Francis Praises Abortionist, Elaborates on "Fake Christians?", & Re-Evaluation on Contraception?
This blog covers the latest vomit (news) from the Vatican II cult of man
OH THE IRONY!
Francis again blasts ‘fake’ Christians in Mass homily
Days after creating a stir by saying that Donald Trump “is not Christian” because of his harsh views on immigrants, Pope Francis again took up the theme of “fake” Christians in a homily.
Referring to the readings of the day from Isaiah and from the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus warns of the judgment that awaits those who do not practice what they preach, Francis said Christians must act on their beliefs and care for the neediest — the hungry, the thirsty, and those in prison.
“Merely talking leads to vanity, to faking being a Christian. But no, one is not a Christian this way,” Francis said during Mass Tuesday.
According to a Vatican Radio report, the pontiff said the readings highlighted the “evangelical dialectic between saying and doing.”
He pointed in particular to the way Jesus called out the “scribes and Pharisees” as seemingly devout believers who in effect tell the crowds to do as they say, not as they do:
The Lord teaches us the way of doing: and how many times we find people — ourselves included — so often in the Church, who say, ‘Oh, we are very Catholic.’ But what do you do? How many parents say they are Catholics, but never have time to talk to their children, to play with their children, to listen to their children. Perhaps they have their parents in a nursing home, but always are busy and cannot go and visit them and so leave them there, abandoned. ‘But I am very Catholic: I belong to that association.’ This is the religion of saying: ‘I say it is so, but I do according to the ways of the world.’
This type of religion “is a deception,” Francis continued.
“To be a Christian means to do: to do the will of God. And on the last day — because all of us will have one! — that day what shall the Lord ask us? Will he say: ‘What you have said about me?’ No! He shall ask us about the things we did.”
Heaven or hell? TCM devotes a month to films 'condemned' by Catholic Church
The series will air every Thursday in March, beginning March 3 at 8 .pm. Screenings will be hosted by film critic Sister Rose Pacatte, a member of The Daughters of St. Paul and founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies.
When Lent began earlier this month, Archbishop Chaput wrote a column in which he took on the role of film critic, giving his thoughts on a handful of religiously themed films.
He loved, loved, loved Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," calling it one of "the great biblical screen adaptations." Chaput said the film was "deeply moving, but it’s also free of the sentimentality that can often ruin movies that deal with saints or faith or Scripture. Few biblically themed films come close to it in quality. And some, like Ridley Scott’s bloated 'Exodus,' have managed to be lavish, offensive to believers and ridiculous all at the same time."
Chaput also had kind words for "Risen," presently in theaters, which he called "unusual, believable and gripping" and "an outstanding piece of work."
The Catholic Church doesn't always give such positive reviews. Founded in 1933, the Catholic Legion of Decency, later renamed the National Legion of Decency, evaluated films' values, or lack thereof, in terms of its code of moral decency.
Turner Classic Movies next month will air 27 films that the Legion found morally objectionable or even "Condemned." The series will look at the Legion's dedication to protecting American movie morals and explore how film studios got around some of the Legion's objections.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/27-movies-condemned-by-the-Catholic-Legion-of-Decency-to-air-on-Turner-Classics-in-March.html#1uZzwSOfAqWC9g3a.99
Montana churches counsel acceptance of Syrian refugees
(MTN News-HELENA) While anti-immigrant rallies and meetings are grabbing headlines in Montana, large swaths of the state’s faith community are asking members to welcome the few Middle Eastern refugees who may eventually come here.
“They’re part of a common human family, they’re people who share in human dignity, so they deserve our efforts, our best efforts to try to help them in any way we can,” says Matthew Brower of the Montana Catholic Conference.
Church leaders also say potential danger from Middle Eastern refugees is next to non-existent, for refugees are perhaps the most thoroughly vetted immigrants coming to the United States.
“For folks to get through that (vetting) process would be incredibly difficult if they were dangerous for any reason,” says Tyler Amundson, associate pastor at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Helena. “And … a majority of the refugees that are seeking asylum are women and children trying to escape situations they feel threatened by.” In December, nearly 50 Montana church officials signed a letter to Gov. Steve Bullock, expressing their support for his refusal to reject settling of any Middle Eastern refugees in Montana.
