Democrats for Hillary and Bernie!

And remember...Dick Durbin says he's a Catholic.

"And I Will Make You Fair Trade Fishers of Men"

 I am glad the Church has solved all the other problems.

Vatican City, Sep 21, 2017 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An upcoming world congress by the Catholic organization Apostleship of the Sea will focus on the plight of fishermen, who frequently face exploitation in carrying out their work, according to one Vatican official.
He lamented that no ‘Fair Trade’ certification exists for their product.
“We have to be educated,” Fr. Bruno Ciceri told CNA Sept. 20. “Frozen food here is cheap, but it’s because people are exploited, because there is forced labor, because there are trafficked people that work aboard these fishing vessels.”
Referring to the label given to products from developing countries that adhere to ethical standards of trading, he said, “We talk a lot about ‘Fair Trade.’ I don't know the day when we will have ‘fair trade’ also in fishing. That will make a difference.”

Sherman, Set the Way Back Machine to Yesterday!

 Kinda short notice by CNA/EWTN.....

Washington D.C., Sep 20, 2017 / 12:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Sistine Chapel Choir will perform in the U.S. for the first time in three decades, and will sing compositions that one expert says are an important heritage of the American Church.
Italian priest Father Massimo Palombella directs the Sistine choir, which will be singing works by Renaissance composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Antonio Allegri and Tomás Luis de Victoria.
“As in Rome, this style of Renaissance polyphony would be adopted by the Churches of the New World as the standard style of music, especially for the Mass,” Dr. Grayson Wagstaff, dean of the Latin American Music Center at The Catholic University of America, explained to CNA.
On Sept. 20, a free concert will be hosted at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C., next to The Catholic University of America.

The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 66

Washington D.C., Sep 16, 2017 / 10:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Fr. James Martin, S.J., an editor at America magazine, has been disinvited from speaking at the Theological College, a seminary affiliated with the Catholic University of America, following pressure from online-based groups. 
Fr. Martin was invited to speak Oct. 4 on the theme of encountering Christ. However, the Theological College said that “since the publication of his book, Building a Bridge, Theological College has experienced increasing negative feedback from various social media sites regarding the seminary’s invitation.”    

 Fr. Martin’s most recent book has drawn criticism since its publication for its avoidance of discussing the Church’s teaching on celibacy and for its lack of engagement with Catholics who identify as LGBT who welcome Church teaching on continence and other issues. In August, Fr. Martin announced on Facebook that he is currently writing a revised issue of the book, which he says will address the feedback and critiques he has received. 
In addition to writing books and speaking, Fr. Martin has also been appointed to serve as Consultor to the Secretariat for Communication, and serves as editor -at-large of America Magazine. 

So how is the Jesuit community taking this? Let's ask Bishop McElroy, who wrote an op-ed for America Magazine. 

 His op-ed is titled:

Bishop McElroy: Attacks on Father James Martin expose a cancer within the U.S. Catholic Church

 The concerted attack on Father Martin’s work has been driven by three impulses: homophobia, a distortion of fundamental Catholic moral theology and a veiled attack on Pope Francis and his campaign against judgmentalism in the church.

Father Z fights back: 

In the English speaking world, in the wake of the withdrawal of speaking gig invitations to Jesuit Father James Martin, Jesuits and their allies have coagulated.  They now pour it on,  to create a critical mass of hatred against those Catholics who stick up for clear traditional moral teaching.  That means that their well-established Big Jesuit Machine, and those who aid and abet their agendas, are picking on the little guy who dares to raise their heads to object.

He Left His Heart.... In Guatemala!

Oklahoma City, Okla., Sep 20, 2017 / 03:23 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When Fr. Stanley Rother, a missionary priest from Okarche, Oklahoma, was was killed in Guatemala, his body was transferred back to the United States to be buried by his family.
But his heart remained in Guatemala.
Literally.
The native Guatemalans loved their pastor so much that they enshrined his heart at the mission parish in Santiago Atitlan.
On Sept. 23, that heart will go from being a disembodied remain to a first-class relic, a sacred artifact of someone who has been beatified by the Catholic Church.

