first draft so excuse the mistakes and awkward writing
there are oodles of youtube videos on how to run meetings.
Excuse my synicism but I remember the old encounter groups of the sixties where the leader guided everyone and everyone went along with them, except me because I was a stubborn nerd: I mean, I was a medical student at a time when less than ten percent of docs and less than ten percent of my class were women, so I was not obedient. It got so frustrating that I got a nurse to call me out of the meetings with medical problems that required my presence.
Most videos are how to do this, but this one is a good summary:15 Psychological Mind Tricks To Get People To Do What You Want
In Part 1 of this conversation, Fr. Murray takes apart the vocabulary: Sr. Nathalie Becquart calling synodality “a social prophecy” and “a grammar of peace”; the Synod Secretariat classifying Catholics who disagree not as people with differing views but as “resistance”; and the question nobody in Rome has answered — where in the world do we find a Catholic mandate to invent a church in a different way?
so this is how to manipulate people and a bit honest that they are doing it.
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this is first draft but the videos say what I want to say: It's a scam manipulating people, and of course normal folks end up leaving the meeting (as I did in the encounter groups of the sixties) because they know the emperor is naked
In an interview given to the program Le Club Le Figaro Idées, Cardinal Robert Sarah has offered an uncompromising diagnosis of the situation of the Church and the West. The African cardinal warns of a deep crisis of faith in Europe, denounces the reduction of the Church to a social organization, and emphasizes that without God, Western societies are doomed to disappear.
reminds one of Flip Wilson's Chruch of what's happening now.
After the discussion of American politics, they go on to discuss how some in the Vatican were surrendering the church to China. This is a big scandal.
Will Pope Leo stop those who are breaking not only Catholic dogma but Biblical based beliefs that are about living a righteous life and the importance of the family. (something that is more important in poorer countries than the west, because it is the family, not the state, who care for the weak, the old, the sick, and children).
This is not anti left because the liberation of women from the family is looked on as a good thing for business, who now have women as employees: Women, like migrants, work harder for a lower wage so is cost effective.
Ah, but who cares for the children?
If the woke reformers manage to take over the Catholic church, especially they will be able to undermine the idea of logic, science, human rights etc that is part and parcel of Catholicism.
the western media ignored how peaceful Chrsitian protests brought down the iron curtain or that many of those promoting human rights and democracy all over the world are inspired by the Christian ethic: One example, Jimmy Lai:
And if the Catholic church falls, other churches will not stand but be able to be pushed to the sidelines as if their voices are quaint (or more likely hateful).
I've been seeing hit jobs on Christianity in the MSM for the last fifty years, usually printed at Christmas or Easter time of course.
So we see this again this year. Ho hum. nothing new here folks just move along.
first the NYTimes editorial wants to instruct you that 2000 years of belief in Mary is mistaken. Is this being done to undermine the faith of believers? Is this being done to instruct those ignorant of what Christianity taught for 2000 years? Of course not. It is aimed at bridging America’s God gulf.
italics mine.
translation: presenting the hip version of the faith to those seeking God: by using a straw man argument and quoting those who are trying to remake Christianity into a faith pleasing to the elite mindset as if they represent the belief of ordinary Catholics. Presumably he couldn't find any believing Catholics in New York City.
Nope: he goes to the experts in academia who are busy destructing Christian beliefs...quoting Pagals, an expert in the Gnostic gospels that date back only 1600 years
Jenkins book, which I have in my personal library, has a lot of details about this trend
Jenkins places the recent controversies surrounding the hidden gospels in a broad historical context and argues that, far from being revolutionary, such attempts to find an alternative Christianity date back at least to the Enlightenment. And by employing the appropriate scholarly and historical methodologies, he demonstrates that the texts purported to represent pristine Christianity were in fact composed long after the canonical gospels found in the Bible. Produced by obscure heretical movements, these texts offer no reliable new information about Jesus or the early church. They have attracted so much media attention chiefly because they seem to support radical, feminist, and post-modern positions in the modern church.
and the NYT writer also quotes liberal Protestant writer who is busy influencing Bible believing Protestant churches to do the same.
Hmm... sounds like some of those theologians trying to hijack the Pope's synodality stupidity by changing dogma on several levels while the Pope says good things then contradicts himself by letting these guys destroy the faith of ordinary Catholics.
Sigh.
and then to add insult to injury, Netflix puts in their insult.
And unlike the NYTimes, someone spent a lot of money to make this film,
Some of it is inspired by some of the pious early writings called gospels but never accepted by the church (again, see Jenkins book) but of course Netflix writers give them a gnostic flavor.
Father Leo, best known as the cooking priest from EWTN also teaches at an American seminary, and has started a podcast on religion in culture, and he puts his two cents in.
when I attended a church built by donations from the local Osage Catholics, locals told me that after Vatican II, when the priest started tearing out the beautiful altar in the name of liturgical reform, the local Catholics told him to stop, since the church was built with their money.
The art work was chosen by the locals and is beautiful.
The destruction of art work in Catholic churches after Vatican II was opposed by the people, who had no say in the matter, leading to the quip: What is the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist.