“We applaud your measured and sensible position on Syrian refugee resettlement,” the letter said.
Opponents of resettling Syrian and other Middle Eastern refugees in Montana rallied Monday in front of the state Capitol in Helena.
They also rallied in Missoula earlier this month and 500 people packed a meeting last week in Hamilton to comment on a letter from Ravalli County commissioners opposing any local settlement of Syrian refugees.
Dave Cole of Whitehall, who attended Monday’s rally, told MTN News he doesn’t believe Muslim refugees can be adequately vetted before coming to the United States.
“They cannot be vetted properly because we don’t have the means to know what their background truly is,” he said.
Yet church leaders said the refugee vetting process is rigorous and can take many months or years to complete.
“You don’t get to pick which country you go to,” Amundson said. “You get assigned to a country within the United Nations refugee process. … If people want to go to a specific country to cause problems, that’s not possible with how the system works.”
“Every indication we have is that there is a very thorough vetting process in place,” added Brower.
Amundson said many Montana churches are attempting to educate their members about the process, to assure people it will keep the country safe.
The next step for churches is determining what infrastructure for refugees may exist in Montana, such as language training or communities that may be accepting of refugees, he said.
If any Middle Eastern refugees come to Montana, it’s “at least a year or two from even being reality,” Amundson said.
Some 8 million people have been displaced by violence and civil wars in the Middle East; half of those have sought refuge in neighboring countries. President Barack Obama has said the United States will accept 10,000 refugees.
Amundson said Methodist churches in Germany are telling U.S. Methodist churches that they need to help.
Both of Montana’s Catholic bishops signed the December letter to Bullock, as well as officials from Jewish, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Greek Orthodox congregations and religious organizations in the state.
The Catholic bishops issued a statement reminding people that what’s happening in the Middle East is a “humanitarian crisis,” and that Americans need to respond to the needs of those fleeing violence, Brower said.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., also has compared the plight of Syrian refugees to the ordeal of Jews and others fleeing the Holocaust during and before World War II in Europe.
Let us keep praying! Vatican II needs to go!
Raleigh Bishop Yanks Talk by Dissident Priest
Father Michael Crosby, a Franciscan priest well known for dissenting on Church teaching with regard to clerical celibacy, female ordination and homosexuality, was scheduled to give a Lenten mission at St. Stephen the First Martyr parish in Sanford March 12–16.
He was going to be the homilist for the weekend English Masses, and then give talks for the following three days. The title of his mission was “Obstacles and Occasions of Grace to Fulfill the Great Command.”
Earlier this week, ChurchMilitant contacted Bp. Michael Burbidge, head of the Raleigh diocese, to inquire about the event. Thursday morning, we received an email from William Atwell, diocesan communications director, informing us that Fr. Crosby’s speaking engagement was being canceled.
“We have reviewed this matter with all appropriate parties,” Atwell stated, “with the result being that Father Crosby will not be speaking in the Diocese of Raleigh.”
ChurchMilitant confirmed with the parish that Fr. Crosby’s talk will no longer be taking place, on or off diocesan property.
Father Crosby has caused controversy in the past. When he was scheduled to address teachers at the Canadian Forum on Theology and Education in 2013, the Toronto archdiocese learned of the event and canceled his talk, which was then moved off diocesan property to a local hotel.
And when the Felician Sisters of Madonna University chose Crosby to lead their week-long retreat in 2012, students and alumni organized a protest.
Crosby was once facilitator at a retreat for LGBT individuals sponsored by New Ways Ministry, a dissenting homosexual organization that aims for acceptance of same-sex acts, and whose co-founder, Sr. Jeanine Gramick, has been censured by the Vatican. He has also spoken at a Call to Action conference, an organization that seeks Church reform on clerical celibacy and female ordination, among other things.
Father Crosby occasionally writes for the dissident publication National Catholic Reporter, where he once wrote a column asserting that he stands by his support of female ordination. Quoting from a 2004 speech he gave, he said, “[W]e still have to worship a God that the Vatican says wills that women not be ordained. That god is literally unbelievable. It is a false god; it cannot be worshiped.”
