Translate

Sunday, December 31, 2017

WILL 2018 BE MORE POSITIVE THAN 2017?


Today I celebrated Sunday in the Octave of the Nativity at our Cathedral's EF High Mass. I remain impressed with the number of young people in attendance and the superb schola. The Mass is Gregorian Chanted acapella. The schola of 10 or so is all young people in their late teens and early 20's. Some are students at Savannah's College of Art and Design.

The Cathedral was spectacularly arrayed in its Christmas splendor with a Nativity set that is a tourist attraction in its own right. Marist Brother Robert Sokolowski came to work at the Cathedral my second year there in 1986. He began his tradition of elaborately decorating the Cathedral. The tradition continues even after Brother Robert's retirement about two years ago.

The New Year of 2018 will see the growth of the EF Mass, more reverent celebrations of the OF Mass and God's grace purifying Catholics and leading them to Holiness.

Internal healing in the Church, Pope Benedict's desire for the Church will continue and we will be one year closer to the Second Coming of the Messiah and the consummation of the world.

In the meantime, those of us at Holy Mass at the Second Coming won't know the difference!

FROM THE JUST TOO KOOL FILE!

I love living in coastal Georgia and South Carolina! This photo from our Richmond Hill weekly paper (Bryan County News) was taken off of Ossabaw Island, a Georgia nature preserve uninhabited island which is the closest barrier island to Richmond Hill, about 8 miles from my rectory, but no road there. Technically, if one could get there by car, it would be Richmond Hill Beach!


MY TAKE ON 2017


I think there are two things reshaping Catholicism and giving her a more ecumenical liberal Protestant identity, one in the works for the past 50 years and the other in the works for the past 50 years.

1. The revision of the Liturgy with its subsequent loss of Catholic identity, reverence, spirituality and awe and wonder has maintained its status quo with the reversal of many of the initiatives of Pope Benedict XVI. This has led blogs built on the excitement and enthusiasm that Pope Benedict brought about with His Holiness' brilliant leadership in renewing the Ordinary Mass in continuity with the 1962 Missal to a bitter realization that Pope Francis has undermined all of this in three major ways:

a. His Holiness put an immediate clamp down on Cardinal Robert Sarah's desire last Advent that priests on their own initiative begin celebrating the Ordinary Form of the Mass ad orientem--thus maintaining the status quo of the Mass with the priest acting as a sort of actor at the altar facing his audience. Pope Francis calls the terms "reform of the reform" incorrect and says the reform of the Mass is magisterial and will not be undone. Of course, Pope Benedict called it renewal in continuity, not reform of the reform.

b. Pope Benedict's thrust on assuring literal translations of Latin into the vernaculars was undermined by Pope Francis handing over the translations of the Mass to local bishops' conferences although not doing away entirely with Liturgiam Authenticum--thus it wasn't clear what this shift actually would do in terms of the new and glorious English translation we currently have--although this blogger has always been open to a refinement of the English syntax and use of punctuation in the priestly prayers of the new and glorious English translation. And this blogger knows that if this were done this morning no one, maybe not even the priest, would know it!

c. Hope arose when Cardinal Sarah made clear that the Vatican still had to approve translations in the old way only to have Pope Francis publicly slap down the good Cardinal once again making clear that Cardinal Robert Sarah is a relic of the Benedictine era and not long for being the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

2.  Traditional Catholic sexual morality based upon Scripture and Tradition is being replaced by situational ethics incrementally by some bishops' conferences or individual bishops who are reading the footnote in Amoris Laetitia as an opening to this. The opening of Pandora's Box to make Catholic sexual morality more ecumenical with liberal Protestantism, such as the Lutherans and Episcopalians, is the allowance for decisions of consciences by adulterers after a priest has accompanied parishioners in a second  "marital" union not recognized by the Church and thus traditionally called adulterous, to receive Holy Communion if their conscience tells them it is okay or they have a need for comfort religion.

I was taught by the liberal 1970's seminary that the greatest corruption of Judaism occurred when their religion was turned into "comfort religion." You would think Pope Francis, completely informed by 1970's theology, would know this!

