Why apart? From the in-gathering, all embracing Mother Church you flee, to remain apart all the while, calling and yearning for your God. You flee and I run after you, pursuing you at every turn, and twist and fall. I reach and you pull your hand away. Why not stay? My Body yearns for you. My members long to know you.
I wait upon your prayers with angels ready to dispatch.
O, Pardoned Soul, you seek your God in myriad ways, I am here, wedded to My Bride, always at her side. promised never to depart. You hold yourself apart.You’ve built a chapel in your heart for others that play God,
I call and draw you by Love within the chapel of your heart.
You sigh as I tug at heart strings tight and taunt. You resist Me for fear they’ll break. I woo, I’m told to wait. You say you are not ready for Love’s music.“Measure me Your Love,” you say. “Give comfort, strength and sure supply, but do not on my ‘Yes’ rely.”
Perhaps the Bride, the Church, who bears My Word forth unto all centuries, has words you n’er obey, in dread fear of the “ought” you can not bear. You will your will be done on earth and choose to judge all heaven. You want only love’s first glance, the sweet embrace and kiss upon the cheek, nothing too dear, nothing too deep. It seems a bitter end, to lose yourself in giving all, O Measured One.
You know Love comes with a Cross, a Cross you fear to carry. You choose to stay apart and skirt the Cross. Alas, the world without has crosses, too. They may come disguised in promised delight, but soon you’ll drag that empty dream uphill. How long one longs and labors longingly and all alone beneath the weight of vanities profane, I do not say. I only await a cry, a plea, glance of recognition. When our eyes meet, then our hearts meet; at long last your leap into the arms of One Who grasps you in your fall.
Be mine as Church joined to Husband. At last the Lord of All can leap the walls you’ve built about yourself to know you now within His Sacred Heart, bearing your cross in His,making all things new and all your burdens light. Count now as joy life without measure.
Fear not my Church. She is My Spouse, My very Body; I ,the Head.
I woo and wait, now, as Groom upon the altar. You must give yourself away.
by Joann Nelander
Archive for the Church Category
For Fear Apart
Posted in Christian, Church with tags Denominations, fear, God, Lord, Religion and Spirituality on October 10, 2010 by JoannChurch Doctrine Development -Not Alteration
Posted in Church with tags Catholic Church, christianity, Denominations, Doctrine, God, Religion and Spirituality on October 8, 2010 by JoannAn instruction by St Vincent of Lerins
The Development of Doctrine Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.Who can be so grudging to men, so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it? But it must truly be development of the faith, not alteration of the faith. Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another.The understanding, knowledge and wisdom of one and all, of individuals as well as of the whole Church, ought then to make great and vigorous progress with the passing of the ages and the centuries, but only along its own line of development, that is, with the same doctrine, the same meaning and the same import.The religion of souls should follow the law of development of bodies. Though bodies develop and unfold their component parts with the passing of the years, they always remain what they were. There is a great difference between the flower of childhood and the maturity of age, but those who become old are the very same people who were once young. Though the condition and appearance of one and the same individual may change, it is one and the same nature, one and the same person.The tiny members of unweaned children and the grown members of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age was already present in seminal form; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.There is no doubt, then, that the legitimate and correct rule of development, the established and wonderful order of growth, is this: in older people the fullness of years always brings to completion those members and forms that the wisdom of the Creator fashioned beforehand in their earlier years.If, however, the human form were to turn into some shape that did not belong to its own nature, or even if something were added to the sum of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become grotesque or at least be enfeebled. In the same way, the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.In ancient times our ancestors sowed the good seed in the harvest field of the Church. It would be very wrong and unfitting if we, their descendants, were to reap, not the genuine wheat of truth but the intrusive growth of error.On the contrary, what is right and fitting is this: there should be no inconsistency between first and last, but we should reap true doctrine from the growth of true teaching, so that when, in the course of time, those first sowings yield an increase it may flourish and be tended in our day also.
“relied on an extensive study of early Church Fathers in tracing the elaboration or development of doctrine which he argued was in some way implicitly present in the Divine Revelation in Sacred Scripture and Tradition which was present from the beginnings of the Church.” (Wikipedia)
The Pope – On the Great Convert
Posted in Church with tags beatification, christianity, Church, God, John Henry Newman, Pope Benedict XVI, Religion and Spirituality, Uncategorized on September 19, 2010 by JoannIn an excellent meditation delivered at the vigil of the beatification of John Henry Newman,Pope Benedict XVI said, “”Passion for the truth is costly: it often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied.”