Catholic college to host radical feminist in residency despite abortion advocacy
Bell Hooks is an outspoken abortion advocate who claims that it is not possible to oppose abortion and be a feminist.
Kimberly Scharfenberger
LifeSiteNews.com/news/catholic-college-to-host-radical-feminist-in-residency-despite-abortion-adv
February 25, 2016 (CardinalNewmanSociety) — St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., will once again host radical feminist “bell hooks” (who prefers not to capitalize her name) in residency, despite her advocacy for abortion and criticism of the Catholic Church.
This is the third time that Hooks will visit St. Norbert College. The St. Norbert Times reported that the campus is “already covered with posters showing a familiar face marking the upcoming bell hooks residency that will take place during the week of April 18-22.”
St. Norbert College’s Cassandra Voss Center for women’s and gender studies is a sister center to Berea College’s “bell hooks Institute” in Kentucky. The College’s website called Hooks’ residency “a singular honor” and touted its status as “the only small liberal arts college honored to host a week-long residency by hooks.”
“She will be in dialogue with noted activists, scholars and artists,” the website noted. “hooks will also have several conversations about her work, which includes a catalog of over 40 books.”
One of those books, Feminism is for Everybody, professes outright abortion advocacy. In it, Hooks claims that it is not possible to oppose abortion and be a feminist. “Granting women the civil right to have control over our bodies is a basic feminist principle,” Hooks wrote on page 114.
“Many of us were the unplanned children of talented, creative women whose lives had been changed by unplanned and unwanted pregnancies; we witnessed their bitterness, their rage, their disappointment with their lot in life,” wrote Hooks earlier on in the book, on page 26. “And we were clear that there could be no genuine sexual liberation for women and men without better, safer contraceptives — without the right to a safe, legal abortion.”
On page 27, Hooks writes that abortion “challenged the fundamentalist thinking of Christianity” and “was a direct challenge to the church” because abortion “challenged the notion that a woman’s reason for existence was to bear children.”
This year, Hooks is slated to dialogue in the College’s Walter Theater with Hari Kondabolu on April 19 and Parker J. Palmer on April 20.
Kondabolu, described as a political comic, has supported abortion on his social media pages several times. Last year, NARAL Pro-Choice America encouraged men on Twitter to use the hashtag #MenForChoice in preparation for the organization’s DC Men For Choice event. “#MenForChoice are so important to the pro-choice movement and the fight for gender equality,” NARAL celebrated. Kondabolu’s tweet utilizing the hashtag — “#MenForChoice because most cis men wouldn’t want someone else in charge of their balls.” — is one of the top tweets promoted by NARAL.
Last year, Hooks’ residency at St. Norbert College featured a dialogue with Gloria Steinem, a known abortion advocate who has lauded her own abortion and is credited with popularizing the phrase “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.” The opening dedication of Steinem’s latest book honors the London doctor who aborted Steinem’s baby when she was 22-years-old in 1957.
The dialogue between Hooks and Steinem was billed by the College as a discussion on domestic violence and feminine solidarity, but Steinem’s history of abortion advocacy raised protestations from concerned Catholics, including Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wis., who urged the College to rescind its invitation to Steinem. Even if Steinem would only be discussing domestic violence, her presence nevertheless contradicted the College’s Catholic identity due to her status as “such a high profile and well-known protagonist and activist of abortion rights,” Bishop Ricken wrote.
“One cannot build one’s claim to a right based on the denial of another’s fundamental right to life,” Bishop Ricken continued. “One cannot really advance the rights of women while taking the life of an innocent child in the womb.”
A recording of the event revealed that domestic violence was barely discussed. Instead, Steinem and Hooks spent the majority of the time discussing “reproductive rights” and criticizing the Catholic Church for its patriarchal oppression of women.
“Who owns women’s bodies, who says we can’t control our own reproductive lives?” asked Steinem at one point during the dialogue. Later on, she claimed that “the patriarchal system … controls reproduction and says it’s only moral and okay when sexuality … can end in reproduction.”
The Steinem and Hooks event “received a huge turnout from both students and the public and was certainly a dialogue to be remembered,” the St. Norbert Times reported.
