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Archive for the ‘Popes’ Category

Feast Day of St. Joseph the Worker: Why was it Created?

Posted in Catholic, Christian, faith, feast day, Popes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 1, 2013 | 2 Comments »

Today is the feast day of St. Joseph, the Worker.

CNA:

“Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit. He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words, but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God. He listens in silence. And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God,” Pope John Paul II had once said.

There is very little about the life of Joseph in Scripture but still, we know that he was the chaste husband of Mary, the foster father of Jesus, a carpenter and  a man who was not wealthy. We also know that he came from the royal lineage of King David.

We can see from his actions in scripture that Joseph was a compassionate man, and obedient to the will of God. He also loved Mary and Jesus and wanted to protect and provide for them.

From CatholicCulture: 

The feast of St. Joseph the Worker was established by Pope Pius XII in 1955 in order to Christianize the concept of labor and give to all workmen a model and a protector. By the daily labor in his shop, offered to God with patience and joy, St. Joseph provided for the necessities of his holy spouse and of the Incarnate Son of God, and thus became an example to all laborers. “Workmen and all those laboring in conditions of poverty will have reasons to rejoice rather than grieve, since they have in common with the Holy Family daily preoccupations and cares”(Leo XIII).

Here is a sermon on Pope Pius XII’s institution of St. Joseph the Worker’s feast day on May 1.

 

 

 

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Pius XII and the Holocaust

Posted in Catholic Church, history, Popes, Religion, War, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 19, 2013 | 5 Comments »

Rabbi David Rosen Speaks on Pius XII and the Holocaust

After hearing this video on Catholic-Jewish relations I looked up Pius XII. I never bought the meme that Pope Pius XII was silent and didn’t do much to save the Jews during the Holocaust.  That is revisionist history. Could he have done more? Maybe. Could each of us do more in certain areas of our lives? Yes.  Fr. William Saunders answers Did Pope Pius XII Remain Silent? in this article:

To begin to understand Pius XII’s actions during the World War II, we must remember the world in which he lived. Hitler had assumed control of Germany in 1933. In July of that same year, he began not only persecuting Jews but also Christians. He infiltrated the German Evangelical Federation (the Lutheran Church), removing leaders who were opposed to his agenda. Many of these ministers died in concentration camps or prisons, like the famous Deitrich Bonhoffer.

The persecution was even more intense for the Catholic Church. Gestapo agents attended Mass and listened to every homily preached, prepared to arrest any priest attacking or criticizing the regime. Chanceries were searched for any “incriminating” documents. Communication with Rome was limited. Nazi propaganda represented the Church as unpatriotic and hoarding wealth with clerics portrayed as idle and avaricious. By 1940, all Catholic schools had been closed, and religious instruction confined to the Church itself or at home. Meanwhile, anti-Christian teaching was imparted in the public schools.

Please note that the first concentration camp was established in 1933 at Dachau, outside of Munich; this camp was not .so much an “extermination camp” as one for the political prisoners, including priests. At Dachau alone, 2,700 priests were imprisoned (of which 1,000 died), and were subject to the most awful tortures, including the medical experiments of Dr. Rascher.

Such persecution was not confined to Germany. The Church in Poland also suffered severely. During the first four months of occupation following the September 1939 invasion, 700 priests were shot and 3,000 were sent to concentration camps (of which 2,600 died). By the end of the war, 3 million Polish Catholics had been killed in concentration camps. How many other Catholics–priests, religious, and laity—in other countries died for the faith during the Nazi era?  CONTINUED 

I was really surprised how well Fr. Saunders outlined what Pope Pius XII did to save the Jews.  I am really impressed with how much Pope Pius XII did to save the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

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Habemus Papam! Pope Francis I

Posted in Catholic Church, Catholicism, Catholics, Christian, Pope, Popes, tagged , , , , , , , on March 13, 2013 | 11 Comments »

I am totally psyched! This is awesome!!! We now have a new Pope. Kevin and I have been glued to the TV watching with excitement awaiting the announcement of who is the new Pope. The College of Cardinals chose Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to be the 266th Pope. He has chosen the name Francis I. Our new Pope is Pope Francis I. Awesome!! Totally awesome!!! Pope Francis I is from Argentina. He is the first non-European, first South American, and first Jesuit Pope. Magnificent!! May the Holy Spirit guide him as he leads the Catholic Church. God Bless him.

PopeFrancisI

pic H/T Atlantic Newswire 

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Links, Bits, Pieces Emeritus Pope Benedict and More Edition

Posted in blogging, Catholic, Catholic Church, Christian, God, Links Bits Pieces, Popes, prayer, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 1, 2013 | 3 Comments »

Today has been tough for me, kind of emotional. I had a doctor’s appointment with my PCP and she was extremely kind and comforted me.  After I left the doc’s office I stopped by a Catholic book store and bought a few meditation booklets. One of the books is called Little Francis Love Notes and helped brighten my day.  Here is one of the notes:

LittleFrancisnotes

It has been a very, very long time since I have written a links,bits, and pieces post.  I am going to plan to do one of these per week from hence forward.

