Pope Francis, Catholics, and Christians in the news worldwide
If you want to read a real piece of garbage, from someone who comments on something about which he actually knows or understands little, yet he somehow convinces his employer that he should be their "resident expert" on the topic -
Here's this weekend's installment from Ross Douthat.
Why I’m Not a Liberal Catholic
The Douche has a rather amusing account in today's paper of the time Christopher Hitchens wiped the floor with him in a debate.
That guy is such a zero.
GoSlugs said:
The Douche has a rather amusing account in today's paper of the time Christopher Hitchens wiped the floor with him in a debate.
That guy is such a zero.
That stupid "Debate the Anti-vaxxer" column? The whole premise is classic Douthat. And I won't even go into the error in the "lesson" he claims he learned from not even having studied up before debating Hitchens. Not to mention that (as noted above) he hasn't shown evidence of learning anything since then.
Douthat ignores that the has been a debate, and anti-vaxxing has lost. Anyone who needs convincing and wants to learn can be shown the evidence. Anyone who says, "We need a debate", has decided already and doesn't want to learn.
joanne said:
This article doesn’t really mention the Pope?
First paragraph — ”Pope Francis on Thursday appointed Father Luc Terlinden the new archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, passing over Belgium’s sitting bishops in favor of a priest.”
This report, from Tuesday, demonstrates (for me) an unexpected blend of spiritual respect for astronomy and research:
joanne said:
This report, from Tuesday, demonstrates (for me) an unexpected blend of spiritual respect for astronomy and research:
Just an FYI, about the "Big Bang" theory of the beginning of the universe and who first proposed it -
"This startling idea first appeared in scientific form in 1931, in a paper by Georges Lemaître, a Belgian cosmologist and Catholic priest. The theory, accepted by nearly all astronomers today, was a radical departure from scientific orthodoxy in the 1930s. Many astronomers at the time were still uncomfortable with the idea that the universe is expanding. That the entire observable universe of galaxies began with a bang seemed preposterous."
I have learned that good habits are hard to break and find myself still reading Gospel passages — perhaps in anticipation of Advent? But today’s reading is so 2023…
Gospel Mt 7:1-5
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,'
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."
A lot of us wonder if you follow the gospel as much as you preach it.
I find that people select passages from the gospel based on things that resonate with them as opposed to those passages which are actually rather inconvenient to follow.
It's actually timeless, not merely "so 2023". Especially in regard to how it's often cited by people who think it's not about themselves.
mtierney said:
I have learned that good habits are hard to break and find myself still reading Gospel passages — perhaps in anticipation of Advent? But today’s reading is so 2023…
Gospel Mt 7:1-5
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,'
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."
mtierney said:
I have learned that good habits are hard to break and find myself still reading Gospel passages — perhaps in anticipation of Advent? But today’s reading is so 2023…
Gospel Mt 7:1-5
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,'
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."
mtierney said:
I have learned that good habits are hard to break and find myself still reading Gospel passages — perhaps in anticipation of Advent? But today’s reading is so 2023…
Gospel Mt 7:1-5
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,'
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."
Funny that you read this just days after I referred you to it on the Rosegarden. I hope you learned something.
GoSlugs said:
Funny that you read this just days after I referred you to it on the Rosegarden. I hope you learned something.
That you read ahead in the Daily Missal?
nohero said:
That you read ahead in the Daily Missal?
I don’t know about that. I cited it because I thought it was relevant to her behaviour there.
It’s good to see mtierney finally reading the Gospels, maybe she will learn something. I am always perplexed by people who claim to be Christian while remaining utterly ignorant of Christ’s teachings. A common phenomenon with Paulists.
In our great Jewish and Christian reportage on this thread, I add this link, for @joanne, in particular, but worth learning and recognizing by all of us….
NYT won’t let me read it unless I use PressReader, and I always forget my password. But just the header is enough.
A congregation with so many older members, and such a tragedy, seems to find it difficult to overcome the grey clouds that hang around afterwards. @marksierra could tell you about pioneer congregations struggling to survive in rural regions and smaller States. Families don’t want these communities to die out or close down, but the children and their families have moved away…returning for High Holidays, or very significant birthdays, or funerals.
I also know of pioneer Church congregations like this, having to sell heritage properties and watching in horror as it’s destroyed to become ‘little boxes’ (bland housing).
