Rereading Francis....we just don't read the same thing.

Tim who is a great commenter and a fan of Pope Francis directed me to a blog post from a site called "Ethika Politika" which I had not heard of before. In this post the author makes light of those Catholics like me who have their doubts about this Pope and his penchant for proclamations and interviews that have to be reinterpreted because the media always twists and changes his plain meaning.

Here is the meat of her post:

"One line used to criticize Francis, which I saw in emails as soon as the subject of the encyclical was announced, has been to lament his failing to write on the persecution of Christians. “While the Holy Father has spoken eloquently about the present genocide of Christians in the Middle East,” writes Fr. George Rutler in his inevitably elegant way, “those who calculate priorities would have hoped for an encyclical about this fierce persecution, surpassing that of the emperor Decius. Pictures of martyrs being beheaded, gingerly filed away by the media, give the impression that their last concern on earth was not climate fluctuations.”

I normally read Fr. Rutler with pleasure, but this, I’m afraid, is a cheap shot. None of us, should we be blessed to be awake as we’re dying, will be thinking about the weather, but those we love and leave behind will care about it a great deal—especially if it gets worse, as the majority of scientists seem to say."

Talk about dismissing a legitimate issue. Climate change might be a very important issue. Or it might not. Scientists differ. Some want to blame everything on the free enterprise system that is the best thing that ever happened to the poor that should be the concern of the Holy Father. It is the surplus that our Western Industrialized society provides that serves to succor the poor and impoverished of the world. Not the failed socialist states like Cuba that seem to be the apple of the Pontiff's eyes.

Be that as it may I would think that the persecution of Christians and others by forces of Muslim extremism should be the focus of the Pope and all the resources of moral suasion he can wield. He must beat the drum each and every day and put pressure on Catholic politicians and people in power to do something to intervene and protect the innocent. You can't tell me that if he was on TV every day he would not marshal world opinion in some way. These are murders and persecutions not seen since the days of the Romans for crying out loud! How is this not the focus of the Church and it's leaders. Each and every day. Nonstop. Pushing and pushing until something is done to stop this genocide against Christians and other non Muslims. Why do people who are apologists for the Pope just shrug and say it is a "cheap shot" to mention this? Would it have been a cheap shot to call out Pope Pius for being silent about the fate of the Jews during World War 2?  Is the Pope immune to criticism and doubt? Should we just shut up and put our money in the collection basket so they can build a bigger cathedral?

It comes down to reading the Pope and listening to what he says. And what he doesn't say. Where he chooses to put his emphasis. His teaching. His moral suasion. He seems to want to talk about climate change and green house gases and curtailing industrialization and prosperity and the free  enterprise system. Instead of Christians who are being beheaded or made into sex slaves or throw off a boat on the way to Italy. I don't think you have to reread him. It is becoming pretty clear where his priorities lie.

I always aced the reading comprehension test. 

If the Pope is the Father of the Church we might be in trouble.

I know youse guys are getting tired of hearing me complain about this Pope. I know my parish priest is big time. He keeps telling me "I don't want to hear it....he was misquoted....they are distorting his meaning.....just put some more in the collection basket and don't think about it because there is nothing we can do."

I sized him up as your typical ultra-liberal liberation theology Sandinista type. Just like De Blasio as a matter of fact. I just don't want him to do the Church what De Blasio is doing to New York.

Powerline had a couple of good posts on this today. One talks about his laughable qoute that good Catholics should not be in the business of producing firearms. What? We should not make or have weapons so it would be easier for the Muslims to cut our heads off? What the hell is he talking about?

Then there is a post about the new encyclical that buys into the climate change alarmist prescription to stop economic because the earth is warming or cooling or whatever fits the scenario that will put shackles on the Industrial West. He is pushing a line that will result in more suffering and pain for the poor who need cheap energy more than anyone! Talk about your unintended consequences.

I am taking Michael Haz's advice and following the example of St. Benedict. Hunkering down and waiting this out. I have faith that this is a short term thing and that the Church will weather the storm of having an incompetent and pernicious Pope. I have faith.

Instapundit has a column about the Pope

I came upon this posting on Instapundit about Pope Francis and his new found friends in the Palestinian terrorist government:

Pope Francis Refers to Holocaust Denier, Anti-Semite, and Terrorist as an ‘Angel of Peace’ By Rick Moran

What would possess Pope Francis to call PA President Mahmoud Abbas an “angel of peace”?

It’s like Francis announcing that Satan is just a misunderstood archangel, and really isn’t such a bad sort after all.

Voice of America:

Francis said he thought the gift was appropriate since “you are an angel of peace.” During his 2014 visit to Israel and the West Bank, Francis called both Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres men of peace.

Abbas is in Rome for the canonization Sunday of two 19th-century nuns from what was then Ottoman-ruled Palestine. The new saints, Mariam Bawardy and Marie Alphonsine Ghattas, are the first from the region to be canonized since the early days of Christianity.

Abbas on Saturday offered Francis relics of the two new saints.

