Category Archives: Pope Francis

Faith isn’t for sissies

JPII was no sissie

Karol Józef Wojtyla risked his life to attend seminary secretly during the Nazi occupation of Poland. From 1940 to 1944, while studying nights in secret, he worked days as a messenger for a restaurant, and as a manual laborer in a limestone quarry and for the Solvay chemical factory. He also learned 12 languages, 9 of which he would use extensively during his time in the Vatican.

After ordination, he served 30 years as a Priest, Bishop, Archbishop and Cardinal under the domination of the atheistic regime of Soviet Communism. In 1978, he was elected pope, taking the name Pope John Paul II. Pope Francis will be canonizing him and Pope John XXIII on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27, 2014.

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October 13th

We didn’t know Oct 13 was special when we picked our wedding date. We just wanted to enjoy the fall foliage on our honeymoon trip through New England and the best guess dates six months ahead of the season were the two middle Saturdays in October, the 13th and the 20th of 1979.

My family has a special attachment to the number 13, because my brothers wore it for their sports jerseys. One of them was such a super-star, his league retired his number. When he and his fiancée were planning their nuptials, he told her he didn’t care about anything except that she pick a 13th, so he’d be able to remember their anniversary! LOL So they married on Sept 13th, just two weeks into his first semester of graduate school!

So, really … it’s because of my brothers that I voted for the 13th and Dearest didn’t care, so that was that. It was only years after our wedding that we learned about Our Lady of Fatima and were so thrilled to realize our wedding anniversary was on the same date as the Miracle of the Sun.

October 13, 1917: The Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, Portugal, was seen by tens of thousands of witnesses of all ages and dispositions, including newspaper reporters hostile to the Catholic Church who took photos and interviewed many who also witnessed extraordinary solar activity. According to these reports, the event lasted approximately ten minutes. Pope Pius XII himself said he saw it from the Vatican gardens. The event was officially accepted as a miracle by the Roman Catholic Church on October 13, 1930.

Click on graphic to embiggen. It’s easier to read that way.

1917_10 13 Miracle of the Sun description by professor

Yesterday, in addition to standing with the Million Vets March at our local war memorial, we also celebrated the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by Pope Francis at the Vatican.

2013_10 13 Pope Francis consecrates world to IMH

For our 34th anniversary date night, I chose the excellent movie about Fatima, The 13th Day.

The 13th Day

Sources:

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Filed under Catholic Church, Movies & Television, Pope Francis, Sky Signs

Pope Francis: Digital domain needs loving dialogue

2013_09 23 Pope Francis tweet w illus

Sept 21, 2013: Pope Francis told Catholic communicators, “I believe that the goal is to understand how to enter into dialogue with the men and women of today in order to appreciate their desires, their doubts and their hopes.”

In a world of rapidly changing methods of communication, “the issues are not principally technological.” Meeting Christ requires a personal encounter that cannot be forced or engineered.

People are searching for the “precious treasure” of the Gospel, which brings light and hope to a world that often lacks meaning, direction and purpose, he said.

Communicators need to portray “the face of a church, which is ‘home’ to all,” and convey the beauty of faith and joy of meeting Christ.

Source:

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1304014.htm

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Reliable sources

Pope Francis With Christ

I read this in one of my Facebook groups. With the American Left crushing on the allegedly ‘Democrat’ Pope over his ‘message to GOP’ (not), I thought it was especially timely.

If there’s one important life lesson my mother taught me, it was QUESTION EVERYTHING (and she meant EVERYTHING) – but get your answers FROM A RELIABLE SOURCE.

Want to know whether a certain medication, supplement, or food additive is safe or not?

  • Ask an unbiased chemist or, better yet, look it up in peer reviewed scientific journals.

Want to know what the Catholic Church teaches about a certain topic?

  • Ask a spiritually committed priest or, better yet, look it up in official Church documents.

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About that Pope Francis interview

After six months in the papacy, Pope Francis gave his first extensive interview. Liberals are wetting themselves over how he supposedly gave the GOP “what for” and the Democrat Party “two thumbs up.”

Sheesh. Only in Liberal Bubble World would the leader of a GLOBAL CHURCH take sides in the partisan politics of a single nation.

Leftists know so little about Christianity in general or about the Catholic Church in particular. For example, they’re crowing about how the Pope is supposedly backing off on abortion, gay marriage and birth control.

What he said was, “We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods.”

There’s no change in doctrine here.

What he said was that these issues don’t need to be discussed to the exclusion of all others. He was talking about the church not being too turned in on itself, too obsessed with rules. He said the church needs to be more of a field hospital, where people can feel cared for.

He also said, “I have never been a right-winger.”

I don’t know what “right-wing” means to an Argentinian, but I would hazard a guess it cannot be translated into American partisan politics to mean, “Jesus was a Democrat.”

Pope Francis has affirmed church teaching on abortion and euthanasia.