Thank you for the article.
here is some of the story…
“During the trial of Robert Bowers, who was convicted of the 2018 murders of 11 Jews in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life synagogue building, I kept thinking about the testimony of Stephen Weiss. Mr. Weiss, a retired public school science teacher and longtime ritual director for Tree of Life, was one of the 11 people who survived the attack. During the trial, he told the court that in the years since the event, “We don’t have the same attendance.” He explained that the synagogue lost members who could be counted on to make the minyan, the essential quorum of 10 Jews required for certain prayers. “They were killed.”
The murder of any human being is infinitely terrible, but the murder of a Jew in synagogue has a special quality: It makes the tiny minority of Jews who show up for one another at worship — who make the minyan — even smaller.
That loss has unique ramifications, which may not be apparent to the nonobservant. We cannot say prayers for the dead without 10 present. We cannot get married. We cannot read from a Torah scroll. We can’t do Judaism without 10 Jews. And while at bar mitzvahs and weddings those 10 are easily gathered, it is the daily and weekly ritual that is essential to both the griever and the celebrant alike.
There is a tendency, when discussing the Tree of Life massacre, to draw lessons that feel widely applicable, not limited to the case of Jews: demands for tighter gun laws, rallying cries against “white supremacy” and pleas for interfaith cooperation. These universalist appeals make the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history an occasion for well-meaning policy advocacy or moral uplift. To believe in them, you don’t need to know, or care, anything about Jews specifically.
Even the discussion about whether Mr. Bowers should be sentenced to death — which under federal law can be imposed if his actions were “hate crimes” or obstructed the free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death — feels a bit abstract. After all, what does it mean to obstruct religious practice? For Jews, something quite specific. Because there are numerous religious practices that we cannot do without a quorum of 10 (the Orthodox would say 10 Jewish men, while Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative Jews would say 10 Jewish adults), the loss of those stalwart, often unsung members of the community radically alters our literal ability to observe.
In David Bezmozgis’s 2004 short story “Minyan,” Itzik, an elderly immigrant in a building of elderly immigrants, dies. Itzik was a regular at the building’s in-house synagogue; he consistently helped make the minyan. Zalman, the synagogue’s lay leader, has the sway to bump people up on the list for newly vacant apartments, and those angling for a place to live — a vacancy is a rare thing in subsidized housing — promise Zalman that if he gives them the apartment, they will come to services, help make the minyan, like the departed Itzik.
The catch is that Itzik had a roommate, Herschel, who also attends services faithfully. It has been whispered that the two men were more than roommates. But Herschel is not on the lease. So the question is whether to let Herschel stay in the apartment or to evict him and move in a purportedly more respectable Jew, one not gossiped about, not suspected of questionable behavior — but who may not be a minyan regular. At the end of the story, the narrator, the grandson of one of the building’s residents, asks Zalman if he will cave to those who want Herschel evicted.
“You want to know what will happen to Herschel?” Zalman replies. “This. They should know I don’t put a Jew who comes to synagogue in the street.”
If only there was something we could do to make these atrocities less frequent and less deadly.
Oh, well….thoughts and prayers. /s
I wonder if you realize that the people who run the Republican potty are not exactly pro Jew, they just use the term “Judeo -Christian” conveniently. You’re old enough to know how trump’s father felt about the Jews. You really have no redeeming value here, you know that right?
mtierney said:
I have learned that good habits are hard to break and find myself still reading Gospel passages — perhaps in anticipation of Advent? But today’s reading is so 2023…
Gospel Mt 7:1-5
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,'
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."
It’s July 4th here, and while we don’t celebrate it the way you do, we are talking about First Nations & constitutional recognition, better consultation for true equality and access to education, medical facilities, etc.. (we have a Referendum later in the year for a First Nations body known as the Voice to Parliament)
The Voice is important, because most Australians have inherited the complacent view that the place was ‘terra nullius’, empty, before Cook then First Fleet arrived. Yeah, well. Despite the Pope’s Document of Discovery in the 1490s, indigenous peoples everywhere beg to differ:
The song, From Little Things by Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly, tells the historical event of Wave Hill station strike by 200 indigenous workers led by Vincent Lingari. They were protesting atrocious conditions and low pay, were employed by British Lord Vestey who had an international food company. Frustrated by no response, the stockmen walked off. Walk-off lead to demanding the rights to their traditional lands. Eight years later the Prime Minister (Gough Whitlam) met them and returned the land rights. This is the inheritance of the Stolen Generation.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-04/naidoc-from-little-things-big-things-grow/102534900
Not much has improved, in many ways, although on paper you’d think it has. This Brisbane elementary school recorded a version of Little Things with the students’ ambitions, highlighting career gaps:
Some really good news! Hallelujah!