This shift to situational ethics of course leads to Catholics who are fornicating, having unnatural sex (opposed to natural law) and the like, discerning with a priest if they too can receive Holy Communion in mortal sin even though they have not repented of it and live it publicly. The same is true of same sex sexual relations with civil law approval in a civil marriage and the like.

In terms of homosexuality and the acceptance of the life style a sort of footnote is present in this year's St. Peter's Square Nativity Scene accomplishing the same purpose as the Amoris Laetitia's footnote. You can read Crux's John Allen's take on it HERE.

Pope Francis set to visit much-discussed nativity scene tonight

Pope Francis set to visit much-discussed nativity scene tonight
The Vatican's annual nativity scene for 2017, which Pope Francis will visit on New Year's Eve. (Credit: Stock image.)

Thus the first synod on the family in 2014 which rejected the  move toward liberal Protestantism's sexual morality has been overturned by  Amoris Laetitia's footnote which opens itself to varying interpretations making way for the complete loss of traditional Catholic sexual morality and thus making into doctrine, situational ethics pioneered in the 1970's.

This video proves that Cardinal George Pell was misled as were other cardinals in 2014:


Friday, December 29, 2017

FROM VATICAN RADIO AND THUS NOT GOSSIP OR FAKE NEWS

Papa Francesco e card Rodríguez Maradiaga Pope Francis with Card. Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, file photo 

Pope to Card. Maradiaga: I'm sorry for the evil they have done against you

Pope Francis spoke via telephone with Cardinal Rodriguez in the wake of the allegations against the Cardinal, who states that the accusations are an attack by those opposed to the Holy Father's curial reform efforts
 
Pope Francis spoke by telephone with Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, after the journalistic accusations addressed to the Cardinal regarding the use of large sums of money received from the Catholic University of Honduras, of which he is Chancellor. In an interview given to Suyapa TV, a television channel of the Church of Honduras, the Cardinal forcefully defined the allegations as calumnious.

The phone call with the Pope: do not be worried

The Cardinal, who holds the role of coordinator of the so-called C9, the Council of Cardinals which collaborates with the Pope on the reform of the Roman Curia, stated that he has had many attestations of solidarity, even from non-Catholic exponents. He then talked about a phone call with the Pope, who told him: “‘I’m sorry for all the evil they have done against you, but do not you worry’. I said to him, ‘Holiness, I am at peace – at peace because I am with the Lord Jesus who knows everyone’s heart’.”

Scurrilous accusations: funds used for the poor

The accusations start from an investigation by a journalist from L’Espresso, who tells of an improper use of tens of thousands of euros paid by the Catholic University of Honduras to the Honduran Cardinal. The Cardinal, in turn, accuses the journalist of not having “professional ethics” or credibility, and of earning money in an infamous way. The Cardinal states that this is old news, already disseminated in 2016 anonymously by a former employee of the University dismissed for the dishonest administration of the institute’s funds. The Cardinal explains that professional deontology requires, before publishing an accusation against someone, that we try to listen to the accused person. He goes on to say that slander is a sin, but it is also a punishable crime. Cardinal Maradiaga recalls that the money received is not used for personal purposes, but to help the poor, give healthcare to the needy, [and] to support priests in rural parishes.

It is an attack by those who do not want reforms

The coordinator of the C9 seeks to understand what could be the reason why a year-old news item should come out, a few days before his renunciation of the leadership of the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa. Attacking him with a false scandal, he explains, is an “attack on the Holy Father,” by “those who do not want the Curia reformed.”

Tempted to retire in peace

Finally, regarding his renunciation, he affirms that he will be equally happy, whether the Pope accepts it or reject it. “I have been a bishop for 39 years, and for 25 years Archbishop of Tegucigalpa. The possibility of retiring in peace does tempt me.”

IS THIS ITALIAN GOSSIP? AN ITALIAN REPORTS; YOU DECIDE!

