A MIRACLE OF GOD AND OF MEDICINE

Earlier in the school year one of our 3rd graders was diagnosed with a very serious form of knee cancer. Her leg had to be amputated above the knee about a month ago and this after a series of chemotherapy treatments where she lost all her hair. It has been amazing how her third grade classmates and the entire school have responded to her and her bravery through it all.

She had the knee portion of her leg amputated and her foot reattached backwards where her knee would be and this will act as a knee when she gets her prosthesis.

This video will show you how successful this surgery is and the woman in the video was the same age as our 3rd grade parishioner when she had the surgery done. Please continue to pray for Kelsey's complete recovery!

I've never heard of this before and it is truly amazing!

I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE, I LIKE POPE FRANCIS' VESTMENTS FOR CORPUS CHRISTI BETTER THAN THE ONES POPE BENEDICT WORE IN 2009 BUT I LIKE BENEDICT'S STAFF BETTER THAN POPE PAUL VI'S STAFF

IF THIS POSITION WHEN PRAYING DURING BENEDICTION OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT IS NON CONTROVERSIAL FOR THE HOLY FATHER, POPE FRANCIS, WHY WOULD CELEBRATING MASS IN THIS SAME POSITION BE CONTROVERSIAL?

A picture is worth a thousand words! When one is offering Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament it is usually celebrated ad orientem in terms of the prayer that is chanted or recited prior to the actual Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Obvious prayer, all prayer, is directed to Jesus Christ (Who in Benediction is directly in front of the congregation and the priest who joins the congregation in facing the same direction). It would be silly and down right disrespectful for the Holy Father or any bishop, priest or deacon to turn away from the monstrance and face the congregation to pray the prayer prior to Benediction, no?

Why in the name of God and all that is holy would any bishop or priest think facing the congregation to pray in confrontation to them is a great innovation in Catholic liturgical prayer? Just who sold us this bill of goods?

Pope Francis at last night's Corpus Christi Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament at a portable altar in front of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. Please note the wonderful, portable altar's decorative features! Reform of the Reform in continuity at work in a very popular devotion!

Am I the only one who if I were in the congregation at this Mass would find this way of a priest praying as he confronts me, off putting? I would in fact be praying for a miracle of God that instantly the priest and concelebrants would face ad orientem, then I wouldn't be offended by their pious smirks and facial expression, they could do as they please!

WHY ARE OUR CATHOLIC LAITY SO ILLITERATE WHEN IT COMES TO THE CATHOLIC FAITH--BLAME THE TEXT BOOKS, BLAME THE TEACHING METHODS AND BLAME THE PARENTS, BUT BLAME THE BISHOPS, PRIESTS AND CATECHISTS TOO, BLAME EVERYONE INCLUDING SATAN, EXCEPT NO ONE TEACHES ABOUT HIM ANYMORE OTHER THAN POPE FRANCIS, DON'T BLAME HIM!

Do our Catholic children and most adults know what these image teaches?






All of us know one of the elephants in the room of the Catholic Church. Our religious education programs are not handing on the essence of our Catholic Faith, our parents are befuddled about their role in handing on the faith and the materials we use are vapid or if good do not make an impression on young minds. We are afraid of asking for memorization and thus most don't remember anything they've learned about God and Church other than some niceties and feel good emotions.

I teach each class of our grades 1-6 (we don't have 7th or 8th) each Thursday, rotating classes from week to week. For the last two years I have used Baltimore Catechism #1 as my text book. It is wonderful to use with children and it is so simple yet has so much content. If Catholics, all Catholics, simply studied Baltimore Catechism #1, we would have very knowledgeable Catholics.

These past two years I've used Baltimore Catechism #2 with our adult religious program which we call Coffee and Conversation following our 9:30 AM Sunday Mass, which coincides with our CCD program which we call PREP (Parish Religious Education Program).

This #2 book has more content and is for middle school, but upper elementary school children must have been more capable of more serious content back when this book was formulated and used through the mid 1960's because it is a great book to use with adults and not childish at all. We all use this same book as a supplemental book for the RCIA because it is so clear, nobly simple and chocked full of content!

Yes, there are some adjustments that need to be made to some chapters, but not that many, in light of Vatican II and the new emphasis we have on certain aspects of Church that are not present in the Baltimore Catechism. But these are really minor.

What is more important though is that when the Baltimore Catechism was used through the mid 1960's it was basically the only book that was used for children in elementary and junior high school. It was used across the board in the USA thus uniting all Catholics in learning the same content. There was not, in other words, a cottage industry of competing publishing houses selling new books and different content each year.

The same thing has occurred with liturgical music, a cottage industry of big bucks has developed around the sale of new hymnals, missalettes and new music put on the open market for parishes to purchase. It is a money making scheme.

Why do our bishop allow this to happen in both liturgical music and parish catechesis? The business of selling stuff to parishes and making mega bucks off of it is a scandal that has not be addressed.

In the meantime, our liturgies suffer and become fragmented because every parish uses a different resource for liturgical music and the same is true of religious formation, everyone uses something different of differing quality or no quality at all.

Isn't it time to wake up and move forward with tried and true practices that were tossed out in favor of a consumerist's approach to our faith that has weakened our liturgies, our parishes and our individual Catholics?

POPE FRANCIS IMPRINTS HIS OWN STYLE ON THE CORPUS CHRISTI MASS AND PROCESSION FOLLOWING, A RATHER NICE IMPRINT!

A very nice chasuble (this actually is my taste for me personally) and a very nice cope. Yes, these are modern/classic in design but very nice and appropriate for Pope Francis! The deacon dalmatics are nice too!


The following is the video of the Corpus Christi Mass beginning at The Basilica of Saint John Lateran. Evidently they were expecting rain and used a smaller altar that would fit under a rather cheap canopy that one can rent from any canopy rental place. The smaller altar necessitated four candlesticks instead of 6, but the central crucifix and bishop's candle remain dead center.

The Holy Father has his own South American Vestments but a bit different from what he has used with gold thread rather than brown and the deacons have very nice matching dalmatics. The deacons do not seem to be prevented from wearing nice lace albs under their dalmatics.

The procession for the Mass begins at minute 8:35 with a very beautiful Latin introit for the incensation of the altar.

The Mass is entirely in Italian except for the propers, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo Sanctus and Agnus Dei which are in Latin (Greek for Kyrie, of course).

At hour 1:34:25, the Holy Father changes from chasuble to cope for the incensation of the Most Blessed Sacrament in the Monstrance.

The bombshell is that two deacon ride in the Chevy Pick-Up Truck kneeling before the Most Holy Eucharist. The Holy Father walks behind the Chevy Pick Up truck the whole distance from St. John Lateran to St. Mary Major!

A lovely altar set up at St. Mary Major, very pre-Vatican II for the Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. And for the Benediction the Holy Father puts on a very nice humeral veil, he looks very papal!



This is the homily that has an English voice over:

LAST YEAR'S CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION WITH POPE BENEDICT XVI ON THE BACK OF A FLAT BED CHEVEY PICK-UP TRUCK AND ST. JOSEPH'S CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION FROM SEVERAL YEARS AGO

Please note how the cope of the Pope (cope of the pope, cool) is placed over the kneeler on which the pope kneels. I am wondering if the new Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis will do likewise or forgo the cope altogether or if he wears one will it be draped in this traditional manner. Stay tuned as I will update this with a video and/or picture when it is available!

In the nine years I've been here, we only had one very wonderful outdoor procession on Corpus Christi. It was wonderful, fabulous and I've wanted to do it every year, but every year it has been 100 degree outside on a Sunday afternoon and every year since this one my parochial vicar has chosen to begin his vacation (as Easter has been late for the last several years, pushing Corpus Christi into June. I really need a priest to coordinate this and we need streets closed and well, it is a bit of a hassle. Next year Easter is earlier, so I hope to duplicate this next year! Fr. Dawid is gone to Africa for his vacation.