The keeping and venerating of relics is perhaps one of the more bizarre Catholic practices, but it’s a scripturally-backed practice of the Church since its beginning.
There are three classes of relics recognized by the Church. First-class relics are bodily remains of a saint, such as bones or flesh or hair. Second-class relics are belongings of the saint, such as clothes or other personal items. Third-class relics are items that have been touched to a first- or second-class relic of that saint. 

They exhumed his body to see if it was incorruptible, and while they were at it....
  
 Both the exhumation and examination are done “with great dignity and reverence, and there is a process by which we exhumed his body from the family plot at the parish cemetery in Okarche,” the archbishop added.
“And in that process we took one of his ribs, and that’s what we used for preparing first class relics,” he said.

The USCCB Needs a Russel Honore Type

Washington D.C., Sep 17, 2017 / 04:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Trump administration is reportedly planning to further reduce the number of refugees the U.S. will accept in the coming fiscal year, drawing concern from the U.S. bishops and others.
“We’re strongly urging the administration, the President, to set a Presidential determination of at least 75,000 [refugees],” Matt Wilch of the Office of Migration and Refugee Services at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told CNA of reported changes to the number of refugees the U.S. plans to accept in the 2018 fiscal year.





For the 2017 fiscal year, the Obama administration had planned to take in 110,000 refugees after accepting 85,000 in 2016, including more than 12,000 Syrian refugees.
However, in a March executive order, President Donald Trump ordered a four-month halt to U.S. refugee admissions so that the resettlement program could be reviewed for its security. He set a cap on refugee admissions for the fiscal year at 50,000, well short of the 110,000 originally planned.
In addition, Trump barred most travel from six countries for 90 days – Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Syria, and Sudan.
Now the administration may be reducing its refugee quota even further, to below 50,000.

 The Executive Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a written statement Tuesday that they were “troubled and deeply concerned” at reports that the administration was considering the reduction, which they called “inhumane.”
“We implore the administration to show mercy and compassion for those seeking refuge, and to advance the American value of freedom through providing safe harbor to those fleeing tyranny and religious persecution,” the bishops said.
The conference proposed a goal of 75,000 refugees instead. “We think it’s really time to get back to the serious business of saving lives, and we urge the administration to have the total this coming year be 75,000,” Wilch told CNA Thursday. 

Meanwhile, noted theologian Nancy Pelosi explains the USCCB position to a thankful group of "Dreamers"...
 



 We are not to hold it against their parents that they brought their ill-mannered progeny with them, or that they failed to teach them manners. Watching this production, however, I find it unnatural not to resent it.

Signs, signs, Everywhere a Sign!

One day last fall I was working in my office when my desk phone rang. It was a reader of The Catholic Astronomer, calling me with a question. He asked why the Vatican Observatory blog was full of discussion on black holes or whatnot, when there was something much more momentous to talk about.

It turns out that the momentous thing to which my caller was referring was an arrangement of celestial bodies that will occur this year (2017) on September 23. On that date, according to various Internet sources, the heavens themselves will be a tableau of Revelation 12 in the Bible:

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth … She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.

On September 23, 2017 the sun will be in the zodiac constellation Virgo — “a woman clothed with the sun”. The moon will be at the feet of Virgo — “with the moon under her feet”. The ‘nine’ stars of the zodiac constellation Leo, plus three planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), will be at the head of Virgo — “on her head a crown of 12 stars”. The planet Jupiter will be in the center of Virgo, and, as the weeks pass after September 23, Jupiter will exit Virgo to the east, past her feet, so to speak — “She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth”. Jupiter is the largest of the planets, the “king” of the planets, so to speak — “She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod”.

Must this not be a sign of something momentous, like the Internet sources say?

Upon further review....

 As it is, watching the heavens for signs of what is to come is a waste of time. And it is doubly a waste of time because “signs in the sky” appeal, for some reason, to all sorts of people out there — all of whom can use Stellarium to find this or that momentous “sign” signifying whatever they want to signify.

And that is why astronomers ignore the seemingly momentous celestial arrangement of September 23, 2017, and talk instead about black holes or whatnot.

I've Been to Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow.....

