POPE FRANCIS CONTINUES HIS TEACHINGS ON THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AND IT AIN'T BAD, THANKS BE TO GOD!

I just hope the Holy Father understands the implications of His Holiness' teachings, like chants at Mass that aren't inspirational in the same way that secular music is (which is what has happened to music at Mass and what qualifies it as being good). It also has implications for ad orientem which makes the Mass less of a show and more like prayer.

Pope Francis celebrates the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass facing the congregation in an ad orientem way. He is solemn, serious and never ad libs or God forbid, changes any words of the Mass that are given to us in any version of the vernacular Roman Missals.

In other words, His Holiness is humble before the texts of the Mass in whatever vernacular. So in English Masses, which have been gloriously revised, His Holiness prays "and for many..." and in Italian he prays "for all" until it is changed, God willing. Of course in Latin he prays "pro-multis."

But here is what the Pope taught this morning on the anniversary of the assasination of President Kennedy which I remember as though it was yesterday. I was in the 5th grade at the time, my commments embedded in red:

Pubblicato il 22/11/2017
Ultima modifica il 22/11/2017 alle ore 11:52
IACOPO SCARAMUZZI
VATICAN CITY

Mass "is to redo Calvary, it is not a show": (Holy Sacrifice, not just convivial meal!)at the general audience in St. Peter's Square the Pope continued a cycle of catechesis dedicated to the rediscovery of Mass and the Eucharist, answering the question, "What is Mass essentially?" Francis, who before going to St. Peter's Square received an official representative of Saudi Arabia, invited the faithful to imagine themselves present at the scene of the crucifixion of Jesus, "Would we allow ourselves to chat and take photographs, to make out a little show? (Mass demands reverence, before, during and after!)

The Mass, said Jorge Maria Bergoglio, "is the memorial of Christ's Passover Mystery. It allows us to join his victory over sin and death, and gives full meaning to our life. For this reason, in order to understand the value of Mass, we must first of all understand the biblical meaning of "memorial". It is not only a reminder of the events of the past, but it makes them present and current in a certain way. This is precisely how Israel understands its liberation from Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated; the events of the Exodus are made present to the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to them". Jesus Christ, with his passion, death, resurrection and ascension to heaven, brought Easter to completion. And the Mass is the memorial of his Passover, of his "exodus", which he accomplished for us, so that we may get out of slavery and reach the promised land of eternal life. It is not just a remembrance, no, it is more: it is doing what happened twenty centuries ago in the present ". (This theology is the best theology I was taught in the 1970's seminary and which I appreciated at the time and continue to do so. I'm glad for this part of our 1970's pope's theology, but the rest, not so much!)

And "every celebration of the Eucharist - he continued in reference to a concept reiterated by the Second Vatican Council - is a ray of that unsetting sun that is Jesus Christ risen. Participating in Mass, especially on Sundays, means entering the victory of the Risen One, being illuminated by his light, heated by his warmth". In his "transition from death to life, from time to eternity", Jesus "drags us along with him to make Easter. During Mass, Easter is made. During mass we are with Jesus, dead and risen, and he drags us forward in eternal life ". His blood "frees us from death and fear of death. He frees us not only from the domination of physical death, but from spiritual death which is evil, is sin, which takes us every time we fall victims of our or others' sin. And so our life is polluted, we lose beauty, we lose meaning, we lose touch. Christ instead gives us back life ".

Only if we experience this power of Christ, the power of his love - said the Argentine Pontiff - are we really free to give ourselves without fear. And this is Mass: entering this passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. And when we go to Mass it is like going to Calvary, just imagine: going to the crucifixion scene, at that moment we would realize that that man there is Jesus: would we allow ourselves to chat and take pictures? To make out a little show? No, because it is Jesus, we would certainly be in silence, in tears, and in the joy of being saved. When we enter the Church to celebrate Mass, we shall think of this: I’m entering the Calvary, where Jesus gives his life for me: and thus, the show, the comments, the chatter that distracts us from this beautiful thing that is Mass, disappear. The triumph of Jesus. I think it is now clearer how Easter becomes present and active every time we celebrate Mass, that is, the meaning of the "memorial". Participation in the Eucharist makes us enter the Paschal Mystery of Christ, giving us to pass with him from death to life. That is Calvary: Mass is redoing Calvary, it is not a show". (This last paragraph is so important. But why is it that this needs to be taught afresh? Because the implementation of the revised Roman MIssal screwed it all up. Music with guitars, tambourines, drums, worship and praise Protestant music and Protestant music with Protestant sentimentality and theology have caused most Catholics to fail to understand that they are with the crucified Lord made present in a timeless way at Mass, they are at the foot of the Cross. There should be somber reflection about our part that contributed to the Lord's suffering in this Great Sacrifice, not glib joy in the secular sense. Of course there is the resurrection, ascension and descent of the Holy Spirit, but that joy is contditioned by the Sacrifice that initiates it. Gregorian Chant, or any form of actual chant from the east or west is better than the faux sentimentalism, so-called devotion and spirituality of much of the music that is imposed upon the Masss today. I hope the HOly Father knows this and will offer a "Magnum Principium" on music bringing us back to sanity!) 

HOLY FATHER, CAN WE THEN SAY THAT THE "sPIRIT" OF VATICAN II IS A RELIGIOUS COLONIZATION THAT ENDS IN PERSECUTION OF THOSE WHO HOLD TO TRADITION RATHER THAN BEING COLONIZED BY THE SO-CALLED NEW, NOVEL AND IMPROVED?

Pope Francis: Cultural colonization ends in persecution

Pope Francis preaches the homily at the daily Mass at Casa Santa Marta.

21/11/2017 13:11

(Vatican Radio) Cultural and ideological colonization does not tolerate differences and makes everything the same, resulting in the persecution even of believers. Those were Pope Francis’ reflections in his homily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, which centered on the martyrdom of Eleazar, narrated in the book of Maccabees from the First Reading (Maccabees 6: 18-31).

The Pope noted that there are three main types of persecution: a purely religious persecution; a “mixed” persecution that has both religious and political motivations, like the Thirty Years War or the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre”; and a kind of cultural persecution, when a new culture comes in wanting “to make everything new and to make a clean break with everything: the cultures, the laws and the religions of a people.” (My comment: Isn't this what the spririt of Vatican II did to traditional minded Catholics and is finding new vigor today?) It is this last type of persecution that led to the martyrdom of Eleazar.

