The Man Who DOES Kneel Before God (edited)

As I said in another context, it's easy enough to google evidence.... ENOUGH with the calumny and detraction. (Unless you think all these are photoshopped...)

     

I don't know his life, I don't know his knees - and neither, I dare say, do you.

The Sacrament of Mercy?

You would expect, with how earnestly we in the Church are preaching the Year of Mercy, that the Faithful and Semi-Faithful would be flocking to Confession.
But the headline here, indicating that more Catholics are availing themselves of Reconciliation, "rise in confessions to St Peter’s Basilica" is a bit misleading, and not necessarily borne out by the article.

Although there are some numbers to gladden the heart, there are others.

People "going" to the sacrament may have "increased noticeably in the first months of Year of Mercy", but not necessarily those receiving it, as it seems to have become like ashes, something non-Catholics are also drawn to, but do not really understand.
And the priest who is the source of any direct quotes in the piece says flatly that while most of the penitents are Italian, the numbers are actually down among the English speaking.

As in so much that is going wrong with the Church, we have to chalk this up to wretched catechesis. The family was dropping the ball, and the institution was too slow to see it, or worse, welcomed it as part of the general loosing of what had been bound, and not bothering to bind what was loose.

Many penitents have not received the sacrament since their First Communions?

Think again! Many NEVER received it.
There was, there still is a very wide-spread notion that as only mortal sin demands sacramental confession, there is no need to subject 2nd graders to it, right?
So instead, let's instill in them the idea that Penance is an onerous ritual, scary even, and thank God they don't have to go, and they should only do what is absolutely required.

Following the logic of that, the children would have been taught that they should only receive Communion once a year, right?
But this was not logical, this was not principled - it was a deliberate denigration of a very Catholic way of thinking, something that was at odds with the belief of our separated brother and sisters and therefore, ought gradually to be eased out of Catholic life.

So that, you know, all could be one.

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.

Human Resources Office at the Vatican

Who does the hiring? is there someone like this,


whom all the folk in every department hate because they are required to take sensitivity training, and answer on sexual harassment charges?

Or someone like this,

who is the reason everyone else is so required?

In any case, are we really surprised that this hire, (the mustachioed lady on the left,)


proved not the best fit for working at the Vatican?
Well, I'm sure she'll land on her feet.

I'm not one of those wacky German Cardinals, but can I get in on some of that schadenfreude stuff? Maybe with a nice chianti....

Why I Am Not an Extraordinary Minister

I've been asked, numerous times, multiple parishes. You're always here anyway, you know how to do things at church, you'd be good at  it, we always need more people....
I would do it, I have done it, for home visits.
But not in the context of a liturgy.
The excuse I usually make is m eczema, my skin condition. Heck, most of the time, I wouldn't eat anything my hands have touched, (and I imagine the Blessed Sacrament would not be improved by condiments such as Bag Balm or hydrocortisone ointment. Just a guess.)
But back in the day of school Masses another faculty member, (who was an EM,) was going on a tear about kids who present for Communion with filthy hands or fake tattoos all over their palms drawn with Sharpies and how she insisted they receive on the tongue and that they had better not present themselves like that tomorrow.
And I told her that I had seen too many people present for the Sacrament in a manner that made it very clear that they had no idea what they were about to receive, I had seen people strolling back down the aisle and casually breaking off a chunk of Jesus to give someone else, I had seen people look at the Host in their hands with such a quizzical expression on their faces that there was no doubt that they were not Catholic or even, perhaps, Christian, I had seen people go to stick Him in their pockets only to be chased down by ushers, I had come across the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ stuck in the pages of a missallette.... I couldn't do it.

I could not stand at the head of the aisle giving the Body and Blood of Christ to everyone knowing the profanation that was, I will not say "probable," but certainly possible, and occurring with a hideous frequency; yet I am sure this is the task, is it not?

The bar is very high for a non-ordained minister to refuse someone Communion. (I am no John Wesley.) It would make me sick to wonder if with every ministration I was risking participation in the profanation of the Sacrament, but I could hardly do other than to give the Host to anyone who presented.