Church officials are holding up the new saints as a sign of hope and encouragement for Christians in the Middle East at a time when violent persecution from Islamic extremists has driven many Christians from the region of Christ’s birth.

Abbas’ visit also comes days after the Vatican finalized a bilateral treaty with the “state of Palestine” that made explicit its recognition of Palestinian statehood.

The Vatican said it had expressed “great satisfaction” over the new treaty during the talks with the Palestinian delegation. It said the pope, and later the Vatican secretary of state, also expressed hopes that direct peace talks with Israel would resume.

“To this end, the wish was reiterated that with the support of the international community, Israelis and Palestinians may take with determination courageous decisions to promote peace,” a Vatican statement said.

Since the pope insists on ignoring the record, allow me to fill in some details about Mr. Abbas:

* Wrote his dissertation on the supposed collaboration between Nazis and Zionists and claims that the actual number of dead Jews as a result of the Holocaust was less than a million.

* Was named “Anti-Semite of the Year” by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in 2011.

* While acting as Yassar Arafat’s “moderate” face for the PLO in order to placate western complaints about PLO terrorism, Abbas funded the terror attack at the Munich Olympics and played a shadowy role in the attack on the cruise ship Achille Lauro with some former PLO members claiming he was the mastermind behind the attack.

Abbas is not only corrupt, he has been accused of murdering Syrian intelligence officers in 1966. And this is a man the pope has called an “angel of peace”?

The pope’s warped worldview forgives all in Abbas’ past because Francis takes the terrorist at his word today that he wants “peace” with Israel. In the cuckoo land of leftists, despite all evidence to the contrary, Abbas is believed because his views line up with those who wish to blame Israel for the failure to achieve peace.

The Vatican formally recognized the “state” of Palestine for the first time earlier in the week. I don’t think this means that the pope actually wants to see Israel destroyed. But he has obviously bought into the lie that giving Palestinians their own country will allow everyone in the Middle East to live happily ever after.

The pope should stick to saving souls and leave the hard stuff to the grownups.

I couldn't have said it better.

Avi slach lahem ki eynam yod'im ma hem 'osim

I am troubled by the actions of this troublesome pope. He met with the  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abba and called him an "angel of peace." Now this is the same Palestinian authority that has demanded the end of Israel and the destruction of the Jewish people.

Catholics have a very bad history with Jews as I am sure you know. The Inquisition. Pogroms. The record of Pope Pius in World War 2 is of course very troubling. The Church did a lot to help some of the Jews. But nowhere near enough. I have no right to question what they did. I don't know what I would have done. I most likely would have been weak. I would have acquiesced and done what I thought I had to do to survive. I would have denied him three times. Maybe twenty times three times. I am weak.

What Pope Pius did was bend with the strong wind. He made what accommodations he had to make with evil so that the Church could survive. He did what he thought he had to do and I am not a worthy judge. I don't know what pressure he was under or what he faced when dealing with such evil.  Who am I to judge.

Is this Pope signaling that he is willing to do the same thing as Pius? Is it his plan to acquiesce with evil and accommodate it to find some illusory safety at the cost of the annihilation of the Jews?

I am a very strong defender of Israel and the Jewish people. Sometimes more than actual secular Jews. Which amazes me but what are you going to do. Some people are descendants of the ghetto fighters of Wausau. And some are descendants of the Kapos who helped put their people in the ovens.

If we don't stand up for the Jews and Israel we are on the road to destruction. The Jews are always the canary in the coal mine. The BDS movement on the left and on campus is just the beginning of a catastrophe if we let it go forward. The News Media, the Obama administration and now the Pope are all on the bandwagon. The stars are all aligning again. Evil is abroad and walking the land. Killing Jews. Killing Christians. Burning churches. Cutting off heads. We remember how this turned out the last time we had a complaisant pope and a lackadaisical ultra liberal president.

Never again.

I don't know what it is with this guy!

So Pope Francis has decided that in the midst of the problems in the Middle East with Muslim terrorists beheading Christians and throwing refugees into the ocean he should recognize the Palestinian state. That's right. Make nice with terrorists and the people who are aligned with ISIS and the Muslim extremists who want to destroy the Church and all that it stands for. Instead of fighting tooth and nail and leading the forces of Christendom against those that would cut off our heads. He his budding up with the likes of the PLO and Hamas.

This Pope seems to be very left wing. A follower of liberation theology. He seems to sign on to all of the left wing talking points. Climate change. Income Redistribution. The Palestinian State. What's next? Gay marriage and Abortion?

He has taken his first tentative steps to changing the teaching of the Church over abortion. He has decided to send "Missionaries of Mercy" to go and forgive those who Catholics who got an abortion. Why did he need to do that? Are they some kind of special sinners? Special murderers because they killed their babies instead of a stranger? Forgiveness and reconciliation was always available to them. Just as it would be to any murderer. They would have to go to confession and sincerely repent their sins. Of course they would have to sincerely repent and do their penance. Not wear a "I got an abortion T-shirt" and laugh it off like it was a nose job or something. Why is the Pope facilitating abortion? Is he going to ease the consciences of those who provide abortions and the politicians who support it? Is he normalizing it for Catholics?