The account of this persecution began in the reading from Monday’s liturgy. Some of the Jewish people, seeing the power and the magnificent beauty of Antiochus Ephiphanes (a Greek king of the Seleucid Empire), wanted to make an alliance with him. They wanted to be up-to-date and modern, and so they approached the king and asked him to allow them “to introduce the pagan institutions of other nations” among their own people. Not necessarily the ideas or gods of those nations, the Pope noted, but the institutions. In this way, this people brought in a new culture, “new institutions” in order to make a clean break with everything: their “culture, religion, law.” This modernizing, this renewal of everything, the Pope emphasized, is a true ideological colonization that wanted to impose on the people of Israel “this unique practice,” according to which everything was done in a particular way, and there was no freedom for other things. Some people accepted it because it seemed good to be like the others; and so the traditions were left aside, and the people begin to live in a different way.

But to defend the “true traditions” of the people, a resistance rose up, like that of Eleazar, who was very dignified, and respected by all. The book of Maccabees, the Pope said, tells the story of these martyrs, these heroes. A persecution born of ideological colonization always proceeds in the same way: destroying, attempting to make everyone the same. Such persecutions are incapable of tolerating differences.

The key word highlighted by the Pope, beginning with Monday’s reading is “perverse root” – that is Antiochus Epifanes: the root that came to introduce into the people of God, “with power,” these new, pagan, worldly” customs:

“And this is the path of cultural colonization that ends up persecuting believers too. But we do not have to go too far to see some examples: we think of the genocides of the last century, which was a new cultural thing: [Trying to make] everyone equal; [so that] there is no place for differences, there is no place for others, there is no place for God. It is the perverse root. Faced with this cultural colonization, which arises from the perversity of an ideological root, Eleazar himself has become [a contrary] root.

In fact, Eleazar dies thinking of the young people, leaving them a noble example. “He gives [his] life; for love of God and of the law he is made a root for the future.” So, in the face of that perverse root that produces this ideological and cultural colonization, “there is this other root that gives [his] life for the future to grow.”

What had come from the kingdom of Antioch was a novelty. But not all new things are bad, the Pope said: just think of the Gospel of Jesus, which was a novelty. When it comes to novelties, the Pope said, one has to be able to make distinctions:

“There is a need to discern ‘the new things’: Is this new thing from the Lord, does it come from the Holy Spirit, is it rooted in God? Or does this newness come from a perverse root? But before, [for example] yes, it was a sin to kill children; but today it is not a problem, it is a perverse novelty. Yesterday, the differences were clear, as God made it, creation was respected; but today [people say] we are a little modern... you act... you understand ... things are not so different ... and things are mixed together.”

The “new things” of God, on the other hand, never makes “a negotiation” but grows and looks at the future:

“Ideological and cultural colonizations only look to the present; they deny the past, and do not look to the future. They live in the moment, not in time, and so they can’t promise us anything. And with this attitude of making everyone equal and cancelling out differences, they commit, they make an particularly ugly blasphemy against God the Creator. Every time a cultural and ideological colonization comes along, it sins against God the Creator because it wants to change Creation as it was made by Him. And against this fact that has occurred so often in history, there is only one medicine: bearing witness; that is, martyrdom.

Eleazar, in fact, gives the witness by giving his life, considering the inheritance he will leave by his example: “I have lived thus. Yes, I dialogue with those who think otherwise, but my testimony is thus, according to the law of God.” Eleazar does not think about leaving behind money or anything of that kind, but looks to the future, “the legacy of his testimony,” to that testimony that would be “a promise of fruitfulness for the young.” It becomes, therefore, a root to give life to others. And the Pope concludes with the hope that that example “will help us in moments of confusion in the face of the cultural and spiritual colonization that is being proposed to us.”

LET ME BANG THIS DRUM AGAIN! WHEN WILL THE NETWORK NEWS STATIONS, BOTH BROADCAST AND CABLE DEAL WITH THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM AS IT CONCERNS THE DEGRADTION OF OUR SOCIETY AND CULTURE CARRIED OUT ALMOST SINGLEHANDEDLY BY THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY WHICH OWNS THE NETWORK NEWS?

I watched the opening of the CBS Morning News on the day after Charlie Rose, one of its main anchors was suspended due to allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior with women who worked for him.

Nora O'Donnell and Gayle King, his co-anchors spoke of their pain over the revelations but the necessity to deal with the systemic problems of sexual harassment.

So far so good. But what I haven't heard from them or anyone else reporting on this breaking flood of news, which so much reminds me of the flood of allegations against so many priests some of which went back 50, 60 and 70 years, is the elephant in the room of these network news stations.

It is Hollywood and how they have single-handedly corrupted the morals of this society which corrupts minors who watch it and corrupts already disordered individuals to imitate so-called art.

When children watch the soft porn that is on broadcast networks each night; watch how women and men are denigrated sexually and otherwise on these shows, what do we expect from them in their teenage and adult years?

When anyone accesses the hardcore porn these corporations who own the news networks provide, does it not contribute to the denigration of men and women? What happens to teenagers and children who can access it as well, try as the parents may, to block such filth?

Just who writes these shows, produces them, directs them and then orders them to be placed on the television networks and early in the evening as though later doesn't matter?

Is there a link between the graphic violence on television, like the Walking Dead, abortion on demand, and the like and the very real acts of violence we have seen lately in Las Vegas and Texas not to mention numerous other places and the slaughter of millions of innocent children by legalized abortion?

Is there a link between the degradation of women brought on by Hugh Hefner and the glorification of Playboy, Victoria Secrets and their advertisement and shows and the like.

Is the death of Hugh Hefner a sign of the times of the impending  death of the media industries' degradation of our culture of which sexual harassment is but a small symptom.

When will this be reported, analyzed and talked to death by the talking heads on TV news, like Nora O'Donnell, Gayle King, and CNN, Fox and MSNBC to mention just a few?

IN TODAY'S SUPERBUG WORLD AND FLESHEATING BACTERIA , IT IS A BADGE OF HONOR TO BE CALLED A GERMAPHOBE!

Everyone knows that the common chalice, especially toward the end of its cycle is a cauldron of bacteria and virus waiting to consume the one who communes.  On top of that, if the chalice isn't made of 14, 18 or 24 carrot gold, but made of pewter, glass, pottery or some other illicit material, the bacteria and viruses thrive and are spread around by the purificator that is suppose to sterilize the cups after a person with a disease has placed their mouth and siliva on it.

