If I could shrink this image I would. This post resonates with me and a challenge of wills I have had with the former co-host of the trip I am planning. She insisted we include and welcome anyone who wanted to join us and omit distinctly Catholic locations, omit any reference to a Catholic theme so as not to discourage others. While I offered encouragement to her after she posted to her large group of contacts for a different trip which would suit both Catholics and non-Catholics, I still met a wall. I see a real need in our area for a Catholic Singles trip as well as a non-denominational Christian Singles trip to some of the same locations. In time, we will all be reunited, on this side of the Second Coming! Yes, it is turning out to be a learning experience as well as one of anticipated further spiritual growth and awareness for anyone interested.
At noon on Saturday, June 9, Catholics will gather in front of the Met for an afternoon of "peaceful prayer, song and reparation before God and the whole world," testifying to their "complete rejection" of the exhibition's mockery of the Virgin Mary and the Catholic Church." This is from Fr. Kevin M Cusick's Twitter account.
Just wondering where the man gets his knowledge on so many rather complicated subjects such as this one that he currently chooses to instruct those without apparently the understanding of this type of "gambling"? Also consider this source. Of course if there is no hell then why worry?? Just "be happy" and gamble away! In the end, you just go "poof" anyway!! Pope Calls Derivatives Market a ‘Ticking Time Bomb’ Vatican says CDS ‘gambling’ is ethically ‘unacceptable’ Pope has previously criticized ‘absolute power’ of finance Warren Buffett once called them “financial weapons of mass destruction.” Now Pope Francis, of all people, is taking aim at derivatives. In a sweeping critique of global finance released by the Vatican on Thursday, the Holy See singled out derivatives including credit-default swaps for particular scorn. “A ticking time bomb,” the Vatican called them. The unusual rebuke -- derivatives rarely reach the level of religious doctrine -- is in keeping with Francis’s skeptical view of unbridled global capitalism. “The market of CDS, in the wake of the economic crisis of 2007, was imposing enough to represent almost the equivalent of the GDP of the entire world. The spread of such a kind of contract without proper limits has encouraged the growth of a finance of chance, and of gambling on the failure of others, which is unacceptable from the ethical point of view," the Vatican said in the document. The critique echoes comments made by Buffett in 2003, when he criticized the “unchecked” expansion of the derivatives market. Francis has been a critic of Wall Street in the past. He has called for regulating speculative financial practices and reining in the “absolute power” of the financial system, which he said would bring more crises. The Vatican said that in certain areas of the derivatives markets there’s an “ethical void which becomes more serious as these products are negotiated on the so-called markets with less regulation (over the counter) and are exposed more to the markets regulated by chance, if not by fraud, and thus take away vital life-lines and investments to the real economy.” A similar assessment can be “applied for those uses of credit default swap (CDS: they are particular insurance contracts for the risk of bankruptcy) that permit gambling at the risk of the bankruptcy of a third party, even to those who haven’t taken any such risk of credit earlier, and really to repeat such operations on the same event, which is absolutely not consented to by the normal pact or insurance," according to the document. Income inequality is a priority concern for Francis, who has made humility a distinguishing feature of his papacy. He refused to live in the opulent Apostolic Palace, choosing a guest house for Church officials near St. Peter’s Basilica instead. He uses an old Ford Focus to get around the Vatican and Rome.