What's going on here?

I guess if he can cuddle up with the people who like to kill Jews it is no big deal to cuddle up with the people who like to kill babies.

I keep asking. Is this Pope Catholic? Youse guys keep telling me he is. I don't see it.

Today's Gospel

Jesus said:
“I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd
and whose sheep are not his own,
sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father.”
http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/10:18

Today's Gospel is the familiar one of the Good Shepard. Now the metaphor of the shepherd is obviously more appropriate to the more agricultural rural times but it is an easy enough concept for the modern person to grasp. 

What make a Good Shepard? One who keeps his flock safe from harm? Who leads them out of harms way?  I think that is a reasonable definition. How are our leaders acting as shepherds?

My local parish priest is a very good Shepard. He tends his flock diligently. Always around to help and give good advice. We met him in the street the other day and had a chance to chat which we never get to do on Sunday. He was telling me about the renovation. It seem they are spending about $4 million to redo the church and the parish hall. That is a heck of a lot of money but it is really good news. That means they will not be so quick to close this parish. They have invested too much to do that so it is a great relief. The reason why the parish is strong is because of Father Chris. He is very family friendly and parents come from other parishes just because of the way he treats the kids. Some live next door to a church and still come to St Mary's. It is because of the shepherd.

My question has long been what kind of shepherd will Pope Francis turn out to be when it is all said and done? His recent pronouncements about economics and the upcoming ones about global warming trouble me. We are currently facing the greatest challenge for Christians in many a long year. Christians are being slaughtered all over the world. In Paris they just arrested a gunman who planned to go to a church to murder Catholics. ISIS cut off the heads of Coptic Christians in Egypt. Muslim refugees throw Christians into the Sea and the President wouldn't even mention it in his Press Conference. The Italian Prime Minister said it was no big deal. Why should he when the Pope is not leading his flock? Pope Francis has spoken out but no where nearly enough. He should call a prime time news conference to denounce these murders. He should be shouting from the rooftops. He needs to be the shepherd that protects his flock. Even the other Christians who are not in his flock but still need his leadership.

"These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice." 

I don't think that Obama is a Christian. He is not a member of the flock but the Pope needs to make him hear his voice. The Pope needs to speak out loudly and vehemently and clearly that this situation can not stand! He needs to put the politically correct nonsense aside and lead his flock out of danger.

Where is our Shepherd?
.

Finally something the Pope and I agree on.....But is he Catholic?

The Guardian February 5, 2015  Pope Francis  told parents it is OK to spank their children to discipline them – as long as their dignity is maintained.

Francis made the remarks this week during his weekly general audience, which was devoted to the role of fathers in the family.

Francis outlined the traits of a good father: one who forgives but is able to “correct with firmness” while not discouraging the child.

“One time, I heard a father in a meeting with married couples say ‘I sometimes have to smack my children a bit, but never in the face so as to not humiliate them’,” Francis said.

“How beautiful.” he added. “He knows the sense of dignity! He has to punish them but does it justly and moves on.”

Finally something we can agree on. Give those little bastards a couple of smacks for crying out loud. 

"Hey if you want to cry I can give you something to cry about!"

"GET OFF OF MY LAWN!"

Is the Pope Catholic or will he punch you in the nose

Pope Francis has made some more news which I am sure you are all aware. He sort of came down on the side of censorship of the cartoons that are causing all the trouble in France.

I am not surprised. He is after all an ultra-liberals and all liberals are in the camp of protecting Islam no matter what crimes they commit. The liberals are all for censoring speech that offends the Muslims and he signed right on with that. He is firmly in the Ecumenical camp which is not unusual for Popes so it is unlikely that he would be in favor of freedom of the press instead of kissing up to the ragheads. I guess I could understand it if he was as outspoken about Catholic imagery being perverted. It seems that every other TV show I see is set in a Church and the sacred symbols are treated like garbage. Haven't heard him speak out much about that.

I will give you an example. Last season on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills there was this dumb cunt named Carlton who claimed to be a Wiccan but had all sorts of Catholic symbols in her house. Crucifixes, Celtic Crosses and a full confessional booth that she delighted in saying she enjoyed having sex in all the time. It went unmentioned.

There was a very short lived sitcom called Partners that starred Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence. In the first episode the set up was that a Catholic priest was having an affair with Martin's estranged wife. They broke into the rectory and rifled through the priest things included a suitcase that contained a chalice and a monstrance that holds the Sacrament. Nobody said boo. No biggie.

I mentioned at Father Foxes place a strange occurrence at Midnight Mass. There were a whole bunch of people you never saw before. Not unusual in a big holiday. Anway there was this one hipster tattooed blue haired chick who took the host in her hand and started to walk away. She didn't put it in her mouth. The 80 year old minister started chasing her down the aisle because it seemed she took the host for some nefarious purpose. Maybe for some art project. Maybe for a Black Mass or some Satanic bullshit. The girl goes."Ok Ok stop it" and put the host in her mouth.

