Holy Communion Profanations caused by receiving on the Hand

A Letter from The Cathedral Rector
by Very Rev. Fr. John Lankeit

Rector,Ss. Simon & Jude Cathedral
Phoenix,AZ
January 30,2011 to his parishioners.

Dear Parishioners,

I want to thank all of you who have recently started receiving Holy Communion on the tongue,not to mention those of you who already had been. This subject has generated a lot of buzz over the past few weeks,the vast majority of which has been overwhelmingly positive.

While my main objective in encouraging reception on the tongue is to deepen appreciation for the Eucharist, I also have a pastoral responsibility to eliminate abuses common to receiving in the hand. Such abuses are no doubt unintentional. Nevertheless,what I witness troubles me. And I’m not alone.

In 2004, responding to the problem of Eucharistic profanation,the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament released an official instruction entitled REDEMPTIONIS SACRAMENTUS:On certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist. [Which unfortunately Pinoy Catholics, lay and clergy alike, still disregard.  Have you ever seen St. Paul's Publications sell a copy of RS and SP?  Nah.]  Regarding Holy Communion the document states:

“[S]pecial care should be taken to ensure that the host is consumed by the communicant in the presence of the minister,so that no one goes away carrying the Eucharistic species in his hand. If there is a risk of profanation,then Holy Communion should not be given in the hand to the faithful.” (Paragraph 92)  [If there is a risk of profanation!]

Here are 7 common Holy Communion profanations that I see all too frequently:


Blessing oneself with the host before consuming it. (The act of blessing with the Eucharist is called “Benediction”and is reserved to clergy).


Receiving the host in the palm of the hand,contorting that same hand until the host is controlled by the fingers,then consuming it (resembling a one-handed “watch-the-coin-disappear”magic trick).


Popping the host into the mouth like a piece of popcorn.


Attempting to receive with other items in the hands,like a dirty Kleenex or a Rosary.


Receiving the host with dirty hands.


Receiving the host,closing the hand around it,then letting the hand fall to the side (as if carrying a suitcase) while walking away and/or blessing oneself with the other hand.


Walking away without consuming the host.


Giving the host to someone else after receiving (including animals)…yes,it happens! [Oh yes it does!]


We would never treat a piece of GOLD with the same casualness –especially in this economy! Yet many treat the Eucharist “piece”of GOD with casualness at best,indifference and irreverence at worst. Of course,much abuse is due to ignorance,owing to poor catechesis,which is precisely why I have written about this issue for four consecutive weeks.

Yet we have another great incentive…

When Holy Communion is received on the tongue…every single one of these abuses is instantly eliminated!  [BINGO!!!]

The way we treat another person says more about our relationship with that person than any words we might say. This is especially true of our relationship with the Divine Person,Jesus Christ. So let us continually seek to increase our reverence for our Eucharistic Savior,and to eliminate anything that degrades the respect He deserves.  [Have you seen how your priest treats other people?  Now look at how he celebrates the Liturgy.  Connect the dots.]

God’s Blessings…
my prayers…

Rev. Fr. John Lankeit,
Rector,Ss. Simon &Jude Cathedral
Phoenix,AZ

***

Easy solution.

STOP COMMUNION IN THE HAND!!!


SIGN THE PETITION, NOW!

Chasubles and stoles, which goes over and which goes under

I know.

I have struck a nerve with liturgical hobbyist who send me emails protesting how "uncharitable and unchristian" my posts are with regard to liturgical abuse.

Boohoo!

Now it's your turn at the receiving end.

Folks, the fans of the "liturgical Church Father" have no idea what humiliation those who just ask "why" about the liturgy have went through.  And now thanks to Pope Benedict XVI (ad multos annos!) gloriously reigning, and the Internet, we know that we have been duped with dialogues like "Vatican II said so." or "That is old.  In with the new." or "We are a community.", and other stuff like that.

SAVE THE LITURGY, SAVE THE WORLD, as what the great Fr. Z champions in his blog.  True.  We have seen a great deluge of the faithful and a growing apathy among Catholics in matters of faith and morals since everything with a sense of the sacred and the supernatural has been reduced to something trivial and mundane.  And we can all point a finger at how the liturgy was treated for the past 40 years.

