Translate

Monday, April 29, 2019

IS THERE ANY SIGNIFICANCE IN THIS AND SHOULD THE INSTALLATION BE MOVED BACK TO THE SMALLER CATHEDRAL RATHER THAN THE BASILICA SHRINE??????

What do you think the significance of this is and will it be repeated in Washington? Does it show that the laity are fed up, ambivalent and now disengaged from anything the hierarchy says or does and that they don’t want to celebrate any bishops’ departure or installation? 



Southern Orders’ correspondent in Atlanta reveals this in a recent interview:


On Divine Mercy Sunday, what if they had a Mass...and almost no one came? That was the situation yesterday, not at a parish, but at the Marist School in Atlanta, where the farewell Mass for Archbishop Gregory was held. One of the ushers said that some 2,000 hosts were prepared for Communion, and there were plans for overflow parking and an overflow room (closed circuit TV) if needed. How many showed up? At most 200 (175 probably more likely) showed up---and that is including clergy! Both sides of the gym converted to church were virtually empty and even the middle portion in front of the altar, with 2 sections, maybe 1 was two-thirds full. I was shocked...but I guess 2 in the afternoon is not the time usually associated with Mass. Maybe lack of a reception afterward kept people away,, or the lack of Latin? Well, at least incense was used during the Mass...
April 29, 2019 at 10:54 AM
 Delete
Blogger Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...
WOW! There's a powerful message being sent to this Archbishops, all bishops and the pope! 
April 29, 2019 at 11:38 AM
 Delete
Blogger Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...
Was there any local news coverage and commentary?
April 29, 2019 at 11:38 AM
 Delete
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Father M, your "unofficial" correspondent from 30327 who was at Marist about this time yesterday did not see any of the local TV stations present. There was a reporter from the diocesan paper, and may have been one from the AJC (Atlanta paper), but not sure on the latter---looked like somewhat at the back of the center with card around his neck. When his predecessor, John Donahgue, retired in January of 2005, farewell Mass was held at the cathedral on a weeknight and it was packed (though the cathedral up here is not that hard to fill---at best seats around 750). It looked like the clergy present were mostly Marists (non-diocesan). Perhaps there were some Divine Mercy liturgies going on at some parishes, and the Mass was on somewhat short notice since the transfer to DC was announced less than a month ago. Still, you would have expected a larger crowd than that! Marist is not that hard to find, only a mile inside our Beltway, I-285, and in the heart of the Catholic concentration in Atlanta (the northside of Atlanta, above I-20, has far more Catholics than the southern side of the Archdioese, below I-20 and down to edge of Columbua, Macon and Augusta).

IS IT ME OR IS THERE SOMETHING FISHY ABOUT HOW THE MSM DESCRIBES THE SRI LANKAN TERRORISM ATTACKS?

Catholic families wiped out by militant Muslim extremists:



When other houses of worship are attacked, the news accounts make clear that Jews were attacked (here in the USA) or Muslims were attacked in New Zealand or Seiks were attacked in Ohio, all as they worshipped.

The fact that Catholics were attacked in Sri Lanka and by organized Muslim extremists, is downplayed. In the other cases I raise, lone, deranged, radicalized gunman were the culprits. These were not terrorism cells.

Am I the only one who wonders why the Catholic aspect of the Muslim extremists terrorists was not a big angle in this story?

Sunday, April 28, 2019

A FAIR AND BALANCED INTERVIEW WITH MSGR. STEPHEN ROSSETTI WHO HAS TREATED PRIESTS GUILTY OF ABUSE



Msgr. Rossetti is the one who made clear to me and others the difference between pedophilia and ephebophilia and that pedophilia is a minuscule problem in the Catholic priesthood.  The common thread, though, is how bishops treated priests who abused and recycled them. And now, we are learning, that some bishops and cardinals actually abused too and may have been too empathetic because of their own sins and crimes.

Rossetti emphasizes that the percentage of priests who abuse is about equal to that of other organizations. The Catholic Church, though, has an obligation to deal with it more effectively because we are the Church.

I must take exception, though, with the way Msgr. Rossetti framed the scandal--that the Church hasn't taken seriously how horrible it is to sexually abuse a child or teenager or anyone. In other words, the Church doesn't have empathy of the victims or the would-be victims of the clergy.

Msgr. Rossetti, the Church is the people of God whose Head is God, Jesus Christ. The only ones who seem not to empathize with victims or would-be victims are the abusers and their bishops. They are a minuscule part of the Church! The rest of us, the Church, are horrified by the nonchalant attitude bishops and popes have had for the victims but cried crocodile tears for priests who ruined people's lives and have now destroyed the credibility of the Church.

IS YOUR PARISH CELEBRATING DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY WITH THE OFFER OF ITS PLENARY INDULGENCE




Ever since about 1996 until this very Divine Mercy Sunday, my parishes have offered, following the last morning Mass, Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Adoration, Confession and concluding at 3:00 PM with the chanting of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament and veneration of the Divine Mercy Icon.

