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Saturday, March 6, 2021
POPE FRANCIS CELEBRATING THE CHALDEAN RITE OF THE EASTERN RITE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AT THE CHALDEAN CATHEDRAL IN BAGDAD
Friday, March 5, 2021
IS THE NEW YORK TIMES REALLY CONCERNED ABOUT THE POPE’S PILGRIMAGE TO IRAQ BECOMING A SUPER-SPREADER EVENT?
I copy this from the Deacon’s Bench which received it from the New York Times. Does the pope’s visit to Iraq not fit into the Democrat party’s fear mongering in this country concerning Covid-19 and controlling our population with draconian policies that enable a more socialist approach to our economy?
Or is the New York Times fearful of a super spreader event of the Gospel and Catholic teaching that opposes abortion, gender ideology, euthanasia and contempt for the manner in which God created us, male and female He created us.
Is the pope fed up with lockdowns and oppressive Covid-19 ideologies? The question would be why? If they are in favor of millions of children being murdered through abortion, why are they opposed to people dying of a virus? Is it possible that Covid-19 could be God’s way of thinning out the world population as God alone can give and take life? He is God. We are not! What does Catholic doctrine say about this sort of thing and God’s power to give and take life?
From The New York Times:
Pope Francis has said that he has canceled trips during the pandemic because “in conscience I cannot provoke gatherings,” but that the only thing that would stop him from becoming the first pope to visit war-scarred Iraq would be a new surge in infections.
That is exactly what has happened. A spike in coronavirus cases has prompted Iraqi officials to impose lockdowns. Shia authorities have suspended religious pilgrimages. On Sunday, the Vatican’s own ambassador contracted the virus and went into isolation. For good measure, suicide bombings, rocket attacks and geopolitical tensions have increased, too.
But, Francis, to the bewilderment of many, is intent on going anyway. After more than a year cooped up behind the Vatican walls, he will fly to Baghdad on Friday at one of the most virulent moments of the entire pandemic, sending a message that flies in the face of nearly all public health guidelines and putting potentially thousands of Iraqis in danger.
“The day after tomorrow, God willing, I will go to Iraq for a three-day pilgrimage,” Francis said Wednesday in his weekly address to the faithful, only hours after a new barrage of rocket attacks. “I ask that you accompany this apostolic trip with prayer so that it can occur in the best way possible, bear the hoped-for fruit. The Iraqi people await us.”
Francis was himself vaccinated in mid-January, and while he has come under some criticism for a refusal to wear masks in private audiences, he has called on wealthy countries to give vaccines to poorer ones, and called a refusal to vaccinate “suicidal.”
The pope’s entourage is also vaccinated, but there is anxiety among the pope’s supporters that a trip designed largely to bring peace and encouragement to Iraq’s long-suffering Christians has the potential to be a superspreader event. The possibility, and potential disaster, of the 84-year-old pope inadvertently endangering an Iraqi population with practically no access to vaccines is not lost on his allies back in Rome.
“There is this concern that the pope’s visit not put the people’s health at risk, this is evident,” said Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit priest and close ally of Francis. “There is an awareness of the problem.”
Thursday, March 4, 2021
I DON'T PARTICULARLY TRUST ALDO MARIA VALLI AS HE HAS ENABLED CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND THE QUESTIONABLE ARCHBISHOP VIGANO; MARCO TOSATTI IS MORE CREDIBLE, THOUGH, BUT NOT WITHOUT HIS BAGGAGE
What I like about all of this, though, is that it is so, so Italian, yes, so, so Italian and it speaks to my better half.
I have to say that I share some of Valli's concerns and how peculiar the interview with Pope Benedict was and is and why now? And why did Vatican News so quickly print it and say that Benedict said "there are not two popes". The question that raises and even Valli implies it, is that there is only one pope, but which one? That is not truly settled by Ratzinger at all in "his" remark.
Marco Tosatti
Dear friends and enemies of Stilum Curiae, thanks to the work of a friend, we offer you the translation of the commentary that Aldo maria Valli wrote in relation to the singular interview of the pope emeritus to Corriere della Sera. Enjoy reading.
