LITURGICAL BOMBSHELL? COPIED FROM PRAYTELL:

APOSTOLIC LETTER ISSUED MOTU PROPRIO OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF FRANCIS

MAGNUM PRINCIPIUM

BY WHICH CAN. 838 OF THE CODE OF CANON LAW IS MODIFIED

The great principle, established by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, according to which liturgical prayer be accommodated to the comprehension of the people so that it might be understood, required the weighty task of introducing the vernacular language into the liturgy and of preparing and approving the versions of the liturgical books, a charge that was entrusted to the Bishops.

The Latin Church was aware of the attendant sacrifice involved in the partial loss of liturgical Latin, which had been in use throughout the world over the course of centuries. However it willingly opened the door so that these versions, as part of the rites themselves, might become the voice of the Church celebrating the divine mysteries along with the Latin language.

At the same time, especially given the various clearly expressed views of the Council Fathers with regard to the use of the vernacular language in the liturgy, the Church was aware of the difficulties that might present themselves in this regard. On the one hand it was necessary to unite the good of the faithful of a given time and culture and their right to a conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations with the substantial unity of the Roman Rite. On the other hand the vernacular languages themselves, often only in a progressive manner, would be able to become liturgical languages, standing out in a not dissimilar way to liturgical Latin for their elegance of style and the profundity of their concepts with the aim of nourishing the faith.

This was the aim of various Liturgical Laws, Instructions, Circular Letters, indications and confirmations of liturgical books in the various vernacular languages issued by the Apostolic See from the time of the Council which was true both before as well as after the laws established by the Code of Canon Law.

The criteria indicated were and remain at the level of general guidelines and, as far as possible, must be followed by Liturgical Commissions as the most suitable instruments so that, across the great variety of languages, the liturgical community can arrive at an expressive style suitable and appropriate to the individual parts, maintaining integrity and accurate faithfulness especially in translating some texts of major importance in each liturgical book.

Because the liturgical text is a ritual sign it is a means of oral communication. However, for the believers who celebrate the sacred rites the word is also a mystery. Indeed when words are uttered, in particular when the Sacred Scriptures are read, God speaks to us. In the Gospel Christ himself speaks to his people who respond either themselves or through the celebrant by prayer to the Lord in the Holy Spirit.

The goal of the translation of liturgical texts and of biblical texts for the Liturgy of the Word is to announce the word of salvation to the faithful in obedience to the faith and to express the prayer of the Church to the Lord. For this purpose it is necessary to communicate to a given people using its own language all that the Church intended to communicate to other people through the Latin language. While fidelity cannot always be judged by individual words but must be sought in the context of the whole communicative act and according to its literary genre, nevertheless some particular terms must also be considered in the context of the entire Catholic faith because each translation of texts must be congruent with sound doctrine.

It is no surprise that difficulties have arisen between the Episcopal Conferences and the Apostolic See in the course of this long passage of work. In order that the decisions of the Council about the use of vernacular languages in the liturgy can also be of value in the future a vigilant and creative collaboration full of reciprocal trust between the Episcopal Conferences and the Dicastery of the Apostolic See that exercises the task of promoting the Sacred Liturgy, i.e. the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, is absolutely necessary. For this reason, in order that the renewal of the whole liturgical life might continue, it seemed opportune that some principles handed on since the time of the Council should be more clearly reaffirmed and put into practice.

Without doubt, attention must be paid to the benefit and good of the faithful, nor must the right and duty of Episcopal Conferences be forgotten who, together with Episcopal Conferences from regions sharing the same language and with the Apostolic See, must ensure and establish that, while the character of each language is safeguarded, the sense of the original text is fully and faithfully rendered and that even after adaptations the translated liturgical books always illuminate the unity of the Roman Rite.

To make collaboration in this service to the faithful between the Apostolic See and Episcopal Conferences easier and more fruitful, and having listened to the advice of the Commission of Bishops and Experts that I established, I order, with the authority entrusted to me, that the canonical discipline currently in force in can. 838 of the C.I.C. be made clearer so that, according to what is stated in the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, in particular in articles 36 §§3.4, 40 and 63, and in the Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio Sacram Liturgiam, n. IX, the competency of the Apostolic See surrounding the translation of liturgical books and the more radical adaptations established and approved by Episcopal Conferences be made clearer, among which can also be numbered eventual new texts to be inserted into these books.

Therefore, in the future can. 838 will read as follows:

Can. 838 – §1. The ordering and guidance of the sacred liturgy depends solely upon the authority of the Church, namely, that of the Apostolic See and, as provided by law, that of the diocesan Bishop.

• 2. It is for the Apostolic See to order the sacred liturgy of the universal Church, publish liturgical books, recognise adaptations approved by the Episcopal Conference according to the norm of law, and exercise vigilance that liturgical regulations are observed faithfully everywhere.
• 3. It pertains to the Episcopal Conferences to faithfully prepare versions of the liturgical books in vernacular languages, suitably accommodatedwithin 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.
• 4. Within the limits of his competence, it belongs to the diocesan Bishop to lay down in the Church entrusted to his care, liturgical regulations which are binding on all.

Consequently this is how art. 64 §3 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus as well as other laws are to be interpreted, particularly those contained in the liturgical books concerning their revision. Likewise I order that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments modify its own “Regulations” on the basis of the new discipline and help the Episcopal Conferences to fulfil their task as well as working to promote ever more the liturgical life of the Latin Church.

Everything that I have decreed in this Apostolic Letter issued Motu Propriomust be observed in all its parts, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, even if it be worthy of particular mention, and I hereby set forth and I dispose that it be promulgated by publication in the daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, that it enter into force on 1 October 2017, and thereafter be published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, on 3 September of the year 2017, the fifth of my Pontificate

FRANCISCUS PP.

