When Catholic leaders have no sense of what "holy" is

ROME, December 8, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Howling, grunting, and roaring animals, along with images of overcrowded city centers, depictions of pollution, and negative portrayals of industrialization, appeared on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica this evening during a much hyped “climate change” light show.

The show was the finale of the opening celebration for the Year of Mercy [It was part of the day's official program???] declared by Pope Francis. The event was watched by tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square along with estimated millions worldwide through online streaming.

The multi-million dollar show [Where are those people who say "The money could have been used to feed the poor!"?] titled "Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home" was created and funded by climate-change partisans and population-control advocates with the goal to “educate and inspire change around the climate crisis across generations, cultures, languages, religions and class.”

Along with images of the world and its endangered animals, including lions, birds, apes, and whales, appeared New Age symbolism associated with ancient pagan deities.

The show also took place on the most important Marian feast day for Catholics, the Immaculate Conception, where Catholics celebrate Mary being conceived in the womb of her mother Anne without the stain of original sin. [No light show for this one.]

Many pro-family leaders from around the world say they are flabbergasted that the pope would allow St. Peter’s to be used as a backdrop for promoting the controversial and contentious “climate change” agenda.  [In fairness to the pope, he may not know the details about this one, like the rest of what is going on in the Church.  He rarely reads or watches the news.  He relies on what his closest advisers tell him.]

"I am sorry that the facade of St. Peter's has been turned into a propaganda stage for the scientific fraud known as ‘Catastrophic Man-Caused Global Warming,’” Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, told LifeSiteNews. [Because scientific evidence is now against these climate change zealots.  So they now turn on humans for the blame, pointing to overpopulation as the cause as we are rodents or locusts infesting the planet.  Yes, they do not see themselves as such, only those who are not with them, so they advocate eugenics.  And stupid clergymen join the bandwagon.]

"I am sick at the thought that this most sacred space — St. Peter's Basilica — will be the backdrop for the further dissemination of this fraud, whose ultimate goal is to impose a ‘Carbon Tax’ on the developed countries. This tax will not only cripple global economic growth and undermine democracy, its proceeds will be used to fund even more population control programs in the developing world," he said.

The Vatican’s spokesperson for the event, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, called the event “unique…for its genre and for the fact that it is being displayed for the first time on such a significant backdrop.”  [I can see him jumping for joy like a little school girl who got her Barbie doll for Christmas.]

“These illuminations will present images inspired of Mercy, of humanity, of the natural world, and of climate changes,” he said. [Did you see "MERCY" shown on the screen?  All you see are animals.  Watching it on Discovery or Animal Planet is much better. Such a waste of money and more than that, they desecrated the Basilica.  But they don't care.] 

Fisichella said that the light show on the Vatican is meant to link Pope Francis’ environment encyclical Laudato si’ with the United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop21) currently underway in Paris. The Vatican has shown strong support for the conference.  Having the show conclude the opening Year of Mercy celebrations also links the pope’s message about “mercy” to fighting “climate change.” [Hard sell. How can it be linked when we should be talking about Responsibility and Justice when dealing with caring for the environment.]

Robert Royal, president of the Washington-based Faith and Reason Institute and a prominent Catholic commentator, called it “seriously wrong” to have a “radical environmental message” projected onto St. Peter’s.

“This is the kind of thing ideological politicians do, like President Obama’s rainbow projection onto the White House after the Supreme Court approved gay ‘marriage.’ The White House is the people’s house, all the American people’s. St. Peter’s is even far more universal than that.” [Whoever recommended this to the pope just opened the floodgates of these kinds of ideologies., except anything Catholic!]

“Projecting onto it a radical environmental message — and one that has no chance of actually resulting in an international agreement, given the unreality of the approach — seems to make the Church just one more international NGO, something Pope Francis has explicitly warned it should not be,” he told LifeSiteNews.

Voice of the Family co-founder John Smeaton said that contrary to popular perception, the “environmental agenda” is tied to an anti-human agenda.

