By George Neumayr | June 2010
[The Catholic World Report: Editorial] Pope Benedict’s critics had hoped Summorum Pontificum would disappear without a trace. It hasn’t. His apostolic constitution authorizing wider use of the Traditional Latin Mass continues to bear fruit, some of it annoyingly visible to these critics.
Far from just a sop thrown to aging traditionalists, as some liberal bishops cast it, Summorum Pontificum has proven popular with the young. As Pope Benedict noted in its accompanying letter, the Traditional Latin Mass is old in origin but new in appeal: “young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction, and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Sacrifice particularly suited to them.”
An illustration of this appeared on April 24 in Washington, DC, when more than 3,500 people—many of them children, teens, college students, and young families—filed into the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for a Pontifical Solemn High Mass that lasted two and a half hours. The Paulus Institute, which sponsored the event to mark the fifth anniversary of Benedict’s pontificate, said it was the first Traditional Latin Mass offered at the Shrine’s altar since 1965.
Read further...
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Groups Protest In St. Peter’s Square Demanding Catholic Church Allow Women Priests - CityNews
Bellisima!
Note the enormous crowds behind the three women holding the purple banner!
Groups Protest In St. Peter’s Square Demanding Catholic Church Allow Women Priests - CityNews
ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images
More on Alleged Mistress Facebook Group
The State-run Goebels-media has found another story to capture the prurient interest of impudent and immodest women in the Western world.
Someone starts a facebook group in Italy and it's big news to an audience of educated women at National Public Radio. No doubt, they're primed for stories like this since they are silly and were raised on a diet of steady filth one can find on television and the occasional bad book.
If you want to know the failures of the world, just look at NPR's audience and the voyeuristic smug audience for the state funded propaganda organ.
These women are immodest and their sinful preoccupations makes them incapable of seeing the wickedness of their deeds.
Moreover, if you want to run a hit-piece on the Church, you can't do much better than Rome correspondent Sylvio Poggoli who's guaranteed to make sneering remarks about the Church's supposed backwardness, and leave her bigotted listership with a sense of having accomplished something; for all of that umbrage takes effort!
Someone starts a facebook group in Italy and it's big news to an audience of educated women at National Public Radio. No doubt, they're primed for stories like this since they are silly and were raised on a diet of steady filth one can find on television and the occasional bad book.
If you want to know the failures of the world, just look at NPR's audience and the voyeuristic smug audience for the state funded propaganda organ.
These women are immodest and their sinful preoccupations makes them incapable of seeing the wickedness of their deeds.
Moreover, if you want to run a hit-piece on the Church, you can't do much better than Rome correspondent Sylvio Poggoli who's guaranteed to make sneering remarks about the Church's supposed backwardness, and leave her bigotted listership with a sense of having accomplished something; for all of that umbrage takes effort!
Monday, June 7, 2010
World Market Favors Thailand's Yellow Shirts
Thailand's Yellow Shirted elite is back with a vengeance. Perhaps the single most significant indicator of the extent to which it feels it has won the war as well as the battle with the Red Shirts has been the behavior of the stock market, particularly over the two weeks since it opened following the violence in central Bangkok.
The market absorbed huge waves of foreign selling in the immediate aftermath of the troubles without losing a lot of ground and has since regained those losses. The buoyancy is entirely due to individual investors who have been massive net buyers, providing most of the offset to the foreign selling. Local institutions have also been net buyers, but on a relatively small scale.
Despite a year of political uncertainty culminating in the May violence, the Stock Exchange of Thailand index has outperformed not only most of the world over the past 12 months but even in the troubled past three months. The SET index is now up 6.8 percent over three months and 12 percent over six. Meanwhile the baht has been tending to appreciate against the US dollar and in line with the general Asian currency trend, reflecting overall trade and capital flows rather than the political situation.
Read further...
The market absorbed huge waves of foreign selling in the immediate aftermath of the troubles without losing a lot of ground and has since regained those losses. The buoyancy is entirely due to individual investors who have been massive net buyers, providing most of the offset to the foreign selling. Local institutions have also been net buyers, but on a relatively small scale.
