Pope Francis, Catholics, and Christians in the news worldwide

bub said:

This is the kind of petty thing that undermines the mystique of religions.    You have a pope.  You would think he could call a sit down and knock heads.

We Catholics have free will — no head knocking included.

bub said:

I was actually involved in something even worse, in terms of intra-Catholic squabbling.   A rich lady died and left a lot of money to different groups, all "good" in various ways.  A catholic college, which shall go unnamed, got like 60% of the estate.  Smaller amounts were given to the other good groups, including my non-religous volunteer organization and a Catholic church (or maybe it was a Catholic monastery, not sure).  The school went to court trying get more of the money by taking some away from the rest of us, including the other Catholic entity.

The school's extremely dubious legal argument was shot down by the court very quickly but it shocked me that one church organization would openly go to war against another in court over money.   

Well, don't be too shocked, as you know, "radix malorum est cupiditas" or in English, "the love of money is the root of all evil." (1Tim 6:10)

I think the solution of Archbishop Sheen's niece, to divide his body between the two states, New York and Illinois, that are fighting over his remains, sounds very wise and  Solomonic:  "In her mind, the best solution would be to divide the body into relics, as has happened with saintly relics in the Roman Catholic Church for centuries."

mtierney said:

I can almost hear the archbishop’s dismay over this struggle — but, he would probably find some dark humor in it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/nyregion/archbishop-sheens-body-to-stay-in-new-york-for-now.html?rref=collection%2Fissuecollection%2Ftodays-new-york-times

At least they didn't try to dump him in NJ.  We have enough moldy fascists.

Cardinal Pell’s case:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-09/george-pell-lawyers-seeking-access-complainants-medical-records/9416814

Richter QC is a very skilful barrister indeed, I’m wondering what he’s up to. (I’m surprised he’s defending, but hey. He’s a defense barrister) There’s certainly been enough information out in media and the courts both secular and within the Church structures to answer just about anything they need to know without fishing like this. 

What would Pope Francis (not to mention Jesus) say?

The Sisterhood of the Blessed Saint Nimby Says No to Housing for the Poor

Holy Toledo, indeed! You go, girls.

Love the penguin. 

mtierney said:

Holy Toledo, indeed! You go, girls.

Right.  Screw the poor and sit on your butt all day.  What is that, Luke 14:13?

Oh, wait, no.... Luke 14:13 reads "But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind" But hey, what did that Jesus guy know?

One wonders how many poor people could be fed and sheltered with the money the Church spends running this little ashram of inaction.

Pope Francis actually commented on this sort of thing in 2013 when he said the following:

“Prayer that doesn’t lead to concrete action toward our brothers is a fruitless and incomplete prayer...prayer and action must always be profoundly united.”

Fulton J. Sheen quotes ...

“The wicked fear the good, because the good are a constant reproach to their consciences. The ungodly like religion in the same way that they like lions, either dead or behind bars; they fear religion when it breaks loose and begins to challenge their consciences.” 
― Fulton J. Sheen, Life of Christ

Fulton Sheen trumps Christ.  I guess its good to be consistent in your idolatry.

I only fear religion when it want to put me behind bars.

Women living quietly cloistered in a monastery somewhere doesn't give me a moment's pause.   

bub said:

I only fear religion when it want to put me behind bars.


Women living quietly cloistered in a monastery somewhere doesn't give me a moment's pause.   

As long as they keep the unsightly and noisy poor at a reasonable distance.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/world/europe/francis-catholic-china-deal-bishops.html?rref=collection%2Fissuecollection%2Ftodays-new-york-times

Pope Francis has a lot on his plate!

Well, given that in many areas minors aren’t allowed into churches or religious spaces, and that the only candidates for Bishop etc Pope Francis will be allowed to approve will actually be chosen by the Chinese government (then narrowed down in a sham election), it appears that he accepted an updated religious ‘freedom’ in China that is as shallow as Chinese Catholics were trying to warn him...

Francis is a pragmatic Pope and understands how to keep friends close — and church enemies even closer, to coin a phrase.

