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

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Not Peter's?


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Walk With the Wise...

 "Walk with the wise and you become wise, but the companion of fools fares badly."
                                                                                                    Proverbs, 13:20

Addressing a question from a young person on whether he might resign, Pope Francis said that “it has not occurred to me to leave” because of the “responsibility” (“no se me ocurrió dejar de serlo por la responsabilidad”).
The Pope made his brief comment during a May 29 conversation with persons involved in Scholas Occurrentes, an Argentine organization that promotes educational projects to bring together young people from different cultures. The Pope was instrumental in establishing the organization when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.


In his wide-ranging comments, the Pope discussed the importance of identity, belonging, and gestures, expressed concern about the “atomization” of families and society, and lamented the death of children in war.
During the encounter, Pope Francis awarded medals to actors Richard Gere, George Clooney, and Salma Hayek for their work on behalf of Scholas Occurrentes.

Let's review these worthy awardees:
 

Self-professed Buddist,  Richard Gere:

Not surprisingly, when he enters American politics, he’s a Democrat. He has donated over $13,000 to Democratic candidates  and nearly $5,000 of that was to Obama’s 2008 campaign for president.Although he says the president could have been tougher with China in regards to Tibet, he still thinks Obama will “go down as one of our great presidents.”

Hillary fan, George Clooney:

 Several media sources quote George Clooney saying in 2003, "The problem is we elected a manager, and we need a leader. Let's face it: Bush is just dim."
Ultra-conservative website CelebPolitics.com gives George "a conservative-friendly rating of -14, making George a Wacko Liberal Nutcase." The site also reports that Clooney has made $10,000 in liberal campaign contributions and none in conservative caampaign contributions.
Clooney publicly supported John Kerry for President in 2004, and donated $2,000 to his campaign. In fact, Clooney purchased his Lake Como, Italy villa from the Kerry-Heinz family for a reported $7.8 million prior to Kerry announcing his candidacy for the 2004 presidential race.



The very pretty and extraordinarly dim Selma Hayek

The minute I started thinking it through, I realized all religions are a form of manipulation. And I started having problems with certain beliefs-like in Africa, where people are dying of AIDS and overpopulation, the Catholic Church is going over to convert them and take away the condoms! And I said, wait a minute.

  Hayek is a naturalized U.S. citizen, so she is invested in U.S. politics. Her investments go to Democrats. She has donated to only two politicians–both Democrats and one was Barack Obama.

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Thursday, May 26, 2016

Jesus Emeritus Christ

 Eye of the Tiber strikes again:


Catholic blogger Nicholas Robison, best known for his blog, More Catholic Than Jesus, announced today that he has officially assumed the role of Savior of the world, ending Jesus Christ’s illustrious and often controversial reign.
The stunning news comes after years of speculation from Catholic websites that Jesus Christ was no longer able to handle the rigors of the office.
“We just feel like it’s gotten pretty obvious since the Council that He’s no longer up to the task,” roommate and spokesman for Robison, Clyde Barnes, told the press. “A whole series of bad appointments, providential allowances of culture decline, and disastrous permissions of evil have convinced us that we need a fresh approach at the very top level. He’s, frankly, been a big disappointment since Vatican II and, though we respect Jesus’ many contributions to Church history, we just think it’s time for him to be put out to pasture and let a more steady hand take the wheel.”
Barnes went on to say that Robison’s first order of business as savior would be to guide Pope Francis into early retirement where he would “be free to speak off-the-cuff to himself all he wanted without any repercussions,”  and that this decision would “inevitably usher in a new age of orthodoxy once he had been replaced by Cardinal Burke.”
At press time, Robison has announced that Jesus will henceforth go by the title Jesus Emeritus Christ, and that he will remain in Paradise to live out an eternal life of contemplation.

Heh. Reminds me of The Onion article which ran in December, 1999:


JERUSALEM—Jesus Christ, son of God and savior of humanity, confided Monday that He is not looking forward to His 2,000th birthday next year, saying that He is "really dreading turning the big two-oh-oh-oh."
Christ anxiously eyes his fast-approaching birthday.
 