These are from 2009:







MY FINAL COMMENT: Now which is better, like ours at Saint Joseph Church or like the Pope's on the back of a flat-bed Chevy Pick Up Truck? I ask, you answer!

I THINK THE NEW POPE HAS FINALLY BECOME CONVINCED THAT HE IS THE POPE AND NOT JUST SOME OBSCURE CARDINAL FROM ARGENTINA OR THE VATICAN IS TIGHTENING THE SCREWS ON HIS SPONTANEOUS STYLE OF SPEAKING?

And this new papal tee shirt:

There is no Mass or homily this morning with the Holy Father from the chapel of his place of residence at the Vatican Motel 6 for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi as it will be celebrated this evening in front of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. It will be interesting to see what changes in vesture the Holy Father will make for the Eucharistic Procession after Mass from Saint John Lateran to St. Mary Major for Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. In the past Pope Benedict XVI would ride on the back of a Chevy Pick-Up truck, very southern and a bit tacky. I suspect the truck will remain but the pope will not wear any vesture except his white papal house cassock. Time will tell.

But there is a peculiar statement from the Vatican Press Secretary this morning concerning why the full text of Pope Francis' DAILY MASS HOMILIES AT THE CHAPEL OF HIS PLACE OF RESIDENCE AT THE VATICAN MOTEL 6 are not posted or available in audio form. What they provide and what I print daily is a synopsis by Vatican Radio. This has displeased many who believe Vatican Radio may not be giving us the complete context of the Holy Father's words.

This is what the Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi had to say this morning in which he also gives us a catechesis on the various level of authority of papal pronouncements with a spontaneous daily homily on the bottom of the list. Implied is the communique is the recent kerfuffle concerning the salvation of atheists and others who are non Catholic I suppose, which caused worldwide consternation and joy at the same time, a most peculiar response to a low level papal teaching. At any rate, here is what Father Lombardi said and taught today:

(Vatican Radio) On account of the great interest expressed in Pope Francis’ homilies at morning Mass, many people have asked about the possibility of receiving the full text of those homilies, and not just the summaries published by L’Osservatore Romano and Vatican Radio.

In a brief note, Father Lombardi, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, has explained the decision to publish partial syntheses of the Holy Father’s homily, rather than the full text.

Pope Francis, he said, wants to retain the familiar atmosphere that characterises the daily Mass, which is typically attended by a small number of the faithful. “For that reason,” Fr. Lombardi said, the Holy Father has specifically requested that the live video and audio not be broadcast.

The Pope’s daily homily, Fr. Lombardi said, is delivered spontaneously, and not from a written text, and in Italian – a language Pope Francis knows well, but which is not his mother tongue. An integral, or official, text, would necessarily have to be transcribed and slightly reworked, given the differences between a written work and the homilies’ original oral form. In short, he said, there would have to be a revision by the Holy Father himself – but this would clearly result in something that differs from what the Holy Father intends in his daily homily.

Father Lombardi went on to explain how the Holy See has resolved the question:

“We must insist on the fact that, in all of the Pope’s activities, the difference between different situations and celebrations, as well as the different levels of authority of his words, must be understood and respected. So, for the Pope’s public celebrations or activities, broadcast live on television and radio, the sermons or speeches are transcribed and published in full. During smaller, more familiar celebrations and functions, we have to pay attention to the character of the situation, and the spontaneity and familiarity of the Pope’s remarks. The solution respects both the intention of the Pope and the nature of the morning Mass, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, the desire to give the wider public the opportunity to hear the message of the Holy Father even in such circumstances.

“And so, after careful consideration, it seems the best way to make the richness of the Pope’s homilies accessible to a wide audience, without altering the nature of his remarks, is to publish a detailed summary, rich in direct quotations that reflect the genuine flavour of the Pope’s expressions. L’Osservatore Romano undertakes this responsibility every day. Vatican Radio, on account of the nature of the medium, offers a shorter synthesis, including some of the original sound, while CTV offers a video clip corresponding to one of the audio inserts published by Vatican Radio.”

MY FINAL COMMENT: Interesting, no?

THIS POPE IS REALLY ALL WASHED UP AND WET!

This is today's General Audience. Go to about minute 17:50 and you'll see the Pope riding in the open air Mercedes as it is raining and no one offers him their umbrella although they throw hats to him! Then at 22:17 an aid with a roll of paper towels, yes, a roll of paper towels for the SUPREME PONTIFF, offers it to the Holy Father so he might dry his face and head! Contrast this video with this:
(one would imagine that Pope Francis views this as triumphalism, but for him to do this would take an exorbitant amount of humility! So which is more humble for him, the jeep or the way of Pius XII?)

THIS SUNDAY'S SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRIST, THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST, AT SAINT JOSEPH CATHOLIC CHURCH WE WILL BE IN SYNC WITH THE HOLY FATHER'S SOLEMN EXPOSITION AND ADORATION OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT! WILL YOUR PARISH???????

Yes, Virginia, this is a Saint Joseph Church Sunday Ordinary Form Mass at 12:10 PM:

SOLEMN PROCESSION AND EXPOSITION AND ADORATION OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT FOR CORPUS CHRISTI:


Since Fr. Dawid, our parochial vicar is on vacation, and I am alone with four Sunday Masses as is, we will not have our normal 2:00 PM Extraordinary Form of the Mass which normally is celebrated the first Sunday of each month.

However, our 12:10 PM Mass which is now celebrated ad orientem (for the past year) just for the Liturgy of the Eucharist, will be a hybrid of Latin and English.

Our Men's Schola will chant the official Introit, Offertory and Communion Antiphons and the Kyrie will be in Greek, followed by the Jubilatio Deo Gloria. The Gradual is chanted in Latin will substitute for the Responsorial Psalm and the schola will chant the short version of the Sequence in Gregorian Chant.

The Credo #3, Santus (Orbis Factor), Pater Noster and Agnus Dei will be chanted in Latin. The rest of the Mass will be in English. The Introductory and Concluding Rites are at the chair, the Liturgy of the Eucharist Ad Orientem.

Following both the 9:30 AM and 12:10 PM Mass and after the Prayer after Holy Communion, we will have an "in-church" Eucharistic procession with the Sacred Host in the monstrance. Afterward the Most Blessed Sacrament will be placed on the altar for an hour of Eucharistic Adoration from 10:45 to 11:45 and then after the 12:10 PM Mass until 4:30 PM when Solemn Exposition will conclude with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Beginning this Sunday we are asking parishioners each and every Sunday to maintain sacred silence in the church proper before Mass (as we already do,) but now after Mass also. We are asking people to respect the House of God as a House of Prayer and Contemplation, one of the few places in the world where silence is expected. We ask that people visit each other outside or in our social hall after Mass.

The Solemn Exposition and Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament following our 9:30 AM Mass should coincide with the Holy Father's worldwide Adoration at St. Peter's Basilica which is 6 hours ahead of us. So when it is 5:00 PM there when it begins, it will be will be 11:00 AM here and thus we will be in sync with the Holy Father's wishes during this Year of Faith in fact beating him by a few minutes!

WE CAN ALL BREATHE A SIGH OF RELIEF, ATHEISTS WILL GO TO HELL AFTER ALL, THAT'S WHAT IS BEING REPORTED

As some of you know, when Pope Francis said that God loved atheists and those who are not Catholic and that even they are capable of good works,for which they should be praised, since God imprints the design of love on to each person created in the image and likeness of God, not a few thought the pope meant that everyone is going to heaven including atheists. Well, we can breathe a sigh of relief now that the Vatican has set the record straight at least in the mind of a reporter writing for a news organization I haven't heard of, Newser:

Vatican: Oops, Atheists Still Hell-Bound
Looking a little toasty for Protestants, too
By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted May 29, 2013 1:37 AM CDT | Updated May 29, 2013 8:05 AM CDT

(Newser) – Pope Francis' admission that atheists are capable of doing good has been followed by a Vatican statement clarifying that the Church still believes atheists are going to hell. In a corrective statement that suggests people misunderstood the pontiff's remarks, a Vatican spokesman stresses that the Church believes all salvation "comes from Christ, the Head, through the Church which is his body," meaning those with awareness of the Catholic Church who "refuse to enter her or remain in her ... cannot be saved," Salon reports.