But what about communion on the hand and receiving on he tongue while standing? What germs and viruses could be spread to other communicants?

I have my own anecdotal evidence. When I give Holy Communion to those choosing to receive in the hand, very often my hand touches the hand receiving. We all know, as FrMJK has pointed out repeatedly that door mobs have more germs than the common chalice because the hand touches so many fecal smeared objects and other people's hands containing the same human excrement. And what about those who don't wash their hands after using the toilet and touch the toilet that thousands of others have touched?

And then, those who receive on the tongue while standing, I have to reach up to place the Host on the tongue and often, I get the person's siliva on it, but worse than that, the person who receives on the tongue gets the bacteria, germs and viruses that I have just touched when giving Holy Communion on the hand.

The only sanitary sanity to all of this infectious insanity is that the communicant kneel and receive on the tongue. Let me explain in by personal anecdotal evidence I just experienced again these past two Sundays at the Savannah Cathedral's EF Sunday Mass.

When people kneel before our Lord to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, I notice that it is much easier to place the Host on the tongue without touching the person's tongue in any manner whatsoever. I reach down and there is no flesh to flesh contact between the priest and communicant.

The problem of the spread of feces, bacteria, germs and viruses, such as herpes, hepatitis, flu and the like is solved. God is good.

IS IT WRONG TO BE GLAD HE'S DEAD 💀?

I was a teenager when Charles Manson and his friends murdered the actress Sharon Tate who occasionally appeared on the Beverly Hillbillies and six others. It was big news even before cable news. They even licked the blood off the bodies like the zombies on the Walking Dead!

Is it wrong for a priest to say good ridence?
Charles Manson -- the man who masterminded one of the most heinous murder sprees in American history -- is dead  ... this according to the sister of his famous victim.

WHAT ABOUT GOOD WORKS? EVEN MANY PRE-VATICAN II CATHOLICS THOUGHT GOOD PEOPLE WHO DIDN'T GO TO CHURCH HAD A PASSPORT INTO HEAVEN! IS POPE FRANCIS PRE-VATICAN II?

I got many mixed messages from Catholics when I was growing up. "He doesn't practice the Catholic faith, but he is as good as gold!" "I can't believe God would condemn her to hell, she would give the shirt off her back to anyone in need."

These sorts of sentiments were prevalent in many Christians back in the day including Catholics.

Can we say that God's grace is at work in a good person who has faith, but not a Catholic faith, but a do-it-yourself faith?

Many non-practicing Italian Catholics, back in the day, would have all kinds of devotional images in their homes and would call upon the Madonna day and night but never set foot in church except for baptisms, weddings, and funerals. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Maybe there are many narrow roads to heaven and passports to enter at the gate of heaven where St. Peter, a good Italian, lets people pass or crawl under in the dark of night.

Wouldn't you want your mom who was a good as gold and gave the shirt off her back for the needy person to go to heaven rather than hell for eternity simply because she didn't go to church?

GOOD WORKS ARE A PASSPORT TO PARADISE! I AM SURE MARTIN LUTHER WOULD AGREE! OR WOULD HE? I ASK; YOU ANSWER.

Pope Francis welcomed the poor, homeless and unemployed as guests of honor for a Mass and gourmet meal in the Vatican on Sunday, saying that helping the needy was one way of obtaining a "passport to paradise".



(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Sunday – the XXXIII Sunday in Ordinary Time and the first-ever World Day of the Poor – in St. Peter’s Basilica. Below, please find the full text of his homily on the occasion, in its official English translation…

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We have the joy of breaking the bread of God’s word, and shortly, we will have the joy of breaking and receiving the Bread of the Eucharist, food for life’s journey. All of us, none excluded, need this, for all of us are beggars when it comes to what is essential: God’s love, which gives meaning to our lives and a life without end. So today too, we lift up our hands to him, asking to receive his gifts.

The Gospel parable speaks of gifts. It tells us that we have received talents from God, “according to ability of each” (Mt 25:15). Before all else, let us realize this: we do have talents; in God’s eyes, we are “talented”. Consequently, no one can think that he or she is useless, so poor as to be incapable of giving something to others. We are chosen and blessed by God, who wants to fill us with his gifts, more than any father or mother does with their own children. And God, in whose eyes no child can be neglected, entrusts to each of us a mission.

Indeed, as the loving and demanding Father that he is, he gives us responsibility. In the parable, we see that each servant is given talents to use wisely. But whereas the first two servants do what they are charged, the third does not make his talents bear fruit; he gives back only what he had received. “I was afraid – he says – and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours” (v. 25). As a result, he is harshly rebuked as “wicked and lazy” (v. 26). What made the Master displeased with him? To use a word that may sound a little old-fashioned but is still timely, I would say it was his omission. His evil was that of failing to do good. All too often, we have the idea that we haven’t done anything wrong, and so we rest content, presuming that we are good and just. But in this way we risk acting like the unworthy servant: he did no wrong, he didn’t waste the talent, in fact he kept it carefully hidden in the ground. But to do no wrong is not enough. God is not an inspector looking for unstamped tickets; he is a Father looking for children to whom he can entrust his property and his plans (cf. v. 14). It is sad when the Father of love does not receive a generous response of love from his children, who do no more than keep the rules and follow the commandments, like hired hands in the house of the Father (cf. Lk 15:17).

The unworthy servant, despite receiving a talent from the Master who loves to share and multiply his gifts, guarded it jealously; he was content to keep it safe. But someone concerned only to preserve and maintain the treasures of the past is not being faithful to God. Instead, the parable tells us, the one who adds new talents is truly “faithful” (vv. 21 and 23), because he sees things as God does; he does not stand still, but instead, out of love, takes risks. He puts his life on the line for others; he is not content to keep things as they are. One thing alone does he overlook: his own interest. That is the only right “omission”.

Omission is also the great sin where the poor are concerned. Here it has a specific name: indifference. It is when we say, “That doesn’t regard me; it’s not my business; it’s society’s problem”. It is when we turn away from a brother or sister in need, when we change channels as soon as a disturbing question comes up, when we grow indignant at evil but do nothing about it. God will not ask us if we felt righteous indignation, but whether we did some good.