But the Vatican is still busy trivializing things beloved by ordinary believers in the name of inclusion, (by which they mean obeying the latest fad), ignoring Gresham's law, that bad money art drives out good money art.
The Vatican has unveiled the official mascot of the Holy Year 2025: Luce (Italian for Light).
Archbishop Fisichella says the mascot was inspired by the Church's desire "to live even within the pop culture so beloved by our youth." pic.twitter.com/hVU2CmYA3O
Is the Vatican’s New Anime-Inspired Mascot a ‘Major PR Victory’ or ‘Deeply Evil’?...
The Vatican has debuted a new anime-style mascot for children ahead of its Jubilee 2025 celebrations. Wide-eyed Luce, whose name is the Latin word for “light,” wears a yellow hooded raincoat with a beaded rosary and carries a staff in a contemporary twist on the event’s theme of “Pilgrims of Hope.”
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Vatican’s chief organizer of the Jubilee, unveiled the official mascot earlier this week during a press conference about next year’s cultural program. He said the mascot will guide younger audiences through the festivities and that she was “created from the desire to enter into the world of pop culture, so beloved by our young people.”
On October 30, Luce was debuted at Lucca Comics and Games, a popular convention for video games, comic books, and fantasy in Tuscany. There, the Dicastery for Evangelization hosted “Luce and Friends,” which introduced visitors to more characters from the mascot’s world including her pals Fe, Xin, Sky, and her dog Santino. Luce will also take the global stage in the Holy See pavilion at the next World Expo taking place in Osaka in 2025.
so what do the droll commentators on EWTN think of this? Fast forward five minutes:
I laughed when one guy pointed out that this seemed to be a way to make money by merchandizing the image. Heh:
"Spaceballs Luce, The T-Shirt!
Spaceballs Luce, The Coloring Book!
Spaceballs, Luce, The Lunchbox!
Spaceballs Luce, The Breakfast Cereal!
Spaceballs Luce, The Flamethrower!"
but this is not anime as much as a blue haired androgenous lady trying to be inspiring you to... exactly what?
use her own powers to fight evil?
or putting herself in an attitude to obedience to Jesus? Uh, no Jesus here folk. Even wearing a cross on a beaded necklace doesn't make it a Christian symbol (lots of rock stars wear crosses etc in mockery of religion).
and a lot of people who see Luce as a Lucifer symbol, they are wrong. Even Cardinal Vigano points out she is actually a clone of a anti semetic modernity hating cultural icon of the NWO.
— Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò (@CarloMVigano) October 29, 2024
..
hmmm...maybe instead of anime they might want to consider St Michael the Samurai:
...
the good news? While the Vatican is chasing away believers by promoting pop culture trivia, the ex atheists and vloggers are the ones preaching the message of Jesus:
I have written before how the so called Synodality push by this pope is is a marxist type way to guide groups from above. This is done to disguise what is going on: so that they can pretend the agenda is grass roots initiative. But any Catholic can tell you that the activists with agendas will be busy filling the seats: Heck, even in Catholic Manila they found a lot of "catholics" at these meetings were actually members of the Freemasons, which is a group Catholics are not allowed to join.
Transcript:
I think one of the interesting things that happened this week that we've heard here in Rome is ... somehow it leaked out, or it was just so notorious that it couldn't be
kept in. Is that the thing that has gained the greatest applause by the full, almost
400 group of delegates inside the Synod Hall this week was a woman, a mother
, who got up and said, what we really need in the church is some help. We women
need some help and how to bring up our children to remain faithful to
their religion in the modern. Or if you prefer, post-modern world, that mother
standing up and saying, how do I bring up my children got the largest applause of anything that's happened
so far in the Synod Hall. So that tells you something about what real women are thinking about. This other
stuff. It just seems to me it's ideological verbiage .
this synodality push has nothing to do with the religion founded by Jesus: the small group discussions remind me of the 1970s encounter groups we were forced to attend in medical school: we were supposed to bare our souls and get solidarity with the others in the group, but in reality it meant the most vocal pushing their agenda on the rest of us.
The modern Francis church is moving to establish a new church, but it more resembles the shenanigans of the renaissance Popes. whose agenda was power. So they worked with other world leaders and sent their minions, usually Jesuits, to manipulate politics. How bad was it? Well, it was so bad that the Catholic monarchs pressured the church to disband the Jesuit order.
And if these so called reformers, who follow the spirit of the woke/ NWO mindset take over, and will give the puppet masters another way to silence political dissadents (example: The fall of the iron curtain from believers demonstrating for freedom against tyranny).
If the Catholic church "reforms", it will be a big win for the elites who are planning to run the world.
it means they will run all the schools and hospitals will push the secular religion. So Catholic hospitals will allow abortion and euthanasia, and the Catholic schools and universities will push their agenda. Not to mention diverting all that money into the pockets of the corrupt.