To the readers of TPC, thank you for your support and encouragement.  Blogging is no easy thing to do.  It is lot of hard work actually, sifting through emails and wire feeds...

And so to my haters, thank you!  It means you keep tab on what I post in my blog.

To the members of God's Undercover Liturgical Police, keep those reports of liturgical abuse coming in.  And we will continue to tell the liturgical abusers, "We can see you!"

And we won't mince words.  We might even say "You hypocrites!"

Hey, hold on!  Don't get your pressure up.  I got that from the Gospels.  Matthew 23:13.  Look it up.

And now some more lessons from Fr. Edward McNamara about stoles over the chasuble.


***

ROME, JUNE 7, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

Q: I have been in the habit of wearing my stole under the chasuble, as I was taught and as I have always found in the instructions. [ It actually is in the GIRM.] In our country, however, the stole is generally worn above the chasuble. Some bishops follow this practice, too. I was told several times that my way of wearing the stole was wrong. [E?] Somebody explained to me that the chasubles we use are "gothic chasubles"; they have no special decoration in the front, while the accompanying stoles do carry elaborate artwork. [If the chasuble is the plain white, table cloth material type.] This would be the reason for wearing them above the chasubles. I searched for further details about this matter, but I found none. If I am in the wrong, I would rather change my habits. Is there any indication about this? -- P.V., Colombo, Sri Lanka

A: Your practice of wearing the stole under the chasuble is correct, according to the Church's most recent legislation. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal says in No. 337, "The vestment proper to the priest celebrant at Mass and other sacred actions directly connected with Mass is, unless otherwise indicated, the chasuble, worn over the alb and stole."  [See told yah!]

The fashion for designing chasubles with external stoles became popular during the 1970s and early 1980s [Kumbaya era!] but is now definitively on the wane. [Not so yet here in the Philippines.] Some countries have received specific permission from the Holy See to adopt special liturgical vestments such as a kind of combined alb-chasuble [the chasu-alb as they call it.] which necessarily requires the external stole. But this rather ugly and ungainly vestment has never quite caught on.  [Have you seen this one turned into a habit, ultimately replacing the cassock and simar?  Yeah, that one.  Uh-huh.]

Traditionally the stole is seen as a symbol of priestly authority while the chasuble is a symbol of charity. It was often argued, therefore, that the reason why the stole is beneath the chasuble is that charity must always cover authority. [That is a beautiful symbolism!]

Whether this reasoning is authentic or not, the relative position of stole and chasuble has nothing to do with the use of gothic or Roman styles or with the decorative elements of these sacred vestments. Indeed, the stole is placed under the chasuble in all historical vestment styles. [Now take this.] The external stole is a recent and transitory fad which is now contrary to the universal liturgical law.  [And cannot be considered an organic development since quite plainly it is not a development!]

[Some liturgical history for us here folks about the evolution of the chasuble.]
There have been many forms of chasuble over the centuries. The earliest form of liturgical chasuble resembles the so-called monastic style, a full-cut roughly oval garment often falling to the celebrant's shoe tops and at times furnished with a hood. Modern monastic chasubles tend to be square-cut rather than oval.

Since this form of chasuble required the arms to be gathered up to be used freely, from the 12th century on, the sides were gradually shortened to ease movements. Thus the gothic chasuble was developed. This form gradually tapers from the shoulders to a near point at the base but with both sides of equal length. The semi-gothic form is similar but slightly shorter. Most contemporary chasubles are inspired by these two forms although frequently with a gradual rounding from shoulder to base or with rectangular or square cuts.

From the 16th century on, the size and shape of the chasuble was further reduced in length front and back and the arms were left completely free. This was done, above all, to facilitate certain movements such as joining the hands and incensing the altar. This kind of chasuble was often elaborately embroidered with Christian symbols and made quite stiff and heavy with the use of rich materials such as silk, gold and brocade. Within this form there were several stylistic differences.


One of the most common was the Roman, or fiddleback, chasuble with a rectangular front and a back vaguely resembling a violin. The Spanish-style chasuble is even shorter; its rounded front and back give it a distinctive shape sometimes referred to as a "guitar" chasuble. The Germanic style is simpler, with a rectangular front and back.  [I have met some priests who use the fiddleback even for the Ordinary Form of the Mass and asked them why they prefer it over the Gothic style.  I found their answer quite pratical: it frees the arm!]

