Guilty, You Honor

Not long after describing the various trials were going through to an acquaintance, sources are reporting that his promise to keep you in his prayers are completely worthless.

Sources on the scene say that the man in question, Thomas Keating, will not only not pray for you, but really wasn’t even paying that much attention to you as you were speaking to begin with, and therefore, wouldn’t even know what to pray for if he did remember, which of course, he won’t, because he never does.

“At best, Keating will remember you mentioning that you were going through something, and will halfheartedly say ‘Jesus help him,’ to ease his guilt for not praying for you, and that will be that,” the source told EOTT. “Yeah, don’t get your hopes up. He says the same thing to everyone. Our studies have shown that Mr. Keating only actually remembers to pray for 16% of the people that he has promised to pray for, much lower than the national Catholic average of 24%.”

At press time, thank you for reading this post, and please be assured of my prayers.

Speaking of Belgium....

From Father Z:

A while back I wrote that people get the priests that they deserve.  Collectively, at least.  Priests don’t just spring full grown from the heads of… cabbage.

Recently, a writer at hyper-liberal Commonweal suggested that vocations are down because his grand vision of the spirit of Vatican II was stifled by the baaaaad Popes John Paul and Benedict.  If only we had more visionaries like Card. Kasper, we’d have more wonderful “presbyters” and sunshine and happy little puppies and more hugging, etc.

More Hugging!

The problem is, in those places where his vision of the Church has been implement in full force, hardly anyone goes to Church anymore and there are no vocations.  What a wonderful success!  Take Belgium, for example: 5% Mass attendance.

I remember some time back when there were no men admitted for one year to a major seminary for an archdiocese, they crowed about how effective their screening process was.  Another success! 

I wonder if it was Bishop Braxton?

Life is Inviolable! Except When It Isn't!

One of the last substantial barriers to increasing the number of euthanasia cases for non-terminally-ill psychiatric patients in Belgium seems to have crumbled.

A religious order in the Catholic Church, the Brothers of Charity, is responsible for a large proportion of beds for psychiatric patients in Belgium – about 5,000 of them. The international head of the order, Brother René Stockman, is a Belgian who has been one of the leading opponents of euthanasia in recent years.

Nonetheless, in a surprise move this week, the board controlling the institutions of the Brothers of Charity announced that from now on, it will allow euthanasia to take place in their psychiatric hospitals.

You Don't Look Well. Here...Take This.

The chairman of the board, Raf De Rycke, an economist who has worked with the Brothers of Charity for years, denied that the ethos of their hospitals had changed “We have not made a 180 degree turn,” he told De Morgen newspaper. “It is not that we used to be against euthanasia and now suddenly are for it. This is consistent with our existing criteria. We are making both possible routes for our patients: both a pro-life perspective and euthanasia.”

Although this seems odd for a Catholic group, especially when the Pope has been outspoken in denouncing euthanasia, De Rycke believes that the inspiration of the Belgian Brothers of Charity fundamentally remains the same. “We start from the same basic values: the inviolability of life is an important foundation, but for us it is not absolute. This is where we are on a different wavelength from Rome.”

The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 62

This is stupid, even by Jesuit standards.

Woman priest’ to speak at Jesuit School of Theology

Mary Alice Nolan, who claims to have been ordained a Roman Catholic Woman Priest, will participate in panel discussion entitled "Women Responding to the Call to Ministry in the Church" at Berkeley campus.

Mary Alice Nolan has been an Oncology nurse for most of her life. Her specialty is preparing patients and families for end of life at Kaiser Medical Center in San Rafael. Last May, Mary Alice graduated from JST with a Masters in Theological Studies. In October, she was ordained a Roman Catholic Woman Priest. Her priestly ministry is with the Sophia in Trinity community in San Francisco.

Prayer for Vocations

From the  Irish Times:

Masses will not be said at any church in the Diocese of Limerick next Tuesday, April 25th – the first time since Catholic Emancipation in 1829 that this has happened in any Irish diocese.

Instead, there will be only lay-led liturgies of the Word (readings) and public prayers in churches, with no Mass and no Communion on that day. The lack of services in the Limerick diocese is directly related to the fall-off in priestly vocations, despite major efforts by the diocese to best use existing priests.

