His Expression Reminds me of Brave Sir Robin

Pamplona, Spain, Jun 28, 2018 / 10:32 am (CNA).- Outrage has been sparked in a town in northern Spain over the botched renovation of a 16th-century wooden sculpture of St. George, which was repainted by a local arts and crafts teacher.

The Church of St. Michael - located just south-west of Pamplona in the town of Estella - allegedly hired a local workshop to restore the 500-year old polychrome statue which was showing signs of age.

The workshop, called Karmacolor, specializes in arts and crafts for children and basic furniture repairs – not professional restoration, according to the town’s mayor Koldo Leoz.

However, the parish priest said the church only intended for the arts and crafts teacher to clean the sculpture and did not ask for a full renovation, according to the BBC. Since the attempted restoration, which started about a month ago, the once-faded St. George sculpture now bears a pink face with brightly colored red and gray armor.

Just to be clear. This is St. George:

This is Tintin:

The Farmer and the Cowman,Should Be Friends!

Jos, Nigeria, Jun 25, 2018 / 06:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- More than 80 people were killed over the weekend in clashes between farmers and herders in Nigeria's central Plateau State.
This series of clashes is the latest in a several-years' conflict between nomadic Fulani herdsmen, most of whom are Muslim, and the largely Christian farmers of the region, over resources.

This weekend's violence was reportedly begun by an attack of Berom farmers on Fulani herders June 21, AFP reports. The farmers attacked a group of five herdsmen travelling with their cattle in the Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, fewer than 30 miles south of Jos.

The following day two Berom children were killed in area villages in apparent reprisal attacks.

OK, I know this is deadly serious business. But I can't help myself...



 

Funny...I Don't Remember Voting for Our Bishop

The Catholic bishops met in Fort Lauderdale a few days ago. The dominating topic of discussion was politics, specifically, their official guide to Catholic voters, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. 

Bishop Cupich and the Pope

The Pope Francis faction, led by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, called for a complete rewriting of the document since it no longer represented "the new body of teaching" as taught by the present pontiff, specifically mentioning climate change, poverty, and immigration.
Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego went a step further saying the present document doesn’t represent "Catholic teaching as it is now."
These two are not the only ones who believe that in the space of five years, since Bergoglio’s 2013 election, the moral and social teaching of the Church has been so fundamentally altered Faithful Citizenship no longer speaks with the true voice of the Church. So much for an institution considered slow to change.
Other leading bishops, however, including Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles, opposed writing a new document, arguing what was needed was a more straightforward, significantly redacted version of Faithful Citizenship along with an accompanying video for YouTube, etc.

During this discussion there was no mention of Trump being the most pro-life president in our nation’s history. It should not surprise us at that omission since the intent behind the beefing up of Faithful Citizenship is to deny Trump a second term in office.
The bishop’s present silence about the president's achievement is only another iteration of their attempt during the campaign itself to camouflage Hillary Clinton’s pro-abortion stance by arranging with moral indictments Trump about "The Wall."
The strategy didn't work. Faithful Catholics would not be bullied into seeing moral equivalence between killing the unborn and insisting on secure national borders.

 

The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 69

Georgetown University, America's oldest (Jesuit)  Roman Catholic institution of higher learning and located in the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C., actively encouraged visitors to its website to contribute to a vast array of left-wing activist groups in the name of supporting "civil rights." A page on the website for Georgetown's law library asked visitors to give to Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the leftist attack dog Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), LGBT law group Lambda Legal, and others.

"One way to resist oppression is to strengthen the organizations that fight against oppressors. You can make a change, even if it's just an hour a week or a dollar a week. If we all give just a little, it adds up and it keeps our civil rights, our environment — our nation — from being destroyed," the page, entitled "A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States," urged visitors.

The page listed all sorts of left-wing advocacy groups, including the SPLC, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), NARAL, Planned Parenthood, EMILY's List, and Lambda Legal. It also solicited requests for organizations users "would like to see added to this list."

 Adding insult to injury, the law library website for America's oldest Catholic University gave "special thanks to jezebel.com for the genesis of this list of organizations." Even if Jezebel were not literally named after one of the Bible's most ungodly villains, the idea that Georgetown would endorse a list of groups from this far-left website is horrifying.

