The talking Sto. Niño of Mactan!

From Cebu Daily News of the Inquirer.

***



Thousands of people lined-up to get a glimpse and touch a ‘talking doll’ in barangay Mactan in Lapu-Lapu City.

Three-year old Neñil Balermo told his friends Charmel Arellano, 6, and KJ Ace Arellano, 4 about the talking doll he saw on the beach of Sea Breeze neighborhood.

When the three went back to place where Balermo saw the ‘doll’ the elder Arellano picked it up. Upon careful observation the girl did not take any interest and was about to throw it to the shore when the ‘doll’ spoke again.

“Ayaw ko ninyo ilabay kay buotan ko (Don’t throw me away because I am good),”  was how the children recalled hearing from the ‘doll’ whose texture softened like that of a human. They heard a few more sounds but it was already inaudible.



Junito Balermo, father of Neñil said that when their attention was called about the ‘talking doll’, they investigated and saw that the ‘doll’ was actually the image of the Sto. Niño or the child Jesus.

Junito and other adults who heard of the story in the impoverished community thought a miracle had happened.  [They had to emphasize that the place was impoverished.  Wait now.  These anti-Catholics would then say "Gutom!  Kung ano ano naiisip!"  Bah!]

They built a makeshift chapel in the neighborhood for the image. Word spread quickly and people have been lining up to touch the image and the three-year old boy.

Since Friday, the boy did not have a decent sleep according to his parents because believers also want to touch and kiss him. [What the?!?!]  Some even brought him food.

Balermo saw the doll Friday morning. It was the day when the yearly ritual of bathing the replica of the original image of Sto. Nino was held at the Basilica del Sto. Niño to close the Sinulog festival.  [Hmmm...]

Fr. Benjamin Balsamo parish priest of Sto Niño parish in Mactan said they still have to get more data and verify the claims of the children.


***

So the anti-Catholics would say...

"Someone accidentally left the image floating in the sea for the bathing!"

And the voice?

"Poverty leads to hallucinations!"

And then someone would come forward and in a squeaky little voice claim "Ako si Sto. Niño".

Run away.......get a broom....and then *whack*

Images being found and proven to be miraculous are becoming "common" to Filipino Catholicism.

This was how the revered image of Cebu was found, the Lady of Antipolo, the Virgin of Manaog, Ina Poon Bato, the King Child of Tondo...

Miracles do happen.

Always.

Pit Senyor!

Council of Trent happened 450 years ago

We should have celebrated the 450th Anniversary of Trent, but liturgical experimentors like Fr. Geny Diwa and other Chupungcan liturgists tend to kill this Council and instead focus our attention on Vatican II which happened 50 years ago.

What is it with Trent that modern liturgists loath?

Wasn't this Council that trashed the Protestant Heresy?

Wasn't this Council that strengthened the Church?

***

WASHINGTON — The Council of Trent — which firmly reasserted Catholic doctrine in the face of the Protestant Reformation — concluded its last session exactly 450 years ago on Dec. 4, inspiring a renaissance of Catholic art and spirituality that shaped the life of the Church for nearly half a
millennium.

“Trent created the form of Catholicism that evangelized the New World, that gave birth to many saints and that successfully met the challenge of the political madnesses of the 19th and 20th centuries. That’s a noble legacy,” said Catholic author George Weigel.  [Don't start me with the Vatican II comparison now.]

The Council of Trent was convened on Dec. 13, 1545, in Trento, Italy — 28 years after an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to a church door, igniting the Protestant Reformation. The bishops, abbots and theologians at Trent responded to the issues raised by Luther and other Protestants in 25 sessions over nearly two decades, adjourning on Dec. 4, 1563.

Trent addressed some of the most fundamental questions of Christianity, such as the relationship between Scripture and Tradition and the nature and number of the sacraments.  [See that?  This Council was convened to address created by that monk!]

“One was the question of: how are we saved? Are we saved by grace alone or are we saved by works alone — good works alone? Or are we saved by some combination of grace and good works? Of course, the Lutherans said by grace alone,” said Jesuit Father John O’Malley, a Georgetown University historian and author of Trent: What Happened at the Council. “The Council of Trent wrestled with this problem and said we’re primarily saved by grace. We do not save ourselves, yet, in some limited way, some small way, with the help of grace, we do contribute to our salvation. We’re not puppets of grace. We have to cooperate in some way.”  [Yet after Vatican II, you hear liberals saying "we are all saved no matter what religion we join!"]

In addition to the debate over salvation, Trent confirmed the sevenfold number of the sacraments, set the canon of Old and New Testaments, declared that Scripture and Tradition are both authoritative, affirmed the sacrificial nature of the Mass and unhesitatingly renewed its commitment to the doctrine of transubstantiation, which holds that the substance of bread and wine in the Eucharist is wholly changed over into the substance of Christ’s body and blood.  [In Vatican II...Seven sacraments, check!  Canon of Old and New Testaments, check, still the same! Sacrificial nature of the Mass...check...though some liberals call it, the Meal of Love...transubstantiation...though some Vatican II liturgists call it "Christ's presence is in the people assembled."  Ugh!]

But Trent also launched a sweeping reform of Church life that affected everything from how people become married to how they learn about the faith, laying the foundation for institutions and practices that Catholics today take for granted, historians say.  [those are the keywords people!]

“They wanted to bolster the spiritual and moral character of the clergy, which had been one of the contributing factors to the Reformation. They wanted to kindle a similar kind of piety in laypeople. And they wanted to make the Church more missionary or evangelical,” said James Hitchcock, a historian at St. Louis University and author of History of the Catholic Church: From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium. 

“Now, I think most of us, even those who have been part of the post-Vatican II disorders, have lived with that as a kind of an ideal of what the Church ought to be, and that’s directly attributable to Trent.”  [That's because the Vatican II hijackers claimed the Council threw away Trent! And Super Council Vatican II started everything!]