The Pope said:
Newman’s life also teaches us that passion for the truth, intellectual honesty and genuine conversion are costly. The truth that sets us free cannot be kept to ourselves; it calls for testimony, it begs to be heard, and in the end its convincing power comes from itself and not from the human eloquence or arguments in which it may be couched. Not far from here, at Tyburn, great numbers of our brothers and sisters died for the faith; the witness of their fidelity to the end was ever more powerful than the inspired words that so many of them spoke before surrendering everything to the Lord. In our own time, the price to be paid for fidelity to the Gospel is no longer being hanged, drawn and quartered but it often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied. And yet, the Church cannot withdraw from the task of proclaiming Christ and his Gospel as saving truth, the source of our ultimate happiness as individuals and as the foundation of a just and humane society.
Finally, Newman teaches us that if we have accepted the truth of Christ and committed our lives to him, there can be no separation between what we believe and the way we live our lives. Our every thought, word and action must be directed to the glory of God and the spread of his Kingdom. Newman understood this, and was the great champion of the prophetic office of the Christian laity. He saw clearly that we do not so much accept the truth in a purely intellectual act as embrace it in a spiritual dynamic that penetrates to the core of our being. Truth is passed on not merely by formal teaching, important as that is, but also by the witness of lives lived in integrity, fidelity and holiness; those who live in and by the truth instinctively recognize what is false and, precisely as false, inimical to the beauty and goodness which accompany the splendour of truth, “veritatis splendor.”
Adoration for Reparation for Sexual Abuses by Priests – Vatican
Posted in Catholic, Church, News, Prayer, Vatican with tags adoration, Catholic, Church, News, Prayer, priests, reparation, sexual abuse, Vatican on May 30, 2010 by JoannJohn Thavis posted in Catholic News Service:
The Vatican is hosting two hours of Eucharistic Adoration “in reparation for abuses committed by priests and for the healing of this wound within the church.”The service in St. Peter’s Basilica this Saturday will feature an hour of silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, an hour of prayer and meditation, and a solemn blessing at the end.The unusual initiative was organized by Catholic university students in Rome. Sources said the event was originally planned for the small Church of St. Anne inside Vatican City, but that it was moved to St. Peter’s at the suggestion of Cardinal Angelo Comastri, who is archpriest of the basilica.
One Minute Sermon -Rap
Posted in Church, Religion with tags Church, rap, Religion, sermon, straight talk on May 16, 2010 by Joann“Forgiveness Does Not Replace Justice”
Posted in Catholic, Church, Pope Benedict XVI, Religion with tags B 16, Catholic, Church, Pope Benedict XVI, Religion on May 16, 2010 by Joann“The attacks on the Pope and the Church do not just come from outside, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin that is in the Church,” Pope Benedict XVI said. “This has always been known, but today we see it in a really terrifying way: The greatest persecution of the Church does not come from external enemies, but is born from the sin in the Church.
“And the Church, therefore, has the profound need to learn penance again, to accept purification, to learn on one hand forgiveness, as well as the need for justice. Forgiveness does not replace justice.” from remarks of Pope Benedict XVI on board Alitalia’s Airbus 320, at the start of his trip to Portugal.
Read More in an article by Jesús Colina in Zenit.org
Listen here at Transalpine Redemptorists
The Full Story Is Not Being Told- A Thoughtful Discussion
Posted in Catholic, Church, My Journal, Video with tags Catholic, Church, My Journal, Video on April 26, 2010 by JoannThe Church is about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The Church, being the Body of Christ, can expect to be on the Cross, century after century, in this world. Christ was sinless and “became sin” for us. The Church, being the People of God, hangs on that Cross in Christ. At the Last Supper there was Communion. The Church hangs on that Cross mystically born in the heart of Christ. We are humiliated by our sins, the sin of people, and the sin of the world for which Christ is dying.