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WHY DIDN'T I KNOW ABOUT THE OLD QUARTER ON TOP OFF THE ICE IN A CUP TRICK UNTIL NOW?

Whether you’re evacuating because of a hurricane or you’re just leaving for vacation, you’ll want to know if the power went out while you were away for any substantial amount of time. Fill a cup with water, put it in the freezer until it’s solid, then pop a coin on top. Leave it in there, and when you get back, check.

I will leave my rectory and evacuate Richmond Hill Sunday afternoon only to go 20 miles north to downtown Savanna's Cathedral rectory which is suppose to evacuate too, but don't say anything.

However how will I know if the electricity goes out in the rectory spoiling the food in the frig?

Freeze a cup of water then place a quarter on top of the ice and leave in freezer. If electricity goes off, the quarter will sink as ice melts. If close to bottom of cup, throw all food away. Cool, no?

By the way, the Cathedral's 1pm EF Mass is canceled Sunday.

HAS POPE FRANCIS REFUSAL TO MEET WITH ANY OF THE DUBIA CARDINALS A TACTICAL ERROR LEADING TO DEADLY CONSEQUENCES? WHAT SIGN IS THERE IN THE SUDDEN DEATHS OF TWO OF THE FOUR AND WHAT ROLE DID THE POPE'S REFUSAL TO DIALOGUE WITH HEROIC CARDINALS PLAY IN THESE DEATHS?

Sandro Magister's commentary:

06 set 

Carlo Caffarra, Unheeded Prophet. His Last Letter to Pope Francis

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The morning of September 6 saw the sudden passing of Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, archbishop emeritus of Bologna and a moral theologian of the highest rank, especially on questions of the family and life.

With his decease and after the likewise unexpected death, last July 5, of Cardinal Joachim Meisner, the four cardinal signers of the “dubia” submitted last year to Pope Francis on the controversial points of “Amoris Laetitia” have dropped by half. The two still alive are the German Walter Brandmüller and the American Raymond L. Burke.

Of the four, Caffarra was the driving figure. His signature is on the letter with which last spring he asked for an audience from the pope for himself and the other three. This time as well, as previously for the “dubia,” without getting any response.

Shortly before sending that letter, Caffarra chanced to meet with Pope Francis when he visited Carpi, near Bologna, on April 2. During the lunch he sat beside him, but the pope preferred to converse with an elderly priest and with the seminarians who were sitting at the same table.

The following is the complete text of the letter, the last one Caffarra wrote to the pope, published by Settimo Cielo as an exclusive last June 20, with the author’s permission.

*

"OUR CONSCIENCE IMPELS US…"

Most Holy Father,

It is with a certain trepidation that I address myself to Your Holiness, during these days of the Easter season. I do so on behalf of the Most Eminent Cardinals: Walter Brandmüller, Raymond L. Burke, Joachim Meisner, and myself.

We wish to begin by renewing our absolute dedication and our unconditional love for the Chair of Peter and for Your august person, in whom we recognize the Successor of Peter and the Vicar of Jesus: the "sweet Christ on earth," as Saint Catherine of Siena was fond of saying. We do not share in the slightest the position of those who consider the See of Peter vacant, nor of those who want to attribute to others the indivisible responsibility of the Petrine "munus." We are moved solely by the awareness of the grave responsibility arising from the "munus" of cardinals: to be advisers of the Successor of Peter in his sovereign ministry. And from the Sacrament of the Episcopate, which "has placed us as bishops to pasture the Church, which He has acquired with his blood" (Acts 20:28).

On September 19, 2016 we delivered to Your Holiness and to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith five "dubia," asking You to resolve uncertainties and to bring clarity on some points of the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, "Amoris Laetitia."

Not having received any response from Your Holiness, we have reached the decision to ask You, respectfully and humbly, for an Audience, together if Your Holiness would like. We attach, as is the practice, an Audience Sheet in which we present the two points we wish to discuss with you.

Most Holy Father,

A year has now gone by since the publication of "Amoris Laetitia." During this time, interpretations of some objectively ambiguous passages of the post-synodal Exhortation have publicly been given that are not divergent from but contrary to the permanent Magisterium of the Church. Despite the fact that the Prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith has repeatedly declared that the doctrine of the Church has not changed, numerous statements have appeared from individual Bishops, Cardinals, and even Episcopal Conferences, approving what the Magisterium of the Church has never approved. Not only access to the Holy Eucharist for those who objectively and publicly live in a situation of grave sin, and intend to remain in it, but also a conception of moral conscience contrary to the Tradition of the Church. And so it is happening – how painful it is to see this! – that what is sin in Poland is good in Germany, that what is prohibited in the archdiocese of Philadelphia is permitted in Malta. And so on. One is reminded of the bitter observation of B. Pascal: "Justice on this side of the Pyrenees, injustice on the other; justice on the left bank of the river, injustice on the right bank."

Numerous competent lay faithful, who are deeply in love with the Church and staunchly loyal to the Apostolic See, have turned to their Pastors and to Your Holiness in order to be confirmed in the Holy Doctrine concerning the three sacraments of Marriage, Confession, and the Eucharist. And in these very days, in Rome, six lay faithful, from every Continent, have presented a very well-attended study seminar with the meaningful title: "Bringing clarity."

Faced with this grave situation, in which many Christian communities are being divided, we feel the weight of our responsibility, and our conscience impels us to ask humbly and respectfully for an Audience.

May Your Holiness remember us in Your prayers, as we pledge to remember You in ours. And we ask for the gift of Your Apostolic Blessing.

Carlo Card. Caffarra

Rome, April 25, 2017
Feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist

IT IS NOT LOOKING GOOD FOR RICHMOND HILL, SAVANNAH AND HILTON HEAD ISLAND, EVACUATIONS LOOMING!