The spokesman also makes it clear that Church doctrine considers salvation off-limits to members of other religions and other branches of Christianity, although people who have never been exposed to Christianity might still have a shot. "Catholics do not adopt the attitude of religious relativism which regards all religions as on the whole equally justifiable," he writes. The pope's original comments, in which he said the "Lord has redeemed all of us," were welcomed by surprised atheist groups, the Christian Post reports.

MY COMMENT: OH, WHAT A RELIEF IT IS!

POPE FRANCIS' HOMILY AT HIS MOTEL 6 PLACE OF RESIDENCE THIS MORNING GIVES US KEEN INSIGHTS INTO HIS DEMEANOR AS POPE, HIS SIMPLICITY!

This is from Vatican Radio's summary of his homily this morning on the temptation of triumphalism in the Church!My comments at the end.

(Vatican Radio) Triumphalism impedes the Church: it is the temptation of a Christianity without the Cross, a Church that only wants to go half way on the journey of redemption, overly concerned with organization and success, without understanding that real triumph is born out of failure, like the triumph of Christ on the Cross. This was the focus of Pope Francis’ homily at morning Mass in Casa Santa Marta [at the Vatican's Motel 6]. Emer McCarthy reports:

The Gospel of the day recounts how Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem with his disciples, announces His passion, death and resurrection. Pope Francis described it as “the journey of faith”. He noted the disciples have another plan in mind, they plan to go only half way, that it is better to stop and they discuss among themselves how to arrange the Church and arrange salvation. Thus , John and James, ask Him to grant that in His glory one may sit one at His right and the other at His left, prompting a argument among the other about who was most important in the Church.

Pope Francis observed that “the disciples’ temptation is the same of Jesus’ temptation in the desert, when the devil proposed another path to Him": "Do everything with speed, preform a miracle, something that everyone can see. Let’s go to the temple and skydive without a parachute, so everyone will see the miracle and redemption will come to pass".

The Pope said this was also Peter’s temptation when he at first does not accept the passion of Jesus: "It is the temptation of a Christianity without the Cross, a half-way Christianity." There is also another temptation, "a Christianity with the Cross without Jesus" of which the Pope said he would speak at another occasion. But "the temptation of Christianity without the Cross", to be "half-way Christians, a half-way Church " – that does not want to arrive there where the Father wants, "is the temptation of triumphalism. We want the triumph now, without going to the Cross, a worldly triumph, a reasonable triumph ":

"Triumphalism in the Church, impedes the Church. Triumphalism among Christians, impedes Christians. A triumphalist, half-way Church that is a Church that is content with what it is or has, well sorted – well organized - with all its offices, everything in order, everything perfect no? Efficient. But a Church that denies its martyrs, because it does not know that martyrs are needed for Churches’ the journey towards the Cross. A Church that only thinks about triumphs, successes, does not know that rule of Jesus: the rule of triumph through failure, human failure, the failure of the Cross. And this is a temptation that we all have”.

The Pope, then, recalled a special episode in his life:

"I remember once, I was in a dark moment in my spiritual life and I asked a favor from the Lord. Then I went to preach the annual spiritual retreat to nuns and on the last day they made their confession. One elderly nun, over 80 years of age, but with clear, bright eyes came to confession: she was a woman of God. In the end I saw that she really was a woman of God so I said ‘ Sister, as penance, pray for me, because I need a grace, ok? If you ask the Lord for this grace on my behalf, I am sure to receive it'. She stopped for a moment, as if in prayer, and said, 'Of course the Lord will grant you this grace, but do not be deceived: in His own divine manner’. This did me a lot of good. To hear that the Lord always gives us what we ask for, but in His own divine way. And this is the divine way to the very end. The divine way involves the Cross, not out of masochism: no, no! Out of love. For love to the very end”.

Pope Francis concluded with a prayer:

"We ask the Lord for the grace that we may not be a half-way Church, a triumphalist Church, of great successes, but a humble Church, that walks with decision, just like Jesus. Forward, forward, forward. With a heart open to the will of the Father, just like Jesus. We ask for this grace. "

MY COMMENTS: One of the things that many people in the Church, clergy and laity alike, complain about is the number of meetings we must attend. Since the Second Vatican Council, new structures of bureaucracy have developed in the Church on the diocesan and parish levels, Pastoral Councils and the various committees, finance councils, school boards and their committees and so on and so on. The pastor becomes the animator of committees often keeping him from visiting homes in the evening or being so preoccupied by collegiality that he misses many opportunities to actually minister.

I'm not opposed to advisory groups in the parish, but we have made ourselves so bureaucratized that the successful pastor and parish is one that really looks good on paper with all the committees functioning properly and everyone knowing to whom everyone reports and so on and so on.

But the way of the parish must be the way of Jesus Christ and imitating Him. Aren't the Mass, the other sacraments and the good works that individuals do as well as those sponsored by the parish to help people to participate in the good works of the Church enough. Do we need all the bureaucracy we have today, with bloated chanceries, bloated parishes and Catholics who have become bloated with it all?

How many people work for the Vatican? Blessed Pope John XXIII said when asked, "about half." We might ask that of our chanceries and parishes and do away with the half and get to work.

POST CATHOLICISM BEING EXORCIZED BY POPE FRANCIS IN CONTINUITY WITH POPE BENEDICT ! MGRS. GUIDO MARINI TO STAY BY POPE'S SIDE

Pope Francis recently made this candid remark about his Master of Ceremonies:

Behold: You say that my papal master of ceremonies [Msgr Guido Marini] is of a traditionalist character. And many have asked me about my choice to remove him from office and be replaced. I said no, just that I prefer him to even benefit me by his traditional formation and at the same time, so he is formed in the same way by my emancipated formation.

MY COMMENTS: We still don't know much about the various conspiracies within the Vatican against Pope Benedict XVI. But what is becoming abundantly clear is that there was a rebellion against Pope Benedict's reform in continuity and interpreting Vatican II in continuity with Tradition.

Progressive Catholics in the Vatican and elsewhere gleefully thought Pope Francis would undo all that Benedict did. While Francis is simple and does not want pomp in his life or the Church he certainly doesn't want an unfaithful Church in terms of traditional Catholic morality including artificial birth control, divorce not to mention accepting fornication and adultery, homosexual or heterosexual. The pope is going to uphold natural law as well as Scripture and Tradition. There will not be women deacons, priests or bishops.

And now it appears that the status quo for the EF Mass will remain!

Perhaps the Holy Father now sees the smoke of Satan in the the "post Catholics" in the Vatican and throughout the post Catholic world, especially in academia.

The problem with Satan isn't from the ultra orthodox but from post Catholics who have deconstructed the Church since Vatican II and hate Pope Benedict for clearing the smoke of Satan. Pope Francis the Supreme Exorcist will continue exorcising post Catholic demons and powerfully so for Francis knows the power of Satan and says so unabashedly over and over again! Post Catholics will not rule the day in this pontificate!

BOMBSHELL: POPE FRANCIS APPROVES OF THE 1962 MISSAL, THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS? WILL HE CELEBRATE IT? TIME WILL TELL!

Pope Francis celebrating EF Mass?

This pope is an enigma and I wouldn't put it past him to celebrate the EF Mass during his papacy!

The Hermeneutic of Continuity Blog out of England is reporting the following, which I lift from that blog!