Communion will not be distributed on Tuesday, but this is not to suggest it might never be so distributed at future lay-led liturgies, especially, for instance, on Sundays in nursing homes, said a diocesan spokesman.

Father Z responds:

There is no lack of priestly vocations where bishops and priests project solid clerical identity and where they teach perennial Catholic truth in charity and in clarity.

Moreover, in this matter of priestly and religious vocations, no initiative will succeed unless we have a top down and bottom up revitalization of our sacred liturgical worship.

He recommends that this prayer be said every Sunday after the homily:

Time for Catholic/Democrats to Choose One or the Other

I guess this means all those Catholic Democrats who claim to be personally against abortion will have to change parties, right Dick Durban, Andrew Cuomo, and noted theologian Nancy Pelosi?

Washington D.C., Apr 26, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When the leader of the Democratic party pulled an about-face this week, claiming that support for abortion was a non-negotiable part of the platform, pro-life Democrats were utterly dismayed.  

“It was just stunning to see,” Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, told CNA.

Day was referring to DNC chair Tom Perez supporting a Democratic mayoral candidate in Nebraska who had in the past embraced pro-life positions – and then the next day saying there was no room in the Democratic party for pro-life politicians.

“Pro-life Democrats are deeply concerned about this extreme position that the Democratic Party has taken and this non-negotiable position,” she said.

Ireland's First Beatification

I was a little confused about this article at first. I mean, Ireland has hundreds of saints...Patrick, Bridgit, Brendan...but then I realized they were talking of the location of the beautification. And as much as I hate to admit it, he was a Jesuit.

Dublin, Ireland, Apr 26, 2017 / 05:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Father John Sullivan was a prominent Irish Catholic convert who was known for his healing prayers, his consolation for the troubled, and his devotion to God.

Now he is set to be the first ever person to be beatified in Ireland.

The beatification will take place May 13 at St. Francis Xavier Church in Dublin, where the Jesuit priest's body was interred. Cardinal Angelo Amato of the Congregations for the Causes of Saints will be involved in the ceremony. Church of Ireland leaders will also attend.

Huh. Well, You Learn Something New Every Day.

I know what an aspergillum does. But Father Z. mentions the aspersorium in his blog today. Here's the difference:

Aspergillum

Aspersorium

Aspergillum in the aspersorium

"It's Just This War...and that Lying SOB Johnson!"

Classic movie reference in the title.

The Pope misses the elephant in the room.  I can help. Who killed the Christian woman?

Rome (AFP) - Pope Francis on Saturday described some of Europe's refugee centres as "concentration camps" as he paid tribute to an unknown Christian woman slain for her faith in front of her Muslim husband.

Muslims being sent to concentration camps

"These refugee camps -- so many are concentration camps, crowded with people... because international accords seem more important than human rights," Francis said in impromptu remarks at a ceremony in memory of modern day Christian martyrs.

Departing from his prepared script and appearing unusually emotional as he spoke, the 80-year-old pontiff said he wanted the woman to be remembered along with all the other martyrs commemorated in Rome's Basilica of St Bartholomew.

He revealed that he had met the woman's husband during his visit to a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last year.

"I do not know what happened to him, if he managed to get out of his concentration camp, and get to somewhere else" Francis said, describing the man as a father-of-three but not revealing his nationality.

"He looked at me and said 'Father, I am a Muslim and my wife was a Christian. In our country we were terrorised ... they saw her crucifix and they asked her to throw it away.

"When she refused they cut her throat in front of my eyes. We loved each other so much."

The Trouble with Jesuits, Part 61

Washington D.C., Apr 19, 2017 / 03:24 pm.- One hundred and seventy-nine years ago, two Jesuit priests sold 272 persons at a slave auction. Their families were torn apart: many of them were shipped over a thousand miles to Louisiana, and many more were barred from practicing their Catholic faith by new slave masters.

Meanwhile, the Jesuit priests used the money they received from the sale to pay off debts for Georgetown University – the oldest Catholic university in the United States.

On April 18, Georgetown University and the Maryland Jesuits apologized for their roles in the slave sale and started their ongoing efforts to make amends for their actions.

At the time, the Vatican did approve the sale, but placed many conditions upon it, mandating that families not be separated, that the money not be used to pay off the school’s debt, and that the new owners respect the religious practice of the slaves – many of whom were baptized as Catholics.