I always make clear what must be accomplished to merit the plenary indulgence associated with today's Solemnity.

What about you parish?????????????????????????????

Saturday, April 27, 2019

SO TRUE! WHICH IS YOU?



WHEREIN A NATIONAL CHISMATIC REPORTER “LETTER TO THE EDITOR” HITS THE NAIL ON THE HEAD! AMAZING


The NCR no longer allows comments on its articles because their readers are really, really, really problematic when they write comments, most crude and unChristian not to mention heterodox and stupid.

So now they carefully choose comments to post as a group on a variety of articles. This one that I post was on Pope Francis’ first six years as pope. The comment praises the pope for pointing towards mystery rather than rational dissection of various doctrines:

From where I sit in the pew, the line reflecting my own experience is "Francis appeals to the heart. He complains that 'we have reduced our way of speaking about mystery to rational explanations, but for ordinary people the mystery enters through the heart.' " The whole point is that regarding mystery — trinity, one person/two natures, consecration — there are no rational explanations. Somehow as I understand it, love, a mystery in and of itself in my book, is the answer and that speaks to me of heart. 


When I read this, it made me reflect on the two forms of the one Roman Rite.  The Extraordinary Form captures perfectly what the commenter says above. The type of actual participation in the EF Mass isn’t rational, doesn’t try to understand, doesn’t scratch one’s head to figure out why one does what one does or why the priest celebrates the Mass doing this, that or the other. The actual participator in this Mass isn’t worried about hearing and understanding everything, wondering about historical accretions or useless repetition or why others around them might be doing various devotions like praying the Holy Rosary or why they do not receive Holy Communion or the common chalice isn’t provided.

The EF Mass is not like going to a Bible or Doctrinal study group. No one takes notes during the Mass or the priest’s homily as though they are a student in a classroom.

In other words, in comparison to the Ordinary Form of the Mass, “the EF Mass appeals to the heart, similar to Eucharistic Adoration. During the EF Mass, unlike the OF Mass, “we have not reduced our way of speaking about mystery to rational explanations, but (allow) the mystery (to enter) through the heart.”

Perfect description of the EF Mass and how we were prior to Vatican II. Vatican II and its OF Mass tries to reduce mystery, Trinity, One Person/two Natures, Consecration to rational explanations. The EF Mass, unlike the OF Mass, speaks to the heart not just the brain. It’s kind of like love. No! It is Love, with a capital “L”!

Friday, April 26, 2019

WHAT AN ARTICULATE PROLIFE MESSAGE SHE BRINGS!

Those who support abortion are even worse than those in the Church who enabled sexual abuse. Will they ever repent?


WHICH PAPAL HAT IMPRESSES YOU THE MOST AND WHICH POPE?








SHOULD CARDINAL MULLER BE SILENCED BY POPE FRANCIS?


I think we are in uncharted waters with the Barque of Peter having a reigning pope and an emeritus pope with the emeritus pope's head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith acting as a sort of spokes person for the emeritus pope and also a parallel watchdog for the Doctrine of the Faith.

While I tend to agree more with the emeritus pope and his former head of the CDF, we only have one pope and one CDF.

I think in times past, a pope might censure or silence someone who might be sowing division in the Church?

Should this happen to Cardinal Mueller? Is he the new Archbishop Lefebrev?

BOMBSHELL ESSAY! POPE BENEDICT AND CARDINAL MULLER, THE GIFTS THAT KEEP GIVING

 BRAVO CARDINAL MUELLER!

From First Things, my emphasis in various other colors instead of black.


Benedict and His Critics

Pope Francis is happy with Benedict XVI’s profound analysis of the reasons behind the abuse crisis in the Church, and grateful to his predecessor for pointing out the conclusions those in positions of responsibility must draw. Benedict XVI has rich experience with these issues: from his ministry as a priest (since 1953), as a theology professor (1957), as a bishop (1976), as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope John Paul II (1981–2005), and as pope (2005–2013).

In the Church, the crucial instrument against sexual abuse is the Motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela (2001). This law goes back to John Paul II and Joseph Ratzinger, proving that Benedict was and is the most important figure in the Church’s fight against this crisis. He has the widest view of and deepest insight into this problem, its causes and history. He is in a better position than all the blind who want to lead other blind people—not the truly blind on whom Jesus has mercy, but those he warns against because they see and yet do not want to see (cf. Lk 6:39; Mt 13.13).

At age 92, Benedict XVI is capable of deeper theological reflection than his critics, who lack respect and are ideologically blinded. He is able to get closer to the source of the fire that has set the Church's roof ablaze. The catastrophic fire in Paris, in one of Christendom's most venerable houses of God, also has a symbolic meaning: It makes us appreciate again the work of good firefighters, instead of blaming them for the water damage done in the course of extinguishing the flames. Rebuilding and renewing the whole Church can only succeed in Christ—if we get our bearings by the Church’s teaching on faith and morals.