“We should commit ourselves to ‘eucharistic coherence’, that is, we should be conscious that people cannot receive holy communion and at the same time act or speak against the commandments, in particular when abortion, euthanasia, and other serious crimes against life and family are facilitated. This responsibility applies particularly to legislators, governors, and health professionals.”

“In Argentina, a child conceived by the rape of a mentally ill or retarded woman can be condemned to death.”

“In Argentina there is clandestine euthanasia.  Social services pay up to a certain point; if you pass it, ‘die, you are very old’.  Today, elderly people are discarded when, in reality, they are the seat of wisdom of the society. The right to life means allowing people to live and not killing, allowing them to grow, to eat, to be educated, to be healed, and to be permitted to die with dignity.”

Pope Francis has affirmed church teaching on homosexuality.

He has said that men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity and that every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.

But he said their pursuit of equal rights is the devil’s work. He strongly opposed legislation introduced in 2010 by the Argentine Government to allow same-sex marriage, calling it a “real and dire anthropological throwback.” In a letter to the monasteries of Buenos Aires, he wrote:

“Let’s not be naïve, we’re not talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God. We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.”

Pope Francis has rejected Socialism:

Pope Francis spent a good deal of time in Argentina fighting against the modernist reforms of the government. Moreover, within the Church the spectre of liberation theologies that conflate Christ’s justice with Marxist principles was (and still is) a constant presence in Latin America.

“To those who are now promising to fix all your problems, I say, ‘Go and fix yourself.’ . . . Have a change of heart. Get to confession, before you need it even more! The current crisis will not be improved by magicians from outside the country and nor will [improvement] come from the golden mouth of our politicians, so accustomed to making incredible promises.”

Good comments from Twitchy:

  • Liberal rodents love to show off how little they know about religion and how bad they are at self-awareness.
  • The Holy Father is not an ally of the slime that ridiculed God.
  • God a Democrat? Lay off the opium, pal.
  • People have wondered how Latin American social democratic philosophies would play in the Vatican. It seems its more Libertarian than anything. De-emphasize rules. Emphasize core values. Jesus is our savior. The Church is here to help us know, love and serve God so we can be happy with Him forever.
  • Only self-obsessed libs think everything is about them.

Sources:

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Filed under Abortion, Catholic Church, Christianity, Euthanasia, Life Issues, Pope Francis

By their fruits we shall know them

2013_09 07 Prayer and Fasting for peace

  • Sept. 7, 2013: Pope Francis leads a global day of prayer and fasting for peace.
  • Sept. 10, 2013: Syria accepts a Russian proposal to give up all its chemical weapons and Obama asks Congress to delay votes on authorizing military strikes.

The Blessed Virgin Mary told us at Medjugorje:

“Through fasting and prayer, one can stop wars.”

July 21, 1982

Let’s not forget.

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Filed under Catholic Church, Christianity, Middle East, Pope Francis, Syria

Saturday Sept 7 – World Fast and Pray for Peace

Sept 7 Fast and Pray for Peace

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Some thoughts on being an American Catholic

I am and always have been Catholic because I believe the doctrines and I am certain it is where God wants me to be. It hasn’t been easy maintaining affiliation with a church that, in far too many respects, has been a spiritual desert, but it’s where God put me, not only by birth but also by election.

One of the most distressing things for me has been the overly-long commitment of American Catholics to the Democrat Party. I understand the roots … when Catholic immigrants were flooding our shores, Republicans were Protestant and openly hostile. And of course there’s the not-so-saintly Kennedys.

But dang. Even after having been raised from birth to college in a devoutly Democrat environment, I managed to figure out before the Reagan years that Democrats were promoting abortion. I have tried to understand my Democrat Catholic friends. Some of them are legitimately devout. Yet they turn a blind eye to abortion because “social justice” … or something.

I just don’t get it. Never did.

If there’s been one thing I am grateful for about the Obama years, it is that so many Catholics have finally opened their eyes to just how anti-God and evil the Democrat Party really is. FINALLY, I’ve got leaders in my church that not only don’t make me cringe, but who actually teach and preach and walk the walk!

I just read a news report that Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, has announced he switched his party registration to Republican effective January 2013. He has been a Democrat since 1969, but after the 2012 Democrat Convention, he decided that he could no longer be associated with the party which was “just too pro-abortion.” During an interview about his decision, he called opposition to abortion “the linchpin, the foundation, around which all our discussion of human life has to be built.”

I just want to smack him upside the head and ask him, “HEY, CAPTAIN KOOLAID!! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN THINKING ALL THESE YEARS?!”

2012?! 2012?!?!?!

I registered Democrat in 1972 and figured out by 1976 that I had to leave because it was plain as the nose on my face that abortion was and is THE social justice issue of the century. This guy is a professional Christian and it took him from 1969 to 2012?! And they made him a Bishop?!

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

On the other side of the coin are two Catholic leaders I really admire and respect, Archbishop Chaput and Pope Francis. Here are quotes from them that I gleaned from the internet this week.