How, in practice can we please God? When we want to please someone dear to us, for example by giving a gift, we need first to know that person’s tastes, lest the gift prove more pleasing to the giver than to the recipient. When we want to offer something to the Lord, we can find his tastes in the Gospel. Immediately following the passage that we heard today, Jesus says, “Truly I tell you that, just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). These least of our brethren, whom he loves dearly, are the hungry and the sick, the stranger and the prisoner, the poor and the abandoned, the suffering who receive no help, the needy who are cast aside. On their faces we can imagine seeing Jesus’ own face; on their lips, even if pursed in pain, we can hear his words: “This is my body” (Mt 26:26).

In the poor, Jesus knocks on the doors of our heart, thirsting for our love. When we overcome our indifference and, in the name of Jesus, we give of ourselves for the least of his brethren, we are his good and faithful friends, with whom he loves to dwell. God greatly appreciates the attitude described in today’s first reading that of the “good wife”, who “opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy” (Prov 31:10.20). Here we see true goodness and strength: not in closed fists and crossed arms, but in ready hands outstretched to the poor, to the wounded flesh of the Lord.

There, in the poor, we find the presence of Jesus, who, though rich, became poor (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). For this reason, in them, in their weakness, a “saving power” is present. And if in the eyes of the world they have little value, they are the ones who open to us the way to heaven; they are our “passport to paradise”. For us it is an evangelical duty to care for them, as our real riches, and to do so not only by giving them bread, but also by breaking with them the bread of God’s word, which is addressed first to them. To love the poor means to combat all forms of poverty, spiritual and material.

And it will also do us good. Drawing near to the poor in our midst will touch our lives. It will remind us of what really counts: to love God and our neighbour. Only this lasts forever, everything else passes away. What we invest in love remains, the rest vanishes. Today we might ask ourselves: “What counts for me in life? Where am I making my investments?” In fleeting riches, with which the world is never satisfied, or in the wealth bestowed by God, who gives eternal life? This is the choice before us: to live in order to gain things on earth, or to give things away in order to gain heaven. Where heaven is concerned, what matters is not what we have, but what we give, for “those who store up treasures for themselves, do not grow rich in the sight of God” (Lk 12:21).

So let us not seek for ourselves more than we need, but rather what is good for others, and nothing of value will be lacking to us. May the Lord, who has compassion for our poverty and needs, and bestows his talents upon us, grant us the wisdom to seek what really matters, and the courage to love, not in words but in deeds.

GIVING DIOCESAN AND PAPAL AWARDS TO THE LAITY

Usually when diocesan and papal awards are given to the laity, the criteria is based upon what they do in the churchy realm of the institutional Church.

Of course practicing Catholics should be the ones considered. But what does this mean?

I think it means following the precepts of the Church, not necessarily being involved in all the churchy things of the parish. Thus a Catholic who simply attends Mass each and every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation, goes to Confession at least once a year, makes their "Easter Duty" (google that!) and financially supports their parish and diocese are the ones to be considered but also to include the following:

An excellent parent, sibling who makes the home the Church in Miniature.

The Catholic Politicians who actually upholds the teachings of the Church in the all the hot-button political controversies of the day and to the point of a white martyrdom.

In other words, excellent candidates for diocesan and papal awards aren't those who have been cooked in the crock pot of being clericalized by their priests and parishes (I am not condemning laity who take churchy roles here) but Catholics who bring their Catholic Faith to the world to serve the poor, marginalized and uphold all that the Catholic Church believes, teaches and practices to be revealed by God.

POPE BENEDICT XVI'S RENEWAL IN CONTINUITY IS TOUTED BY PAPAL CANDIDATE, CARDINAL PAROLIN!

This courtesy of Whispers in the Loggia:

Building upon his historic message to open the 100th Plenary, as the bench's elections unfolded on Tuesday morning, the Cardinal-Secretary of State Pietro Parolin delivered an even more extensive – and, quite possibly, even more significant – word, appearing at the Catholic University of America in Washington to propose Pope Francis as the ultimate figure of continuity with Vatican II, citing how he's "taken up anew" the Council's teaching and rebooted model of church.

My comment: Listen carefully (actually read carefully) what Cardinal Parolin says. He is much clearer in his presentations than Pope Francis is. Parolin quotes Pope Benedict's Christmas presentation to the cardinals at the Vatican extensively, especially His Holiness' "Renewal in Continuity" not rupture.

But more importantly, while we are "irreversibly" in the post-Conciliar Church, with vernacular liturgies, inculturation and the like, although the Cardinal doesn't say this, it also means a Church with a variety of "styles" or rites of the Mass and her sacraments which is inclusive of the pre-conciliar liturgy and sacramental system.

Then Cardinal Parolin correctly situates the laity's role in bringing the mission of the Church to the secular world, be it their families, their work places, their politics. It is here that "clericalism" has thwarted the mission of Vatican II for the laity. Priests have "churchified" the laity and made them mini-clerics working for the institutional Church, being lectors, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and the like, but little or no emphasis on the family as the Church in Miniature, the role of the laity in the world, especially to make known what the Church's teachings are and embodying these teachings in the public square and in politics!

I think that Cardinal Parolin even nuances the role of  Bishops' Conferences and synodality more so than Pope Francis does.

Overall, if Cardinal Parolin becomes Pope Francis II, I think there will be more peace and clarity in the papacy and thus the Church than we have now. And as Pope Francis II, there will not be the cult of the personality surrounding Him or too much talking off-the-cuff.  He is a mix between Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, more towards Benedict, in personality.He is more balanced than Pope Francis. And of course, he's Italian to the core so of course there will be back-room maneuvering which leads to a "bella figura" (a nice look on the surface). Of course "che bella figura" in Italian can be a sarcastic/ironic remark too to refer to actually ugliness and many Italians use this against Pope Francis! Of course you have to hear the voice inflection and facial expression of the Italian using this term!

Back to Whispers: While publication of Parolin's text has been prohibited – Lord only knows why – gratefully a fullvid of his Italian address is around, with a captioned translation in English....

And here it is, it lasts less than an hour and is important to read--I hope we get a written text soon!


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FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY DEMONSTRATES THE SANITARY, NONCOMMUNICABLE OF DISEASE WAY TO RECEIVE THE "PRECIOUS BLOOD" AS WELL AS THE REVERENT WAY TO DO SO, KNEELING WITH OTHER COMMUNICANTS AT THE ALTAR RAILING!

CATHOLIC FORMER SENATOR JOHN KERRY RECEIVES HOLY COMMUNION "WINE" KNEELING AND FROM AN INDIVIDUAL "CUP", A TERM PROGRESSIVE LITURGISTS PREFER OVER THE WORD "CHALICE." 

