How Popey?

Link

The actual photo...the small cape is called a mozzetta.

I Went to Mass and a Hootenanny Broke Out

 I bet the Knights of Columbus bluegrass band feels the same way at St. Andrew Church in Murphysboro.... from Eye of the Tiber, of course.

Yonkers, NY––Blake Jennings, lead guitarist at St. Therese Parish in Yonkers, New York is outraged over what he calls “years of concerts being interrupted by the Mass.” The 56-year-old accountant and father of three has played with his band at the 9:30 Folk Mass since 2009. “Our fans love us,” Jennings said, after Sunday Mass. “You can see it in their eyes…the way they droop down, lazily closing as we play…as if they’re entering into some kind of ecstasy. Or the way some in the parish are so moved they just can’t stand another moment of joy, and simply walk out…presumably to get some air.” But according to Jennings, many in the band have been becoming ever frustrated with the frequent interruptions to their concerts. “Father’s always interrupting…always trying to upstage us. First it’s a gospel, then a homily, eventually the words of consecration…there’s always something with this guy.” Jennings has recently begun a petition, and hopes to get 2,000 signatures to send to the diocese.

Maria Goretti On Tour NOW!

 From the Maria Goretti website:

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.

 First stop....

Tuesday September 29

St. Patrick’s Cathedral
5th Avenue
New York, New York  10022
(212) 753-2261

• Public veneration of St. Maria begins: 8:30 am
• Solemn Mass celebrated in St. Maria’s honor: 7:00 pm
• Public veneration ends: 9:00 pm

If you participate in this pilgrimage, you can receive a plenary indulgence:

The Pope Explains Captialism

"Amen, I Say to You...

... whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

The Senate voted last week to stop the Democrats’ filibuster of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks — as neither Congress nor state legislatures can vote to ban all abortions under Roe v. Wade. The bill highlights how unborn babies feel intense pain when they are killed in abortions.

 What I am asking every colleague is this: look in your hearts and help us stand up for the most innocent life,” said Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in advance of the vote. But Democrats defeated the cloture vote 54-42, with pro-life Senate Republicans not getting the 60 votes needed to end debate and proceed to a vote on the pro-life bill itself. Three Democrats joined with Republicans to support the pro-life bill, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. Two pro-abortion republican, Susan Collins of Maine and Mark Kirk of Illinois — voted with Democrats to support late-term abortions. 

So a salute to the Catholics who voted NAY and made sure cloture would not occur and as many as 18,000 babies can be killed by Planned Parenthood and their ilk each year!
 




 SUSAN COLLINS, R-MAINE






 



 DICK DURBIN, D-ILLINOIS













 BARBARA MIKULKSKI D - MARYLAND

JACK REED, D- RHODE ISLAND

ROBERT MENENDEZ, D- NEW JERSEY

MARIA CANTWELL, D- WASHINGTON 

Islamic Outreach, Part LXXIV

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."

Meanwhile....

Islamic State (IS) militants have demolished the ancient Christian monastery of Mar Elian in the central Syrian town of al-Qaryatain.

St. Elian Fresco - BEFORE

The militants have also moved Christians taken captive in the town to their stronghold of Raqqa, according to a UK-based monitoring group.
IS captured al-Qaryatain from government forces some two weeks ago.
Photos showed the group bulldozing parts of the monastery, which was founded more than 1,500 years ago.
IS also transferred more than 100 captives to Raqqa, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
But the group says the fate of 230 people kidnapped after al-Qaryatain's capture remains unclear, including Jacques Mourad, a prominent local priest who had been working at the Mar Elian monastery.

Sr. Elian fresco - AFTER

---

Obama Won the Catholic Vote TWICE!

 THE VATICAN has raised objections to a few of the guests invited to the White House arrival ceremony next week for Pope Francis. The Wall Street Journal reported that the guests include transgender activists, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop and a nun who criticizes church policies on abortion and euthanasia. The Vatican worries that photos taken with the pope might be used to suggest his endorsement of activities he in fact disapproves of.