The Vatican website has a really awesome tribute in honor of Pope Benedict XVI. I found this via Apostasy Of The Apostasy.  I highly recommend you take a look at the papal tribute.

Here are some links to some great posts:

SR from Being Faithful To Grace has a post called The Teachings They Leave Out, About the Prosperity God

Catholic Glasses has posted about Adopt a Cardinal – Pray For Him.  I have adopted one. His name is Willem Cardinal Jacobus Eijk of the Netherlands. Please do adopt a Cardinal and pray for him as they gather for conclave to choose a new Pope.

Deacon Paul from Fra Angelico has a post called Beauty – “The Great Legacy” of Pope Benedict XVI. Here is bit of that post:

Beauty in liturgy the ‘great legacy’ of Benedict XVI

By Carl Bunderson

VATICAN CITY, March 1, 2013 (CNA/EWTN News) .  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI will be remembered in Church history for his work to recover the beauty of traditional liturgy, according to Bishop James D. Conley.

The head of the Lincoln, Neb. Diocese, who has been reading Benedict’s writings on liturgy for decades, said these works “will remain a great contribution to liturgical theology for years to come.”

“His great legacy,” Bishop Conley told CNA Feb. 27, “will be the re-discovery of the beauty of the traditional liturgy.”

Benedict awakened a “new way” of looking at the ordinary form of the Mass – the liturgy which came after the 1960s Second Vatican Council – “with a greater attempt to be more attentive to the rubrics.”

In the former pontiff’s view, Mass should be celebrated with beauty, dignity, and in continuity with the tradition of the Church, Bishop Conley noted. Continued Here

The Rainey View has posted The Three Most Profound Ideas I Have Ever Had 

From CNA: Cardinals Set Date for Meetings About Next Pope 

On the first day that the Church is without a Pope, Cardinal Angelo Sodano announced that the first general congregation of cardinals will take place next Monday morning.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, made the date public in an official letter sent to the world’s cardinal on March 1.

The cardinals will meet from 9:30 to 12:30 on the morning of March 4 in the Synod of Bishops hall on the second floor of the Paul VI audience hall. They will convene again from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the same place.

Prior to entering into the Conclave where they vote for the next Pope, the cardinals of the Church will meet for a series of meetings to take care of business and to discuss who they think will be a good candidate to succeed Pope Benedict.

The cardinals could announce when the conclave will begin after their first meeting, but there is no guarantee of the timing.

Dr. Taylor Marshall of Canterbury Tales has posted 12 Interesting facts about Benedict’s retired status

Simcha Fisher from National Catholic Register has posted Strange Goings-On in the Secular Media

I may end up doing another one of these posts real soon and have the links be on politics related stuff.

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Pope Benedict XVI Announces Resignation

Posted in authority, Catholic, Catholic Church, Current Events, faith, health, Popes, tagged , , , , , , on February 12, 2013 | 1 Comment »

I was shocked to read about the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI as I read through my emails on Monday morning.  To be honest at first I thought it was a hoax or something when I saw the headline on one of the blogs I frequent. But then soon enough I came to learn that it was true.

For most of the day I was ambivalent as to whether I would classify the Pope’s resignation as humble or not. In fact it was kind of hard for me to grasp why Pope Benedict would be resigning now when Pope John Paul II didn’t resign when his Parkinson’s Disease got really bad.  As I started reading the various commentaries on news sites/blogs I found this explanation by Damian Thompson very helpful:

Yes, the controversies surrounding child abuse have darkened his reign; my own feeling is that he has had to shoulder the burden of scandals that should have broken many years before he became pope, and also that his personal culpability as the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog during that period should not be exaggerated. John Paul II rather than Benedict XVI can be accused of turning a blind eye to certain abominations, not least to those of the Mexican child abuser the late Fr Marcel Maciel, whom Benedict sent into disgraced exile as soon as he became Pope. One reason Maciel was not dealt with in time was that John Paul II was too ill and, let us be honest, mentally enfeebled to confront Maciel’s crimes. Ratzinger has been determined from the beginning not to allow the same situation to overtake him. {I do encourage you to read his entire piece here}

After reading that I came to the conclusion that Pope Benedict’s stepping down due to his failing health is indeed an act of humility, a sign of a humble man.

It’s not often that lightning strikes St. Peter’s Basilica. And the same day the Pope announced his resignation. A sign of the Holy Spirit?