DISCUSS!

 

DO WE COMMIT SACRILEGE ANY TIME, AND ON THIS BLOG, WHEN WE DENIGRATE EITHER FORM OF THE ONE LATIN RITE?

 Last night I taught our RCIA class on the First Commandment of God which, for coloring book Catholics, is:

 I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.

The Catechism of the  Catholic Church goes into detail about this commandment and how a Catholic could break it.

This caught my attention:

CCC 2120 Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God. Sacrilege is a grave sin especially when committed against the Eucharist, for in this sacrament the true Body of Christ is made substantially present for us.⁵²

Obviously, there are some who hold the Extraordinary Form of the Mass in contempt. Do they then not commit sacrilege when they complain about this, that or the other in order to promote what is called the reformed Mass of Vatican II?

The same is true of those who prefer the Extraordinary Form. Do they then not commit sacrilege when they complain not just about abuses of this liturgical form but denigrate the Ordinary Form's Roman Missal outright?

Do they not commit sacrilege when they profane and treat unworthily not just the sacrament itself, but liturgical actions as well?

I ask; you answer!

CNN IS OWNED BY TIME WARNER WHICH OWNS A CABLEVISION OUTLET WHICH SELLS PAY PER VIEW HARDCORE PORNOGRAPY MAKING BILLIONS OFF IT AND ON VIDEOS THAT OBJECTFY MEN AND WOMAN AND GLORIFIES SEXUAL ABUSE OF MEN AND WOMEN!

Web Man sometimes does work for the phone and cable companies

NBC is owned by Comcast which prophits off of the porn industry too!

CNN's Jake Tapper is interviewing the victim of Senator Al Franken and trying to engineer social change as it concerns sexual harassment and abuse. Sanctimoniousness reigns on that show!

Yet not a word about his company's profiting on selling pornograhy that victimizes those videoed, promotes hypersexuality and the corruption of sexuality and glorifies the objectification of men and women. It corrupts minors and is a form of sexual abuse of children who access this smut.

Many of the porn actors are a part of sex slavery industry too.

THE SELF RIGHTEOUS NEWS MEDIA OWNED BY THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION!

THOSE WHO DENIGRATE THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS IN THE ORDINARY OR EXTRAORDINARY FORM SHOULD TAKE NOTE

This is part of a comment from another post:

How much of a demand there is for such a Mass, I don't know---being raised mostly after Vatican 2, I can't say I am discontented with OF, or most people I know for that matter.

In my previous parish and now in this parish, I don't know of any real discontent with the Ordinary Form of the Mass apart from the style of music that is selected. Usually I hear people who want us to be more upbeat and like the non-denominationals, not more traditional like the EF Mass!

The question of Catholics who no longer attend Mass is not easy to answer. Did they leave over the Mass or the sex abuse scandal and the implied hypocrisy of bishops and priests in this regard.

Did they leave over our strict teachings on sexual morality, only men ordained as priests and our politics as it regards contraception, same sex marriage and abortion?

Did they leave the Catholic Church for better community and feel good religion and relevancy?

Did they leave the Catholic Church because their new religion offers more opportunity for service?

How many leave the Catholic Church due to a percieved lack of reverence in the Ordinary Form, the lack of a silent canon, no kneeling for Holy Communion, altar girls, Eucharistic ministers, lectors and the like?
Very few I think.

HERE WE GO! WILL CNN OBSESS OVER THIS AND DEMAND HIS RESIGNATION?

HYPOCRISY IS THY NAME!

Al Franken Hit With Sexual Assault Accusations

Willa Frej,HuffPost 

 

Anchorwoman and sportscaster Leeann Tweeden said Thursday that comedian Al Franken kissed and groped her without her consent during a USO tour in December 2006.

Franken, who is now the junior Democratic senator from Minnesota, was headlining the event. Tweeden was emceeing.

Tweeden said Thursday that she knew ahead of time that Franken had written a skit where his character tries to kiss her.

“On the day of the show Franken and I were alone backstage going over our lines one last time,” Tweeden wrote in a post for 790 KABC, the radio station she works for in Los Angeles. “He said to me, ‘We need to rehearse the kiss.’ I laughed and ignored him. Then he said it again. I said something like, ‘Relax Al, this isn’t SNL... we don’t need to rehearse the kiss.’ He continued to insist, and I was beginning to get uncomfortable.”
She finally relented, she said:

We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.
I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn’t be so nice about it the next time.
I walked away. All I could think about was getting to a bathroom as fast as possible to rinse the taste of him out of my mouth.
I felt disgusted and violated.

She did end up performing the skit as written, she continued, turning her head away while on stage so Franken couldn’t kiss her.

When she was on her way home to Los Angeles, she said, she fell asleep on the plane. While she slept, Franken grabbed her breasts and had a photo taken.

“I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep,” she wrote. “I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated. How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?”

Franken responded in a press statement Thursday.

“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann,” he said. “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”

USO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month, following a whirlwind of accusations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, Franken wrote in a Facebook post about the “disappointing responses” women often receive after sharing their stories. He also said he was working to pass the Arbitration Fairness Act, which would allow people who have faced workplace harassment to go to court.

Esquire’s Mike Sacks noted on Twitter that in Franken’s book Giant of the Senate, he says he decided to run for public office after the USO tour in question. Franken was elected to the Senate in 2008.

DO YOU WANT AN "OTHER-WORLDLY" MASS, WITH SOLEMNITY, REVERENCE, KNEELING FOR HOLY COMMUNION, SILENCE WITH A PURPOSE AND DURING ACTUAL PRAYER AND RITUAL, SUCH AS A LOW VOICE ROMAN CANON? DO YOU WANT RITUAL, AD ORIENTEM, LATIN, GREEK, HEBREW AND ENGLISH? THEN I HAVE THE MASS FOR YOU! THE 24TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS AT THE CATHEDRAL OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST IN DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH ON LAFAYETTE SQUARE WITH YOURS TRULY AS THE CELEBRANT FOR TWO SUNDAYS IN A ROW! BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!