The early 20th century saw a tendency to return to earlier forms, especially the gothic. At first this practice met with resistance, and the Congregation of Rites replied to a 1925 query in terms which many bishops interpreted as cautiously favorable. Thus the revived form slowly spread in the Church. In 1957 the congregation wrote to the bishops, leaving decisions regarding the use of older forms of the chasuble to their prudent judgment.

Present legislation allows for the use of practically all historical styles of chasuble.

***

If that is what the Church liturgical law says, then why is he doing this?

Really baffling, don't you think?

Father has a something to confess

Priest   :  "You know what?  I am wearing the wrong stole.  But it's ok as long as you approach the Lord and ask for His Mercy."

Penitent  :  "Don't worry Father.  I forgive you."

"The Christian family has a special need for evangelization and support!"

HOLY MASS ON THE OCCASION OF THE NATIONAL DAY

OF CROATIAN CATHOLIC FAMILIES

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Zagreb Hippodrome

Sunday, 5 June 2011

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

In this Mass at which it is my joy to preside, concelebrating with numerous brothers in the Episcopate and with a great number of priests, I give thanks to the Lord for all the beloved families gathered here, and for all the others who are linked with us through radio and television. I offer particular thanks to Cardinal Josip Bozanić, Archbishop of Zagreb, for his kind words at the beginning of this Mass. I address my greetings to all and express my great affection with an embrace of peace!

We have recently celebrated the Ascension of the Lord and we prepare ourselves to receive the great gift of the Holy Spirit. In the first reading, we saw how the apostolic community was united in prayer in the Upper Room with Mary, the mother of Jesus (cf. Acts 1:12-14). This is a picture of the Church with deep roots in the paschal event: indeed, the Upper Room is the place where Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood during the Last Supper, and where, having risen from the dead, he poured out the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the evening of Easter Sunday (cf. Jn 20:19-23). The Lord directed his disciples “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4); he asked that they might remain together to prepare themselves to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And they gathered together in prayer with Mary in the Upper Room, waiting for the promised event (cf. Acts 1:14). Remaining together was the condition given by Jesus for them to experience the coming of the Paraclete, and prolonged prayer served to maintain them in harmony with one another. We find here a formidable lesson for every Christian community. Sometimes it is thought that missionary efficacy depends primarily upon careful planning and its intelligent implementation by means of specific action. Certainly, the Lord asks for our cooperation, but his initiative has to come first, before any response from us: his Spirit is the true protagonist of the Church, to be invoked and welcomed.

In the Gospel, we heard the first part of the so-called “high-priestly prayer” of Jesus (cf. Jn 17:1-11a) – at the conclusion of his farewell discourses – full of trust, sweetness and love. It is called “the high-priestly prayer” because in it Jesus is presented as a priest interceding for his people as he prepares to leave this world. The passage is dominated by the double theme of the hour and the glory. It deals with the hour of death (cf. Jn 2:4; 7:30; 8:20), the hour in which the Christ must pass from this world to the Father (13:1). But at the same time it is also the hour of his glorification which is accomplished by means of the Cross, called by John the Evangelist “exaltation”, namely the raising up, the elevation to glory: the hour of the death of Jesus, the hour of supreme love, is the hour of his highest glory. For the Church too, for every Christian, the highest glory is the Cross, which means living in charity, in total gift to God and to others.

Dear brothers and sisters! I very willingly accepted the invitation given to me by the Bishops of Croatia to visit this country on the occasion of the first National Gathering of Croatian Catholic Families. I express my sincere appreciation for this attention and commitment to the family, not only because today this basic human reality, in your nation as elsewhere, has to face difficulties and threats, and thus has special need of evangelization and support, but also because Christian families are a decisive resource for education in the faith, for the up-building of the Church as a communion and for her missionary presence in the most diverse situations in life. I know the generosity and the dedication with which you, dear Pastors, serve the Lord and the Church. Your daily labour for the faith formation of future generations, as well as for marriage preparation and for the accompaniment of families, is the fundamental path for regenerating the Church anew and for giving life to the social fabric of the nation. May you remain dedicated to this important pastoral commitment!