Last year, College spokesman Mike Counter told the Newman Society that the dialogue presented the students with an opportunity “to hone their critical thinking skills” by being “exposed to a wide variety of ideas and perspectives.” But as the recording demonstrated, only one perspective — Steinem’s and Hooks’ version of feminism — was presented to students and attendees.
The Cardinal Newman Society contacted the College to inquire why Hooks was being hosted a third time and whether her continuing residencies impacted the institution’s Catholic identity, especially taking into account last year’s Steinem dialogue, but no response was received by time of publication.
For Francis: an abortionist with more than 10,000 victims is “one of the great names of Italy today”. What would saint Pio say of this?
We have enthusiastically watched the public veneration of the incorrupt body of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, a great saint of the 20th century, in Saint Peter’s Basilica. In this way, Francis wishes to pay homage to the saint who reconciled so many people with God, for he knew how to encourage many penitents to abandon their errors, sins and crimes. Among these, the crime of abortion. Confession is marvelous!
For Padre Pio, abortion was not just a crime against an innocent being, but rather a true suicide. Father Pellegrino once confronted him with this question:
—Padre Pio, today you denied absolution to a woman because she had voluntarily undergone an abortion. Why have you been so rigorous with this poor unfortunate?
The stigmatic saint responded:
— The day that people lose their horror for abortion, will be the most terrible day for humanity. Abortion is not only a homicide but also a suicide. Shouldn’t we have the courage to manifest our faith before those who commit two crimes within one act?
—Suicide? — asked Father Pellegrini.
—The suicide of the human race will be understood ‒ replied the saint ‒ by those who will see the earth populated by the elderly and depopulated of children: burnt as a desert.
Perhaps these words, pronounced by such a kind person as the saintly capuchin, were unknown to Francis when he put Emma Bonino — the propagator of abortions in Italy — as an example for the Italy of today – yes Italy, depopulated by a low birthrate and overflowing with elderly.
Bonino herself declared that she performed more than 10,000 abortions during 1975 alone, employing a very precarious system: she would vacuum the unborn child from the womb of the abortive mother with an air pump — the kind used for bicycle tires! — putting the mangled remains into a glass jar. There even exist historic photos in which Bonino herself wished to immortalize the feat.
Just as Saint Padre Pio had taught, the Catholic Church has always considered abortion to be an abominable crime. It may be pardoned through repentance, but nonetheless it should be the object of horror within any society that does not want to commit suicide – just as suicide, murder and theft are a cause of horror… All are sins that may be pardoned, if there is repentance.
Francis justified his praise for the abortionist Emma Bonino with the phrase: “we have to look at people, at what they do”. Bonino did abortions… maybe Francis didn’t know? We are not so naive as to believe that. Consequently, we do not understand how the pontiff could affirm that she is, “among the greatest names of Italy today”. (Corriere Della Sera, February 8, 2016 – English summary)
Does abortion continue to be a sin, as the Catechism teaches? Or has a new moral emerged with Emma Bonino and her fellow party members? Why this double-faced attitude of Francis?
Without manifesting the slightest repentance for the more than 10,000 clandestine abortions she performed in 1975, the elderly Bonino thanked the eulogies of Francis: “These words are what have pleased me most in my entire life” (Lultimaribattuta, February 9, 2016). Repentance? Not a bit. At least she is not manifesting repentance, and in confession we know that we must seek at least some sign of repentance. Perhaps she only experiences satisfaction in seeing the one who should be, ex officio, her greatest enemy, obsequiously bending himself before her.
And what about the remains of Padre Pio, venerated these days in St. Peter’s? From heaven, what is Padre Pio thinking about these 10,000 murders performed in 1975 and perpetrated by the ideal woman for the Italy of today, according to Francis? What does he think of his figure being manipulated in such a way?
Indeed, many questions arise about this new moral model being proposed to the modern world. (see study) How different this model is freom what was taught by Saint Padre Pio, and for which he was elevated to the honor of the altars!
Scandals R' Us!
Did Someone Kill the Pope’s Receptionist?
