What Kind of "Brand Reputation" Ought the Mystical Body of Christ to Have?

"Pope Francis has succeeded in rebranding the public profile of the Church, according to a Vatican PR aide" 

Isn't that a lovely way for a priest to have put it, for him to describe his own efforts on behalf of the Church...

"His positive tone isn’t always reflected...."

Reflected, huh? Vampires have some trouble of the same sort, although I always thought that might be because they don't exist.
Thee are statements that need to be taken with a grain of salt. Or salt and light.

"Holy" Cards

I am next thing to a hoarder, never can bear to give anything away if I think I might want it later, never can bear to throw anything away if I think someone else might have use of it, and if the right person or charity does not occur to me at the moment - well, there that item will sit. And sit. And sit.
That old faux shearling coat, that I hope never again to be cold enough to wear? It would make a swell pillow.
I hate vertical blinds, took them down immediately - but don't the long cream colored strips look like candles? Add yellow construction paper flames and let each child in Sunday school write the names of people they would like to remember in prayer during the month of All Souls,
I can't throw out scrap metal, I know there are people around who will take it,

I understand there are people who buy expensive garments they've never worn, or replace electronics with newer, faster devices - but then find that they can't bear to pitch that for which they spent so much money. But that's never been my problem - I spend very little on clothes, (I won't even go to the thrift store usually except on sale days,) and technology keeps its place in our household until it completely gives up the ghost, (sometimes after spending a long time on life-support.)

But I do find it difficult to divest myself of books and scores and scripts -- and all those photocopies.
Not so much for what they cost in monetary terms, but in effort. Out of print chant books, and reference works that were the result of hours combing, first, of used book stores, and old libraries, and later the internet - so many hard won volumes or articles or scores are freely available online now.
But I'm getting a bit better at that.

Which leaves us with the matter of holy objects.
I have disintegrating and dilapidated Latin prayerbooks, French antiphonals, a Polish Missal, broken Rosaries, crucifixes rescued from bins at Goodwill, a stack of "pew cards" for the new Holy Week changes, (when did that happen? that's right, before any of us were born.)

I will have a bonfire at some point, soon, I will.

But there are other things that whoever is stuck with clearing out my house will have to find and sort and dispose of, (don't worry, I'll do my best to make certain it won't be the hired henchman of some atheist nephew.)

I am fascinated by the Holy Cards.
They are such a a part of my family and religious history.
I see cards reminding me to offer prayers for the soul of someone I never knew, never met, dead before I was born, who lived half a world away in some cases - I think that's beautiful.
The changing styles fascinate me as well - the mawkish Edwardian lithos of the Virgin Mary no worse nor better than the saccharine pastel-colored saints and angels from between "the" wars.
And both are a damned blessed sight better than the garish '70s asymmetry of graphic artists in thrall to the concept of negative space, or the Kincaidesque landscapes with carefully worded "spiritual" messages, guaranteed not to offend adherents of any religion, or even of none at all.

I had brought some in to the last Sunday school class, curious if these children had encountered such things - I loved them when I was little, to be given something so grown-up, so jewel like, (the print shop at the Rosary Shrine was special,) that so connected me to history, (which, as far as I could imagine, stretched back months and months!)
One of them was an emblem of my very first memory - the dead body of an elderly man lying peacefully in a big box, in a charming little stone house attached to our church. Ah, that must have been the wake of this priest.
Another was for an aunt I remember very well, but strangely couldn't remember dying -I realize now it was because my Mother was in the hospital at the time being delivered of a younger sibling of mine, of course that would have occupied all my attention.

I am well aware that the devotions, the sacramentals, the little, (even from time to time kitschy,) uniquely Catholic practices and items are no all that important in and of themselves - but properly understood, I believe we should think of them as "gateways" to the Sacraments and to an entire right conception of the Faith - to its breadth and its homeyness and corporeality and personalizability, ('zat a word?) to its diversity and mystery and, yes, fun, and perhaps most especially, to our praiseworhty individuality within our praiseworthy interconnectedness.
They are all part of the "Catholic identity" that so many fear our failure to transmit.

Well, some, perhaps most of the 10 year olds knew what they were, one actually owned some, and every single child was fascinated with the very idea. and wanted to have them.
Some had a vague idea of to whom the face on my most recent acquisition belonged.
So we made our own Holy Cards. I gave them a number of psalm verse and prayers as suggestions, and they chose one, unanimously.

O Lord God of hosts! let Your face shine on us, that we may be saved!