Everyone knows that the Christian family is a special sign of the presence and love of Christ and that it is called to give a specific and irreplaceable contribution to evangelization. [Everyone knows including the secularists who want nothing from the Church.  That is why you have gay marriage, contraception, abortion, divorce floating in the Philippine air!] Blessed John Paul II, who visited this noble country three times, said that “the Christian family is called upon to take part actively and responsibly in the mission of the Church in a way that is original and specific, by placing itself, in what it is and what it does as an ‘intimate community of life and love’, at the service of the Church and of society” (Familiaris consortio, 50). The Christian family has always been the first way of transmitting the faith and still today retains great possibilities for evangelization in many areas.  [Charity begins at home, right?]

[Here is the most important part IMHO.]
Dear parents, commit yourselves always to teach your children to pray, and pray with them; draw them close to the Sacraments, especially to the Eucharist, as we celebrate the 600th anniversary of the Eucharistic miracle of Ludbreg; and introduce them to the life of the Church; in the intimacy of the home do not be afraid to read the sacred Scriptures, illuminating family life with the light of faith and praising God as Father. Be like a little Upper Room, like that of Mary and the disciples, in which to live unity, communion and prayer!  [For more about the Eucharistic Miracle of Ludbreg click here and here.  Please note that it will open up a PDF.  This is a poster from the International Vatican Exhibition of Eucharistic Miracles around the world.  Lovely site.!]

By the grace of God, many Christian families today are acquiring an ever deeper awareness of their missionary vocation, and are devoting themselves seriously to bearing witness to Christ the Lord. Blessed John Paul II once said: “An authentic family, founded on marriage, is in itself ‘good news’ for the world.” And he added: “In our time the families that collaborate actively in evangelization are ever more numerous [...] the hour of the family has arrived in the Church, which is also the hour of the missionary family” (Angelus, 21 October 2001). In today’s society the presence of exemplary Christian families is more necessary and urgent than ever. Unfortunately, we are forced to acknowledge the spread of a secularization which leads to the exclusion of God from life and the increasing disintegration of the family, especially in Europe. Freedom without commitment to the truth is made into an absolute, [like what freethinkers espouse.] and individual well-being through the consumption of material goods and transient experiences is cultivated as an ideal, [materialism and the trivialization of sex by media through contraceptives, premarital sex lifestyle and gay marriage.] obscuring the quality of interpersonal relations and deeper human values; love is reduced to sentimental emotion and to the gratification of instinctive impulses, without a commitment to build lasting bonds of reciprocal belonging and without openness to life. We are called to oppose such a mentality! Alongside what the Church says, the testimony and commitment of the Christian family – your concrete testimony – is very important, especially when you affirm the inviolability of human life from conception until natural death, the singular and irreplaceable value of the family founded upon matrimony and the need for legislation which supports families in the task of giving birth to children and educating them. [It still baffles me how the RH Bill which prevents pregnancies, encourages sex among the unmarried youth, kills the unborn day old ovum, could be pro-family?  I just don't get it.] Dear families, be courageous! Do not give in to that secularized mentality which proposes living together as a preparation, or even a substitute for marriage! Show by the witness of your lives that it is possible, like Christ, to love without reserve, and do not be afraid to make a commitment to another person! Dear families, rejoice in fatherhood and motherhood! Openness to life is a sign of openness to the future, confidence in the future, just as respect for the natural moral law frees people, rather than demeaning them! The good of the family is also the good of the Church. I would like to repeat something I have said in the past: “the edification of each individual Christian family fits into the context of the larger family of the Church which supports it and carries it with her ... And the Church is reciprocally built up by the family, a ‘small domestic church’” (Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Participants in the Ecclesial Diocesan Convention of Rome, 6 June 2005). Let us pray to the Lord, that families may come more and more to be small churches and that ecclesial communities may take on more and more the quality of a family!  [Simply beautiful!]

Dear Croatian families, living the communion of faith and charity, be ever more transparent witnesses to the promise that the Lord, ascending into heaven, makes to each one of us: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). Dear Croatian Christians, hear yourselves called to evangelize with the whole of your life; hear the powerful word of the Lord: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Croatia, accompany you always on your way. Amen! Praised be Jesus and Mary!

***

Another reason why he is pope!

Ad multos annos!

Viva Il Papa!

STOP THE RH BILL!

Holy Smokes!!!

That is not a miter...

Not a biretta...