I wonder if the Pope would have punched her in the face?

Cuba Libre?

In 1961 when Fidel Castro took over Cuba he exiled hundreds of Catholic Priests and the bishop. All of the property of the church was seized and nationalized.

Now the Pope was "instrumental" in facilitating the agreement between Obama and Fidel. Why?

Is this a  preview of what will happen if the Church is under attack if it does not surrender on abortion and gay marriage. What if "fines" and "penalties" are attached to the Church or more correctly those who still follow the doctrines of the Church as promulgated for the last couple of thousand years? Will be Pope cavalierly acquiesce? Will he facilitate the attacks on the Church that Obama and his ilk have launched? Will he continue to silence Cardinals who speak out against this?

Is he a Communist at heart?

Why Cuba? Why Now?

I guess it is just because the Pope and Obama are communists at heart. Let's throw out the human rights abuses. Nobody cares about that. Let's throw out the anti-clericalism and persecution of the Church by the Cuban Communists. Let's forget about their funding of narco terroritsts. Their funding and support of the Sandanistas.

I mean who cares about all of that? Who cares about the US Embargo which can not be changed with out action by Congress?

Where is this all going to end?

The Pope is literally helping Obama make a deal with the Devil.

Did you ever get the feeling?

That these guys want to swap jobs?

Father Fox tells it like it is......

I want to reprint a post from Father Martin Fox's blog Bonfire of the Vanities:

From the National Catholic Register article:

ROME — The start of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family has triggered a wave of activism from well-funded LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) activist groups in the U.S., who are targeting “outspoken” Catholic bishops in hopes of changing Catholic practice and moral doctrine.

“Most important is the opportunity to create a precedent for change,” the Human Rights Campaign said in its pamphlet on the synod.

The LGBT group has announced an activist effort targeting eight bishops in a pamphlet that labels them as “the best of the worst Catholic bishops across the country.”

Its campaign will target Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., the president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill.

The effort aims to target bishops the activist group claims have been “most outspoken in their rejection of LGBT Catholics, their civil rights and their rightful place in the Church.” The effort will include Rosary events and literature distributions in the bishops’ home cities.

Among the Human Rights Campaign’s corporate partners are large corporations like American Airlines, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Bank of America, Northrop Grumman, Chevron, Lexus, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. (Emphasis added.)

See that? Our Archbishop has been "targeted." That means we in the Archdiocese have been "targeted."

Let me amplify that. This isn't about the Archbishop. Our Archbishop is simply being faithful to the teachings of our Lord and Savior. He is doing his job. He is being our shepherd. This is an attack on the Body of Christ as a whole, and that means every one of us.

And the Archbishop deserves to know that the faithful stand with him. When he stands up for Christ, we must stand with him!

While I don't imagine his Excellency is fretting over this, I also don't imagine this is going to be pleasant. Even if the efforts of the "LGBT activists" are reasonably civil (let us hope), this is not something most of us would want to endure outside our places of work, churches, or homes.

I'm not sure the Archbishop would want me to, er, organize any letter-writing, but I don't know why you couldn't contact him and let him know he has your prayers and support.

Second, you may want to contact some of those companies above, to see if they wish to be enlisted in this effort. Do these companies really intend to lobby the Catholic Church to change her teachings? Really?

Third, and most important: it's time to get ready. This is only the beginning. A storm is brewing. It will get ugly. We are not delicate flowers; we are soldiers of Christ! You and I had better prepare ourselves so we can endure what is coming; because one of the things that's going to make this difficult is having people around us losing heart and helping the enemies of the Church.

Get ready, folks. It will get worse before it gets better. A lot worse.

(Headline note: someone no doubt will quibble about my use of "the gay agenda." Headlines need to be brief; and I'm hard-pressed to find a brief expression for, "those who seek to overturn God's plan for human complementarity and family." Feel free to suggest polite alternative language if that's your thing.)

Is the Pope Catholic?

Pope Francis: Fighting Poverty & Hunger Key to Defeating Islamist Killers in Syria-Iraq

Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, November 30, 2014, 12:55 PM Gateway Pundit

Spoken like an blind leftist.
Pope Francis told an audience in Turkey that fighting hunger and poverty were key to defeating Islamist killers in Syria-Iraq.
The Times of Malta reported:

Pope Francis, currently visiting Turkey, has called for interreligious dialogue “so that there will be an end of all forms of fundamentalism and terrorism.”

The Pope said fighting hunger and poverty, rather than military intervention alone, were key to stopping Islamist militants carrying out “grave persecutions” in Syria and Iraq, referring to the Islamic State.

Speaking at the start of a three-day trip to Turkey, Francis said “terrorist violence” showed no sign of abating in Turkey’s southern neighbours, where Islamist insurgents had declared a caliphate and persecuted Shi’ite Muslims, Christians and others who do not share their ultra-radical brand of Sunni Islam.