One abuse that Trent ended was pluralism among bishoprics. “Let’s say you live in Pittsburgh, and you found out that your bishop was also functioning as bishop of Cleveland and as bishop of Minneapolis. That would … seem very, very strange. But the practice of ‘pluralism,’ as we call it, was very common before Trent,” Hitchcock said.  [We have a priest appointed to the CBCP yet he thinks he can control other bishops about how they celebrate Mass and even tell them to disobey the pope's motu propio Summorum Pontificum.  Yeah, we still have that pluralism.  His name is Fr. Genaro Diwa.  Write it down!]

Pluralism was possible, according to Father O’Malley, because dioceses were funded by a benefice — a medieval version of an endowment. Although it was against canon law, bishops would take the money and hire someone else to do the job, allowing them to serve in several dioceses while amassing a fortune, O’Malley said.

Another fundamental reform was the institution of the seminary, where candidates for the priesthood would be trained in theology, receive spiritual formation and be evaluated by their superiors for their suitability for the priesthood. “All of that sort of seems like common sense but, as a matter of fact, there were no seminaries prior to the 16th century,” Hitchcock said.

The Catechism — a Church-approved compendium of core teachings in terms accessible to the laity — also was borne out of Trent, according to Hitchcock. “Again, what an obvious thing to have, but they didn’t have one prior to the Council,” he said.

Trent left its mark on marriage too, mandating that priests be witnesses for marriages. The rule was targeted at secret marriages, in which couples would privately exchange vows, enabling one spouse to abandon the other, denying there ever was a marriage, according to O’Malley. [The priest is the witness for the Church.]

Trent’s anniversary is a time not only to celebrate its legacy, but also to reflect on lessons for the present.

“Trent shows us how the Church can meet the challenge of new cultural and political circumstances with intelligence and pastoral courage — and strong Church leadership,” Weigel said. [Whiccchhhh....we didn't have after Vatican II...]

Trent is an object lesson in the universality of the Church’s teachings and practices, according to Father Joseph Lee, academic dean at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary near Lincoln, Neb., which is run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP).

“This can be a healthy corrective to an over-emphasis on ‘inculturation,’ which has proved over the last few decades to have been as much a source of problems and confusions as of enrichment in the Church’s life,” he said. Catholics also would do well to emulate Trent’s focus on carefully defined principles as a “basis for theological work and formation,” Father Lee said.  [BOOM!!! Take that Chupungcan liturgists!  Inculturation created more problems.  It brought more confusion!  It lead to a breakdown of discipline in the Church's liturgy.]

Even as we celebrate Trent’s legacy, we should not go too far in applying it to the present, Weigel warned. “The mistake comes when we think we can freeze-frame Tridentine Catholicism, [oh yes! I agree!] as if it were a mode of being Catholic applicable to every cultural and historical circumstance,” he said.  [Hello SSPX?]

In his book Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church, Weigel argues that a new “evangelical” form of Catholicism is supplanting the “Counter-Reformation” Catholicism that developed out of Trent. “It’s instructive to note that the living parts of the world Church are the parts that have embraced the New Evangelization, while the dying parts are those still fighting the battle of the 1960s and 1970s,” Weigel said.  [Hmmm...]

Even the FSSP, known for its preference for the Mass that existed before Vatican II, is not “in the business of propping up Trent as some sort of definitive moment in the Church’s life — anymore than it would want to do so for Vatican II,” Father Lee said. Instead, he said, each of the Church’s councils must be understood within their historical contexts. [This is where liberals and even sedevacantists fall.  As if Trent is the only Council, as if Vatican II is the only Council.  Hermeneutic of rupture!]

“There is a danger nowadays of seeing the Church as somehow defined by a council or councils. Benedict XVI warned against this when he spoke of the danger of seeing Vatican II as a kind of ‘super council’ sweeping away everything that had gone before it and canonizing every development since it,” Father Lee said.  [Watch out for these theologians, nuns, priests and bishops who speak this way!]

The 450th anniversary of Trent is also an opportunity to dispel some popular myths about what it did, O’Malley said.

For example, the Council did not establish a distinctive “Tridentine” liturgy, according to Father O’Malley. “There is no such thing as a Tridentine liturgy. … The problem was manuscripts of the text of the Mass. And, of course, a lot of scribal errors had crept into different versions, and the same thing happened with printing.  So there was no control. So [the] Council of Trent said the liturgical books need to be revised so as to make them conform to each other. That’s all,” Father O’Malley said.

But it was the “same old Mass” that had been used for the previous seven or eight centuries, Father O’Malley said.  [And this same old Mass is the Mass celebrated under the 1962 Missal, of course over the course of time reforms were made with the prayers, etc...ending up with the 1962 Missal.]

Added Father Lee, “I know that the form of the liturgy the FSSP celebrates is commonly called the Tridentine liturgy, but that liturgy was only codified after Trent.”

Trent also did not mandate that the Mass be in Latin rather than in the “vernacular” local language, Father O’Malley said. The Council devoted all of one line each in two documents to the issue. “What it says is: It is wrong to say the Mass must always be in the vernacular,” Father O’Malley said. “In other words, Latin is legitimate. It doesn’t have to be in Latin. That’s very different than what people think Trent said.”

Trent did not ban the vernacular Bible either, according to Father O’Malley. The issue was raised during the Council, but “they decided not to decide,” Father O’Malley said. The Church later did impose restrictions on the vernacular — but those were the result of a document stemming from the Council, but not directly produced by it.

“That [document] was never discussed at the Council [and] never approved by the Council, so the Council Trent did not forbid vernacular Bibles,” Father O’Malley said.

The legacy of Trent is perhaps clearer today than it was just half a century ago.

“When Vatican II was going on and right after it ended, a lot of people were specifically saying that [it] was a repudiation of the Council of Trent,” Hitchcock said. According to proponents of this view of the Second Vatican Council, there would now be less emphasis among Catholics on doctrinal orthodoxy and on studying the Catechism, and seminary formation would be fundamentally revised because, previously, it was too rigid and had produced unworldly and somewhat irrelevant priests.