The recent assembly of the heads of episcopal conferences in Rome (February 21–24, 2019) should have signaled the beginning of getting to the roots of the evil of abuse. Only if we get to these roots can the Church in Jesus regain credibility as the sacrament of redemption for the world, and again communicate the faith that brings salvation which unites us to God. Unfortunately, the practical conclusions drawn from this assembly have not yet been made public, so the U.S. Bishops’ Conference cannot yet put its suspended measures into practice.

Reports about the experiences of victims who have suffered abuse from consecrated persons have shaken the assembly's participants. But the generalized and noncommittal analyses by some of the official speakers were also distressing. This certainly was a consequence of the assembly not allowing some of the most competent cardinals to speak—like Cardinal Seán O’Malley, President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, or Cardinal Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Each canonical process in cases of grave sexual delicts consists of hundreds of pages of source material. This produces empirical knowledge about patterns of action, which allows conclusions to be drawn about the profile of the perpetrators and about typical circumstances. Conversely, to explain the phenomenon as “clericalism” or “sexual pressure caused by celibacy unloading on children,” as connected to the “hierarchical constitution of the Church” and the “sacredness of the priesthood,” is to use buzzwords, prefabricated templates originating in a horizon narrowed by ideology. Such explanations undermine zero tolerance as the only correct policy. Sexual abuse of adolescents or even adult seminarians cannot be tolerated under any circumstances, even if the perpetrator wants to excuse himself by pointing to mutual consent between adults. Only a strict observance of ecclesiastical discipline and tough penalties can deter potential perpetrators and give the victim the feeling that justice has been restored.

The accusation of “clericalism” can easily be levied against others, but ironically many of those who use it to attack others are liable to it themselves: Whoever as a bishop demands that his clerics are to distribute Holy Communion to persons not in full communion with the faith of the Church, or to those who need to be absolved from grave sin through penance before they can approach communion, is himself hyper-clericalist. He abuses the authority conferred on him by Christ in order to force others to act against Christ’s commandments, even by threatening ecclesial penalties. In such cases, the apostolic rule—“we must obey God rather than men”—applies also in the Church (Acts 5:29, cf. the 1875 declaration of the German bishops against Prussia intruding into Church matters, DH 3115).

All smart but vain attempts of making individual crimes dependent on general dispositions lack empirical basis: Crimes in no way originate in the Church’s sacramental structure, but contradict it. All those who assert this only reveal their own incapacity and unwillingness to honestly discuss Benedict’s contribution and proposals for this explosive topic. Some ideologues have put their own weak morality and intellect on display, and have even been allowed to pour out their hatred and scorn on a platform financed by the German Bishops’ Conference. Against their will, such authors offer more proof for Benedict’s diagnosis that a type of moral theology, which for a long time has not been Catholic, has collapsed.

The most infamous accusation is the claim that Benedict would obstruct Pope Francis's fight against abuse—although Francis is not doing, and cannot do, anything but continue the measures adopted by his predecessor, and protect himself and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith against the pernicious attempts of all those who want to play down and cover up. Benedict, who is telling the truth, is not contributing to a schism—but all those who repress the truth and hide behind psycho-social verbiage are. Whoever, on the backs of young victims of sexual crimes, tries to substitute the Church’s moral teaching, grounded in natural law and divine revelation, with a self-made sexual morality according to the egotistical pleasure principle from the 1970s, not only creates heresy and schism, but is openly abetting apostasy.

Violations of God’s commandments have always occurred. But the series of sexual crimes between 1960 and 1980, committed by priests who through ordination teach, govern as shepherds, and sanctify the faithful in the person of Christ (Vatican II, Presbyterorum ordinis 2), is particularly grave. Such misdeeds, over and above the hurt caused by sexual crimes, profoundly damage the credibility of the whole Church and endanger the victims’ faith in God and their natural trust in Christ’s ministers. A large number of these criminals did not have a sense of guilt, and did not know or directly rejected the teaching according to which sexual acts with adolescents, or with adult persons outside marriage, are morally reprehensible. Who deformed their conscience to such a degree that they no longer knew what the serious sins are by which “neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals … will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9)?

The scandal reaches its pinnacle when the blame is not laid upon those breaking God’s commandments, but instead the commandments themselves are made responsible for their transgression: The cause of sin becomes God, who is allegedly overtaxing us. Naturally, no one puts it directly like that; instead, the Church is accused of interpreting God’s commandments in an outdated fashion. Therefore, it is said, we now need to invent (or, as the euphemistic language puts it, “develop further,” meaning “falsify”) a new sexual morality that agrees with the findings of modern human sciences, which morality “philanthropically” leaves untouched the factual reality of people’s lives. In making such proposals, what is otherwise readily admitted is conveniently forgotten: Namely, that “objective” empirical science without any presuppositions does not exist, and that the underlying anthropology always influences how research data are interpreted. Morality is about distinguishing good and evil. Can adultery be good only because a de-Christianized society thinks about it differently than the Sixth Commandment puts it?