“It is essential that all citizens – Muslim, Jewish, and Christian – both in the provision and practice of the law, enjoy the same rights and respect the same duties,” the Pope stated.

Francis faces a delicate mission in Turkey, a majority Muslim but constitutionally secular state, in strengthening ties with religious leaders while condemning violence against Christians and other minorities in the Middle East.

It is widely known that Islamist killers are often educated and come from wealthy backgrounds.
Killing in the name of Islam has nothing to do with poverty.

"Who am I to judge.....but you people who are too traditional....you have a problem."

The Tablet Brooklyn's Catholic Newspaper October 26, 2014 

Excerpt:

Discussions in the synod hall had grown heated after the Oct. 13 delivery of a midterm report that used strikingly conciliatory language toward people with ways of life contrary to Church teaching, including divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, cohabitating couples and those in same-sex unions.

The summaries of working-group discussions, published Oct. 16, showed a majority of synod fathers wanted the final document to be clearer about relevant Church doctrine and give more attention to families whose lives exemplify that teaching.

The final report, which the pope ordered published almost at once after the synod’s conclusion, featured many more citations of Scripture, as well as new references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the teachings of Pope Paul VI, St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

Synod fathers voted on each of the document’s 62 paragraphs. All received a simple majority, but three failed to gain the two-thirds supermajority ordinarily required for approval of synodal documents.

Two of those paragraphs dealt with a controversial proposal by German Cardinal Walter Kasper that would make it easier for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion. The document noted disagreements on the subject and recommended further study.

The document’s section on homosexuality, which also fell short of supermajority approval, was significantly changed from its counterpart in the midterm report.

The original section heading – “welcoming homosexuals” – was changed to “pastoral attention to persons with homosexual orientation.”

A statement that same-sex unions can be a “precious support in the life of the partners” was removed.

The final report quoted a 2003 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, told reporters that the absence of a supermajority indicated a lack of consensus and a need for more discussion but stressed that none of the document carried doctrinal weight. The synod’s final report will serve as an agenda for the October, 2015 world synod on the family, which will make recommendations to the pope.

Pope Francis said he welcomed the assembly’s expressions of disagreement.

“Personally, I would have been very worried and saddened if there hadn’t been these temptations and these animated discussions,” the pope said, “if everybody had agreed or remained silent in a false and quietistic peace.

“So many commentators, or people who talk, imagined they saw the church quarreling, one part against the other, even doubting the Holy Spirit, the true promoter and guarantor of unity and harmony in the church,” he said.

While reassuring the assembly that the Church’s unity was not in danger, Pope Francis warned against several temptations that he said had been present during the two-week synod.

One of the temptations he cited was that of “hostile rigidity” that seeks refuge in the letter of the law, “in the certainty of what we know and not of what we must still learn and achieve.” This temptation, he said, is characteristic of the “zealous, the scrupulous, the attentive and – today – of the so-called traditionalists and also of intellectuals.”

Another temptation for the synod fathers, the pope said, was that of “destructive do-goodism, which in the name of a misguided mercy binds up wounds without first treating and medicating them; that treats symptoms and not causes and roots. It is the temptation of do-gooders, of the timorous and also of the so-called progressives and liberals.”

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement that he was “grateful that the clarifications and deepening of scriptural and theological reflection shine consistently” through the final report. “Now the real work begins!”

So what does he mean? Is he trying to play both sides? Hostile rigidity in the letter of the law vs. misguided mercy of timorous do-gooders? There are some mixed signals here. I would hope for some clarity so we know where he stands. Is he in favor of opening the sacraments to the divorced Catholics without annulments, living together couples and offering the sacrament of marraige to homosexuals. Or not. What is he saying here?

I must confess that he confuses me. I am afraid that he wants to allow all of the things that Cardinal Kasper tried to shoehorn into the final report but he backed off because of the opposition of the traditionalists. He has already demoted several conservative traditional participants. Perhaps he is waiting for a more opportune time to push this through. It remains to be seen.

"Who am I to judge...oh and all of you Traditional Priests...You're Fired....I love Donald Trump!"

Buzz Feed News October 18, 2014
A top cardinal told BuzzFeed News on Friday that the worldwide meeting of church leaders coming to a close in Rome seemed to have been designed to “weaken the church’s teaching and practice” with the apparent blessing of Pope Francis. 

Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American who heads the Vatican’s highest court of canon law, made the remarks in a phone interview from the Vatican, where a two-week Extraordinary Synod on the Family will conclude this weekend. An interim report of the discussions released on Monday, called the Relatio, produced a widespread backlash among conservative bishops who said it suggested a radical change to the church’s teaching on questions like divorce and homosexuality, and Burke has been among the most publicly critical of the bishops picked by Pope Francis to lead the discussion. 

