Pope Benedict XVI: No to Christianity 'a la carte' #Catholic

One of the many reasons I love our dear Papa, is for exhortations like this:

Priests must not preach “Christianity 'a la carte'” and should be willing to approach even uncomfortable aspects of the Gospel, Pope Benedict said in a meeting with priests last week.

In a meeting with priests and religious from the Diocese of Rome on March 10, the pope led a Scripture meditation as the “pastor of the pastors.”

Full article

Can I get a huge AMEN from the pews?!

I know I'm not the only one asking for fidelity to our faith. Many good Catholics who have been at it longer than me have written reams of letters to their local bishops to point out times when their pastors were unresponsive to their concerns regarding the doctrine of our faith. It was good to read this article because it shows that Pope Benedict XVI is well aware of the problem and in pastoral love, admonishing priests to not go the route of being a "Cafeteria Catholic."

There are hard truths and the Catholic Church is one of the few I know willing to say them. Our position on life, death, and marriage is what makes us villified, mocked, and hated in the world. Being pro-life, for instance, means being willing to suffer the consequences. (As so poignantly expressed by Fr. Frank Pavone.)

Emphasizing that Catholic marriage is a sacrament and not a right, is also increasingly unpopular in world that wants to destroy the sacred.

And death with dignity, not death for convenience, is another uncomfortable truth as more Catholics attempt to remind society that the least among us still deserve an opportunity to live and die according to the wishes of loved ones, and not by governmental decree.

Without a strong moral compass, founded on the principles that Jesus Christ gave us, our world is plunged even deeper into darkness. It is by proclaiming the entire, full Gospel of Jesus Christ that we are truly a light to world, and salt to preserve it.

Praise God that He has given us such a wise and loving Pope! Continue to hold Pope Benedict XVI in prayer as he preaches the full Gospel, and the hard truths of our faith.

Pope Benedict XVI on Liturgical Dancing #Catholic

I will be buying this book very soon. I so love our Holy Father! I found part of this quote awhile ago and created the image you see on the side.

Liturgical Dancing

Dancing is not a form of expression for the Christian liturgy. In about the third century, there was an attempt in certain Gnostic-Docetic circles to introduce it into the liturgy. For these people, the Crucifixion was only an appearance. Before the Passion, Christ had abandoned the body that in any case he had never really assumed. Dancing could take the place of the liturgy of the Cross, because, after all, the Cross was only an appearance. The cultic dances of the different religions have different purposes--incantation, imitative magic, mystical ecstasy--none of which is compatible with the essential purpose of the liturgy of the "reasonable sacrifice". It is totally absurd to try to make the liturgy "attractive" by introducing dancing pantomimes (wherever possible performed by professional dance troupes), which frequently (and rightly, from the professionals' point of view) end with applause. Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. Such attractiveness fades quickly--it cannot compete in the market of leisure pursuits, incorporating as it increasingly does various forms of religious titillation. I myself have experienced the replacing of the penitential rite by a dance performance, which, needless to say, received a round of applause. Could there be anything farther removed from true penitence? Liturgy can only attract people when it looks, not at itself, but at God, when it allows him to enter and act. Then something truly unique happens, beyond competition, and people have a sense that more has taken place than a recreational activity. None of the Christian rites includes dancing. (The Spirit of the Liturgy, pp 198-9)

Jewish Former NY Mayor Ed Koch - Enough With the Attacks on the Pope #Catholic

A surprising voice in defending the Pope has emerged. The ex-Mayor of New York City, Ed Koch, recently expressed frustration at what he sees as a vicious attack on religion:

Koch, a Conservative Jew, says he disagrees with the Catholic Church (and Orthodox Judaism) on abortion, homosexuality, divorce, contraception and more, but nevertheless says that the Church has a right to hold to these beliefs and much of the attack on it today stems from opposition to those teachings.