This is merely the secular harm that will be done if Francis gets his way.
from a religious point of view, the real sorrow is the loss of souls: Because people will reject a false religion of woke, and the most pious will be left without support for their souls.
the Agatha Christie Indult was a Catholic decree in response to a petition signed by many artists and writers not to cancel the Latin Mass back in 1971
Supposedly, Pope Paul had read the letter and exclaimed in excitement, “Ah! Agatha Christie!”, and so decided to grant it, thus giving the indult its nickname.
They agree that not everyone appreciates its value, "and that is fine", but "to destroy it seems an unnecessary and insensitive act in a world where history can all too easily slip away into oblivion"...
. "The Old Rite's ability to promote silence and contemplation is a treasure that cannot be easily replicated and, once gone, cannot be reconstructed".
and some signing it includes
Bianca Jagger (wife of Mick Jagger), Lord Lloyd-Webber (musical composer), Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (opera singer), Steven Isserlis (Jewish cellist), Princess Michael of Kent (member of the British Royal Family), Sir Andras Schiff (Jewish pianist), Tom Holland (historian), Lady Antonia Fraser (author) and Sir Paul Smith (fashion designer).
So I guess we can call this the Bianca Jagger Indult?
So yesterday, the staff was busy scrubbing the courtyard behind our house, and cleaning up the fish pond/fountain so the water is now clear and all the water plants were removed.
Here is Lolo sitting at the edge of the fountain, with the meeting room in the background.
So why did Kuya decide suddenly to clean up the place?
Because the Baptist church that meets in the business meeting room was planning to use the pond for a baptism and of course Baptists immerse you when you are baptize.
Indeed, when Kuya designed the fountain he made it so you could enter the shallow end and go down stairs to where it is three feet deep. This was designed for Lolo to cool off, but we have used it for baptisms in the past.
I am the Catholic in our family, and we accept several versions of baptism: dipping, pouring and sprinkling.
The maid asked if the baptism would be valid, and I said sure, if the pastor said the words correctly, that even non Catholics or non Christians could baptize in an emergency. Indeed, our medical school taught us how to do it if a newborn wasn't breathing, because there were so many Catholic patients in our hospital.
I've only baptized patients a few times, because usually I was busy trying to keep the kid alive, but usually there would be a Catholic nurse to do it.
Once, in Africa, we had a premie in our nursery. Now, in Africa, 3 pound kids rarely live and sure enough, at day three the baby started having apenea: she would stop breathing but if we stimulated her or gave her a breath, she would restart breathing.
Alas, after about a half hour, we were bagging her but she just wouldn't breathe, and suddenly you could see that life had left her: she turned pale and limp. At this point, I figured we should try a miracle since regular medical intervention didn't work and said: Petonilla (the head nurse who was helping me) baptize her. And so she was baptized Mary.
Two seconds later she started moving and took a breath, and kept breathing, and had no further problems. Indeed, she even went home.
Alas, when our local priest found out what I had done, he told me off, for not only weren't the parents Christian or pro Christian, her father was the local witchdoctor.
Oh well.
Father thought I was a rigid pre Vatican II Catholic and told me that after Vatican II those old ideas of unbaptized children going to Limbo (an explanation but not a dogma) was no longer being taught. And he asked why I had done it, since he knew I was not overtly pious.
And I felt like Spock when I explained I did everything scientifically possible, and when that didn't work, I felt it was time to do something illogical that might work.
and it did work: a miracle? or just the shock of the cold water?
Doesn't matter. The kid lived.
In pre Vatican II days, often the priest would not baptize a kid if the parents had an irregular marriage or if the mom wasn't married. But nowadays, in the USA, few withhold the sacrament, because the culture is essentially Christian so the innocent child can be part of the church.
But in Africa, it might not be so: in tribal days, she might be forced into a marriage with a non believer who would not let her practice the faith. So in these situations baptism was withheld until puberty for boys or after marriage for girls.
That was 40 years ago so presumably things have changed, but the idea is that if you aren't going to raise the kid Catholic, it is better they remain unbaptized until they are old enough to decide for themself.
The numerous Catholic couples in second marriages or in some countries where people in polygamous marriages who want to convert is a problem that the local bishops face.
Breaking up the family can be a disaster to all including the kids. So before Vatican II the answer was to just go to church anyway but don't receive the sacraments.
That is the backstory why Pope Francis released his instructions that priest can bless couple in irregular unions so because they seeking God's help in these situations.
Sigh. Alas, the gay friendly clergy in the West started pushing this as a stealth way to legalize not just gay marriage but to look the other way and deny the reality of sin: and that means pretending there is nothing wrong with any sex outside of marriage, including the very problematic subgroup of homosexuals with a promiscuous lifestyle.
and this got not only the strict Trad Catholics up in arms, but caused a lot of ordinary Catholics who aren't especially homophobic to become cynical because too many of those clergy supporting blessing gay couples were known to be gay, or worse, know to hint they support the entire gender agenda that we see being promoted in the USA. (Hey, I lived in Altoona,and know how winking at sin works, but that's another story).