ROME — Miriam Wuolou was not just any hotel receptionist. The 34-year-old Eritrean, who had Italian citizenship through marriage, was the receptionist at the Domus Santa Marta, the small hotel inside the walls of Vatican City where Pope Francis lives.
She was the smiling face he saw morning and night, the one who greeted him with his key and handed him his personal messages. He congratulated her when he found out she was pregnant, and he is said to be terribly upset about the news that she is now dead.
Wuolou’s body was found in her private apartment in the Pisana suburb of Rome in an advanced state of decomposition after her brother alerted the police that she hadn’t been answering her phone. The military police went to the scene and forced open her door.
Woulou, who was seven months pregnant, was reported to be clothed with no apparent signs of violence. Her medical records show that she was diabetic, which, during pregnancy, can be especially dangerous, and even fatal, but police clearly aren’t satisfied that an Insulin error caused her death.
The Vatican also weighed in, asking for a complete autopsy and criminal investigation, according to Il Messaggero newspaper, which broke the story of the receptionist’s death on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Woulou’s house was still sealed off and neighbors told The Daily Beast that forensic teams had combed it for clues for many hours after her body was found, even removing some of her personal effects for further examination. Neighbors assumed that they were investigating a homicide based on the level of scrutiny.
Police sources also tell The Daily Beast that the inquest will cover ample ground. One of the theories being floated involves Woulou’s husband, who did not live with her at the time of her death, nor, it seems, maybe ever.
They suspect the husband, whose name has not been released, may have married Woulou under a business arrangement to provide her with Italian citizenship, which is a costly service sought all too often by those applying for asylum or permission to stay. Those who want a passport generally pay up to €10,000 ($11,000) for the marriage of convenience. That may or may not be the case with Woulou, but police confirm they are looking into how her citizenship was granted.
Police questioned the husband at length to determine whether he was hoping to marry someone else or if he, in any way, contributed to her death. Woulou’s brother was also questioned about the details of his sister’s life, including whether or not anyone would want to harm her. Neither the husband nor brother is a suspect in any crime, but they are considered persons of interest and, as such, are banned from talking to reporters.
The autopsy, which will be carried out this week, will also include thorough toxicology exams to rule out homicide or any form of foul play. Those who knew Woulou from the Santa Marta say she had been on sick leave for more than a week, but no one appeared to have checked in on her, including other family members who live in the area.
Investigators are also wondering just who, if not Woulou’s legal husband, might be the father of her unborn child and have ordered a DNA test on the fetus. Local media reported that Pope Francis, who knew the woman well, took the news of her death especially hard, though the Vatican has not made any official comment on the mysterious case.
Last month, Pope Francis used the homily of one of his daily masses to mourn the loss of another woman from Santa Marta who passed away. According to Alessandro Notarnicola, who writes the blog Inside the Walls about life in Vatican City, the pope described the people who work inside Santa Marta as his family. “This group of men and women are part of our family,” he said, before offering a special prayer for the woman, who died after a long illness. “They form a family, they are not just employees.”
Removal of international Catholic priest from Belleville Diocese kept quiet locally
CHRISTOPHER, Ill. • Southern Illinois farming communities produce a lot of corn and soybeans, but not many priests these days.
The Belleville Diocese, the organization that oversees Roman Catholic churches in the region, depends on the church’s international ties to recruit missionary priests from across the globe. In Latin, they are called fidei donum, or gift of faith.
The Rev. Peter Balili, of the Philippines, was one such gift, with a tough assignment. He was called to replace the Rev. Steven F. Poole, who was arrested in 2010 for theft.
By many accounts, Balili was a good-hearted priest who was well-liked at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Christopher and St. Mary’s in Sesser, both small towns near Rend Lake. And not just because he kept the parishes alive amid pressures to close churches in remote areas.
Balili seemed to have the spirit to lead his flock out of an embarrassing time. He’d sing “You are my sunshine” and interact with parishioners of all ages.
Then, without fanfare, he left in 2014. Another international priest replaced him.
“It’s been a tough time,” said Rodney Fourez, 51, a parishioner here. “We’ve gone through a few of them… I’d just like to see Christopher have a church that it used to have.”
Rural parishes like St. Andrews will likely never have a church like it was is the past, when large Catholic farm families filled the pews. Those are realities parishioners know well.