Vatican Without Peace. Money, Sex, and an LGBT Crèche

Presepe
*
A stormy Christmas, this year at the Vatican. Just when Pope Francis, in his Christmas greetings to the curia, was going after those he called “traitors” and “opportunists” - after having already “delicately” fired the former and threatened to fire the latter - he was hit with sensational new own goals. At least three of them.
*
The first own goal comes from Honduran cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, 75, archbishop of Tegucigalpa but much more famous abroad than at home, so highly favored by Francis that he made him coordinator of the “C9,” the council of nine cardinals who help the pope in the reform of the curia and in the governance of the universal Church.
The issue of “L'Espresso” that came out on newsstands Christmas Eve - but was posted online at the same time as the pope’s speech to the curia - has published under the byline of Emiliano Fittipaldi a very aggressive investigative report not only against the cardinal, accused of appropriating and squandering enormous sums, but also against his closest associate and friend, Tegucigalpa auxiliary bishop Juan José Pineda Fasquelle, 57, a Claretian:
Maradiaga reacted by asserting that the sums indicated were available not to him personally but to the diocese, for the needs of the Honduran Church, and that the accusations now leveled against him are more than a year old and have already been contested in a legal action.
His reply appeared first on “Catholic New Agency” and then, in a more detailed form, in the Italian Catholic newspaper “Avvenire,” with the additional news - released by Vatican Radio - that “on December 26 the cardinal spoke by telephone with pope Francis, who expressed to him his displeasure ‘over all the evil they have done against you. But don’t you worry’”:

> Rodríguez Maradiaga: "Falsità sui fondi". E il papa lo rincuora
In replying, however, the cardinal avoided coming to the defense of his auxiliary bishop, Pineda. On the contrary, he confirmed that an investigation on him was carried out by an apostolic visitor sent in by the pope, the Argentine Alcides Jorge Pedro Casaretto, 80, bishop emeritus of San Isidro.
The report of the apostolic visitor is now on the desk of Francis, who is believed to have commandeered all decisions for himself. The only measure taken so far has been that of sending Pineda to Madrid for a spiritual retreat with the Jesuits.
The investigation on the auxiliary and friend of Maradiaga concerned accusations both of embezzlement and unjustified use of huge sums, and of favors in money and kind for a circle of male friends of dubious morality, against a backdrop of corruption and sexual abuse, as brought to light by Edward Pentin in the "National Catholic Register":