Traditional Propers for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost   Vestments:  Green   INTROIT Jeremias 29: 11, 12, 14 The Lord saith: I think thoughts of peace, and not of affliction: you shall call upon Me, and I will hear you; and I will bring back your captivity from all places. -- (Ps. 84. 2). Lord, Thou hast blessd Thy land: Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob. V.: Glory be to the Father . . . -- The Lord saith: I think thoughts of peace . . .   COLLECT - Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that ever pondering on reasonable things, we may accomplish, both in words and works, that which is pleasing in Thy sight. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee . . .   EPISTLE 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 Brethren, We give thanks to God always for you all, making a rembrance of you in our prayers without ceasing, being mindful of the work of your faith and labor and charity, and of the enduring of the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father: knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election: for our Gospel hath not been unto you in word only, but in power also, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much fulness, as you know what nammer of men we have been among you for your sakes. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that you were made a pattern to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but also in every place your faith, which is towards God, is gone forth, so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves relate of us what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven (Whom He raised from the dead), Jesus, who hath delivered us from the wrath to come.   GRADUAL Psalms. 43: 8- 9 Thou hast delivered us, O Lord, from them that afflict us: and hast put them to shame that hate us. V.: In God we will glory all the day: and in Thy Name we will give praise for ever. Alleluia, alleluia. V. (Psalm 129:1, 2). From the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my prayer. Alleluia.   GOSPEL Matthew  13:31-35 At that time Jesus spoke to the multitudes this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: which is the least indeed of all seeds but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the branches thereof. Another parable He spoke to them: The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. All these things Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes: and without parables He did not speak to them: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.     OFFERTORY Psalms 129:1, 2 From the depths I have cried out to Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my prayer: from the depths I have cried out to Thee, O Lord.   SECRET - May this offering O Lord, we beseech Thee, cleanse and renew us, guide and protect us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost . . .   PREFACE (Preface of the Most Holy Trinity) - It it truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God; Who, together with Thine only-begotten Son, and the Holy Ghost, art one God, one Lord: not in the oneness of a single Person, but in the Trinity of one substance. For what we believe by Thy revelation of Thy glory, the same do we believe of Thy Son, the same of the Holy Ghost, without difference or separation. So that in confessing the true and everlasting Godhead, distinction in persons, unity in essence, and equality in majesty may be adored. Which the Angels and Archangels, the Cherubim also and Seraphim do praise: who cease not daily to cry out, with one voice saying:   COMMUNION Mark 11: 24 Amen I say to you, whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive and it shall be done to you.   POST COMMUNION - Being fed, O Lord, with heavenly delights, we beseech Thee, that we may ever hunger after things by which we truly live. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth . . .

BOMBSHELL! POPE FRANCIS AT HIS WEDNESDAY AUDIENCE ON THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS TELLS CATHOLICS TO STOP CHIT-CHATTING BEFORE MASS! I WONDER IF IT APPLIES TO AFTER MASS TOO?

 I suspect liturgical theologians of the progressive kind, like at Praytell, are grinding and gnashing their teeth over this, especially its logical conclusion--the low voice Canon!!!!!!!

Pope Francis: The Mass needs silence, not ‘chit-chat’

November 15, 2017 CNA Daily News

Vatican City, Nov 15, 2017 / 03:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis called out the common habit of chatting with people around you before Mass, stressing that this is a time for silent prayer, when we prepare our hearts for an encounter with the Lord.

“When we go to Mass, maybe we arrive five minutes before, and we start to chit-chat with those in front of us,” the Pope said Nov. 15. However, “it is not a moment for chit-chat.”

“It is a moment of silence for preparing ourselves for dialogue, a time for the heart to collect itself in order to prepare for the encounter with Jesus,” he said, adding that “silence is so important.”

Continuing his new catechesis on the Eucharist, the Pope recalled his message the week prior, that the Mass is not a show, but a place where we encounter the Lord. In this encounter, he said, silence is what “prepares us and accompanies us.”

But to really understand this, first we have to answer a question, he said. And that is: What is prayer?
Prayer is, “first and foremost dialogue, personal relationship with God,” he said. And in prayer, just like in any dialogue, it needs moments of silence “together with Jesus.” This, he said, is because it is only in the “mysterious silence of God” that his Word can resound in our heart. (My comment: sounds like a good rationale for the low voice canon, no????)


Francis explained that to pray is not difficult, and is something that Jesus himself taught us to do first of all by example, when in the Gospels he withdraws to a secluded place to pray. And second, he teaches us again when he tells his disciples that the first word in knowing how to pray is “Father.”

This is “so simple,” the Pope said. “So we have to learn, ‘Father.’” Then, we must take on the attitude of a small child before his or her parents. One full of trust and confidence, knowing that God “remembers you and takes care of you,” he said.

The second attitude we should take is one of childlike surprise and wonder. The child, he said, “always asks a thousand questions because he wants to discover the world; in our relationship with the Lord, in prayer, wonder,” he said, telling pilgrims to “open the heart to wonder.”

When it comes to prayer, he noted that often we are busy with many different activities or projects and say we don’t have time. “We lose sight of what is fundamental: our life of the heart, our spiritual life, our life of prayer with the Lord.”

However, Jesus surprises us in truth by loving us and calling us even in our weaknesses, he said, adding that just as Christ called his disciples, he also calls us to him at each Mass.

“This is therefore the greatest grace: to be able to experience the Mass, the Eucharist. It is the privileged moment to be with Jesus, and through Him with God and his brothers.”

IT'S TIME TO STOP BLAMING THE VICTIMS AND CONNECT THE DOTS THAT HAS LED TO THE DECLINE OF SEXUAL MORALS SINCE THE 1960'S! APART FROM SATAN, HOLLYWOOD IS THE VICTIMIZER!

Terry Crews, football player and celebrity names his Hollywood abuser!

Hollywood was once strictly supervised and censored by religious authorities and the Catholic Church in this country was a big player in it but not exclusively. Sex was subtle, so much so, any movie up to the late 50's was child friendly. There was no need for age ratings. There was no nudity, and if violence was portrayed much of it was not shown but left to the imagination. And the movie could not end with the villains getting away with it.

This extended to the early years of television, so much so, that the I Love Lucy show could not use the word "pregnant" when Lucille Ball's actual pregnancy was a part of the story line!

That censorship was for the common good and upholding secular morals based up our Judeo Christian heritage. It all collapsed by the late 50's and early 60's. So much so, the NBC Today Show in the 1960's had Barbara Walters review the X rated movie, "I Am Curious, Yellow" which depicted actual intercourse on screen. She gushed that Hollywood was set free from repressive religious sexual morality on screen now!