 

Bi-locating Lady in Blue

San Angelo, Texas, Sep 14, 2017 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the 1620s, while the pilgrims were landing on Plymouth Rock and having the first Thanksgiving, the Jumano tribe in Texas (before it was Texas) were allegedly having mysterious encounters with what they called the “Lady in Blue.”
A young, ethereal lady, dressed in a habit with a blue cape, is said to have appeared to the Jumano Native Americans numerous times during these years, speaking to them in their native language and instructing them in the Christian faith.
Thousands of miles away, in a cloistered convent in Spain, Sr. Maria de Agreda was reporting mystical visits that would occur during prayer, often during Mass after receiving communion, to a tribe of native people in what was called New Spain at the time.
“She would have these prayerful, mystical experiences of coming here to the New World and visiting these people and evangelizing them, sharing the faith with them,” Bishop Michael Sis of the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas, told CNA.
 

Bi-locatting Lady in White

According to records kept by the missionaries in the area, Sr. Maria’s promptings led as many as 2,000 Jumano natives to be baptized.
Most of their ancestors in the San Angelo area are still Catholic, and still have a strong devotion to the “Lady in Blue” who brought them the Catholic faith, Bishop Sis said.
Regarding her possible bi-location, Fr. Cecchin added: “There is a lot of proof that the Lady in Blue appeared to the Jumano Tribe.”
The Vatican has never ruled definitively on whether her apparitions to what is now present-day western Texas and eastern New Mexico constitute a true instance of bi-location. However, there are some remarkable connections between Sr. Maria’s mystical experiences, and the Lady in Blue that the Jumano people saw, Bishop Sis said.
She earned the name “Lady in Blue” because the Jumano natives reportedly saw a woman wearing a blue cape. Sr. Maria belonged to a Franciscan order of nuns called the Conceptionistas, who wear a white habit with a blue cloak. The order still has convents in Spain and Latin America today, including Sr. Maria’s convent in Agreda.  
From her cloister, having never traveled to the New World, Sr. Maria was able to describe the new plants and animals there, as well as the way the people dressed and painted themselves. She described the landscape as a place where two rivers meet – and in San Angelo, the Middle Concho River is joined by the South Concho River.

I Feel the Same Way About Sonja Henning's Tutu

 

Kashmiri Muslim women pray upon seeing a relic believed to be hair from the beard of the Islamic prophet Mohammed during a festival to mark the death anniversary of Usman ibn Affan, one of the companions of Mohammed, at the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar, September 10, 2017. (Danish Ismail/Reuters)

 

Not surprisingly, Usman ibn Affan was killed by Muslims. 

What a Great Name for a Band...Chainsaw-Wielding Nun

The cleanup after Hurricane Irma is a massive undertaking, after the destructive storm hit Florida and neighboring states over the weekend. In Miami, a nun chipped in to clear trees in her neighborhood — and no one, it seems, can resist a story about a chainsaw-wielding nun.

Sister Margaret Ann was spotted at work by an off-duty officer of the Miami-Dade Police Department, which posted video and images from the scene in the community of Kendall West Tuesday.
The department calls the sister's work another sign that Miami's community will work together to repair what Irma broke, writing on its Facebook page, "Thank you Sister and all of our neighbors that are working together to get through this!"
Sister Margaret Ann is the principal of  Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll High School, southwest of downtown Miami, which wrote on its Facebook page early Wednesday, "We are so blessed to have her and the Carmelite Sisters at our school. We are proud of the example they show for our students and other members of the community every day."
The phrase "chainsaw-wielding nun" is one we didn't know we would need to use in the wake of Irma, but it shows the breadth of the work it will take to recover from this storm — in Florida, in neighboring states and in the Caribbean.

The Belgian Brothers of Charity Again Rear Their Ugly Heads

Brussels, Belgium, Sep 12, 2017 / 10:38 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The board of the Belgian Brothers of Charity announced Tuesday it will continue offering euthanasia to patients in their psychiatric centres, despite being ordered by the Vatican to stop doing so.

The “Broeders van Liefde” board had been given until the end of August to comply with the Vatican order, which was seen and approved by Pope Francis. Brothers of the order were also asked to sign a joint letter to their general superior, Brother René Stockman, confirming their adherence to Church teaching.

In a September 12 statement the organization defied the Vatican request and said it “continues to stand by its vision statement on euthanasia for mental suffering in a non-terminal situation.”