In Africa, the bishops quickly saw the Pope's letter wasn't about mercy for couples in an irregular marriage, but was just a stealth way to push the church to approve all homosexual sex;. This made the African bishops very angry, since the sexual abuse of children and sex tourism is alas becoming more common as society starts evolving from village life where people protect kids, to the modern life where the street kids, both boys and girls, are vulnerable to sexual predators of sex tourism.link2
Evil: The atrocities of ISIS vs the Yazidi people and other non Muslim minorities of nothern Iraq.
And the good: Did Holland, an agnostic historian, have a religious experience, feeling the presence of Mary?
Evil continues to exist: The world laments the Gaza war, but ignores that the reason for those people's suffering is that Hamas is using the innocent as human shields against Israel. They stole and continue to steal aid money and food, divert the money into their bank accounts or to buy weapons, and are busy with their propaganda all over the world to inflame Muslim hatred of Israel. They could stop the war tomorrow by releasing hostages and letting the UN arrest those guilty of the atrocities against Israeli civilians and others, including the murder of one Filipina caregiver who stayed with her elderly charge at the time of the attack.
Sort of like bank robbers, who when caught, take hostages and then show hostages killed by the police who were aiming at the criminals to divert your attention from their crimes (sort of like a worldwide Stockholm's syndrome).
atrocities by various Muslim groups get a lot less publicity of course: the terrible attack in Moscow will be blamed on the CIA, not on Islamic militants for Russia's war against them in Syria and by their Wagner mercenaries who are now fighting them in Africa.
News stories out of Gaza only condemn Israel in a way that cynically weaponizing your compassion so they can literally get away with murder, not to mention all that money they stole and have put into bank accounts.
But if you put it into the way that criminals have easily weaponized Islam, well discussing that is taboo, because no one wants to condemn a billion believers for the ten percent of them who are crazy.
Sigh.
The second reason I put this up: It is a follow up of a previous post where I noted that while the Pope is promoting global warming ideas instead of God, even though the green religion is about weaponizing religion to enable the power grab by the international elite,.
So the irony is that we see the agnostics who are talking about God.
the poorly written ambiguous letter from Pope Francis about blessing couples in irregular relationships is getting pushback from a lot of Yanks, because a lot of us saw how teenage boys were abused by priests in the USA in the past because the influential experts said there was nothing wrong with this.
Now I read it is worse: with the sexualization of children at many levels, including gender training in grade schools and internet porn, a lot of parents rightly worry Pope Francis' stonewalling protests over blessing gay couple has nothing to do with blessing people, but is actually about going along with the woke agenda to throw out sexual sin in the name of the latest trend in society..
This is not paranoia, given the actions of some very important bishops such as Cardinal McElroy openly saying
it is becoming clear that on some issues the understanding of human nature and moral reality upon which previous declarations of doctrine were made were in fact limited or defective?
whoops. Guess we gotta throw out Thou shalt not commit adultery as non scientific and out of date.
What's next? Thou shalt not kill? (abortion, euthanasia are sitting in the wings). Honor thy father and thy mother (euthanasia is more convenient and cheaper). And how about thou shalt not steal? (don't prosecute shoplifters, ignore all that money in politicians bank accounts).
But Father Leo is seeing this through the eyes of FIlipino culture, where family matters, and where baclas and tomboys and trans and people who have second wives are not seen as sinners but as weak, people trying to do the right thing despite their weaknesses.
the bad news? The western press sees this Filipino acceptance of family members who are gay as the same as acceptance of the gay agenda/ gender agenda being pushed by many western governments on poorer countries.
This started as just being nice to people but has quickly grown to grooming children, pushing trans as a trendy solution to emotional problems, and allowing pornography in grade school libraries.
Most parents are aghast. Heck, even most gays are aghast at this trend to sexualize children, but the cyberbullies attack anyone who dares post such an opinion, so you might not know about this.
And this is where Pope Francis made his mistake: in an attempt to be nice, he is naive. Everyone but him knows that the so called reformers will twist his words and actions to change the church into a morality free zone. And only some Yanks, and the African bishops seeing the danger dare to stand up to him and refuse to bless sin.
But we live in a globalized world. So the bad news? the gospel of woke is spreading even here, thanks to the US influence and social media. the trans etc. fads are in the upper class high schools in Manila according to my granddaughter who teaches there.
Yet ordinary folk continue to say no, and vote with their feet (hence the huge increase of Filipinos joining Protestant churches here, a phenomena also happening in Latin America).
The trendier than thou brag about inclusion, but the reality is that Gresham's law applies: just like bad money drives out good money, institutions pushing inclusiveness of those bragging about their sins are seen as excluding those who live by the rules.
as Father Leo explains: Those with same sex attraction can be welcome in the church, the same way that alcoholics and drug addicts and people living in irregular marriages can do this. By humbly trying to live a good life even if one's situation makes full repentance hard.
not going around flaunting the sin and blaming others for not accepting one's sin.
I saw this type of manipulation in medical school, where we had encounter groups supposed to let us communicate but actually a way to try to persuade us to agree with the leader's agenda.