“The environmental movement commonly regards population growth as a threat. Developing nations are being flooded with contraceptives and subjected to pressure to legalise abortion. Given that contraception and environmentalism so often go hand-in-hand, it is deeply troubling that current Vatican authorities have so strongly endorsed the environmental agenda without taking an equally strong stance on the abortion and contraception agenda which lies behind it.” [Because those who are against abortion are so "obsessed" so anti-abortion advocates will never ever get this kind of reception.]

“If the Vatican issued similarly strong and high-profile calls to world governments to end abortion, many lives could be saved. The St. Peter’s light show is a clear demonstration of the tragic truth that this papacy has the wrong priorities,” he told LifeSiteNews. [I won't get my hopes high.]

The event, billed as “contemporary public art,” was sponsored by organizations named after Greek and Roman pagan gods that push the climate change agenda and by an organization that directly funds abortions in developing countries. [I wouldn't mind the naming after the gods but I do mind that these groups are abortion champions!]

The main financial backer behind the event is the US-led World Bank Group via its Connect4Climate initiative. The World Bank, created in 1945 to rebuild a war-torn Europe, has a long history of relentlessly funding abortion and contraception programs in developing nations under the banner of “ending extreme poverty” and “boosting shared prosperity.” Pro-life leaders have denounced the programs time and again as thinly veiled population control programs aimed at reducing populations considered by Western elites to be undesirable.

Other partners include Vulcan Inc., a private company based out of Seattle, Washington, that “strives to create a new kind of future” by “upend[ing] conventional thinking.” The company was deliberately named after the Roman god Vulcan, the deity of destructive fire, whose earliest known shrine existed in Rome at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, close by the Vatican.

Another partner is Okeanos, an environmentalist foundation with the purpose of raising awareness “concerning the various threats our oceans are facing.” The foundation rails against what it calls the “sins against climate.” The foundation is named after the Greek and Roman Titan god “Okeanos” who was held to be the divine personification of the sea whose fish in one hand and serpent in the other signify bounty and prophecy.

Obscura Digital, the San Francisco-based organization putting on the actual show, has its name derived from the Latin root meaning “dark.” The company specializes in creating “immersive experiences that will change the way you think about the world around you” using holographic projections, 3D animation, and dynamic visualization.

The organization has in the past worked on climate change projects with the UN to show the “effect of human enterprise on the environment” and to issue a “call for global solutions.”

St. Peter’s ‘climate change’ light show and its prototype held in New York last August are bizarrely connected to pagan occultism.

The shows director Travis Threlkel, founder and creative director of Obscura, said in an August interview when discussing the New York version of the show that was projected onto the Empire State Building, that pagan deities were specifically incorporated into the presentation. He said the show included the greek pagan goddess Gaia, a Greek Mother Earth who has been appropriated by worshipers of nature, along with Aya, a Babylonian mother goddess associated with the rising sun and with sexual love.

It was at the New York show’s end that startling images of the faces of various pagan goddesses were projected onto the building. Predominantly displayed was an image of Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction. Kali, who was depicted with a long blood red tongue and whose name means “the black one,” promised wealth to those who satiated her lust for blood by human sacrifice. Daily human sacrifices of young children were offered on her altars in India until 200 years ago. She has since been culturally appropriated by New Age spirituality as a kind of Mother Earth goddess.

“Android” Andrew Jones, the artist behind the image, said at that time that he wanted to depict Mother Earth in her “fiercest form” to draw attention to what might happen if people ignored the implications of climate change.

The Vatican show included artwork and computer-generated designs by Jones, but it is unknown at this time what artwork was featured. [Not sure if these are pagan]

Jones, one of the world’s foremost digital painters and projection artists, specializes in portraying terrifying images of Greek, Roman and Eastern pagan deities. He said in an interview last month that he turns to these gods and goddesses by means of “psychedelic substances” (mind altering drugs) so that he can portray them accurately. He said the “deities” are “actively involved” in guiding his hand as he makes the work. [These "deities" are called a manifestation of the devil as attested to by exorcists.  Dabbling with these pagan religions opens you up to attacks and possessions of the devil.]

“These [drugs] are tools that grant portals and access into different realms that I still haven’t fully been able to grasp or say that I have uncovered all of their meanings. … They have evolved my ability to … discover new and interesting combinations of energy and matter. Some have … shown me greater nightmares than I could ever depict or wish to imagine ever again.”  [Told you.]