 

Mona Charon responds:

 

Even when hosting the most ideologically sympathetic pontiff in his lifetime (climate change, Cuba), Mr. Obama cannot restrain himself. He cannot be civil and respectful, searching for common ground. No, he must include on the official guest list of those greeting the Pope at the White House, a transgender activist, an openly gay Episcopal bishop, and a nun who supported Obamacare despite its funding of abortion and contraception. We’ve become a little inured to this president’s staggering insensitivity and passive aggression over the years. But in this case, you’d have to remove the “passive” part. This is an embarrassing moment for our country.

Compare and Contrast

 From the Catholic News Agency:
Vatican City, Sep 15, 2015 / 06:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- While Pope Francis is in Cuba next week chances are high that he will meet with former president Fidel Castro, though no specific time has been set, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi has announced.
Anticipating questions on whether a meeting between the Pope and the former Cuban president would happen, Fr. Lombardi said that “in all likelihood it's very predictable that it will happen, clearly during the day in Havana.”
However, he stressed that it hasn't put in the schedule at a specific time, “so we have to see when is easier, or when it's possible to organize it. But it's very likely that it will happen.”
“The desire has also been expressed by the State, also when President Raul Castro came here to Rome, so it's quite normal.”

Compare and contrast:

Bishop of Rome
Anti-Capitalist
Native Language - Spanish

"Global warming is mainly as  result of human activity"
Two brothers (deceased)
Marxist



Former Dictator
Worth $900 million
Native Language - Spanish
"Climate change can be prevented.”
One brother (Dictator)
Socialist


HA! Just kidding about the Marxist thing. I hope.... “Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended ... there is nothing in the exhortation that cannot be found in the social doctrine of the church.”

Islamic Outreach, Part LXXIII

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."

Meanwhile...from AFP:

Unidentified assailants set ablaze one of the few churches in Yemen's second city Aden on Wednesday, a day after it had been damaged by vandals, witnesses said. The masked arsonists torched St. Joseph, a Roman Catholic church in the central Crater neighbourhood of the port city. A security official said the attackers could be militants of Al-Qaeda. "The church is in flames," resident Moetaz al-Maysour told AFP, adding that "masked men started the fire."

Yemen's population is 99 percent Muslim.

Of the 22 churches that operated in Aden when the city was a British colony before 1967, only a few remain open, used rarely by foreign workers and African refugees. Al-Qaeda militants have been accused of several attacks since pro-government forces pushed Iran-backed rebels out of the battle-scarred city in July with support from a Saudi-led coalition. The extremists network's Yemen branch, regarded by Washington as its deadliest, has exploited the fighting to boost its presence in swathes of the south and east.

Watch Me Pull A Rabbit out of my Biretta!

 From McNamara's Blog:

The Rail Splitter was one of several anti-Catholic publications that gained a wide circulation in the 1910′s and 1920′s. This cartoon from its pages shows a cassocked priest replete with horns and tail knocking at the door of the American public school system. (In many remote rural areas of the South, priests, and Catholics in general, were said to have horns under their hats). He is seen literally crossing the line between Church and State, coming from the “parochial school and nunnery,” where “superstition,” “ignorance,” and “despotism” are said to dwell abundantly. A common theme in the anti-Catholicism of this era was the alleged Catholic attempt to subvert the American public school system and replace it with parochial schools subservient to Rome rather than the State. References are made to the Spanish Inquisition and its alleged torture devices, such as the thumb screw. 

When he writes "horns under their hats", I assume he means under their birettas".

Faster, Please

From Eye of the Tiber:

The Vatican announced today that it’s making faster, easier annulments an option via its brand new delivery system, Annulment Prime.
The news confirms reports that surfaced last week indicating that the Vatican was staffing up a new “separation division” to compete with services offered by its protestant competitors.
The service will give Annulment Prime members faster annulment options at a fraction of the cost. As an introductory offer, members who sign up to Annulment Prime in the next two days will receive a 30-day free trial. Members will also have access to annulment paperwork order-tracking, as well as the option to track the priest working on his or her case in real-time.
The Vatican says that “customers” will see their annulments finalized and delivered within a day or less with no additional charges or delivery fees.