“Many of those in the media who are pounding on the Church and the pope today clearly do it with delight, and some with malice,” writes Koch. “The reason, I believe, for the constant assaults is that there are many in the media, and some Catholics as well as many in the public, who object to and are incensed by positions the Church holds, including opposition to all abortions, opposition to gay sex and same-sex marriage, retention of celibacy rules for priests, exclusion of women from the clergy, opposition to birth control measures involving condoms and prescription drugs and opposition to civil divorce.”

Koch added: “I disagree with the Church on all of these positions. Nevertheless, it has a right to hold these views in accordance with its religious beliefs. … Orthodox Jews, like the Roman Catholic Church, can demand absolute obedience to religious rules. Those declining to adhere are free to leave.”

Well, what do you know. The ex-Mayor is right. Progressives hate the Catholic Church and any orthodox religion with a passion because it refuses to pander to their beliefs. Unfortunately, there are some Catholics who believe that the Church should become more "modern" by embracing relativism rather than the Bible.

I love the final words of the article. Koch ended by saying:

“Enough is enough. Yes, terrible acts were committed by members of the Catholic clergy. The Church has paid billions to victims in the US and will pay millions, perhaps billions, more to other such victims around the world. It is trying desperately to atone for its past by its admissions and changes in procedures for dealing with pedophile priests. I will close with a paraphrase of the words of Jesus as set forth in John 8:7: He [or she] that is without sin among you, let him [or her] cast the next stone.”

Amen.

Please Pray for the Pope

The attacks upon our Holy Father and the Church have become especially vicious this week, of all weeks. The world hates Christ but it seems as though the hatred is being ratcheted up during Holy Week. Please keep the Pope and our shepherds in your prayers.

Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen..

When Was the Last Time You Had a Long Line for Confession?

And missed being able to receive the Eucharist as a result?

That's what happened to me yesterday. I knew on Saturday that I needed to go to Confession but missed a nearby parish opportunity at 4:00 PM. As I drove to church yesterday morning, I thought I would be arriving early enough to go to Confession before Mass. Confession starts at 8:30 AM and continues until 8:55 AM.

When I walked in at 8:40 AM, I saw ten people standing in line for one priest. Egads. I realized I probably wouldn't make it. I spent the rest of the time in prayer and repentance. However, on the other hand, I thought, "What a fantastic 'problem' to have at a parish! Too many people in a confession line!"

I think the Sacrament of Reconciliation is going to experience an increase of participation. I believe the Holy Spirit is going to pour onto us conviction in great measure, so much that we will truly feel sorrow in our hearts for our sins. Repentance is such a gift. Only those with hardened hearts fail to recognize sin in their own lives. Only by the grace of God are we given eyes to see how far we have fallen from God's desires for our lives. Without this grace, we continue along our merry way, thinking our sin is "no big deal."

What will we, as a church, look like when we start taking this Sacrament seriously? I think of how going to confession transforms us, absolves us, and how we agree to keep from sinning again. As we are transformed, so then we transform those around us. Jesus Christ affected everyone around Him. Whether they fell at His feet in adoration or hurled insults and crucified Him - people were affected. When we pursue God more deeply, we become increasingly aware of our sin and how this affects our relationship with Him. And so, going to confession on a regular basis is not only desirable but absolutely necessary in order to retain a healthy, maturing spiritual life with our Heavenly Father.

Saying, "I'm sorry, I messed up." is never easy for any of us. I can speak for myself by saying I can turn and twist anything into justifying my sinful actions. This is why I need confession. It keeps me honest and on the right path.

Pope Benedict XVI opened the "Year for Priests" in this way:

In opening the Year for Priests that he personally conceived and orchestrated, Benedict XVI has said that his aim is that of demonstrating "how important the holiness of priests is for the life and mission of the Church." And as a model of this sanctity, he offered the Curé of Ars and Padre Pio.

...Prayer, the Eucharist, the sacrament of penance: these were the three shining lights of their sanctity. The third of these is especially striking, in an age like the present when the sacrament of penance is hardly received at all, having fallen into neglect partly through the carelessness of many priests.Benedict XVI has particularly insisted on the necessity of revitalizing this sacrament, in opening the Year for Priests.