Resurrection comes after the suffering and the Passion. Our sinfulness is not the end. Our sinfulness is not the end. It’s the reason Christ died and now lives in His People, including His pope and His clergy. We are still learning how to be Christlike.
The Anchoress posted “No one wants to see pope prostrate.” In light of the grandiloquence surrounding the issue of sex abuse in the Catholic Church, getting the facts out is more important than ever to the Church, but with the wizardry of Presentism, the smoke and mirrors of time employed by The New York Times, distortions rule. Presentism, “a mode of historical analysis in which present-day ideas and perspectives are anachronistically introduced into depictions or interpretations of the Past, or as Webster states it, “an attitude toward the past dominated by present-day attitudes and experiences,” is itself a distortion. It is illogical and unreasonable. It is important to note that newspapers like the NY Times sell newspapers; sex and scandal sell.
B16 – Poignant Response to Maltese Youth
Posted in Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, Vatican, Video with tags Benedict XVI, Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, Malta, marginalized, People, speech, Vatican, Video, Young, youth on April 18, 2010 by JoannAn appeal to Benedict XVI as reported by the Catholic Herald‘s Anna Arco:
“I wish to speak on behalf of those young people who, like me feel they are on the outskirts of the Church. We are the ones who do not fit comfortably into stereo-typed roles. This is due to various factors among them: either because we have experienced substance abuse; or because we are experiencing the misfortune of broken or dysfunctional families; or because we are of a different sexual orientation; among us are also our immigrant brothers and sisters, all of us in some way or another have encountered experiences that have estranged us from the Church. Other Catholics put us all in one basket. For them we are those “who claim to believe yet do not live up to the commitment of faith.”To us, faith is a confusing reality and this causes us great suffering. We feel that not even the Church herself recognizes our worth. One of our deepest wounds stems from the fact that although the political forces are prepared to realize our desire for integration, the Church community still considers us to be a problem. It seems almost as if we are less readily accepted and treated with dignity by the Christian community than we are by all other members of society. Read more »
The Eucharist
Posted in Catholic, Church, Church Fathers, Irish, Just Thinking Out Loud with tags Catholic, Church, Church Fathers, Communion, Eucharist, Irish, Just Thinking Out Loud, Justin Martyr on April 18, 2010 by JoannFrom The First Apology of St. Justin Martyr:
No one may share the Eucharist with us unless he believes that what we teach is true, unless he is washed in the regenerating waters of baptism for the remission of his sins, and unless he lives in accordance with the principles given us by Christ.
We do not consume the eucharistic bread and wine as if it were ordinary food and drink, for we have been taught that as Jesus Christ our Savior became a man of flesh and blood by the power of the Word of God, so also the food that our flesh and blood assimilates for its nourishment becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus by the power of his own words contained in the prayer of thanksgiving.
The apostles, in their recollections, which are called gospels, handed down to us what Jesus commanded them to do. They tell us that he took bread, gave thanks and said: Do this in memory of me. This is my body. In the same way he took the cup, he gave thanks and said: This is my blood. The Lord gave this command to them alone. Ever since then we have constantly reminded one another of these things. The rich among us help the poor and we are always united. For all that we receive we praise the Creator of the universe through his Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members, whether they live in the city or the outlying districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as there is time. When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us; he urges everyone to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings. Then we all stand up together and pray.
On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability, and the people give assent by saying, “Amen”. The eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent.
The wealthy, if they wish, may make a contribution, and they themselves decide the amount. The collection is placed in the custody of the president, who uses it to help the orphans and widows and all who for any reason are in distress, whether because they are sick, in prison, or away from home. In a word, he takes care of all who are in need.
We hold our common assembly on Sunday because it is the first day of the week, the day on which God put darkness and chaos to flight and created the world, and because on that same day our savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead. For he was crucified on Friday and on Sunday he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them the things that we have passed on for your consideration.