“These spirits and the deities that [the images] represent [in India, Greece, etc.] are actively involved, enrolled, and contributing to humans reinventing the visual vernacular of these beings as time and technology evolves,” he said.

Jones said that good art connects the viewer to something “mystical.” He said in a 2010 video  interview that a good reaction to his art happens when people “throw up, or urinate themselves, or [release] any sort of bodily excrement.”  [That is not what happens to you when you experience the true God.]

While it remains unclear at this point if any of Jones’ pagan images whole or in part made their way onto St. Peter’s, various symbols belonging to deities mentioned by the show’s director Threlkel did. For instance, Aya’s symbol of the rising sun appeared at least on three occasions throughout the show, most prominently at the beginning when a giant sun was depicted rising upon St. Peter’s.

Catholic commentator Fr. John Zuhlsdorf wrote on his blog that the event was “irreverent” and even a form of “sacrilege.”

“St. Peter’s is, without question, a sacred place and object (a very large one, too!).  It is, without question, dedicated by the Church to sacred purposes.  The use of this sacred building and place (where St. Peter was martyred and buried, a pilgrimage place, etc. etc. etc.) as a projection screen for mere secular purposes is irreverent treatment,” he wrote.

Fr. Zuhlsdorf quoted the Catholic Dictionary which defines sacrilege as the “irreverent treatment of sacred things, persons or places, i.e., those dedicated by God or the Church to sacred purposes.  It is a sin against the virtue of religion, of its nature grave, but admitting smallness of matter.”

“This has gone beyond ridiculous,” he said.

The priest said the image of the lion projected on to St. Peter's made him think of a passage from St. Peter's first letter: "Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls, your brethren who are in the world" (1 Peter 5:8). [The same passage written on the base of the obelisk of St. Peter's square]


***

I can hear Archbishop Rino Fisichella say "Desecration?! What is that?  We should be merciful!"

For people who think that this is creating mountains out of molehills, they do not even think of the implications of this event.  Saying it succinctly, it's like the Communion in the Hand indult or should I say rebellion.

The Holy See didn't even consider projecting a show about the persecution of Christians or even of the destruction of another natural resource of the world: Human Babies being murdered every single day.

One of the principal teachings of Freemasonry is that it is the light that illuminates the world, brings people in darkness, whom it identifies as people of religion, to the light of reason and knowledge via Freemasonry.

Now you have the biggest Catholic Basilica in the world in complete darkness, illuminated by the ideology of climate change that still grasps for scientific evidence other than an award winning PowerPoint presentation.

If we can have dance shows and even parties held inside a church dedicated for the worship of the one true God, then how can we even find fault in using the facade of the world's most recognized Catholic house of worship as a projector screen by groups using the destruction of nature as a veiled campaign to push for more contraception and abortion?

This is sacrilegious!

If you can't find anything wrong in this one, then you have no sense what is holy anymore.

A storm is brewing in the horizon

There is a violent storm approaching and the one who holds the rudder naively steers the BOAT directly into the eye of the storm.

My only request for all of you dear brothers and sisters in the Faith is to pray unceasingly for the faithful Fathers of the Synod and for all who hold and stand true to the Catholic Faith that comes to us from the Apostles.

 A storm is coming. And the one steering the boat naively smiles. Or is he really that naive?

Stephen Colbert talks about Pope Francis

He comments how he doesn't like Pope Francis in the 6:18 mark.

He is a Catholic. And he is a comedian.

He also jokes about Lutherans. David Letterman is a Lutheran.

Read between the lines.

And Stephen Colbert even thought us the right way to do Liturgical Dancing.



Now do you get his point?

The new papal "tiara"?

Pope Francis has used again his piscatorial ring and the ferula of Benedict XVI for the Easter Sunday Mass and the Mass to commemorate the centennial of the Armenian Genocide and the declaration of St. Gregory of Narek as Doctor of the Church.

Photos were sourced from various wire services.

Easter Sunday Mass

 

But you will notice that after the Easter Sunday Mass, the Holy Father reverted back to his silver ring for the Urbi et Orbi blessing.

And for the Mass for the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide and the declaration of St. Gregory of Narek as Doctor of the Church.