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That peculiar “interview” of Benedict XVI in Corriere
By Aldo Maria Valli – 2 March 2021
I rarely concern myself with the work of other newspapers and journalists, but I am making an exception for the peculiar “interview” which Benedict XVI supposedly gave to Corriere della sera.
Why do I write “interview” in quotation marks and use the conditional tense?
It’s quite simple: because if you read the article you can see quite clearly that there is no interview. Massimo Franco and the editor of Corriere make a visit to Benedict XVI and bring him (they already did this once before) two cartoons by Gianelli. The elderly pope emeritus (also because of his present state of debilitation) responds to several solicitations with short remarks (“his voice is a breath, it comes and goes”), thanks them, and greets them. That’s it. Interviews are another thing altogether.
And why do I say that the interview, admitted and not granted that it is an interview, is peculiar?
It’s quite simple: because the words and content do not seem to belong to the vocabulary and style of Joseph Ratzinger.
The Ratzinger I know would never have used the word “fanatics” to define his friends who are not content with his resignation of the pontificate. Nor would he ever have permitted himself to intervene in Italian affairs by expressing his hope that Draghi, “very esteemed in Germany,” can “resolve the crisis.”
In the same way, Ratzinger would never have allowed himself to attribute a conviction to President Biden (“personally he is against abortion”) in order to then comment in a superficial and approximative way: “as president he tends to present himself in continuity with the platform of the Democratic Party.” The same is true for the other – truly incredible – statement regarding Biden, and that is that “on gender politics we have not yet understood well what his position is.”
And furthermore, why does he use the plural? “We have not understood?” Has the plural maiestatis suddenly been restored?
Regarding the words, “There are not two popes, there is only one pope,” it seems to me, frankly, that they are not newsworthy. Ratzinger has already said this many times. We would have had a scoop if Ratzinger had said, “The only pope is Bergoglio and I am no longer the pope.” But he has never said this, and he continues to not say it.
The real questions that ought to have been asked of Benedict XVI are quite different. For example: “Your Holiness, forgive us, you wear white and you bless as a pope emeritus, but how were you able to invent such a monstrum? How could you abandon the flock to the ferocity of the wolves? You say that you have a clear conscience, but don’t you feel the bewilderment and suffering of a large part of the flock?” Then, yes, we would have had an interview.
And then, behold: right on time, Vatican News, the official press agency of the Vatican, headlines with great prominence: “Ratzinger repeats: There are not two popes.” A game that is becoming tedious.
A.M.V.
First published in Italian at Aldo Maria Valli’s blog
I WAS SHOCKED TO HEAR PRESIDENT BIDEN USE THE “N” WORD THIS MORNING
Yes, you read that correctly. The new President used the”N” word in what certainly most enlightened democrats would call hate speech.
He called the Texas governor and other courageous states who are no longer mandating masks Neanderthals. That was not a compliment and denigrated everyone who identifies as LBGTQN and add your own initial group!
SHOCKING TO SAY THE LEAST IN OUR MOST ENLIGHTENED ERA!
COVID-19 VACCINES AND NEW ORLEANS ARCHDIOCESE, THE USCCB AND THE VATICAN NOT NECESSARILY A UNITED TRINITY
New Orleans says no to the Johnson and Johnson Covid vaccine. The USCCB’s statement is a bit more nuanced and basically says go for it to protect the greater good.
And then there is this Vatican statement from December:
And then there was this:
ARCHDIOCESE: NEWEST COVID VACCINE ‘MORALLY COMPROMISED’
Details: The Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans urged Catholics on Friday against taking a vaccine
And there is this, meh:
USCCB RESPONDS TO CONCERNS ABOUT MORALITY OF JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE
"We affirm again that being vaccinated can be an act of charity that serves the common good."
And then there is me:
It’s clear that Catholic moral theology is in chaos. What to do? What to do? O! What are we to do?
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
THERE DOES SEEM TO BE A TREND OF A MORE TRADITIONAL LOOK FOR CHURCHES, EITHER NEW ONE OR RE-RENOVATIONS OF OLDER ONES--THAT IS GOOD
Before:
after:
After after (but not complete yet):
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
TEXAS GOVERNOR RESCINDS MASK MANDATE
California disagrees. North Dakota, Montana and Iowa agree with Texas. Florida overjoyed. 100% of businesses may open now in Texas.