Pope Francis rejects attack on old rite and says "treasure tradition"

The Bishops of the region of Tavoliere met recently with Pope Francis on an ad limina visit. On their return home, one has given a fascinating glimpse of the attitude of Pope Francis to those who are seeking to use the opportunity of his papacy to attack the traditional Mass. This is reported in the Italian paper Il Foglio, in the article: La messa antica non si tocca, il Papa gesuita spiazza ancora tutti ("The old mass is not to be touched, the Jesuit Pope wrong-foots everyone")

Here is my translation of the relevant part of the article which tells of other bishops raising concerns with the Holy Father and goes on to speak of the intervention concerning the old Mass:

Then it was the turn of the bishop of Conversano and Monopoli, Domenico Padovano, who recounted to the clergy of his diocese how the priority of the bishops of the region of Tavoliere had been that of explaining to the Pope that the mass in the old rite was creating great divisions within the Church. The underlying message: Summorum Pontificum should be cancelled, or at least strongly limited. But Francis said no.

Mgr Padovano explained that Francis replied to them saying that they should be vigilant over the extremism of certain traditionalist groups but also suggesting that they should treasure tradition and create the necessary conditions so that tradition might be able to live alongside innovation.

This is not really a surprise (did anyone expect that Pope Francis would somehow "repeal" Summorum Pontificum?) but it is a welcome confirmation of what we would all expect.

[THIS IS THE MOST SALIENT POINT THIS BLOG POST FROM THE HERMENEUTIC OF CONTINUITY AND ONE WE SHOULD ALL REMEMBER, ESPECIALLY BISHOPS:] One thing that jumps out of the story is that the bishops of this region judged that their main pastoral priority - to be communicated to the Pope on a five-yearly visit - was to attack Summorum Pontificum. Forget abortion, embryo experimentation, the push for same-sex marriage throughout Europe, the loss of faith of many Catholics and our failure in catechesis and evangelisation. No, the really big problem is a small number of priests legitimately saying the old Mass. Given what Pope Francis has said about the danger of being a self-referential Church, I can well imagine he gave them short shrift.

MY COMMENTS: Yes, really, is the biggest problem in the Church the 1962 Missal, the Extraordinary Form of the Mass? this pope knows the real problems of the Church, the demonic that inspires people to try to be a bogus Magisterium for the masses, like communist dictatorships, democratic governments imposing immorality on the Church, academic institutions that are promoting godless secularism, Catholic academics pushing for women priests, same sex marriage and artificial birth control and abortion.

The LCWR and other bogus leadership organizations that oppose the legitimate authority of the Church are the problem not the EF Mass or kneeling for Holy Communion or Intinction!

THIS POPE DOESN'T LIKE PRIESTS AND BISHOPS MAKING THE CHURCH THEIR CAREER! YIKES!

This child aspiring for a career in the papacy should be excommunicated! :)

One of the many emerging themes of Pope Francis' pontificate is his criticism of priests and bishops who make the Church a career. I am not entirely clear what this means, but I suspect it means when one sees the priesthood or becoming a bishop as a job rather than as a ministry and what one does rather than who one is as more important.

In fact, since Vatican II for both clergy and religious, the "job description" of being either has become more worldly just as our dress has become more worldly and our lifestyle has become more worldly.

Professionalism, good pay, nice living quarters, comfortable cars and continuing education and more degrees to keep up with the Jone's is part and parcel of the post-Vatican II experience of being a member of the clergy or a religious. (Not all of course).

Perhaps you have some idea of what the Holy Father means when he rails against careerism in the Church.

We get some hints from this morning's homily of the Holy Father at the chapel of his residence at the Vatican Motel 6:

Following Jesus ‘does not mean more power’, it is not a ‘career’ because His way is that of the Cross.

What is our reward in following you? Pope Francis began with the question Peter puts to Jesus. A question, he said, which in the end concerns the life of every Christian. Jesus says that those who follow Him will have "many good things" but "with persecution." The path of the Lord, he continued, "is a road of humility, a road that ends in the Cross." That is why, he added, "there will always be difficulties," "persecution." There will always be, "because He travelled this road before" us. The Pope warned that "when a Christian has no difficulties in life – when everything is fine, everything is beautiful - something is wrong." It leads us to think that he or she is "a great friend of the spirit of the world, of worldliness." The Pope noted this "is a temptation particular to Christians":

The Pope reiterated that "many Christians, tempted by the spirit of the world, think that following Jesus is good because it can become a career, they can get ahead." But this "is not the spirit"..

I think the following quote of the Holy Father's homily hits the nail on the head:

"Think of Mother Teresa: what does the spirit of the world say of Mother Teresa? 'Ah, Blessed Teresa is a beautiful woman, she did a lot of good things for others ...'. The spirit of the world never says that the Blessed Teresa spent, every day, many hours, in adoration ... Never! It reduces Christian activity to doing social good. As if Christian life was a gloss, a veneer of Christianity. The proclamation of Jesus is not a veneer: the proclamation of Jesus goes straight to the bones, heart, goes deep within and change us. And the spirit of the world does not tolerate it, will not tolerate it, and therefore, there is persecution. "

My final comments: Not making Christianity a career, not allowing the devil to rule one's life and not being worldly seem to be the major themes of Pope Francis. One one level he appears more conservative than Pope Benedict and more willing to back up his words with action and in a decisive way.

Where he parts ways with his predecessor is liturgically, but not entirely. Liturgy is not going to be the focus of his papacy, reform of people is, meaning reform of the clergy, the religious and the laity calling all of us to the essentials of Catholic life and spirituality which leads to prayer and liturgy as its foundation.

He parts from the more flamboyant excesses in liturgical wear and accoutrements. He gives Holy Communion to deacons who are kneeling and laity, like the first communicants on Sunday, while they stand.

Let's just say that the liturgy wars are not on his agenda nor what was touted as reform of the reform in continuity.

Where are we going? Where is Pope Francis leading us? To reform of the person so that we follow Jesus, see Him as central and pick up our cross and follow Jesus where He leads us without stopping where we like as Jesus' moves on.

Our culture and our Church influenced by the worldly (i.e. Satan) is inspired by the superficial and looking good. So we see breast augmentation, face lifts, botox injections and fat lips on women that make them look like they had a terrible bee sting there.

We see people becoming plastic like the plastic reality shows they watch on TV. As always, celebrity, television and our celebrity culture exert more influence on who we are and what we want to be than Jesus and His way of the Cross.

BOMBSHELL! POPE FRANCIS CONDEMNS THE MAFIA, ARTIFICIAL BIRTH CONTROL AND DIVORCE, THE LAST TWO IN A NICE SORT OF WAY, VERY PASTORAL

Like priests my age and older who are malformed and don't like the wonderful new English translation of the Mass and told Praytell so, now they won't like Pope Francis denigrating artificial birth control and divorce but in a nice sort of way.

Actually the Holy Father gives priests who are young and young at heart like me (striving to overcome the malformation of the 1970's) a way to teach Humanae Vitae and the Church's teaching on divorce. Take a look at the portions of the homily the Holy Father gave at the chapel of his place of residence at the Vatican Motel 6:

Jesus asked a young man to give all his riches to the poor and then to follow him. But when the young man heard this, he went away sad. Pope Francis’ homily found inspiration in the well-known episode narrated in the Gospel, and he underlined that “riches are an impediment” that “do not facilitate our journey towards the Kingdom of God”. And he pointed out: “Each and every one of us has riches”. There is always, he said, a richness that “stops us from getting close to Jesus”. And this must be singled out. We must all, he continued, examine our conscience and pinpoint our riches because they stop us from getting close to Jesus on the path of life”. And the Pope focused on what he called two “cultural riches”: the first, a “culture of economic wellbeing that causes us to be lacking in courage, makes us lazy, makes us selfish”. Wellbeing, he said, “anaesthetizes us, it’s an anaesthetic”.

[AND NOW THE BLAST AGAINST ARTIFICIAL BIRTH CONTROL:]“No, no, not more than one child, because otherwise we will not be able to go on holiday, we will not be able to go out, we will not be able to buy a house. It’s all very well to follow the Lord, but only up to a certain point. This is what economic wellbeing does to us: we all know what wellbeing is, but it deprives us of courage, of the courage we need to get close to Jesus. This is the first richness of the culture of today, the culture of economic wellbeing”.