I have the EF Mass at the Cathedral on Sunday and more than likely by then our area will be under mandatory evacuation. Richmond Hill is more dicey as it is close to the coast and almost at sea level.

Downtown Savannah is on a bluff and a bit higher than the rest of Sanannah. The rector of the cathedral will hunker down at the rectory which is built like a fortress. He has invited mean to ride out the storm there which keeps me only 20 miles north of my parish in Richmond Hill.

Please continue to pray for all in Irma's path. Thanks 🙏 to Bee for this:

Bee here:

Prayer against storms: Attributed to St. Anthony (cross yourself at each "+")

Jesus Christ a King of Glory has come in Peace. + God became man, + and the Word was made flesh. + Christ was born of a virgin. + Christ suffered. + Christ was crucified. + Christ died. + Christ rose from the dead. + Christ ascended into Heaven. + Christ conquers. + Christ reigns. + Christ orders. + May Christ protect us from all storms and lightning. + Christ went through their midst in Peace, + and the Word was made Flesh. + Christ is with us with Mary. + Flee you enemy spirits because the Lion of the Generation of Juda, the Root of David, was won. + Holy God! + Holy Powerful God ! + Holy Immortal God! + Have mercy on us. Amen!


May God direct this storm well to the east of Florida and back out to sea...

God bless.
Bee

AS PANDAEMONIUM BREAKS OUT IN FLORIDA, GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS, PRAY FOR ALL IN HARMS WAY WITH IRMA AND JOSE

Prayer to Saint Medard

Saint Medard, patron saint for protection against bad storms, 

we ask you to intercede for us during the storms of our lives as well as the storms in nature.

Protect our families and our homes.

We pray for assistance for the victims of snowstorms, hurricanes,

tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.

Loving God, send in more helpers, 

and multiply resources and supplies for the aid of those in need.

You calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee;

Deliver us from the storms that are raging around us now.

Saint Medard, pray for us.

Amen.

YOURS TRULY GETS QUOTED ON TRADITIONAL MINDED BAPTIST BLOG

Press the title below for the complete Christian Index, a Georgian Southern Baptist blog--"a leap into oblivion is a direct quote from my blog on First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon's decision to allow  same sex "marriage" ceremonies to take place in their sanctuary.

MACON’S FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF CHRIST –“A LEAP INTO OBLIVION”

Fr. Allan J. McDonald, priest at Saint Anne Catholic Church in Richmond Hill who previously served at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Macon, stated, “From my rectory, I could reach out the window and almost touch First Baptist Church next door it is so close, but ideologically it is eons away.

“Once it belonged to the Southern Baptist Convention as did the fine, but very liberal Baptist (institution), Mercer University … Today First Baptist belongs to a very liberal coalition of progressive former Southern Baptists.

“First Baptist in downtown Macon is a small, dying congregation. In a town that is predominately Southern Baptist. The conservative Southern Baptist congregations are thriving and two of those in the suburbs are of megachurch status.”

McDonald referred to First Baptist Church of Christ’s decision as “a leap into oblivion.”

My ongoing comments:

I spoke a few years ago to one of the adult Sunday Schools on Pope Francis and the Catholic Church.

At that time, I found out that they truly appreciated Pope Francis because they perceived him to be more progressive than Pope Benedict, more like them. Yet, I informed them that on many issues, especially reaching out to the poor and being pastorally sensitive to people in irregular situations, that  Pope Francis teachings upheld the Catholic Church's teaching on sexuality and marriage which we did not concoct but rather we received from Christ through Scripture and tradition, both of which are revealed to people of good will in natural law.

Tradition and natural law seem to be off the table.

Of course they were curious about the Church's teaching on papal infallibility.  I reminded them, that papal infalliblility only takes place under very strict conditions and that the pope simply elevates to a dogma a doctrine that was held as true by the early Church and the early Church fathers. In other words, popes don't make dogma up out of thin air, but are always sensitive to the Deposit of Faith.

I reminded the Baptists that they have a far more viril or malignant form of infallibility that hinges on what the individual Baptist believes as he interprets the Bible. Now group think at First Baptist Chrurch of Christ in Macon elevates this malignant infallibility to a group think vote as though they have a direct line from God to declare a new teaching on the nature of marriage.

Pure and simply, this is the old Hersey of Gnosticism.

As for Pope Francis this is what he recently reiterated about the nature of marriage being set in stone and how opposed the pope is to gender ideology:

—Pope Francis: What can we think of marriage between people of the same sex? “Matrimony” is a historical word. Always, in humanity, and not just in the Church, it was a man and a woman. It’s not possible to change it just like that […] It’s not possible to change it. It is part of nature. That’s how it is... Let us not play with truths.

It’s true that behind all this we find gender ideology. In books, kids learn that it’s possible to change one’s sex. Could gender, to be a woman or to be a man, be an option and not a fact of nature? This leads to this error.

Let us call things by their names. Matrimony is between a man and a woman. This is the precise term. Let us call the same-sex union a “civil union.”

INTERIOR PARTICIPATION IN THE ORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS: I'VE WRITTEN THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN BUT IT BEARS REPEATING

Yes Virginia, this is an OF Mass:

Dialogue makes a good point with a comment on the post below this one:

I think even the casual visitor to this blog knows that Father McDonald views actual participation as more than congregational recitation and chanting. But the Mass is Christ's gift to the Father, and we are part of that gift. So, since we are not incorporeal beings, laymen should willingly lend their voices to the prayers and acclamations, were appropriate. No stubborn liturgical Platonism, please.  
As for the quality of mental participation, I have no doubt that it is much higher at EF Masses than at OF Masses. Bring on the mutual enrichment!  