Apparently Francis is doing the same thing, but what was pointed out by the radical trads in the past and a lot of us who are not radical trads but cynics are now being discussed openly.
and if this report is true, a lot of those attending the meetings are not falling for the pretend agenda. Why do I say pretend? Because the decisions are already made, and the latest blessing of sin might have been released because those attending these meeting just weren't playing along.
Why should this be important news? Even if one does not believe the idea of God being the guy behind the scenes but only on a secular level, it means controlling the church's institutions: Hospitals, universities, schools etc.
it also has geopolitical implications: the pushing of liberation theology got a lot of MSM praise in the 1970s when missionaries were pushing uprisings by communists and shipping weapons to theses groups (a friend told me about this). But in reality, the locals who disliked the oligarchy running the government were being bullied by these groups, and one way they spoke with their feet was that they became good protestants.
One article the other day noted that Israel is now getting backed by some countries in South America because Protestant theology is sympathetic to Israel.
but of course that is the point: The document is written ambiguously so that few lay folk untrained in theology will understand it, and allows everyone to decide what it means. Getreligion discusses here.
We are misreading it?
well, maybe not just us:
the heterodox German Bishops, the progressive bishops in the USA, and the MSM are rejoicing and say: hey this is the first step to gay marriage and is destroying all those old fashioned laws against fornication.
I should add that TaT does quote an ex Anglican priest who is a blogger, who knows where this is going:
In that sense, at the parish level, it’s business as usual. However, I can see that Fiducia Supplicans will have other effects in other places.
Firstly, although the document states, “From a strictly liturgical point of view, a blessing requires that what is blessed be conformed to God’s will, as expressed in the teachings of the Church” it is unavoidable to conclude that the blessing of “a couple in an irregular relationship” implies approval of that relationship.
Also, the document says that blessings of same sex couples should not be liturgical or cause confusion with marriage ceremonies. From my experience in the Anglican Church, this is a piece of naivety on a monumental level.
Italics mine.
I agree: You would be naive to think it will stop here.
But what is disturbing is that the usual suspects (especially European bishops who want to go along with society's latest fashions) are ignoring the parts that caution using the blessing to hint that sin is no big deal, and openly rejoice in the chance to bless the sin in public.
and most of the Bishops? They also will ignore the long term and public dangers by cherry picking the parts they like.
So they are saying: bless all sorts of things, so what is different with blessing a gay couples in public, they insist.
Ignoring that this is not blessing a person: it is blessing the illicit relationship. Implying that that relationship is okay with God.
And it goes beyond gay couples of course: it essentially okays a formal blessing marriages after a divorce, marriages outside of church, polygamous marriages, people living together without getting married. etc.
Now, I know good Catholics who are in this group. And traditionally the answer to them is to repent, stay chaste, and leave the relationship.
But in the case of second marriage and polygamous marriage, this might leave the abandoned new spouse and the children involved in financial stress. So often the priest counsels: Stay chaste in the relationship, and if that is not possible, continue to go to church but not receive the sacrament, and then hope in God's mercy.
You see, there is a difference between sin of weakness where we know we are sinners but ask for God's mercy, and going around sinning openly and saying proudly: we aren't sinning see even the Pope says so...and you are evil right wing extremists for hinting this is wrong.
No, Ms Vidal: this is not hatred nor is it homophobia. Indeed, this goes a lot deeper than the gay part: It is about the Pope openly winking at public sin by promoting approval of sin with a public ceremony.
What's next? Blessing burglars? Getting photo ops with pro abortion politicians?
There is deep the anger at watching a pope slowly destroy the church. and anger at the bishops for staying silent while he does it,,,,,
Looking forward to bishops - especially those online - engaging with this latest...development. "Principal teacher of his diocese" and all that. Here's the thing - if you don't want the Big Bad Laity to dominate the discourse on these matters...speak up. Do your jobs.
not to mention being criticized in the MSM, having the PC nuns and priests working in your offices oppose you, and (most horrifying) being the victim of mean tweets.
St Athanasius would understand why they will just go along with those in power, laity be damned if they don't like it.
Here in the Philippines, being gay (or having a second wife on the side) is no big deal because, unlike the feminists and gay rights types in the US, gays are just seen as part of the family, and Families come first. And God is part of the family.
So Gays, and men with second wives, and alcoholics, and drug addicts, and people who steal or take bribes go to church anyway.
But they keep their sins quiet: because to flaunt your sinful ways is is showing you are walang hila, without shame. And so their actions do not undermine the family, as these policies have done in more advanced western countries.
The big sin here in the Philippines is corruption.
Before he was indicted, he dared to sit in the front of church in a seat of honor, at the mass for the town fiesta, a mass presided over by the local bishop...
Here those with larger donations usually take them to the front of church after the Gospel,
So when our cousin Chona took her donation up to the altar, she had to pass the mayor who was behind the hit that killed her brother in the crossfire... she had to pass him to go back to her place, but as she passed him, she turned and shook her fist at him, saying "You.... YOU!"
the bishop stayed silent (and presumably gave the mayor communion).
But Chona's accusation did push the bishop to move. He couldn't accuse a non indicted mayor for a crime, but he could teach the politicians that offing their political opponent is wrong.