In case a Jesuit is reading this, let Wikipedia explain:

Jezebel is described in the Book of Kings (1 Kings 16:31) as a queen who was the daughter of Ithobaal I of Sidon and the wife of Ahab, King of Israel.^[2]
According to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible, Jezebel incited her husband King Ahab to abandon the worship of Yahweh and encourage worship of the deities Baal and Asherah instead. Jezebel persecuted the prophets of Yahweh, and fabricated evidence of blasphemy against an innocent landowner who refused to sell his property to King Ahab, causing the landowner to be put to death. For these transgressions against the God and people of Israel, Jezebel met a gruesome death—thrown out of a window by members of her own court retinue, and the flesh of her corpse eaten by stray dogs.
In the biblical story, Jezebel became associated with false prophets. In some interpretations, her dressing in finery and putting on makeup^[3] led to the association of the use of cosmetics with "painted women" or prostitutes.

Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through the Goalposts of Life

Toronto, Ohio, Jun 18, 2018 / 03:26 am (CNA).- Every single vocation story is different, but Sr. Rita Clare (Anne) Yoches is probably one of the more unusual.
Sr. Rita Clare, who this month will profess final vows with the Franciscan Sisters T.O.R. of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother, was a four-time national champion professional football player.prior to entering the convent.
Yes, that’s American football. (She was a fullback.) Nowadays, the only football Yoches is playing is the annual two-hand touch game she organizes with the 38 T.O.R. sisters she lives with in Toronto, Ohio.
Although she was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools, Yoches said she never once considered becoming a nun. Her family attended Mass each Sunday, but that was about it in terms of her faith life. A talented athlete, Yoches earned a full basketball scholarship to the University of Detroit-Mercy, where she played for four years.
After college, she began her football career in 2003 after a successful tryout with the Detroit Demolition, a now-defunct women’s professional team. She left the team in 2006, and in March of 2007, the former self-described party girl experienced a calling to enter religious life. She ended her relationship with her boyfriend, and entered the Franciscans shortly after.

Cardinal Dolan...Secret Jesuit?

Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Friday fired back at Attorney General Jeff Sessions for using the Bible to defend the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the border, which he called "unbiblical."

The archbishop of New York issued a harsh rebuke of the policy, telling CNN’s Chris Cuomo that it is “un-American.”

“I don't think we should obey a law that goes against what God intends that you would take a baby, a child, from their mom,” he said. “I mean, that's just unjust. That's unbiblical. That’s un-American. There could be no Bible passage that would justify that.”

“God’s law trumps man’s law,” Dolan added, citing a Bible verse to support his counterargument.

Enforcing the law is no "un-American"?

OR...

1) Change the law

2) Stop arriving illegally.

Either way, problem solved.

You Keep Using That Word...I Don't Think It Means What You Think It Means

U.S. Catholic Bishops Blast “Immoral” Trump Immigration Policy

This comes as more than 300 Catholic bishops blasted the Trump administration’s immigration policies, calling for an end to the separation of migrant children from their parents and condemning Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s policy of ending the right of domestic violence survivors to seek asylum in the United States.

Monsignor Brian Bransfield: “Separating babies from their mothers is not the answer and is immoral.”

That’s Monsignor Brian Bransfield, reading a statement issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops during its spring meeting this week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Monsignor Brian Bransfield: “This decision negates decades of precedents that have provided protection to women fleeing domestic violence. Unless overturned, the decision will erode the capacity of asylum to save lives, particularly in cases that involve asylum seekers who are persecuted by private actors.”

The administration insists the new rules are necessary to send a message to immigrants.
"Look, I hope that we don't have to separate any more children from any more adults," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said last week. "But there's only one way to ensure that is the case: It's for people to stop smuggling children illegally. Stop crossing the border illegally with your children. Apply to enter lawfully. Wait your turn."

Looks Like I'm Not Confessing About Jimmy Hoffa

Father Z has some thoughts....


I was sent the link to a short film that, apparently, won and award at the International Catholic Film Festival in 2017.
Fail.
It starts with some good point.  Never mind that the priest is not wearing a purple stole: validity of absolution doesn’t depend on a stole or its color.  Fluctus in simpulo.  There are some good moments in the short.
That said, there are some disturbing elements in this film.
I know that it is a short film and that short means that not every possible angle can be resolved.
The priest lies to the guy, a couple of times, in telling the penitent that he didn’t commit murder.  However, even if “murder” isn’t quite the right technical term for what happened, even if the lie that the priest told was true, the guy would still have committed a horrible sin, several, in fact.
As to the penance, it isn’t always possible to “compensate” a victim.  However, giving something to someone who is not the victim doesn’t strictly satisfy justice.   There is a twist in this case, but that remains.
What I am afraid happened here is that sentimentality trumped reason and, once again, we saw the exaltation of false mercy which betrays truth.  A “mercy” which is apart from the truth is no mercy at all.
Moreover, the film seems to make the the point of the priest’s mercy, rather than God’s mercy.   It is, essentially, about the priest, not God.