Mulledy

McSherry

Fr. Mulledy and Fr. McSherry met none of these conditions: families were separated, money was used to pay off the school’s debts, and investigators from the Holy See found that many of the slaves were barred from attending Catholic churches and receiving the sacraments once they arrived in Louisiana.

Fr. Mulledy was later called to Rome to defend his actions surrounding the slave sale to the superior of the Jesuit order and asked to resign from his post at the time as head of the order in the United States. Later he was allowed to return to the United States, was given a second term as president of Georgetown University, and founded the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

Every Church Has One!

Parishioners in the Southwest Indiana confirmed today that new parishioner Adriana Lambert is nothing more than a holier-than-thou, attention seeking parasite after she was seen kneeling to receive communion.

According to several eyewitnesses, 32-year-old Lambert, who was also seen wearing a mantilla “like some wanna be nun who didn’t have the guts to commit to the religious life” walked up to Fr. Kevin O’Donnell to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, and proceeded to kneel, though she clearly had seen no one else kneel.

“It was just pathetic if you want my opinion” said Fr. O’Donnell. “She came up for communion and knelt. I remember bending down to remind her that we weren’t in the middle ages anymore, but she insisted. Normally, I would’ve denied her communion right then and there for committing the mortal sins of pride and vanity, but I gave her communion just in case she didn’t know that kneeling for communion when no one else does makes you an attention whore who’s clearly in need of validation.”

After examining cell phone footage from the Mass, parish council representative Lauren Phillips said that Lambert was also seen not holding hands with the people next to her during the Our Father “as if she was better than them.”

When it comes to hand holding in church...

“I guess that’s what really grinds my gears,” Phillips told EOTT. “Who the hell does she think she is? Coming into our church and just keeping to herself, as though her communion with Jesus is more important than her communion with us. We are church. We are the mystical body. And it sadly appears that this mystical body has a cancer.”

Cardinal Kupich Has Something to Say

News broke on Good Friday that Gov. Bruce Rauner would veto House Bill 40 if it crossed his desk. This is the legislation that authorizes the use of taxpayer money to pay for elective abortions for Medicaid recipients and state employees. 

Last week, the head of a pro-choice advocacy group called the governor a liar because he had indicated on a 2014 candidate questionnaire that he supported such a use of taxpayer money. Cardinal Cupich of Chicago, who serves as the chairman of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, issued a public thanks to Gov. Rauner for his “principled stand” to veto HB 40.

“Abortion is a controversial issue in this country, but using public money to provide abortions should not be,” Cardinal Cupich stated.

Of course, the Cardinal also said:

“The Holy Father doesn’t have to, in any way, defend a teaching document (Amoris Laetitia) of the Church. It’s up to those who have doubts and questions to have conversion in their lives,” Cupich told reporters on Saturday after Pope Francis elevated him to the College of Cardinals.

World Over

Again, the power to embed this video is deprived by Youtube (I assume), but this is worth watching to the very end, especially since Father Murray and Robert Royal land some roundhouse punches to our favorite Jesuit, Father Martin. It's worth waiting for!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=phPHJDSvvmI&feature=youtu.be

The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 60

The commentary reacting to the United Airlines passenger controversy achieved a new level of ridiculousness, Friday, when Fr. James Martin, a Jesuit priest, likened the issue to Jesus’s crucifixion.

Martin appeared near the end of the 8 p.m. Eastern hour of MSNBC’s Morning Joe with Matthew Gewirtz, the senior rabbi at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, New Jersey. 

"Interestingly, as I was looking at that poor man being dragged through the aisles, I thought, you know, Jesus is beaten and bloodied and dragged through the streets of Jerusalem; and that poor man is beaten and bloodied and dragged through the floor of a plane. And I think something, really, in us recoils at that; and it should. It’s our conscience speaking and saying, that is not the way to treat people."..

Father Martin went on to compare Sadam Hussein, who was dragged from a hole in the ground and Wily Coyote, who was constantly being beaten by the Roadrunner to Jesus. He also compared Hillary Clinton to Mary Magdalen and the Holy Spirit to Sam Eagle.

REMEMBER....

Thank God! By the way, it means "Liquid Does Not Break the Fast".