AND THEN AGAINST BROKEN COMMITMENTS IN THE PRIESTHOOD AND IN MARRIAGE, A WAY TO CONDEMN DIVORCE, BUT OF COURSE IN A POSITIVE WAY!

There is also, he added, “another richness in our culture”, another richness that prevents us from getting close to Jesus: it’s our fascination for the temporary”. We, he observed, are “in love with the provisional”. We don’t like Jesus’s “definitive proposals”. Instead we like what is temporary because “we are afraid of God’s time” which is definitive.

“He is the Lord of time; we are the masters of the moment. Why? Because we are in command of the moment: I will follow the Lord up to this point, and then I will see… I heard of a man who wanted to become a priest - but only for ten years, not any longer…” Attraction for the provisional: this is a richness. We want to become masters of time, we live for the moment. These two riches are the ones that, in this moment, prevent us from going forward. I think of so many men and women who have left their land to work throughout their lives as missionaries: that is definitive!”.

And, he said, I also think of so many men and women who “have left their homes to commit to a lifelong marriage”, that is “to follow Jesus closely! It’s the definitive”. The temporary, Pope Francis stressed, “is not following Jesus”, it’s “our territory”.

And yesterday during the Angelus, the Holy Father condemned the Mafia in no uncertain terms and called them to repent and conversion of heart, men and women mafioso and mafiosa!

TALK ABOUT SELF-REFERENTIAL POLLS TO SUPPORT ONE'S OWN BOGUS CRITIQUE OF THE WONDERFUL NEW ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE MASS. HOW DO YOU SPELL, BIAS, BIAS, BIAS? HINT: p-r-a-y-t-e-l-l

Skewed but not right, left and very, very wrong and biased!



As most of us know from our government and those who are liberals in the Church, they'll do anything, anything, to promote their biases and keep things skewed their way and when they get burned, they resort to slash and burn tactics. Typical, I'm afraid, especially of intellectuals who are perhaps the most "clerical" of all people inside and outside to the Church. Academics see themselves as a privileged minority in the world because of their so-called superior knowledge and ability to grade and critique their students.

Well, a few weeks ago our Bishop's Office sent a survey from those who are at Praytell, Collegeville, MI's Benedictines who are ultra liberal and run a Catholic university that is moving in the direction of post-Catholicism, St. John University.

The poll was just for priests (clericalism, ain't it?) As we know, Praytell makes fun of the new, wonderful English translation of the Mass and derides in the most negative ways by name calling, those other academics who assisted in the new translation. This crowd of critics are like pit bulls, they just won't let go and get on with Pope Francis' agenda which opposes intellectuals who know nothing of beauty and are ideologues and self-referential.

Well, it turns out as I wrote on the Praytell blog, that the poll was biased and not only that I knew my responses would be in the minority simply because of the name on the survey, Collegeville and the Benedictines there. They stacked the deck in other words and even an amateur like me could figure that out!

SURVEY OF PRIESTS ON THE WONDERFUL NEW TRANSLATION OF THE MASS, BIASED AND INACCURATE AND SKEWED TO REFLECT THE BIAS OF THE IDEOLOGUES THAT PUT THE SURVEY OUT:

FROM CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE:

Hamden, Conn., May 25, 2013 / 04:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A survey of U.S. priests' attitudes towards the new English translation of the Roman Missal showing “widespread skepticism” may be inaccurate because of its methods, according to a polling expert.

On May 21, St. John's School of Theology, located in Collegeville, Minn., released its survey results saying that the majority of priests in America dislike the new Missal.

Of the some 1,500 priests who responded to the survey, 39 percent like the new text, and 59 percent dislike it, according to the Collegeville survey.

“All 178 Roman Catholic Latin rite dioceses in the U.S. were invited to take part in this study; 32 dioceses participated...in the period February 21 – May 6, 2013, priests in participating dioceses were invited to participate in the online survey via an email to all priests on the diocesan distribution list,” according to the survey's executive summary.

Peter Brown, who is assistant director of Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute, discussed polling procedures with CNA May 23. “Random sampling is the key to getting accurate poll results,” he said.

Since only a few dioceses chose to participate in the survey – just under 18 percent – and only some priests in those dioceses chose to respond, survey respondents were “self-selecting.”

“They participated not randomly, but because they were the ones that chose to respond,” Brown explained. “Self-selected samples are not generally thought of....they don't produce a random sample.”

Since polls rely on a small number of people to represent the attitudes or beliefs of a larger population, “you have to be absolutely sure that the random group is a random group.”

The Collegeville survey, Brown said, “might not meet those criteria” since its participants were self-selecting.

“It's very difficult to know exactly” in this particular case, he added, though he had noted that self-selecting samples are generally not random.

The survey's project manager, Chase Becker, is a graduate student in liturgical studies at St. John's School of Theology, and holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy. No ostensible polling experts were involved, and the survey's professional consultant was an associate professor of psychology at the institution.

The poll also had no indication of its margin of error.

The survey's results were welcomed by vocal critics of the new translation, such as Bishop Donald W. Trautman, Erie's bishop emeritus. He said the texts of the new Missal are “unintelligible and non-proclaimable” and have “lengthy sentences.”

And Bishop Robert H. Brom of San Diego complained that opening prayers in the newly translated Missal are “especially difficult” and said the Missal has “strange vocabulary.”

Meanwhile, Monsignor Andrew Wadsworth, executive director of the group responsible for preparing the new Missal, noted that “the 1,536 priests who responded may represent less than 3.7 percent of priests in the US...a significant fact in determining just how representative this consultation can be considered.”

Jeffrey Tucker, director of publications at the Church Music Association of America, noted that the survey “lacks demographic data,” failing to break down priests' response by their age and other factors.

“I suspect a generational split is at work here. It shouldn't really be surprising that some priests of an older generation are annoyed,” he wrote May 21 at The Chant Café website. “They came (to) terms with one way, received vast amounts of catechesis along these lines, and developed a more casual liturgical style to go with it, and now they are told to do it another way.”

The new translation of the Missal, which has been in use since Nov. 27, 2011, is more faithful to the Latin original than was the translation in use since the 1970s.

In accord with a 2001 document on the implementation of Vatican II, the new translation is meant to be closer not only to the sense of the original Latin, but its structure as well, and is less informal than the 1970s translation.

A poll conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate surveyed American Catholics, not only priests, about their perception of the new Missal last September. That poll showed that Catholics in the pews have overwhelmingly been positive about the new translation.

Seventy percent of those polled agreed that “the new translation of the Mass is a good thing.” And those who attend Mass at least weekly were even stronger in their approval, at 80 percent. The poll had a margin of err of plus or minus three percentage points.

MY FINAL COMMENT: The Collegeville survey is self-referential and clericalism at its worst! The poll conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate polled not just priests, but more importantly, the laity, and fund that 80% of this sample found the new and wonderful translation of the Mass as positive, an overwhelming positive attitude toward this wonderful new translation in English!

So who are you going to think is right, a biased group of priests who are into clericalism or a survey of unbiased priests and laity that uses scientific means to take the survey? I report, you decide!

INTINCTION FOR HOLY COMMUNION, THE HOLY FATHER'S PREFERENCE WHEN COMMUNION IS UNDER BOTH KINDS; ALTAR BOYS AND GIRLS SERVE THE MASS AT THE ROMAN PARISH OF SAINTS ELIZABETH AND ZACHARIAH!

The Mass begins about 55 minutes into the video as the Holy Father greets a variety of people before Mass begins. At 1 hour and 15 minutes into the video is the homily. Altar girls are present which has been common in Rome since the 1980's. Holy Communion begins around one hour and 48 minutes. Please note too that the crucifix is dead center on the outside portable altar.


The Holy Father visited a Roman parish today, the Church of Saints Elizabeth and Zachariah. The Holy Father is very pastoral, very Italian and the Italians are eating it up.