Bishop Schneider: Catholics are called to combat heresy inside Church ROME, May 17, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Bishop Athanasius Schneider explained in a talk in Rome this afternoon why Catholics as the "Church militant" — the souls fighting for Christ here on Earth — must combat the evils of today, including the evil of heresy within the Catholic Church. "When there is no battle, there is no Christendom. When there is no battle, there is no true Church of God, no true Catholic Church," said the Auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, at the 2018 Rome Life Forum at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum). "The Christian duty to fight against the sin, the errors and the temptations of the world, includes also the fight against the errors inside the Church, i.e. the fight against heresy and ambiguity in doctrine," he added later. Schneider said that sanctity, prayer, and reason are the weapons Catholics can best use to fulfill their duty to fight evil, and they should turn to their most powerful ally in this fight, the Blessed Virgin Mary. "Our weapons are the weapons of justice, and these are the weapons in first place of prayer and of a saintly life, the weapons of the spiritual help of the Holy Angels, the weapons of the sacred science, of the sacred apologetics, the weapons of righteous and honest individual and collective protests against the de-christianisation and moral degradation of the society." When the Church is persecuted, She only becomes stronger, Bishop Schneider explained. Despite how dark things may seem on earth, the Church militant is the winning team because Christ is already victorious. Just as a marriage can never be dissolved, the Church can never be destroyed, he added. "As soldiers of Christ every Catholic should be always conscious of the fact that he belongs to the army of the winners, because 'Christus vincit,'" he said. LifeSiteNews is pleased to provide Bishop Schneider's talk in full below. *** The Church on earth and its essentially militant characteristics May 17, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – When there is no battle, there is no Christendom. When there is no battle, there is no true Church of God, no true Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council teaches us: “The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity” (Gaudium et spes, 37). This dramatic situation of "the whole world [which] is in the power of the evil one" (1 Jn 5:19; cf. 1 Pet 5:8) makes man's life a battle (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 409). The Word of God teaches us: "Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art called" (1 Tim. 6:12). The Christian life is indeed a warfare. Saint Paul wrote that "we wrestle" against the powers of darkness. “Our battle is not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Saint Thomas Aquinas explains the meaning of the biblical term “world” and “present evil age”: “Our Lord consoles the disciples by using himself as an example of one who has suffered the persecution of oppressors, saying: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15: 18). And so our Lord foretells that they will be hated: "You will be hated by all nations" (Mt 24:9); "Blessed are you when men hate you" (Lk 6:22). This thought is a great consolation for the just so that they can courageously endure persecutions. According to Augustine, the members should not consider themselves greater than the Head, nor refuse to be part of his body by being unwilling to endure with their Head the hatred of the world (Tract. in Io., 87, 2). The world can have two meanings. First a good meaning, for those who lead a good life in the world: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor 5:19). Secondly, it can have an evil sense, meaning those who love the world: "The whole world is in the power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19). And so the whole world hates the whole world, because those who love the world, and they are spread throughout the whole world, hate the whole world, that is, the Church of the good, which has been established throughout the whole world. Now he mentions a second point for their consolation, and this is based on the reason for their being hated. First, our Lord gives the reason why some are loved by the world; secondly, why the apostles are hated by the world. The reason why some are loved by the world is that they are like the world: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own” (John 15:19). And thus the world, that is, those who love the world, love those who love the world. Accordingly, our Lord says, “If you were of the world”, that is, followers of the world, “the world would love its own”, because you would be its own and like to it: "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me" (John 7:7). "They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them" (I John 4:5). Now he gives the reason why the world hates the apostles, which is because they are unlike the world. He says, “but because you are not of the world, the world hates you” (John 15: 19). (Expositio in evangelium beati Ioannis, II pars, cap. 15, lectio 4). The Baltimore Catechism teaches us: “We are called soldiers of Jesus Christ to indicate how we must resist the attacks of our spiritual enemies and secure our victory over them by following and obeying Our Lord. We have good reason never to be ashamed of the Catholic Faith because it is the Old Faith established by Christ and taught by His Apostles; it is the Faith for which countless Holy Martyrs suffered and died; it is the Faith that has brought true civilization, with all its benefits, into the world, and it is the only Faith that can truly reform and preserve public and private morals. We should know the Chief Mysteries of Faith and the duties of a Christian…, because as one cannot be a good soldier without knowing the rules of the army to which he belongs and understanding the commands of his leader, so one cannot be a good Christian without knowing the laws of the Church and understanding the commands of Christ. By the expression "these evil days" we mean the present age or century in which we are living, surrounded on all sides by unbelief, false doctrines, bad books, bad example and temptation in every form.” (3 part, lesson 15). In the time of the Fathers of the Church the Christians were aware to be spiritual soldiers of Christ and to fight for the truth even at the risk of one’s life. Tertullian wrote: “We were called to the warfare of the living God, even then when we made our answer according to the words of the Sacrament, i.e. the baptismal vow of obedience to Christ” (Mart., 3, 1) and Saint Cyril of Jerusalem told to the catechumens: “You are to be enrolled in the army of the Great King” (Catech. 3, 3). more....... https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-schneider-catholics-are-called-to-be-soldiers-against-evil
Message to Pedro Regis Dear children, I am your Mother and I love you. You know full well how much a mother loves her children. I have come from heaven to call you to sincere conversion. Open your hearts and accept the Will of God for your lives. You have freedom, but do not allow your freedom to distance you from the Gospel of My Jesus. I want to see you happy already here on Earth and later with Me in Heaven. You are heading for a painful future. There will be a great war in the House of God and many will have their faith shaken. Lack of love for the truth will cause great division and confusion. Turn to Jesus. Love and defend the truth. Turn away from false teachings and be faithful to the True Magisterium of the Church of My Jesus. Courage. Do not retreat. I need each of you. Be obedient and all will be well for you. This is the message I give you today in the name of the Most Holy Trinity. Thank you for having allowed Me to gather you here once more. I bless you, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Be at peace.
Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos has passed away. Eternal rest grant unto him, O, Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.
Oh boy....the pus of the world keeps oozing out and the desecrated systems exposed. If P Francis accepts the resignations will he feel he too, as a "bishop", must also offer his? And if he doesn't receive their resignations will that news start things up again? Chile's bishops resign en masse over sex abuse cover-up VATICAN CITY (AP) — In the biggest shake-up yet in the Catholic Church's long-running sex abuse scandal, every active Chilean bishop offered to resign Friday over what Pope Francis said was their "grave negligence" in investigating abuse and protecting children. The bishops announced at the end of an emergency Vatican summit that all 31 active bishops in Rome had signed a document offering to resign. Francis can accept the resignations, reject them or delay a decision, and the bishops remain in place until he acts. But the symbolic significance of an entire national bishops' conference resigning en masse because they covered-up for pedophiles marked a historic moment in the decades-long saga. "We want to ask forgiveness for the pain we caused victims, the pope, the people of God and our country for the grave errors and omissions that we committed," the bishops said in a statement. They thanked victims for their "perseverance and courage," for having continued to denounce crimes and cover-up by the church despite "the incomprehension and attacks from the same church community." ............. Francis had summoned the 34 bishops to Rome after admitting that he had made "grave errors in judgment" in the case of Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused by victims of Chilean priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima, of witnessing and ignoring their abuse. But the scandal grew after Francis received the report written by two Vatican sex crimes experts sent to Chile to get a handle on the problem. The whole report hasn't been made public, but even the highlights Francis included in his footnotes were astonishing. The gravity of the accusations appeared to lay the foundation for a full-scale Vatican investigation of Chilean dioceses, seminaries and religious orders. Such an investigation was ordered up after a similar 2010 summit that Pope Benedict XVI called for Irish bishops over their dismal record dealing with abuse. ......... Francis said the investigation showed there were "grave defects" in the way abuse cases were handled, with superficial investigations or no investigation at all. In other cases, there was "grave negligence" in protecting children from pedophiles by bishops and religious superiors — a reference to the many cases of sexual abuse that have arisen in recent years within Chilean religious orders, including the Salesians, Franciscans and the Marist Brothers community. While some guilty priests were kicked out of their orders, those same people "were then welcomed into other dioceses, in an obviously imprudent way, and given diocesan or parish jobs that gave them daily contact with minors," he said. Francis said he was also "perplexed and ashamed" by evidence that there were "pressures exercised" on church officials tasked with investigating sex crimes "including the destruction of compromising documents." He said the problem can be traced to the training Chilean priests receive in seminary. He said there were "grave accusations against some bishops and superiors who sent to these educational institutions priests suspected of active homosexuality." For years, sex abuse victims have blasted the Chilean hierarchy for discrediting their claims, protecting abusers and moving them around rather than reporting them to police and then handing out light sentences when church sanctions were imposed. Francis, though, has also been implicated in the scandal and he took responsibility for his role as well. MORE: https://www.yahoo.com/news/pope-accuses-chile-bishops-destroying-sex-abuse-evidence-062740129.html
Crux has an article about the Chilean Bishops also. Yesterday, I had a feeling that something substantial would happen today on May 18th, 2018. For those of you who are followers of Our Lady of Garbandal, like myself, you understand the significance of the 18th of the month. Every bishop in Chile submits resignation to Pope Francis In Global Church, Vatican Inés San Martín May 18, 2018 VATICAN CORRESPONDENT https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2...in-chile-submits-resignation-to-pope-francis/ Members of Chile's bishops' conference Luis Bishop Fernando Ramos Perez, right, and Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez, meet the journalists at the Vatican, Friday, May 18, 2018. Pope Francis on Thursday ended his emergency summit with Chile's bishops by thanking them for their "full willingness" to do whatever it takes to recover from a sex abuse and cover-up scandal that has discredited the Church. (Credit: Andrew Medichini/AP.) Speaking after a three-day summit with Pope Francis in Rome, Chilean bishops announced that every one of them has submitted a resignation letter. ROME - Chilean bishops speaking at a Vatican news conference on Friday announced that all the country’s active bishops have submitted a written resignation to Pope Francis, in the wake of a three-day summit in Rome to discuss their Church’s massive crisis over sexual abuse and abuse of power. The decision about the bishops’ fate is now in the hands of Francis, who can either accept the resignations