> Cardinal Maradiaga Denies Financial Allegations, But Questions Remain Unanswered
"I don't know the results of the apostolic visit," Maradiaga stated. "L'Espresso says half truths, that are in the end the worse lies."
“Half truths” that in any case cannot be reassuring for either the cardinal or the pope.
*
The second own goal has to do with Argentine bishop Gustavo Óscar Zanchetta, appointed by Pope Francis on December 19 as assessor of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, APSA.
A surprising appointment, because at APSA the position of assessor did not exist and was invented for the occasion. But even more surprising because of the profile of the appointee.
Zanchetta, 53, made the news last July when out of the blue he abandoned the diocese of Orán, for which Pope Francis had destined him in 2013. He justified the desertion with an unspecified “health problem” for which, he said, he had to get urgent treatment elsewhere. And he established himself for a while in Corrientes, 500 miles away, only to turn up even farther away, in Madrid, apparently in good physical shape.
At the time of his desertion, promptly made official by the pope, the Argentine media described the disastrous state in which Zanchetta had left the diocese of Orán from an administrative perspective, on a par with what had happened in the diocese of which he was previously vicar, that of Quilmes. Moreover, news went around of his refusal, asserting his “status as bishop,”  of a search of his vehicle by the police, who were looking for drugs.
This is the man to whom Francis has entrusted such an important role in the curia, in close contact with the president of APSA, Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, who meets regularly with the pope and is a tenacious opponent of the drastic reorganization of the Vatican finances attempted without success by Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the secretariat for the economy.
Now Cardinal Pell is on leave and has gone back to Australia, with his position in the curia remaining vacant. Also remaining empty is the key post of auditor general, after Libero Milone was brusquely removed from it on June 19.
If this is the state of affairs, Zanchetta’s appointment is doing nothing but increasing the confusion in which the much-vaunted reform of the Vatican curia finds itself.
*
But as if that were not enough, here comes the third own goal, centered on the nativity scene set up this year in Saint Peter’s Square (see photo).
There is neither ox nor ass, neither sheep nor shepherds. Jesus, Joseph, and Mary can be spotted with some effort, against the backdrop of a dome of Saint Peter’s in ruins. It is a nativity scene without grace and without poetry, the intention of which is rather to depict one by one the seven corporal works of mercy.
The offer of such a nativity scene to the pope was made by the abbey shrine of Montevergine, which stands on a mountain above Avellino, not far from Naples. At the governorate of Vatican City they say that the project, realized afterward by the Neapolitan artisan Antonio Cantone, was submitted beforehand to the judgment of the secretary of state and of Pope Francis, receiving their approval.
But even more enthusiastic was the approval of Arcigay of Naples and of its president, Antonello Sannino, who told the American journalist Diane Montagna of LifeSite News: "The presence of the Vatican Nativity Scene for us is a reason to be even happier this year,. For the homosexual and transsexual community in Naples, it is an important symbol of inclusion and integration."
The shrine of Montevergine, in fact, hosts an image of the Blessed Mother - reproduced in the nativity scene of Saint Peter’s Square - that was adopted some time ago as patroness by a vast LGBT community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual), which once a year, on February 2, the feast of the presentation of Jesus at the temple, popularly called “Candlemas,” makes a festive climb of the sanctuary by foot, called “juta dei femminielli,” the climb of the effeminates.
It is a “mix of the sacred and profane,” a sort of “ancestral gay pride,” Sannino explained. In 2002 the  abbot of Montevergine at the time, Tarcisio Nazzaro, protested against the political spin being given to that the pilgrimage, which was joined this year by the transexual parliamentarian Vladimir Luxuria.
But at the “Candlemas” of 2014 Luxuria appeared at the shrine reading a letter that he had written to Pope Francis in the name of the LGBT community.
In 2017 an LGBT group, again with Luxuria, met with new abbot Riccardo Luca Guariglia, who - they later reported - gave them his blessing in an “atmosphere of dialogue.”
The town of Ospedaletto d'Alpinolo, from which the climb to the shrine departs, this year gave honorary citizenship to a married couple of homosexuals, inaugurated for the “femminielli” a “no gender” bathroom and put up a sign at the entrance to the town saying: “Ospedaletto d'Alpinolo is against homotransphobia and gender violence.”
It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Sannino should say he is convinced that a greater openness of the Church on the subject of homosexuality also depends on “how conscious” Vatican officials are of the connection between the nativity scene in Saint Peter’s Square and the LGBT community. "The Church is extremely slow in its transformations," he added. "But we hope that the Church will finally develop a real sense of openness in the wake of the pope’s words: ‘Who am I to judge?’”.
Meanwhile, in this Christmas season, pilgrims and tourists who have come to Rome from all over the world are looking with visible bewilderment at the nativity scene set up in the middle of Bernini’s colonnade, and especially its chiseled “nude” who seems to be longing after something other than being dressed mercifully.
Like every year, on the evening of December 31, after the “Te Deum” Pope Francis will also appear before the nativity scene in Saint Peter’s Square, although it is not known “how conscious” he will be of the mess he has gotten himself into. And the LGBT community will certainly be very attentive to scrutinizing and interpreting every one of his gestures and expressions.

POPE FRANCIS' EMPHASIS ON POPULAR DEVOTIONS AND THE DEVIL ARE THE MOST TRADITIONAL ASPECTS OF THIS PONTIFICATE AND WILL SERVE THE CHURCH WELL POST FRANCIS AND YOU KNOW IT MUST DRIVE PROGRESSIVES ABSOLUTELY BONKERS, WHICH IS GOOD!

The Pope’s fight against Satan

In the first five years of his pontificate, Francis has
cited the devil many times, insisting not only on his
existence but also on his dangerousness
The Pope’s fight against Satan

185
0
Pubblicato il 28/12/2017
Ultima modifica il 28/12/2017 alle ore 16:50
VATICAN CITY
In five years, he has quoted him more times than his predecessors have done together in the last half century: for Pope Bergoglio the devil, and his ability to divide, are common topics in his daily preaching. A countercurrent preaching, since the Evil One has long been a great absent. Here is a small and incomplete review of quotations. 