“Much effort was put into repudiating Trent as a way of implementing Vatican II,” Hitchcock said. “It took a generation of work by important theologians, of whom Pope Benedict was one, to emphasize the spirit of continuity which needs to exist rather than one of rupture.”  [because much of these theologians were either a.) depending their story on a myth or b.) was really out to reshape Catholicism.  Protestant Reformation from the inside folks!  And that is why liberals still hate Pope Benedict!]

That “hermeneutic of continuity” was recently reaffirmed by Pope Francis in a Nov. 19 letter to Cardinal Walter Brandmuller for the 450th anniversary of Trent.

“Graciously hearing the very same Holy Ghost, the holy Church of our age, even now, continues to restore and meditate upon the most abundant doctrine of Trent. As a matter of fact, the ‘hermeneutic of renewal’ … which our predecessor Benedict XVI explained in 2005 before the Roman Curia, refers not only to the Tridentine Council, but also to the Vatican Council,” Pope Francis wrote.

Of course, continuity implies both harmony with and change from the past. Indeed, were the Fathers of Trent to come back today, they would be “puzzled by a lot of things they saw,” Hitchcock said.

“And it would take some time to speak, to investigate and explain and so forth … to let them see the spirit of continuity which is there,” Hitchcock said. “We are always doing both: We’re maintaining continuity, and at the same time, we’re innovating in various ways.”


***

For people my age, the 70s and 80s, the time when the Council was being implemented was the most notorious age for theologians and catechists.  I had to spend hours in the library reading books and theological commentaries about what Vatican II actually said and meant.

The first big question that came to our minds was "Did the Council really wanted a New Mass?"

It was a confusing age!  

But that was the year when we do not have the Internet!

Information today is at the tip of one's finger.  Liberals cannot hide what the Holy See actually said and actually meant.  We cannot be lied again with "This is what the Vatican said...or this is what must be done."

The laity are now more informed and more empowered.  The Code of Canon Law gives upon the lay the right to call into question erring clerics.

And that goes to erring liturgists!

After Vatican II, liturgists used their degrees and their influence to tell bishops what they want to see in the liturgy, to deface the liturgy, to introduce innovations not even conceived by the Council Father.

It was a confusing age.

In order to understand Vatican II, start with Trent...

In fact, read the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

And liberals say Pope Francis is too kind, a man of peace, will change Catholicism...

Eat your heart out liberals!

***

An Australian priest who supports the ordination of women has been excommunicated by Pope Francis.

In the first such excommunication since the new pontiff took office Fr Greg Reynolds was dismissed in a letter from the Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart, which stated that “the decision by Pope Francis to dismiss Fr Reynolds from the clerical state and to declare his automatic excommunication has been made because of his public teaching on the ordination of women contrary to the teaching of the Church and his public celebration of the Eucharist when he did not hold faculties to act publicly as a priest.”  [Including his public celebration of the Mass even though he does not hold the faculties!  Remember that cosplayers!]

Archbishop Hart also told other priests in the archdiocese by letter that Fr Reynolds’s excommunication was “because of his public teaching on the ordination of women”, which are grounds for automatic excommunication.

Fr Reynolds is also a supporter of same-sex marriage and has attended rallies in favour of changing the definition of marriage. He has even reportedly presided at same-sex ceremonies.

He told National Catholic Reporter: “I am very surprised that this order has come under his watch; it seems so inconsistent with everything else he has said and done.”  [Nyahahahaha!!!  You think he changed everything!  Nyahahaha!!!!]

In August 2011 Fr Reynolds resigned his position as a priest at two rural parishes and, after Archbishop Hart removed his priestly faculties, he founded Inclusive Catholics, a pro-female ordination and gay marriage group.

Australian media also reported that in August 2012 he was present at a Mass where a dog had received Communion, which Fr Reynolds said he was not aware of until after the incident.

That month Archbishop Hart wrote to him warning that if he continued to act publicly as a priest he would “be forced to take further canonical action for the good of the Church”.

***

Anyone have the guts to declare their support for the ordination of women?  For homosexual "marriage"

Step right up folks!

When do we see the folks at Ateneo de Manila and Ateneo de Davao get the same disciplinary sanctions eh?

Who is the blogger behind The Pinoy Catholic

Ok ok ok...

You got me.

I will reveal my name now.

I know I had to do this out of obedience to higher authorities.

And because innocent people have been dragged into the "Who is TPC? Witchhunt" I might as well, shed off the camouflage and reveal my true identity so that innocent people don't get sent to the gallows.

And I know I need to putting a face behind the blog "can" bring some credibility behind the blog.

So, if you need to...

Click here to my Facebook page and know who I really am.

Please pass this one to Carlos Celdran whom I challenged to meet me at Quaipo Mosque to repeat his Damaso stunt inside the Muslim house of prayer, and to the Freethinkers who I always challenge to a debate and to the Chupungcan Liturgists headed by Jeff Velasco of the Diocese of Cubao and to the cosplayers...

Now you can know me!

Thank you!

Noynoy Aquino is mind-boggling!

from ABS-CBN News.

***

MANILA -- President Benigno Aquino III pitched anew the Reproductive Health Law, saying recent developments already call for the imposition of the measure that was halted by the Supreme Court.

“It’s happening, it’s a reality…the cybersex issue today. Is that not connected also? Two parents not able to adequately [respond to needs of their children]. Can I just say, ‘I see nothing, I will say nothing, I will not hear anything’? I couldn’t live [then] with my conscience,” he told ABS-CBN’s "Bottomline."  [Just mind-boogling!]

The Catholic church and Malacanang are at odds over the law, that was recently stopped by the Supreme Court.

The President said his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, could have swayed the Church with a better formula to break the impasse. “With me, I tried [reaching out to the Church],” he said.