The entertainment media also cooked the frog of our culture slowly in their crock pot of sexual politics that led a majority of Americans, to include Catholics, to an acceptance of unnatural "marriage." They did this in a short 10 year period prior to the Supreme Court's decision. Shows like "Will and Grace" manipulated Americans into what was once thought never to be possible in our country and around the world.

Now we are finally seeing that the adolescent or arrested sexual development of those who produce Hollywood immorality, producers, writers, directors and actors have used their influence to create a hyper sexual society where rank and file viewers now expect sex on demand, one night stands, and the right to sex. And if they don't get it willingly, they'll turn to abuse, drugs and alcohol to get it and yes Hollywood porn to seduce willing and unwilling partners. This is called "date rape" and it is all too common today compared to the 1950's.

Hollywood has victimized our culture and all of us are now victims of their sexual amorality. Don't blame the victims, but blame the Hollywood victimizers!

Thus those who were physically victimized are helping to connect the Hollywood dots by going public with their stories of sexual abuse: 

Crews recounts alleged groping, names suspect

LOS ANGELES — Terry Crews said he’s never felt more “emasculated” and “objectified” than when a top Hollywood agent groped him at a party in 2016.

Crews told Good Morning America host Michael Strahan on Wednesday that he was inspired to share his sexual assault allegations after so many women came forward with accusations against Harvey Weinstein.

Crews named his alleged attacker, describing him as someone who represented Adam Sandler, Sylvester Stallone and Eddie Murphy and was “connected to probably everyone I know in the business.” The suspect’s employer, William Morris Endeavor, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Crews confirmed that he filed a police report against the man last week.

“People need to be held accountable,” the former pro-football player and star of TV’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine said. “This is the deal about Hollywood: It’s an abuse of power. This guy, again, he’s one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, and he looked at me at the end as if, you know, ‘Who’s going to believe you?’”

Crews said he’d put the incident out of his mind until last month’s news about Weinstein triggered an episode of post-traumatic stress.

“When a person of power breaks that boundary and violates that boundary, you’re a prisoner of war,” Crews said. “Immediately you’re in a camp, because you’re trying to figure out when is the right time to come out ... And you get out and you find freedom, and someone says, ‘Well, it must not be that bad. You should have come out sooner.’

“This is the thing a lot of people just don’t understand, and they end up blaming the victim.”

BLAST FROM THE PAST THAT I JUST CAME ACROSS AGAIN, AN INTERVIEW IN MACON THAT I FORGOT ABOUT!

MAINTAINING ONE'S FAITH IN A DIVISIVE WORLD AND CHURCH FUELED BY THE NEW MEDIA

Most Catholics want peace of mind as it concerns their Faith. Authentic Catholicism insists on the common good and the individual acquiescing it over their own needs.

With all the internet chatter that divides the world, our country and alas our Church, wouldn't it be better to be less informed of all the controversies and more informed about turning to God in prayer which leads to an increase of faith, hope and love? Right now in the Church there seems to be so much faithlessness, hopelessness and hatred.

In the past, as it concerned secular news that had a smidgen of religious news, most people got their news from their local newspaper, five minute reports on the radio at the top of the hour and the evening national news which until the late 1960's was 15 minutes for the three major networks. Yes, you read that correctly, 15 minutes of Huntley/Brinkley and the CBS Evening News. I think ABC didn't even have a news department.

And that was plenty of news for the average American to be well informed.

Today we have all kinds of news sources which aren't unbiased accounts of the news, be it secular or religious, but rather mostly commentary and opinion. And it is scripted on the 24 hour a day news channels. Thus agendas and division are increased by the one writing the script.

My suggestion for Catholic news is simply read the National Catholic Register and to balance it, the National Catholic Reporter.

Most of all, I would focus on Catholic prayer and devotions, Sunday Mass and placing all in the hands of our God as the Lord's prayer directs us, "...they Kingdom come, thy will be done..." With that you can't go wrong and you will be at peace.

Oh, and participate in your parish life and not its politics.

FROM THE UK'S "BITTER PILL"

Müller insists Vatican must have last word on translations

14 November 2017 | by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt OF THE TABLET (AKA, THE BITTER PILL)

'The final authority in case of doubt cannot lie with the bishops’ conferences'

Local bishops’ conferences could not possibly have the last word on the translation of liturgical texts as that would destroy church unity, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Cardinal Gerhard Müller, told the German daily 'Passauer Neue Presseon' on 9 November.

Questioned about the Pope’s motu proprio Magnum Principium that gave much more authority over liturgical translation to local bishops’ conferences rather than Rome, Muller said: “The final authority in case of doubt cannot lie with the bishops’ conferences. That would destroy the Catholic Church’s unity in faith, in confession and in prayer”.

Rome had often experienced that local bishops’ conferences had used translators who had “watered down” Biblical and liturgical texts “under the pretext of making them easier to understand”, which had meant that highly-demanding doctrines such as Christ’s atoning death on the Cross, the Virgin birth, Jesus’ bodily Resurrection and the Real Presence in the bread and the wine at the Eucharist among others, had sometimes been “rationalised away or broken down into ethical appeals, thus stripping them of the reality of Catholic Salvation”, Muller explained.

According to the Pope’s motu proprio, issued in September, the Holy See must still provide the “confirmatio” - confirmation - of translations produced by bishops' conferences.
“It is for the Apostolic See to order the sacred liturgy of the universal Church,” the new clause to Canon Law states.

“It pertains to the Episcopal Conferences to faithfully prepare versions of the liturgical books in vernacular languages, suitably accommodated within defined limits, and to approve and publish the liturgical books for the regions for which they are responsible after the confirmation of the Apostolic See.”

Müller’s interviewer recalled that Pope Francis had only recently corrected Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, who shared Müller’s view that Rome must have the final word on liturgical translations. As emeritus Pope Benedict had said that the liturgy was in good hands with Cardinal Sarah did this mean that the harmony between Francis and Benedict was over, Müller was asked.

“Asking me to comment publicly on the relationship between the Pope and Benedict XVI exceeds my competences”, the cardinal replied.

 Asked if such conflicts could lead to a schism, Müller said: “Church unity is not achieved by one camp eliminating the other but the dissolution of all camps.”

In the same interview, Müller again firmly defended Pope Francis against the accusations of propagating heresy made against him recently. It was “quite clear” and “without any doubt” that nothing in “the few controversial passages” in Amoris Laetitia was heretical, he emphasised. The Pope wanted to help people in very difficult and often tragic situations to be reconciled with God and eventually receive the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, Muller said.