God’s Plan of Salvation
Posted in Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, The Cross, Tradition with tags Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, Paschal Mystery, Redemption, salvation, The Cross, Tradition on April 17, 2010 by JoannFrom the constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council
God’s plan of salvationIn his desire that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, God spoke in former times to our forefathers through the prophets, on many occasions and in different ways. Then, in the fullness of time he sent his Son, the Word made man, anointed by the Holy Spirit, to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted as the physician of body and spirit and the mediator between God and men. In the unity of the person of the Word, his human nature was the instrument of our salvation. Thus in Christ there has come to be the perfect atonement that reconciles us with God, and we have been given the power to offer the fullness of divine worship.This work of man’s redemption and God’s perfect glory was foreshadowed by God’s mighty deeds among the people of the Old Covenant. It was brought to fulfillment by Christ the Lord, especially through the paschal mystery of his blessed passion, resurrection from the dead and ascension in glory: by dying he destroyed our death, and by rising again he restored our life. From his side, as he lay asleep on the cross, was born that wonderful sacrament which is the Church in its entirety.
As Christ was sent by the Father, so in his turn he sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit. They were sent to preach the Gospel to every creature, proclaiming that we had been set free from the power of Satan and from death by the death and resurrection of God’s Son, and brought into the kingdom of the Father. They were sent also to bring into effect this saving work that they proclaimed, by means of the sacrifice and sacraments that are the pivot of the whole life of the liturgy.
So, by baptism men are brought within the paschal mystery. Dead with Christ, buried with Christ, risen with Christ, they receive the Spirit that makes them God’s adopted children, crying out: Abba, Father; and so they become the true adorers that the Father seeks.
In the same way, whenever they eat the supper of the Lord they proclaim his death until he comes. So, on the very day of Pentecost, on which the Church was manifested to the world, those who received the word of Peter were baptized. They remained steadfast in the teaching of the apostles and in the communion of the breaking of bread, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
From that time onward the Church has never failed to come together to celebrate the paschal mystery, by reading what was written about him in every part of Scripture, by celebrating the Eucharist in which the victory and triumph of his death are shown forth, and also by giving thanks to God for the inexpressible gift he has given in Christ Jesus, to the praise of God’s glory.
Happy Easter! In Appreciation “Take & Eat”
Posted in Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, Culture with tags Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, Communion of Saints, Culture, Darkness/Light, Easter, Fr. Dan Butler, gratitude., Jesus, Prayer, Priesthood, priests, RIP, sacrament on April 4, 2010 by JoannHappy Easter Everyone!
This glorious morning, we will celebrate the Mass of Easter. After hearing the sermons and summonings of Lent, after fulfilling our “Easter Duty,”and after a week of holy preparation and solemn Liturgies, Easter is splendidly here. It is Jesus , Who has been at the center of our preparation. Jesus, the Christ, our Lord!
Throughout this time,who else has enabled us to fulfill the mandate of Christ, “Take and eat!” Who is it that have heard our confessions and blessed us in His Name, and in His Person? It is those upon whom He breathed His peace, empowered to forgive and sent forth with His authority, His holy priests, ministering His holy sacraments.
Thank you holy Fathers, faithful Fathers, faith-filled Fathers! It is into your care that Jesus entrusted His flock. We. a flawed People, yet a royal priesthood, a kingly, and prophetic People, thank you, our flawed in your humanity, and yet gloriously appointed and anointed Priesthood. Happy, holy Easter, dear Fathers. May you be forever blessed!
Why I Remain Catholic
Posted in Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, Lent, Priesthood, Religion with tags Anchoress, Catholic, Christ, Christian, Church, holiness, Lent, life, NPR, priest, Priesthood, Reflections, Religion, scandal, sexual abuse, sin on April 3, 2010 by JoannToday, On Good Friday, Here’s Why I Remain Catholic
Though the ill aspects of the Catholic Church have recently been highlighted in the news, commentator Elizabeth Scalia says the good aspects have never gotten enough attention.
Published: April 02, 2010
by Elizabeth Scalia
Elizabeth Scalia is a contributing writer to First Things Magazine as the blogger known as The Anchoress.
The question has come my way several times in the past week: “How do you maintain your faith in light of news stories that bring light to the dark places that exist within your church?”
When have darkness and light been anything but co-existent? How do we recognize either without the other?
I remain within, and love, the Catholic Church because it is a church that has lived and wrestled within the mystery of the shadow lands ever since an innocent man was arrested, sentenced and crucified, while the keeper of “the keys” denied him, and his first priests ran away. Through 2,000 imperfect — sometimes glorious, sometimes heinous — years, the church has contemplated and manifested the truth that dark and light, innocence and guilt, justice and injustice all share a kinship, one that waves back and forth like wind-stirred wheat in a field, churning toward something — as yet — unknowable.