Reviving Confession: Curé of Ars and Padre Pio

It's a good article and I hope you read it. Where are those priests who challenge us to lead a holier life? And where are the people who will respond? Let us together answer that call.

Pope2You Web Portal

Well, what do you know. We have a Pope who is embracing Web 2.0 with the web portal, Pope2You! For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, "Web 2.0" is a phrase to describe all the web application advancements that many have come to love - such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr, just to name a few.

I've admired our Holy Father for many reasons, but now I admire him for being open to new technology. Some Catholics may be either unaware or uncaring about the internet, but for those of us who enter into the "Catholic Cybersphere," we understand its potential. Personally, I have grown tremendously in my return to the Catholic Church by visiting a variety of blogs, Catholic online TV and radio shows, and message boards. To have so much information at my fingertips is a huge blessing.

I've been busy this past weekend tweaking my newly redesigned digital scrapbooking site. (ScrapShot Magazine & Designs) I'm also in the beginning stages of "screencasting" a tutorial for my digital scrapbooking website. Screencasting is when you record what you do on the screen and include audio, which is often a explanation of what you're doing on the screen. It's a perfect approach to help people learn a software tip or trick. I love doing this stuff!

On another note (and not a very smooth segue), I was saddened by yesterday's murder of the notorious late-term abortion doctor, George Tiller. If anyone believes in the sanctity of life for the unborn, it must be extended beyond to everyone. It becomes a difficult moral choice to decide who should live and who shouldn't. The Holocaust and other "ethnic cleansings" around the world proved that to systematically annihilate anyone according to their beliefs or race is abhorrent and at its core, evil.

My concern, which I'm sure is any pro-lifer's concern, is how this will affect the movement and the backlash that already has begun. Then again, it would seem the pro-abortion folks will find anything they can to attack the pro-life movement. So, I'm going to stand strong today. If anyone mentions the story, I will say it is wrong, period. We still don't know who did it, so I won't speculate. But I'll stick to the basics. Taking a life, whether it is murdering a defenseless unborn baby in the womb or murdering a defenseless man in broad daylight - is wrong.

Thank God for Pope Benedict XVI

I recently read this piece by Damian Thompson at The Telegraph.co.uk, denouncing those who have criticized Pope Benedict XVI simply because he isn't playing their game. In his article, The Pope's Worst Enemies Are Catholic, he says this:

We learned this morning that "Vatican insiders" consider Benedict XVI "a disaster". It's true. They do think that. He's a disaster for them, and their determination to turn the Catholic Church into a touchy-feely forum in which uncomfortable teachings and traditions are "modernised" to impress non-Catholics. Until the Williamson affair, the media weren't sufficiently interested in attacking Benedict XVI to be useful. But now, after that own goal... YES!!!

Full Article

I can't help but wonder how my own journey back to Catholicism would have been affected if there was another Pope who did please the "touchy-feely" crowd within the Vatican. I am so grateful for our Holy Father, more so than I'd ever thought I'd be. Unlike many of his critics, I do feel as though someone is in the driver's seat within the Catholic church. All I have noticed is how Pope Benedict has stood firm for Catholic faith time and time again. He has been unflagging in his support for life on all levels. He has addressed the tragic wounds of the sexual abuse by priests in the United States. He has promoted a return to the basics throughout the world. He is reminding us of what it means to be Catholic. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who takes issue with his decisions needs to read the Bible again, with a copy of the Catholic Church Catechism by their side. I see no deviation from either in Pope Benedict's actions.