Furthermore, it claims that in adhering to this vision, the organization “is still consistent with the doctrine of the Catholic Church. We emphatically believe so.”

Let's see what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about that....
 

2276 Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.

2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons.
It is morally unacceptable.

Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator.
The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.

Stevie Wonder Channels Pope Francis

Mere seconds into the celebrity-filled benefit concert for victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma did these stars turn the ostensible charitable event into a platform for left-wing sermonizing.
Stevie Wonder, who kicked off the show, began with call for unity, but then turned to mock anyone who questioned the global warming theory. 
"When love goes into action, it preferences no color of skin, no ethnicity, no religious beliefs, no sexual preferences, and no political persuasions," Mr. Wonder began. "It just loves. As we should begin to love and value our planet."
But after calling for love, he singled out skeptics of man-made climate change for derision.
"Anyone who believes that there is no such thing as global warming must be blind or unintelligent," Mr. Wonder said. "Lord, please save us all."
Let's hope the Pope doesn't start channeling Stevie Wonder:

It's SATIRE....I'm Pretty Sure

 Rats. It's From Eye of the Tiber:


Pope Francis on Tuesday ordered an end to the Benedict XVI order that shielded young, uncatechized Catholics from having to leave the Church.
“I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, because their parents somehow converted to Catholicism without being catechized,” Francis said in a written statement. “But we must also recognize that we are Church of opportunity because we are a Church of canon laws.”
The statement was released just hours after Francis asked the head of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura Cardinal Dominique Mamberti  to write to bishops around the world informing them that the Church would no longer protect uncatechized Catholics.
Vatican officials say that close to 100,000 current beneficiaries of the program who were brought into the Church without consent of a diocese as children, would eventually have to find another church, or to sign up for RCIA classes.
“Only by the reliable enforcement of canon law can we produce safe dioceses and spiritual fairness for all Catholics,” Francis went on to say in his statement.
“I understand that this is difficult. Many of those who will be asked to leave are adults now, and perhaps aren’t even aware that their parents left another church to become Catholic. Some of them will have to return to the ecclesial communities that they came from until they sign up for RCIA classes and are properly confirmed.”

Pope Emeritus Benedict told EOTT this morning that Francis had singled out young people that could one day potentially be priests or nuns for  “a punishment they did not deserve.”
“To target these young people is wrong because they have done nothing wrong,” Benedict said. “It is self-flagellating because they want to start new ministries, staff our apostolates, serve in the Knights of Columbus, and otherwise contribute to the Church we love. And it is cruel.”

If You Are an Epileptic Bachelor with Rabies and a Shed Out Back, St. Guy is Your... Well, Guy

As a child Guy had two loves, the Church and the poor. The love of prayer growing more and more, he left his poor home at Brussels to seek greater poverty and closer union with God. He arrived at Laeken, near Brussels, and there showed such devotion before our Lady's shrine that the priest besought him to stay and serve the Church. Thenceforth, his great joy was to be always in the church, sweeping the floor and ceiling, polishing the altars, and cleansing the sacred vessels. By day he still found time and means to befriend the poor, so that his alms-giving became famous in all those parts. A merchant of Brussels, hearing of the generosity of this poor sacristan, came to Laeken, and offered him a share in his business. Guy could not bear to leave the church; but the offer seemed providential, and he at last closed with it. Their ship, however, was lost on the first voyage, and on returning to Laeken, Guy found his place filled. The rest of his life was one long penance for his inconstancy. About the year 1033, finding his end at hand, he returned to Anderlecht, in his own country. As he died, a light shone round him, and a voice was heard proclaiming his eternal reward.

Patron of Anderlecht, Belgium; against mad dogs; against rabies; bachelors; epileptics; horned animals; laborers; protection of outbuildings, stables, and sheds; sacristans; work horses

If You Want Peace, Prepare for War

I Feel Like I am Being Robbed of My Hope

 We need a papal interdiction to get the microphone away from this guy.

Vatican City, Sep 11, 2017 / 07:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During a press conference Sunday aboard the papal plane from Colombia to Rome, Pope Francis said that though he is not familiar with how the decision to end DACA was made, he hopes it will be reconsidered as part of a pro-life ethic which defends the unity of families.