or reject them. The bishops presented the resignations on Thursday, and the pope will make a decision in the weeks to come. The bishops began a written statement on Friday thanking Francis for listening to them and for his “fraternal correction,” saying that they want to “especially ask for forgiveness for the pain caused to the victims, the pope, the People of God and the country for our grave errors and omissions.” RELATED: On Chilean abuses crisis, Francis says removing bishops is ‘needed’ but not enough “Thank you to the victims, for their perseverance and their bravery, despite the enormous personal spiritual, social, and family difficulties they’ve had to face so many times, amidst the incomprehension and the attacks from the ecclesial community itself,” the bishops wrote. “Once again, we implore their forgiveness and help to continue moving forward in the path of healing and cauterization of the wounds,” they said. The two prelates chosen to present the statement were Bishop Fernando Ramos Pérez, secretary general of the Chilean bishops’ conference, and Bishop Ignacio González, a member of Chile’s National Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Accompaniment of Victims. In the statement, the bishops said that they are committed to making the “face of the Lord once again shine in our Church,” and asked with “humility and hope” for everyone’s help. After reading the statement in the name of all 34 Chilean bishops who were in Rome, both Ramos and González read prepared remarks, but they did not take questions from reporters. Although since 2015 much of the attention on the Chilean crisis has been focused on Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who’s been accused of covering up for the crimes of his mentor, Father Fernando Karadima, convicted by the Vatican in 2011 of sexually abusing minors, a report commissioned by the pope found the problem goes much further. The 2,300-page report, produced by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Spanish Father Jordi Bertomeu, led the pope to shift from defending Barros in public to acknowledging he’d been wrong, summoning the 34 bishops to Rome and three of Karadima’s victims. Speaking with survivors of Karadima earlier this month, Francis reportedly apologized in the name of the Church and said that he’d been “part of the problem.” Francis and the Chilean bishops met in Rome May 15-17, and, in a document distributed to the bishops and later leaked to Chilean media, the pope says of removing people from positions of authority, “This - and I say this clearly - must be done, but it’s not enough, we must go further.” The pope also wrote that the “special mission” of Scicluna and Bertomeu was designed to “help find the light to adequately treat an open wound, one which hurts and is complex, and which for a long time hasn’t stopped bleeding in the lives of so many people, and as such, in the life of the People of God.” From the beginning, the pope made clear he’s not pleased by what has been done to date, describing “a wound treated so far with a medicine which, far from curing, seems to have made it deeper and more painful.” In the footnotes, Francis didn’t sugarcoat the failures of the Chilean bishops, saying that his envoys confirmed that some clerics guilty of immoral behavior were transferred to other dioceses, with the gravity of their actions “minimized” and attributed to “simple weakness or lack of morality.” That research, Francis says, also showed mishandling of the allegations, because “in not a few cases” grave indications of a crime “were superficially dismissed as improbable.” In his statement on Friday, Ramos noted that the pope’s text indicated a series of “absolutely reprehensible things that have happened in the Chilean Church in relation to unacceptable abuses of power, of conscience and of a sexual [nature], and which have led to diminishing of the prophetic vigor that characterized [the Church].” According to Ramos, in the context of “dialogue and discernment” during the summit with the pope, several suggestions were made to “face this crisis.” During the meetings, he said, the decision was cemented that “to be in greater tune with the will of the Holy Father, it was convenient to declare our most absolute availability to put our pastoral assignments in the hands of the pope.” “In this way, we could make a collegial and charitable gesture to assume- not without pain- the grave facts that have occurred, and so that the Holy Father could, freely, dispose of all of us,” Ramos said. Building on that statement, González explained that until the pope makes a decision, they are still on active duty and members of the Chilean bishops’ conference. Many observers, including survivors of clerical sexual abuse, have called for the resignation of at least the four bishops once in Karadima’s inner circle. Some survivors, however, such as Juan Carlos Cruz, one of the three victims who met with the pope in Rome last April, have called for every bishop to resign. Of the 34 bishops who came to Rome, three are retired, including Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, former Archbishop of Santiago, who’s been accused of covering up cases of clerical sexual abuse. He currently has no responsibility in the Chilean Church, but he’s still a member of the pope’s “C9” council of cardinal advisers. Francis could dismiss Errazuriz from that role, or ask him to resign it. The Vatican did not provide any indication on Friday of when the pope might act on the resignations, or what other measures he might take.