(Oh, and this really threw me for a loop - if we had time and supplies for a second card, (after they each made one from themselves and we made 2 dozen for "the kids in juvie," as they like to say,)?

I love that "glory" prayer at the beginning of Mass, can we do that?.... and they all agreed.

Ohm and I believe I may have discovered the secret to engaging them - lamination.
(Dollar Tree, a true dollar store? five sets of the sheets, enough for ten or even 15 cards depending on size and shape. Bookmarks, maybe.)

Yes, laminating is an adventure.
I'm going to use that knowledge next year for enchanting the learning of a chant, and perhaps for memorizing the Works of Mercy, or an Act of Contrition, or the Latin and Greek names of the parts of the Ordinary.

One last thing, I loved this from the memorial card from an uncle who died when I was a young, from St Ephrem (a patron saint of mine.)

I call for the prayers of all those who have known me, of all those who have loved me.

(Isn't that better than, "do not weep for me, I'm in a better place and I'll see you at the other end of the rainbow? I know which one I would rather people read as they cart me off to the boneyard.)

Good Morning, and Welcome to the Eucharistic Celebration Here In Our Parish Family Community of Saint...

 I was at a funeral once where a ne'er-do-well son showed up last minute and insinuated himself as chief mourner to a father whom he had abused and abandoned; and to the deceased's deeply bereaved sister, (who had wept, organized and out of her poverty paid for everything,) had unctuously purred, Oh, thanks so much for coming, Aunt Eleanor. 
I thought for a minute she was going to strike him as his presumption stirred her momentarily out of her sorrow into righteous anger.
I knew a bit of what she was feeling.
I have always disliked being "welcomed" to Mass, as it seems to me a claim of ownership by one group of people, and a labelling of others as... well, "other." (It strikes me as particularly goofy when a visiting priest on holiday says it to the nailed-down weekday Mass-goers. No matter.)
Further, I think it privileges the parochial over the universal, and we are Catholics, not congregationalists.

Hence, I find this an excellent blog:

I would like to think that I am a good house guest. I clean up after myself, I graciously thank my host, I offer to help, and I respect the life and lifestyle of my hosts. I used to think that is how I should show up to church. ...

But God is not calling us to simply be a house guest, a temporary visitor, or an old friend who stops by on occasion.

He has called us to truly dwell in His house...ask questions, have tough conversations, kick up your feet (figuratively) and get comfortable because this is not a three-day weekend, this is your life and soul—for eternity.

I'd quibble with the use of the word "comfortable," but I get it - she means the kind of "comfort" with which St. Paul reluctantly endured the thorn in his side - become accustomed, even resigned, create a worn spot in the pew varnish in the shape of your hind quarters.

And so like here, we should all proclaim,

I am rolling up my sleeves and taking up space.

"Personally Opposed, but"... The Rise of Open Source Catholicism

Catching up on a television series in which the villains are the "Neolutionists," those into "creating themselves," promoting "individual evolutionary choice."
And if that sounds familiar to those who follow the culture wars in Catholicism, it should. Yes, wacky ideas pursued by religious sisters end up being the stuff cartoonish sci-fi villains' creeds are made of.
Take warning, nuns on buses. And please, no tails!

But that's not my point. When a police detective complains to a leader of these Neolutionists about creepy/criminal/crazy doings by his followers, he takes no responsibilities for these outliers, but notes that they are welcomed by the movement.
"Neolution is open source."

And all I could think was, isn't that a perfect description of how some people seem to think the Faith works?
After all, it is undeniable that "All are welcome" so it as just a hop skip and a jump to "All are welcome to make up their own beliefs and call it Catholicism."
And the Patron Saint of Open Source Catholicism? At least in America, a good case could be made for Mario Cuomo, a good man who may have been responsible for a great deal more evil than most, (damage done to our immortal souls being exponentially worse than to mortal bodies.)
He has certainly provided cover, a sort of intellectual resepectability, for the pro-choice Catholic in government ever since 1984..

Not that such thinking is limited to this side of the Atlantic (though our Catholish colleges are delighted to offer a platform to those from the other)- there is a little fracas right now because a "prominent" "Catholic" "theologian" is shocked, shocked, I tell you, to discover that there is gambling at Rick's some bloggers consider the rationalization she offers for the pro-abortion stance amounts to supporting abortion.
Why, one might as well have called Thomas Jefferson anti-freedom! I remember a statement he released about it... 