The darkness within my church is real, and it has too often gone unaddressed. The light within my church is also real, and has too often gone unappreciated. A small minority has sinned, gravely, against too many. Another minority has assisted or saved the lives of millions.
But then, my country is the most generous and compassionate nation on Earth; it is also the only country that has ever deployed nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
My government is founded upon a singular appreciation of personal liberty; some of those founders owned slaves.
My family was known for its neighborliness and its work ethic; its patriarch was a serial child molester.
Read the complete essay here.
Surprise – Sin Abounds!
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Church, Faith, Just Thinking Out Loud, Lent with tags Catholic, Christian, Church, Faith, forgiveness, grace, Just Thinking Out Loud, Lent, perfection, Reflections, romans, sin on April 2, 2010 by Joann
It should be no surprise; Sin abounds! The human race is awash with, riddles with, mired in and drowning under, Sin. It is our natural state of being without a Savior. From the day we are born, leaving Eden, so to speak, we become the star of our universe, maybe, more like a Black Hole. We can’t help trying to draw all things to ourselves. With myiads of rationalizations and excuses to suit our ages and pretensions, the event horizon is approached and we are doomed. Sin in its rational disguises is irrational and drives us like a madman. It is the Dark, clouding out the true Sun.
The real surprise in life is that where sin abounds grace abounds all the more! It can be stated that God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. Romans 5:20.
Our Savior comes still today to save us. Being “churched” does not perfect us; God does, in His own time. If we open our hearts in repentance, Jesus gives us His forgiveness and cancels the debt against us. Perfect comes later, sometimes, much later.
The euphemistic blessing, “May you live in interesting times.” is said to be the least severe of three curses, the others being:
- “May you come to the attention of those in authority.”
“May you find what you are looking for.”
Fortunately, for us, the Living, we live in glorious times. Sin abounds and we are saved! God for His part has done the work, we need but claim the Victory. The offer is always at hand in nail-pierced hands. Grace abounds all the more! Alleluia!
Must Read: Why I Remain A Catholic
by Elizabeth Scalia The Anchoress
Judge Speaks on Murphy Case – Shame on NY Times
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Church, Culture, News, Opinions, Political with tags Catholic, Christian, Church, Culture, judge, Murphy, Must Read, News, NY.Times, Opinions, Political, Ratzinger, sex abuse on March 30, 2010 by JoannThank you Anchoress: Murphy Case – NY Times Never Talked to Judge
Thank You Fr. THOMAS BRUNDAGE, JL
Setting the record straight in the case of abusive Milwaukee priest Father Lawrence Murphy
Then-presiding judge for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee gives first-person account of church trial
By Fr. THOMAS BRUNDAGE, JLC
For CatholicAnchor.org
To provide context to this article, I was the Judicial Vicar for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee from 1995-2003. During those years, I presided over four canonical criminal cases, one of which involved Father Lawrence Murphy. Two of the four men died during the process. God alone will judge these men.
To put some parameters on the following remarks, I am writing this article with the express knowledge and consent of Archbishop Roger Schwietz, OMI, the Archbishop of Anchorage, where I currently serve. Archbishop Schwietz is also the publisher of the Catholic Anchor newspaper.
I will limit my comments, because of judicial oaths I have taken as a canon lawyer and as an ecclesiastical judge. However, since my name and comments in the matter of the Father Murphy case have been liberally and often inaccurately quoted in the New York Times and in more than 100 other newspapers and on-line periodicals, I feel a freedom to tell part of the story of Father Murphy’s trial from ground zero. Read more »
Update:NY Times’ Ratzinger Story Wrong by Its Own Documentation
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Church, News, Pope Benedict XVI with tags Cardinal Ratzinger, Catholic, Christian, Church, judge, Murphy, News, NY.Times, Pope Benedict XVI, sex abuse on March 30, 2010 by JoannUpdate:NY Times’ Ratzinger Story Wrong by Its Own Documentation
H/T The Anchoress NY Times Never Talked to Judge
But curiously, as the media talk endlessly about an extremely sick case out of Wisconsin, the Times -which “broke” the story- seems to have been very selective in their sources. Fr. Thomas Brundage, JLC appears not to be considered “useful” to the sensationalists in the press:
I was the Judicial Vicar for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee . . . I presided over four canonical criminal cases, one of which involved Father Lawrence Murphy.