Despite a year of political uncertainty culminating in the May violence, the Stock Exchange of Thailand index has outperformed not only most of the world over the past 12 months but even in the troubled past three months. The SET index is now up 6.8 percent over three months and 12 percent over six. Meanwhile the baht has been tending to appreciate against the US dollar and in line with the general Asian currency trend, reflecting overall trade and capital flows rather than the political situation.
Read further...
Bishop Addresses Competence of Communications Directors in Catholic Media
Most people in the Catholic Media have no sense of mission or even an rudimentary understanding of the Catholic Faith. Father McCloskey controls an expensive glossy magazine with a substantial readership of elderly Catholics who seem to be satisfied with a highly Americanized Catholicism.
He may not be interested in differentiating his message, whatever that might be, with that of the Methodists or other main-line protestant denominations, but he's really out of touch. Once again, there's a lack of accountability at the top.
But sometimes, Communications Directors, for all the money they're paid, don't know whose side they're on. In fact, in a lot of cases, they don't really seem to know what the Church teaches on any given issue during the day. It's unclear whether anyone cares though, because often, Communications Directors don't seem to be subject to the same levels of performance and accuracy that their counterparts in the corporate world normally would.
Read article...
He may not be interested in differentiating his message, whatever that might be, with that of the Methodists or other main-line protestant denominations, but he's really out of touch. Once again, there's a lack of accountability at the top.
Franciscan Father Pat McCloskey, editor of St. Anthony Messenger magazine, used coverage of health care reform as a case in point. He said many Catholic publications were criticized when they reported not just that the bishops had, in the end, rejected the reform over the abortion issue but also reported that the Catholic Health Association supported the reform measure. Can a "faithful" Catholic news organization cover both sides? he asked. [No]
"The answer is yes," Archbishop Aymond said. A Catholic publication must explore both sides "without bias," he said. [Whose side are you on, anyway?] However, rather than just report that one group is saying this and the other is saying that, he continued, the publication also has a duty to report why the church teaches what it teaches on a particular issue.
But sometimes, Communications Directors, for all the money they're paid, don't know whose side they're on. In fact, in a lot of cases, they don't really seem to know what the Church teaches on any given issue during the day. It's unclear whether anyone cares though, because often, Communications Directors don't seem to be subject to the same levels of performance and accuracy that their counterparts in the corporate world normally would.
The bishops agreed with that view of interdependence, with Bishop Herzog adding that bishops need to trust that their editors or communications directors are competent and are not going to undermine them. He added that in a smaller diocese, like his, which does not have the bureaucratic levels of large dioceses, it is easier to have a close relationship with his editor, not to oversee what goes into the paper but to keep communication lines open.
Read article...
Benedict takes on Islam and Israel
Pope Benedict XVI released recently a Vatican document that criticized Israel, Egypt, Islam and Christian fundamentalists.
The 46-page text, “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness,” will serve as the working document for an October meeting at the Vatican about the Middle East, Fox News said.
Benedict held mass in a sports arena near the Cypriot capital where he prayed for the success of the October synod of Middle Eastern bishops, which will focus on the issues outlined in the document, according to the AFP.
Read further...
The 46-page text, “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness,” will serve as the working document for an October meeting at the Vatican about the Middle East, Fox News said.
Benedict held mass in a sports arena near the Cypriot capital where he prayed for the success of the October synod of Middle Eastern bishops, which will focus on the issues outlined in the document, according to the AFP.
Read further...
Vatican to Clamp Down on Liberal Opinion
VATICAN [National News] investigators to Ireland appointed by Pope Benedict XVI are to clamp down on liberal secular opinion in an intensive drive to re-impose traditional respect for clergy, according to informed sources in the Catholic Church.
The nine-member team led by two cardinals will be instructed by the Vatican to restore a traditional sense of reverence among ordinary Catholics for their priests, the Irish Independent has learned.