 

I have been called pro-slavery in some recent blogs, and I find that deeply offensive.
I am the father of several persons born slaves, and I am personally pro-freedom. I do not believe that there is any justification for the followers of [some of the things] Christ [might have said, with which I can agree] ever to endorse slave ownership as a good or commendable act.
However, there are serious issues that must be addressed with regard to how far the Church should use the law to defend positions which may not be defensible from the perspective of those who do not share the Christian faith. I have argued robustly against importation of new slaves, and I have written in detail about the serious abuses and violations which currently take place in the south with regard to slaves. Many ‘pro-salvery’ arguments put forward by states'-righters are morally repugnant and alienate those with a genuine concern for the sanctity and dignity of human life. It should be the aim of every Christian to work towards a world in which neither slavery nor abortion is necessary, while avoiding a dangerous utopianism which denies the complex and often tragic realities of human life.

My Chicken Little Moment, and the See of Peter

My dearest husband is a worry-wort. Yes, Himself is anxious over many, many things, yet always has time to include another scenario in his Litany of Terrible Things That COULD Happen.

Not that "seem likely to," note - but no matter how unlikely still could.
(And he almost always believes them to be more likely than they are, I should add.)
Most of them have to do with politics, and many, many, many of them seem to be inspired by political thrillers he watched an an impressionable age, Manchurian Candidate, 8 Days in May sort of stuff.

He grew up ducking and covering, (how sad that I was born too late to share in that....) and worrying about missiles in "Cuber," and he is not above remarking to people that what didn't happen could've happened, if it had happened, even though... well, it didnt - e.g. a coup by Nixon and his cronies? Could've happened.

"End Times" has just never been the future which my mind's eye envisious when awful occurances loom.
I simply never imagined apocolyptic results of elections, disasters, atrocities....

So whence the dread as I read this?

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops...and the synod secretariat will be hosting a symposium Saturday through Tuesday to “build a discussion” on the topic [of decentralization]... the nature of the Pope’s speech [on the topic] one that aims to pay more attention to the concerns of bishops and their faithful and offer them greater autonomy — has caused some concern. If inappropriately devised and executed, critics say, it could threaten unity and possibly even lead to schism.

Why did I see the dissolution of the Church and the End of Days?
I am not one of nature's pessimists, I don't live my life in fear of judgement day, I know the gates of hell will not prevail against God's Church...
So what is this foreboding?
I can tell you, I don't want to be a member of the American Church, still less of the Church of Gary or the Church of Newark or the Church of Venice, I don't even consider myself particulalry bound to Rome nad its rite, (going to a liturgy in Aramaic soon, as a matter of fact,) but I do consider myself bound to Peter's succesor.
I put not my faith in princes, even, or perhaps especially, princes of the Church.

a major concern about the proposed reform is that it could be especially vulnerable to abuse, particularly if it facilitates national or regional conferences gaining authority to approve pastoral practices that are not coherent with doctrine.

I see the promulgation of doctrinal developement and the handing on of teachings and Tradition becoming like some massive game of telephone.
It is hard enough to trust in Pete's successors, trying to muster confidence in the successors of all the apostles just multiplies my doubts by 12.

Speaking of Dutifuls and Prodigals....

I'm not the nicest person in the world.
I like to make jokes, and I do it too often at other people's expense.
I'm trying not to snark too much at political figures at the moment, (not because they don't deserve it, but because politics is actually making me a little sick so I'm trying not to think about it,) and I fear that the excess snark not so utilized is being deployed in other directions.

So I don't want to make this too snarky, and I REALLY don't want to indulge in noting that some kettles share the same coloration as myself.

That said--

There seems to be a kind of dionysian glee, (a paradox, yes) taken in lamenting that certain persons who should not have received the Blessed Sacrament have partaken of the Eucharist throughout the Catholic blogosphere.

The commentary, (this is generally in com-boxes, not the work of writers with any reputation or standing,) almost wishes perdition on separated brethren and sistren rather than praying that they might be saved, that all might be one.

I do not condone the sacrilegious, (even if unintended, it is sacrilege,) reception of Communion at Mass, nor the fuzzy thinking and preaching that may have encouraged it, but come on - people must be presumed to be of good will, and people of good will need to be catechized, not have anathemas hurled at them.

There was an excellent reflection in Magnificat this past week, can't recall the writer, that essentially told of the truth of a Word being attested to in any of three way: the speaker can be trusted, the word itself is self-evidently true, or those who already hold it to be true inspire confidence in it.

Orthodox Catholics Are Obliged To Behave In A Manner Worthy Of The Vocation In Which The Are Called.

You cannot draw people to the Truth if you make that Truth seem ugly.