…
I will limit my comments, because of judicial oaths I have taken as a canon lawyer and as an ecclesiastical judge. However, since my name and comments in the matter of the Father Murphy case have been liberally and often inaccurately quoted in the New York Times and in more than 100 other newspapers and on-line periodicals, I feel a freedom to tell part of the story of Father Murphy’s trial from ground zero.As I have found that the reporting on this issue has been inaccurate and poor in terms of the facts, I am also writing out of a sense of duty to the truth.
The fact that I presided over this trial and have never once been contacted by any news organization for comment speaks for itself.
NY Times’ Ratzinger Story Wrong by Its Own Documentation
Posted in American, Catholic, Christian, Church, Pope Benedict XVI with tags abuse. Fr.Raymone J, American, Catholic, Christian, Church, de Souza, NY.Times, Pope Benedict XVI, Ratzinger on March 29, 2010 by JoannA Response to the New York Times – Fr. Raymond J. de Souza – The Corner on National Review Online.
Excerpts from the response by Fr. Raymond J. de Souza :
The New York Times on March 25 accused Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, of intervening to prevent a priest, Fr. Lawrence Murphy, from facing penalties for cases of sexual abuse of minors.
The story is false. It is unsupported by its own documentation. Indeed, it gives every indication of being part of a coordinated campaign against Pope Benedict, rather than responsible journalism.
The documents show that the canonical trial or penal process against Father Murphy was never stopped by anyone. In fact, it was only abandoned days before Father Murphy died. Cardinal Ratzinger never took a decision in the case, according to the documents. His deputy, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, suggested, given that Father Murphy was in failing health and a canonical trial is a complicated matter, that more expeditious means be used to remove him from all ministry.
To repeat: The charge that Cardinal Ratzinger did anything wrong is unsupported by the documentation on which the story was based. He does not appear in the record as taking any decision. His office, in the person of his deputy, Archbishop Bertone, agreed that there should be full canonical trial. When it became apparent that Father Murphy was in failing health, Archbishop Bertone suggested more expeditious means of removing him from any ministry.
Furthermore, under canon law at the time, the principal responsibility for sexual-abuse cases lay with the local bishop. Archbishop Weakland had from 1977 onwards the responsibility of administering penalties to Father Murphy. He did nothing until 1996. It was at that point that Cardinal Ratzinger’s office became involved, and it subsequently did nothing to impede the local process.
The New York Times flatly got the story wrong, according to its own evidence. Readers may want to speculate on why.
Read here- the documentation
Read more from Archbishop Dolan here
and more from the Anchoress here
Taking the Church Down – A Story of Disception
Posted in American, Church, Culture with tags abuse, American, bias, Catholic Church, Church, Culture, deception, Mainstream Media, sexual on March 29, 2010 by JoannThe secular agenda has at its core a hatred for the Catholic Church. The Church speaks with the authority of its God-given mandate and the Enemy uses his peons in the world to strike at its heel in anticipation of the moment that its Founder will crush his head. Until then, no holds are barred in this open aggression. A world under the influence of sin and license falls easy prey to the secular media, a favorite arm for deception and bias.
George Weigel writing for First Things: Scoundrel Time(s)
The sexual and physical abuse of children and young people is a global plague; its manifestations run the gamut from fondling by teachers to rape by uncles to kidnapping-and-sex-trafficking. In the United States alone, there are reportedly some 39 million victims of childhood sexual abuse. Forty to sixty percent were abused by family members, including stepfathers and live-in boyfriends of a child’s mother—thus suggesting that abused children are the principal victims of the sexual revolution, the breakdown of marriage, and the hook-up culture. Hofstra University professor Charol Shakeshaft reports that 6-10 percent of public school students have been molested in recent years—some 290,000 between 1991 and 2000. According to other recent studies, 2 percent of sex abuse offenders were Catholic priests—a phenomenon that spiked between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s but seems to have virtually disappeared (six credible cases of clerical sexual abuse in 2009 were reported in the U.S. bishops’ annual audit, in a Church of some 65,000,000 members).