100% opposite of what White House wants.
Will Nanny state win or will adults who are adults win?
Do you want to live in a Nanny state like California or an adult state like Texas?
SOME COMMON SENSE WAY TO RENEW IN CONTINUITY THE ORDINARY FORM’S MASS OF CHRISTIAN BURIAL
First of all the official name of the Funeral Mass is a misnomer. For so many souls today, as well as their bodies, there is no burial because of cremation. So let’s change the official name to Requiem Mass. The Latin term is better than the English word “rest” or Rest Mass. Mass of the Dead sounds too macabre and it certainly is not the Mass of the Resurrection unless it is Easter Sunday or its Octave.
Make violet or black the normative color for adult funerals and white for children’s funerals.
Eliminate the Alleluia at any time in the Mass or hymns that are chosen. Specifically use the Lenten Gospel Acclamation not the Alleluia.
Use the traditional endings for the Agnus Dei at Requiem Masses, ...grant them rest; grant them rest, grant them eternal rest.
No lay eulogies after Holy Communion or before the Mass—these to take place at the funeral home before or after the Vigil for the Deceased.
Eliminate having an Old Testament Reading, Psalm and then Epistle. Only have Epistle (or Old Testament reading) Gradual or Responsorial Psalm and Gospel as in a daily Mass.
What else?
IS THIS IDEA THAT THERE ARE TWO POPES A BIGGER IDEA THAN I THOUGHT IT WAS?
Vatican News this morning seems to think so by giving this story a lot of prominence. I wonder what that says? Of course the headline perpetuates another conspiracy theory that there is only one pope, but which one?
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: “There are not two Popes”
By Vatican News
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s resignation from the papacy, which became effective eight years ago, [28 February 2013] was a “difficult choice,” but made “in full conscience” – one which he has not regretted at all.
Once again, the Pope Emeritus, albeit in a subdued voice, repeats what he has already said several times to dismiss the “somewhat fanatical friends” who continue to see “conspiracy theories” behind his decision to leave the Chair of St. Peter by retiring for reasons of old age.
This was reiterated by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
A difficult but correct decision
“It was a difficult decision,” explains the Pope Emeritus, "but I made it in full conscience, and I believe I did well. Some of my friends who are a bit ‘fanatical’ are still angry; they did not want to accept my choice. I am thinking about the conspiracy theories which followed it: those who said it was because of the Vatileaks scandal, those who said it was because of the case of the conservative Lefebvrian theologian, Richard Williamson. They did not want to believe it was a conscious decision, but my conscience is clear.”
Papal visit to Iraq
In the interview, Benedict XVI also spoke about Pope Francis' upcoming Apostolic Journey to Iraq.
“I think it is a very important trip," he said. "Unfortunately, it comes at a very difficult time that also makes it a dangerous trip for security reasons and also because of Covid-19. There is also the unstable Iraqi situation. I will accompany Francis with my prayers.”
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS DOGMATIC MORAL ADVICE AND I WONDER WHAT RELIGION IS BEING CASTIGATED AND OVER WHAT? SAME SEX MARRIAGE? GENDER IDEOLOGY? IF SO, HOW NEO-NAZI CAN THESE TEACHINGS BE? IT SEEMS TO ME TO BE ADVICE FROM A DOGMATIC SECULAR “RELIGION” WHICH IS THE DICTATORSHIP OF RELATIVISM AND TO BE MORE FEARED THAN THE FAMILY RELIGION DESCRIBED AS NEO-NAZI BY A SECULAARIST OF ALL PEOPLE!
Is it OK to reject family members over their religion?
CAROLYN HAX
Adapted from an online discussion.
Dear Carolyn: Most of my family members belong to the religion I was raised in, which I have come to view as wrong not just theologically, but morally. The religion teaches prejudice and hatred.
I am increasingly wondering whether I can, in good conscience, continue to have a loving relationship with these people. To me, the religion’s teachings are so wrong, so harmful, that acting friendly around them as long as religion doesn’t come up would be like having a friend who’s a member of a neo-Nazi organization and just turning a blind eye to it.
Do you think that, for my own morality, I need to sever ties with my family? -- Religious Differences
Religious Differences: IF you believe this religion’s teachings are as morally reprehensible as neo-Nazism -- if -- then, yes, you need to treat your family members who embrace these teachings as if they were neo-Nazis.