But the quiet departure of Balili — and the lack of answers from the Belleville Diocese — is somewhat of a mystery here.
There was nothing mysterious about the Rev. Poole’s exit.
Newspapers wrote about how he’d been caught stealing an old tavern sign in 2000 from a Ladue antique store. Then, a decade later, he was arrested trying to steal butter and a sofa cover and swapping price tags on a foam mattress at Walmart in West City, Ill. After treatment, he has since returned to ministry elsewhere.
Churchgoers never knew why Balili left, according to several interviews with parishioners over the past few months.
When asked Thursday, a receptionist at St. Andrew said: “That I have no comment on, goodbye.”
None of the congregants contacted for this story said they were aware that the Belleville Diocese had, in fact, kicked out Balili and requested that he be sent back to the Diocese of Tagbilaran in the Philippines.
That apparent lack of information raises questions as to whether — well more than a decade after the clergy sex abuse crisis broke open in Boston — the push for disclosure and transparency has reached all corners of the church.
Balili’s case highlights how some organizations within the church are supplying key information about problem priests to the public, even as others remain tight-lipped.
For example the U.S. Conference of Bishops supplies warnings of misbehavior about certain clergy to dioceses.
It did so with Balili’s case, disclosing that the Belleville Diocese dismissed him because of instances of what it viewed as “inappropriate conduct regarding certain of his parishioners.” The notice did not specify the nature of that conduct or the age of the parishioners.
“The Diocese of Belleville also indicates that it has learned of similar inappropriate conduct in Fr. Balili’s previous assignments,” a warning reads. In it, those needing further information were urged to contact the Rev. Von C. Deeke, liaison for international priests for the Belleville Diocese.
But Deeke didn’t return requests by the Post-Dispatch for comment made over a period of several weeks. Nor did his boss, Belleville Diocese Bishop Edward Braxton.
The Belleville Diocese doesn’t appear to have released the warning issued by the Conference of Bishops to its own flock. A spokesman for the Conference of Bishops said “individual bishops act as they see fit” with the information.
The Rev. John Myler, who often serves a spokesman for the Belleville Diocese, said late last year that he wasn’t aware of the warning or the details of the matter.
“If there were anything that would have involved minors, it would have been referred to our review board,” he said.
A parishioner at St. Andrew the past 25 years, and others, said she wasn’t aware the warning existed. She said it was concerning but didn’t want to get involved.
In contrast, a diocese more than 500 miles from Belleville passed along the warning on Balili, even though the priest had no apparent connection there other than being Catholic.
The Diocese of Cleveland made a short mention of Balili in a 2014 public memorandum. In it, members of the diocese were alerted to past misconduct by Balili and two other priests.
A spokesman for the Cleveland Diocese said it has been publishing that kind of information on priests across the country for years.
Prior problems
Balili served in California and other locations before coming to Southern Illinois. Told about the warning, the Archdiocese of San Francisco responded to questions about his record there.
Mike Brown, director of communication for the archdiocese, said Balili passed typical “safe environment” screening tests there in 2008, then served seven months at Mission Dolores parish, then eight months at St. Timothy parish.
Brown provided this response to why Balili was dismissed from St. Timothy for inappropriate use of Facebook and communication with students:
“His pastor was the prime mover of this dismissal after the pastor apparently had some concern and had an IT guy examine Balili’s computer and discovered ‘inappropriate’ images of students. There were no pornographic images on his computer but there were Facebook images of students, which is against parish social media usage policy. This was enough for the pastor to dismiss him from his position. The following day, Feb. 3, 2010, Balili’s faculties were withdrawn within the Archdiocese and shortly thereafter his home bishop was notified of this fact.
“Important to note that there were no reports of inappropriate contact with children and no victims of any sort came forward. A follow-up internal report referenced the social media problem but also that Balili didn’t work out well at either assignment. I would read this to mean that he was not pastorally effective in his two brief jobs.”
Not long after California, Balili was assigned to the Belleville Diocese.
Shedding light
It’s unclear if Balili is still working as a priest, though a posting on Facebook by an acquaintance still refers to him this month as Father Balili. He did not respond to requests for comment through social media. A doctor from the Philippines who lives in Southern Illinois and was said to help bring him to the area didn’t return calls for comment.