Yet in a pattern exemplifying the dog’s behavior in Proverbs 26:11, the sexual abuse story in the global media is almost entirely a Catholic story, in which the Catholic Church is portrayed as the epicenter of the sexual abuse of the young, with hints of an ecclesiastical criminal conspiracy involving sexual predators whose predations continue today. That the vast majority of the abuse cases in the United States took place decades ago is of no consequence to this story line. For the narrative that has been constructed is often less about the protection of the young (for whom the Catholic Church is, by empirical measure, the safest environment for young people in America today) than it is about taking the Church down—and, eventually, out, both financially and as a credible voice in the public debate over public policy. For if the Church is a global criminal conspiracy of sexual abusers and their protectors, then the Catholic Church has no claim to a place at the table of public moral argument.
Read the rest here.
Catholics Coming Home
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Church with tags Catholic, Christian, Church, Easter, homecoming on March 26, 2010 by JoannGood news in my e-mail from Catholics Come Home – Thousands are coming home this Easter!
During a time when the secular press is infiltrating the media with negative, anti-Catholic news, Catholics Come Home (CCH) makes headlines for its courageous media effort to invite thousands home to the Church in dioceses around the country. The astounding success of the CCH Advent and Lent television campaigns have been noticed by the National Catholic Register, who will feature CCH on the front page of its upcoming holy week edition to be released Monday, March 28. You can read the article online here.
Purification in the Paschal Mystery
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Church, Constitution, Faith, Lent, Lenten Reading with tags Catholic, Christian, Church, Constitution, document, Faith, family, human, Lent, Lenten Reading, purification, transformation, values, Vatican on March 20, 2010 by JoannFrom the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world of the Second Vatican Council
(Gaudium et spes, nn. 37-38)
All human activity is to find its purification in the paschal mystery
Holy Scripture, with which the experience of the ages is in agreement, teaches the human family that human progress, though it is a great blessing for man, brings with it a great temptation. When the scale of values is disturbed and evil becomes mixed with good, individuals and groups consider only their own interests, not those of others.
The result is that the world is not yet a home of true brotherhood, while the increased power of mankind already threatens to destroy the human race itself.
If it is asked how this unhappy state of affairs can be set right, Christians state their belief that all human activity, in daily jeopardy through pride and inordinate self-love, is to find its purification and its perfection in the cross and resurrection of Christ.
Man, redeemed by Christ and made a new creation in the Holy Spirit, can and must love the very things created by God. For he receives them from God, and sees and reveres them as coming from the hand of God.
As he gives thanks for them to his Benefactor, and uses and enjoys them in a spirit of poverty and freedom, he enters into true possession of the world, as one having nothing and possessing all things. For all things are yours, and you are Christs, and Christ is Gods.
The Word of God, through whom all things were made, himself became man and lived in the world of men. As perfect man he has entered into the history of the world, taking it up into himself and bringing it into unity as its head. He reveals to us that God is love, and at the same time teaches us that the fundamental law of human perfection, and therefore of the transformation of the world, is the new commandment of love.
He assures those who have faith in Gods love that the way of love is open to all men, and that the effort to restore universal brotherhood is not in vain. At the same time he warns us that this love is not to be sought after only in great things but also, and above all, in the ordinary circumstances of life.
He suffered death for us all, sinners as we are, and by his example he teaches us that we also have to carry that cross which the flesh and the world lay on the shoulders of those who strive for peace and justice.
Constituted as the Lord by his resurrection, Christ, to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given, is still at work in the hearts of men through the power of his Spirit. Not only does he awaken in them a longing for the world to come, but by that very fact he also inspires, purifies and strengthens those generous desires by which the human family seeks to make its own life more human and to achieve the same goal for the whole world.
The gifts of the Spirit are manifold. He calls some to bear open witness to the longing for a dwelling place in heaven, and to keep this fresh in the minds of all mankind; he calls others to dedicate themselves to the service of men here on earth, preparing by this ministry the material for the kingdom of heaven.
Yet he makes all free, so that, by denying their love of self and taking up all earths resources into the life of man, all may reach out to the future, when humanity itself will become an offering acceptable to God.