In the parish, today was First Holy Communion. The homily by the Holy Father was directed to the children is a dialogue sort of homily. The Holy Father was wonderful. I wish you could understand Italian, but he gives a wonderful catechesis on our Blessed Mother to begin with, that she hurries to see her cousin Elizabeth to assist her, to help her. She doesn't say to Elizabeth, I am the mother God, take care of me, I'm precious, but she is there to serve Elizabeth! Wonderful imagery there.

Then he explained the Holy Trinity to the first communicants. Who is the Father--the creator, who is the Son? The Savior, who walks with us, who guides us. Who is the Holy Spirit? Love! The children weren't shy about shouting out the answers to the questions at the open air Mass.

Then the Holy Father spoke about the Holy Eucharist and asked if it was just a piece of bread. They answered, no, it is the Body of Christ.

Then at Holy Communion, each child came to the Holy Father to receive our Lord for the first time and by intinction. The Holy Father held the chalice of Precious Blood while a deacon held the ciborium of Sacred Hosts. The Holy Father "intincted" the Host and gave Holy Communion to the First Communicants as they stood before him and received on the tongue.

DID JESUS DIE FOR ALL OR FOR MANY AND DOES JESUS REDEEM ALL OR MANY? WHAT A CONUNDRUM

"The Lord truly does love everyone and that he died for everyone. And one other thing: that he does not push aside our freedom using some kind of amusing magic, instead, he lets us to say “yes” through his great mercy.”--Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger--2001, AD

Some have accused our Holy Father, Francis, also known as the Supreme Pontiff and the Pope of promoting the heresy of universalism recently. Of course that is misreading Pope Francis or not reading him through the Pontiff Emeritus, Benedict XVI.

As some of you many know, Pope Benedict XVI was directly responsible and in fact ordered that the formula for the consecration of the chalice of wine at Mass be change in vernacular Masses to be a literal translation of what the Latin formula is:

"Pro-multis" is the Latin "for many" or "the many." Keep in mind Latin does not have articles like English does.

So the English version of the consecration of the chalice of wine went from "...for all" to "for many."

Gianni Valente writing for the Vatican Insider in April of 2012 had an article on the controversies Pope Benedict's order to change the vernacular to "for many" had. YOU CAN READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE. Below I offer some excerpts:

According to the Cardinal Malcolm Ranijth Patabendige Don, the return to the for many formula instead of for all, also serves as a timely reminder of “the seriousness of the Christian vocation”, in a situation which according to him is marked by “exaggerated optimism about salvation which leads everyone to Paradise, without the need for the gift of faith and the effort of conversion.”

In an interview with Italian Catholic newspaper 30 Giorni, in the spring of 2010, Jesuit cardinal Albert Vanhoye took a more articulate stance. According to this distinguished Biblicist, the translation of pro multis into for all, adopted by many churches following the Second Vatican Council, was based on an exegetical reasoning that was by no means insignificant. Starting with the fact that Jesus spoke in Aramaic not in Greek or Latin. In the interview, the rector emeritus of the Pontifical Biblical Institute said that “In Italian molti (many) implicitly contradicts tutti (all). If one says that many students passed an exam, it means not all passed. In Hebrew, however, this dialectical connotation does not exist. The word rabim simply means a great many. It does not specify whether this great number corresponds to all.” According to Vanhoye “it is clear that Jesus was not referring to a determined, albeit numerous, group of individuals during the Last Supper. His address was universal. Jesus wants salvation for all.”

[In Pope Benedict's letter mandating the return to "for many", the Holy Father] listed all the objections to the requested change (“Did Christ not die for everyone? Has the Church changed its teaching? Is it able to do so and can it do so? Does this reaction aim to destroy the Council's legacy?”), denying that any of these had any basis. Ratzinger is always keen above all to stress the unselfishness of the salvation brought to us by Jesus. Ever since he was a young theologian, Ratzinger has always distrusted theological formulas that interpret the history of salvation in a determinist way, like a compulsory mechanism that everyone is subject to, whether we like it or not. Even as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger showed his tireless joy for theological theories according to which mercy is given to humans a priori. This apriorism, which according to him disfigures the unselfishness and historicity of Christ’s redemption, takes away all the wonder of the Christian adventure and poses the risk of a religious and ethical imperialism toward us Christians. This is why, way before he became Pope, Ratzinger underlined the urgent need for the consecration formula to capture Christ’s authentic intention. As he wrote in an essay in 2001, “regardless of the formula [whether for all or for many] we must listen to the whole meaning of the message: that the Lord truly does love everyone and that he died for everyone. And one other thing: that he does not push aside our freedom using some kind of amusing magic, instead, he lets us to say “yes” through his great mercy.”

OKAY, LET'S KEEP A SENSE OF HUMOR ABOUT UNIVERSALISM

Obviously the Church teaches that Christ died for all, but not all accept that gift, Catholics and otherwise. But with this humor as with all humor, perhaps Colbert points out how misinterpreting the Pope's remarks could ramp up the antipathy so many already have for the true Faith. But he is funny. But the Church teaches that Jesus saves people, works outside of the Church as well as within but ultimately anyone who is saved, Catholic or otherwise, is saved through Jesus Christ as He makes them a member of the Church, in small ways here, with bits and pieces of the Church's truth even in non Christian religions or in the lives of those who have no faith at all, professed atheists even. All of us are created in the image and likeness of God and imprinted divine Goodness. That's as essential Church truth. So because of that all people are inquirers in the pre-catechumenate. For some who are not Christian, even atheists, they'll have to go through the Rite of Acceptance, the Rite of Election and Full Initiation into the Church at their personal judgement when the good they have done enables them to recognize Christ and His Church completely. They'll experience the Church suffering and the Church Triumphant. For outside the Church, there is no salvation, for outside the Church is outside Jesus!

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BOMBSHELL, TRULY A BOMBSHELL, NO HYPERBOLE HERE, POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI WILL ISSUE THE NEXT ENCYLICAL ON FAITH TO WHICH POPE FRANCIS WILL ATTACH HIS SIGNATURE!

BOMBSHELL, BOMBSHELL! BOMBSHELL! POPE FRANCIS READ THROUGH POPE BENEDICT!

I have no reason to doubt the veracity of Rorate Caeli's post this morning which I copy and post myself, for it is truly an historic bombshell to say the least, in the entire history of the Catholic Church!

Relevant: Benedict XVI finishing the encyclical on Faith to be signed by Pope Francis

New encyclical on the poor: "Beati Pauperes"?

Following his recent visit ad limina with the bishops of his region, the Bishop of Molfetta (Apulia, Italy), Luigi Martella, spoke of the conversation they had with the new Pope, including the following:

Then, he spoke to us about Benedict XVI with such tenderness: "When I met him for the first time in Castelgandolfo, I noticed that he had a very lucid memory - he said -, even though physically challenged. Now he is clearly better." In the end, he wished to exhange a confidence, almost a revelation: Benedict XVI is finishing writing the encyclical on faith that will be signed by Pope Francis. Then, he will himself prepare his first encyclical on the poor: Beati pauperes! [Rorate note: 'Blessed are the poor,' he seems to be implying that could be the name of this second encyclical letter.] Poverty - he made clear - understood not in an ideological and political sense, but in en evangelical sense.


Source: Official website of the Diocese of Molfetta; tip: Secretum meum mihi (in Spanish, cf. our sidebar).

THE DEVIL YOU SAY, AGAIN AND AGAIN? AND LITURGICAL CASUALNESS

To all the Italian Bishops, excerpts of Pope Francis meditation at a "Liturgy of the Word" below and the entire talk HERE.

“Do you love me?”; “Are you my friend?” (Cf. Jn 21:15 ff)

The question is addressed to a man who, despite his solemn declaration, was overcome by fear and went back on his word.

“Do you love me?”; “Are you my friend?”

The question is addressed to me and to each one of you, to all of us: if we avoid reacting too hastily and superficially, it encourages us to look within, to enter into ourselves.