If there’s a moral difference between the two belief systems, then your moral obligation changes as well.
Ultimately only you can determine this.
You also, of course, get to choose which values you prioritize:
Does family take precedence over the morality of individual beliefs, or does the morality trump all?
Do your priorities change whether these beliefs are or aren’t acted upon, or is the belief enough regardless? Does choosing the religion mean choosing its every belief, or are adherents responsible only for the tenets they embrace?
Or does usefulness toward the collective good displace both family and morality altogether, if there’s some chance remaining connected will give you more power over your family’s immorality than you would have if you chose to isolate yourself from them?
It’s a lot. Being torn is almost a given.
And you certainly will find a lot of people in anguish over similar conflicts, if you look, and not even very hard.
It’s also your prerogative to decide, always, that you don’t like the effect certain people have on you and that you don’t want to associate with them anymore for that reason alone. It doesn’t have to be any more cerebral or ethical than that.
KUDOS TO BURMA NUN
About a month or more ago, one of my Burmese parishioners died of cancer. A priest friend from Burma stationed now in Oklahoma, came to St. Anne’s to celebrate his Requiem in our chapel. I had no idea that there is a small Catholic Burmese community in the Savannah area. The chapel was almost full and their participation in the Mass was great. It sounded like they had there own choir but it was congregational singing.
I think you can watch part of that Mass on our Facebook page here: https://fb.watch/3ZZhjXopOS/
Catholic nun gives Myanmar own Tiananmen moment
WHICH IS BETTER? FUNDAMENTALIST OR FANATICAL?
Pope Benedict was and is always precise in his use of language. He called Catholics who reject his resignation “fanatical” Catholics.
Whereas Pope Francis, who isn’t precise in his language and his language always obfuscates the truth or confuses it, would more than likely use the term “fundamentalist” Catholic.
To be clear “fundamentalism” is a Protestant ideology. It was caused by the modernism of Protestantism associated with the “great awakening” of the 1800’s. Liberal Protestantism so aligned itself with secular thought, a reaction developed that led to the Fundamentalist movement of the early 1900’s. Of course Protestantism as it has no vicar of Christ acting as a central authority does what Protestantism does, it fragments and each fragment claims it to be an act of God to get to the real truth.
Martin Luther, the first Protestant, wasn’t a fundamentalist, he was a fanatic.
Catholicism has always had fanatics. What is unique since Vatican II that made the Church more Protestant for an ecumenical ideological purposes is that we are now paying for what it means to be Protestant, fragmentation and each group claiming to be recovering the truth.
Actually fanaticism is extremism. Fundamentalism is extremism too, but extreme in what sense, the true Protestant religion? There is no such thing.
But in Catholicism there is the True religion and extremism is being more true than the True religion but and it’s a big BUT...YOU CAN’T BE MORE TRUE THAN THE TRUE RELIGION. We have the Magisterium which Protestants don’t have. Fanatics forget that in their extremism.
Monday, March 1, 2021
DID YOUR PARISH CELEBTATE THE SCRUTINYMINOR EXORCISM FOR BAPTIZED CANDIDATES FOR FULL COMMUNION ON THE 2ND SUNDAY OF LENT?
The Second Sunday of lent we pray over our baptized candidates for full communion. It is called a Scrutiny or minor exorcism. The third through 5th Sunday’s of Lent we offer minor exorcisms to the unbaptized Elect. This year we only have one catechumen.
PLACE THIS UNDER THE "JUST TOO COOL" FILE!
Our Permanent Deacon at Saint Anne Catholic Church in Richmond Hill, Deacon and Mrs. Ben Ernst's son, Captain Spencer Ernst, USMC, is deployed on the USS New Orleans. He is a "Viper" Cobra pilot. But first things first! Sunday Mass on the USS New Orleans deck. Then he takes off and is the second person in the Viper Cobra! Keep him and all our deployed and active military in your prayers! This is just too cool!
WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE OF MASS SINCE THE RETURN OF PUBLIC MASS IN THE COVID-19 AGE
Let me offer a disclaimer. Richmond Hill, Georgia has had, for the most part, a very nonchalant reaction to the Pandemic. And yes, our public schools have been in full session since late August. The opposite is true in one county over, Savannah’s county which is Chatham. Ours is Bryan. They still do not have full time public school in person.