More than a week ago, a joint effort from police around the world dismantled a pedophile ring that streamed live sexual abuse of Filipino children, some as young as 6, via the Internet.

Some of the children's parents were also allegedly involved the cases.

The rescue is part of Operation Endeavour, whereby British police works alongside counterparts in the Philippines and Australia.

The Church had a different take, however, with Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo saying that Internet pornography patronage is due in part to the RH Law.

In a report from the CBCP News, Pabillo lamented the “culture of addiction,” which he blamed on the promotion of condoms, contraceptives, and the RH law itself.


***

Here is the logic of Noynoy Aquino.

If you allow condoms and contraceptives to be freely accessible to the public, especially the youth and the pedophiles, you stop internet pornograpy.

So then, if we legalize illegal drugs, it would minimize drug addiction.

If we legalize piracy, we would have no more pirated videos and music!

Just mind-boggling!

Did I mention that he was educated at Ateneo de Manila University?

GULP Alert: Liturgical Dancing again...

For the life of me, I cannot decipher what these women are doing?

Let us try to investigate.

Hmmm..so they are clothed in white and blue, probably Marian.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

The parish church, as my source and GULP Agent told me, is the Birhen ng Lourdes Parish in Bagong Barrio, Caloocan City.  I little digging and I found that the parish is administered by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate!  This is the congregation that

I think I have posted some liturgical dances done in another OMI parish in Caloocan City.

I cannot find the post though.  Hmmm...  

So what are these women doing?

Here are the choices.

a.  Offering their burning incense while desperately trying to imitate Pilita Corales 

b.  They actually cooked some sinigang or kare-kare that are now part of the gifts for the Offertory procession

c.  They are former employees of "The Singing Cooks and Waiters, atbp." and they sponsored this Mass

d.   The Mass was so "boring", they had a 5 minute break to have some "Intermission Numbers"

e.  They are liturgically trained to worship Father Earth and Mother Nature so dancing this way at Mass helps raise awareness on Climate Change

f.  ALL OF THE ABOVE 

 As far as I know, the new pope did not allow liturgical dance.  And the law against liturgical dance in the Mass is still in force.

Which leads me to ask...Where are the bishops when you need them?

Pia Cayetano: RH Law author, also Abortion Advocate

How to simply explain her murderous advocacy.

Watch out for this language:

"Abortion is a woman's right to choose because it is her body.  If her life is in danger, abortion should be permitted."

That is how these murderous, ASWANGS want it.

Speaking of aswangs, remember in Philippine mythology, they are evil creatures that love to eat babies.

So what makes these abortionists different from aswangs?

Makes sense no?

In the USA March for Life...

TEN THOUSAND people, 550 seminarians, 300 priests, 29 bishops, and 4 cardinals at the March for Life vigil mass...

While in the Philippines............

from the CBCP Website:  Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle belts out a song during a fundraising concert at the Meralco Theater, December 12. Dubbed “Patron of the Arts, An Evening with the Cardinal”, the concert showcased the best of Filipino talents who have distinguished themselves through award-winning performances here and abroad. The concert was organized by Jesuit Communications Foundation to raise funds for the ongoing renovation of the Manila Metropolitan Cathedral.

So what's big about December 12, 2012, the night this photo of the cardinal was taken?

Now let the gangs of Katipunan lynch me.

This one is epic!

Received it via mail.

Love the photo!

Share and spread!

Love it!

When a lay woman remembers to "make" the sign of the cross when praying...

Watch how the woman invoked the holy name of the Blessed Trinity at the 16:27 mark.





And sadly, a young, famous and charismatic CATHOLIC Cardinal FORGETS to make the sign of the cross or even just mention the holy name of the Blessed Trinity.

Never.

Sad.

Very sad.

Maybe he doesn't want to OFFEND the people of other faiths by making the sign of the cross, no?

Because...when you express your faith, you offend other people?

That's what I heard.

Pray for and with our Bishops

When the President knows who the real boss is.

According to Robert M. Cruz of VitreArtus Glass Art Co., Inc., C.B.C.P. President Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas, D.D. has requested for a vigil room to be set up during the whole duration of the C.B.C.P. Plenary Assembly.

These are the pro-abortion Filipinos

Isn't it that kidnapping is illegal?

Imagine an international conference of kidnapping to be held in the Philippines?

What would the government do?

Isn't it that dangerous drug manufacturing and distribution is illegal?

Imagine an international conference of dangerous drug manufacturing and distribution being held in the Philippines?

What would the government do?

Isn't it that ABORTION is ILLEGAL in the Philippines?

Don't imagine it.  It is happening.

Pro-abortion groups and advocates aka Women's Right Groups or Health Advocates are gathering in Manila to push abortion as a REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH issue for Women.

DA HELL?!

Where is reproduction in there when you push for the murder of defenseless babies in their mother's womb?!?!

Know who the Filipinos behind this GATHERING OF HELL.

You'd be surprised that one of those who will speak in this conference goes by the name ATTY. ROMEO CABARDE.  You know where he works?  ATENEO DE DAVAO UNIVERSITY.

Read more about Cabarde here.

Ok, right now.

Where are the defenders of Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao?

Yeah.  I am issuing a PUBLIC CHALLENGE against Ednard Kim La Rosa.

Tell me what your archbishop has done to discipline this University and Cabarde!

When you remain silent to this promotion of EVIL and MURDER, you are an ACCESSORY TO THE CRIME!

So who are the pro-abortion Filipinos?

Those in the photo, the Filipino Freethinkers, "Catholics" for RH, Ateneo de Davao University, Romeo Cabardo, Beth Angsioco...

Add the names here.

This time, you can help this guy.

Dalai Lama photographed praying in front of Sacred Heart icon

"He is converting!"

Woo hoo!!

Yehey!!!

Or is he?

I don't want to be a party-pooper here but here is the thing, ok?

The Dalai Lama is BUDDHIST.

Buddhists believe in reincarnation.