13_02_11_lightning_St_Peters
H/T Father Z

Pat Buchanan article A Godly Man in an Ungodly Age takes a look at the Pope’s resignation in light of Christianity’s decline in the West over the past few centuries.

Spero news article highlights Seven good reasons to admire Pope Benedict XVI.

Let us pray for Pope Benedict and his health, for Holy Mother Church, and for the papal conclave when the College of  Cardinals meet to elect a new Pope.

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A dove lands on your head and they elect you pope?

Posted in Catholic, Christian, God, Popes, Saints, Theology, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2013 | 1 Comment »

imagesOver the weekend as I was checking through my emails I read about a saint, a Roman layman who entered the city from his farm one day just as the clergy and people were getting ready to elect a new pope. According to a historian named Eusebius, a dove flew in and settled in on the head of this man. The clergy and laity saw this as a sign so they united their votes, and unanimously chose this Roman layman to be the next pope. This man’s name is St. Fabian.  I found this account of how Fabian was elected pope very interesting and inspiring.  It inspired me how the clergy and laity saw the dove as a sign from God, listened to Him, and showed their tremendous faithfulness in believing that God was telling them that Fabian was chosen to be the next pope. This really is fascinating to me.

I wasn’t able to find anymore on Fabian then what was in my email. Here is a little bit on his life:

He led the Church for 14 years and died a martyr’s death during the persecution of Decius in 250 A.D.. St. Cyprian wrote to his successor that Fabian was an “incomparable” man whose glory in death matched the holiness and purity of his life.

In the catacombs of St. Callistus, the stone that covered Fabian’s grave may still be seen, broken into four pieces, bearing the Greek words, “Fabian, bishop, martyr.”

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One Good Reason For Dignitatis Humanae

Posted in Catholic Church, encyclical, faith, Popes, Religion, Vatican II, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 29, 2012 | 2 Comments »

I recently became aware of a situation in the Church’s past where a Pope used a type of coercion to make sure a young child would be raised Catholic.  The circumstances ultimately led to the dissolution of the Papal States.  The whole scenario is bizarre.  A maid working for a Jewish family supposedly secretly had the child baptized because he was ill and close to death.  When the child recovered, the maid reported the baptism.  There was a law in effect that a Catholic child could not be raised by non-Catholics.    The Pope was so concerned for the child’s eternal soul that he chose to do a deplorable temporal act, what others believed to be a criminal act (what I would consider to be criminal), because the Pope believed that the young child’s soul would be in danger if after having been baptized he wasn’t raised to be a Catholic Christian.  Let’s just say I was totally shocked when I read about this event and to find out it was true was scandalous and even more appalling to me.

It is because of this type of coercive behavior that I believe that the installation of Dignitatis Humanae during Vatican II was not only a good thing but a necessity for the Catholic Church.

Here is the first paragraph of Dignitatis Humanae:

1. A sense of the dignity of the human person has been impressing itself more and more deeply on the consciousness of contemporary man,(1) and the demand is increasingly made that men should act on their own judgment, enjoying and making use of a responsible freedom, not driven by coercion but motivated by a sense of duty. The demand is likewise made that constitutional limits should be set to the powers of government, in order that there may be no encroachment on the rightful freedom of the person and of associations. This demand for freedom in human society chiefly regards the quest for the values proper to the human spirit. It regards, in the first place, the free exercise of religion in society. This Vatican Council takes careful note of these desires in the minds of men. It proposes to declare them to be greatly in accord with truth and justice. To this end, it searches into the sacred tradition and doctrine of the Church-the treasury out of which the Church continually brings forth new things that are in harmony with the things that are old.

This text emphasizes freedom, a responsible freedom that the human spirit must choose without coercion.

 

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Didn’t know this was possible… Woman Cardinals?

Posted in authority, Catechetics, Catholic, Catholicism, Popes, Theology, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 27, 2012 | 5 Comments »

In the post Cdl. Dolan and Fr. Benedict Groeschel Affirm Me in My Okayness! Mark Shea writes:

“For 15ish years, ever since the publication of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, I have maintained that one implication of the document is that women can be created cardinals of the Church (since the office of cardinal does not require holy orders and it is *only* the sacerdotal office to which the Church lacks the authority to ordain women). When I say this, I invariably get chewed out as a subversive modernist.”

You can hear the remarks on this at the 3:00 min mark

The rest of this video is on the HHS mandate.  I will probably be reposting this video with my thoughts on what Cardinal Dolan and Father Benedict Groeschel said regarding the HHS mandate.

Woman Cardinals?  What do you think? Theoretically it is possible because the title of Cardinal does NOT fall under Holy Orders. Would this cause scandal? It is possible that Leftist radical feminists within the Church could use this to push their pro women ordination agenda.  If the Church catechizes the laity properly on this, explains that Cardinals are appointed and thus does not fall under the Sacrament of Holy Orders, then that could defuse misunderstandings and people who might use this to promote their progressive, modernist agenda.   This is very interesting.