When Paul says that as a consequence of denying the creator and of the sinners’ disdain for God, “men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts” (Rom 1:27), he means what he is evidently talking about. How do exegetes know that behind the obvious meaning of these words, something else, even the total opposite, is intended? In immoral acts, especially against matrimonial love and its fecundity, Paul detects a denial of God, because the will of the creator is not recognized as the measure of our doing good. For the life of the Church, this has another important consequence: We can only admit to ordination candidates who also possess the natural prerequisites, are intellectually and morally capable, and show the spiritual readiness to give themselves totally to the service of the Lord.

As Benedict XVI rightly underlines, we can only turn away from false ways if we understand male and female sexuality as God’s gift, which does not serve narcissistic pleasure but has its true goal in the love between spouses and the responsibility for a family. Only in the wider context of Eros and Agape does sexuality have the power to build up the human person, the Church, and the state. Otherwise it brings about destruction. Only a materialist and atheistic point of view sees the voluntary renunciation of marriage in priestly celibacy and in religious life as causing sexual crimes against adolescents. There is no proof for that; statistical data about sexual abuse say the opposite.

The atheistic point of view comes out also in the arguments of those who blame abuse crimes on an invented “clericalism” or on the sacramental structure of the Church. In theological terminology, “clergy” comes from the “share in ministry” (Acts 1:17) which Matthias received when he was elected to the apostolic office, which as a servant of the Word (Lk 1:2; Acts 6:4) he was to exercise in “episcopacy” (Acts 1:20) and as “shepherd” (1 Peter 5:2). Bishops and priests are not ordained as “officials” (with stable salary and state pension), but as ministers of Christ in preaching, as administrators of mysteries in the divine liturgy and the sacraments, and for service with the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. There is a deep unity among the clergy and all the baptized in the common mission of the Church. The lay faithful should not see the clergy as power-fixated functionaries whom they envy for “clerical privileges” that they want to claim for themselves.

Such thinking is possible only in a secularized Church, which is certainly doomed to perdition in any country where such ideology comes to dominate. Instead of surrounding ourselves with media consultants, and seeking help for the Church’s future from economic advisers, all of us—clergy, religious, and lay faithful, especially married people—have to refocus on the origin and center of our faith: the triune God, the incarnation of Christ, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the closeness to God in the Holy Eucharist and in frequent Confession, daily prayer, and the readiness to be guided in our moral life by God’s grace. Nothing else provides the way out of the present crisis of faith and morals into a good future.

Translated from the German by Msgr. Hans Feichtinger.

Gerhard Ludwig Cardinal Müller is former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

ARE THERE REALLY NO SUNDAY MASSES THIS SUNDAY, DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY, IN SRI LANKA? I DOUBT IT VERY SERIOUSLY--FAKE NEWS ALERT!


This is was the press is reporting:

The archbishop of Colombo says there will be no Sunday Masses until further notice after the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka. 

I would suspect that there are no public Masses on Sunday and the laity are dispensed from the obligation of attending Mass. But I presume that every priest or at least almost every priest will offer a private Sunday Mass for the intentions of the people of Sri Lanka during this critical period.  Laity will be at some of these private Masses I am sure. 

DOES IT MATTER IF IT IS PEDOPHILIA OR EPHEBOPHILIA OR CLERICALISM?


When I was vocation director I attended seminars with some of the biggest names who treated priests for sexual disorders.

I was told directly by one of these priest-psychiatrists that pedophilia in the priesthood is a minuscule
problem. A true pedophile can have hundreds of victims if allowed unsupervised contact with prepubescent children. Their crimes, priest or lay person, are quite heinous and often violent.

Most true pedophiles are heterosexual in their adult desires. Gender of the child is not important. It is their smallness and vulnerability that is desired.

The crisis in the Catholic priesthood concerns homosexual abuse of teenage boys who are physically developed. This is homosexual ephebophilia. There is also heterosexual ephebophilia. An adult man, priest or layman is attracted sexually to a teenager, be it a boy or a girl. They have the same sexual orientation with adults as well. Bisexuality could also be involved.

Priests have traditionally been entrusted with the care of boys with the presumption that the priest
was heterosexual and uninterested sexually with boys. Priests were not allowed the same kind of trust with teenage girls because it could be an occasion of temptation since the presumption was that the priest was heterosexual.

Thus arrested development of homosexual priests took advantage of the presumption that they were heterosexual and also celibate and took advantage of that trust to betray that trust and abuse those in their care.

It appears to me that using the term pedophilia exclusively by progressive churchman and the media is motivated by political correctness and another form of cover-up of the actual problem which is homosexual predation of teenage boys primarily but certainly not exclusively.