 Not to be picky or anything, but it's not an annulment. A nullity is declared, not an annulment - the marriage was null from the start, not started out one way and ended in another

Mitus Iudex

Canonist Ed Peter takes a look at Mitus Iudex, and doesn't see a lot of major changes BUT there are a few!

He then takes a second look, and doesn't like everything he sees:

At the pope’s request, a tiny group of experts, most from just one country, developed these new canons and explanations in a very short time. I find, however, the implications of some of these norms for marriage law in general, and for diocesan bishops in particular, stunning, and I join Dr. Kurt Martens of CUA in wondering how Bishops must feel at having such significant burdens thrust on them just in time for Christmas with, as far as one can see, virtually no prior consultation. I expressly cautioned against this approach last year and sound that claxon again. Assuming, in any event, that I have read the new norms correctly, and assuming that there are no easy resolutions to my concerns, what might one suggest?

First, and most importantly, the vacatio legis (a delay period before new laws go into effect per Canon 8) indicated for Mitis should be extended from this December until well into next year at the very least. If, as some assert, Francis’ annulment reforms are the most significant in the last three hundred years, a considerably longer period than three months is needed to prepare for them. If necessary, a request for an extension could be proposed by the upcoming Synod of Bishops.
Second, a much wider consultation about annulment reform should be conducted, a consultation that would involve, at a minimum, many identified diocesan bishops (identified precisely so observers could forward remarks to them) and canonists from several countries, especially from countries with extensive tribunal operational experience.

Shut Up, He Explained

BUDAPEST — Pope Francis’s message Sunday couldn’t have been clearer: With hundreds of thousands of refugees flowing into Europe, Catholics across the continent had a moral duty to help by opening their churches, monasteries and homes as sanctuaries.

Bishop Laszlo Kiss-Rigo

 On Monday, the church’s spiritual leader for southern Hungary — scene of some of the heaviest migrant flows anywhere in Europe — had a message just as clear: His Holiness is wrong.
“They’re not refugees. This is an invasion,” said Bishop Laszlo Kiss-Rigo, whose dominion stretches across the southern reaches of this predominantly Catholic nation. “They come here with cries of ‘Allahu Akbar.’ They want to take over.”

Islamic Outreach, Part LXXI

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."

Meanwhile.....

Huge numbers of Muslim refugees are beginning to flood the borders in Europe. To try and cope with the massive influx, the European Union recently passed an emergency grant to funnel funds to Red Cross to help feed the refugees.
But what should be embraced with open arms (free food and water) is being rejected and insulted. Why? Because the Red Cross logo is, well, a red cross!

T he video below shows a huge crowd of Muslim refugees at the Greek/Macedonian border. Soldiers arrive with food and water in boxes showing the Red Cross logo on the side.
When the Muslim crowd sees the log they begin yelling and waiving off the boxes. You can even see them holding their hands up with the one finger ‘One God – Allah’ sign. The crowd cheers when the soldiers finally walk away, taking the food supplies with them.
Europe and the West had better brace for impact, folks. While these people may not support those waging war in the Middle East, they also don’t support our way of life. Not one bit.

I'm Compunctious About Your Sorrow

I'm sorry for the way things are in China
I'm sorry things ain't what they used to be
But more than anything else
I'm sorry for myself.

John Denver, "I'm Sorry" 

Not good enough!  I want you sorry today, sorry tomorrrow, and sorry about about things that happened hundreds of years ago and you had nothing to do with! For instance, I am sorry my French ancestors weren't kinder to the Huguenots.

Meanwhile....the Associated Press reports:

SAN FRANCISCO — Pope Francis' apology for the Roman Catholic Church's crimes against indigenous peoples has not softened opposition among some California Native Americans to his decision to canonize 18th-century Franciscan missionary Junipero Serra.
Serra is extolled by the Vatican as a great evangelizer, but denounced by some tribal officials as a destroyer of Native culture.
Francis made a sweeping apology for the church's sins and "crimes" against indigenous peoples during a visit to Bolivia in July, "humbly" begging forgiveness in the presence of Bolivia's first-ever indigenous president and representatives of native groups from across South America, who wildly cheered the pope and said they accepted the apology.
But Ron Andrade, a member of the La Jolla Indian Reservation, said the pope's apology is not a real reckoning with the church's history of abusing Native Americans and appears intended to seek forgiveness and move on.
 Critics say they want action, not words. The pope should help Native Americans regain land they lost, Andrade said.