I would agree that just because someone is "exteriorly" participating in the Mass with gusto, proper body postures and eyes fixed on where the action of the Mass is, necessarily does not mean that there is an interior, spiritual disposition leading to a profound contemplation of the mysteries being celebrated.

By the same token, someone who is mute during Mass but may look contemplative, might have a mind on Sunday dinner or their date the previous night. 

Actual participation relies solely on the one participating and Holy Mother Church wants both external and internal participation at the Holy Sacrifice--so let's begin with what Holy Mother Church wants and not our own wants, the me, me, me stuff of the 1960's!

With that said, how could a renewal of the Ordinary Form Mass based upon the enrichment of the EF Mass's "mental" participation occur in the Ordinary Form?

Even if nothing else changed in the OF Mass and it remained completely in the vernacular, I believe the OF could be enriched by the EF in these ways:

1. Propers never omitted--Sacrosanctum Concilium asked for more lavish incorporation of Scripture into the Mass and the Propers are Scripture--it is against Vatican II to omit any Scripture from the Mass.

2. Ad Orientem for at least the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

3. A low voice praying of the Canon (I believe this would add the actual silence the Mass needs and would add to the mystery or sense of the sacred that is so lacking in the Ordinary Form).

4. Kneeling for Holy Communion and at the altar railing with the use of the patten to catch particles that might fall.

MAKING ACTUAL PARTICIPATION HAPPEN IN THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM

With the 10th anniversary date of the implementation of Summorum Pontificum on September 14, 2007, the Solemnity of the Holy Cross, in what ways has the celebration of the EF grown, not only in the number of these Masses, but in actual participation?

I don't think the number of these Masses has increased and if so only in a minuscule way. I know that in Macon at St. Joseph Church, I had about 130 people who were interested in this Mass out of a parish of about 1,500 households at that time.

Prior to the implementation at St. Joseph on 9/14/07, I had a class on the EF Mass and the difference between it and the normative Mass. About 80 people attended. And on 9/14/07, a Friday night, with horrible thunderstorms and a tornado watch, we had about 300 attending a low Mass at 7 PM.

Once we began the once a month High Mass on Sunday at 2 pm we averaged about 80 people, sometimes more, sometimes less. When we had solemn celebrations for our St. Joseph Feast Day or All Soul's Mass, we had about 150 to 200 attending.

Then when we moved the once a month EF Mass to our normal 12:10 PM Sunday Mass, but once a month, there would be 300 or so in attendance.

We also had a weekly Tuesday 5 PM Low Mass.

In the Diocese of Savannah in 2017 there are only two parishes that offer the EF Mass regularly, the Cathedral each Sunday at 1 PM and St. Joseph Church, once a month on Sunday.

At the Cathedral there are a couple hundred locals who attend with a many tourists as well.  The locals could not form their own parish, but I think that would be a wise thing for the future but they would have to support it with their financial offerings.

So as far as the Diocese of Savannah is concerned, the EF Mass draws a minuscule number of people and is in fact a "boutique" Mass--it does not have popular appeal. But those who like it are fierce about it.

As far as actual participation, I tried hard in Macon to have the congregation chant their parts and for the most part they did and they did chant well the Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei as well as the responses to the priest. At the Cathedral, not so much. They rely on the excellent schola and I think this is a weakness in actual participation at the Cathedral.

At St Joseph, we would sing a fine Catholic vernacular hymn during the procession, with it ending once the priest arrived at the foot of the altar and then the Introit was chanted and an English hymn, was sung at the recessional.

Those of you who attend the EF Mass, how many of you actually chant with the choir the parts that are yours?

Thus, I continue to recommend that parishes have priests who know both forms of the Mass and that the Ordinary Form of the Mass be improved along the lines of the ethos of reverence of the Extraordianry Form as the normative Mass is the Mass that most Catholics attend and receive their Catholic Liturgical formation for better or worse.

DON'T BLAME A SAD, PATHETIC AGING SPIRIT OF VATICAN II AGING EX PRIEST, EX-CATHOLIC DISILLUSIONED BY WHAT DID NOT HAPPEN IN HIS BRIEF CATHOLIC LIFE AND STUCK IN HIS CATHOLIC ADOLESENCE OF THE 1960'S, BUT DO BLAME THE MACON TELEGRAPH WHO PRINTS HIS ANTI CATHOLIC, ANTI CHRISTIAN COMMENTARY EACH SUNDAY

Catholics comprise about one percent of the population of Macon, Georgia, yet the Telegraph, Macon's only newspaper, prints the disillusioned former ex priest, ex Catholic, ex Christian's commentary each Sunday with his basic message repeated over and over and over again, Pope John XXIII and the Church prior to Pope Paul VI was the apex of his former Catholic life. Sad for a man whose life is on the verge of concluding, tragic actually.

What do you think of a small southern town's newspaper printing this kind of thing over and over again?

Growing up – and out – as Catholic

BILL CUMMINGS

Last week, Travis L. Middleton, one of my irritating Catholic critics, wrote that I am “a vindictive ex-priest who bamboozles gullible readers with razzle-dazzle-forkedtongued interpretations of scripture.” Strong language. But I must ask, “Am I?”

Many of us have put aside the religions of our youth. I know Jews who no longer attend synagogue and Muslims who never go back to their mosque. How many Presbyterians are now Methodists and vice versa? And who can count the number of Christians who no longer attend any church at all? That’s just a fact. But are they vindictive? Are they attacking what they used to revere? Why would they? And why would I?

I do not attack Catholicism, despite what Middleton constantly claims. I question it. I have fond memories of all things Catholic. I was born in an Irish Catholic neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Every home on 57^th Place was both Catholic and Irish. We all marched to St. Ann’s Church every Sunday morning, the kids running and shouting all the way.