“I hope that it will be rethought a little, because I have heard the President of the United States speak as a pro-life man. If he is a good pro-life man, he understands that the family is the cradle of life, and unity must be defended. This is what comes to me,” Francis said Sept. 10.
“I have heard of this law. I have not been able to read the articles, how the decision was made. I don't know it well,” he stated. “Keeping young people away from the family is not something that brings good fruit.”
Asked if he thought that ending DACA will cause youth who benefitted under the program to lose their joy and hope in the future, he said that when youth feel exploited, whether in this case or others, they are robbed of hope. 

So their parents robbed them of their hopes? Sad, but not my fault.

The Pope Morphs into Al Gore

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) -- Pope Francis has sharply criticized climate change doubters, saying history will judge those who failed to take the necessary decisions to curb heat-trapping emissions blamed for the warming of the Earth.

Francis was asked about climate change and the spate of hurricanes that have pummeled the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean recently as his charter plane left Colombia on Sunday and flew over some of the devastated areas.

"You, Catholic, have meddled with the forces of nature!"

"Those who deny this must go to the scientists and ask them. They speak very clearly," he said, referring to experts who blame global warming on man-made activities.

For those who have denied climate change, or delayed actions to counter it, he responded with an Old Testament saying: "Man is stupid."

"When you don't want to see, you don't see," he said.

The Pope's Plane, Alitalia Airbus A330-200

 I'll believe it is a crisis when the people who say it's a crisis start acting like it is a crisis.

We're In the Money!

 Steve Bannon shows off some of the deep analytical thinking of that got him fired from the White House:

 

Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, lashed out at leaders of the Catholic Church in the United States who condemned the president’s recent decision to phase out an Obama-era program that has allowed nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children to gain temporary legal status. Bannon, who is Catholic, accused the church of wanting a steady flow of illegal immigrants coming into the country to fill its church pews and make money. “Unable to really to come to grips with the problems in the Church, they need illegal aliens, they need illegal aliens to fill the churches,” Bannon said in an interview with Charlie Rose that will air on “60 Minutes” on CBS on Sunday. “It’s obvious on the face of it.” Bannon added: “They have an economic interest. They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration.”

I agree. It's the weekly contributions from Sunday's Mass in Spanish that keeps St. Joseph in the black.

Mike Lee Sadly Takes Dick Durbin and Dianne Feinstein to the Woodshed

There are very few honorable men in government. Mike Lee is one of them.



I found the link to the video in an article you can find here. The article included this interesting chart that shows 1/4 of democratic support comes from people with no religious affiliation. Ergo, attacking religion (as Durbin and Feinstein did) does not really hurt liberals.

Way Ahead of You

Bogotá, Colombia, Sep 7, 2017 / 10:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking to youth in Colombia Thursday, Pope Francis urged them to move away from the violence of the past and to work toward healing and building a culture of encounter, which he said often begins simply with a drink or a cup of coffee.
“For you, young people, it is so easy to encounter one another. All you need is a good coffee, a good drink or any other excuse to meet,” the Pope said Sept. 7, his first full day in Colombia.

Way ahead of you, Pope Francis.... 

Noted Theologian Nancy Pelosi Was Unavailable for Comment

Dianne Feinstein

Dick Durbin

A clown who is neither Dianne Feinstein nor Dick Durbin

This afternoon, during a confirmation hearing for 7th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein attacked the nominee for her Roman Catholic faith. Barrett is a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who has written about the role of religion in public life and delivered academic lectures to Christian legal groups. Drawing on some of these materials, Feinstein launched a thinly veiled attack on Barrett’s Catholic faith, asserting that her religious views will prevent her from judging fairly. “When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you,” Feinstein said. “And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for for years in this country.” Feinstein is clearly hinting here at the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, a ruling that Feinstein supports so vociferously that she has even called it a “super-precedent.”

 

Amy Coney Barrett

Other Democratic senators took issue with Barrett over her faith as well. Senate minority whip Dick Durbin criticized Barrett’s use of the term “orthodox Catholic,” insisting that it unfairly maligns Catholics who do not hold certain positions about abortion or the death penalty. (Durbin himself is a Catholic who abandoned his previous pro-life position.) “Are you an orthodox Catholic?” he later asked Barrett point blank.
 