Richmond Hill has had no mask mandate the entire pandemic. Chatham has and still has it. Chatham has had far more cases percentage wise and deaths percentage wise than Richmond Hill. Thus far, since the pandemic I have had three deaths resulting directly or indirectly from Covid-19, the latest an 80 year old parishioner whose funeral is today. However, I have had far more funerals this year that had nothing to do with Covid-19 and everything to do with old age or cancer or some other disease.
Our diocese returned to public Mass on Pentecost Sunday, late May. Bishop Stephen Parkes restored the obligation to attend Sunday Mass and Holy Days of Obligation (with some exceptions) in early September.
For the last several months, we have been averaging about 350 at our 10:30 AM Sunday High Mass in a church that seats about 1,000. Prior to the pandemic it was about 450.
At our Ash Wednesday 7 PM Mass with Bishop Parkes “presiding” and I the celebrant, we had the most in attendance since the pandemic and on a day that is not a Holy Day of Obligation, about 450 if not more.
While Richmond Hill has no mask mandate and never has, we have highly encouraged it, but many do not wear a mask to Mass but I would say the majority do.
What’s your experience?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
This is from the Facebook page, I’m fed up with ugly churches. The only redeeming thing about this church is that the EF Mass is celebrated at a properly vested EF altar—it makes all the difference in the world in a horrid looking building. However, the servers are lifting the chasuble way too high. As I recall, prior to Vatican II, the lifting of the chasuble was only at a High Mass and it was a very sober lift, more a a stretch than a lift:
Saturday, February 27, 2021
WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THIS ARTICLE EXPLAINS SO MUCH OF THIS PAPACY
Pope Francis and no pope are psychological therapists and we can ignore or receive diagnoses they might make in this realm. Post Vatican II veneration of psychology as a cure all has led to the scandal the Church is still cleaning up and the pain and suffering of so many laity.
Press Crux title for implied insights into this pope and his ethos:
Pope Francis says he’ll die in Rome, not in Argentina
HIS MOTHER PRAYS THE HOLY ROSARY FOR HIM DAILY; THUS THERE IS HOPE THAT HE WILL CONVERT FROM HIS LOVE OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY’S IDEOLOGIES OR FEAR OF ITS LEADERS TO LOVE OF GOD AND FEAR OF GOD!
Thursday, February 25, 2021
THANK YOU SENATOR RAND PAUL FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS OUTRAGE!
Shame on President Biden for nominating someone like this with their pagan demonic ideology. It is beyond shocking. Hopefully victims of this person’s cruel, abusive ideology will sue this confused person for damages. This person is dangerous!
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
PROGRESSIVES TEACH A PERSON CAN CHANGE GENDERS AND CREATE NEW CATEGORIES; DOES THAT APPLY TO RACE?
People of confused sexuality are changing their sex from that which was "assigned" to them at birth to something else to include new, unheard of categories. This may well be codified in law by the Biden administration's lobbying efforts.
However, would this, by reason of logic, also apply to race? Certainly, through the art of tattooing a person's pigmentation can be changed to almost any color.
Can a person "assigned at birth" black or white, or red or yellow or any other color, choose to change their race? Isn't this the logic of sexual reassignment legitimately applied to race reassignment?
PRAY TO SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER FOR THIS MAN’S CONVERSION
This man whose patron saint is St.Francis Xavier voted against a ban on partial birth abortion. In other words, he voted to allow doctors and mothers to murder a baby in the most diabolical way as the baby is being born. Shocking is not the term to describe this callousness.
This man is morally bankrupt and a mortal sinner. He needs our prayers for his conversion. Could you imagine a pedophile who voted against banning the sexual exploitation of children saying I think we can find common ground on this, yet, this man says the same about a baby being murdered in the most gruesome way as she is being born. And President Biden, a Catholic, condones this.
I wonder if this man considers himself a devout Catholic as President Biden describes himself?
From the Salt Lake Tribune:
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
I RECEIVED MY FIRST COVID 19 VACCINE TODAY
The only problem was there were two more 6’s behind the nurse....