So a few weeks later, he got all the politicians at a mass and had them pledge that they would not do anything violent during that year's political campaign.
And it worked... there were not more shootings and the campaigns stayed peaceful..
the next political hit attempt didn't happen until two weeks after the campaign ended.
Sigh.
It's not easy being a bishop.
But one does wish that a couple US or European bishops would openly hold a mass and ask the pope's minions to pledge not to destroy the ten commandments, at least until the next conclave.
The synod is about reminding Catholics that we welcome everyone.
The problem? in reality is is about pushing the heresy of niceness for sinners, who don't need to believe (let alone need to repent) while the Pope openly insult ordinary pious believers. (some of his comments reminds one of Hillary's taunt about deplorables.)
But don't dare criticize the Pope. I've even heard it is a sin to criticize Pope Francis (Hmm... wonder if St Athanasius knew that)...
Strickland, 65, has been particularly critical of Francis’ recent meeting on the future of the Catholic Church during which hot-button issues were discussed, including women in governance roles and ways to better welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics. In a tweet earlier this year, Strickland accused the pope of “undermining the deposit of faith.",,,
Italics mine.
How dare he believe what Catholics have believed in for 2000 years. And how dare he preach clearly: I guess he didn't get the memo on how to confuse people by using jargon from the 1960s...
.
Sigh.
this is why most of the bishops criticizing the Pope's heresies are retired (and can't be fired) or laypeople (who can't be harmed).
Not only are a lot of US bishops still Catholic, but they control a lot of money. I suspect they have noticed the weekly donations (and attendance) in the church has gone down, partly from the Covid shutdown, but also because of confusion coming from on high. That is why last year they got out the big guns and started pushing prayer aka Eucharistic adoration.
So firing an inconvenient bishop is a shot across the bow by this Pope to warn priests and bishops not to oppose reform, i.e, making the church into a politically correct NGO that welcomes everyone but believers, especially those on the trad side of the church.
Now I tend to think the trads are overdoing it a bit and tend to be on the social justice side of the church, but you need both: And to do social justice work leads to burn out if you don't have a relationship with Jesus to get you through the hard times.
But my main annoyance at the SJW is that they seem to think if you don't do that type of work you aren't really a Christian....
The SJW emphasis makes the meaning of religion all about them and their deeds, leaving the rest of us out to be scolded by them as self centered and rigid because we still believe in the ten commandments and think we can serve God by ordinary work and caring for our family... sort of like Mama Mary, who was a simple housewife and mother.
.............................
In other news, we went to early mass this morning and it was packed and overflowing, and people dressed in good clothes.
Usually this mass is full of workers who attend before they go to work, and so most are in blue jeans and tee shirts or casual clothing.
And I noticed lots of vendors were in the parking lot selling small statues of Jesus and the cross.... hmmm... What is going on?
The church is sponsoring (a replica of) the Black Nazarene.
The Black Nazarene is a statue of Jesus carrying the cross, and is black in colour from a fire.
The Black Nazarene devotion is about picking up our cross and following Jesus, who also suffered like we do and will help us in our suffering.
So there were extra hymns and prayers after the mass, and tomorrow there will be a procession around the town.
This is how one teaches the faith in the days before everyone could read or write: Through stories and fiestas, and with pictures or statues that remind one that Jesus cares for us, and stories of the struggles and joys of the saints help us see God in our daily life.
"The kernel is the belief that God is love and, in Catholicism, God's love is present in the world. It is in the sacraments, in the Eucharist, in our families, in our friends, in our neighborhood, and forgiveness in the touch of a friendly hand, in a rediscovered love God is there." ~ Andrew Greeley
The replica statue of the Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno de Quiapo is carried by members of the Hijos del Nazareno on its way outside the St. Anthony Abbot Parish Center as it ends its three-day visit in San Antonio town on Sunday, June 18. Photo by STEVE A. GOSUICO.
Why listen to conspiracy theories? Because they often take an overlooked problem and inflate it to an evil conspiracy. But if you don't note what they are saying, you might miss they do point out something that does need to be noticed.
For example, years ago, some conspiracy theorists noted that Soros backed organizations were funding the campaigns for big city district attorneys: in order to reform the racist criminal courts.
So we now see the problem of good intentions that ignore reality:
Trump said to just shoot these criminal gangs... Uh, I don't think so.
But you know that worked here under Duterte. But too many killed were not kingpins but minor criminals.
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For example, once while doing business downtown, shots rang out and we were told to go inside for safety, and when I came out, there was a dead young lady lying on the street: she and a friend tried to rob a local pharmacy and were shot at by the security guard. ...
Sigh. Were they criminals, or just poor people trying to make money to eat? or (more likely) people using shabu who needed money to pay for drugs?
But even here, before Duterte, a lot of crime was sociopaths figuring they could get away with robbing, but after he made the possible price for crime go up, they decided maybe to stop robbing and work for a living and stay alive....
So do you mourn low level criminals who are shot for minor crimes, or do you mourn those killed by these criminals? We did have several neighbors killed in home invasion robberies.