The Dalai Lama believes and so his followers, that he is the reincarnation of Gautama Buddha.

AND!.............that good people like Jesus Christ are manifestations or reincarnations of the same Buddha.

Call it the AVATAR.

Get it?

He is respecting his past life.

I gotta see the Dalai Lama bend over the baptistry of the Sistine Chapel and the pope pours water on his head...

Then!

I CAN JUMP FOR JOY...

And post it on my Facebook account.

So?  What now?

WILL YOU STILL MAKE POSTS IMPLYING THE DALAI LAMA IS CONVERTING?

Hey!  It's your Facebook account.  You have freedom!....to be laughed at.

Nah.

How to end the careerism in the Roman Curia

Awards and Honours again

OK I may have misunderstood but I thought the situation was as follows. The conclave gathered after the unfortunate resignation of pope Benedict XVI. He was the greatest Supreme Pontiff since his namesake Benedict XIV but was overwhelmed by the corruption he saw in the Church and so decided to throw his hat in. The conclave are of the opinion that one of the Great Problems is the Roman Curia. It is full of self-obsessed Promethean Neo-Pelagians only concerned with how they can make further progress up the greasy pole and is a scandal. So step forward Cardinal Bergoglio who has what it takes to do the job and is elected on the understanding that he will reform the Curia.

So what happens? To overcome the great evil of clergy careerism it is decreed that the title of Monsignor will be abolished for all below the age of 65 to prevent clergy working to procure a handful of purple buttons. Hurrah, they say this man means business. But wait: this applies to the whole Catholic world except the Roman Curia where it will be business as usual and priests over the age of 35 who have completed five years service will automatically become Monsignors. Well that shows the Curia they`d better change their ways.  [FOR THE WIN!!!]

Looking forward to the next reforms!

***

SUPER LIKE IT!!!!

Visit the blog here, written by a priest!

The RH goons are at it again

Paid hack Raissa Robles is attacking the Church again, obviously Abortion money is fueling her journalistic excellence to just target the Catholic Church and never for once write anything against the Iglesia ni Cristo.

She wrote how the priests of Quiapo Church brought the revered icon of the Black Nazarene to the house of alleged pork barrel queen Janet Lim Napoles to her house while millions struggle to even touch the icon during the annual January 9 Traslacion.

If you need the real facts why the Black Nazarene is brought to Napoles, better head on over to The Monk's Hobbit and read all about it.  Excellent defense from the good doctor!

And by the way, the Black Nazarene brought to Napoles is not the actual statue, nor the replica used for the annual Traslacion.

It is a replica owned by the Napoles family. Is there something wrong to get your own image?

Funny how Raissa Robles concocts these "facts".

All because of Abortion money from pharmaceutical companies and international agencies like the UN-WHO.

Pope Francis celebrates Mass ad Deum again

This time at the Sistine Chapel for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, following the example of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.

This can be done and this is allowed.

Why then, pray tell...

Would Fr. Genaro Diwa continue to push for THE ILLEGAL MISA NG BAYANG PILIPINO, but prohibit the celebration  of the Ad Orientem Mass and the 1962 Missal of Blessed John XXIII when in fact these are LEGAL and his invented Mass is ILLEGAL.

Makes you wonder what education in Liturgy un-educates a Catholic priest.

So sad.

And the liturgical abuse continues

Singing of the Pater Noster?

Maybe.

But what are the kids doing there?

Continue doing this and you tell the kids that what they are doing is something very ordinary.

When we consider our own personal space, our own social media accounts, our own right to freedom as SACRED, but we treat the Mass like this, how do you think kids will think of the Mass?

Still Sacred?

Dear Father, if that be the case, open up your rooms, your bank accounts, your personal files...

Let's see how you'd take that.

Nothing is sacred anymore isn't it?

As in nothing!

The whole truth about the new "Monsignori" rule is out

In a statement issued by the Secretariat of State, the Vatican said it had informed bishops’ conferences, through a circular sent via their corresponding nunciatures, that “in the world’s dioceses, the only ecclesiastical title henceforth to be conferred shall be “chaplain of His Holiness”, to which the appellation, “monsignor”, shall correspond. The title shall be conferred only upon priests who have reached the age of 65.”  [I scratched my head too when I came to know of a priest who is not even in his 50s yet, to get the monsignori title and conferred with a Protonotary Apostolic super de numero, which is the highest outside of the Diocese of Rome.  Made me ask how he got it.  I have my theories after hearing stories from priests how some monsignori got theirs.]

from the National Catholic Register

***

Confirming rumors over the past few days, the Vatican announced today that in dioceses, the title of “monsignor” will henceforth only be granted to priests who are at least 65 years of age. [Not all the rumors are true though.]


The circular further clarifies that the use of the title “monsignor” in connection with certain major offices and where this is a cultural practice – such as for a bishop or the vicar general of the diocese - “remains unchanged.”  [Vicars general still are addressed as such.]

Concerning the Roman Curia, the Vatican said “no change has been made either in the titles or in the use of the appellation “monsignor”, these being connected to the offices entrusted, and to the service performed.”

The statement added that the new rule “has no retroactive effect” and that those “who received a title in the past, keep it.”

There are three grades of monsignor: apostolic protonotary, honorary prelate of His Holiness, and chaplain of His Holiness. Bishops are asked to resubmit any pending requests for papal honors in accordance with the new rules.

The Vatican did not explain the reasons for the change, but the move is being seen as consistent with Pope Francis’ warnings against careerism and personal ambition within the clergy.  [uh-huh....like that young priest who suddenly became secretary to the most powerful prelate in the country today...and he acts as if he is now the archbishop...right Reggie?]

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters yesterday that Pope Paul VI had reformed the system of ecclesiastical honors in 1968, reducing the number of titles to three.

"Pope Francis' decision thus follows in the same line, with further simplification," he said.