That problem historically is the coverup by bishops of sexually active priests no matter to whom they
are sexually attracted and the denial of the true form of the attraction, that of attraction to teenage
boys or young adult men.

The coverups have to end and honesty needs to reign.  The coverups are the clericalism that must end.


Thursday, April 25, 2019

THE HIGHER THE BETTER? MAYBE NOT!

When I was in the seminary, the priests never elevated the Host or the chalice. They simply showed it about stomach level. No genuflections either.

So I like the elevations when facing the crowd to be elevations.

But I think these two elevations in the EF Mass are too high and exaggerated, that of the Host and certainly of the chasuble, too much information on the second elevation!


PIG OUT ON PORK, HAVE A COW, GO CLUCKING WILD EATING CHICKEN THIS FRIDAY

On Solemnities and the Octave of Easter, Christmas and Pentecost, no penance is required on Fridays. It's a gift and take it!

EAT WHOLE HOG, COW AND CHICKEN AND WITHOUT GUILT THIS FRIDAY!




THIS IS HOW YOU POUR GASOLINE ON A RAGING FIRE!

I would call this narrow minded on the part of the bishop, arrogant on the part of the bishop, rigid on the part of the bishop and just tone deaf on the part of the bishop, given who he replaced and what is happening in the Church of Chile.

It leaves you scratching your head!

Chilean prelate denies communion to faithful who kneel down

Inés San Martín CRUX

ROME - Though far away from the center of the action in Rome, Bishop Celestino Aos, the temporary head of the embattled Archdiocese of Santiago, Chile, has a tough job. He’s replacing a cardinal being investigated for cover-up of clerical sexual abuse, whose predecessor is also being questioned by local prosecutors.

During the Easter season, Aos might have made his own job even harder when on Holy Thursday during the Chrism Mass he was filmed denying communion to at least two faithful who were kneeling down.
 

Holy Thursday during the Chrism Mass he was filmed denying communion to at least two faithful who were kneeling down.

Crux received two different videos showing Aos refusing the sacrament to kneelers in a celebration that made several Mass-goers uncomfortable from the beginning. The Chrism Mass is one of the most solemn liturgies of the year, and is often the largest annual gathering of clergy and faithful held in most dioceses. Among other things, it’s during this liturgy that the oils that will be used for various sacraments throughout the year are blessed.

The entrance procession included Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, who’s being investigated by civil authorities for cover-up and who’s been named in a complaint for failing to report a rape of an adult man that allegedly took place in Santiago’s cathedral. This led to several priests walking out of the service, with Crux identifying at least two.

One of those priests forwarded the videos shown below, taken by a local TV network.

00:02
00:10
Video Player
00:12
00:46

Aos’s decision Thursday to deny Communion to some of the faithful and to allow Ezzati to participate in the procession at the beginning of the Chrism Mass enraged many in Chile.

Crux requested comments from the Archdiocese regarding the videos and Aos’s attitude toward the reception of communion, but did not receive an immediate response.

The Roman missal, the official set of norms for celebration of the Mass, establishes that Catholics who receive Holy Communion can do so either standing or kneeling. The Vatican-approved Missal for Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay clearly states that both options are possible, unless a bishops’ conference decrees differently, something the Chilean conference hasn’t done.

As a matter of fact, the Chilean guidelines advise that faithful who don’t kneel make another sign of reverence before receiving Communion.

The English version of the Missal adapted for the United States says that the norm for reception of Communion in the U.S. is standing, but no one should be denied the sacrament because they kneel.
“Rather, such instances should be addressed pastorally, by providing the faithful with proper catechesis on the reasons for this norm,” the American guidelines state.

Pope Francis has said that both options are valid, according to “the ecclesial practice.”

Speaking at a general audience on a Wednesday last year reflecting on the Mass, the Argentine pontiff said: “the faithful approach the Eucharist normally in a processional form, as we have said, and, standing with devotion or kneeling, as established by the Episcopal Conference, receive the sacrament in the mouth or, where permitted, in the hand, as preferred.”

Both Ezzati and his predecessor, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz were once powerful and influential within the Chilean Church, with Errazuriz, 85, even being a member of the pope’s council of cardinals that advises him on the reform of the Catholic Church’s government.

RELATED: Presence of disgraced bishops in Holy Week reopens Chile’s wounds
Today, Chilean lawmakers are trying to take Ezzati’s Chilean citizenship away. Born in Italy, in 2006 Chile granted him citizenship as a recognition for the “fruitful and valuable work” he’d done in the country.

Aos, a member of the Capuchin order, was tapped by Francis to be the apostolic administrator of Santiago on March 23.

RELATED: Pope accepts resignation of Chilean cardinal who faces abuse cover-up probe
Since taking office, Aos has reached out to clerical abuse survivors as well as to a group of priests who suffered the sexual abuses and the abuses of power of former priests Fernando Karadima, Chile’s most infamous pedophile cleric. He’s come to Rome to meet with Pope Francis and the heads of various Vatican offices. He’s met with those who are in the outskirts of society and with Chilean President Sebastian Piñera.