Priests will be told not to question in public official church teaching on controversial issues such as the papal ban on birth control or the admission of divorced Catholics living with new partners to the sacraments -- especially Holy Communion.
Read further...
The nine-member team led by two cardinals will be instructed by the Vatican to restore a traditional sense of reverence among ordinary Catholics for their priests, the Irish Independent has learned.
Priests will be told not to question in public official church teaching on controversial issues such as the papal ban on birth control or the admission of divorced Catholics living with new partners to the sacraments -- especially Holy Communion.
Read further...
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Cardinal Lajolo Says Church's Mission to Spread Gospel
BringMeTheNews interview with Governor of Vatican City, Pt. 1 from bringmethenews.com on Vimeo.
See the rest of the interviews with Cardinal Lajolo, here.
He's the governor of the Vatican State, a member of the Knights of Malta and has a doctorate in Canon Law.
He will be saying Mass this morning at St. Mary's Basilica, a place that is known for heterodoxy and dissent. It's indisputable that Rome has known about the overt and abiding heresy of Americanism which dominates Catholic institutions in the United States. Despite this, he's insistent to insist on the idea that the Church is to make Jesus Christ present to the world, however, it's necessary to qualify what we mean when we say, "Christ". Are we talking about a vague abstraction, representative of a false Gospel of social justice, or are we talking about, or is He the living God who came to die for mankind and rose again from the dead? All too many priests in the Archdiocese of St. Paul are talking about the former. Some Catholics who are attent listeners will notice this and we hope that Rome will notice it as well and take increasing measures to correct this.
The Cardinal refered to the Church's missionary efforts and the Church's growth and "health" which he termed as "excellent" and praises the pastoral sense of the American Bishops.
On Sex Abuse:
Cardinal Lajolo said he was very uplifted by the lay people in the Catholic Church in this country who have supported the Church during what he referred to as the “matters of great sorrow and anguish” of the church, referring to the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Church in the United States.
“We understand what we have to do. ... We don’t have to fear evil. We don’t have to be overcome by evil. We have strength – not our strength – but the strength of God to react and to overcome evil.”
We talked about the pope’s remark in Portugal last month that “the greatest persecution of the church doesn’t come from enemies on the outside, but is born from the sins within the church.”
Lajolo said, “That is right.” And said it is the way of the church to go from situations of sin to a new situation. “To have a new horizon, new goals. To find new ways in order to serve man and God.”
Link to Rick Kupchella, softball, interview...
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Cardinal Lajolo to Lecture at Minneapolis Institute of Arts
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ―
[WCCO]The Catholic cardinal who oversees the Vatican's holdings in art and artifacts is in the Twin Cities this weekend for a lecture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and will celebrate mass at the Basilica of St. Mary.
Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo is president of the Vatican Museums.
Lajolo has been in Minnesota since Thursday where meeting with donors from Minnesota and North Dakota to the Vatican's art and artifact restoration efforts. On Saturday he is speaking on the importance of art in society and on the history and work of the Vatican Museums at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
He will celebrate mass at the Basilica at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.
Link to original...
[WCCO]The Catholic cardinal who oversees the Vatican's holdings in art and artifacts is in the Twin Cities this weekend for a lecture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and will celebrate mass at the Basilica of St. Mary.
Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo is president of the Vatican Museums.
Lajolo has been in Minnesota since Thursday where meeting with donors from Minnesota and North Dakota to the Vatican's art and artifact restoration efforts. On Saturday he is speaking on the importance of art in society and on the history and work of the Vatican Museums at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
He will celebrate mass at the Basilica at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.
Link to original...
Church cannot accept criminalization of immigrants, says Archbishop Marchetto :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
It would be easier to believe the man if there weren't an obvious political motive at play, but when modern Catholic Bishops talk about charity, it's not what they mean. They're often talking about government imposed actions, or encourage inaction, as in the case of enforceable laws regarding illegal aliens. No one at Tikkon, Commonweal, or the Sun Times is complaining about the separation of Church and State at least in this case. As long as Catholic prelates support socialist agendas, propaganda organs are eager to offer a hand or remain silent.