"This is the Big One," said Christ, who will be 1,999 Dec. 25. "I can't believe I'm actually turning 2,000 soon. I am seriously getting up there."
Though His associates have been keeping Him in good company as the milestone draws near, Christ said He is finding it increasingly difficult to keep His spirits up.
"They keep telling me I don't look a day over 33, but you know how they are—especially Peter," Christ said meekly. "He'll be calling me an old fogy three times before the cock crows tomorrow morning. I just know it."

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I Wonder What the Copts of Egypt Think About Global Warming?

 Thankfully, the Church has solved all it's problems and can now focus on other things.....

Addressing the World Health Organization’s annual World Health Assembly, a Vatican official welcomed the call for universal health coverage in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
Msgr. Jean-Marie Mupendawatu, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, also called for a greater international effort to combat climate change for the sake of global health.

“With regard to action to combat climate change and its impact on health, my delegation wishes to underscore the need for more political will and strong commitment from civil society in order to reach truly meaningful and effective global agreements on the environment,” he said. “Often international negotiations cannot make significant progress due to positions taken by countries which place their national interests above the global common good.”

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Islamic Outreach, Part LXXXVIII

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.....



A 70-year-old Christian woman has been stripped naked, beaten and paraded through the streets by a mob of around 300 Muslim men in a village in southern Egypt.

The mob also burned down seven homes belonging to Christian families, according to an unusually outspoken statement issued by the local Orthodox Coptic church, after rumours circulated in the village that a Christian man was having a relationship with a Muslim woman.
The violence started at around 8pm on 20 May, and the local diocese said it was two hours before police responded, by which point the mob had already dispersed.

The woman who was stripped naked was reported to be the mother of the man involved in the rumoured affair. She has since met with church leaders, the Diocese of Minya and Abu Qirqas said.

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Wednesday, May 25, 2016

He was "ASTONISHED"?

I wonder if this loser is still receiving Holy Communion?
 
"Clueless" Ken Curtin

 An Irish politician has met privately with his bishop after being removed from his position as a 
lector because of his support for legal abortion and same-sex marriage.
Ken Curtin, a Social Democratic candidate for the Dáil (parliament), said that he was astonished to be told that he could not longer serve as a lector in the Cobh cathedral. Father John McCarthy, the rector of the cathedral, was responsible for that decision, Curtin says.
The political candidate reported a "very fruitful meeting" with Bishop William Crean of Cloyne to discuss the matter. According to Curtin, the bishop had not been aware of the decision to remove him as a lector. 

Bishop Crean
 And way to go, Father John McCarthy!



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By Definition, Things Will Get Better




Father Michael J.K. Fuller, a diocesan priest who chairs the Department of Spiritual Theology at 
Mundelein Seminary, has been named executive director of the Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Father Fuller succeeds Father Peter French Ryan, a Jesuit who has served in the post since 2013.
A priest of the Diocese of Rockford, Father Fuller was ordained in 1997. He is the author of The Virgin Martyrs: A Hagiographical and Mystagogical Interpretation.

Mystagogical? Really?


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Tuesday, May 24, 2016

.Not THAT USCCB? What About the Carbon Footprint?

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is sponsoring a tour of the relics of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More as part of its annual Fortnight for Freedom initiative to promote respect for religious liberty.
The relics will be venerated in Miami, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Washington.
The fortnight, whose 2016 theme is “Witnesses to Freedom,” begins on June 21 and concludes on July 4.
St. Thomas More


 What is the Fortnight for Freedom?
Each year dioceses around the country arrange special events to highlight the importance of defending religious freedom. The Fortnight for Freedom is from June 21—the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More—to July 4, Independence Day.


I was looking around the internet and found this:


Today the Catholic Church celebrates two great English saints and martyrs. I am forever grateful to my history master at Ratcliffe College, back in the day, Fr Bill Curran, who explained this great truth to me: “They were martyrs because they were saints, not saints because they were martyrs.” How true that is! Both John Fisher and Thomas More were men of exemplary life, one a bishop, one a lawyer and family man. And it was because they lived such upright lives that they were content to be martyred for the faith.