I hadn't thought of this in a while, but I helped out with Communion at a rest home today. (Very short of healthy priests, just a Liturgy of the Word with Communion.
These are all long term residents, no one is on the road to recovery, no one will be leaving alive.
Quite a few non-Catholics, even some non-Christians in attendance - it is something to do, something to break the monotony and provide human contact. It is always thus at nursing homes, old age homes, etc.
One man wanted my attention while the EM was distributing, his roommate was not a Catholic, he insisted, and always took Communion at these things, look at him there, big as life waiting in line, I had to do something about it!

I told him, (I think this is more or less accurate?) that according to canon law it is not up to any minister of Communion, ordained or extraordinary, to deny the sacrament to anyone who presents without moral certainty that that person may not receive, and that the nun religious sister directing the service took his word, hadn't she? she had accepted him as a Catholic without insisting on seeing his "permanent record,", and would take the word of his roommate, as well, all things being equal.

That seemed to sooth him, the mention of canon law, and my acknowledging his concerns even if I offered no remedy, so he went on, (there were many extraneous conversations going on throughout the service,) that the fellow would go to the Methodist services too, and that he was "mentally ill" and was there in the home because of his dealings with Satanism and theDevil, (which are, I believe, two different things?)

That rocked me back on my heels a bit, I admit.

But if he is indeed mentally ill, there is no sin in actions which he cannot help.
And besides, he receives on the tongue. And he does so, so easily, I cannot believe it is not an action in which he has engaged for a good part of his life. (And he consumes the Host.)

And he knows the words and tune to Holy God We Praise Thy Name, (seldom if ever heard in Protestant congregations hereabouts.)

And finally, he says his Hail Mary fluently and unaffectedly.

If he is not Catholic, he is certainly not a devil-worshipper, and if receiving the Body and Blood of Christ is not something he has done most of his life, it is something that does him good, and nourishes his soul and prepares him for a voyage that is not, I think, too far off.

Someone Who Has Actual Knowledge of the German "Church Tax"

Very interesting stuff about the way the Church tax is administered and the truth about the ontological reach of a Catholic opting out of the paying of such, in the combox at Catholic Herald

As someone who grew up in Germany I may be able to give some background information:
In order to no longer pay 'Kirchensteuer' you have to declare at the local council that you leave the 'Catholic Church.' Since the goverment is no religious institution this means that one is leaving the civil-law corporation 'Catholic Church in Germany,' without any deeper religious meaning (and courts have made it clear that the goverment can only deal with civil law and have to leave everything else to the Church). The German bishops used to claim that this was tantamount to Apostasy, but a few years ago Rome told them that this was not the case. As a result, the German bishops introduced the crime of leaving the civil corporation, which is to be punished with de-facto Interdict - and recently the bishops decided that you can be teacher in a Catholic school if you live in a civil-partnership with some same-sex partner, but that you are sacked more or less automatically for the sin of de-registering from the civil-law coporation. (Oddly enough, foreigners moving to Germany and simply not registering to the civil-law corporation can receive the sacraments).
However, I guess that the tide is changing - if the German bishops join some Kasperite heresy (as most of them are likely to do so, although hopefully not all), many orthodox Catholics will refuse to fund them any longer, and it is hard to imagine that orthodox priests will pay any attention to this register any longer (it may be necessary to get married abroad, though, because there could be problems with the paperwork). I have been already taught by an long-standing German parish priest that de-registering was maybe not yet morally necessary (this was Pre-Synod) but would in his eyes not be a problem either.
The real tragedy is that the German Church could have done so many things with this money, but they use it to build up a giant administration and to dilute the Faith....

Blocking...

I have blocked needlework, but that's about it.

And I have been blocked when trying to enter a lane of automobile traffic, but again, that's about it.

Frankly, I'm shocked at all the brouhaha on the Twitter, about people not allowing those who disagree with them to even read their feeds, (if i understand that right, which I probably don;'t, because i don't do much on the Twitter, although I think tomorrow i will let the Rugrats at RelEd right Tweets to God, the Pope and Teacher, ('tis I.)
140 little squares.