Time for the Monthly Tribal Council of Dutiful Sons of Either Sex and Other Righteous Persons

Over at Catholic Exchange:

Coming onto Those Interwebs one Thursday, I read a woman on Catholic Exchange complain to her readers about the conversation of some women who had been in church with her. I cringed for those women who had no idea that someone was talking negatively about them. Gossip and detraction are not from God. How sad that this writer had just emerged from the place where heaven meets earth—the Holy Eucharist—and rather than praising God, she was judging the people in the pews.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have read such a display: not only about the things people say, but the clothes people wear, the way they pray, the way they sing, the way they parent their children, and more. The Enemy wants to distract us from the true purpose of Mass, and here is one way he succeeds.

Except, of course that's not really what she wrote.

As for me, I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast not made me like other bloggers....

Here's the thing - this seems to be the season for, I dunno... running out of spiritual matters to write about? Christmas almost over*, Lent not yet here, lousy weather, Pope's not travelling.

I know! I'll write a column/blog judging people who are too judgey!

Is it my imagination?
As an acknowledged member of the Tribe of the Dutiful Son, (that snotty Prodigal's better behaved elder brother,) I think I recognize a fellow Righteous Person when I see her.
--------------------
*Yeah. You heard me.

Pretend Priest Preys on Pious People

It really pains me that someone with such exquisite taste in vestments and liturgical furnishings would prove to be a con man. I am shocked, shocked.

The Rewards of Teaching Sunday School

Okay, so my ten-year-olds can't remember if they've ever received the sacrament of confession... or of reconciliation... or of penance... or of mercy.
And they cannot manage to learn the words o the Act of Contrition.

To ANY "Act of Contrition."

(Could you just say, "I'm sorry for my sins"? Five words...? Learn that? Please...? Too much?)

And they can't tell the difference between "confirmation" and "communion."

And it is impossible to get them not to write in the pages of their missals, and to write on the pages of their workbooks.
Or pick up paper off the floor.
Or not to taste the paste.
Or to keep their hands off my things.
Or to put down their phones.
Or...
Well, no matter.

Today one instigated, and the others kept going, with pertinent, insightful questions, a discussion of, I kid you not, chronos and kairos.

I love them. (Even the kid who tried to break a desk by pounding on it with his foot in a cast.)
I just love them

"I am unworthy because I filthily adhere to the mire of dung and all my good deeds are like a rag used by a ...."

Wow.
That metaphor of self-abasement, in a prayer, no less!
Just wow.
Fr Hunwicke has a interesting post about so-called "Celtic Christian spirituality.

Historians have decisively abandoned the concept of the 'Celtic', and especially of a supposedly distinctive 'Celtic Church'. In the most recent major scholarly work on this subject, Professor Charles-Edwards' Early Christian Ireland (Cambridge, 2000), the distinguished author writes dismissively of 'that entity - beloved of modern sectarians and romantics but unknown to the early Middle Ages - "the Celtic Church"', and surveys in a footnote the scholarly work of the last thirty years which has established this.

It interests me because I have a sister who has an affinity for such folderol and the lack of sense in some of the stuff she comes out with boggles the mind.
A flat, declarative statement often contradicts the immediately preceding flat, declarative sentence, but she is blessedly free from anxieties about logic.
My family, in general is given to riffing on matters about which we know very little, creating "facts" out of thin air just to see the reaction we provoke. It's simply good fun if it's just us, but others are often disturbed by what seems like mêlées, but is really jousting with blunt weapons.
Not that combatants don't sometimes sustain injuries even so - the problem being, someone who suddenly decides to go for blood, (this is rare,) or someone who is eager to dish it out but who feigns a genuine wound when she receives the same blow from a weapon recently wielded by her, that everyone else laughed off. (The feminine pronoun is deliberate, and is not a reference to the Irish Lass mentioned above.)
This occurs, or used, with unfortunate frequency, but the problem has been solved by not letting anyone as delicate as she join in any reindeer games.

Really, isn't this an absurd family dynamic for a woman in late middle-age such as myself to own?

Anyway, back to the nonsense-spouting, Celtishness-claiming sister above - what is delightful about her malarkey is that she doesn't mind being called on it, not a bit, she doesn't even defend or backtrack or deny - she just ignores it and smilingly moves on to the next fantasy or hogwash.
But this, of Fr Hunwicke's, so nails her -

my only quarrel is with people who simply manufacture stuff themselves, sometimes of an in-tune-with-nature or down-with-Roman-dogma-and-legalism type, and slyly claim that it is 'in the Celtic Spirit'.