Regarding Ezzati’s participation in the Mass, Aos told Chilean journalists that “the Mass is always a liturgical act, a reunion in front of the altar of the Lord and we’re there to celebrate what the Lord sent us to celebrate, and he sent all of us, and we all begin the Eucharist saying ‘I have sin in one way or the other’.”

THE LATE BISHOP MORLINO OF MADISON REPLACED! WHAT WILL IT MEAN FOR THE LATE BISHOP'S AGENDA? TIME WILL TELL

Copied from Deacon's Bench:


The following email was sent around the diocese early today: Annuntio Vobis Gaudium Magnum – I bring you news of great joy!  It is with honor and great pleasure that I, currently the Diocesan Administrator of the Diocese of Madison, announce that His Holiness, Pope Francis, has appointed Most Reverend Donald J. Hying, the Fifth Bishop of Madison. The youngest of six sons, Bishop Donald J. Hying was born in West Allis, Wisconsin. Bishop Hying received his bachelor’s degree from Marquette University and… Read more

UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE:  HIS EXCELLENCY APPEARS TO BE OPEN MINDED AND NOT RIGID ABOUT THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM AND ALLOWING IT!

Milwaukee Confirmations

The Church Militant has 23 new full-fledged members. On September 14, 2013, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Donald Hying, auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, performed the Rite of Confirmation to the new Catholic warriors at St. Stanislaus Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In his inspirational message to the newly confirmed, Bishop Hying described how holiness is appealing to people in secular society, and that they now have the grace to stand strongly for the Catholic faith in the face of possible persecution.

In the presence of His Excellency, a Solemn High Mass was celebrated by the Reverend Canon Matthew Talarico, Substitute of the Provincial. The confimands and their sponsors were able to praise and thank the Lord for the graces of Confirmation.

After Mass, the confirmands, their sponsors, family members, and other parishioners gathered around the newly constructed St. Joseph grotto in the yard of the rectory. Along with Bishop Hying, Canons and Oblates of the Institute, all enjoyed delicious refreshments and warm fellowship.

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

AUGUSTA CHRONICLE'S EDITORIAL CARTOON


HETERODOX CATHOLICISM IS NO CATHOLICISM BECAUSE IT PRESUMES PEOPLE ARE AS STUPID AS THOSE WHO PROMOTE PELAGIANISM


Press title for full article, excerpt below. 

The Ratzinger Diagnosis  

Have any of the progressive critics engage Ratzinger’s argument? No. 


Paul VI makes Joseph Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI) a cardinal in 1977. [Wikipedia]

EXCERPT:

In Benedict XVI’s view, the Catholic crisis of clerical sexual abuse was, in the main, an ecclesiastical by-product of the “sexual revolution:” a tsunami of cultural deconstruction that hit the Church in a moment of doctrinal and moral confusion, lax clerical discipline, poor seminary formation, and weak episcopal oversight, all of which combined to produce many of the scandals with which we’re painfully familiar today.  
This diagnosis does not explain everything about the abuse crisis, of course. It does not explain psychopaths like Marcial Maciel and Theodore McCarrick. It does not explain the abusive behavior by clergy and religious in pre-conciliar Ireland and Quebec. It does not explain the challenges the Church faces from clerical concubinage (and worse) in Africa today. But Ratzinger’s epidemiology does address, pointedly, the sharp spike in clerical sexual abuse that began in the late 1960s and peaked in the 1980s, before the reforms of the priesthood and seminaries initiated by Pope John Paul II began to take hold. 

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

MANY DON'T BELIEVE IN EASTER BECAUSE OF THIS; BUT IMAGINE THIS WITHOUT EASTER

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. He alone is our hope when we are overwhelmed by unimaginable grief. Can you imagine grief without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.



ISIS CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MASSACRE OF CATHOLICS AT EASTER SUNDAY MASS



Isis claims responsibility for murdering more than 350 Catholics in Sri Lanka during Easter Mass in retaliation for the murder of Muslims in New Zealand.

There are videos of one suicide bomber walking across a square and entering the church with a full backpack. The cameras in the church show unsuspecting Catholics in the packed church, men, women, children, elderly and young during the Mass.

I am sure there are videos of the explosion and the deadly conflagration.

It is demonic! 

MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, THE NATIONAL CHISMATIC REPORTER (NCR) IS HYPOCRITICAL ABOUT THIS, BECAUSE IF A LIBERAL POPE HAD RESIGNED AND A TRADITIONAL POPE ELECTED, THEY WOULD PRAISE HIS INTERVENTION AS AN ACT OF GOD

But with my headline not withstanding, the NCR has a valid point. Nonetheless, the current pope must acknowledge how liberalism since Vatican II has divided the Church and Pope Francis' papacy has placed this polarization on steroids. And there are still those in high places who question the validity of Benedict's abdication.