“Do you love me?”; “Are you my friend?”

Every ministry is based on this intimacy with the Lord; to live in him is the measure of our ecclesial service, which is expressed in an openness to obedience, to emptying of self, as we heard in the Letter to the Philippians, to total giving (cf. Phil 2:6-11).

Moreover, the consequence of loving the Lord is giving everything - absolutely everything, even one’s very life - for Him: this is what must distinguish our pastoral ministry; it is the litmus test that shows how profoundly we have embraced the gift received in response to the call of Jesus, and how we are joined to the people and the communities that have been entrusted to us. We are not expressions of a structure or an organizational need: even with the service of our authority we are called to be a sign of the presence and action of the Risen Lord, and so, to build up the community in fraternal charity.

The lack of vigilance - we know – makes the Pastor lukewarm; he becomes distracted, forgetful and even impatient; it seduces him with the prospect of a career, the lure of money, and the compromises with the spirit of the world; it makes him lazy, turning him into a functionary, a cleric worried more about himself, about organizations and structures, than about the true good of the People of God. He runs the risk, then, like the Apostle Peter, of denying the Lord, even if he is present to us and speaks in His name; the holiness of the hierarchy of Mother Church is obscured, making it less fertile.

THE RECURRING REFERENCE TO THE DEVIL, THIS TIME AMONGST BISHOPS:

As it was for Peter, the insistent and heartfelt question of Jesus can leave us saddened and may leave us more aware of the weakness of our freedom, beset as it is by a thousand internal and external constraints, which often cause confusion, frustration, even disbelief.

These are certainly not the feelings and attitudes that the Lord intends to arouse; rather, the Enemy, the Devil, takes advantage of them to isolate us in bitterness, in complaints, and in discouragement.

MY FINAL COMMENTS:


As you can see in the video and as Rocco Palm states at Whispers in the Loggia: "While the event ranked as a liturgical occasion – and the Sistine Choir and ceremonies crew all donned choir dress – Papa Francesco and the prelates wore the simple "house cassock," which has been the new pontiff's invariable daily wardrobe since his election for everything but Masses. Following the rite, meanwhile, instead of the long-standing custom of prelates queueing up to pay their respects to the Pope at his throne, Francis spent well over a half-hour snaking through the multiple rows of seats in front of the main altar alone, warmly greeting the bishops one by one at their places."

This "casual or street wear" at a liturgy outside of Mass where everything else is not casual is a bit disconcerting from a liturgical point of view and must be driving the masters of ceremonies to high anxiety. Liturgically, there is a clash between the lesser ministers of this liturgy and the pope himself who is not vested for a liturgy. I am not sure what to make of this other than it is a set back for the liturgy of the Church apart from Mass.

It also appears that perhaps the pope was unaware of the nature of the liturgy since his lack of vesture for it is so odd and, well, illicit, especially for a pope. Not even for the solemn blessing at the end of this liturgy does the pope don a stole, the least that would have been expected. I wonder if he even met with the masters of ceremonies for them to inform him of the solemn nature of this "para-liturgy?" Keep in mind, for the pope to be in this solemn liturgical prayer containing the Liturgy of the Word, a blessing to the vested deacon and a solemn final blessing and to only wear a house cassock, the equivalent of a clerical shirt and suit, is, well, extremely unfortunate.

Even at the end, the MC is conferring with Pope Francis about what he is to do next, since the bishops would have come to him at his chair. But the MC does not know until the end that the Pope is going to go to the bishops and snake is way around the chairs to greet each of them. That's fine, but he should have met with the MC ahead of time to tell him that and the MC should have told him ahead of time, Holy Father wear at least a stole for the entire service, even if he has a phobia of mozzettas.

Typically a priest who wears as street clothes a house cassock, which is what Pope Francis wears, would don a surplice and stole at least for a non Mass liturgy and for more solemn celebrations a stole and cope. For the pope, typically it has been a surplice of a variety of styles, Benedict liked lace, the mozzetta and stole as pictured here:

And Pope John Paul II wearing the same:

WHAT GOOD IS IT TO WHINE AND HAVE A BLEEDING HEART ABOUT SILLY THINGS LIKE STEWING OVER THE WONDERFUL NEW ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE MASS? AREN'T THERE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE?

In parish ministry it is hard to have a hothouse mentality about academic Catholicism, the sort of thing Pope Francis decries. For example there was a rather dubious survey of priests from an institution which has continuously whined, cried, bemoaned and regurgitated its dislike of the new and much improved English translation of the Mass. Their survey is skewed because it appeals to their groupies. They whine over authority issues and castigate those in authority who took their bogus authority away from them. They whine that priests, priests, priests, at least some of them, especially their groupies, don't like it. And they whine that bishops don't listen to their priests and bend to their every need. Talk about arrested academic development.

Once again we turn to the wisdom of our new Pope Francis who gets it, because he is a pastor and he knows these whining intellectuals, academics and want to be's are the problem not the solution to the Church's crisis of faith and arrogance. This is what he has said:

Speaking to a congregation of employees of the Vatican printing press and newspaper, Pope Francis commented on the day's reading from the Gospel of John (6:52-59), in which learned Jews listening to Jesus argue among themselves, asking: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

"They are the great ideologues," the pope said, according to a report by Vatican Radio. "These ideologues cut off the road of love, and also that of beauty."

"All a matter of intellect!" he said. "When ideology enters into the church, when ideology enters into our understanding of the Gospel, we understand nothing."

"Ideologues falsify the Gospel," the pope said. "Every ideological interpretation, wherever it comes from -- from one side or the other -- is a falsification of the Gospel. And these ideologues --we have seen them in the history of the Church -- end up being intellectuals without talent, ethicists without goodness. And let's not even speak of beauty, because they understand nothing of that."

"The path of love, the way of the Gospel, is simple," he said. "It is the road that the Saints understood: ... the road of conversion, the way of humility, of love, of the heart, the way of beauty."

Pope Francis concluded by praying that God might free the church "from any ideological interpretation, and open the heart of the church, our mother church, to the simple Gospel, to that pure Gospel that speaks to us of love, which brings love, and is so beautiful. It also makes us beautiful, with the beauty of holiness."

My final comment:

Since November we've had 30 funerals in the parish, others are gravely sick and some dying and families are grieving and moving from crisis to crisis. The poor are hungry, the naked need clothing and the faith must be lived and taught as parents work multiple jobs to pay for an expensive Catholic education.

I think most lay people would be scandalized by the ongoing whining of professional academics and clerics in the Church who have nothing greater to worry about than authority issues surrounding our wonderful new English translation of the Mass and how some priests and even fewer laity just can't pray with it. So sad, but not on the level they think.

Hey, you laity out there, how disturbed, befuddled and in crisis are you over the new, wonderful English translation of the Mass that we've had now for almost 2 years? Shall violins be playing for you, a dirge? Are you in need of therapy over what the bishops have foisted upon you in terms of the improved English translation of the Mass.

Let us know!

TURN TOWARD THE LORD!

"Prayers at the Foot of the Altar" with Pope Francis turning toward the Lord not the congregation!

The direction of liturgical prayer is definitely not to the congregation. It is to the Lord. Even with the belief that the Holy Spirit is in the soul of every baptized Christian and the Lord is in the midst of two or three Christians who gather in his name, it has never been the Tradition of the Church to direct our prayers to the soul of a person where the Holy Spirit resides or to the congregation when Jesus is in their midst. It simply is not the tradition of the Catholic Church in the east or the west. It is that simple.

But in the 1970's we were taught to proclaim liturgical prayer and make it intelligible to the congregation. We were taught to motion toward the congregation at the consecration with the unconsecrated bread and chalice of wine so that they would feel as though they were at the "Lord's Supper" that they were re-enacting the Last Supper, with the priest clearly being Jesus and them the apostles, the first ordained priests of the Church. We were taught to proclaim the prayer in a proclaiming voice, an arrogant, unhumble voice for all to hear and to make God hear it, but most the congregation knows that since God can hear the liturgical prayer of the Church when prayed silently or in a low, humble voice that there is no need for an arrogant, loud proclamation of these prayers to God to be directed to the congregation in any way whatsoever.