St. John Fisher
Ask ANY of the kids who have ever been in my PSR class..."What is the number one rule for being a saint?, and they will reply, "You have to be dead.".

It figures "Father" Curran would say something like that:

 In 1986, the Vatican declared that Curran could no longer teach theology at the Catholic University of America schools, and he was neither suitable nor eligible to be a professor of Catholic theology.


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Monday, May 23, 2016

The Holy Trinity Explained

Father Z fielded this question today:

According to a local priest in his homily on the Trinity this Sunday just gone, the Trinity can be represented by a table with four chairs, one for the Father, one for the Son, one for the Holy Spirit, and one for us. He ended by telling us that Trinity Sunday is a day in which we need to acknowledge our part in things, a call he repeated just before launching into the Apostle’s Creed. Please tell me I was wrong to walk out. Was he spouting heresy, and if so, which one? This same priest has also waxed rhapsodic on the song “What is this Place?”. He agreed with its sentiment that our cathedral is just a building if we aren’t in there together. Had he turned around, of course, he may have noticed Christ staring at him from the tabernacle as incredulously as I was. It’s a good thing we have at least one good and holy priest in our city – and we’ll be going to that parish next week!
 He responded:

HA HA HA HA HA HA!
I share this one with a few friends.
This heresy doesn’t (yet) have a name, because no one in the past was dumb enough or heretical enough to have conceived it.

Which brought to mind...




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Friday, May 20, 2016

Please Dispose...Mercifully.

Not to put too fine a point on this, but....man, this is ugly.

 “No one likes it, apart from blind people, and I'm sure even they can sense it's profound ugliness as it passes by.” Richard Curtis, from "The Boat That Rocked"

Jesus (I assume) carrying the Lamb (I assume), which is really him. From the Gospel of John:

"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."



For me, the way the heads are combined (3 eyes!) makes them look strangely like Siamese twins connected at the face. And the look? Reminds me of...


I would like to meet the person who thought this up, painted it, and then said, "Beautiful!".

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More Cowbells!

 This is wildly unfair to us Catholics (unless you are a charismatic from Brazil) but can work as a warning.


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Thursday, May 19, 2016

The Jig is Up!

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Although Pope Francis has succeeded in rebranding the public profile of the Church, according to a Vatican PR aide, his positive tone isn’t always reflected when Catholics themselves take to the use of social media.
On the contrary, to hear Father Thomas Rosica tell it, sometimes Catholic conversation on-line is more “culture of death” than “culture of life.”
“Many of my non-Christian and non-believing friends have remarked to me that we ‘Catholics’ have turned the Internet into a cesspool of hatred, venom and vitriol, all in the name of defending the faith!” he said.
“The character assassination on the Internet by those claiming to be Catholic and Christian has turned it into a graveyard of corpses strewn all around,” said Rosica, who assists the Vatican Press Office with English-speaking media, on May 11 as he delivered the keynote address at the Brooklyn Diocese’s observance of World Communications Day.
“Often times the obsessed, scrupulous, self-appointed, nostalgia-hankering virtual guardians of faith or of liturgical practices are very disturbed, broken and angry individuals, who never found a platform or pulpit in real life and so resort to the Internet and become trolling pontiffs and holy executioners!” Rosica said.
“In reality they are deeply troubled, sad and angry people,” he said. “We must pray for them, for their healing and conversion!”


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Play That Funky Music, White Boy

 There's a video at this link.

Detroit Bishop Plays Ukulele at Confirmation Mass

Parish organist tries to drown him out

DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - Bishop Donald Hanchon played a ukulele from the pulpit at a Confirmation Mass Tuesday night at Detroit's most conservative parish, Assumption Grotto. Parishioners afterwards objected to the stunt.
Auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese of Detroit since 2011, Hanchon pulled out his ukelele during his homily and began to sing "This Little Light of Mine." The bishop is well known for such antics, especially at youth Masses, where he has strummed his instrument before.
At Assumption Grotto, however, his musical efforts were drowned out by the parish organist, who started up with more appropriately themed music in the middle of Bp. Hanchon's performance.