If this Bishop's statement didn't do violence to Church law itself (Canon Law advises obedience to the Civil Law), it would be easier to accept, but again, reality intrudes to contravene a pretty ideological presupposition which is really about being generous with other people's resources, other people's livelihoods and other people's lives.
More Americans have been killed by illegals than have died in both Iraq and Afghanistan combined, here, here, here.
CNA article:
Church cannot accept criminalization of immigrants, says Archbishop Marchetto :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
If this Bishop's statement didn't do violence to Church law itself (Canon Law advises obedience to the Civil Law), it would be easier to accept, but again, reality intrudes to contravene a pretty ideological presupposition which is really about being generous with other people's resources, other people's livelihoods and other people's lives.
More Americans have been killed by illegals than have died in both Iraq and Afghanistan combined, here, here, here.
CNA article:
Church cannot accept criminalization of immigrants, says Archbishop Marchetto :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
FDA Wants to Drop Ban on Homosexuals Giving Blood
It's much harder to ignore reality when it comes to the undeniable results of immorality, and it's tragic that public health officials, infected with various false doctrines of liberalism, will make decisions effecting ordinary people.
There are prudential reasons for preventing homosexuals from entering the Priesthood, the Army and other positions of trust and there are prudential reasons that homosexuals should be prevented from donating blood. The most obvious of which is the greater likelihood of such individuals to suffer from incurable diseases like Hepatitis-C and, ideology to the contrary, again, the almost exclusively homosexual disease of AIDS (Unless you happen to get it from a blood transfusion).
Of course, there's also the public perception of trust in medical facilities to consider. Whatever propaganda occurs in the wake of this new effort to normalize something abnormal, people will undoubtedly view this for what it is: another attempt to force erroneous ideologies on ordinary people -- with the usual disastrous results.
Liberalism often ignores reality in obeisance to a gross error of one kind or another. In this case, the idea that homosexuality isn't immoral and punishable at least by nature if not by the civil law. There are diseases associated with homosexuality. This so happens because of nature, which liberals are at such pains to ignore in the service of their errors.
Read further...
There are prudential reasons for preventing homosexuals from entering the Priesthood, the Army and other positions of trust and there are prudential reasons that homosexuals should be prevented from donating blood. The most obvious of which is the greater likelihood of such individuals to suffer from incurable diseases like Hepatitis-C and, ideology to the contrary, again, the almost exclusively homosexual disease of AIDS (Unless you happen to get it from a blood transfusion).
Of course, there's also the public perception of trust in medical facilities to consider. Whatever propaganda occurs in the wake of this new effort to normalize something abnormal, people will undoubtedly view this for what it is: another attempt to force erroneous ideologies on ordinary people -- with the usual disastrous results.
Liberalism often ignores reality in obeisance to a gross error of one kind or another. In this case, the idea that homosexuality isn't immoral and punishable at least by nature if not by the civil law. There are diseases associated with homosexuality. This so happens because of nature, which liberals are at such pains to ignore in the service of their errors.
Gay men have not been allowed to donate since 1985
MINNEAPOLIS - Over 2,000 more pints of blood could be available each year if the federal government eases its restrictions on gay men donating blood. The FDA will reconsider the life long ban later this month.
When you go to donate blood you have to fill out a questionnaire. One of the question asked if you ever had sexual contact with a man, even once.
If you check yes, you can't donate blood, even if that contact was 10 years ago. Many people are calling this federal ban a form of discrimination and want the life long ban lifted.
Read further...
Blaspemous, homosexual play entitled "Corpus Christi" Canceled
STEPHENVILLE, Texas — [America Where Are You] The performance of a play that portrays Jesus as gay has been canceled at Tarleton State University amid what school officials say are “safety and security concerns.”
Critics say the Terrence McNally play “Corpus Christi,” which premiered in 1998 in New York, is blasphemous. But the Tarleton student who was directing the production said he chose it to help gay youths who may be struggling with their faith.