If Pope Francis had selected certain cardinals to steer the meeting to advance his personal views on matters like divorce and the treatment of LGBT people, Burke said, he would not be observing his mandate as the leader of the Catholic Church. “According to my understanding of the church’s teaching and discipline, no, it wouldn’t be correct,” Burke said, saying the pope had “done a lot of harm” by not stating “openly what his position is.” Burke said the Pope had given the impression that he endorses some of the most controversial parts of the Relatio, especially on questions of divorce, because of a German cardinal who gave an important speech suggesting a path to allowing people who had divorced and remarried to receive communion, Cardinal Walter Kasper, to open the synod’s discussion.

 “The pope, more than anyone else as the pastor of the universal church, is bound to serve the truth,” Burke said. “The pope is not free to change the church’s teachings with regard to the immorality of homosexual acts or the insolubility of marriage or any other doctrine of the faith.” Burke has publicly clashed with the pope since Francis took office in 2013, and he has come to represent the sidelining of culture warriors elevated by Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict and as the top doctrinal official under Pope John Paul II. Burke, who caused controversy while bishop of St. Louis by saying Catholics who voted for politicians supportive of abortion rights should not receive communion, went on Catholic television in 2013 to rebut remarks Pope Francis made to an interviewer that the church had become “obsessed” with abortion and sexuality to the exclusion of other issues, saying, “We can never talk enough about that as long as in our society innocent and defenseless human life is being attacked in the most savage way,” Burke said.

While Francis famously responded to a question about homosexuality in 2013 by asking, “Who am I to judge?” Burke described homosexual “acts” as “always and everywhere wrong [and] evil” during an interview last week. In the interview with BuzzFeed News, Burke confirmed publicly for the first time the rumors that he had been told Francis intended to demote him from the church’s chief guardian of canon law to a minor post as patron to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. 

“I very much have enjoyed and have been happy to give this service, so it is a disappointment to leave it,” Burke said, explaining that he hadn’t yet received a formal notice of transfer. “On the other hand, in the church as priests, we always have to be ready to accept whatever assignment we’re given. And so I trust, by accepting this assignment, I trust that God will bless me, and that’s what’s in the end most important.” When the pope first took office, his pivot away from an emphasis on questions of sexuality were more a matter of personal tone rather than changes in church policy or personnel. There were rumors that he was trying to oust the man chosen by Pope Benedict to head the church’s office responsible for doctrine, Gerhard Müller, but last winter he instead elevated him from archbishop to cardinal.

When word that Burke was on his way out began circulating last month, it signaled that Francis would take major steps to reshape the church. It coincided with the selection of a new archbishop of Chicago, Blase Cupich, whom Catholic progressives celebrated for positions like breaking with the American church hierarchy when it withheld its support for President Obama’s health reform law over questions of abortion and contraception. Internal discontent among conservatives inside church leadership began to simmer over in the weeks leading up to the synod. Just before it began, Burke, Müller, and other senior cardinals published a book in several languages attacking the ideas laid out by Cardinal Walter Kasper on allowing those who had divorced and remarried to receive communion in a speech heartily praised by Pope Francis. It broke into open revolt at the midpoint of the synod, following publication of a document presented as a summary of discussions but that conservatives said misrepresented the debate by including passages on “welcoming homosexual persons” and discussing some of Kasper’s proposal on divorce. The backlash appeared to have been especially strong from the English-speaking world, which includes a large number of African and American bishops; in an apparent attempt to mollify anglophone conservatives, the Vatican released a new translation of the report that changed the phrase “welcoming homosexual persons” to “providing for homosexual persons” and made other small changes, while leaving the versions in all other languages unchanged. The report is now being revised with feedback from small-group discussions held this week, and a final version is scheduled to be voted on on Saturday.

Burke said he hoped that the committee writing the new report will produce a “worthy document,” but said his “trust is a little bit shaken” by the language in the interim draft he said lacks “a good foundation either in the sacred scriptures or in the church’s perennial teachings.” But there seems to be little middle ground between Pope Francis’ worldview and Burke’s. Francis was president of the Argentinian bishops conference when that country passed a marriage equality bill in 2010 and reportedly tried to convince his colleagues to support a civil union proposal instead. He lost the internal battle and gave voice to the hard-line consensus that the law was “sent by the devil.” The fight over the bill left the church appearing out of step with the beliefs of many in Argentina, a country where 76% identify as Catholic but only 38.2% went to church in 2005, per the most recent data available from the Association of Religious Data Archives.

While Francis has shown no sign he supports overhauling the church’s teachings that homosexuality is sinful, he seems to have taken from this experience a desire to downplay conflicts over sexuality in order to broaden the church’s message. But, Burke said, the church must always call a “person who’s involved in sinful acts … to conversion in a loving way, but obviously, like a father or mother in a family, in a firm way for the person’s own good.” There cannot be “a difference between doctrine and practice” on questions like homosexuality or anything else, Burke said. “The church doesn’t exclude anyone who’s of goodwill even if the person is suffering from same-sex attraction or even acting on that attraction,” said Burke. “If people don’t accept the church’s teaching on these matters then they’re not thinking with the church and they need to examine themselves on that and correct their thinking or leave the church if they absolutely can’t accept. They’re certainly not free to change the teaching of the church to suit their own ideas.”