I digress.
This strikes me as an odd thing for a churchy person who is being called out for blocking other churchy persons to tweet:

Since, you, you know, would have a hard time hearing people to whom you won't listen. And to get a discourse going with those whom you won't allow to listen to you.

Just saying.

(Hope I did that right, trying to remove anyones name form the posted tweet, technidiot that I am; i have no wish to harass any person.)

But what's the point?
Free discourse, or living in echo chambers?

Why I Love Eccles...

... and hope someday to be as saved as he is.

So he writes a very amusing post, that convinces me I must embroider a sampler that says "Sona Si Latine Loqueris" (though I'm thinking "honk if you LOVE..." might be better.)

Then a commenter has a little snatch of a lyric or poem that I had to hunt down.
And now I know that Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote this delightful little almost-limerick.

God's plan made a hopeful beginning. 
But man spoiled his chances by sinning. 
We trust that the story 
Will end in God's glory. 
But, at present, the other side's winning.

I suppose I should have entitled this, "Why the Internet is Such a Time Suck."

Who Said "A Turnip May Know No Greek But I Do"? and "Synod"

I'm probably remembering it wrong, and I haven't got a copy either of the book or the tv series, but I think Augustus in "I, Clavdivs,"  used that expression - a turnip may know no Greek....
(I, Claudius, with production values that rival Dr Who for tacky cheapness is still one of the two or three greatest television series EVER.)

Well, a turnip knows just about as much Greek as I, which is why I have to depend on the kindness of (erudite,) strangers.)

Can anyone tell me what the (minor,) hubbub is over the word, "synod," and the insistence by some bloggers that it means "meeting," (which I believe is true,) but that it does NOT mean "a path taken together," or "walking toward each other or with each other," as well, (which also seem feasible,)?

Why not both?

 

Is there anyone in Rome who 

has NOT slept with my daughter 

claimed to have an inside track 

on the Synod??!??!?#??$???

"Well, I Read It On the Internet, So It Must Be....."

I have heard over and over, from many people, that in the olden days, (that's right, during which I was alive,) many, many Catholics -- mostly lay people, but some priests, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn some bishops could be included in this group -- got their ecclesiastical news from the secular media.

"Time Magazine says that Vatican Two ordered us to..."

"The Star Ledger says Pope John XXIII wants us to..."

"According to the Gazette-Journal, Catholics no longer have to...."

"From now on, it said on WCBS, Catholics don't believe...."

"A guy on the radio said that from now on Catholics are allowed to..."

I don't think anyone would deny this led to a great deal of confusion, and the dissemination of disinformation, and some bald untruths -- utter, agenda-driven LIES that "everybody knows" to be "true."

And I wouldn't say it was the fault of media or of the Church structure itself, since the Church was used to moving slowly, and there was a protocol to who needed to be informed and in what order that information was to come, that was not always observed or even known by people in the press, (this was taken advantage of by the unscrupulous fringes of the Church, but I digress.)

It isn't only in matters ecclesiastical that such protocols obtain.
I remember standing in my Mother-in-law's kitchen, having just told her that we were going to be married, when I hung up the phone Himself was trying to dial, (no, not really "dial", but push buttons,) with a very firm, No. I don't care who you're trying to call, sibs, or ex-wife, or best friend, but not before I get my Mom on the phone to give HER the news.

So, is the Catholic Church reliving the sixties?

I mean, it seems unlikely, in this day and age of instant communication, but can it be that the Holy Father's letter regarding, no, revealing his indulgences for the Year of Mercy was so off-the-cuff that,

"a question also arises as to why there was not a direct communication to the SSPX. The communique from the SSPX indicates that they only learned about it via the press. Generally, grants of faculty are communicated directly to the cleric to whom the faculty is being granted or to the cleric’s superior where appropriate." [emphasis added.]

I get that canon law and that kind of thing has changed since the Holy Father studied for the priesthood, but, um... isn't that the reason why people in positions of ENORMOUS authority and influence and responsibility have advisors?

Catholic Schools Promoting Catholic Teaching - the Unmitigaged Gall !!!!

Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield IL seems to be under the impression that those schools in his purview are for the creation of virtuous persons!