The Holy Father has reserved both his piscatorial ring and the ferula of Benedict XVI for special occasions, much like how the papal tiara was once used prior to its abandonment by Bl. Paul VI.

Pope declares a new Doctor of the Church!

The Holy Father has declared St. Gregory of Narek as the newest doctor of the Church!

Read about the great news here.

 

Romero Beatification: It was Benedict XVI, not Francis

The cause of Archbishop Oscar Romero took a rather interesting twist.  Not the cause itself, but who really worked to fast-track the cause of the murdered Salvadoran archbishop.

Here is what he said in 2013.

"Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family and the official promoter of the Cause of the Archbishop Romero of San Salvador, made the announcement in a homily on 20 April, just a few hours after a meeting with Pope Francis.

The archbishop, who was preaching at a Mass in the town of Molfetta, to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of the diocese’s Bishop Antonio Bello, said: “Today, the anniversary of the death of Don Tonino, the cause for the beatification of Archbishop Romero was unblocked.”

Fast-track to 2015, the same archbishop said:

The monsignor who spearheaded the saint-making process for El Salvador's slain Archbishop Oscar Romero said Wednesday it was Pope Benedict XVI — and not Pope Francis — who removed the final hurdle in the tortured, 35-year process.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia told reporters Benedict "gave the green light." Speaking a day after Francis declared that Romero died as a martyr for the faith, Paglia said Romero's beatification would likely be within a few months in San Salvador.

Better we clear this up or we'll have the rabid media ganging up on the pope emeritus again.

Wasn't he described as God's rottweiler?

Yeah. Right.

 

BREAKING NEWS: Archbishop Oscar Romero to be beatified soon!

BREAKING NEWS: The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has announced that Pope Francis has recognized the martyrdom of the Servant of God, Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Cardinal Burke is so mad at the Pope and Pope Francis kicked him out of the Curia and...

that's what the liberals in the MEDIA and in the CHURCH would want you to believe in.

Ooooo!!!!

Look at them, they are so....so....so....

Hey libs!

Eat your heart out!

FILTHY MEDIA

The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses. 

Malcom Little's words remain true until today. Kaya tignan nyo ang KATANGAHAN ng ABS CBN at TV5!

Not only are they misrepresenting Pope Francis, they are misrepresenting the Catholic Church.

Kaya to all TPC Readers!

"DO NOT BUY THESE SHIRTS!"

"It's very nice to hear. BUT IT SENDS A WRONG MESSAGE.


"Kanino ba natin madalas marinig ang mga ganitong statement? From lobby groups! Groups whose advocacy is opposed to the Church!|


"It's a misreading of Pope Francis."

Pope Francis sets an example

Here is the Holy Father, the Supreme Pontiff, bowing before the Patriarch of Constantinople, asking for his blessing, which the Patriarch did with a kiss.

What's the example here?

The Pope attending the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox.

A Catholic attending the worship of the schismatic group.  Come on, let's face it.  They are schismatic, which leads me to asking:

WILL THE GREAT CAPS LOCK MASTER...

attend a Traditional Latin Mass of the SSPX and ask for the blessing of Bishop Fellay, leader of the the SSPX?

If the Pope did it to this schismatic group, what's stopping him?

ABANGAN!

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

BREAKING NEWS: Conservative Opus Dei bishop removed by Pope Francis!

Read the entire article before you react.

***


(Reuters) - Pope Francis has dismissed a Paraguayan bishop accused of protecting a priest suspected of sexually abusing young people, the Vatican said on Thursday.

The sacking followed a Vatican investigation of the bishop, the diocese and its seminaries, said the statement, which gave no details.

Vatican sources said the bishop had refused to resign after the investigation and reports of irregularities in his diocese and clashes between the conservative Livieres Plano and other bishops in the country. [The reporter makes it appear that the sacking is caused by two things one of them is Plano IS conservative.]

The Argentinian-born pontiff has vowed zero tolerance of clerics who abuse minors, after church scandals in several countries over many years. Last May, Francis called such abuse an "ugly crime" and likened it to "a Satanic mass".