It seems as though the "progressive" crowd have been operating with little restraint for so long, that now they act as though they're entitled to creating a belief system filled with heresy. A very astute blogger, Paul Anthony Melanson, author of the blog La Salette Journey, recently posted an entry on a Catholic shrine that is now entertaining New Age practices including inviting a woman to speak who seems to be a witch. Except she is supposedly "Catholic." Here's Melanson's take:

Although the names have changed , the old Gods are back. There existed in antiquity a temple, it was called the Pantheon of the Gods. It is being rebuilt, the false Gods are being reawakened just as the true God is being put to sleep. This Pantheon was like a great ecumenical super dome. In it were found not just the God's of the Romans but also the deities that the Empire had acquired through it's contact with the rest of the Pagan world. All were found acceptable, all were authentic as all were real. The reason that they could co-exist was because none of these Gods claimed he was the only God. The modern political system of 'Big Tent' inclusivity follows a similar pattern where all relative philosophies are on the inside while the objective ideas of men who actually believe in anything are today relegated to the cold outside.

La Salette Attleboro: The Spiritual Sickness Continues

Pope Benedict is bringing in those who have been left out in the cold, embracing and encouraging them. This is what enrages the progressives. They are witnessing a slow return to Catholic identity that does not include native American spirituality, enneagrams, dancing circles, and everything else that is anti-Christian. And few are attracted to the bland spiritual food they offer as nourishment. The religious orders that have embraced such nonsense aren't attracting new vocations. The younger generation is returning to tradition. And the progressives are stunned.

Pope Benedict XVI needs our prayers, as does the Church. I know I am deeply grateful to God for him. May our Heavenly Father continue to protect our Holy Father and surround him with all the support and protection he needs.

Pope Benedict XVI May Appoint Next Archbishop of England and Wales

The reason I am following the story so closely is because Cardinal Murphy O'Connor has been so vehemently against the Traditional Latin Mass. He even prevented Archbishop Burke from conducting a TLM at Westminster Cathedral.

I hope the next Archbishop of Westminster will be more flexible.

The Pope has been forced to intervene in a damaging power struggle over who will become the next spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Pope Benedict XVI will decide next week who should succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor as Archbishop of Westminster. It is possible that he will shun all five candidates vying for the post and impose a Vatican diplomat instead.

The highly unusual move is the result of his advisers’ failure to reach a consensus on the best candidate.

The Catholic Church in England and Wales is riven by splits and opponents of at least two of the candidates have lobbied the Vatican in an attempt to sabotage the candidates’ hopes.

Full Article

The Catholic Church and Group Identity

"...the Catholic Church is not, and cannot be, a 'denomination' as the term is usually understood in America. A denomination is something with no fixed form, but rather a structure than can be changed at will by its membership; the Catholic Church has a form given to it by Christ, and that form involved certain truths (e.g., the sacraments) and certain structures (e.g. the office of bishop) that are not susceptible to change. The Christ-given "form" stands in judgment on the local embodiment of the Church; the local Church doesn't stand in judgment on it.

In a denomination, porous and shifting boundaries do not present serious problems because group-maintenance is the highest value and 'being non-judgmental' is crucial to keeping the group intact. In a denomination, effective moderation of the ongoing discussion about 'who we are' is the most sought-after quality in a leader. None of these attributes of the American denomination has very much to do with the Catholic Church as it has understood itself for almost two millennia. Yet the Church today often displays each of these characteristics in one degree or another."

- George Weigel, The Courage to be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church, p 99 (emphasis mine)

When I read the above paragraphs, I had to lay the book down in amazement and simply say, "Whoa. He nailed it."

Some of you may like George Weigel and some may not, but God is using his writing to clarify so many things that have concerned me about churches (non-denominational ones, in particular) but yet I didn't have the perspective needed to understand why these things concerned me. It took returning to the Catholic church and deeply examining it to recognize some of the key distinctions between Catholic and non-Catholic churches.

I am beginning to believe we have an identity crisis with not only non-Catholic churches, but many Catholic ones as well. I emphasized what Weigel said about group maintenance because I saw this time and time again with my own eyes. Heck, I was a part of that maintenance for many years. I was part of a church-planting team where we had many, many meetings about our "vision" and "mission." Our leader, though, was a man who was highly creative but yet as unpredictable as the wind. One week we would focus on one thing but the next week it would change as he sensed something "new" was revealed to him from the Lord. He is a dear man and I still love him like crazy - but the constant changing of plans may have been the cause of my going gray early.