Last time Francis spoke about the devil was with a group of Jesuits during his recent trip to Myanmar, while referring to the Rohingya and more generally to the situation of refugees, he said, “Today there is so much discussion on how to save banks.... But who saves the dignity of men and women today? Nobody cares about people in ruins any longer. The devil manages to do this in today’s world”.  

Since his first homily in the mass concelebrated with the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel after his election, on March 14, 2013, Bergoglio, after quoting a phrase by Léon Bloy, affirmed, “When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil”. The very next day, during a meeting with the cardinals gathered in the Clementina Hall, the new Pontiff, without reading his written speech, said, “Let us never yield to pessimism, to that bitterness that the devil offers us every day”.  

Addressing the Vatican Gendarmerie on September 28, 2013 Francis recalled that “the devil seeks to create an internal war, a kind of civil spiritual war”. In the Santa Marta homily on October 14,2013, the Argentinean Pope invited us not to confuse the devil’s presence with mental illnesses, “No! The presence of the devil is on the first page of the Bible”.  

On September 29, 2014, in another Santa Marta homily, Bergoglio explained that “Satan is the enemy of humankind. He is astute: the first page of Genesis tells us so, he is astute. He presents things as if they were a good thing. But his intention is destruction, perhaps with “humanistic explanations”.  

On October 3, 2015, addressing once again the Vatican Gendarmerie, Francis recalled that “Satan is a seducer, he sows hidden dangers and seduces with charm, with demonic charm, and leads you to believe everything. He knows how to sell with this charm, he sells well, but pays badly in the end!”  

On September 12, 2016 in the morning homily the Pope explained that “the devil has two very powerful weapons to destroy the Church: divisions and money... The devil sows jealousy, ambitions, ideas, but to divide! Or greed.... “It is a dirty war, that of divisions, it’s like terrorism”.  

On October 13, 2017 Francis described how “The devil slowly changes our criteria to lead us to worldliness. It camouflages our way of acting, which we hardly notice.” 

And how can we fail to remember, finally, the words with which the Pontiff, in the interview with Don Marco Pozza for TV2000 on Our Father, reminded us that the devil “is a person” and we must never “never talk to Satan” because “he is more intelligent than us”.  

Thursday, December 28, 2017

CHRISTMASTIDE AT SAINT ANNE'S, RICHMOND HILL, GEORGIA






BOMBSHELL: THE LATE POPE BENEDICT XVI SPEAKS TO CARDINAL MULLER ON HIS 70TH BIRTHDAY!



This is but a redaction of a four page letter. Hopefully we will be able to read the entire letter for what is implied in it by the late pope.

The Late Pope Benedict XVI: Cardinal Müller will continue to serve the faithEven though Gerhard Ludwig Müller is no longer Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith: "A cardinal is never simply retired" - his friend and patron Benedict XVI writes to His Eminence.Theology | Vatican City - 27.12.2017Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller will continue to "publicly serve the faith". The emeritus Pope Benedict XVI writes to him, in a greeting to a commemorative on the occasion of the 70th birthday of the former prefect of the Congregation of the Faith convinced. Although Müller, after the end of his five-year term as prefect, "no longer held a specific office, but a priest and certainly a bishop and cardinal is never simply retired."
In his welcoming address, the emeritus pope honors the work of Muller in Rome, first as a member of the International Theological Commission, where he was "especially struck by the wealth of your knowledge and the fidelity to the faith of the Church." After the retirement of Cardinal William Levada as Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith, Müller was "the most suitable bishop" for succeeding the American. As a prefect, the former Bishop of Regensburg endeavored to work "not only as a scholar, but as a sage, as a father in the church": "You defended the clear traditions of the faith, but in the spirit of Pope Francis sought an understanding, how they can be lived today. "
Wealth of knowledge, faithfulness to faith
In the four-page letter Benedikt recalls how Müller gave him an edition of his "Catholic Dogmatics for the Study and Practice of Theology" in 1995. In Muller's dogmatics, the emeritus Pope sees the project of a compact compilation of the faith of the church in a volume as realized. Benedict himself had not been able to realize a plan of his own accord because of his manifold duties as a council theologian, archbishop of Munich and Freising, and finally Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. He particularly pays tribute to Müller's account of the faith of the church "as unity and wholeness," so that "the ultimate simplicity of faith becomes visible through all complicated theological reflections."
This is the mark of a good theologian, says Benedict: "In my opinion, a great theologian will not be treated by being able to handle clever and difficult details, but by being able to represent the ultimate unity and simplicity of faith."
The greeting is preceded by the commemorative publication "The Triune God: Christian Faith in the Secular Age", which commemorates the 70th birthday of Gerhard Ludwig Müller on 31 December. It is published by the director of the Regensburg Benedict XVI Foundation, Christian Schaller, and the Vallendarer dogmatist George Augustine. The authors include Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the recently awarded the Ratzinger Prize Bonn dogmatist Karl -Heinz Menke and the former Rector of the Philosophical-Theological College Benedict XVI. Holy Cross, Karl Wallner. Benedict XVI. himself regrets in his greeting that he himself was "no longer able" to write a "proper scientific contribution". (Fxn)