So this year, today is both Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday.

One cartoonist has suggestions for how to combine the two:  Penitential Valentine's Cards.

Two samples below.  More at the link.

There is one chocolate cream Dunkins donut left over in our fridge. There are two of us.

 Split it?

 Toss it quickly into the freezer? 

Pull the age card?

Help!

Toss it into the garbage.

Aha, your sensible comment arrived too late  

Copihue said:

Toss it into the garbage.

The “hooking up” culture needs Dating 101 class...

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/why-did-we-forget-how-to-date-new-documentary-aims-to-find-out-45387

was surprised to learn about the upcoming exhibit!

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/at-the-met-catholic-inspired-fashion-now-in-style-54505

Here's a challenge being faced by Pope Francis - a "theology" that supports environmental degradation:

Pope Francis sparked a media frenzy in 2015 with the release of his second encyclical, Laudato Si. One of the highest forms of official Catholic Church teaching, the document presented the moral case for tackling climate change on behalf of the poor and vulnerable. But there was another, less-noticed purpose for Francis’s document: To reject an insidious notion among Christians that God wants humans to exploit the Earth’s natural resources.

This notion stems from the book of Genesis, in which God gives man “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Some Christians wrongly believe that this passage “invites us to subjugate the earth, the savage exploitation of nature would be encouraged, presenting the image of human beings as ruler and destroyer,” Francis wrote. “This is not the correct interpretation of the Bible as intended by the Church.”

The idea that “dominion” is a free pass to exploit is nonetheless central to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has recently become the de facto spokesperson for the anti-Pope brand of Christian environmentalism. Speaking on the pro-Trump Christian Broadcasting Network last week, Pruitt said his faith is partially what motivates him to remove regulations on higher-polluting sources of energy like coal, oil, and natural gas. “The biblical worldview with respect to these issues is that we have a responsibility to manage and cultivate, harvest the natural resources that we’ve been blessed with to truly bless our fellow mankind,” he said

https://newrepublic.com/article/147198/scott-pruitt-vs-pope

I'd say more of a challenge faced by Pruitt.   The Pope has a lot more followers and name recognition.

Interesting that a Vatican publication is running an expose like this: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/world/europe/vatican-catholic-church-nuns-work.html

Everyone makes social media mistakes sometimes, even the Archbishop of Newark:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/n-cardinal-deletes-nighty-night-baby-tweet-meant-sister-article-1.3836955

How is mtierney responsible for all the ills of the Catholic church?

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_meetings_between_the_Pope_and_the_President_of_the_United_States

How about US presidents JFK, LBJ, RMN, GF, JC, RR, GHWB, WJC, GWB, BHO and DJT (all of whom met with the pope and, thereby, gave the pope and his church more publicity and authority, in the eyes of many)?

Would an individual who is a supporter of FDR (or the Dems) be culpable for FDR's actions taken as president with regard to the Japanese internment?

 Would an individual who is a supporter of FDR, or HT, be culpable for development and use of nuclear weapons against civilian populations?

How would you have counseled an organization such as the Catholic Church in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s or 1990s to deal with a scourge, such as pedophilia, when one of the primary tenets of the Catholic Church is forgiveness?

Klinker said:

And here we go again.....

mtierney said:

Cardinal Law, may he Rest In Peace, was a priest of his time, not gifted with prescience , and believed in transporting priests to a new location, setting  specific restrictions on conduct, time off, etc was the proper solution

If the problem was how to allow the priests to keep on raping child after child, then that was a pretty good solution.  

RealityForAll said:

How would you have counseled an organization such as the Catholic Church in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s or 1990s to deal with a scourge, such as pedophilia, when one of the primary tenets of the Catholic Church is forgiveness?

Ummm.... through the police?

Only the victims can give forgiveness.  Justice is the responsibility of all people.

Reuters: Slain Salvadoran Archbishop Romero to be made a saint

Meanwhile, down at the crossroads, Fulton Sheen is spinning in his grave.