Security concerns were cited in prompting the university to initially change the start time and restrict attendance for Saturday’s production. Then, on Friday night, the school put a statement on its Web site saying the professor decided to cancel it due to safety and security concerns. The school said the production will not be rescheduled.
Stephenville is about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
Link to original...
Critics say the Terrence McNally play “Corpus Christi,” which premiered in 1998 in New York, is blasphemous. But the Tarleton student who was directing the production said he chose it to help gay youths who may be struggling with their faith.
Security concerns were cited in prompting the university to initially change the start time and restrict attendance for Saturday’s production. Then, on Friday night, the school put a statement on its Web site saying the professor decided to cancel it due to safety and security concerns. The school said the production will not be rescheduled.
Stephenville is about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
Link to original...
Friday, June 4, 2010
USA Today Says Catholics Want Nuns to Speak Out More
After asking the question, as to whether sisters need to speak out more, it got a result from a scanty population of 250 Catholics. What we get is a barely concealed bias rather than a conclusive appraisal of Catholics appreciation for the Bishops' authority.
In any event, perhaps the Sisters should speak out more. The more they speak, the more the laity should become aware just how far Dysfunctional Catholic Women Religious have become.
The survey of 250 Catholics has a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points. Key findings...
St. Catherine and St. Thomas universities celebrate Archbishop Flynn's 50th ordination anniversary
Friday, June 4, 2010
Love, laughter and laudations filled Archbishop Harry Flynn’s golden jubilee celebration of his ordination to the priesthood.
flynn.reception.jpg
Applause greets Archbishop Harry Flynn, center, flanked by St. Catherine University president Sister Andrea Lee, IHM, and University of St. Thomas president Father Dennis Dease, as he joins the gathering for dinner in Henrietta Schmoll Rauenhorst Hall to celebrate his 50th jubilee on May 26. Rebecca Zenefski, courtesy of St. Catherine University
Liturgical dancers praised God as they moved to the beat of African, Spanish and Irish rhythms during the opening Mass May 26 in Our Lady of Victory Chapel at St. Catherine University, which planned and sponsored the celebration with the University of St. Thomas.
Led by the angelic voice of Mary True, St. Catherine’s liturgy and music director, the accompanying choir members and instrumentalists included students, alums, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, composers David Haas and Father Jan Michael Joncas, a St. Thomas professor.
During the homily, Father Dennis Dease, St. Thomas president, cited three traits that come to his mind when speaking about Archbishop Flynn: “a man of prayer, a great preacher and a caring and courageous shepherd.”
His prayer life shows in “his charity toward all and his joyful demeanor,” he said. When preaching, the archbishop never tires of sharing Jesus’ message that “each and every one of us is genuinely and profoundly loved by God.”
Caring shepherd
Father Dease added that Archbishop Flynn, while serving as bishop in Lafayette, La., and then as archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, was a courageous and caring shepherd who faced the challenges of racism, capital punishment and sexual abuse.
“He has never backed down when he knew what the Gospel demanded,” he said. Addressing Archbishop Flynn, he added, “You have said that the church must speak for the disenfranchised, or we are not doing what Christ wants.”
Father Dease closed the homily with an Irish proverb and blessing that prompted joyous laughter: “If your dog is fat, you aren’t getting enough exercise. May your dog be forever lean and fit and may you be always robust in reminding us that God loves each and every one of us and we need to embrace that love.”
The celebration continued with a dinner in Coeur de Catherine for about 300 people, as musicians played Irish tunes in honor of the archbishop’s heritage and guests shared stories about the man they came to honor.
Laura Nelson, a 2009 St. Kate’s alum who served as acolyte for the Mass, said she has never met a man like Archbishop Flynn, who is so interested in others.
“He does remember every face, every name, every story,” she said. “He’s only met me five or six times . . . and I walked in today and he said, ‘Hello Laura, it’s so nice to see you again, and how is your sister Sarah? She’s a student here right?’”