The Ciudad del Este diocese said in a statement that accusations that he lacked unity with the other bishops of Paraguay were "unfounded" but that he would obey the pope's order. The diocese's statement did not mention the allegations that he had protected the priest accused of sexual abuse.

The Vatican's ambassador in Paraguay, Archbishop Eliseo Ariotti, told reporters in the capital Asuncion it would be up to the new administrator of the diocese to make decisions regarding the priest accused of sexual abuse.

Ariotti said that as part of the disciplinary procedure against Livieres Plano, the bishop would not be allowed to say mass in public but only in private.

According to reports in Catholic media while the Vatican investigation was in progress, Livieres Plano had promoted a priest accused of sexual abuse while serving in the United States.

CONSERVATIVE

Livieres Plano had defended both himself and the priest, saying the charges were unfounded, Catholic media have reported.

The bishop was a member of the conservative Roman Catholic group Opus Dei and often clashed with more liberal clerics, according to the reports.

The Vatican said Pope Francis had taken the "onerous decision" to remove Livieres Plano after careful examination of the results of the Vatican investigation.

SNAP, a U.S.-based victims' group which has often called on the Vatican to discipline bishops suspected of covering up abuse, said it was "encouraged" by the move. It said Livieres Plano had "protected and promoted a credibly accused sex offender cleric".

BishopAccountability.org, a U.S. resource center on sexual abuse in the church, called the move "bold" but said the Vatican should say if he had been "fired primarily because of his wanton disregard for the safety of young people" or because of his divisive behavior in his diocese. [They have a point.]

The dismissal of the Paraguayan bishop came two days after the pope approved the arrest in the Vatican of a former archbishop accused of paying for sex with children while he was a papal ambassador in the Dominican Republic.


***

Pray for our bishops.  Stop making them into soap opera stars.

They are not.

They are pastors.  And they must be pastoring, not crying on TV or talking in every retreat or forum.

Get it?

So.....the pope is out to sack incompetent bishops or bishops who transfer erring priests, eh?

I have some dioceses in mind here in the Philippines.

Here in Metro Manila, we have......

***

UPDATE:  6:30PM

It seems observers are seeing the deep reason for the "firing"

Livieres was named bishop of Ciudad del Este in 2004 and immediately disturbed other more progressive bishops in Paraguay by opening his own seminary, following a more orthodox line than the main seminary in the capital, Asuncion. Paraguay's bishops are known for their progressive bent in a poor country where liberation theology found fertile ground.

Relations between Livieres and the rest of Paraguay's bishops worsened when he got into a public spat with the then-archbishop of Asuncion, whom he accused of being gay.

....


There was no reference in the Vatican statement that Livieres' removal had anything to do with Urrutigoity. [A priest accused of sex abuse but the bishop accepted in his diocese.] Rather, the Vatican spoke of the need to maintain unity among Paraguay's bishops, suggesting that political and ideological issues were of far greater concern to Rome and that Urrutigoity's past was a secondary factor.

As a result, the removal underscored the deep ideological shift in the Catholic Church with Francis in charge. Vatican watchers say it is highly unlikely that Pope Benedict XVI would have removed either Livieres or the "bling bishop," since both had strong supporters among the more conservative prelates in Rome who appreciated their firm orthodoxy in the face of opposition from more progressive parts of the church.

Urrutigoity had been a member of the schismatic, traditionalist Society of St. Pius X. After leaving the society, he joined the Scranton diocese, where he founded a priestly society where the pre-Vatican II old Latin Mass was celebrated. In 2004, Scranton Bishop Joseph Martino suppressed the society, citing financial instability and allegations of sexual misconduct against Urrutigoity.

And the bishop does this.

 

BREAKING NEWS: First Saint of Sri Lanka!

Pope Francis today signed decrees clearing the way for the canonization of an Indian priest and an Italian religious sister. He also confirmed miracles attributed to the intercessions of an Italian bishop and a Canadian religious sister, pointing to their beatification in the near future.

Blessed Joseph Vaz, an Indian priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, was founder of the Oratory of the Holy Cross of Miracles in Goa (1651-1711). Known as the “Apostle of Ceylon” on account of his evangelization of the Asian island, he was beatified by St. John Paul II in 1995.