Editorial: One pope is quite enough


20190415T1153-25960-CNS-BENEDICT-92-LETTER.jpg

Pope Benedict XVI walks down steps after giving a talk at the conclusion of a Mass for the Knights of Malta in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 10, 2013, two days before he announced his resignation. The retired pope marks his 92 birthday April 16. (CNS/Paul Haring) 
We are living in a unique moment in church history with an ex-pope, properly credited for having the courage to resign when the problems he faced became overwhelming, living within the Vatican walls. The resignation is best interpreted as Benedict XVI's act of generosity toward the church. The graciousness Francis has displayed toward his predecessor is equally an act of generosity.
Increasingly, however, Francis must also be calling on the virtue of patience to deal with the interference of a predecessor whose retirement has gone from a promised "life dedicated to prayer" to a life of backseat pontificating.
The most recent – and perhaps most unfortunate – intervention was Benedict's letter theorizing on the causes of the sexual abuse crisis and, of course, defending his role in dealing with it.
That the latest was not a one-off, but part of a pattern that was pointed out by NCR Vatican Correspondent Joshua McElwee in reporting on the letter.
In November 2016 a book-length interview was published in which Benedict defended his eight-year papacy, saying he didn't see himself as a failure. In March of that same year he inserted himself into a Francis initiative when he did an interview in which he expounded on God's mercy while Francis was in the midst of an Extraordinary Jubilee Year, with mercy as its central theme. These interventions may appear anodyne to some, but they set a terrible precedent, making the perception or reality of a rivalry between the former pope and his acolytes and the incumbent pope and his supporters more likely.
Benedict's latest interjection landed within shouting distance of a recent and first-of-its-kind international gathering of bishop leaders from around the globe to discuss the abuse crisis and seemed, unlike previous interventions, an act of sabotage, intended or not. The growing consensus that characteristics of the secretive hierarchical culture are at the heart of the current crisis was given expression forcefully and repeatedly at the meeting. It has taken the hierarchy of the global church nearly three and a half decades to reach that level of honesty about itself.
Benedict's theology and exegesis in his latest letter aside, his analysis of the causes of the crisis — the turbulent 1960s, the sexual revolution, the various forces of modernity, the deficiencies in seminary training — would, if made the basis for understanding the scandal, turn the church back decades.
On June 7, 1985, the back page of NCR contained an editorial addressing the problems outlined in a four-page report, the first national account ever published, of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. "Who's involved here, and what patterns of conduct emerge after events are looked at? Children, of course, are the most immediate victims," said the editorial. "Traumatized, guilt-ridden, even suicidal, they are terrified by the idea of discussing what has happened to them with parents or other authority figures.
"Next, parents become victims, usually finding out what has happened to their children late in the game. Emotionally, they are tossed about by a variety of feelings: guilt for not having protected their offspring, anger at the priest who inflicted the harm and a sense of awkwardness for having to confront, in one way or another, a person they were trained to respect as a unique mediator of God's grace and love.
"Then, there are the ecclesial functionaries: the pastor, bishop and sometimes religious superior. In almost every case, these officials seem to follow an unwritten set of guidelines: Assure the parents everything will be taken care of. Caution them against getting an attorney, and by all means, plead with them not to go to the press."
The editors back then outlined quite a bit more, including the need for what they termed "ministerial boards" comprising psychiatrists, social workers, staff from facilities that deal with troubled priests, clergy, laity and "at least one attorney," and advising that parents should have access to the boards "without previous consultation with their pastor or bishop." They also wrote that repeat sexual offenders "must be separated from the rest of society."
"The church should lead social behavior, not reflect it, when it comes to seeking solutions," the editorial argued.
Thirty-four years ago a small clutch of Catholic editors and reporters who had just come into contact with the first indications of what was a budding national scandal, understood the problem in a way that would stand the test of time: The victims were children and their families; the perpetrators were mostly priests; thecover-up specialists were bishops
One need not resort to theological debates or social analysis nor consult apocalyptic literature to understand what went on. In the late 1940s — long before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the 1960s — a U.S. priest learned of the sexual abuse of children by priests. His name was Gerald Fitzgerald, a Boston priest who founded the Servants of the Paraclete to deal with problem clerics, primarily those dealing with alcoholism. It wasn't long after he opened a center in New Mexico that bishops from around the United States began sending sex offenders.
Fitzgerald was so appalled by the assaults on children and so revolted by the perpetrators that in the 1950s he placed a down payment on an island in the Caribbean with the intent of isolating the abusive priests. That idea never became reality, but he knew they couldn't be cured. He wrote about the sexual abuse of children to multiple U.S bishops; he recommended against transferring them to new parishes or dioceses; he was asked by the Holy Office at the Vatican to explain what he knew, and he delivered a five-page response in 1962; the following year he had a personal meeting with Pope Paul VI to discuss the matter.
Paul VI knew. John Paul II knew. Benedict XVI knew. Vatican officials knew.
Enough. We've said it before and it bears saying again: It's over. Denial no longer works. Trying to blame crime and cover-up on everything and everyone except those who were actually involved is no longer persuasive.
Benedict had his opportunities as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and as pope to call the hierarchical culture to account. He took some personally courageous action, not least of which was to bring the case against the notorious pedophile and favorite of John Paul II, Marcial Maciel Degollado, head of the Legion of Christ. But he failed to hold the leadership of the church accountable.
His current meddling is neither sound analysis nor helpful to a pope making unprecedented efforts to reform the clergy culture. Benedict should follow his initial instinct and be prayerfully silent.