Premier Banks executive vice president Andrew Nath and his wife, Katie, said they respect the archbishop’s work and pastoral care for the archdiocese.
Katie said, “When I think of him, I think of the title of his [former column] in The Catholic Spirit, ‘Come Lord Jesus.’ It reminds us of what we need at the core of ourselves.”
Sister Andrea Lee, president of St. Catherine University, brought tears to many eyes as she took the podium to praise Archbishop Flynn’s leadership of both universities and his personal kindness to herself and her adopted son, Lahens Lee-St. Fleur, who was a principal liturgical dancer at the earlier Mass.
“Among many personal stories I could share, consider a tired archbishop,” she said. “That morning, home from a long trip and sleepless night, not only confirming my son that evening, but shopping and cooking and serving us and my son’s young family. Putting down . . . a resplendent feast, including a small homemade dish of mac and cheese, remembering, as he did, that a finicky 4-year-old would, tonight, be seated at the archbishop’s table.”
Sister Andrea — a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary — said most of what she knows about picking her battles she learned from Archbishop Flynn.
He is an entertaining storyteller who laughs heartily at his own jokes, she added. He can cook for 15 people and still relax and have a drink with his guests.
“We could solve the financial problems of the archdiocese, as well as those of St. Thomas and St. Kate’s, if we could only get him his own show on the food network,” she quipped.
In honor of his 50th anniversary of ordination, both St. Kate’s and St. Thomas will designate a Flynn Scholar, a Catholic high school graduate with high academic ability and significant financial need to receive a full financial scholarship.
When the archbishop finally had an opportunity to speak, he said he wondered what Sister Andrea and Father Dease might do for his 25th anniversary as a bishop, which he will celebrate in 2011.
“You have another year to get ready,” he said to raucous laughter.
He reminisced about how he was a “bigoted New Yorker,” who refused to join the Franciscan order with three of his high school classmates because “they can send you anywhere.” So he became a diocesan priest in Albany, N.Y.
All three classmates never left New York, while Archbishop Flynn was sent to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland, then back to Albany, then to Louisiana as bishop and to Minnesota as archbishop.
“We look at the hand of God in our lives and I was able to say to a gathering [of priests] that Archbishop [John] Nienstedt hosted after I retired: ‘I’ve fallen in love with all of you and . . . I know you have fallen in love with me,” Archbishop Flynn said.
“I can say that about God’s wonderful people, those at St. Catherine’s, those at St. Thomas, the wonderful Sisters of St. Joseph, I have been united with the Heart of Mary Sisters and I have fallen in love with all of you.” Catholic Spirit
h/t: Stella Borealis
Love, laughter and laudations filled Archbishop Harry Flynn’s golden jubilee celebration of his ordination to the priesthood.
flynn.reception.jpg
Applause greets Archbishop Harry Flynn, center, flanked by St. Catherine University president Sister Andrea Lee, IHM, and University of St. Thomas president Father Dennis Dease, as he joins the gathering for dinner in Henrietta Schmoll Rauenhorst Hall to celebrate his 50th jubilee on May 26. Rebecca Zenefski, courtesy of St. Catherine University
Liturgical dancers praised God as they moved to the beat of African, Spanish and Irish rhythms during the opening Mass May 26 in Our Lady of Victory Chapel at St. Catherine University, which planned and sponsored the celebration with the University of St. Thomas.
Led by the angelic voice of Mary True, St. Catherine’s liturgy and music director, the accompanying choir members and instrumentalists included students, alums, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, composers David Haas and Father Jan Michael Joncas, a St. Thomas professor.
During the homily, Father Dennis Dease, St. Thomas president, cited three traits that come to his mind when speaking about Archbishop Flynn: “a man of prayer, a great preacher and a caring and courageous shepherd.”
His prayer life shows in “his charity toward all and his joyful demeanor,” he said. When preaching, the archbishop never tires of sharing Jesus’ message that “each and every one of us is genuinely and profoundly loved by God.”