In point of fact, I don't think she does manufacture any of it, I think she parrots and synthesizes from books given her by, and conversations held in front of her by, her pub and fiddle and knotwork buddies.
With many of them, who remember people who remembered people who remembered Easter and the Post Office, though they'd like to engage in the traditional hobby, the existence of the Republic has put a damper on that,  so "I think I'll go and join me comrades and talk a little treason" has been replaced by "I think I'll go and join me comrades and talk a little heresy."

I'm looking forward to our next visit, and tales of oaks and Druids and the Dagda and Ossian and Crones syncretized into Saints and Magick and beehives.
No, really!

Hey, and while I'm whingeing....

... is there really a shortage of translators at the Vatican?

My opera libretto Italian isn't doing me a lot of good here.

How Fortunate for the Catholics of China, For Instance....

The papacy of the national bishops conferences is just around the corner.

Fin dall'inizio del mio ministero come Vescovo di Roma ho inteso valorizzare il Sinodo,....È stata questa convinzione a guidarmi quando ho auspicato che il Popolo di Dio venisse consultato nella preparazione del duplice appuntamento sinodale sulla famiglia.....La sinodalità, come dimensione costitutiva della Chiesa, ci offre la cornice interpretativa più adeguata per comprendere lo stesso ministero gerarchico.... Il primo livello di esercizio della sinodalità si realizza nelle Chiese particolari.... Dobbiamo riflettere per realizzare ancor più, attraverso [ Province e delle Regioni Ecclesiastiche, dei Concili Particolari e in modo speciale delle Conferenze Episcopali[ ], le istanze intermedie della collegialità, magari integrando e aggiornando alcuni aspetti dell'antico ordinamento ecclesiastico. L'auspicio del Concilio che tali organismi possano contribuire ad accrescere lo spirito della collegialità episcopale non si è ancora pienamente realizzato. Siamo a metà cammino, a parte del cammino..... Una Chiesa sinodale è come vessillo innalzato tra le nazioni.

In a "synodal Church, " (I'm assuming, perhaps rashly, that this was the concept that inspired Cdl Marx's sniffy statement that the German Cathollic Church is not a subsidiary of Rome,) will we need concensus on anything? can there BE concensus - on anything?
(My word, you think venue shopping goes on now in marriage tribunals.)

"It's a Large World, After All! It's a..."

I have thought more than once lately, that I need to remember that not every Catholic lives in the south east of the United States, and my experiences are not universal, and what seems obvious or essential to American Catholics may not be so at all for Catholics in other parts of the world - the 4 year annulment process in Argentina? the polygamy situation in Africa? crony capitalism in the former communist bloc or in Latin America?

Not everything is about you, 

America, stop being so self-centered!

And some journalists and pundits who ought to know better take issue with Pope Francis's view of world affairs because he, obviously, sees things from a different point from us 'Muricans, not taking into account that, hey, we Americans are not necessarily more objective, (and if there is any nation given to the surprise when other parts of the world do things differently, isn't that us? don't tell me you've never seen someone trying to get coffee in a Chinese restaurant, I shan't believe you.)
Now, I'm not letting him off the hook entirely, while I think the statement from some Synod father or other about letting some doctrines be decided upon regionally is... what's the word? oh, yeah, CRACKED OUT.... there is something to be said for knowing your audience.
We've all met people who suffer from scrupulosity around whom no criticism must be uttered, because they, to whom said criticism does not apply, will be the only ones who take it to heart, and they, in fixing what was not in them broken, will go off the deep end and be covered with Crazy Glue.
And sometimes lack of specificity is just laziness - more than once I've been in a cast that during notes was told volume was a problem, and when questioned as to when and who was not loud enough a director just said, everything, generally.
Then next night in notes, inevitably someone is scolded, you're too loud now, you were fine before, you weren't who I meant.
Well, then.....?

But anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah...
If there were more proof needed that the nation from which cometh this Pope is not like unto ours, read this:

Two judges in Argentina have given a pedophile a reduced sentence because his 6-year-old victim had already been sexually abused and showed “homosexual tendencies”....

Court papers show that judges ... reduced the sentence of soccer club coach Mario Tolosa who in 2010 was charged with raping the unnamed boy. Tolosa’s sentence was reduced from six years to 38 months because the boy was used to such abuse from his father....

The two judges have a long record of reducing sentences for sexual and gender-based crimes. In the past, they have justified a pastor’s rape of two teenage girls because they belonged to a lower economic class, lowered the sentence of a man who raped his daughter because she gave contradictory statements in court and reduced the sentence of a man who murdered his wife from 17 years to 10 because the woman’s attitude was “almost provocative”.