Crotalus

The Holy Triduum is the shortest – but most important! – liturgical season of the year. Beginning with the liturgy on the evening of Holy Thursday, it lasts three days until Easter Sunday.

Due to some unique rules for the Triduum, if you attend Triduum liturgies, you may hear one of the rarest of liturgical instruments: the crotalus.

In the Roman Rite, altar bells are not supposed to be rung after the Gloria in the liturgy on the evening of Holy Thursday, and are supposed to remain unused until the Gloria on Holy Saturday. This is supposed to make things more somber as we remember the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But, during this short period of time, is anything supposed to take its place? That’s where the crotalus comes in. The Church’s liturgical rubrics don’t prescribe a replacement for altar bells, but there is a long-standing tradition of using a wooden clapper or noise-maker in its place. This serves to both mark the same events as the altar bells, but in a less “sweet” way and thus maintain the somber tone.

Chrism Mass

Today Bishop Braxton  celebrates the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral in Belleville.

On Holy Thursday morning (in some dioceses it may be another morning during Holy Week), the bishop, joined by the priests of the diocese, gather at the Cathedral to celebrate the Chrism Mass. This Mass manifests the unity of the priests with their bishop.

Here the bishop blesses three oils — the oil of catechumens (oleum catechumenorum or oleum sanctorum), the oil of the infirm (oleum infirmorum) and holy chrism (sacrum chrisma) — which will be used in the administration of the sacraments throughout the diocese for the year. This tradition is rooted in the early Church as noted in the Gelasian Sacramentary (named after Pope Gelasius I, d. 496), but was later absorbed into the Holy Thursday evening Mass; Pope Pius XII issued a new Ordinal for Holy Week, which reinstituted a special Mass of the chrism distinct from the evening Mass.

There is nothing that I can find on the Diocesan website, but priests are also renewing their vows at the Mass.

There's Art, and There's ART

In 1692, Pope Urban VIII decided to fix up a little fountain in Rome that provided fresh water to the poor. He died before the renovation started. BUT Pope Clement XII resurrected the project in 1730. The resulting new, improved version was complete in 1762 and looks like this:

Meanwhile...

ROME - The new “Pope Francis Laundry,” which opened in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood on Monday, represents the latest gift from the pope to the city’s poor and homeless.

A statement from the Office of Papal Charities said the initiative came from Pope Francis’s invitation to show “concrete” acts of mercy, in response to the experience of the Jubilee of Mercy, which ended last year.

The free service will allow the poor - especially those without homes - to wash, dry and iron their clothes in the San Gallicano center run by the Sant’Egidio community, which is headquartered nearby.

Islamic Update, Part XCVII

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...

TANTA, Egypt (AP) — Suicide bombers struck hours apart at two Coptic churches in northern Egypt, killing 44 people and turning Palm Sunday services into scenes of horror and outrage at the government that led the president to call for a three-month state of emergency.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the violence, adding to fears that extremists are shifting their focus to civilians, especially Egypt's Christian minority.

The attacks in the northern cities of Tanta and Alexandria that also left 126 people wounded came at the start of Holy Week leading up to Easter, and just weeks before Pope Francis is due to visit.

You Gotta Ask Yourself....

Time to break out the Haggadah and get ready for the seder meal!

 Ma nishtana ha lyla ha zeh mikkol hallaylot?
Why is this night different from all other nights?

1. Shebb'khol hallelot anu okh’lin ḥamets umatsa, vehallayla hazzTiime to get out the Haggadah!e kullo matsa.
   Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either leavened bread or matza, but on this night we eat only matza?
2. Shebb'khol hallelot anu okh’lin sh’ar y'rakot, vehallayla hazze maror.
   Why is it that on all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables, but on this night we eat bitter herbs?
3. Shebb'khol hallelot en anu matbillin afillu pa‘am eḥat, vehallayla hazze sh'tei fe‘amim.
   Why is it that on all other nights we do not dip [our food] even once, but on this night we dip them twice?
4. Shebb'khol hallelot anu okh’lin ben yosh’vin uven m'subbin, vehallayla hazze kullanu m'subbin.
   Why is it that on all other nights we dine either sitting upright or reclining, but on this night we all recline?

Can't find the embed button....

https://youtu.be/baQfqoZrEvI