing Holy Communion to the extraordinary ministers.” 
Not Brazil

Labels: , ,

Keep Him Away From Your Pool


Labels:

Thursday, August 06, 2015

As If I Needed Another Reason to Avoid Radom....

 From the Southern Illinoisan:



RADOM — St. Michael's Parish Picnic will feature plenty of attractions for all ages — from pony rides to bingo. The annual picnic will be Saturday on the church grounds, 52 S. Third St.
A fried chicken and roast pork dinner will be served from 3 to 7:30 p.m. in the air-conditioned church basement, and a polka mass will begin at 4 p.m.
Homemade quilt and cash bingo will start at 6:30 p.m., and Polka Connection will provide music from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m.

Earlier in the day will be a Classic Car, Truck, Tractor & Bike Show. Registration will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with judging at 4 p.m. and presentation of awards at 5 p.m. The entry fee is $10 per vehicle.
Other attractions include games, pony rides, refreshments and a raffle. In case of rain, activities will move indoors.

I wonder who the priest is up there? Could it be...


Labels: , ,

Wednesday, August 05, 2015

On My Honor, I Will Do My Best To Do My Duty To God...

 The Boy Scout Oath:

 On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my Country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight


Except the "God" part. And the "morally straight" part.

 
Bishop Kagan


Dear Faithful Catholics of the Diocese of Bismarck,
 
Much has happened during the course of the last few weeks. First, I am most grateful to you for your cooperation and support in listening to my letter during Mass this past weekend. The decision on marriage by the U.S. Supreme Court is having real and unwelcome consequences in many areas of our daily lives and I expect that it will only get worse. If you would like to read my letter, click on this link  .
Second, and as expected, the Boy Scouts of America voted to admit openly gay adults into the organization to hold leadership positions. While there are indications that the BSA has a religious organization exception, which each local troop could invoke, that will provide no protection for any of our parishes and/or schools, which sponsor troops. Thus, effective immediately, the Catholic Church of the Diocese of Bismarck and each and every one of its parishes, schools and other institutions, is formally disaffiliated with and from the Boy Scouts of America. If your parish sponsors a troop, your priest has been asked to inform those persons associated with the BSA of this action and to inform the BSA itself of this decision. I regret my decision but, in conscience as the Chief Shepherd of the Diocese of Bismarck, I cannot permit our Catholic institutions to accept and participate directly or indirectly in any organization, which has policies and methods, which contradict the authoritative moral teachings of the Catholic Church.
 
Third, I list here for your consideration acceptable alternatives for our Catholic children and youth, should you wish to offer this in your parish and/or school.  There are two very good alternatives to the Girl Scouts of America. They are:  American Heritage Girls (americanheritagegirls.org), which has a National Catholic Committee;  Little Flowers’ Girls Clubs (eccehomopress.com); and  Federation of North American Explorers (fneexplorers.com). There are three alternatives to the Boy Scouts of America, which are acceptable. They are:  Federation of North American Explorers (fneexplorers.com); Columbian Squires (kofc.org/un/en/squires); and Trail Life USA (traillifeusa.com), which has a National Catholic Committee in Front Royal, VA.
 
As always, I promise of my continued prayers and relying on your own, I remain fraternally yours in Christ Jesus,
Bishop David D. Kagan

Labels: ,

Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Compare and Contrast





Who said it?

The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.

 [We should] apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.

AT THIS POINT WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE???

Labels: ,

Monday, August 03, 2015

I Guess I Am Back in the Running!

 From Eye of the Tiber, some  startling news!

Close to a week after presidential nominee Donald Trump called Mexicans “rapists” and “disease carriers,” the 69-year-old business mogul has now decided not to ask Pope Francis to run as his vice presidential nominee after learning that the Pontiff speaks Spanish.
“Mr. Trump has decided that, though the Pope is not Mexican, he still represents a threat to the U.S. because Argentina and Mexico are practically the same thing, if you know what I’m saying,” a Trump advisor told EOTT this morning. “Citizens of both countries speak the same language, and they speak it fast, and traffic drugs, and rape people.”


The advisor also added that, outside the facts stated above, and the fact that the “might-as-well-be-Mexican Pope,” stands for nearly the complete opposite of everything Trump does, the Pope would have been a perfect running mate.
“Mr. Trump would like me to express the fact that he is nevertheless excited to meet with the Pope when he visits the U.S., and just hopes that [Francis] does not take advantage of the American people’s hospitality by taking one of their jobs while he’s here.”

POINT OF INTEREST - THIS IS MY 1500TH POST!

Labels: ,

The Path to a Plenary Indulgence

Pope Francis has granted a plenary indulgence to pilgrims who travel on the Camino Ignaciano, or Ignatian Way, between July 31, 2015, and July 31, 2016. 

July 31 is the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. 



The Camino Ignaciano, inaugurated in 2012, retraces the journey of St. Ignatius in northern Spain from Loyola to Manresa, where he lived in a cave and began to write the Spiritual Exericses.
The Pontiff called upon pilgrims to undergo a "journey of profound conversion" in which they ask whether Christ is "truly the center of my life." 

The Catholic Encyclopedia writes:


 By a plenary indulgence is meant the remission of the entire temporal punishment due to sin so that no further expiation is required in Purgatory.A partial indulgence commutes only a certain portion of the penalty; and this portion is determined in accordance with the penitential discipline of the early Church. To say that an indulgence of so many days or years is granted means that it cancels an amount of purgatorial punishment equivalent to that which would have been remitted, in the sight of God, by the performance of so many days or years of the ancient canonical penance. Here, evidently, the reckoning makes no claim to absolute exactness; it has only a relative value.

Labels: ,

Bayer Aspirin Feast of St. Asperen

Aspren or Asprenas was a 1st-century Christian saint and venerated as the first Bishop of Naples.

Nothing is known of his life, but an ancient legend holds that Saint Peter, on his way to Rome, stopped at Naples and converted an old woman (identified as Candida the Elder) after he cured her of an illness.


Numerous other converts to Christianity were made during this time in Naples, including Aspren, who was converted either by Peter or Candida herself and who had also been ill.


The legend holds that Peter consecrated Aspren as bishop of Naples and asked him to construct the oratory of Santa Maria del Principio, which would form the basis for the basilica of Santa Restituta; San Pietro ad Aram was also said to have been built during this time.

Basilica of Santa Restituta
   After Aspren's death, numerous miracles were attributed to him, and his sepulcher rested in the oratory of Santa Maria del Principio, although some scholars state that his sepulcher was located in the Catacombs of San Gennaro, where images of the first fourteen Neapolitan bishops can be found.[1] In any case, John IV, Bishop of Naples translated Aspren's relics to the basilica of Santa Restituta, in the chapel dedicated to Aspren.

Catholic.org says he is Patron of Venice and is invoked against migraines...which sounds too good to be true.

Labels: , ,