Because the honesty of the Clintons ia above suspicion.
much of it is about wanting peace in our time (cue Miss Congeniality satire of this)
).
But of course despite all his nice words, which I support, the dirty little secret is that the Pope says one thing here and another thing there and his actions often don't fit the idea of niceness to all.
the Pope is busy openly presecuting the trad catholics and is now going after the mainstream Catholics as in EWTN and many of the US Catholic bishops who still believe in what the church has taught for the last 2000 years.
Sigh
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Julian Assange was persecuted (he bonked a girl and she claims it was rape).
And now we read one after another person being hit to silence them.
I mean, Rumble is full of nonsense, but now there are people saying advertisers should refuse to monitize anyone on Rumble because... Russell Brand is on Rumble,
This has nothing to do with his recent work criticizing the establishment point of view: The press and the UK government just noticed that he bonked the wrong woman 15 years ago, when he was being touted in the tabloids as a bigshot boinker in the UK (and back then that was a compliment). But apparently he said something wrong, so eliminate him
But there are other ways to hide information: put a lot of stuff in your search engine search so what you want to find is now number 290 and you have to really keep loading the pages to find it.
of course, soon the google search will be passe: CHat stuff will look for you and tell you the truth.
In other news: the complicated problem of people wanting jobs , and the failure to implement giving them visas legally.... and the exploitation of these people by criminals out for money and who also smuggle ciminals, drugs and do human trarfficking on the side.
and AlJ notes a lot of the danger to migrants is not the US racism but criminal gangs:They note:
Migrants and asylum seekers are sometimes shot if their smuggler is working for a rival gang or if they haven’t paid passage rights.
Migrants and asylum seekers are also often robbed by roving gangs of thieves and kidnappers in border areas.
The incident underscores ongoing risks for migrants and asylum seekers in border areas that criminal gangs control. https://t.co/YwD9VRiHSi
What does #XiJinping fear most? That would almost certainly be his fellow #CCP leaders. What’s in second place? My guess is the “house” #Protestant congregations and the underground #Catholics. Despite everything, he cannot control #Christians who pray by themselves. #China
but hey don't worry: the Pope just kowtowed to China by approving of one of their puppet bishops Xi just put in without asking the Pope's approval. This is against the so calledVatican China agreement but never mind. China breaks agreements all the time, and this Pope is more worried about Trads who pray than communists taking over the church with their toadies.
If you read the first article you might notice all those previous bishops were arrested and silenced for daring to be Catholic.
Randall Smith at the Catholic Thing has an essay about the absurdity of the synodality nonsense (that the big shots in the Catholic church are spending oodles of money pushing)
“The North American Synod Team” says they “heard through the synodal consultations that our people are asking for more robust formation” in synodality and in going out to those on the “margins” of society.
It’s odd because I am hearing different voices: from people who want to know how to raise their families; how to live in a society that is increasingly antagonistic toward them; how to ensure their children are getting a good education and formation in the faith.
The last thing they want to deal with is Church bureaucracy. They want that part of their lives to just be there for them so they can focus on other things. What to do with a sick elderly parent? How to take care of a disabled child who their Catholic schools won’t take? How to deal with children poisoned by the toxic culture? The document fails to touch on any of these concerns.
italics mine
A lot of us figure this is a "top down"way to manipulate people in the pew to accept the reformers (such as those in Germany) who have an agenda: And if you object, they can say you are against the Holy Spirit.
But as the author points out: It has little or nothing to do with Jesus, God, or the faith of ordinary Catholics.
And every time I hear PC language about inclusivity etc I am reminded of Gresham's law: bad money drives out good money.
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In other news, I am reading about an incorrupt (i.e. intact) body of a dead nun found in the central USA when the sisters of the Monastery she founded was expanding their buildings, and they decided to rebury her bones inside the church.
But when they did this last week, they were astonished to find her body intact.
One of them mentioned it in an email, and soon the rumor went around and oodles of folk started traveling to their monastery to view this "miracle"
Here is a short snip about this.
One can almost hear the eyerolls of good Protestants and unbelievers who think the whole thing is a sham at best or just a fraud to raise money.
Behind what is going on here: There is a Catholic idea that sometimes saints bodies remain intact, as a sign by God that they are holy.
This is not just a Catholic idea: Buddhist monks come to mind. But of course, just finding an intact body doesn't mean that person is a saint: mummies in the desert and the bog bodies and bodies found in ice like Otzi or the Peruvian human sacrifices come to mind.
The experts undoubtably will find a "scientific" explanation of it, and it wouldn't bother me a bit: Because God often uses natural methods to make a point.
So what would the point of this absurdity?
Well, like most good Catholics, a lot of what we call might call miracles is just coincidence. We are in need, and someone just happens to come to help us. When I was in Africa, and took time off to attend medical lectures, I worried about leaving the hospital with no physician. The nuns assured me I shouldn't worry because God knew I was gone, and it was his responsibility. And so, sometimes a medical emergency would occur five minutes before I left, or five minutes after I arrived back from the conference....