Caring shepherd
Father Dease added that Archbishop Flynn, while serving as bishop in Lafayette, La., and then as archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, was a courageous and caring shepherd who faced the challenges of racism, capital punishment and sexual abuse.
“He has never backed down when he knew what the Gospel demanded,” he said. Addressing Archbishop Flynn, he added, “You have said that the church must speak for the disenfranchised, or we are not doing what Christ wants.”
Father Dease closed the homily with an Irish proverb and blessing that prompted joyous laughter: “If your dog is fat, you aren’t getting enough exercise. May your dog be forever lean and fit and may you be always robust in reminding us that God loves each and every one of us and we need to embrace that love.”
The celebration continued with a dinner in Coeur de Catherine for about 300 people, as musicians played Irish tunes in honor of the archbishop’s heritage and guests shared stories about the man they came to honor.
Laura Nelson, a 2009 St. Kate’s alum who served as acolyte for the Mass, said she has never met a man like Archbishop Flynn, who is so interested in others.
“He does remember every face, every name, every story,” she said. “He’s only met me five or six times . . . and I walked in today and he said, ‘Hello Laura, it’s so nice to see you again, and how is your sister Sarah? She’s a student here right?’”
Premier Banks executive vice president Andrew Nath and his wife, Katie, said they respect the archbishop’s work and pastoral care for the archdiocese.
Katie said, “When I think of him, I think of the title of his [former column] in The Catholic Spirit, ‘Come Lord Jesus.’ It reminds us of what we need at the core of ourselves.”
Sister Andrea Lee, president of St. Catherine University, brought tears to many eyes as she took the podium to praise Archbishop Flynn’s leadership of both universities and his personal kindness to herself and her adopted son, Lahens Lee-St. Fleur, who was a principal liturgical dancer at the earlier Mass.
“Among many personal stories I could share, consider a tired archbishop,” she said. “That morning, home from a long trip and sleepless night, not only confirming my son that evening, but shopping and cooking and serving us and my son’s young family. Putting down . . . a resplendent feast, including a small homemade dish of mac and cheese, remembering, as he did, that a finicky 4-year-old would, tonight, be seated at the archbishop’s table.”
Sister Andrea — a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary — said most of what she knows about picking her battles she learned from Archbishop Flynn.
He is an entertaining storyteller who laughs heartily at his own jokes, she added. He can cook for 15 people and still relax and have a drink with his guests.
“We could solve the financial problems of the archdiocese, as well as those of St. Thomas and St. Kate’s, if we could only get him his own show on the food network,” she quipped.
In honor of his 50th anniversary of ordination, both St. Kate’s and St. Thomas will designate a Flynn Scholar, a Catholic high school graduate with high academic ability and significant financial need to receive a full financial scholarship.
When the archbishop finally had an opportunity to speak, he said he wondered what Sister Andrea and Father Dease might do for his 25th anniversary as a bishop, which he will celebrate in 2011.
“You have another year to get ready,” he said to raucous laughter.
He reminisced about how he was a “bigoted New Yorker,” who refused to join the Franciscan order with three of his high school classmates because “they can send you anywhere.” So he became a diocesan priest in Albany, N.Y.
All three classmates never left New York, while Archbishop Flynn was sent to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland, then back to Albany, then to Louisiana as bishop and to Minnesota as archbishop.
“We look at the hand of God in our lives and I was able to say to a gathering [of priests] that Archbishop [John] Nienstedt hosted after I retired: ‘I’ve fallen in love with all of you and . . . I know you have fallen in love with me,” Archbishop Flynn said.
“I can say that about God’s wonderful people, those at St. Catherine’s, those at St. Thomas, the wonderful Sisters of St. Joseph, I have been united with the Heart of Mary Sisters and I have fallen in love with all of you.” Catholic Spirit
h/t: Stella Borealis
Thursday, June 3, 2010
James Martin SJ Wants More Homosexuals in the Priesthood: Another Weird Article
It's not that you feel that so-and-so has so much to offer, it's that homosexuals are forbidden from being ordained. Father Martin's own disinformation about there not being a link between homosexuality and pederasty (which he misnames pedophilia) completely misses the fact that over 80% of the victims of priests were post-pubescent males. Father Martin ignores Church law as well and publicly disagrees with the Church's teaching.