And so it goes. Pope Francis is of course well within his rights to remove conservative traditional prelates who do not agree with his ultra liberal views. This is an action that cannot be attributed to media interpretation. It is the attempt to silence a conservative Catholic voice by shunting him aside when he dared stand up for traditional Catholic doctrine. Actions not words. By these we will get to know him.

In his actions he shows us how he feels about traditional Catholics and those who follow and revere the Church teaching in this matter. Brick by brick he builds a record. Those who stand strong and are out spoken about morality will be punished. Those who sign on to moral relativism and hedonism will be advanced. "Who am I to judge." I mean it is not like he is the Pope or something.

"Who am I to judge them.....I will just take their money.....but you parishioners here to pray......not so fast!"

New York Post, October 17, 2014

How about holding your Sweet Sixteen at the sweet Sistine?

Pope Francis is allowing the endangered Sistine Chapel to be rented out for a corporate event, with the proceeds to benefit the needy — while at the same time cracking down on visitors to the world’s most famous church.

Porsche will be the first to hold an outside fundraiser amid Michelangelo’s fragile frescoes. The luxury German auto giant is offering an exclusive tour of Rome, including a concert inside the chapel, at a cost of more than 4,000 euros ($5,100) a pop.

At the same, the Vatican said Thursday that it would cap the annual number of visitors at 6 million to protect the Renaissance masterpieces from the tourist hordes.

Dust, sweat and human breath have damaged the 500-year-old paintings, including the famous creation scene of God’s outstretched arm giving life to Adam.

Antonio Paolucci, head of the Vatican Museums, said “radical intervention” was needed to preserve the paintings, prompting the Vatican to install new climate and lighting systems to cut down on heat, humidity and dust.

“I am convinced that the Vatican Museums, in particular the Sistine Chapel, have reached the maximum number of visitors possible,” Paolucci said at a news conference to introduce the new lighting and climate systems, according to Reuters.

While Porsche is touting the event on its website, Paolucci downplayed suggestions that the chapel would be regularly rented to outsiders.

“The Sistine Chapel can never be rented because it is not a commercial place,” he said Thursday, according to a US Catholic report.

Reposting a great post by Father Martin Fox

“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. I do not think that the wide circle of the American Society, or the whole wide circle of the Christian Community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist. The confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence. It is, therefore, in God’s Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously…”

--then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, 1976. Source here. (Note: in researching the source of this, I found this about a slightly different quote here.)

Reposted from "Bonfire of the Vanities" the excellent blog of Father Martin Fox. I know most of you read it but if you haven't gone there yet please check it out. He keeps us honest.

No comment news....news you can not comment on because of the thought police.

BBC October 13, 2014

Halfway through the Vatican synod on the family, Pope Francis has scored a first quiet victory.

He has convinced many Catholic Church leaders to moderate their formerly strongly critical language about gay unions, and to admit that homosexuals may have "gifts and qualities to offer".

The tone of a preliminary position paper drawn up by about 200 bishops after a week of closed-door discussions shows compassion and understanding not only towards people in single-sex unions, but also to heterosexual couples who live together without marrying and divorced couples who enter a second marriage without bothering to obtain a Church annulment.

The bishops made it clear that there can be no change in basic Catholic teaching on the permanence of the marriage bond, and insist that a valid marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

But Pope Francis's change of emphasis on concentrating upon positive rather than negative aspects of human sexuality seems to have won over many bishops attending the synod. Pope Francis who  is a favorite of non-church goers and people are not Catholics famously said about gay people "Who am I to judge" to the applause of non-believers through out the world. He is also reviewing the chuch's stand on abortion of which he has been quoted as saying "Waddayagonna do?"

His predecessor, Pope Benedict, referred to homosexual relationships as "intrinsically disordered" in a Vatican document written in 1986 when Benedict was chief theological adviser to Pope John Paul II.

There will be no vote at the end of the Vatican meeting on Sunday. Proposals will be drawn up by a committee of cardinals and bishops chosen personally by Pope Francis.

Most of them support his more merciful and compassionate attitude towards couples who find Church teaching on some aspects of family life, such as artificial contraception, hard to accept.

After a year of discussions in the wider Church, the synod will reconvene in Rome in October 2015 to finalize its recommendations on possible changes in Church discipline. The Pope will remain free to accept or reject them.

The synod is in fact a purely advisory body without legislative powers in the Church. Pope Francis has said he would like it to share more fully in Church governance and has already changed some of its debating rules to enable more cut-and-thrust discussion and less formal speech-making.

The meeting has so far been more of a brainstorming session than any previous such meeting.

The Pope's encouragement to his cardinals and bishops to speak their minds freely may have been heeded by participants, in the knowledge that direct quotes of what they said would not end up on the front pages of newspapers around the world.