Archbishop Chaput on threats against religion

Pope Francis and frosting

Sources:

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Filed under Abortion, Barack Obama, Catholic Church, Christianity, Democrats, Pope Francis, Religious Liberty, Republicans

Frock Star

2013_07 27 Frock Star Pope Francis at WYD in Brazil

Jesus offers us something bigger than the World Cup!

What do players do when they are asked to join a team? 

They have to train, and to train a lot!

The same is true of our lives as the Lord’s disciples.

You are Christ’s athletes! 

You are called to build a more beautiful Church and a better world.

Full text of Pope’s vigil remarks:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2013/07/28/wyd-2013-full-text-of-popes-address-at-vigil-on-copacabana-beach/

Obama vs Pope Francis

Go and make disciples of all nations.

Careful, though!

Jesus did not say, “If you would like to, if you have the time,” but “Go.”

It is a command that is born not from a desire for domination or power but from the force of love, from the fact that Jesus first came into our midst and gave us, not a part of himself, but the whole of himself, he gave his life in order to save us and to show us the love and mercy of God.

Jesus does not treat us as slaves, but as free men, as friends, as brothers and sisters; and he not only sends us, he accompanies us, he is always beside us in our mission of love.

Full text of Pope’s homily:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2013/07/28/wyd-2013-full-text-of-pope-franciss-homily-for-world-youth-days-closing-mass/

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News Updates

Post-abortion syndrome

The Journal of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences published a summary of 31 studies comparing women’s psychological well-being after delivering the baby, having a miscarriage, or procuring an abortion.

The conclusion of the authors is that the risk of mental disorders (depression, PTSD, etc.) was highest for abortion and lowest for childbirth. This was true even when the pregnancy had been unplanned. In nine studies that compared just abortion and miscarriage, short-term anxiety and depression were higher in the miscarriage group, while long-term anxiety and depression were higher in the abortion group.

IOW, there’s no scientific evidence for the pro-abort claim that abortion has no psychological or psychiatric consequences. If the left cared about women for real, they’d insist that everyone considering abortion have this information before making a decision and those who choose to abort be provided with a list of symptoms to watch for and mental health numbers to call should help be needed.

Ariel Castro

After initially pleading not guilty to a 977-count indictment that includes charges related to kidnapping women and holding them in the basement of his home, where he raped them and assaulted them to the point of causing abortions, Ariel Castro has accepted a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. The plea means the victims and their families will be spared a long trial, having to endure the grisly details of Castro’s lengthy and horrific crimes.

Women deserve better than abortion

The North Carolina State Senate passed a bill 32-13 that would provide more to help pregnant women carry to term and end taxpayer financing of abortions. The governor says he’ll sign it into law.

2013_07 24 Father Lolo and Eucharistic Miracle

July 24, 2013: A Mexican priest, Father Jose Dolores Castellanos Gudino, is claiming that, after hearing the voice of God, the host which he had just consecrated began to bleed. The bloody host was available for adoration for some time at Mary Mother of the Church located in Colonia Jardines de la Paz (Guadalajara, Mexico). The Archbishop has ordered the Host to be reposed and for both it and Father Lolo (as he is known to his parishioners) to be examined.

INCREDIBLE crowd estimates at WYD

July 28, 2013: THREE MILLION! That is the number the Associated Press is reporting for the crowd that attended Pope Francis’ final Mass at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

I went to Mass with 10,000 people once. It was overwhelming. I can’t begin to imagine what worshiping with 3,000,000 would be like! And these are YOUNG people from around the world … the very demographic for whom the Left claims the Catholic Church holds nothing of interest. Wow.

2013_07 28 WYD crowd beach for final Mass

July 27, 2013: Hundreds of thousands of young people gathered on Copacabana beach for a prayer vigil Saturday night. Many stayed and slept on the white sand in anticipation of Pope Francis’ final Mass in the morning.

2013_07 27 WYD prayer vigil on beach

Nearly the entire 2.5 mile crescent of the beach overflowed with people, some of them taking an early morning dip in the Atlantic and others tossing t-shirts, flags and soccer jerseys into the pontiff’s open-sided car as he drove by.

Francis worked the crowd, kissing babies, taking a sip of mate tea handed up to him and catching gifts on the fly. Even the normally stern-faced Vatican bodyguards let smiles slip as they jogged alongside his car, caught up in the enthusiasm of the crowd.

Those who brought sleeping bags are being encouraged to give them to the homeless before they leave. This is in keeping with the pontiff’s WYD message to go out and spread our faith “to the fringes of society,” to the poor and to those who seem the most indifferent.

Pope Francis himself journeyed into the poorest and most dangerous section of the city to walk the talk.

GOOD video report [5:33] from Fox News @ http://video.foxnews.com/v/2568003218001/what-we-have-learned-about-pope-francis-during-brazil-visit/

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