Excerpt…
“The rally will begin with Divine Liturgy. Most people do not know Sheen was bi-ritual and on occasion also celebrated the Byzantine rite. The day will help those attending rediscover Sheen’s messages from both Sheen expert Howard and Father Thomas Loya, pastor of Assumption Church. They will share insights about Sheen and his teachings. A co-purpose is for people to sign the petition for his beatification Mass.
“Howard believes this is “a spiritually driven initiative” to collect as many voices as possible. “And the way you do that is through a petition” that calls for the immediate rescheduling of the Mass of beatification for Sheen.
“We need to set the date,” he said, adding that “the Church follows the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t follow the attorney general in New York.” He referred to the postponement more than three years ago when the state’s attorney general’s office decided to investigate activities of all bishops in regard to scandals. “So this is where the Church needs courage,” Howard emphasized.
“The Church is supposed to lead the world, not the world lead the Church.”
He added that people can also sign the petition online anytime. Priests and theologians have already signed, as have people internationally, because this is a “global initiative, especially focusing on the United States.”
“This rally will help reignite the power of sensus fidelium (the faith of the people), which will send a clarion call to the Church to hasten the canonization of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen,” Loya explained. He will speak on “+Sheen: Prophet for Our Lost Age.”
mtierney said:
Some really good news! Hallelujah!
Excerpt…
...
“We need to set the date,” he said, adding that “the Church follows the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t follow the attorney general in New York.” He referred to the postponement more than three years ago when the state’s attorney general’s office decided to investigate activities of all bishops in regard to scandals. “So this is where the Church needs courage,” Howard emphasized.
“The Church is supposed to lead the world, not the world lead the Church.”
This type of arrogance, opposing legitimate investigation of the cover-ups of sex abuse, is contemptible. It also shows disdain for the people of the Church.
Archbishop Vigano is a "MAGA Catholic" favorite. Here's his latest attack on Pope Francis, with a Trump/Bannon/DeSantis/Musk-like rant against the "woke".
— Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò (@CarloMVigano) July 3, 2023
nohero said:
Archbishop Vigano is a "MAGA Catholic" favorite. Here's his latest attack on Pope Francis, with a Trump/Bannon/DeSantis/Musk-like rant against the "woke".
reason why MT said “hallelujah”…
If your candidate for sainthood doesn't meet the bar, you lower it until they do. Somehow, I don't think this MAGA rally will have much of an effect on Church leaders who seem eager to avoid the public embarrassment attendant in creating a patron saint of child molesters.
If anyone is interested in donating to the MAGA Catholics' schism, here's a link -
Please do not forget to help Association EXSURGE DOMINE, to help priests and religious who are victims of the Bergoglian purges.
— Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò (@CarloMVigano) July 4, 2023
You can make your donation here: https://t.co/duOdthAn3a
GoSlugs said:
If your candidate for sainthood doesn't meet the bar, you lower it until they do. Somehow, I don't think this MAGA rally will have much of an effect on Church leaders who seem eager to avoid the public embarrassment attendant in creating a patron saint of child molesters.
https://www.theonion.com/pope-vows-to-get-church-pedophilia-down-to-acceptable-l-1819571429
The sleazy US political discourse has worked its way into the dissent against Pope Francis.
“I am not a Freemason, nor an ally of the New World Order, nor a Soros spy infiltrated in the Church. Those are pure fantasies,” said Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, an Argentine theologian tapped by the pontiff July 1 as the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, traditionally the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog agency.
https://cruxnow.com/interviews/2023/07/popes-new-doctrine-watchdog-assures-im-not-a-soros-spy
It's bad enough that we have the Musk and Putin defenders screaming "SOROS!!!" every time they get their knickers in a twist. Now the anti-Pope Francis types are doing it, too.
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This article doesn’t really mention the Pope?