PICTURE: Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller pictured in the Cathedral in Mainz, Germany ©PA

DIOCESAN MIDDLE SCHOOL VENUE USES ST. ANNE, RICHMOND HILL, GA, FOR DIOCESAN EVENT

We were happy to host this diocesan event two weeks ago. There is a nice shot of the exterior of the new St. Anne's Church in it:

HERE WE GO! THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTS THAT CARDINAL CUPICH SUFFERED AT THE HANDS OF THE U.S. BISHOPS!

I think most Catholics, including this one, don't like the politics of the Catholic Church today. Elections of chairpersons for a national bishops' conference have made our prelates into even bigger politicians than they are now. It is distasteful.

By this, I don't mean that they should choose from their brothers, men who are capable of carrying out tasks assigned to them. But when we see the votes that are taken, meaning how many votes a particular candidate received, isn't there a kind of humiliation that accompanies this kind of transparency, especially if the vote isn't anywhere close.

Personally, I am happy that the pro-life bishop who won is the the one who won!

But here is the Chicago Tribune's secular and political take on it--and the only ones responsible for the politicization of this kind of thing isn't the Tribune, but the bishops:

Cupich suffers rare political defeat at hands of fellow U.S. bishops

•November 14, 2017

Cupich suffers rare political defeat at hands of fellow U.S. bishops

Cardinal Blase Cupich has often been praised for his political savvy since he was installed in Chicago by Pope Francis. But Cupich suffered a rare setback Tuesday morning when his fellow U.S. bishops rejected him for the post of chairman of the powerful pro-life activities committee, instead electing Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann. The post is traditionally reserved for cardinals, meaning the conservative Naumann’s 96-82 vote victory over Cupich has widely been seen as a snub for the more progressive approach advocated by Cupich and the pope. National Catholic Reporter columnist Michael Sean Winters — a liberal — went so far as to say the vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Continue Reading by clicking here as the disgraceful Michael Sean Winters uses a vulgarity to describe what the bishops did to make Cardinal cupich suffer so much!

THIS IS WHAT RORATE CAEILI IS REPORTING, WHICH I THINK REPORTS ACCURATELY WHAT THE FACTS ARE. BUT IS THERE A MESSAGE IN THIS?

Archbishop Naumann beats Cardinal Cupich

Surprising liberals and the social justice wing of the American Church at today's U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops general assembly, Archbishop Joseph Naumann beat Cardinal Blase Cupich in an election for the chairmanship of the committee on pro-life activities.

Cardinal Cupich, who many on the left had hoped would reshape the pro-life office of the USCCB in the style of his Chicago predecessor Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, lost the election 54 percent to 46 percent.  This means 82 bishops voted for Cupich, with 96 bishops supporting Naumann.

HOLLYWOOD AND SEXUAL HARRASMENT

It seems Hollywood is having its Catholic moment as it concerns the flood of accusations from celebrities accusing perpetrators of harassment or abuse, some from 40 or more years ago.

Let me ask a dumb question.

As it concern those in authority or actors on the set who make unwanted advances toward the star, be they male or female, would not the very fact that an actor getting the part hinges on the request to get nude in front of  those filming, and eventually the whole world, be a form of harassment and their ongoing victimization?

It seems that the Hollywood culture that has glorified sex has caused the very victimization of actors and actresses. Isn't it time for virtus type programs that place safeguards to prevent casting directors from being alone with anyone they are asking to strip to protect those applying for parts?  Should there not be a ban on full frontal nudity, actors simulating sex while nude, or actually having sex, to prevent victimization?

HAS ANYONE IN HOLLYWOOD, ADULTS THAT IS, EVERY HEARD OF AVOIDING THE NEAR OCCASIONS OF SIN AND THE ENVIRONMENT THAT COULD LEAD TO VICTIMIZATION?

ISN'T THE WHOLE HOLLYWOOD SCENE OF FREE SEX, SEXUAL SITUATIONS, IN MOVIES AND TELEVISION A SYMPTOM OF A MOLESTING, HARASSING AND ASSAULTING COMMUNITY? SHOULDN'T ACTORS WHO HAVE BEEN VICTIMIZED COME FORWARD AND HELP CHANGE HOLLYWOOD'S ORRUPT CULTURE?

BEFORE POPE BENEDICT ABDICATED, SHOULD HE HAVE NOT OFFERED A PAPAL DECREE REQUIRING THE ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS TO BE CELEBRATED AS THE EF MASS IS CELEBRATED?

John Nolan indicates if the Ordinary Form Mass is celebrated in Latin with the proper chants and ad orientem, most Catholics today would be hard pressed to tell the difference between it and the EF Mass, especially if Holy Communion is received kneeling.

Why o why, didn't Pope Benedict issue a papal decree stating the following about the Ordinary Form of the Mass especially once the EF Mass had been firmly entrenched in the modern Church following Summorum Pontificum?

Papal decree stating the following would lead to authentic liturgical renewal and not in any way call into question Vatican II's actual desire for the Mass but also allowing for organic development since the 1970 Roman Missal was issued:

The OF Mass will now have three categories, Low, High and Solemn High.

When this Mass is celebrated in the vernacular or Latin, the proper chants for the Introit, Offertory and Communion antiphons must be used.

The Mass normally should be celebrated ad orientem. As the Introit is chanted, the priest kisses the altar, incenses it, it used and then faces the altar at its center and begins with the sign of the cross. Then he kisses the altar, turns to the congregation and greets them with "The Lord be with you" and then invites them to prepare for the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries. He turns to the altar, bows and leads the congregation in the Confiteor, absolution and then the chanting of the Kyrie and Gloria, then he goes to the Epistle side of the altar where the Roman Missal is and chants/says the Collect.

All sit for the Liturgy of the Word as is commonly celebrated in the Ordinary Form.

After the Homily, the priest faces the altar for the Credo and Universal Prayer.

The Liturgy of the Eucharist follows. Each time the priest turns to the congregation, he should kiss the altar.

After Holy Communion, the priest returns to the Epistle side of the altar and prays the Prayer after Holy Communion. Then he returns to the center, kisses it and tuns to the congregation for the greeting, blessing and dismissal of the Mass.

He goes to the foot of the altar, bows or genuflect and departs with the other ministers. A recessional hymn may be sung.