I think our liturgy and style of praying has made many of us Catholics less humble, our priests too, and arrogant looking during the Liturgy, proclaiming this, that and the other in the most arrogant triumphal way possible, no humility whatsoever.

What a mishmash of unresolved intellectual stupidity and arrogant disregard for the liturgical prayer of the Church and its tradition.

Let me remind you what the Vatican's website on the Liturgy teaches as it concerns the proclamation of the Scriptures and the difference between doing that and the priest in the name of the Church praying to God in the liturgy.

Deduced from preceding historical scenes is that the liturgy was not imagined primarily as a dialogue between the priest and the assembly. We cannot enter into details here: we limit ourselves to saying that the celebration of the Holy Mass "toward the people" is a concept that entered to form part of the Christian mentality only in the modern age, as serious studies demonstrate and Benedict XVI confirmed: "[t]he idea that the priest and the people in prayer must look at one another reciprocally was born only in the modern age and is completely foreign to ancient Christianity. In fact, the priest and the people do not address their prayer to one another, but together they address it to the one Lord" ("Teologia della Liturgia," Vatican City, 2010, pp. 7-8).

Despite the fact that Vatican II never touched this aspect, in 1964 the instruction "Inter Oecumenici," issued by the Council in charge of enacting the liturgical reformed desired by the Council in No. 91 prescribes: "It is good that the main altar be detached from the wall to be able to turn around easily and celebrate 'versus populum.'" From that moment, the position of the priest "toward the people," although not obligatory, became the most common way of celebrating Mass. Things being as they are, the Holy Father proposes, also in these cases, that the old meaning of "oriented" prayer not be lost and suggests that difficulties be averted by placing at the center of the altar the sign of Christ crucified (cf. "Teologia della Liturgia," p. 88).

Quoting Benedict XVI: "It is not necessary in prayer, and more than that, it is not even appropriate to look at one another reciprocally; much less so when receiving Communion. [...] In an exaggerated and misunderstood implementation of 'celebration toward the people,' in fact, the crosses at the center of the altars were removed as a general norm - even in the basilica of St. Peter in Rome - so as to not obstruct the view between the celebrant and the people. However, the cross on the altar is not an impediment to sight, but rather a common point of reference.

"It is an 'iconostasi' that remains open, which does not impede being mutually in communion, but is a mediator and still signifies for everyone the image that concentrates and unifies our sight. I dare to propose the thesis that the cross on the altar is not an obstacle, but the preliminary condition for the celebration 'versus populum.' Also made clear with this would be the distinction between the liturgy of the Word and the Eucharistic prayer. Whereas the first is about proclamation and hence of an immediate reciprocal relationship, the second has to do with community adoration in which all of us continue to be under the invitation: 'Conversi ad Dominum' - let us turn toward the Lord; let us convert to the Lord!" ("Teologia della Liturgia," p. 536).

COULD YOU IMAGINE A LAWYER DEFENDING THE WORST PEDOPHILE WHO GETS CONVICTED OF HIS CRIME MAKING THE SAME ARGUMENTS THIS LAWYER DOES FOR HIS CONVICTED CLIENT WHO MURDERED OVER 16,000 BABIES? HOW DOES ONE DEFEND JOSEF MENGELE?

Thank you Megyn Kelly for getting so hot under the collar at the defense this lawyer gives of a cold blooded murderer. Can you imagine the outrage throughout TV land and the mainstream media if someone defended convicted criminals like Josef Mengele of the Nazi era? Could you imagine the rage over a lawyer defending a convicted pedophile in the way this lawyer defends Gosnell?

ATHEIST DOESN'T BLAME ANYONE FOR "THANKING THE LORD" FOR HAVING SURVIED AN F-5 TORNADO!

This atheist seems good enough and seems to be a good mom on the surface, but she's just survived an f-5 tornado along with her infant and she still contends she is an atheist but doesn't blame anyone for thanking the good Lord considering what they've just be through! At any rate, Wolfe Blizter seems to stick his foot in it but in a humorous way:

POPE'S HOMILY AT THE CHAPEL OF HIS RESIDENCE AT THE VATICAN MOTEL 6 ON WEDNESDAY, WAS IT A CORRECTIVE TO "OUTSIDE THE CHURCH THERE IS NO SALVATION?" I REPORT, YOU DECIDE!

Did the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, also who calls himself the Pope, make a corrective during this morning's homily to his assertion and Pope Paul VI's assertion that "because it is not possible to find Jesus outside the Church. The great Paul VI said: "Wanting to live with Jesus without the Church, following Jesus outside of the Church, loving Jesus without the Church is an absurd dichotomy." And the Mother Church that gives us Jesus gives us our identity that is not only a seal, it is a belonging. Identity means belonging. This belonging to the Church is beautiful."

In my post here on Sunday, May 19th, I headlined my post with: "Outside the Church there is no salvation." You can read it HERE. There were only four comments on this bombshell post!

The most radical thing I wrote was the following:

Outside the Church there is no salvation. But what about those who through invincible ignorance and no fault of their own do not know Christ and believe that their own false religion is good enough or no religion at all? The Church extends to them through her missionary endeavors and good works the message of Christ so that they will come to know Him through the Church. If they die in invincible ignorance God's grace of purification at the time of their personal judgement will enlighten them and they will either reject the Light of Christ cast upon them as they did throughout their lives or being enlightened they will be purified and made a part of the Church Suffering and/or ultimately the Church Triumphant! Many believe that the process of personal judgment is purgatory.

And now today, the Holy Father speaks of good works, goodness, of love and that this transcends the Church and is inscribed in the hearts, souls, of everyone regardless of creed because everyone without exception is created in the image and likeness of God.

Some excerpts of the Holy Father's Motel 6 chapel's homily:

"The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can. He must. Not can: must! Because he has this commandment within him. Instead, this ‘closing off’ that imagines that those outside, everyone, cannot do good is a wall that leads to war and also to what some people throughout history have conceived of: killing in the name of God. That we can kill in the name of God. And that, simply, is blasphemy. To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.”

"The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

“Doing good” the Pope explained, is not a matter of faith: “It is a duty, it is an identity card that our Father has given to all of us, because He has made us in His image and likeness. And He does good, always.”

MY COMMENT: Of course, one must understand and critique this homily by reading and hearing what the pope has already said about the necessity of the Church, which I included in my post which I link above.

But the Holy Father, just as he has said to others, he said to the Chinese today. As you know, the Pope has been calling various groups in the Church to fidelity and obedience to Holy Mother Church and her Magisterium, her living Magisterium of the Pope and the Bishops in union with Him. He said it to the Scripture theologians of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and he has said it to a group of sisters meeting with him in Rome and he has said it to the radical LCWR. Be faithful to the Magisterium

Now he says it to the Chinese who have there own version of of the LCWR, the Chinese National Catholic Church which is not in union with the Magisterium and this is a BOMBSHELL, folks!:

“I urge all Catholics around the world to join in prayer with our brothers and sisters who are in China, to implore from God the grace to proclaim with humility and joy Christ, who died and rose again; to be faithful to His Church and the Successor of Peter and to live everyday life in service to their country and their fellow citizens in a way that is consistent with the faith they profess.

Mary, Virgin most faithful, support Chinese Catholics, render their commitments, which are not easy, more and more precious in the eyes of the Lord, and nurture the affection and the participation of the Church in China in the journey of the Universal Church”.

MY FINAL COMMENT: Yes, the Pope actually said this, this morning and is asking Catholics around the world to pray for China and her conversion to the true Church and her Magisterium. I am left speechless (but not for long)! He wants the Chinese National Church (Governmental Church) to be faithful to the Magisterium and not try to be a parallel Magisterium like the LCWR is trying to do.