Not a hat...

Not even a symbol of the tongues of fire...

But Father has a good balance, eh?

Father got it all wrong

Father taught he was being consecrated bishop while the sisters act as altar servers.

Continued pill use can cause blood clot

Thanks to pro-lifer Tim of Mindanao for the tip.

Tim gave a tip. :)

***

From EWTNNews

The Food and Drug Administration released a warning on May 31 that certain classes of oral contraceptives for women may cause serious and potentially fatal blood clots.

In an online alert issued Tuesday, the agency cited new studies in the “British Medical Journal,” which found that women taking these pills have two-to-three-times higher risk of serious clots.

Popular birth control pills such as Yaz, Yazmin, [these two are sold here in the Philippines!] Beyaz, Gianvi, Ocella and several other brand names are included in the warning since they contain a hormone called drospirenone.

The FDA said it will now look “at all currently available information to fully assess the risks and benefits of drospirenone-containing birth control pills.”  [Is our own FDA doin' the same thing?  Nah.  The bald one won't let them.]

Although all contraceptives pose the risk of blood clots, pills containing drospirenone were introduced about a decade ago in the hopes that they would decrease the risk.

But on June 2 CBS News highlighted the story of Joan Cummins, whose 18-year-old daughter Michelle died of a massive blood clot in her lung in 2010, shortly after she left home for college in North Carolina.  [I saw this on the news.]

Cummins believes that the oral contraceptive Yaz might have caused Michelle to collapse and go into cardiac arrest while walking to class last August.

“They called me from the hospital and they told me that her heart was not responding and that it wasn't good. And that just – you never want to hear that,” Cummins told CBS.

She's now suing the drug company Bayer for her daughter's death.

“I'm saying it could've contributed to her death,” Cummins said. “A healthy young 18-year-old woman who never had anything wrong to be taken like that, certainly something that could've contributed.”

The Catholic Church teaches that contraception is immoral because it purposely denies the gift of life and does not involve the total gift of self that should take place between a husband and wife.  [But Jesuit lawyer Joaquin Bernas wrote that he believed this but...but...]

***

I read a similar story about a young woman falling dead on her tracks. She was rushed to the hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival. It was learned that she died from a blood clot that blocked her major artery causing a massive heart attack. The young woman is a pill user.  Here is her story.

Now, when is the pill going to take effect on Angsioco?

I mean, for her to have a change of heart.

I am NOT that bad you know.

Really.

Playful, yeah.

By the way, is your OB-Gyn telling you this risk?

Never mind the risk.  What about the life of your one-day old baby you are killing?

Now think about that!

Beth Angsioco, pro-RH...pure evil!

"Calling the unborn a child to me is going beyond what the Constitution provides." -  Beth Angsioco


For Angsioco, the unborn has no rights.

For Angsioco, you have to be born to have rights.

For Angsioco, the Constitution does not protect the unborn.

For her, a fertilized ovum is not a human being.  For her it is just a blood clot.  For her it does not have any right to live.  Simply put, she does not care about Constitution.  Hell, she does not even care if you kill a day old ovum!

After this, I can conclude that Angsioco is an IDIOT and LUCIFER IN THE FLESH!

If she can advocate the killing of a helpless one day old human being in the safety confines of the womb, what's to stop her from killing you and me?

For her, it's all about what she wants!

Spoiled b!@#$%^

Twins in life, twins in death

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Identical twins Julian and Adrian Riester were born seconds apart 92 years ago. They died hours apart this week. The Buffalo-born brothers were also brothers in the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor. Professed friars for 65 years, they spent much of that time working together at St. Bonaventure University, doing carpentry work, gardening and driving visitors to and from the airport and around town.

"It was fun to see them, just quiet, gentle souls," Yvonne Peace, who worked at the St. Bonaventure Friary for nearly 21 years, said Friday.

They died Wednesday at St. Anthony Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., Brother Julian in the morning and Brother Adrian in the evening.

Both died of heart failure, said Father James Toal, guardian of St. Anthony Friary in St. Petersburg, where the inseparable twins lived since moving from western New York in 2008.

"It really is almost a poetic ending to the remarkable story of their lives," St. Bonaventure spokesman Tom Missel said. "Stunning when you hear it, but hardly surprising given that they did almost everything together."