Luckily, the mighty, mighty Ben Sasse was there to point out the obvious:

The questions prompted GOP Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska to ask Barrett about the Constitution’s religious test clause, which prohibits the imposition of religious scrutiny against public officials. The provision was adopted as a bulwark against legislation like the English Test Acts of the 17th and 18th centuries, which required officeholders to swear oaths conforming to the beliefs of the Church of England.
“I think some of the questioning that you have been subjected to today seems to miss some of these fundamental constitutional protections we all have,” Sasse said.

This is Why JFK Got Elected

Call a Special Prosecutor! The Vatican is meddling in American politics!

Washington D.C., Sep 5, 2017 / 03:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishops condemned the Trump administration’s decision Tuesday to end a program that benefited hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as minors.
“The cancellation of the DACA program is reprehensible,” leading U.S. bishops said in a joint statement released Sept. 5.

 The always caring and rarely sensible Archbishop of Los Angeles weighs in:

Archbishop Gomez, in a separate statement, said “as a pastor” that ending DACA would result in the possible deportation of 800,000 and would be “a national tragedy and a moral challenge to every conscience.”
“It is not right to hold these young people accountable for decisions they did not make and could not make. They came to this country through no fault of their own,” he said. “Most of them are working hard to contribute to the American dream — holding down jobs, putting themselves through college, some are even serving in our nation’s armed forces.”

Was the EXODUS from other countries a "national tragedy and a moral challenge to every conscience" to the countries they left? 

And while he may be right about "these young people" coming here through no fault of their own, have they reached adulthood with no sense of right or wrong, no moral compass...just a sense of entitlement?

If I Were Cardinal Burke or Cardinal Brandmuller, I Would Hire a Food Taster

 
Vatican City, Sep 6, 2017 / 09:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday the Vatican announced that Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop Emeritus of Bologna, has died at the age of 79.  He was known for pastoral and academic work in support of marriage and families, especially through the founding of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family.
No details regarding the late prelate's death were included in the Sept. 6 announcement of his passing. However, his death comes almost exactly two months after that of Caffara's friend and collaborator, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, who passed away July 5 while on vacation in Bad Füssing, Germany.

Cardinal Caffara

 Cardinals Caffara and Meisner were among the four cardinals who penned a letter with five “dubia,” or questions, about the interpretation of Amoris laetitia to Pope Francis, requesting that he “resolve the uncertainties and bring clarity.”
Signed by Caffarra, Meisner and Cardinals Walter Brandmüller and Raymond Leo Burke, the letter was sent to Pope Francis privately on Sept. 19, 2016, but was released to the public two months later.
The four cardinals believed themselves obliged to submit the dubia because of “the fact – which only a blind man could deny – that in the Church there exists great confusion, uncertainty, insecurity caused by some paragraphs of Amoris laetitia,” Caffarra said in a Jan.14 interview with Matteo Matzuzzi of the Italian publication “Il Foglio.”

Prairie Home Companion Pretty Good Joke of the Day

What was the last thing that Jesus said at the Last Supper? “OK, anyone who wants to be in the picture get on this side of the table…”

Find the Popes in the Pizza

(Classic comedy routine reference in the heading)


The chief exorcist of the Philippines has warned that “Illuminati satanists” are distributing cursed rosaries to unsuspecting Catholics.

Father Ambrosio Nonato Legaspi made the claim on Novaliches’ Radio Veritas show Hello Father 911. A report on the show was carried on the news site of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

He said: “Listeners, be careful as the rosaries you might be using could actually be infested or cursed!”

The priest claimed that the rosaries were being given away by satanists, acting as part of a shadowy group called the Iluminati.
He said that the satanists had “prayed over” the rosaries to consecrate them to evil. Whoever then used them, he warned, would be  “followed by evil spirits” as a result.

 Speaking on the same show, Philippe De Guzman of the Diocese of Novaliches Office of Exorcism said the rosaries contained hidden symbols. These include such things as sunbursts, pentagrams and snakes, he claimed.

I don't know. All I see is an image of what looks like Pope Clement XIV.