(We use to call these kinds of seminarians lifers, meaning they were spiritually, morally and psychologically stunted. And this is Bill's ongoing arrested developed mantra, almost a kind of OCD:) My high school and college years were spent in a monastic seminary, totally immersed in Catholic liturgy and I loved it. Later, I cherished chanting as a monk and serving as a priest and going to Rome to get my doctorate in sacred scripture. Most of all, I loved the man who opened my eyes to the value of questioning, Pope John XXIII. It was John himself and his famous, “Aggiornamento” (open the windows) that set me on my path of discovery.

I have been on this path ever since. I know my Catholic critics think I am vindictive because the bishop of California condemned me for heresy when I questioned if the two infancy narratives were written as historical documents. My detractors think I want to demean the faith of my Irish ancestors and turn Catholics away from Catholicism, but that’s the last thing I want to do. My columns are not written to bamboozle, but to question.

I feel like a retired general (with a bit of dementia?) who looks back on his battlefield days and makes informed comments. Just because neither one of us is still on the battlefield should not disqualify our remarks. When the retired general questions our war in Iraq or when I expose the early church’s misogynistic attitude toward women, we are not being vindictive, we are simply voicing our opinions based on long years of experience.

Why do some people feel we’re vindictive? Why are they so angry at our opinions? Why do they bristle when I laugh at religious explanations of natural phenomenon? Was I that way? When I was wearing the roman collar and faced a former Catholic who questioned my faith did I lash out? Did I label his motives as vindictive and evil?

(Keep in mind, his past is always greater than his present where the Catholic Church is considered) I remember this scene. I was a young priest, traveling to Rome on-board an Italian ocean liner. I was sitting on the top deck reading my book of Psalms when a well-dressed Englishman sat down next to me and began plying me with questions about Matt. 16:18: “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.” He was not antagonistic, but he was insistent, “How could Jesus talk about a “church” he asked, “when all he knew were synagogues?”I knew the man had been a Catholic and a scholar and when he spoke about the scriptures he knew as much Greek as I did. I tried to defend the Catholic position on that scriptural text as well as the primacy of the papacy, but I didn’t do it very well.

(Uh, no kidding!) Looking back now, I know I was subconsciously angry. I thought he was just a vindictive ex-Catholic scholar trying to trap a priest in his own scriptures. Perhaps that’s how my Catholic critics feel. It might be how Middleton feels. I can understand that.

Contact me: drc@billcummings.org .

MOTHER ANGELICA LIGHTS THE PATHWAY TO CALLING A MORTAL SINNER TO CONVERSION

On her call-in radio show, a vulgar prank call directed against Mother Angelica brings a Christlike response:truth in love with grace. 

POPE FRANCIS SEEMS TO BE QUITE CLEAR OR IS HE--AMBIGUITY ABOUNDS BUT THIS INTERVIEW NOT SO MUCH?

The Pope's traditionalist remarks about the Mass is the progressive ideology against it from the 1970's. I was there and I know it well. In this Pope Francis has earmuffs and hasn't grown out of the 1970's thinking about the now call Extraordinary Form of the Liturgy. 

Pope Francis on celibacy, child abusers, same-sex unions, secularism, and traditionalists

Aleteia | Sep 01, 2017

Long Thien | CC

 

Read more

 

  Excerpts on migration and refugees, and European and Argentinean identity, including his explanation for why “we are all migrants.”

 

Pope Francis sat down for 20 conversations with French journalist Dominique Wolton for a book-length interview that will be released in French on Wednesday. The 432-page volume is titled  Politique et société : un dialogue inédit, or Politics and Society: Conversations with Dominique Walton.

Choosing chastity

—Pope Francis: To renounce sexuality and choose a path of chastity or virginity implies a whole life of consecration. What is the condition without which this path disintegrates? It is that this path must bring one to spiritual paternity or maternity.
One of the ills of the Church is the [problem of] “bachelor” priests and “single” religious, because they are full of bitterness. On the contrary, those who have reached this spiritual paternity, either through a parish, or a school or hospital, are fine. … The same thing happens with women religious, since they are “mothers.” … It is a voluntary renunciation.
Virginity, either masculine or feminine, is a monastic tradition that existed before Catholicism. It is a human search: renunciation in order to seek God in his origin, through contemplation. But this renunciation should be a fecund renunciation, that maintains a type of fecundity different than carnal fecundity or sexual fecundity.
Also in the Church, there are married priests. There are Eastern married priests. But the renunciation of matrimony for the Kingdom of God is a value in itself. It means renouncing something in order to place oneself in service, to contemplate better.

If a priest is an abuser, he is sick

—Pope Francis: […] Before, the priest was moved, but the problem just relocated with him. The current policy is what Benedict XVI and I have applied through the Commission for the Protection of Minors, created two years ago here in the Vatican: defending all youth. It’s about confronting the problem. Mother Church teaches how to prevent abuse, and how to enable a child to speak about it, to tell the truth to his parents, and to be forthcoming about what has happened.
It is an edifying journey. The Church should not take up a defensive position. If a priest is an abuser, he is someone who is sick. Of every four abusers, two of them have been abused as children. These are the statistics from the psychiatrists.

Marriage is between a man and a woman

—Pope Francis: What can we think of marriage between people of the same sex? “Matrimony” is a historical word. Always, in humanity, and not just in the Church, it was a man and a woman. It’s not possible to change it just like that […] It’s not possible to change it. It is part of nature. That’s how it is. Let us call it, then, “civil unions.” Let us not play with truths.
It’s true that behind all this we find gender ideology. In books, kids learn that it’s possible to change one’s sex. Could gender, to be a woman or to be a man, be an option and not a fact of nature? This leads to this error.
Let us call things by their names. Matrimony is between a man and a woman. This is the precise term. Let us call the same-sex union a “civil union.”