Blessed Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception (nee Adelaide Brando), was the Italian foundress of the Oblation Sisters of the Holy Sacrament (1856-1906). Remembered for her zeal for God and neighbor, often she would tell her spiritual daughters: "Love of God and of neighbour are two branches that are connected to the same trunk. The love of God gives life to the love of neighbour; and this, in turn, nourishes love towards God".

Meanwhile, the Pope promulgated decrees confirming miracles attributed to the intercessions of Venerable Servant of God Pio Alberto del Corona, Italian professed priest of the Order of Preachers, bishop of San Miniato and founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit (1837-1912); and Venerable Servant of God Marie-Elisabeth Turgeon, Canadian foundress of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (1840-1881).

The Pope approved the votes of the Ordinary Session of the Cardinal and Bishop Fathers in favour of the canonisation of Blessed Joseph Vaz, the Vatican said. He also decided that a consistory will be convoked shortly for his canonisation and that of Blessed Maria Cristina.

The Rappler does the dumb thing again

VATICAN CITY – A single mother, people who have been married before and couples who have been living together "in sin" were married by Pope Francis in a taboo-challenging ceremony at the Vatican on Sunday, September 14.

In another signal of the openness of his papacy, Francis asked to marry 40 people from different social backgrounds who would be a realistic sample of modern couples.

Popes very rarely perform marriages – the last one was in 2000.

Marriage "is not an easy road, it's sometimes a contentious trip, but that's life", the pope told the couples, both young and old, as their families gathered for the solemn two-hour ceremony.

"It's normal that couples fight. That always happens, but don't end the day without making peace, even a small gesture is enough," said the pontiff, who donned a red robe for the occasion rather than his usual white.  [Dear reporter, would you even care to research about liturgical colors?  It was red because it was not about Valentine's Day or because it is about love.  The Mass was held on the feast of the Triumph of the Cross and the liturgical color of the day is red.  Get it?]

One of the couples he married was single mother Gabriella and her partner Guido, whose previous marriage was annulled by an ecclesiastical tribunal.  [So?  What's wrong with that?  The guy is free to marry and there are no canonical impediments to their marriage.  Being a single mother doesn't make you ineligible to contract the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.]

The last time a pope performed a marriage was under the leadership of John Paul II in 2000, and before that in 1994.

It comes three weeks before a major synod of the Catholic Church will discuss the divisive issues of marriage, divorce and conception.

The church ban on allowing divorcees who have remarried to receive communion is one of the key topics up for debate, and resolving deep divisions over the issue inside the church is seen as a key test of Francis' leadership. [It is about the question of allowing people living in sin to receive Holy Communion.  This has nothing to do about these married couples.]

Francis has shown himself more open than his predecessors on the subject of marriage, and has spoken of more realistic attitude to social problems, raising the issue of broken marriages and abandoned women.  [The Holy Father called the attention of the Church to work to bring the lost back to the fold.  His message is always that of mercy.  I have yet to see a radical change in dogma and doctrine done by this Pope before I go gaga like the Williamson wing of the SSPX.]

Last January he baptized the child of a single mother in the Sistine Chapel along with the daughter of a couple who had not been married in a church. – Rappler.com  [Dear reporter, a church marriage certificate isn't needed for a baptism, ok?]


 ***

Rappler is officially now known as the Wrapper for Stinking Fish!

This is not only a piece of crappy journalism but it reveals the LGBT undertones of the Wrapper "partially" owned by Maria Ressa who we all know is a practicing....

The writer wants to paint a picture that Pope Francis is changing dogma by marrying co-habitating couples.  NOT!

He encouraged co-habitating Catholics to contract the Sacrament instead of continuously living in a sinful state.

This is not something new!

Parishes, Dioceses and Family and Life Ministries have been doing this a loooonnnggg time ago.

Encouraging unmarried Catholics to get married in the Church and a single mother getting his child baptized in the Church, NOT NEW!

Get over it, Wrapper!

Your brand of journalism is pathetic!

Minimalist Cross

The liturgical liberals think that they are winning by making the Altar Cross in Papal Masses small and insignificant.

But look!  Pope Francis incenses not any other crucifix but the Altar Cross.