Julian and Adrian Riester were born Jerome and Irving on March 27, 1919, to a couple who already had five daughters. They took the names of saints upon their ordination in the Catholic church.

"Dad was a doctor and he said a prayer for a boy," Adrian once said, according to St. Bonaventure. "The Lord fooled him and sent two."

After attending St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute, the brothers were turned away by the military because of their eyesight, the university said. One had a bad left eye, the other a bad right eye.

Eventually they joined the friars of Holy Name Province in New York City. They received separate assignments before reuniting at the seminary at St. Bonaventure from 1951 to 1956. After serving parishes in Buffalo for 17 years, they returned to St. Bonaventure in 1973 and spent the next 35 years there.

They had separate rooms in the friary but one telephone extension that rang into both, Peace recalled. It was usually the more talkative Adrian who answered, though Julian possessed a quiet authority. They never said who was born first.

"Brother Julian was like the big brother. Brother Adrian would defer to him," Peace said. "They picked up one of our friars at the airport one time and the friar said, `Can I take you to dinner?'

"Brother Adrian looked at Brother Julian and said, `We aren't going to dinner?' `No, we'll go home,'" Peace said. "So that was it. No discussion, no contradicting. `No, we aren't going today.'"

Funeral services are scheduled for Monday at St. Mary Our Lady of Grace Church in St. Petersburg. Afterward, the brothers' bodies will be flown to Buffalo and buried Wednesday at St. Bonaventure Cemetery, across the street from the university.

***

Pray for the repose of the souls of the brothers.

They showed us how to live humbly.

Rest in peace, dear brothers!

"I am Catholic but..."

Surprisingly, from Hell's Bible, Pinoy version.

From Minyong Ordoñez.

***

HOW CAN one say he is a Catholic and ignore the teachings of his religion? Why be a Catholic if one thinks his religion is erroneous? Is there pride and truth in being an egoistic Catholic? Are such Catholics who fill up the church and who participate in the same rituals, say the same prayers, and profess the same beliefs in both God and the Church’s commandments sincere or hypocritical?  [And this goes to those Jesuits, Vincentians, PIME, CICMs, MJs, ahhhh....all those dissidents who want another brand of Catholicism and not just for Lagman and Garin.]

Pro-RH lawmakers insist they are Catholics but in the same breath disagree with the Catholic hierarchy’s rejection of the RH bill. This constitutes contradiction of the first degree.

Oneness in doctrine is one of the conditions defining Catholicism. [Remember the four marks of the Church?  The first is oneness.] The second is holiness of origin, and the third is apostolic succession. Holiness means that the Church is holy because it has been established by Jesus Christ who is Himself holy and that it is guided by the Holy Spirit in the proclamation of the truth and the administration of sacraments. Apostolic means that the Church traces its authenticity and heritage to the apostles who were instructed by Jesus Christ to evangelize the world headed by the apostle Peter: “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. To thee I will give the keys to the kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall also be bound in Heaven. And whatever thou shall loose on earth shall also be loosed in Heaven.”  [Do you get the feeling that those who really know their Catechism are the very same people who are faithful to the teachings of the Church and are therefore pro-life and anti-RH?]

From this awesome passage in the Holy Scripture declaring the wisdom, love and trust of God, the Church grew and prospered organizationally and doctrinally under the guidance of the Holy Spirit beginning right after Pentecost.  [Oh, Manalo is furious!]

The Catholic Church is firm in its stand that the killing of the unborn is intrinsically evil, a morality issue. And that the right to life and its preservation are guaranteed by the Constitution and that Catholics are free to practice their religious beliefs. [Which constitutionalist Jesuit Bernas is trying to blur.] If enacted into law the RH bill will be coercive [booya!] for Catholics because they will be legislated to act against their faith and their will.

In the legislature, we have politicians who push for the enactment of the RH bill while proudly proclaiming that they are Catholics. [bah-hum-bug!] They become evasive and rhetorical in confronting the Catholic objection to the bill’s birth control objectives which prescribe abortion-inducing abortifacients, [which these local lawmakers and even medical professionals and health officials continue to dodge!] contraceptives and invasive means such as ligation and sterilization.

The occurrence in contemporary times of Catholics who do not share the official teachings of the Church’s magisterium is widespread in the United States, the melting pot of rights and freedom for individual thinking and judgment.