***

Some bishops abused their powers of conferring titles to certain priests.  The title is conferred upon a priest who deserved it for his years of service and significant contribution to the growth of the Church, not just by holding the position.

There are lots of stories I can share about seminarians who are quickly singled out as possible "monsignori material" or even "bishop material" while they are still in their theological studies, all due to the fact that the powers may be are moving their hands so that this guy gets promoted, while they wield their powers behind the watchful eyes of other priests and bishops.

Some priests are really more deserving of the honorific title of monsignor because of the hard work they did.  Others are plain after the title.  I still wonder how some got theirs.  No excellent record in parochial or chancery work.  A poor preacher.  Poor administrator...  Really mind boggling how someone could get honored for doing nothing!

Oh...I forgot.

One became cardinal.

Ok.

Next!

Hope this reform of Pope Francis is really seen affecting the life in the diocese.  Will we see priests working hard to get the title?  Definitely it would limit the appointing power of the bishop, and priests looking to get the title and all the accouterments that come with the honor must either work hard to get it or pray that they live longer than 65 to qualify for the honors.

But on second thought.

Did Christ rebuke the apostles for fighting over who gets to be first?

The monsignori title is granted to those who deserve it like other papal awards.  It is not a sacrament but a public acknowledgement of a priest's hard work.

Pope Francis is not destroying traditions in the Church, in this respect IMHO.  He is putting things in perspective, IMHO.

I hope...

Because of the pope's vague statements...

Because of a vague statement, we have the wolves shedding the sheep's wool.

Keep on making those off the cuff statements and we'll have abortion being encouraged at the pulpits in the name of responsible decision made in conscience.


***

FREIBURG, Germany, January 7, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The president of the German bishops’ conference says the conference will press forward with their plan to begin distributing Communion to Catholics who have ‘remarried’ outside the Church after a divorce, despite the judgment of Archbishop Gerhard Müller, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  [The gloves are off!]

Müller had excluded the possibility that those entering a second union without having secured a declaration of nullity would be eligible to receive communion.  [As taught to us by the Church.  No one in a state of mortal sin can receive Holy Communion.]

But Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt on December 29th, denied that the issue was settled in light of Müller’s negative stance. “A Prefect is not the Pope,” Zollitsch stated, emphasizing the importance of a “responsible decision [made] in conscience.”   [But the prefect if the alter ego of the Pope on this matter.  He acts for and in behalf of the pope, with the pope's authority.  So, I am no pope, and I am no bishop, but I know that what Archbishop Zollitsch is saying is WRONG.]

Zollitsch has pointed to Pope Francis himself as having intimated that a change in the Church’s policy might be coming in the near future: “I feel very encouraged by Pope Francis, who has called a special synod on marriage and the family for October 2014,” the prelate said.  [And we need more vague statements from off the cuff statements.]

In a well-known interview given while he was returning from World Youth Day on July 28th, 2013, Pope Francis spoke of the need to develop a comprehensive pastoral program for the family and of streamlining the annulment process. He also referenced the Orthodox Church’s practice of permitting second marriages as giving the impression that the Catholic practice could undergo modification.

In September the controversy about communion for the divorced resurfaced when the Archdiocese of Freiburg released guidelines that made reception of Holy Communion available to divorced and remarried parishioners. Archbishop Müller quickly replied to this document in a letter to Zollitsch of October 8th, and more elaborately on October 22nd. Despite Müller’s interventions, on November 23rd Bishop Gebhard Furst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart indicated that the German bishops would adopt proposals on reinstating divorced and remarried parishioners as full members of the Church during their March plenary.

Various German bishops have subsequently weighed in on the controversy, often emphasizing that the disciplinary and pastoral dimensions of the Church’s ministry have been running counter to each other.  On December 12th, Cardinal Walter Kasper, who is also a member of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation, contradicted Müller when he stated that “turning someone away from the communion rail – one doesn’t do that.” [Like what Cardinal Wuerl does to pro-abortion politicians in the USA.] Bishop Gebhard Fürst suggested that the current practice does not “take into account the concrete reality” – at least in certain cases.

So far few concrete arguments have been offered as to why the Church’s current practice of securing an annulment before another union is undertaken is incapable of resolving the pastoral problems that have been identified by the German bishops.

The Holy Father’s comments of July 28th, as well as Müller’s letter of October 22nd, indicate that the problem lies with the annulment process itself as well as with poor marriage catechesis. For instance, Müller has underlined the fact that “the entire sacramental economy is a work of divine mercy,” by which he implies that the rules of the Church are as they are for the good of all people.

***

And the bishop's conferences are acting as if they are independent churches like how happily scatted and un-united the Anglican Communion is.

Did I say that Germany was where the Protestant movement started with a monk named Martin Luther?

Just saying.

One of the things Pope Benedict could have addressed before he stepped down.

Weeding out the bad seeds in the Church!

BREAKING NEWS: Pope to travel to Holy Land on May!

Vatican City, Jan 5, 2014 / 09:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has announced that he will make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land this coming May to mark a key moment in Catholic and Orthodox Christian relations.

“In this atmosphere of joy, typical of this Christmas time, I wish to announce that from 24 to 26 (of) next May, God willing, I will carry out a pilgrimage in the Holy Land,” he said after the Jan. 5 Sunday Angelus to the crowds filling St. Peter’s Square.

Pope Francis will meet with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, during his May pilgrimage. Along with representatives of “all the Christian churches of Jerusalem,” the two leaders will celebrate an ecumenical meeting at the site of the Holy Sepulchre, which Christians revere as the place of Jesus’ burial prior to the Resurrection.

The Pope explained that the “principal goal” of the trip is “to commemorate the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch Athenagoras I, that occurred precisely on January 5, as today, 50 years ago.”  [that is the reason behind the trip.]

In January of 1964, Pope Paul VI traveled to the Holy Land. He met with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on the Mount of Olives on January 5.