The organist, a long-time parishioner of Assumption Grotto, played the organ at full volume, and although Bp. Hanchon continued singing and playing, he eventually stopped, drily remarking, "Only at Grotto do you get that sort of accompaniment. Thank you very much."

ChurchMilitant.com was on the scene and after Mass asked the organist if he had deliberately intended to silence the bishop's performance. The organist remarked with a smile, "I'm not going to confirm or deny anything."

Because the liturgy at Assumption Grotto has a reputation for being reverent, incorporating Latin and Gregorian chant, parishioners took exception to what they considered a banal performance by the bishop.

One parishioner told ChurchMilitant.com that the bishop's ukulele strumming "would have been more appropriate at a party, reception or campfire."

Another attendee confided to ChurchMilitant.com that the bishop's conduct had brought back strong negative sentiments they had felt as a teenager while experienceing irreverent liturgy. "It put a smile on my face when the organ was drowning out the ukulele," he commented, "because the words 'The gates of Hell will not prevail' crossed my mind."

The organist was disrespectful of the Bishop. The Bishop was disrespectful of everyone else.

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Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Yes, This Will Help



Jesuit


 From Eye of the Tiber:

Pope Francis said today that he would set up a commission to study whether or not he can find more ways to confuse and frustrate the living crap out of people, revealing an openness to re-examining the church’s long-held insistence on not speaking off-the-cuff.
His move was hailed as a breakthrough by those in the media who have clamored for years to be given more stuff to speculate on, and who cite research showing that a pope whose speeches were scripted and thought out produced nothing for the media to report on, and therefore, pointless.
But the idea will face stiff resistance from some who believe that finding out whether he can indeed find more ways to confuse people is the first step toward drinking during a General Audience, which recent popes have ruled out.
During a discussion at the Vatican on Thursday, which at one point touched on the fact that just saying that a completely absurd idea is a possibility just because you’re put on the spot is in itself absurd, Francis was asked about the possibility of an official commission to study the issue. His response was, in essence, “Why not?”
Constituting an official commission that might study the question of how I can make the lives of Catholics defending the Church from misinformed Catholics annoying?” Pope Francis said out loud. “I believe yes. It would do good for the Church to clarify this point.”
“I accept,” the pope said later. “It seems useful to me to have a commission that would clarify whether all of my successors should also be obliged to speak without regard to already resolved matters.”

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The Nation Is Going to Hell, But Hey! Transgender Bathrooms!




(CNSNews.com) -- "In your nation, God is being eroded, eclipsed, liquidated," Cardinal Robert Sarah, who was appointed as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis in 2014, told hundreds of prominent Catholic clergy and lay people attending the 12th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast Tuesday in Washington.
In what he called "portentous times" for the Catholic Church and for the world, Cardinal Sarah condemned same-sex marriage, transgender bathroom laws, and attacks on the family as "demonic".
“All manner of immorality is not only accepted and tolerated today in advanced societies, it is even promoted as a social good,” the African cardinal said. “The result is hostility to Christians and increasingly, religious persecution.”

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Friday, May 13, 2016

Of Bread and Chickens




A participant in the ''Bread Procession of the Saint'' takes part in a ceremony in honor of Domingo de La Calzada Saint in Santo Domingo de La Calzada, Spain. 

OK then So the question is, "What is the Brad Procession of the Saint"? We don't know. There's a procession with women wearing baskets on their heads.


And on top of the basket...bread.


What does any of this have to do with Saint Dominic de la Calzada? I don't know.The only thing I can figure that SHOULD be associated with St. Dominic is chickens.


After Dominic's death numerous legends developed regarding miracles obtained by those who prayed to him. Two of them involve the resuscitation of a cooked rooster.

In one, a Moorish chieftain who is holding a young prisoner from Rioja is warned one evening at dinner that the youth has been praying to St. Dominic; perhaps the saint might free the captive. The Moor says that is as likely as that the roasted rooster on his plate should get up and crow. Suddenly the rooster does just that, and when the Moor looks in the prison the young man is in fact gone, his cell filled with a great light signifying the presence of St. Dominic.