Shut Up, I Explained

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNS) -- Pope Francis' visit to Cuba is a sign of his closeness to the nation's people at a time they "breathe the air of hope" that relations with the U.S. will improve, said Bishop Wilfredo Pino Estevez of Guantanamo-Baracoa.

Bishop Wilfredo Pino Estevez

 "It's not easy to live at odds with your next door neighbor," Bishop Pino wrote in a Sept. 1 pastoral letter. "That's why it's very important what the pope is coming to do, as the universal pastor of the church, in the search for reconciliation and peace among all peoples of the earth.''

 Yes, because all the problems of Cuba can be solved if we (the US) weren't such meanies.

 From USA Today:


If a recent Univision Noticias surveyof Cubans is any indication, Soler is not alone in that assessment: 75% of respondents said that when it comes to politics, they "have to be careful about what to say" in public. The Obama administration and Pope Francis hoped a thawing would open the political system, but more than half of Cubans polled believe politics will remain the same. Still more don't think the Cuban government will allow other political parties to exist after a normalization of relations.

But Castro's crackdown seems to be more about religious freedom than the ballot box. "Many times, we haven't been able to get to church," Soler  told the National Review at this year's Oslo Freedom Forum. "The few who actually do make it to church have been detained for over five hours. They have been beaten." This might be why Soler is more than a little frustrated with her spiritual shepherd. "The European Union, the USA, Pope Francis — they have turned their backs on us," she said.

 While the Vatican is busy planning his September visit to the Caribbean island, Pope Francis would do well not to forget his own history and consider canceling the trip. The pope should re-examine the optics of putting a dictator over his flock.

The Catholic Church Slowly Turns Unitarian

 From the Catholic World News


Dissent from Church teachings on contentious moral issues is widespread among Catholic Americans, a new Pew Research survey has confirmed.
A majority of Catholics believe that the use of contraceptives, extra-marital sex, and remarriage after divorce are not sinful, according to the poll. More than a third of American Catholics (39%) do not believe that homosexual acts are sinful. 

Our Senator, Dick Durbin

The Pew poll found that substantial minorities of self-identified Catholics think it is acceptable for children to be raised by unmarried couples (48%) or by same-sex couples (43%). A large majority (79%) think it acceptable for married couples to choose not to have children. 

Noted Theologian Nancy Pelosi

Not surprisingly, the Pew survey found that Catholics who attend Mass regularly are more likely to support the teachings of the Church. However, even among churchgoing Catholics there is substantial support for positions opposed to Church moral teachings. The Pew poll also provides new evidence that American Catholics are leaving the Church in large numbers. More than half of all Americans who were raised as Catholics have stopped practicing the faith at some point in their lives, the survey shows. Among those who say they have broken permanently with the Catholic Church, 77% report that they cannot imagine returning. 

The Zany Vice President, Joe Biden

You Can Turn Him Around If You Want To Say Mass in Latin

ONLY $49.99!

Fr. Leopold is on a mission to share the good news of Jesus Christ with minifigures everywhere. Sporting his brand new clerics and a friendly face, he is ready to preach the gospel and bring the sacraments to his people.

Featuring 171 genuine LEGO® bricks, three modified bricks (his Roman collar, the sacramentary and the lectionary were printed after they left the factory) and a set of four vestments (a green chasuble for Ordinary Time, red and white for feast days, and purple for Advent and Lent) this set will provide hours of imaginative play.

The included 28-page full-color instruction guide makes building the altar, ambo, credence table, presider’s chair and tabernacle a snap.