This historic meeting led to an improved relationship between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, including a momentous joint declaration issued in 1965. In that declaration both leaders expressed their desire “to overcome their differences in order to be again ‘one’ as the Lord Jesus asked of his Father for them.”

The Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of His Holiness Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I lifted the centuries-long excommunications levied by the leaders of both Churches against each other in 1054. The excommunications helped finalize the schism between the major Churches of Eastern and Western Christianity.

In addition to Jerusalem, the Pope will also travel to Bethlehem and Amman, Jordan.

Patriarch Bartholomew I came to Rome for Pope Francis’s installation Mass in March 2013. During that visit, he asked the Pope to visit the Holy Land.

Pope Francis concluded his announcement with a request for spiritual support.

“Right now, I ask you to pray for this pilgrimage, which will be a pilgrimage of prayer,” he said.

***

We pray and hope for the Orthodox Church to finally come back to the fold of Jesus Christ, under the one bark of Peter.

YEAR OF THE LAITY: CBCP head laments clericalization of the Filipino laity!

That is a surprising status update from Archbishop Soc Villegas who according to my sources is really the one posting on his Facebook account. The new CBCP president is obviously reacting to how so many lay people wanted to be at the sanctuary rather than working at other places in the church and in the Church. No, that's not a typo.

Now let me break it down for you the instances of the lay wanting to be at the sanctuary.

1.  Altar boys serving only during high profile Masses like fiestas or when the bishop of Cardinal Tagle is around.  But you never see them serve in ordinary Sunday Masses or in daily Masses especially early morning Masses.  My guess?  Too lazy to get out of bed or to few people to notice him performing.

-  Did you see how the boy immediately changed his profile pic?  That's an indication.

2.  Girls wanting to be like the boys.  They want to serve at the altar too.
-  what's next women wanting to become priest?  Oh yeah, it's already happening.

3.  Batallion of EMHCs serving at the Mass.
- Watch the Sunday TV Mass at Studio 23 of Fr. Mario Sobrejuanite and see what I mean.   Everybody wants to be seen on TV?  Getting the common denominator now?

4. Liturgical dancers always!
- Also on Studio 23 Mass of Fr. Sobrejuanite, even though the Holy See has already outlawed liturgical dance.  This practice is not only a certified LITURGICAL ABUSE but it is a public and blatant disobedience of Church liturgical laws?  Why is it continuing?  Why, because some people don't want to read from the lectionary, they cannot sing, they don't want to be an EMHC because they are not THAT old, but they want to showcase the whole world their Protestant way of worshiping in a Catholic Mass.  Period.  Oh, and they want to be noticed.


The archbishop also lamented the fact that since most want to be at the sanctuary, nobody wants to serve at the pews, collecting Mass donations, or even working behind the cameras (at the sacristy like what the Mother Butler Guild does, or at the field, after the Mass, like what the Knights of Columbus, Catholic Women's League, catechists, Family and Life ministries, etc.) does.  Why?  Those are thankless jobs!  They don't get to be photographed in ACTION with the famous cardinal, nor will they be able to showcase their liturgical prowess, nor will they be able to be spotted by the cameras...

Call me biased but most of the EMHCs I have known, most of the women who have talked to me about eh RIGHT of a young girl to serve at the altar, as an altar boy (yeah someone told me that) and how some nuns long to be priest (by offering the Mass, and yes, some of them still profess that they are Catholic) all boils down to one thing and one thing only...

NARCISSISM!  The lays who desire to be at the sanctuary, dignifying their "vocation" or "calling" to be at the altar boils down with the selfish intent to be the center of attraction, to be at the most glamorous position, to be in a position of fame, to be given that title and prestige!

Blame it on liturgists like Fr. Anscar Chupungco and Fr. Genaro Diwa who like to quote and claim lay empowerment and active participation.  It is through their faults and those two alone who taught the lay that the best way to actively participate at the Mass is TO DO the Mass, (by being at the sanctuary) and not by PRAYING the Mass!

We call them learned men, scholars of liturgy, world class liturgist, but looking at the state of the Mass in the Philippines, how each and every parish has its own way of interpreting the liturgical books, makes you wonder if we really do have working liturgists in the country.

With the state of the lay desiring to be more at the sanctuary rather than stay at the pews and "go out into the world", it won't be far fetched to have a Mass like this in the future.  Almost the pews are empty because everyone is at the sanctuary.

Most of our laity spend too much time at the church forgetting that their main calling is NOT to work at the church, but to work at THEIR church, the domestic church, THEIR VERY OWN FAMILIES.

THIS IS THE VOCATION OF THE LAITY!

Not to spend too much time at the Parish Council!  Nor to spend too much time doing what a priest must do!

We cannot totally blame the layman for this.  The parish priest is at fault too for too much lay empowerment, for too much active participation, for too much CLERICALIZATION OF THE LAITY.

Indeed this must be corrected!

In this Year of the Laity declared by the Filipino bishops, the laity must remember their role in the Church, their chosen vocation.  They are not called to spend too much time doing what the parish priest wants him to do.  He must fulfill his/her role as parent, as son/daughter...

If most of the lay think this way, then woe to us!

We would not have great saints like Mother Teresa, or St. Therese or St. Francis who found their calling and vocation by serving at the foot of the altar, not at the altar.  Mother Teresa served the poor when the world abandoned them.  Would our EMHCs do what she did?

St. Therese taught us that in everything we do, ordinary things we must do it with extraordinary love.  You can fulfill simple tasks and chores even though you are not at the sanctuary during that Mass.

St. Francis chose not to be ordained a priest because he felt unworthy of the call, so he became a permanent deacon.  Shame on those nuns who continue to disobey Christ who did not ordain women!

Blessed John Paul II in Christifidelis Laici said: "The vocation of the lay faithful to holiness implies that life according to the Spirit expresses itself in a particular way in their involvement in temporal affairs and in their participation in earthly activities."

Stop desiring the job of the priest.

You are a layman by virtue of your baptism, confirmation and chosen vocation!