Catholics who choose what or what not to believe in the composite teachings of the Church are popularly called “cafeteria Catholics.” [I call them lost sheeps or dissidents.] Just like in a turo-turo restaurant, they choose to eat only what they like and skip those that don’t appeal to their taste. [Hey hear that Jun Mercado, Joe de Mesa and Agnes Brazal!  Stop the pretense.  We know what you say and teach in private!  And Luis also.]

Relativism, the “ism” that spawned cafeteria Catholics, was influenced by several philosophical, economic and scientific developments that took place during the last two centuries. In Central Europe, these developments caused the shift of societies’ dependence on the Christian religion as a way of life. The change was labeled as a shift from belief to unbelief. The late Russian Nobel prize-novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn called it anthropocentricity, with makes man the center of everything that exists. [Isn't this how the Novus Ordo Mass look like.  And a little dash of inculturation and what do you have?  Almost like Magellan discovered.  Nature worship!  Booya, EUNTES!] One religious philosopher even redefined God as a “progressive providence,” almost modifying the axiom that truth is permanent and unchangeable. [Call the devil for what it is.  It is MODERNISM long condemned by St. Pius X.]

The last century featured decades of more scientific breakthroughs in medicine, food production, engineering, transportation and communication technologies. The advances in marketing and distribution gave birth to globalization of business and consumer habits, further upgrading lifestyles and multiple-choice consumerism in a pluralistic society. [The word that will make Bernas say "ooooo!"  "Aaaaa!"] The politics of democracy began to manifest its righteousness in the name of freedom, emphasizing human rights as the end-all and be-all in entertaining all possible human needs in pursuit of individualistic pleasures and conveniences, dimming and deadening Christian morality in human awareness and consequent acts.  [Like what Sr. Mary John Mananzan is doing, right?  She founded Gabriela.]

Relativism has long encroached on the modern urban societies of the Western World, causing changes in both the political, social and religious tradition of politics and culture of the country.  [And Europe is losing the native white Europeans and even more!]

Cafeteria Catholics exemplify this change from belief to unbelief in this age of modernism, affecting not only the legislation of our politics but also the behavior of our constituency. [Bingo!}

To preserve the integrity of their faith, Catholics must re-study and re-learn their religion in order to gain depth in and perspective on their faith. [You don' get taught in Catechism class like the old days.  Now they teach you social justice from priests and nuns who live and spend their money as if.....uh, never mind.] They must discern not only the role of faith and reason in enhancing their adherence to the Gospel but also the doctrinal beauty and power of their catechism.

***

The logic of Cafeteria Catholics and so called Free Thinkers is this:

I am a logical being.  I am born free (like the song.) And I can believe whatever I want and can do based on what I believe in.

So here is the punchline:  I am Catholic but I do not believe in what my Church teaches, maybe most of it.

It's like saying:  "I am Filipino but I do not believe in the taxes the government charges me with."

Now you wonder why Catholic schools don't even require their students to study the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

You wonder where this rubbish from "you decide on your own" came from.

You wonder why Catholic schools like Ateneo are the first one to publicly dissent from Church authorities claiming their birth-right to free speech when in fact this is not an issue of freedom but  of whether you are indeed CATHOLIC!

Simply put, termites are eating us up from the inside.

And what do you do with termites?

You don't dialogue with them!

Because they are not rational and they do not talk.

And going back, if you don't follow the law even civil ones, what happens?

You know to this one Fr. Bernas.

Ad orientem worship is ok!

Surprisingly a secular media like NBC features the pope and wants a somewhat trivial thing like a day in the life of the Supreme Pontiff to be featured. But hey, not everybody sees what the Pope does everyday, right?

And have you noticed?

The Pope celebrates Mass ad Deum. He turns his back to the people assisting him, and turns toward the altar at the time in the Mass when he converses directly with the Lord.

The Pope is telling us that this is ok!

More ok than dancing and clapping!

I am really really surprised that there are bishops and liturgists who are against AD ORIENTEM worship no matter how noble, how sublime, how "more of a worship" it is
compared to ad populum worship that looks more like a cooking show or an entertainment program.

I am just saying...

Why prevent it when it is all legal and ok, just like what the Pope is doing?

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Schedule of Traditional Latin Mass

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