Oh, my God, is there no end to the wickedness of Papists?

He seems not to understand that his Church is just a collection of arbitrary rules and suggestions, that have no place in the making of moral and ethical decisions!
How dare he foist his opinions and his beliefs on people who are just looking for a cheap alternative to prep schools, (as indicated by the way, according to stats provided by one of the secular news outlets that has its panties in a bunch the percentage of non-Catholic attending Catholic school in the diocese jumps from elementary to high school,)?

And if parents of a child in the school are publicly flouting what those wacky Catholic Christians is mandated by God's law or by natural law he's, oh my God, I can hardly bring myself to type this --- he's insisting that they dialogue!
Yes, that's right, you're not seeing things, he wants them to come in for a [shudder] MEETING.

Because, you know, the Worship of God and Salvation of Souls.

Oh the humanity!

[/snarcasm]
Do you suppose the Catholic parents of a child in an evangelical protestant school are within their rights to insist that when the kiddies are doing art projects, or working on memorization that utilize scripture, that they not use the KJV, or NLT or NIV,  little Mary Bernadette will use the NAB, thank you very much?
Or is it only Catholics who provoke these diatribes when they promote a way of life that's, um, Catholic?

Can you imagine if an Islamic school in the US told the owner of a liquor distributor who wished to enroll his kids in a madrassa to be prepared, that the were not going to avoid  the Muslim teaching on alcohol just to please him?
Or a Christian Scientist, (or do I mean Jehovah's Witnesses?) school agreed never to mention their attitude toward blood transfusions?
Or a group that engaged in ecstatic dancing promised a parent of a denom that forbade dancing that they would water down or gloss over  their religion for him?

Or any religion whose teachings included any stances that were counter-cultural which ran a school?

Would the State Journal-Register be whinging about that?
Dubious.

Here's the document for Springfield that parents are asked to sign.
Oh, you're not Catholic? Who is forcing you to enroll your kids there?

There's an old saying in community theatre that too many star wannabes and drive-by members of the organization don't realize that it's more about "community" that "theatre."

Well, many parents, Catholic and non-, and of course the secular media, don't understand that Catholic Schools are and should be more about Catholicism than Scholarship. The latter is an accidental, and its purpose is to reinforce the former.

The money thing, the tithing?
I don't know about any of the parochial and high schools in Springfield, but in any other diocese of which I've had any knowledge even the out-of-parish, out of the Faith tuition didn't begin to cover the actual costs per student.

The sacrifices made by the teachers, (most could get much better money elsewhere,) and the average PIP, (most of whom, childless or not, do not have children in the schools in question,) are to build up the Faith, to build up the Church, to produce good Catholic, to - I can hardly believe this needs saying and I know when it is said it is roundly mocked - TO SAVE SOULS.

Here endeth the rant.

"Signs of the Times"

We should pray that the Holy Spirit enables us to read the signs of the times.

When did people start quoting Matthew 16 and Luke 12 to bolster their arguments that the Church must change Her teachings to accommodate the world and the flesh, (and whatever else it is that goes along with that duo, it escapes me at present)?

When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain—and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot—and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time? 

It seems to me that the Lord is tut-tutting that, spiritually speaking, some of His auditors don't have the common sense to come in out of the rain, or brains to wear a hat in the noon-day sun, not advising them that they might as well go play in the mud or give themselves sunstroke.
We read the signs of the times for the warning they present, not to go along with what is the most appealing to the most people.

An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.

 Any way, they were pretty talkative at, and in the aftermath of, their little pow-wow. So many pearls of wisdom, can't decide...

Denied communion? as though it were a punishment for the people who have failed and found a new partner with whom to start a new life?

You can continue to guide my conscience, but you can only effectively do so if you echo what I already think

We'll have a Synod FAIL if we simply affirm what the Church has always known to be the Truth.

It's wasn't "secret", we just didn't want you to KNOW about it.

It’s not our differences that count, but what unites us.

Conscience should be based on  life experience? okay, that's working out pretty good for me.

 The indissolubility of marriage is not seriously called into question by having your spouse beheaded.