Your contribution to your local church is edifying.  But first things first.  Your job is at HOME.

Go back!

How the very first GPS was used

Now you know.

20 + C + M + B + 14

Pope calls for stricter and better seminary training

This is the photo of the meeting of religious superiors.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has warned that priests can become "little monsters" if they aren't trained properly as seminarians, saying their time studying must be used to mold their hearts as well as their minds.  [We'll learn later on what this training means.]

Francis also warned against accepting men for the priesthood who may have been implicated in sexual abuse or other problems, saying the protection of the Catholic faithful is most important.  [Unfortunately, there is no system in place to check on these men.]

The pontiff made the comments Nov. 29 during a closed-door meeting of 120 superiors of religious orders who gathered at the Vatican for their regular assembly. On Friday, the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica provided a report of the three-hour, informal question and answer session. The Vatican never provided a transcript of the meeting.  [If it is the Jesuit paper that published the Jesuit pope's comments, then we can trust it right?]

The magazine, which interviewed Francis last year, quoted the first Jesuit pope as telling the superiors he wants them to "wake up the world" with their work, particularly with the poor.

"Truly to understand reality we need to move away from the central position of calmness and peacefulness and direct ourselves to the peripheral areas," he said.  [FYI, this is what most liberation theologians call the evangelization of the margins.]

Francis, who headed the Jesuits' novice training program in his native Argentina in the 1970s, also warned the superiors of some of the failings of seminary training, or "formation," such as when would-be priests merely "grit their teeth, try not to make mistakes, follow the rules smiling a lot, just waiting for the day when they are told 'Good, you have finished formation."  [OH!  This is the advice we tell traditionalist seminarians who might be targetted by their superiors!  Ha!]

"This is hypocrisy that is the result of clericalism, which is one of the worst evils," Francis was quoted as saying, returning to the issue of clericalism — or a certain cronyism and careerism among the men of the cloth — that he has frequently criticized.  [I know one!  Newly ordained!  His ordination picture splashed over the archdiocese's website...suddenly made personal secretary...acts as IF he is already the archbishop...you know this one do you?  RM]

The training of priests, he said, must be a "work of art, not a police action."  [It must be the work of God.  Christ was the first formator and he formed and trained the apostles.]

"We must form their hearts. Otherwise we are creating little monsters. And then these little monsters mold the people of God. This really gives me goose bumps," he was quoted as saying.

Francis has spoken on several occasions about life in religious orders — the good and the bad — and hasn't shied from offering his own personal experiences when speaking with groups of nuns and priests. The former Jorge Mario Bergoglio was only 36 when he was made superior of the Jesuits in Argentina in 1973, during a particularly turbulent time for the order in general and Argentina in particular.  [Ah!!!  The turbulent 70s.  How liberation theology screwed the Church!  Very vivid memories of these years.  Imagine attending a Mass that looks more like a gathering of the Communists rather than a Catholic Mass.  Complete with red vestments even if the Mass was not for a martyr or the Holy Spirit, with one act plays for a sermon about tortures, justice, blah blah blah...Ah! Glad those days are over....are they?]

In his remarks to the superiors, Francis flagged as a risk the "huge problem" of accepting into the seminary someone who has already been asked to leave another religious institute, and cited Pope Benedict XVI's tough line on priests who commit sexual abuse.  [Hmmm...I know a lot of these 'men'.  Even a priest!]

"I am not speaking about people who recognize that they are sinners: we are all sinners, but we are all not corrupt," Francis said. "Sinners are accepted, but not people who are corrupt."  [And this includes....never mind.]

The Civilta Cattolica report didn't elaborate on Francis' comments, or on how "huge" a problem this was. The priestly sexual abuse scandal has mostly concerned abusive priests who were transferred from parish to parish, not problem seminarians who were kicked out of one institute only to be picked up again by another.  [because they are protected by these problem priests.  Ever heard of the Gay Lobby in seminaries or of the Married Clergy lobby in the Chancery?  Yes.  They exist.  Good thing Carlos Celdran did not get hold of this one.  Imagine what she held.  Ha!]

He told the superiors that conflicts within religious communities are inevitable but that problems between religious orders and bishops in dioceses where orders operate must be worked out. Francis tasked the Vatican's department for religious congregations to revise a document on the relationship between religious communities and dioceses.  [Will the bishop of Cubao be able to do something against Ateneo and MST?  ABANGAN!!!]

The interview was released on the same day that Francis celebrated Mass with some 350 of his Jesuit colleagues at the main Jesuit church in Rome to celebrate his recent decree naming the order's first recruit, Pierre Favre, a saint. During his homily, Francis told his fellow Jesuits to use mercy, not morality, when they preach.  [Not morality?  Poor Fr. Pavone...Poor Archbishop Oscar Cruz... Poor Archbishop Soc Villegas...  Christ preached about the morality of marriage.  So when this Gospel comes up on a given Sunday, what would the Jesuits say?  "Let's go to this wonderful island resort!"]

"The temptation, that maybe many of us experience, and many other people have comes to mind; that of linking the proclamation of the Gospel with inquisitorial beatings of condemnation. No, the Gospel is preached gently, fraternally, with love," he said.


***

I agree with the pope that the Gospel must be preached gently, fraternally, with love, but we must also remember that Christ reminded the Apostles that they must "shake off the dust from their sandals" for those who would refuse to hear the Gospel.

Mercy is shown to the merciful and to those who desire them.  Justice is meted out to the unmerciful.

And that includes those who hop from one seminary to the next.

And careerists of the cloth...

I have tons of stories about monsignori and how they got their titles...

But that is another story.

What we are after is how will the episcopal conferences and individual bishops implement the reforms in seminary training called for by the Holy Father.

Will the CBCP have a database of those who entered the seminary?

Will the CBCP have a database of problem clergy?

Will the CBCP even seriously consider the recommendations of the Holy Father?

He is not Time Man of the Year for nothing, no?