The Rev. Urban Osuji, of Nigeria, replaced Balili at the Southern Illinois parishes.
Approached in December, he didn’t comment about Balili other than to refer a reporter to Mike Roland, a local public defender who is a deacon at St. Andrew. Reached last week by telephone, he said he had no comment.
Jason Berry, author of the book “Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church,” said the church needs to make additional progress when it comes to disclosure.
“The bottom line, where there is darkness there needs to be light,” he said. “Catholics are mature enough to accept the truth, but when people conceal the information, that is when people begin to lose faith in a given bishop or church.
“Or they shake their head and wonder why the institution has so much trouble doing what they tell us to do — and that is to be truthful.”
Boston Offers Clergy Wellness Seminar by Woman Minister
The Archdiocese of Boston Clergy Health and Retirement Trust is offering wellness seminars for priests. Several of them strike us as odd, and risk working against the spiritual wellness of Catholic priests. Then there is the matter of the struggling Clergy Fund.
Centering Prayer Workshop
One of them is in June 2016 in Duxbury offered by Rev Meninger OCSO on the New Age practice of Centering Prayer. Of course, one of the big problems is that Centering Prayer actually is not a “prayer” and it is not even Christian. It originated with Abbot Thomas Keating at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, but its origins are a pagan practice and it’s more like a form of self-hypnosis.
Authentic Christian prayer and meditation stem from contact with God. Proponents of centering prayer claim prayer centers in one’s being, as opposed to what prayer should be–namely, a conversation with God from the center of our souls. Read this excellent piece, The Danger of Centering Prayer which clearly articulates how Centering Prayers exercises are “at the level of human faculties and as such are an operation of man, not of God. The deception and dangers can be grave.”
As reported by Catholic Culture, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of’ the Faith under then-Cardinal Ratzinger warned about the dangers of blending Christian prayer and Eastern methods of meditation (e.g., Zen, Transcendental Meditation and yoga). Although Some Aspects of Christian Meditation does not single out any persons or schools of thought by name, many of its warnings apply to the centering- prayer literature, including the writings of Abbot Keating and his spiritual disciple Father Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O. Both have backgrounds in Eastern meditation methods and cite those experiences favorably as instructive for today’s Christians.
Cardinal Ratzinger warned about methods which “try as far as possible to put aside everything that is worldly, sense perceptible, or conceptually limited.” An approach of this sort to prayer may actually be “an attempt to ascend to or immerse oneself in the sphere of the divine, which as such is neither terrestrial, sense perceptible nor capable of conceptualization.” Besides the temptation to reject the material world in this approach there is another problem-indicated by Cardinal Ratzinger’s use of the word “oneself” in the last quote-the temptation to ascend to God by one’s own power or strength. In fact it is God’s choice, not ours, whether we enter the sphere of the divine. “God is free to ’empty’ us of all that holds us back …. to draw us completely into the Trinitarian life of his eternal love,” but this gift is granted “not through our own efforts.
Time Management, facilitated by a Protestant Minister
In April there is a session at our Lady Help of Christians in Newton offered by a Rev. Nancy Foran–she is a minister in the United Church of Christ and pastor at Raymond Village Community Church in Maine, and specializes in Myers-Briggs. Can we not find any Catholics in Boston who are good at managing time to lead such a session? The brochure can be found below:
Who picks these sessions?!
Clergy Fund
As BCI has mentioned previously, the Clergy Fund is adding nothing to the rapidly depleting reserves–what is collected at Christmas, Easter, Assessments, September Collection and Annual Priest Appreciation Dinner goes directly to pay annual expenses. With more clergy retiring, that means increasing retirement and medical expenses, and that means reserves get tapped to pay those expenses.
Other that that, Boston is doing a good job taking care of clergy.
OVER THE LINE!!! HERETICS......
Fr. Roscia the heretic blocked me on twitter...
Rosica interviews Bernie Sanders - The Bern likes the Pope, they're both socialists
http://voxcantor.blogspot.com/2016/02/rosica-interviews-bernie-sanders-bern.html
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