Traditionalist ideology

— Pope Francis: How does tradition grow? It grows like a person grows: with dialogue, just like what happens to a child when he is nursed. Dialogue with the world that surrounds us. Dialogue brings growth. If we don’t dialogue, it’s not possible to grow; a person stays closed in, small, dwarfed. I cannot progress with earmuffs; I have to see and dialogue. Dialogue permits growth and makes tradition grow. To dialogue and to listen to another opinion can, as in the case of the death penalty, of torture, of slavery, change my point of view. Without changing doctrine. Doctrine has grown with comprehension. This is the base of tradition […]

On the contrary, traditionalist ideology has a faith like this [the pope makes a gesture of putting on earmuffs]. “The benediction should be done like this. In Mass, fingers should be like this, with gloves, like before …” What Vatican II has done with the liturgy has been something truly grand, because it has opened worship of God to the people. Now the people participate.

Religions aren’t subcultures

—Pope Francis: The secular state is something healthy. There is a healthy secularism. Jesus said, Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. All of us are equal before God. But I think that in some countries, like in France, this secularism has a tone inherited from the Enlightenment, which is very strong; it creates a collective imagination where religions are seen as a subculture. I think that France — in my personal opinion; this is not the opinion of the Church — should “elevate” the level of secularism a bit, in the sense that it should say that religions also form part of the culture.
How can this be expressed in a secular manner? Through openness to the transcendent. Each individual can find his form of openness. In French heritage, the Enlightenment has too much weight. I understand this heritage from history, but the work of broadening must be done. There are governments, Christian and non-Christian, that do not accept secularism.
What does it mean for a lay state to be “open to the transcendent”? That religions form part of the culture; that they are not subcultures. It’s ridiculous to say that one can’t wear a crucifix that’s visible hanging around your neck, or that women shouldn’t wear this or that. Because both one and the other represent a culture. One wears a crucifix, another wears something else, the rabbi wears the kippah, the pope a zucchetto (laughs) … this is healthy secularism!
Vatican II explains this well, with a lot of clarity. I think that exaggerations arise on these issues, in particular when secularism is placed above religions. So then religions aren’t part of culture? They’re subcultures?

IT'S JUST UNNATURAL TO CELEBRATE A THURSDAY ON SUNDAY--WHY ARE SO MANY AMERICAN BISHOPS SUPPORTING AN UNNATURAL ACT?

Thank God the bishops of England and Wales are undoing the disordered unnatural act of celebrating a Thursday on the following Sunday--why would any bishop approve of this unnatural act?

As seen at WDTPRS blog:


No more Ascension Thursday Sunday in England.

KEEPING THE JUST TOO COOL FILE AFLOAT!

GPA welcomes massive ship

CMA CGM Roosevelt largest vessel ever to call on U.S. East Coast

BY MARY CARR MAYLE, Savannah Morning News

 

WALTER AND MARY LOGAN OF SAVANNAH BROUGHT LAWN CHAIRS AS THEY WAITED FRIDAY FOR THE ARRIVAL OF THE CMA CGM THEODORE ROOSEVELT CONTAINER SHIP TO THE SAVANNAH PORT. THE SHIP, THE LARGEST EVER TO CALL ON THE EAST COAST, WILL DEPART SUNDAY. (PHOTOS BY STEVE BISSON/SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS)

It’s a scenario we have yet to tire of — even when the weather is less than ideal.

Scores of shipwatchers ignored the prediction of heavy rains to line the riverfront on both sides Friday in anticipation of the arrival of the CMA CGM Theodore Roosevelt, at 14,414 TEUs — or 20-foot equivalent units

— the largest container ship ever to call on the U.S. East Coast.

This time, Mother Nature relented, instead serving up sticky heat that most immediately forgot about when the majestic ship rounded the bend a few minutes before 3 p.m. Friday, dwarfing City Hall and other buildings as it bulled its way upriver.

Retirees Walter and Mary Logan of Savannah had been waiting in the sun for more than an hour, a small price to pay to witness an historic moment, they said.

“It was awesome,” Mary Logan said. “I never thought I’d live to see something like this.”

A TUG SHOOTING WATER WELCOMES THE CMA CGM THEODORE ROOSEVELT TO THE PORT OF SAVANNAH ON FRIDAY. IT CAN CARRY UP TO 14,400 TWENTY-FOOT EQUIVALENT UNITS.

Many held their breath as the big ship, with Master River Pilot Trey Thompson at the helm, cleared the Talmadge Bridge with only 3 feet to spare.

“She handled really well — very much like the other big ships we’ve brought in recently,” Thompson said. “The only difference was how close we were to the bridge.”

Joost Gompels, who watched with his friend Donna Danley, declared the sight “better than the eclipse.”

“It really says a lot about the port authority here,” the longtime Savannahian said. “If they hadn’t had the vision to foresee this and the planning to be ready for it, we wouldn’t be here watching this.”

Willie Seymore agreed.

The executive vice president for the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast division of the International Longshoremens Association and a former president of ILA Local 1414, Seymore credited the port’s unprecedented success to GPA leadership — both past and present — and the unique ability of the Savannah maritime community to work together seamlessly.

“I’m proud, but not surprised, to see a ship this size in Savannah,” he said.

ILA Local presidents Ricky DeLoach, of 1475, and Tim Mackey of 1414 noted that the ILA alone will have seven gangs totaling between 200 and 240 people working three back-to-back shifts to move more than 5,000 containers - totaling some 9,000 TEUs - on and off the ship.

It was the first time in GPA history that the port would use seven ship-to-shore cranes on one vessel.

And, Mackey pointed out, the Roosevelt was not the only ship in port.

“We’re working six other ships today, meaning we’re pushing 800 longshoremen on the clock right now,” he said.