In the other legend, a 14th-century pilgrim family stops in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and the young man of the family catches the eye of the innkeeper's daughter. Because he refuses to sleep with her, she hides a silver cup in his hood and later has him arrested for theft. The judge condemns him to death. The distraught parents continue to Compostela, pray to St. James for their son, and return again by way of the town. On the outskirts they see their son hanging from the gallows but alive. He says that Dominic and the Blessed Virgin have kept him alive and that they should go tell the judge.

Like the Moor, the judge is having a chicken dinner and dismisses the story with the same remark about the cooked rooster and hen on the plate before him. But the chickens do indeed rise up, fully feathered, and the rooster crows loudly. So the judge goes to the gallows, where he finds the young man living and has him released.

In both stories, the people of the town adopt the rooster and hen and make a place for them in the church. Today an ornate Late Gothic henhouse in the Cathedral houses a rooster and hen said to be descended from the chickens of the story.

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Thursday, May 12, 2016

Or Maybe He Didn't Know How to Swim




"An American was suddenly transported to the Sea of Galilee and came to be standing next to Jesus. Jesus said, "Just in time — we'll cross the water together and get on that boat." The American looked at the boat, then back at Jesus, with a look that said "nuh-uh." Jesus said, "But you've seen all kinds of amazing things where you come from, surely you can trust me. I've done this many times. You won't sink: here, hold my hand." The American said, "Oh, Jesus, I know I wouldn't sink with you. It's just that that boat must be 300 yards out, and I've never walked that far before!"

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

When in Danger When in Doubt, Run in Circles, SCREAM and SHOUT!



 The ACLU has found reported some troubling news, according formerly Great Britain's The Guardian:

The report finds that one out of every six beds in the country’s acute care hospitals is in a hospital with Catholic affiliations and that Catholic hospitals make up 15%, or 548, of the country’s hospitals. Those numbers attest to the sharp rise in Catholic control of medical institutions over a decade: since 2001, through a steady thrum of sales and mergers, the number of hospitals with Catholic ties has gone up by 22%. Many public health advocates regard this trend with alarm. At Catholic hospitals, all medical staff must follow a set of rules set out by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that bar abortion and any products or procedures to induce sterility, such as emergency contraception or tubal ligations.




 Of my gosh! Only 85% of all hospitals do abortions and such things! We wouldn't want women to make informed choices as to where they will deliver their children, do we?

I wonder what the Anglican Hospitals in England do on such matters. Oh, wait...there aren't any?

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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

The Wikerson Sword Razors Feast of St. Solange, May 10

Solange (died 10 May, c. 880) was a Frankish shepherdess and a locally venerated Christian saint, whose cult is restricted toSainte-Solange, Cher. Saint Solange was the patron of the traditional Province of Berry, of which Cher is a part.

Solange was born to a poor but devout family in the town of Villemont, near Bourges, and consecrated her virginity at the age of seven; according to some, her mere presence cured the sick and exorcised devils. The son of the count of Poitiers was highly taken with the beauty and popularity of Solange and approached her when she was working on tending to her sheep, but she rejected his suit. He argued with her to no avail, and so he decided to abduct her.
At night, he came and took Solange by force, but she struggled so violently that she fell from his horse while he was crossing a stream. Her abductor grew enraged and beheaded her with his sword; Solange's severed head invoked three times the Holy Name of Jesus, according to the fully developed legend. Like Saint Denis and other saints in Gaulish territories, Solange picked up her head in her own hands and walked with it as far as the church of Saint-Martin in the village of Saint-Martin-du-Crot (which now bears the name of Sainte-Solange, the only commune in France to bear this name), only dropping truly dead there.


Immediately, a cult surrounding her grew up. Many miraculous cures were attributed to her intercession. In 1281, an altar was erected in her honor at that church, and it preserved her severed head as a relic and began to call itself the church of St. Solange, while a nearby field where she had prayed began to be referred to as the "Field of St. Solange." It was a habit of the locals, in times of great stress, to form a procession through Bourges with the reliquary head before them and to invoke her against drought.