Wow. A woman dared to be "almost provocative."
Wonder what the murderer would have done had she be actually provocative...

Is Our Ecclesiastical Fabric Unravelling On Every Side?

Bearing in mind that in most woven cloth there is capacity for fringitude on all sides, both the right and left selvages of the Church find causes for cheer and causes for displeasure in the actions of the Holy Father.

Oh wait, let's switch from domesticity to pugilism for our metaphor -

In this corner, because, you know, judge not, except when your judgement coincides with mine...,

Impugn the faith of a left-leaning mayor from Rome, nobody bats an eye...

 ...meet with a murderous Communist dictator from Cuba, everybody loses their minds!

...and in this corner, because its the Church's mission to be welcoming to all except those I won't welcome,
Meet with an old friend and student who happens to be gay, nobody bats an eye...

 ...shake hands with a county clerk from Kentucky, everybody loses their minds!

"Marginalize not, lest ye yourself be marginalized, " said the good book, IIRC.

 

RIP, John J. McNeill, [formely] SJ

A troubled and troubling man has died.

John J. McNeill, died Sept. 22 in a hospice facility in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 90....
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, today said McNeill possessed "a rare mixture of both a great heart and a great mind," adding that gays and lesbians have been "informed not only by his philosophical principles and logic, but by his awareness of deep and real human needs."...
Born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., McNeill entered the U.S. Army in 1942 and became a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany — an experience that for him was profoundly spiritual and led him to his entering the Jesuits in 1948. Ordained in 1959, he taught philosophy and theology at Fordham University, Union Theological Seminary, and Le Moyne College, where he was a noted peace advocate during the Vietnam War....
In 1988, he received yet another order from Rome directing him to give up all ministry to gay persons, an order, he said, he could not follow in good conscience.
He disobeyed the order and this led to his expulsion from the Jesuit order, his home for nearly 40 years.

He was very wrong on very many subjects, and think cause a great deal of harm to the Mystical Body of Christ, but I believe he always tried to do what he, at least, thought good.
God rest his soul.

"Can't We All Just Get Along???!?!?!?!?"

Kidding.
A website/outlet I don't much find myself  agreeing with has a pretty funny take-down of a website/outlet I don't much find myself  agreeing with, after the latter posted a sanctimonious video of millennial Christians, ("sanctimilllennious"?)
Now that I've viewed it, (or most of it, it's pretty foolish,) I think Entity A is a little too hard on the subjects of Entity B's video, but just about right on the sanctimony of Entity B itself. (It reminds me of an article I cam across in an old magazine - it was ubiquitous in my childhood, not sure it's still around - which combated racism by reporting, among other things, that people of one looked-down-upon race actually smelled BETTER than the majority race, as proved by a blind smell test. This was an actual paper magazine, that I held in my hand, so I know it's real, but dang I wished I'd bought it at the junk store, because I can't find it online, and it really does seem unbelievable, even to me.)

I mean, obviously the poor young Christians were given the format of their statements, and are not to blame to framing their descriptions of themselves in opposition to what  they were told, or they have heard, or they actually experientially know to be, objections their friends have to Christianity.

That said... yeah, cringeworthy.

But some bits of the criticism really tickled me, such as this tweet from someone named Michael Wear:

The christianity of too many millennials is built around proving what type of Christian we are not. This is not edifying.

Ummm... isn't there a name for that? isn't it called "protestantism"?
And I think making six poor little people representative of "too many millenials," might be a bit unfair?
This sarcastic tweet, on the other hand,

"The Christian faith really boils down to be nice, don't offend anyone. That's what's behind the crucifixion of God and all those martyrs."

...pained me.
Because I've heard it, or variations on it proclaimed from ambos, read it it in silly blogs, and  saw it online from a much admired, (though not by me,)  priest/liturgist who mocks his fellow Catholics for pining after a truly Catholic identity, when a nice college girl who thinks her Faith is about singing great songs and being nice to others has the key to it all.

Anyway, when I go out pedestal shopping I'll be sure to purchase one of a suitable size, not too tall.  I want to be on a pedestal, of course, just not a "higher" one.
we deserve a chance to explain ourselves;

• A lot of people think Christianity ruins people, but to me I think it’s people that are ruining Christianity, you never really see the good that happens, you only see the hypocrites, and the people who put themselves on a higher pedestal;

• But at its core it’s really about love and acceptance and being a good neighbor;

• Just because we prescribe [sic] to a faith that has some really terrible people in it doesn’t make all of us terrible;

• I don’t think that Christians should judge people for who they are or what they do, I think everybody is in different part of life on their own path to wherever they’re trying to go. we’re all people and love is the most important thing.