I'm pretty sure that this wasn't murder, but I am not a lawyer.  Doesn't murder require premeditation? Lying to make someone feel better is bad, especially coming from a priest in confession.

Personnally, I Would Rather Be in New York

New York City, N.Y., Jun 9, 2018 / 12:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Superior Court of New York ruled Friday in favor of Joan Sheen Cunningham, who had petitioned to move the body of her uncle, Venerable Fulton Sheen, to the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria. The body of the late archbishop is currently in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
The Diocese of Peoria welcomed the decision.
“This is the second time that the Superior Court of New York has ruled in favor of Joan Sheen Cunningham’s petition,” read a June 8 statement from the Peoria diocese.
The judge, Arlene Bluth, ruled that “the location of Archbishop Sheen's final resting place would not have been his primary concern” and that “it makes no sense, given his lifelong devotion to the Catholic Church, that he would choose a location over the chance to become a saint.”

 Or as Cardinal Dolan says....
 
 Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York says he is happy to be a cardinal but that he is aiming for a higher calling.
“As grateful as I am for being a cardinal, I really want to be a saint,” Cardinal Dolan said to the media after the Feb. 18 ceremony. “I mean that, and I’ve got a long way to go, but it is all about holiness; it is all about friendship with Jesus, and it is all about being a saint. And that’s what I want to be.”

Protestant Outreach, Part I

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....

LEXINGTON, S.C. – A Baptist church in South Carolina has voted to remove a statue of Jesus Christ because some believe it’s too “Catholic” for their place of worship.
The hand-carved, 7-foot (2-meter) statue and accompanying reliefs showing scenes from the life of Christ have been displayed outside Red Bank Baptist Church in Lexington for a decade.
But Pastor Jeff Wright says the statue is being taken down this week. In a letter, Pastor said some congregants feel it is “Catholic in nature,” and it needs to be removed to avoid confusion. He did not explain why. Wright didn’t return telephone calls or respond to messages The Associated Press left in person with his staff Wednesday.

Cool! Like a Pez Dispenser!

This is posted by a Jesuit, who seems to approve. I'm not sure if it's an actual Catholic Mass...on a lot of levels.

.

Father Z checked in on this in 2009.

While the USCCB Fights For Illegal Immigrants, Some Bishops Have Other Things To Occupy Their Time

Edinburgh, Scotland, Jun 5, 2018 / 12:41 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a pastoral letter for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Archbishop Leo Cushley of St. Andrews & Edinburgh stressed the importance of the Sunday Mass obligation for Catholics.

Archbishop Cushkey

 “It is true that many people think of Sunday as just part of the weekend, a welcome break from the usual routine, and perhaps a day for family, or sporting activities,” the UK archbishop said in the letter.  
“Naturally, it’s good to relax and make time for these things, but our culture has largely forgotten that Sunday is a weekly holiday because of its meaning as the Christian holy day,” he continued.

Cushley went on to emphasize the importance of attending Sunday Mass. He noted that missing Mass due to extraordinary circumstance, such as an illness, is acceptable, but under normal circumstances, “attending Mass on Sunday is a solemn and binding obligation.”
“If we deliberately fail in this matter, it is a grave sin and we must go to confession before receiving communion again,” he said.

From an Expert on Economics To an Expert on Global Warming

Pope Francis will meet with some of the world's oil executives next week, likely to give them another moral nudge to clean up their act on global warming.
Climate change policy and science experts are cautiously hopeful but aren't expecting any miracles or even noticeable changes. 

But lighting the witch on fire will cause carbon emissions! What now?

 The conference will be a follow-up to the pope's encyclical three years ago calling on people to save the planet from climate change and other environmental ills, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke confirmed Friday. Cardinal Peter Turkson, who spearheaded the encyclical, set up the June 8-9 conference with the executives. The pope himself will speak to the leaders on the second day of the summit, organized with the University of Notre Dame, Burke said. 

 Oil companies have talked about fighting climate change, but they haven't done much beyond talk, said MIT management professor John Sterman.
The pope offers "moral persuasion," but if it is just a photo opportunity for oil executives to show off "it doesn't mean anything and in fact it's just PR to help oil companies burnish up their image while they continue to delay actions," Sterman said


Dana Fisher, a sociologist who studies environmentalism at the University of Maryland, said the pope is cementing his leadership on climate.
"He certainly is trying to lead for the planet and lord knows we need it," she said. 

Hurray! Leading for the planet. When he gets done, mabe he could lead the Catholic Church!