St. Denis died a head of St. Solange

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Monday, May 09, 2016

St. Michael the Archangel, Protect Us in Battle

Here is something extremely cool.

First, you may recall that last year we had a project to help one of the Swiss Guard have custom armor made.  HERE   I’ve stayed in touch with the Guard and his wife.

Then I got another project going, with the essential aid of my good friend Fr. Richard Heilman, who has been featured in these electronic pages often.   He took his parish to ad orientem worship and the numbers of attendants increased.  He put in an altar rail and moved his people to receive on the tongue.  He implemented Summorum Pontificum.  We just had the bishop there for Ascension Thursday.  He is the state chaplain of the Knights of Columbus and has many other things going, including something advertised on this blog on the side bar, his “combat” Rosaries, which he has made.  Super-tough Rosaries.


 Now to the project.

At my prompting Fr. Heilman sent the gun-metal rosaries to all of the Swiss Guards.
Today, during his address to the new recruits about to be sworn in, the Commandant held up one of them during his address and told them that training and arms are necessary, but “the most important weapon is the ‘combat rosary'”.  


You can check out the website of Roman Catholic Gear here.

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I Get a Feeling He Didn't Ask His Mother For Her Thoughts on the Matter

The bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh said Friday that House Bill 2 should be reconsidered and replaced by either new legislation or some other measure.
Bishop Michael Burbidge said he opposed the Charlotte anti-discrimination ordinance that HB2 was initially drafted to undo. Among other things, that ordinance would have allowed people in the city to use public restrooms according to their gender identity rather than the gender of their birth.
But speaking to reporters Friday, Burbidge says that by going beyond the Charlotte ordinance, HB2 became too complex and too divisive. Among the law’s provisions are ones that forbid local governments from passing certain minimum-wage or anti-discrimination ordinances and one that establishes a statewide anti-discrimination law that does not protect people who are gay, lesbian or transgender.



“I think it was in the spirit of doing what was best for the community, but obviously we can’t ignore the fact that there has been such reaction and misunderstanding,” Burbidge said of HB2. “Maybe we tried to do too much within that one bill that has created such discord.”
Burbidge does not advocate a particular solution to HB2. “I’m not a legislator; I’m a religious leader,” he said. But in an interview and later in a statement released by the diocese, Burbidget said he supports a set of principles on which he believes a solution should be built.
“I prayerfully hope that any legislation or measure addressing these sensitive issues would: defend human dignity; avoid any form of bigotry; respect religious liberty and the convictions of religious institutions; work for the common good; and be discussed in a peaceful and respectful manner.”

 
RESPECT MY HUMAN DIGNITY!

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article76151457.html#storylink=cpy

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On April 2, 2013 I posted this:


Today, it would read:


Sunday, May 08, 2016

Proof. Finally.

 From the Twitter account of Jonah Keri:

After centuries of debate we finally we have an answer. Bartolo Colon hitting a home run proves that God exists, and loves us all very much.

 The first home run of Colon's career came at 42 years, 349 days. Colon is the oldest player to hit his first career homer. He unseated Randy Johnson (40 years, 9 days), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Friday, May 06, 2016

The Sack of Rome and the Swiss Guard

May 6th: The Recruits Take their Oath of Loyalty\


Vatican Radio) The sacrifice of one hundred and forty seven Swiss Guards who laid down their lives in defense of Pope Clement VII and the Holy Mother Church during the Sack of Rome in 1527 is commemorated each year on May 6.
Yet again, that important date will be remembered on Wednesday afternoon during the annual swearing-in ceremony for new Swiss Guards which takes place in the Saint Damaso Courtyard of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.
 