CAN ANYONE TELL ME IN PRACTICAL TERMS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONFIMATIO AND RECOGNITIO?



Praytell is reporting that at the website of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments [CDW] is a very fine article on collaboration between the Curia and bishops’ conferences in the area of liturgical translations. It is by Fr. Giacomo Incitti, full professor of canon law at Urbaniana University and consultor of the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy: Magnum Principium: For a Better Mutual Collaboration between the Roman Curia and Bishops’ Conferences.” The Vatican website has it up in both Italian and English.

My questions have to do with the difference between recognitio and confirmatio in the sense that the Vatican can still withhold confirmatio, correct? Thus this implies that the bishops submitting a translation have to revise it, no?

Thus, given that Liturgiam Authenticum is not completely abrogated, let say the bishops submit the 1998 rejected Roman Missal English Translation again, much of which is an adaption, this could still be rejected either by not giving confirmatio or recognitio, no?

Thus given the highly politicized nature of the the Mass today and its translations, something which was not present in the pre-Vatican II Church and thus contributed to the unity of the Church when the liturgy isn't politicized and to the disunity of the Church when it is, just what is going on here given the fact the Vatican can withhold both recognitio or confirmatio. What am I missing?????? Perplexed in Richmond Hill!

The main take-away on the significance of Pope Francis’s motu proprio Magnum Principium [MP] is that vernacular translations require only confirmatio from Rome now, and no longer recognitio. Adaptations, on the other hand, still require the Roman recognitio.

Before MP: Now, since MP:
Translations required from Rome: recognitio confirmatio

Adaptations require from Rome:

 
recognitio recognitio

UNDER THE CURRENT MAGISTERIUM, IS THE CHURCH IN THE SAME MALAISE AS THE USA WAS UNDER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER, A FELLOW GEORGIAN FROM PEANUTVILLE?



When President Jimmy Carter was president from 1976 to 1980, approximately my liberal seminary years, there was a great depression in the USA, psychological not economically. The so-called energy crisis of that day led the president to warn Americans not to put up Christmas lights as it wasted energy! We couldn't drive faster than 55 miles and hour on a vacant interstate! Cars had to be downsized by order of the government, etc....

Fr. Z asks us to put aside everything else and go to First Things.
 They have reprinted a piece written for The Tablet in May 1966… 1966… by Christopher Derrick, a student of CS Lewis and WWII RAF pilot.
He writes … in 1966… of how the fathers of a Vatican III would look back at Vatican II.  Amazing insights. This is the snip I'd like to focus on, my emphasis in red:

Theologically, we shall seem to have gone absurdly far in a Pelagian direction; and all the more so if our descendants have been driven the other way by the grief and pressure of events, and have come to remember that this religion of the Resurrection starts with the Cross, has evil and suffering and death as its raw material, its prime subject-matter. In other and particular matters, great and small, we shall be remembered as a generation that saw only one side of things. We loved “becoming” and hated “being”: We cherished the idea of an emergent and evolutionary Christianity, and looked in some apathy upon the faith once delivered to the saints. We stressed the priesthood of all believers and played down the particularity of order; we indulged a passion of ecumenicism, and hushed up the painful fact that schism and heresy are still sins. We wanted the Church’s outward seeming to reflect the poverty of Christ, never his majesty
We stressed the spiritual and symbolic, at the expense of gross incarnational fact: Hence, we played down the material element in morality, the ex opere operato aspect of the sacraments, the biological purpose of sex, the concrete burden of the historic Church. We asserted freedom, at the expense of responsibility; we asserted the corporate aspect of worship so overwhelmingly as to suggest that the individual had somehow ceased to carry his own conscience, that prayer and (especially) fasting had become back numbers. We cheerfully asserted the goodness of the world, seldom its taint, its spoiling, its death wish: We were always ready to judge the Church by the world’s standard, reluctant to do the opposite.

My Comments: What no progressive will admit, repent and confess is that the changes that Vatican II began, an opening of Pandora's Box, is what has contributed to the phenomenon of the "nones" we have today occurring in a cumulative way over the generations in terms of the fact that in 1966 about 95% of Catholics were engaged in the Mass to some extent, greater or lesser and today in some places as few as 12% are, meaning 88% of Catholics don't attend Mass regularly!

Why? It has to do with the alienation of strong pre-Vatican II Catholics  after Vatican II's sweeping changes which for many of these Catholics meant they were marginalized and mocked and thus became more and more disengaged and disillusioned and not knowing how to hand on the Faith to their baby-boomer generation (my generation).

My generation did an even worse job of handing on the faith, with coloring book Catholicism and the idea that the sand under our Catholic feet was constantly shifting.

And of course, progressive Catholics after the Council became alienated because once some things in the Church were changed, they thought everything could, like Natural Law!  This Catholics did nothing to hand on the Faith to their children and the spiral continued to this day!

Pope Francis has continued Jimmy Carter's legacy of emphasizing the mundane to the expense of the majesty of heaven to which the Catholic Church has always pointed. His Holiness has stripped the papacy of majesty just as generations before His Holiness did the same to our ornate churches and turned them into Protestant meeting halls with a Protestantized Liturgy. There is no beauty in this and thus with an ecumenical spirit or interfaith spirit Catholics jumped ship and now the nones have gone to the logically conclusion of being secularists and making it up as they go in a political religion of the state, which is no religion.

REACT!

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

YOURS TRULY HAS THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM HIGH MASS FOR SUNDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS, THIS SUNDAY AT THE CATHEDRAL OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST IN DOWNTOWN HISTORIC SAVANNAH, GEORIGA! BE THERE OR BE SQUARE, LAFAYETTE SQUARE THAT IS!

JUST CALL ME A PROUD FATHER!


Our Diocesan newspaer, The Southern Cross and the Augusta/Savannah Vocations Ministry sponsor a yearly Vocations Essay.

The question that each 7th grader throughout the diocese was given was:

"What is your favorite memory of a priest or religious and how could that memory make you consider a vocation?"

There were two categories of entries, those from Catholic Elementary Schools in our diocese and the other from Faith Formation Programs, aka, CCD.

Since St. Anne's doesn't have a school, we were eligible just for the Faith Formation Program awards and guess what?????

WE HAD A CLEAN SWEEP IN THE FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD PLACE WINNERS AND IN THE HONORABLE MENTION!!!!!! 

First place: $250
Second place: $125
Third place: $75
 

SUCH AN INTERESTING TIME




"Alle Welt will ihn noch sehen" 





VATICAN-POPE-CONSISTORY
Foto: APA/AFP/OSSERVATORE ROMANO/HOBenedikt (re.) und sein Nachfolger, Papst Franziskus, verstehen sich gut

Biograf Seewald über den Alltag des früheren Papstes – und dessen Weihnachtsfest mit Teddybär.