I guess Q knew what he was saying when he said May would be a hard month for the Pope. Fasten your seatbelts folks.
What portion of these bishops, if any, publicly dismissed the accusers as guilty of calumny? Is Barros included in the list that must go?
I read the article linked by Brian re: Anne Catherine Emmerich (above) and was struck by one of the comments, which rings so true. At some point, we all bear responsibility! "Way to connect the dots, Pat. I've always believed that the fundamental, underlying problem with the modern Church is that God is no longer at the center of our worship. Instead, we put ourselves in that position and our liturgy is all about us. It is precisely this which underlies the crisis of faith which is the overarching characteristic of this new...er.........."springtime". Of course, this raises the question of why we replaced God with man and many will no doubt answer....."Vatican II" and I'd probably agree with them but this simply kicks the can further down the road and raises the question..."what did we do to deserve Vatican II and its fallout?" The answer, I believe, is...."the Church's faithless response to what happened on May 13th, 1917 (and subsequent months) at Fatima". Instead of the Consecration, the practice of the Five First Saturdays, penance and the revelation of the Third Secret which the Blessed Mother asked for, we got a council which she never asked for. The Third Secret was tossed in a drawer and forgotten while the Church procrastinated for decades over the Consecration. Bad, bad idea. For the entire course of salvation history, choosing to ignore one of God's messengers or prophets has always brought misery and destruction. It's happened again. Just the 0.02 of a bar room theologian."
Here is another great post from Father Richard Heilman which could be posted on so many threads, imho. To Progressives/Relativists: “You all think I’m licked. Well I’m not licked.” Fr Richard Heilman May 18, 2018 https://www.romancatholicman.com/to...you-all-think-im-licked-well-im-not-licked-2/ “You think I’m licked. You all think I’m licked. Well I’m not licked. And I’m gonna stay right here and fight for this lost cause. Even if this room gets filled with lies like these. And the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me.” (Jeffrey Smith, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” 1939) If we are merely “animals,” then “YES” … bring it on!! Bring it ALL on!! Let humanity satisfy every pleasure, every want, every desire!! But, if we are MORE than animals, leave us free to live in that dignity. I am SO tired of progressives/relativists who live their lives diminishing the dignity of humanity!! Yes, the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” We don’t need to bend down and become like the world. We are called to elevate the world … to sanctify the world!! Venerable Fulton Sheen put it best: “The world’s greatest need is great men, someone who will understand that there is no greater conquest than victory over oneself; someone who will realize that the real worth is achieved, not so much by activity, as by silence; someone who will seek the Kingdom of God and His justice, and put into actual practice the law that it is only by dying to the life of the body that we ever live to the life of the spirit; someone who will brave the taunts of a Good Friday to win the joy of Easter Sunday; who will, like a lightning-flash, burn away the bonds of feeble interests which tie down our energies to the world; who, with a fearless voice, like John the Baptist, will arouse our enfeebled nature out of the sleek dream of unheroic repose; who will gain victories, not by stepping down from the Cross and compromising with the world, but who will suffer in order to conquer the world. In a word, what we need are saints, for saints are the truly great men … I assume without further ado that the grace of God is the one thing necessary, and that God will give that grace to those who do His will.” -Venerable Fulton Sheen Well …. I will not live as an animal. I will live to strive to be the saint God has called me to be!! And I will NOT allow my One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church to devolve into a “get with the times … do whatever feels good” organization because, you know, we are soooo merciful!! I am taking a stand!!! And I’m gonna stay right here and fight for this lost cause!!! Even if this Church gets filled with lies like these. And the Kaspers and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me! “You think I’m licked. You all think I’m licked. Well I’m not licked!!” Category Heart, Latest Posts
This was another awesome movie by James Stewart. Back when I homeschooled my (now adult) children I made it part of their govt history lesson.