When so much time is spent on defining a group's identity and purpose, it hampers true progress toward the mission. One of the unfortunate aspects of this approach is that it keeps church members in constant motion, preventing them from entering into the deeper truths of their faith. For many churches, there is the expectation that change is the only thing you can depend upon and you best be prepared to be in a constantly rocking boat.

When a church's main focus is on "who we are," then the group identity is vulnerable to the shifting prism of culture. What has truly bothered me is watching some churches conform to the world, not transform the world as we have been commissioned to do by Christ.

One of the "mega-churches" I was involved with used to pray for deliverances. These were often messy events. When I first witnessed one, I was slightly anxious but yet intrigued. I felt this was one area of ministry that had been neglected. I even participated in a few and was humbled when I saw the person we prayed for had experienced a real deliverance.

I moved away to attend a ministry school and months later, returned for a visit. I saw the woman who was the pastor of the prayer ministry. I chatted with her for a few minutes before asking about the deliverance part of the ministry.

"Oh," she said mildly. "We don't do that anymore."

"You don't? Why not?" I was both suprised and disappointed.

"Well, it got too complicated. Besides, it was making the newcomers feel uncomfortable." I thought I detected a small bit of relief in her voice.

That bothered me. Wasn't part of the church's mission to not only bring people the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, but to pray for a release from bondage? Now you may not agree with this type of ministry, which is fine. The point is, the "vision" of the church, the "group identity" was changed because it made people uncomfortable.

Whereas before it was believed to be a Biblical mandate, now because some of the newcomers weren't sure about it or it creeped them out - that "mandate" was forgotten.

When I was a member of a political message board, there was a lively and very funny debate on Capt. James T. Kirk vs. Capt. Jean-Luc Picard. Who was the best captain? Most of the men sided with Kirk and most of the women chose Picard. One man put it succinctly: leadership is not sitting around the table, asking what everyone wants and then going with the majority. It's not group consensus. When the rubber meets the road, someone has to be the heavy and as far as the men were concerned, Kirk was the perfect leader.

I think of this now when I look at the Catholic Church. It would seem that after Vatican II, many wanted to turn their priests and bishops into Capt. Picard. It is no surprise that as a result of all this "discussion" and trying to be "non-judgmental," we have squishy boundaries or no boundaries at all.

The shift from this type of group identity to a return of acknowledging Catholic identity is, I suspect, going to be fraught with many more debates. It will take divine wisdom to walk the fine line between loving the sinner as opposed to identifying with the sinner. Pope Benedict XVI declared last year that Roman Catholicism was the true church and Protestant churches were not "full churches." (And if you want a fun little excursion, try Googling this story and you'll see all kinds of spin on this story.)

The Catholic Church may have its problems but one thing it doesn't have is a case of multiple personalities. That does say something.

Holiness Is Back In Town!

I have to say, I'm loving on Papa Benedict XVI more and more.

On Thursday, May 22, he celebrated the Mass for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. There was of course a processional with the Pontiff kneeling before the monstrance as a truck with the canopy made its way through Rome.














What is now Big News is the fact that Papa Benedict only gave the Eucharist to those kneeling. I like what he said about the Eucharist:

...the Eucharistic celebration "can never be a private act." The Mass brings Christ into the world, he said, and the annual procession underlines that truth. Jesus never leaves his followers alone, the Holy Father continued, and the presence of the Eucharist is a reminder of God's love for all his people. (Catholic World News)

I think this is a very clear wake-up call to many American Bishops who have made such a stink about those who wish to receive the Holy Eucharist while kneeling. I'm sensing a huge sigh of relief from those who were shocked to see Communion reduced to this, during the infamous "Halloween Mass of 2006."














Go, Pope Benedict!