Coincidence? Or a sign that God is in control?
so there is an intact body of a nun...is this a miracle or just a natural phenomenum.
Both. And believe me, I am sure the bishops are gnashing their teeth at this inconvenient occurance.
But what I find interesting is the timing of this happening... coincidence?
Well, first of all, the nun was African American. Critics laughed at this and I have seen comments saying cynically I guess the US needs a Diversity saint.
But it does remind people that there are indeed African American Catholics, and Sister Wilhemina taught in Catholic school for years before she left to found this monastery to pray full time.
A lot of us noticed that these nuns wore full habits, and the monastery was founded by a group that supports the Latin mass, an act that upsets Pope Francis more than bishops trying to destroy that commandment about adultery.
And of course, all of this happened in a week when the PC Dodgers are planning to honor a hate group of drag queens who ridicule Catholic nuns...
Coincidence?
Don't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor about all of this.
As I wrote in an earlier post: Christians have indeed started rebellions against the state when the state persecuted them and shut down their churches.
Which is why the FBI memo against Trad Catholics is so worrisome. Yes, there are a few out there who are crazy, but hey, don't we all have crazy uncles who believe such stuff? And calling everyone in the family, or who follow a certain religious tradition, similarly conspiracy theorists/enemies of the state is worse than wrong: It is stupid, because it makes one think that maybe crazy Uncle Joe might be a bit right.
Another problem? The FBI could infiltrate these groups and try to inspire violence, again to discredit the group.
“Let me first be clear: anyone who espouses racism or promotes violence is rejecting Catholic teaching on the inherent dignity of each and every person.
This in itself if troubling, because Racism and the promotion of (physical) violence is almost absent from the Trad sites I view.
There are websites who oppose the NWO and use anti Semetic language to criticize ethnic non believing Jews pushing the NWO's ideas. This needs to be criticized, but racism per se is absent.
However, in a time when JKRowling has been accused of bigotry and inspiring violnce for saying women are women and men are men, it is easly to pretend that saying the modern equivalent of "but it does move" when traditional Catholics write about the Christian ideas of sexuality and family: something that the PC insists is a form of violence that needs to be censored.
It has been said that Catholic law is strict, but God's mercy is larger, so there is a toleration for sinful behavior in Catholicism, since we are all sinners who need to repent.
Take the Philippines, where I live. Filipinos are often called "gay friendly", meaning that hey if a person is gay, or trans, or likes to cross dress, or has a second wife on the side, well, no big problem.
Just like Americans accepting our crazy Uncle Joes who think Roosevelt was Jewish or that UFO lizard people run the world, they are accepted as part of the family and we love them even when we don't agree with their views or lifestyle.
That is what being a Catholic means.
But this doesn't mean staying quiet when groups funded by people planning to destroy the family pushing the gender stuff on our kids in school, and letting boys claiming to be trans rape one's daughter in the restroom, and then having the FBI sicced on you for daring to say this.
In the USA, anti Catholic bigotry is the norm, because too many read the anti Catholic screeds of the reformation pushers and believe them.
because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured--perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again--not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me--but what kind of America I believe in.
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishoners for whom to vote...
and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.
....For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew--or a Quaker--or a Unitarian--or a Baptist.
It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim- -but tomorrow it may be you--until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.
Ordinary Americans would say that this idea of separation of church and state should be the norm, and his words should be remembered.
After telling the story of how JFK had to face open bigotry and lies against the Catholic church and Catholic believers, the magazine didn't stop there.
The article goes on to lament that this speech "marginalized" religion and led to the Christian right movement in the Republican party.
This completely misunderstand Catholicism and how Catholics show their beliefs.
When JFK had his brother quietly arrange Martin Luther King be left out of a jail where his life was in danger, he did not give a "Jesus" speech to show off his piety: He just quietly did this.
And his Catholicism inspired his compassion for the coalminers of West Virginia, the need for decent schools in the slums of the large cities, and the need for a social welfare policy to prevent severe poverty that was a major problem in cities and rural areas alike.
Catholicism was behind both his distrust of communism and communist propaganda, but also inspired his non violent response to the Cuban missile crisis, and behind his reaching out to Russia to make peace afterward.
That is how Catholics (and many other Christians) do it.
They don't quote the bible like the Religious right, and they don't demonstrate and show off their piety as a SJW on the left.
They just quietly work to fix things: sending a neighbor in need food when they are sick, offering to work at the food bank on their day off from work, homeschooling their kids and the kids of their neighbors.
Picketing abortion mills is done by such people, because they want to show there mothers that there is an alternative to the decision that many chose from family pressure or from despair.
But what doesn't get publicity is the many taking into their homes a teenage girl who wants to keep her baby but needs a place to stay and someone to help her learn how to care for an infant.
The problem is that nowadays, any believer who openly claims they follow the beliefs of their religion and dare to publish it on the social media, are not just going to be called Hitler by the twitersphere mob, but could be in real trouble of losing their job for not bowing to the woke.
and that is the implications behind this notorious memo.