 

 

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Reading The Popes: A Beginner Philosopher’s Thoughts on Fides et Ratio Part 2

Posted in Catholicism, encyclical, Philosophy, Popes, tagged , , , , , , , on February 15, 2012 | 1 Comment »

This post is the second in my series Reading The Popes: A Beginner Philosopher’s Thoughts on Fides et Ratio. You can view the first post in the series here.

Pope John Paul II believes that different schools of philosophy possess principles in accordance with a common “spiritual heritage of humanity”.

“Once reason successfully intuits and formulates the first universal principles of being and correctly draws from them conclusions which are coherent both logically and ethically, then it may be called right reason or, as the ancients called it, orthós logos, recta ratio.” PJII Fides et Ratio 

I had an idea of what a foundational principle is but wasn’t quite sure what the difference between that and a premise is so he explained to me the difference between the two. JPII stated that the different philosophical schools of thought have an implicit understanding of basic foundational principles.  I would add that, if you start out working from the wrong premise then it is almost impossible to end up with the correct answer or conclusion.

Blessed John Paul II emphasizes the need for philosophy to focus on absolute truths, to know the truth.  Unfortunately modern philosophy has abandoned absolute truths for human knowing, which has given rise to agnosticism and relativism.

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Reading The Popes: A Beginner Philosopher’s Thoughts on Fides et Ratio – “Knowing Yourself”

Posted in Catholicism, encyclical, Philosophy, Popes, tagged , , , , , , , on January 28, 2012 | 4 Comments »

About a month ago I decided that Fides et Ratio would be the next encylical that I would focus on in my “Reading The Popes” posts. Then as I started reading it I realized that the encyclical is philosophically very deep. I struggled with reading and commenting on Fides et Ratio from beginning to end so I finally ended up deciding to break up my “Reading The Popes” post of Fides et Ratio into several parts.

Here are the first few paragraphs of Fides et Ratio:

1. In both East and West, we may trace a journey which has led humanity down the centuries to meet and engage truth more and more deeply. It is a journey which has unfolded—as it must—within the horizon of personal self-consciousness: the more human beings know reality and the world, the more they know themselves in their uniqueness, with the question of the meaning of things and of their very existence becoming ever more pressing. This is why all that is the object of our knowledge becomes a part of our life. The admonition Know yourself was carved on the temple portal at Delphi, as testimony to a basic truth to be adopted as a minimal norm by those who seek to set themselves apart from the rest of creation as “human beings”, that is as those who “know themselves”.

Moreover, a cursory glance at ancient history shows clearly how in different parts of the world, with their different cultures, there arise at the same time the fundamental questions which pervade human life: Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there after this life? These are the questions which we find in the sacred writings of Israel, as also in the Veda and the Avesta; we find them in the writings of Confucius and Lao-Tze, and in the preaching of Tirthankara and Buddha; they appear in the poetry of Homer and in the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles, as they do in the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle. They are questions which have their common source in the quest for meaning which has always compelled the human heart. In fact, the answer given to these questions decides the direction which people seek to give to their lives.

 2. The Church is no stranger to this journey of discovery, nor could she ever be. From the moment when, through the Paschal Mystery, she received the gift of the ultimate truth about human life, the Church has made her pilgrim way along the paths of the world to proclaim that Jesus Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). It is her duty to serve humanity in different ways, but one way in particular imposes a responsibility of a quite special kind: the diakonia of the truth.(1) This mission on the one hand makes the believing community a partner in humanity’s shared struggle to arrive at truth; (2) and on the other hand it obliges the believing community to proclaim the certitudes arrived at, albeit with a sense that every truth attained is but a step towards that fullness of truth which will appear with the final Revelation of God: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully” (1 Cor 13:12).

 

Here are my thoughts:
As I was reading Fides et Ratio I noticed that Blessed John Paul II had mentioned Aristotle so I searched the web using two criteria, “Aristotle” and “know yourself”.  I found this quote by Aristotle which is intriguing to me: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”.

At the moment of conception each of us was formed in the image and likeness of God. But knowing ourselves does not mean merely existing.  Knowing ourselves is an ongoing, changing process over time. 

There is more to us than flesh, bone, blood, and organs.  As human persons we have souls which help to make up our very being.  We must internally have a sense of who we are because if we don’t we become fragmented beings.  We become like puzzle pieces that are jumbled up trying to find the correct pieces that go into the right spot.

We are all on a journey on knowing who we are so it is no wonder that many of us struggle in our faith from time to time.  Or that we struggle with certain aspects of our faith at different points in our lifetime.

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