“Not only do these massive ships play to Savannah’s strengths, they actually make us more efficient,” GPA executive director Griff Lynch said.

“When these Neopanamax vessels call on the largest single container terminal in North America, it maximizes the attributes that set Savannah apart: more space, more cranes and better landside connections.”

In just three months, the Port of Savannah has hosted 13 vessels with a capacity of 13,000 TEUs or greater. The average number of containers moving on and off these big ships is 8,000 TEUs per vessel.

THE 14,000-PLUS TEU CONTAINER SHIP CMA CGM THEODORE ROOSEVELT SAILS PAST TYBEE’S SOUTH BEACH FRIDAY ON ITS WAY TO GARDEN CITY TERMINAL (GPA PHOTO/STEPHEN MORTON)

FOLKS CATCH A VIEW OF THE BIG SHIP AS IT PASSES COCKSPUR ISLAND. ABOUT 35 PEOPLE WERE UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL NEAR PILOT DOCK. (POLLY STRAMM/ SPECIAL TO THE SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS)

“In Fiscal Year 2017, which ended June 30, the Port of Savannah served 69 vessels with a capacity of 10,000 TEUs or more,” said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. “No other port on the East Coast has served more vessels, more often with more on-terminal assets than the Garden City Terminal.”

That means more opportunities to see more big ships coming up the river — or back down.

Frank and Susan Gaston traveled from Hilton Head Island on Friday to see the Roosevelt arrive. They plan to return Sunday with their five grandchildren to watch it depart. The ship has a sailing window of noon to 1 p.m., which should put it city front between 12:30 and 2 p.m.

But, if they miss it, they won’t have to wait long to see another 14,000-TEU ship come in — the CMA CGM John Adams is due in port.

PRO LOBSTER OR IS IT ANTI-LOBSTER--JUST WHAT IS THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH'S MORAL POSITION?

This giant lobster near my father's childhood home in Judique, Cape Breton--it only makes sense for the Episcopal Church, as liberal as it is, to stop the senseless killing of lobsters! Have they ever seen the movie, "The Birds?"

PETA asks Episcopal churches to put a lid on lobster boils

BY JULIE ZAUZMER Washington Post

At churches from Maine to Maryland to Mississippi, the annual community supper means one thing: Lobsters.
To animal rights activists, that’s a problem.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the prominent advocacy group, has honed its focus on one beloved tradition in Episcopal churches across the country: the lobster boil. The animal-rights group sent a letter recently to Bishop Michael Curry, the presiding bishop and primate who leads the nationwide church, asking him to end the practice of lobster dinners in favor of something more vegetarian.

“Most of us grew up believing that killing lobsters and other animals for food is what must be done, but if we contemplate it, all killing requires conquering, violence, and separating ourselves from the rest of creation,” PETA wrote to the bishop. “God designed humans to be caretakers, not killers.”

The letter cited both the Old and New Testaments and the writer David Foster Wallace, who examined the practice of boiling lobsters alive for consumption in his well-known essay “Consider the Lobster.” PETA described the practice as “cruelty that I know doesn’t reflect the tenets of the Episcopal Church.”

Ben Williamson, a spokesman for PETA, said he didn’t know if there was any particular link between Episcopalians and lobsters, and several Episcopal church leaders whom The Washington Post asked about the connection didn’t have an answer either. But PETA staff noticed a pattern of lobster dinners as church fundraisers, and decided to look into it. They identified 28 Episcopal congregations advertising lobster fund-raisers in more than 10 different states.

The PETA staffers looked into how many lobsters each church cooks at a fundraiser and got answers ranging from 75 to 2,000. In total, PETA said Episcopal churches kill well over 10,000 lobsters a year, a total that could not be verified by The Post.

It’s evident, however, that the number is high – St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Greenville, North Carolina, for instance, boasts on its website that its annual fund-raiser has sold more than 65,000 lobsters since 1978. “Put in perspective, we’ve sold around 40 tons of lobsters, or the equivalent of a couple of school buses,” the website says, with accompanying jovial clip art of buses. (Lobsters at St. Timothy’s cost $16 each, and children can also enjoy a bouncy house and a hay ride.)

A spokeswoman for the Episcopal Church said that Curry is on vacation and did not respond to further questions. Many of the churches on PE-TA’s list did not respond to a reporter’s inquiry.

GIVEN POPE FRANCIS' WORLDLY VIEWS ON THINGS, HOW IN THE NAME OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY ARE WE POOR, HUMBLE, IGNORANT PRIESTS AND DEACONS TO PREACH ON THE READING BELOW, THE FIRST READING OF SEPTEMBER 1ST DAILY MASS?

How are we as priests and deacons to preach on the Word of God, like the reading below, which is the first reading for Friday, September 1st Daily Mass, given Pope Francis approval of LGBTQ civil unions and the variety of heterosexual concoctions of the same?

Reading 1 1 Thes 4:1-8

Brothers and sisters,
we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that,
as you received from us
how you should conduct yourselves to please God–
and as you are conducting yourselves–
you do so even more.
For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

This is the will of God, your holiness:
that you refrain from immorality,
that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himself
in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion
as do the Gentiles who do not know God;
not to take advantage of or exploit a brother or sister in this matter,
for the Lord is an avenger in all these things,
as we told you before and solemnly affirmed.
For God did not call us to impurity but to holiness.
Therefore, whoever disregards this,
disregards not a human being but God,
who also gives his Holy Spirit to you.

CHARTING NEW TERRITORY: THE CHURCH GETTING HER NOSE OUT OF PEOPLE'S SEX LIVES

In a new book on Pope Francis soon to be released, the pope offers a kind of doctrine and then a personal opinion:

He repeats his opposition to gay marriage but accepts the civil union of people of the same sex.