A Christmas Visit to Benedict XVI


Der Kurier out of Vienna has an interview with journalist Peter Seewald, who visited the emeritus Bishop of Rome Benedict XVI shortly before Christmas. Seewald is close to Benedict and has written much about him.
Asked what impression Benedict made, Seewald said, “At first glance, not a good impression… It is increasingly difficult for him to walk. He speaks quietly, but is very alert and focused and always friendly and in a good mood. He has the aura of a man who has drawn very close to God.”
Seewald writes that Benedict was to celebrate Christmas with Archbishop Gänswein, the four sisters of Memores Domini, and the old teddy bear which he got for Christmas as a two-year-old baby. (I have a Santa Claus doll with a Coca Cola bottle in his hand which I got as a 4 year old and still have and in excellent condition!)
Benedict keeps a regularly structured day, beginning with Mass at 7:00 am. He no longer walks to the Lourdes grotto in the afternoon to say the Rosary, and in fact he hardly leaves his residence anymore. He is in extensive written correspondence with many people.
Pope Francis enjoys writing notes to his predecessor – in writing that is even tinier than that of Benedict. The two get along well, and Francis is very attentive to Benedict, he told Seewald.
Seewald says that of course the pope emeritus is concerned about the state of Christianity in Europe and especially the state of the Church. The differences between the pontificate of Benedict and of Francis are becoming increasingly clear. “It is not merely a different style, it is a matter of identity and overall direction, and of the question, Are whether there are any certainties whatsoever in the faith of the Catholic Church?” But Benedict does not comment on the actions of Pope Francis and does not interfere. And furthermore, Joseph Ratzinger never yet has allowed himself to be instrumentalized.”
Asked about the remaining influence of Benedict’s followers in the Vatican, Seewald stated that he finds it laughable to play the two popes off each other and construct supposed factions. “Every pope pulls together his own team of coworkers. It was no different with Benedict XVI.” But still, it has not gone unnoticed that previous confidants of Pope Benedict have been marginalized. “Many observers are concerned” about Francis’s personnel decisions and actions.
And yet: “Ultimately, in a changing world that stands on the brink, the thing is to pull together on the same rope and stay the course.”
Translated by Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB--Praytell

HOLY FATHER HITS ONE OUT OF THE PARK


Pope’s catechesis: God’s gift of Jesus at Christmas

During his General Audience of 27 Dec., Pope Francis urged Christians to make Jesus the centre of all ‎celebrations and gift themselves to others, especially the marginalized. ‎
By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis held his General Audience of Wednesday during Christmas week, stressing that the celebration of the birth of Jesus is a sign of our gratitude for the Father’s gift of Jesus and our desire to ‎share Him with others.
Christmas distorted
Delivering his main catechesis in Italian in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall, the Pope lamented that today, especially in Europe, there is a distortion of Christmas, which in the name of a “false respect”, sidelines faith and eliminates every reference to the birth of Jesus.  But the Pope stressed that without Jesus there is no Christmas. The lights, sounds, various local traditions, including food, all go to create the atmosphere of a true Christmas, only if Jesus is the centre, the Pope said.

Light and darkness
Like the shepherds in the Gospel, the Pope said, we are led to discover the light of Jesus, who was born of an unknown poor girl in a stable, unknown to the world but over whom the angels exulted.  Today, the Pope said, the Son of God continues to present Himself to us as God’s gift to humanity that prefers darkness and sleep, fearing God’s light will unveil our actions and thoughts that will embarrass us and prick our conscience.
Pope Francis explained that we can welcome God’s gift of Jesus by making a free gift of ourselves to those we encounter.  This, the Pope stressed, is why we exchange gifts.  With the incarnation of the Son, he said, God has opened the way to new life, that is based not on egoism but on love.
The marginalized 
Pope Francis said that in this world that is ruled by the powerful, those in the margins of society are the first beneficiaries of God’s gift, which is, salvation brought by Jesus. Jesus establishes a friendship with the small and despised, like the shepherds, that continues in time and that nourishes the hope for a better ‎future. ‎ With them, the Pope said,  God wants to build a new world where there is no one who is rejected, maltreated and destitute.  Pope Francis thus urged all to open their hearts and be God’s gift to others, especially to the small and excluded who have never experienced a caress, loving attention or tenderness.