Monday, April 22, 2019

THE GREAT VIGIL OF EASTER AT SAINT ANNE CHURCH, RICHMOND HILL



Our diocese videoed St. Anne's Great Vigil of Easter. It is a brief synopsis of it, but well edited!

You can see it HERE.

ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT ISLAMIST OR ANOTHER KIND OF TERRORISM IN YOUR PARISH?

Please pray for the Catholics targeted by Islamic terrorists in Sri Lanka and for the injured and dead. Flesh and blood  splattered statue of Risen Christ in Sri Lankan bombed Catholic Church:



With so many houses of worship of many religions being attacked by terrorists or deranged opportunists, do you worry when you go to Mass?

Does your church have armed security?

I have heard through the grapevine that in my parish with a great number of military members trained in handling arms that some carry weapons to Mass and are intentionally vigilant. Is this worrisome or good?


CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT ART DEPICTING THE SAME PHOTO OP, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE

I know Protestant art in paintings, stained glass and sculpture when I see it, compared to Catholic depictions of the same, but I can't actually articulate that difference. It is more of a visceral reaction to Protestant "art." I could tell the difference as a child as well, more a reaction than a defined rationale.

How about you?







A CATHOLIC PRIEST WHO MAKES SENSE


Sunday, April 21, 2019

THEOLOGY WITHOUT THEOLOGIANS

At the center of Benedict’s concerns are the distinctive theological matters of the loss of a meaningful sense of God in contemporary culture and the grievous decline in Eucharistic reverence and practice in great parts of the contemporary Church.


THEOLOGIANS WITHOUT THEOLOGY

by Robert P. Imbelli

Two representatives of the “German Association of Moral Theologians” have issued a critical “Commentary” on the recent analysis by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI regarding the origins and causes of the abuse crisis afflicting the Church.

Professors Christof Breitsameter and Stephan Goertz level several charges against Benedict XVI. They contend that he places unique blame for the crisis upon the sexual revolution and the social upheaval of the Sixties, rather than acknowledge the Church’s own institutional culpability.

They are particularly incensed at his criticism of developments in moral theology since the 1960s which, according to Benedict, promote a situationist approach that ultimately eventuates in a moral relativism. They insist this indictment is unfair and inaccurate, and that the moral theology practiced by the members of their Association does indeed affirm moral absolutes, such as the inhumaneness of the death penalty.

Without seeking to endorse every jot and tittle of the Pope Emeritus’ analysis, two features of his critics’ statement appear to me both regrettable and symptomatic.

First, the whole style of their indignant response suggests the concern of a self-regulating guild intent on defending their privileges and prerogatives against outsider criticism.

Second, though the signatories refer to themselves as “moral theologians,” their statement contains little that is recognizably “theological.” At the center of Benedict’s concerns are the distinctive theological matters of the loss of a meaningful sense of God in contemporary culture and the grievous decline in Eucharistic reverence and practice in great parts of the contemporary Church.

In stark contrast, the statement of the eminent professors, officers of an Association of Moral Theologians, contains no reference to God or to his Christ. There is absolutely no hint of normative commitment to a Eucharistic vision and practice founded in the real Presence of Jesus Christ.

Though they have the effrontery to accuse Joseph Ratzinger of pursuing an “escapist approach to theology,” they themselves fail to manifest any sense of theology as an ecclesial disciple governed by “the rule of faith.” Rather, the impression conveyed is that contemporary culture provides the standards of authentic living to which the Church must submit. This is not the approach of true “aggiornamento,” but of rank capitulation.

One need not be a “contextual” theologian, therefore, to wonder whether the Association of Moral Theologians is instead an association of professors of ethics, groping toward some understanding of the good life that State-endowed university chairs in a late-capitalist society make possible for their occupants.

CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! EASTER SUNDAY MASS WITH POPE FRANCIS


BITTER TERRORIST ATTACKS AGAINST SRI LANKA CATHOLICS


On Easter Sunday morning death and destruction for Sri Lankan Catholics.

Thank God for the Resurrection!

Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Without Jesus or the Resurrection, there would be an abyss of unrelenting darkness and grief for the living burying their dead.