Put the lectionary, sacramentary, chalice, paten, hosts, cruets and lavabo dish in place, get Fr. Leopold vested and he’s ready to celebrate Mass. Congregation not included. 

Spoken as The Second Vatican Council Wrapped up....

I wish he didn't say, "Good day" at the end of it.

What is This, A Joke?

Within a week, Americans will be able to share a joke with Pope Francis and, by doing so, help support a mission cause.
Celebrities such as Bill Murray, Conan O’Brien, George Lopez, Whitney Cummings, David Copperfield and Al Roker have joined the cause and recorded jokes. Even Jesuit Father Jim Martin has welcomed the pope with a recorded joke about a Franciscan and a Jesuit who reach the pearly gates.
The site is sponsored by the Pontifical Mission Societies, and it goes live Sept. 8, said Oblate Father Andrew Small, director.

On that date, people can visit JokeWithThePope.org and select one of three causes: needy children in Argentina, homeless people in Ethiopia or hungry people in Africa. Then, they assign a written joke or record a joke and assign it to that cause.
 For those that are comedically challenged, you hit a button and it spits out a joke for them,” Father Small said. “We have a lot original jokes.”
The funniest participant will be chosen at the end of the campaign to receive the first-ever official title of honorary comedic adviser to the pope, and his or her cause will receive a $10,000 donation.

Note: Father Small said all jokes will be screened.

OK!

A Rabbi, a Minister, and a Priest walk into a bar. 

The bartender says, "What is this? A joke?" 

The Yellow Cab Feast Day of St. Fiacre, September 1

St. Fiacre (Fiachra) is not mentioned in the earlier Irish calendars, but it is said that he was born in Ireland and that he sailed over into France in quest of closer solitude, in which he might devote himself to God, unknown to the world. He arrived at Meaux, where Saint Faro, who was the bishop of that city, gave him a solitary dwelling in a forest which was his own patrimony, called Breuil, in the province of Brie. There is a legend that St. Faro offered him as much land as he could turn up in a day, and that St. Fiacre, instead of driving his furrow with a plough, turned the top of the soil with the point of his staff. The anchorite cleared the ground of trees and briers, made himself a cell with a garden, built an oratory in honor of the Blessed Virgin, and made a hospice for travelers which developed into the village of Saint-Fiacre in Seine-et-Marne.

 A "fiacre" is also a a hackney coach; that is, a horse-drawn four wheel  carriage.

"Le fiacre" by Edouard Manet

 From Wikipedia:

The earliest use of the word in English is cited by the Oxford English Dictionaryas from 1699 ("Fiacres" or Hackneys, hung with Double Springs"). The name is derived indirectly from Saint Fiacre; theHotel de Saint Fiacre in Paris rented carriages from about the middle of the seventeenth century. Saint Fiacre was adopted as the cab drivers' patron saint because of the association of his name with the carriage.

Not surprisingly, St. Fiacre is the Patron Saint of Cabdrivers!

Saint-Fiacre in Seine-et-Marne

Islamic Outreach, Part LXX

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."
 
Meanwhile....

Bishop Michael Malki

 From Catholic World News:

A century to the day after he was beaten and beheaded after refusing to convert to Islam, Bishop Flavianus Michael Malke (Melki) was beatified as a martyr on August 29 at the Patriarchal Convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Harissa, Lebanon.
Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Yonan presided at the liturgy.
Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, told Vatican Radio that “today, as it was 100 years ago, darkness has fallen in many countries of ancient Christian civilization: the faithful are discriminated against, persecuted, expelled, killed; their houses are not marked with the blood of the Passover lamb to be saved, but with the red ‘Nu,’ for Nasrani or ‘one belonging to the Nazarene,’ meaning Christians, as the mark of their sentence.”
“As it was one hundred years ago, at the time of the martyrdom of Bishop Melki, Christians are denied every liberty, they are forced to leave their homeland, or to convert or die,” he added. “In fact, death reigns supreme in the persecutors’ minds and hearts of stone, who cannot stand the Christian civilization of liberty, respect for others, fraternity, justice, charity.” 

How does that make you feel, Angry Islamic Guy?

ANGRY!