No Comment News.....News you can not comment because of the thought police.

New York Post October 7, 2014

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, cardinals and bishops from around the world have gotten an unexpected lecture on the joys of sex, from a Catholic couple brought in to talk about what makes a marriage last.

Ron and Mavis Pirola, parents of four from Sydney, Australia, told a Vatican gathering of some 200 prelates that sexual attraction brought them together 57 years ago and that sex has helped keep them married for 55 years.

“The little things we did for each other, the telephone calls and love notes, the way we planned our day around each other and the things we shared were outward expressions of our longing to be intimate with each other,” the couple said in a joint statement to the closed meeting late Monday.

“Gradually we came to see that the only feature that distinguishes our sacramental relationship from that of any other good Christ-centered relationship is sexual intimacy, and that marriage is a sexual sacrament with its fullest expression in sexual intercourse.”

The audience of celibate men was a bit taken aback.

“That’s not what we bishops talk about mostly, quite honestly,” a sheepish British Cardinal Vincent Nichols told reporters Tuesday. “But to hear that as the opening contribution did, I think, open an area … and it was a recognition that that is central to the well-being of marriage often.”

Francis called the two-week meeting of bishops to try to figure out how to make church teaching on a host of Catholic family issues — marriage, divorce, homosexuality and yes, sex — more relevant to today’s Catholics. The debate will continue in October, 2015, and culminate when Francis issues a final document with recommendations offered by the synod.

Several of the bishops complained that the Vatican’s own teachings on sexual matters are often impenetrable to ordinary people. The Vatican’s main document on sex, the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, lays out the church’s opposition to artificial contraception with complicated moral theological arguments and 41 footnotes.

The Pirolas told the gathering that they occasionally read church documents on family matters, “but they seemed to be from another planet, with difficult language and not terribly relevant to our own experiences.”

The Rev. Tom Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said several bishops argued that the church had to find a “new language” to both explain its teaching and invite people in.

“Language such as ‘living in sin,’ ‘intrinsically disordered’ or ‘contraceptive mentality’ are not necessarily words that invite people to draw closer to Christ and the church,” he said, citing one intervention.

Many observers have credited Francis with drawing people closer to the church precisely because of the simplicity of his language, compared to the dense theological treatises often laid out by his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, who as a cardinal was responsible for penning many of the Vatican’s major documents on hot-button issues, including homosexuality.

The Vatican hand-picked the Pirolas and other model Catholic couples to participate in the synod to give bishops a sense of what real live Catholic families go through and proposals for how the church can help support them. Their intervention showed just how different a synod this is with Francis and his message of welcome running the show.

The Pirolas told the story of how devout Catholic friends reacted when their gay son wanted to bring his partner home to a Christmas gathering.

“They fully believed in the church’s teachings and they knew their grandchildren would see them welcome the son and his partner into the family,” they said. “Their response could be summed up in three words: ‘He’s our son.'”

Nichols said the synod gave them a round of applause.

In an indication, though, that opposition to such a welcoming position remains high, a group of conservative Catholic groups blasted the Pirola’s example as “damaging” to the church.

“The unqualified welcome of homosexual couples into family and parish environments in fact damages everybody, by serving to normalize the disorder of homosexuality,” said Maria Madise, coordinator of Voice of the Family in a statement.

John Smeaton, of the London-based Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said the welcome that the Pirolas’ statement received from the synod was disturbing.

“The homosexual agenda is forcing its way into schools, universities, workplaces and sports clubs,” he said in a statement. “The last thing families and parishes need is for church leaders to tell them to welcome homosexual couples.”

Happy St Paddys Day....you are going to have a gay old time!

So once again the Catholic church and hierarchy have caved and have allowed a gay origination to march in the 2015 St. Patrick's Day parade as a gay organization. After Guinness and other sponsors pulled out the gay mafia got to NBC who threatened to not televise the parade. So the Ancient Order of Hibernians have granted a gay organization of NBC employees the opportunity to march. Of course that is not enough for the rest of the gay agenda. They have immediately protested and demanded that other gay organizations be allowed to march under gay banners. With floats and naked chaps and butt plugs no doubt. If they have their way.

No other sexual orientation is allowed to march under a banner proclaiming their preferred manner of sexual activities. Not heterosexuals. Not transsexuals. Not sadists. Not masochists. Not bi-sexuals.

All of those people can and do march in the parade of course. Except not under a banner celebrating how they get their rocks off.

The grand marshal of the parade is Cardinal Timothy Dolan who is going along with this foolishness. He caved and is going on with it. As quoted in the linked article: Parade organizers said they were "remaining loyal to church teachings," and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, next year's grand marshal, issued a statement Wednesday saying the committee "continues to have my confidence and support."

Once again the hierarchy and the church have sold out their principles for money. I can't throw the first stone because I did the same thing with the TV show. So who am I to say anything?

So much for that. Let's see what happens when they push for the next thing. Which will be performing the sacrament of marriage in Catholic churches. It is coming. Soon.