St Augustine Was a Lot Like Many Priests, Huh?

From today's Office of Readings, in a sermon wherein St A. delineates the two aspect of his vocation -

I must distinguish carefully between two aspects of the role the Lord has given me, a role that demands a rigorous accountability, a role based on the Lord’s greatness rather than on my own merit. The first aspect is that I am a Christian; the second, that I am a leader. I am a Christian for my own sake, whereas I am a leader for your sake; the fact that I am a Christian is to my own advantage, but I am a leader for your advantage.

 Many persons come to God as Christians but not as leaders. Perhaps they travel by an easier road and are less hindered since they bear a lighter burden. [emphasis added, need I say?] In addition to the fact that I am a Christian and must give God an account of my life, I as a leader must give him an account of my stewardship as well.

I have more than once challenged someone complaining about how a priest couldn't find the time to do this or that, as if he's so busy.

It is hard for us as laity to imagine how very much most parish priests have on their plates, (liturgical musicians have a little insight into it from closer observation, and similarly both visible and invisible duties.)

But I also note that there are very few priests, at least in comfortable urban and suburban areas of the US, who have a clue  how busy most of their parishioners are, what their lives entail, how much work goes into parenting, for instance, how different it is for those not essentially guaranteed housing, occupation and livelihood, and who don't "live above the shop," essentially. (I heard a pastor decrying the devotion of his flock after a snowstorm led to a sparse turn-out on Christmas day, oblivious to his advantages over the situation of someone who might live a couple miles down the hill, own a ten year-old beater and have five kids to wrestle into their boots and winter coats.)

Many priests seem to believe, in their heart of hearts, (they hopefully do not say as much aloud,) that the laity have it easy.

And "bear a lighter burden."

More Misunderstandings of the Holy Father By Those In the MSM

The Washington Post asks, What has Pope Francis actually accomplished?, and then answers it by telling us about things the Holy Father has said, acknowledging as much themselves, " by giving us "8 of Pope Francis’s most liberal statements."
I dunno -- you'd think a newspaper that operates in D.C, around people who are, er... politicians, might understand in the words of the immortal Po'k,

Sayin' ain't doin'...

(I don't know if Po'k actually said that, but Himself quotes the man's aphorisms extensively when expressing dubiety.)
That said, at least two of the items enumerated are actual accomplishments, actions - the embrace of the surgically altered woman, (no one should be called "the devil's daughter,") and the issuing of the 2 motu proprio altering the way decrees of nullity may be granted.
Other matters are range from nothing new, (nothing new aside from the media taking notice of something - many of Francis's words, once unpacked, reiterate what has long been the case, or long been taught,) or yet to accomplish what they, hopefully, adumbrate.
Frankly, the writer would do well to read his own article, and heed the words of the Scary Red Robed Church Monster ©, (the bogeyman who inhabits their nightmares, the very thought of whom so delights Church regressives that like children at a horror movie, they can't help peeking at him again and again and again, through their fingers held tightly to their eyes, to enjoy the chills and thrills even as they lose control of their bladders.)

For the Dread Cardinal Burke ©, has said,

“One must be very attentive regarding the power of the pope [which] is not absolute.”

The horror!

Um.... boo?

But the Pope said.....

There you have it. In the minds of some who know not the mind of the Church, The Pope Said closes the conversation.

(It's kinda like, "But the bell rang!", the definitive, not to be gainsaid, unrebuttable answer to anything, anyone ever said, about anything. In the Code of Canon Law, expressed campana resonata, causa finita est.)

Well, I suppose it may indeed be sort of raining spiritually, only I am too sinful to see it.

"Destination Parishes"

Am I being all judgey, or is there something inherently dishonest in presenting only one side of a contentious question, and attaching a survey to it, to see how people think?
In any case, the author who takes issue with parish shopping is in Chicago, so I'm pretty well acquainted with some of the "destination parishes" to which he may be referring.

Wonder if he takes equally dim views of St John Cantius and St Sabina's.....

 I don't know what the demographics are, but I think the urbanites, with the ideally "walkable" parish may be outnumbered by the suburbanites and rurals, to whom the "drivability" of a parish is more relevant.

And young, practicing, Catholic urbanites often work, play and live in the territory of several different parishes. SOME kind of choosing is going to have to take place, who is he to say on what basis it should be? (And we won't even get into the choosing on the basis that it makes it harder for someone on whom one is working ones wiles to turn down the invitation to accompany one, and I'm not saying how that situation came to my mind.)