Pope Francis recognizes the theology of the 'Centrality of the Cross' of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Do you think we will see a small or large altar cross in January 2015?

Pope Francis baptizes father of South Korea ferry victim

Because name-calling Apologetics is not the way to do it!

Papal envoy to Iraq meets displaced Christians and Yazidis.

Former Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Ferdinando Cardinal Filoni, was the Pope's personal envoy in Iraq.

Look who was at South Korea to be with the Pope!

 

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle together with 50 plus more Asian bishop met the Holy Father for a meeting at the Haemi Martyrs Shrine on August 17, 2014 in Haemi, South Korea.

He later joined the Mass at the World Cup stadium.


 

Pope confirms movement in cause of Abp. Oscar Romero

Archbishop Romero after he was shot.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) - Pope Francis opened the way Monday to a quick beatification for Oscar Romero, saying there are no more doctrinal problems blocking the process for the slain Salvadoran archbishop who is one of the heroes of the liberation theology movement in Latin America.

Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, was gunned down in 1980 while celebrating Mass. He had spoken out against repression by the Salvadoran army at the beginning of the country's 1980-1992 civil war between the right-wing government and leftist rebels.

Francis told journalists traveling home from South Korea that Romero's case had previously been "blocked out of prudence" by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith but has now been "unblocked." He said the case had passed to the Vatican's saint-making office.  [the Holy Father cleared any speculation that this was all the work of the Rottweiler of God.  Remember, he too worked with Cardinal Ratzinger to stomp out liberation theology in Argentina.]

The congregation launched a crackdown on liberation theology under then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, fearing what was deemed as Marxist s excesses. The movement holds the view that Jesus' teachings imbue followers with a duty to fight for social and economic justice.  [A little bit of trivia.  the originator of liberation theology is a Dominican friar, Gustavo Gutierrez.  So much for being too loyal to the teachings of the Church, no?]

Francis said of Romero's case that "it is important to do it quickly," but that the investigation must take its course.  [I believe the Holy Father is saying that he will opt to take the usual course of waiting for an approved miracle before he beatifies the slain archbishop.....or........Romero could be declared a martyr so the needed miracle for beatification will be waived.]

He declared that Romero "was a man of God" and suggested that he wanted to expand the church's concept of martyrdom to include a broader field of candidates.

Unlike regular candidates for beatification, martyrs can reach the first step to possible sainthood without a miracle attributed to their intercession. A miracle is needed for canonization, however.

Traditionally, the church has restricted the martyr designation to people who were killed out of hatred for the Catholic faith. Francis said he wanted theologians to study whether those who were killed because of their actions doing God's work could also be considered martyrs.

"What I would like is that they clarify when there's a martyrdom for hatred of the faith - for confessing the faith - as well as for doing the work for the other that Jesus commands," Francis said.  [If doing what Jesus commands would constitute confessing the faith, and a person is martyred for doing that, then..............how would that make Gandhi and Martin Luther King?  Just asking.  Yeah, I know they are not Catholics.]

Questions over that distinction have been at the root of the theological debate over whether Romero was killed by El Salvador's right-wing death squads for professing the faith or because of his political activism in support of the poor.

The chapel where the archbishop was murdered.  At the back it says "At this altar, Mons. Oscar Romero offered his life for God and his country."

 
***

Archbishop Romero was a controversial figure indeed but his defense of the poor who are also like us, children of God cannot be underestimated.  But the question whether he was martyred for his Faith, or for acting out the faith and doing his role as a shepherd has to be answered by the competent authorities.

Not by a "Facebook theologian" who can't construct a decent English sentence.

Need my meds now.

Bye.

Cardinal Filoni sent to Iraq

“My mission in Iraq is to give moral, spiritual and psychological support” - Cardinal Filoni

Old, New Papal Style

At yesterday's Pallium Mass, Pope Francis returns the use of the standard style of the Pallium.

The style Pallium has evolved throughout the course of Papal history

Pope Saint John Paul II wore a much longer Pallium during the Jubilee Year of 2000. Can any of the readers send a picture of the Pope wearing that?  It is similar to this. 

Pope Benedict XVI had to Pallium designs during his entire Pontificate