 The Swiss Guard is the oldest standing army in the world and its motto is “Courage and Loyalty”. 2015 sees the swearing in of 32 new Guards who were received in audience by Pope Francis on Monday.
During that audience the Pope told the men who are charged with protecting him that they should pray the rosary during honor guard duty and always carry a small version of the Gospel in their pockets.
"What I tell everyone, I'll tell you too: always keep a small Gospel close at hand, read it as soon as you have a calm moment. It will help you in your personal prayer, especially the Rosary, during the honor guard," he said.
The Pope also called the audience an occasion "to nurture a meaningful friendship, because you work so close to me".
During the ceremony each new guard approaches the flag as his name is called out. Firmly clasping the banner in his left hand, the recruit raises his right hand high and distinctly opens three fingers, a symbol of his faith in the Holy Trinity. 
Then, he confirms the oath, proclaiming:
“I, [name of the new guard], swear diligently and faithfully to abide by all that has just been read out to me, so grant me God and so help me his Saints.”
The patron saints of the Guard include St. Martin, St. Sebastian, and St. Nicholas of Flue, “Defensor Pacis et pater patriae.”



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The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 49

 
I'm Bruce Jenner, and I approve this message


The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called a threat to the family.he updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader. At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”ope Francis, a Jesuit, reportedly called gender ideology “demonic” in an exchange with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun. And the Holy Father has stated that the promotion of this ideology — which rejects the creation of human beings as male and female in the image and likeness of God — contributes to the destruction of the family.

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Tuesday, May 03, 2016

You Diocesian Priests...This is a BAD Idea




A Catholic priest is the prime suspect in the kidnapping and beating of a bishop in India
Police in Andra Pradesh, India, have arrested a priest and 13 others in connection with the kidnapping of Bishop Gallela Prasad of Kadapa. Police said that Father Raja Reddy, a priest of the Kadapa diocese, was the prime mover in the plot to kidnap his bishop.

Bishop Gallena
The bishop was seized on April 25, blindfolded, and taken somewhere where he was robbed, beaten, and threatened with death unless he agreed to pay a heavy ransom. He was eventually released, left on a roadside, after agreeing to pay 2 million rupees (about $26,000).
Police now say that the place where Bishop Gallela was detained was a home run by Father Reddy, and the head of the gang that kidnapped him was the priest’s brother. Authorities said that several of those arrested had confessed, and reported that the kidnapping had been planned in advance, and previous attempts had been thwarted.

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Craftsman Screwdriver Feast of St. Philip, May 3


 From today's Gospel according to John:

Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him,
“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.
And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”


I get the feeling that sometimes, it took all of Jesus' strength to NOT dope slap some of his apostles.

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Monday, May 02, 2016

Next, the Pope Draws a Mustache on the Pieta!

The Edge, lead guitarist with the Irish band U2, has become the first rock star to play in the Sistine Chapel, a venue he described as "the most beautiful parish hall in the world."
The performer, whose real name is David Evans, sang four songs on Saturday night for about 200 doctors, researchers and philanthropists who attended a conference at the Vatican on regenerative medicine called Cellular Horizons.

The Edge, whose father died last month from cancer and whose daughter overcame leukemia, is on the board of foundations working for cancer prevention.


David Evans and Bishop Tighe of Ireland. And no, he did not take off his hat in the Sistine Chapel.

He joked with his audience, telling them he was stunned when asked to play in the chapel, which was painted by Renaissance master Michelangelo in the 16th century.
"When they asked me if I wanted to become the first contemporary artist to play in the Sistine Chapel, I didn't know what to say because usually there's this other guy who sings," the musician said, referring to U2 front man Bono.

 "Being Irish you learn very early that if you want to be asked to come back it's very important to thank the local parish priest for the loan of the hall," he said.
He then thanked Pope Francis and other Vatican officials "for allowing us to use the most beautiful parish hall in the world".

The Edge dedicated his performance of "Walk On," written in 2000 for Myanmar democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi when she was under house arrest, to Pope Francis, who he described as "the people's pope.

"He's doing an amazing job and long may he continue," he added.

The rock star sprinkled his address with technical terms such as bio markers and angiogenesis.
"I can tell this is a really cool audience because normally when I say angiogenesis eyes glaze over," he said. Angiogenesis is the process through which new blood vessels, which tumors need to grow, are formed. Scientists are seeking ways to block tumor angiogenesis.
The Vatican conference, which was addressed by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Friday, was organized by the U.S.-based Stem for Life Foundation to share ideas and treatments on the use of adult stem cells to cure rare diseases.