And yes, sometimes one is not within the "territory" of a parish that one finds is actually walkable.

And since the idea of a universal liturgical language is in equal measure risible and abhorrent to a large part of the power structures in modern parish life, the generosity behind bishops allowing so many of those old "national" parishes is still needed, rather, needed more than ever now, (the priest/author doesn't even touch on languages issues.)

And finally, having spent quite a bit of time in his neck of the woods and in other densely populated, multi-ethnic, at least at one time heavily Catholic, urban areas - Chicago ain't Newark, which ain't Boston, which ain't Jersey City, which ain't Brooklyn, which ain't.... you get the picture.

Anyway, as always, one should keep in mind that there are reasons that "parochial" means what it does, and "catholic" means what it does, and I'll let you guess which trait I value more.

Express Lane for Decree of Nullity?

I am not certain how I think about this.

In a reformed marriage annulment process Pope Francis has made some significant changes, giving more of a role to the local bishop, dropping automatic appeals, and declaring the process free of charge....
In a brief introduction, Pope Francis stressed that his adjustments “do not favor the nullifying of marriages but the promptness of the processes.”
He said that he decided to make the changes in line with his the desire of his brother bishops, who during last year’s extraordinary synod on the family called for the process to be “faster and more accessible.”
Announced Tuesday, the new process is aimed at streamlining the system for granting annulments out   of concern “for the salvation of souls” while affirming the longstanding Catholic teaching on marriage indissolubility.

I certainly applaud the universal elimination of fees for processing, thought I would hope others in the first world who also support this will... up their donations to the Church?
Just because the petitioner is not asked to pay anything does not eliminate the costs, which will now be borne by the diocese, presumably.
But the fact it, in this country it has long been possible to initiate the process without paying a cent, there are many diocese which absorbed the fees long ago, and many, many others which will waive them, for any request, (however bogus, I might add.)
Add to this a great flexibility in which diocese one chooses to pursue the annulment, and it is clear that it has been a long time since any American was denied the opportunity to remarry in the Church for monetary reasons.
Whatever any individual claims.
I  know remarried Catholics who deny themselves the sacraments -- but not vacation houses, travel, expensive dining out, private schools, jewelry and expensive hobbies.

But removal of the appearance of -- what? simony is charging for sacraments, could the term also be used to charging for the debunking of a putative sacrament? -- anything untoward and mercenary is a good.

Has the process been onerous in the past?
Perhaps. But I also know people who complain of having been asked to jump through hoops, and have never so much as jumped though the hoop of filling out the forms, (in one case, of even approaching the diocese or the parish about GETTING the forms.)

I know one couple who insist that an ex is "dangerous crazy," and therefore they cannot seek an annulment - they ignore the fact that their diocese is very upfront about discretion in the case of a former partner who presents a danger. (The non-Catholic ex attends family functions and attended the civil wedding, so it's hard to imagine what further danger would obtain from their arranging for a validation, but there you have it.)

But anecdotes are not data.

I have been asking myself for the past year why i find this so troubling.
A friend suggested that having gone through the process, perhaps we don't want other people to have it easier?
But after much reflection, I can state without hesitation that the very opposite is true.

The value of it was so great that I mourn for others who will be deprived of it.

The elimination of the automatic appeal will, I think, make situations like the well-publicized opposition of spouses of celebrities who want to remarry in the Church  worse, giving the appearance of not expedited decrees, but casual issuing of decrees of nullity.

And finally, and most disturbingly, there is this -

Among the more significant changes the Pope made were dropping the automatic appeal needed after a decision on nullity has been reached, as well as allowing local bishops to make their own judgements on “evident” cases of marriage nullity....
in the case that it is appealed , the Pope decided appeals can be done in nearest metropolitan diocese, rather than needing to go to Rome....
The bishop can be the only judge, or he can establish 3-member tribunal....
“It has not escaped me how an abbreviated judgment might put the principle of indissolubility of marriage at risk,” he said.
“Indeed, because of this I wanted that in this process the judge would be composed of the bishop, so that the strength of his pastoral office is, with Peter, the best guarantee of Catholic unity in faith and discipline.”

I can think of nothing, NOTHING, less likely to assure some "unity in faith and discipline," than such subsidiarity, given the immense polarization on this issue as evidenced by the last synod, and the expressed determination of some of the German bishops, for instance, effectively to rubber stamp any request by a potentially dues paying member of the Faithful.
(The timing of this whole thing is odd, obviously it was a done deal at the time Cardinal Burke was relieved of his command, and the discussions and interventions at the previous and upcoming synods? moot.)