(This is my comments:) How about Holy Communion for those in any kind of human relationship configurations?

Personally, I am not a control freak and I do have a live and let live perspective on life. I also believe that anyone at their death and personal judgment have to answer for themselves.

Does the pope need psychoanalysis to clarify his thinking in general and the implications of his acceptance of same sex civil unions and the reception of Holy Communion? Evidently Pope Francis says YES!

In a new book, Pope Francis reveals that he consulted a Jewish psychoanalyst once a week for six months when he was 42 years old and that it “helped me a lot at a moment in my life…when I needed to clarify things.” He disclosed this very personal detail of his life for the first time in a book-length interview with a French intellectual, Dominique Wolton, that will be published on Sept. 6, the day the pope travels to Colombia.

Read all about it here!

A TRAUMATIZED MOTHER GIVES CNN A PIECE OF HER MIND!

CNN perfected turning tragic news into a reality show with dramatic music and catchy titles. Of course it is the ratings game that the entertainment industry slavishly follows despite the tragedies that people experience on live TV.

Katie Courick perfected her interview technique to get victims to cry on national television so that those viewing her reality entertainment erroneously called news would feel empathy and cry too
.

I can remember her interviewing, or should I say, exploiting a parent after he lost a child at the Columbine High School shooting, asking how he felt when he heard of the massacre! Riveting entertainment!

This video may contain vulgar language. What this mom said to CNN is what all entertainment networks should hear! God bless her!

IS POPE FRANCIS HIS OWN WORST ENEMY WHEN IT COMES TO THWARTING HIS OWN COMMUNICATIONS?

 From America Magazine:

In an address last week on the liturgy, Pope Francis drew attention when he asserted “with certainty and with magisterial authority that the liturgical reform is irreversible.” Reaction focused almost entirely on this one sentence to the neglect of the rest of the address, much of which contained important comments on liturgical renewal.
 
Almost every time Pope Francis has done something well or written something good, His Holiness becomes his own worst enemy by saying something off-the-cuff or putting negative commentary towards others or adding something controversial that hijacks the main thesis of his teachings.

Even when His Holiness has triumphant pilgrimages, His Holiness changes the conversation and thwarts the good that was accomplished by shifting the focus to off-the-cuff remarks that are controversial given at high altitudes that may have compromised His Holiness thinking. 

Amoris Laetia is a great document about love and marriage except for that "damn" footnote that consumes everyone's attention and threatens the entirety of Catholic morality from Scripture to  natural law and even opens the door for the Catholic Church to become as liberalized as liberal Protestantism and the Anglican Communion. No one is talking about the 99.9% of this papal teaching at all!

Then the Holy Father who never talks about the liturgy in any significant way gives a talk to a group of Italian liturgists (this term a bit of an oxymoron) and declares in a somewhat authoritarian and semi-magisterial way that the reforms of Vatican are irreversible.

Did His Holiness need to be some dogmatic about the reforms the liturgy and so vague about how poorly these reforms have been implemented? And did Pope Francis have to neglect to say anything about the Liturgy that Pope Benedict eloquently taught for decades? It came across and another bit of this pope's way of breaking the continuity of papal teachings with novel ideas and appears to be anything but humble.

Thus America Magazine tries to put lipstick on a pig but in doing so makes clear the mistakes the Holy Father makes in his communication style and how he is his own worst enemy in changing the conversation to things that are peripheral.

Pope Francis' comments on the liturgy need to be heard by traditionalists and reformers alike. 

Gregory Hillis August 28, 2017/America Magazine 

Reform was necessary, which appears to be (Pope Francis") point when referring to the irreversibility of that reform. However, the address demonstrates that Pope Francis does not view the irreversibility of liturgical reform to mean that the post-Vatican II changes are final and complete. He states that the council “responded to the real needs and the concrete hope of a renewal” in its constitution on the liturgy, “Sacrosanctum Concilium.” But this constitution was only the beginning of the renewal. Indicating that he understands the current state of the liturgy to require further reform and renewal,

Pope Francis argued that the process of reform takes time and that it is necessary to address more fully the “liturgical education” of all the faithful. By this he means that all the faithful need to understand what the liturgical movement endeavored to accomplish, why it advocated for renewal and how Vatican II sought to address the movement’s concerns.

Underlying Francis’ reminder that the reform continues and his call for liturgical education is, it seems to me, a recognition of the shortcomings of the renewal movement. That is, even while reminding them that the process of liturgical reform is irreversible given the deep discontent that was the impetus for this reform, Pope Francis seems to take seriously the liturgical dissatisfaction of those like my students and others.

Few can read “Sacrosanctum Concilium” and fail to see the disjunction between the renewal as sought by the council fathers and the shape that renewal took in the decades after Vatican II. Not only are questions raised about the aesthetic impoverishment of the liturgy, but many wonder whether the reform truly led to the full and active participation desired by the council. And it is more than just traditionalists who raise such questions.

Read the entire article here. 

A CATASTROPHE IN SLOW MOTION AND A TRAGEDY OF EPIC PROPORTIONS FOR ALL WHO HAVE LOST THEIR HOMES AND THEIR HOUSE OF GOD!

This brings it home to all of us! Be generous in praying for and financially helping the good people of Texas!

Copied from the Deacon's Bench:

This video was broadcast on Facebook by Houston’s St. Ignatius Church. Pray for this parish, its pastor and its people—and so many others facing a frightening and uncertain future.

FROM THE JUST TOO COOL FILE! PRIEST GIVES WATER LOGGED INTERVIEW IN FRON OF PSYCHIC PALM READER STORE!

This is a great interview! Pray for Houston and all weather's harms way!

Just look at what this Catholic priest is doing during the storm in Texas

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 Deacon Greg Kandra | Aug 27, 2017