The real question is why is this man still in the Jesuits? In America Magazine on May 31st, where he's the editor, replacing someone else who questioned Church teaching too much, he commented on the New York Times article about the same subject.
Perhaps he's sad that one Jesuit Scholastic is no longer with the Oregon Province? Of course, Father Martin's apologia for sodomy was well addressed by Father Eutener. Now we hope someone else steps in and invites Father Martin to find employment with someone whose core philosophy doesn't contradict his own misconceptions and errors.
Today’s front-page story in The New York Times, "Prospective Catholic Priests Face Sexuality Hurdles," by Paul Vitello, about the exclusion and weeding out of gay men from seminaries and religious formation houses, made for depressing reading. Why depressing? Several reasons.
First, the article laid bare the cognitive dissonance that theatens a church that relies on celibate gay priests to carry out much of its ministerial work, and yet sets into place policies which would bar those same kinds of men from future ministry. One of Vitello’s sources, Mark D. Jordan, the R. R. Niebuhr professor at Harvard Divinity School, “who has studied homosexuality in the Catholic priesthood,” and has also written extensively on it, called it an “irony” that “these new regulations are being enforced in many cases by seminary directors who are themselves gay.” Yes, irony.
Second is the notion that the sexual abuse crisis was primarily a question of gays in the priesthood. For one thing, the conflation of homosexuality with pedophilia has been disproven by almost every psychiatrist and psychologist. The studies are too numerous to mention. It was rebutted even by the U.S. bishops own study. ("At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now," said Margaret Smith of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.) For another, the increasing number of gay priests entering ministry in the past few years, which critics point to as a stain on the priesthood, coincides with a diminution of sexual abuse cases in recent years. For another, the reason that you don’t see any public models of healthy, mature, celibate gay priests to counteract the stereotype of the pedophile gay priest, is that they are forbidden to speak out publicly. Or they are simply afraid.
Link to America...
The real question is why is this man still in the Jesuits? In America Magazine on May 31st, where he's the editor, replacing someone else who questioned Church teaching too much, he commented on the New York Times article about the same subject.
Perhaps he's sad that one Jesuit Scholastic is no longer with the Oregon Province? Of course, Father Martin's apologia for sodomy was well addressed by Father Eutener. Now we hope someone else steps in and invites Father Martin to find employment with someone whose core philosophy doesn't contradict his own misconceptions and errors.
Today’s front-page story in The New York Times, "Prospective Catholic Priests Face Sexuality Hurdles," by Paul Vitello, about the exclusion and weeding out of gay men from seminaries and religious formation houses, made for depressing reading. Why depressing? Several reasons.
First, the article laid bare the cognitive dissonance that theatens a church that relies on celibate gay priests to carry out much of its ministerial work, and yet sets into place policies which would bar those same kinds of men from future ministry. One of Vitello’s sources, Mark D. Jordan, the R. R. Niebuhr professor at Harvard Divinity School, “who has studied homosexuality in the Catholic priesthood,” and has also written extensively on it, called it an “irony” that “these new regulations are being enforced in many cases by seminary directors who are themselves gay.” Yes, irony.
Second is the notion that the sexual abuse crisis was primarily a question of gays in the priesthood. For one thing, the conflation of homosexuality with pedophilia has been disproven by almost every psychiatrist and psychologist. The studies are too numerous to mention. It was rebutted even by the U.S. bishops own study. ("At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now," said Margaret Smith of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.) For another, the increasing number of gay priests entering ministry in the past few years, which critics point to as a stain on the priesthood, coincides with a diminution of sexual abuse cases in recent years. For another, the reason that you don’t see any public models of healthy, mature, celibate gay priests to counteract the stereotype of the pedophile gay priest, is that they are forbidden to speak out publicly. Or they are simply afraid.
Link to America...
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