Don't forget, this Jesuit Pope also used St. Peter's in Rome a while back for a save the world slide show.



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The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 48

 From The College Fix:


You can have your opinion’ as long as it doesn’t ‘deny my existence’
 
It’s uncommon at Jesuit universities these days for someone to openly share a traditional Catholic viewpoint.
When it happened at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the school was so spooked it called the Los Angeles Police Department.
Both the police and the university’s Bias Incident Response Team are investigating the stated belief that only two genders exist, male and female, as a hate crime.
A Loyola alumni office employee discussed her views on sexual orientation, which align with the Roman Catholic Church, with three students who were hanging up posters on the subject on April 14.
Cosette Carleo, one of the students involved, told The College Fix in a phone interview that the hate crime under investigation is “denying transgenderism.”

Carleo’s account agrees in part with an email by the husband of the employee with whom she tangled.
The employee told Carleo, who identifies as gender-neutral, that only two genders exist, male and female, according to the student. Carleo told The Fix that statement was the hate crime.
Carleo responded that “you can have your opinion” as long as it doesn’t “deny my existence.”

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Define "Imbecile"

 From a book review of  'Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck'

In 1927, American high society was swept up in a frantic religious mania. Leading politicians, intellectuals, philanthropists, educators, reporters, and scientists prophesied that the nation would be consumed by fire and brimstone in the form of “unfit” babies unless it offered up a sacrifice. The state of Virginia went before the U.S. Supreme Court, that temple of modernity, with an offering. Legendary progressive Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes looked upon Carrie Buck, a 19-year-old imbecile with an imbecilic mother and imbecilic bastard infant, and embraced his role as Solomon. It was too late to split Ms. Buck’s baby in half, but the country could take a scalpel to Ms. Buck’s fallopian tubes. “Three generations of imbeciles are enough,” Holmes wrote in Buck v. Bell, an 8-1 ruling that permitted the state to forcibly sterilize deficient citizens. Eugenicists cheered, Buck’s doctors operated, Moloch smiled.

Hero to the Left, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
 The reviewer brings up an interesting point:


 Indeed, while elites converted en masse to eugenics, the one large constituency that opposed them at every turn was the Catholic Church, which countered that sterilization violated natural law. Cohen takes this opposition for granted, never exploring the meaning or roots of natural law and why it drove the church to quash sterilization in states such as Louisiana and New Jersey. Rather than confront sterilization on moral or philosophical grounds, Cohen bases his opposition on scientific grounds: Carrie Buck had a sixth grade education, sterilization alone couldn’t eliminate “feeblemindedness,” Jews, it turns out, are pretty smart (they just didn’t know English when the eugenicists gave them IQ tests). It is convenient that eugenics makes for crappy science, but what if it had checked out? Would that make it any more moral?

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And He's NOT a Jesuit?

From the Archdiocese of Palermo's website:

Palermo. Primatiale Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption, Wednesday, April 27, 2016: Feast of the Athletes. Image: His Excellency Most Reverend Monsignor Corrado Lorefice, Archbishop-Metropolitan, Primate of Sicily, on a bicycle in the chancel of his cathedral.


 The Archbishop was given a bike that he didn’t want to try outside the church. Instead, he rose immediately and in full regalia as celebrant, chasuble and miter, got on the bike and drove it through the presbytery of his episcopal church. The Cathedral of Palermo is not only where lay the Stauferkaisers Henry VI. and Frederick II. and the Norman King, Roger II. It is above all one of the oldest Christian places of worship in Europe. The area of ​​the Cathedral was secret at the latest in the second century gathering of Christians in underground tunnels. Here the martyrs of the persecution of Christians were buried. The Christians gathered at their graves. In the early fourth century, the construction of the first cathedral was carried out. Under Pope Gregory the Great, the second cathedral was built around 600. 

 Msgr. Lorefice belongs to the so-called “compassionate” bishops appointed by Pope Francis. 

 He has written favorable assessments of liberation theology.

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