Pope Francis, Catholics, and Christians in the news & Bible verses

nohero said:

And death exists because we're human.  So, we could say that religion exists because we're human.

definitely… only problem is us humans have lost the connection to the creator, that’s why we pray. All other life forms still maintain the connection.


Jaytee said:

nohero said:

And death exists because we're human.  So, we could say that religion exists because we're human.

definitely… only problem is us humans have lost the connection to the creator, that’s why we pray. All other life forms still maintain the connection.

That's a very "Saint Francis" way of looking at it. As Pope Francis wrote in his encyclical Laudato Si’ (the title comes from a line in a canticle by St. Francis):

"I believe that Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically. He is the patron saint of all who study and work in the area of ecology, and he is also much loved by non-Christians. He was particularly concerned for God’s creation and for the poor and outcast. He loved, and was deeply loved for his joy, his generous self-giving, his openheartedness. He was a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace. Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for openness to categories which transcend the language of mathematics and biology, and take us to the heart of what it is to be human."


^ That’s close to my response to ‘Religion exists because we’re human’: religion/faith exist because of wonder.  When humans have time and mental ‘space’ to grasp the beauty or ingenuity or perfection of something (even if at first glance it seems awkward or inelegant), then we’re drawn to thinking about origins and systems of change and order… 

I hope humanity never loses the sense of wonder, and can temper the deep urge to meddle/‘fix’ what isn’t broken. 

Edited to fix grammar


mtierney said:

In case you need yet more Coronation news…..

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254220/a-catholic-family-has-for-centuries-orchestrated-the-pomp-of-britain-s-most-anglican-royal-events

no, who needs to watch a 74 year old man finally gets hired to do something productive for himself?


Who needs to watch an extremely rich (grumpy) older man finally get a paid job running the family business, you mean??   cool cheese  

His wife was clearly bored and fidgety at how long the whole process was taking and is clearly not suited for her role.


Continuing my English TV streaming this weekend — and in celebration of the return today of my granddaughter’s from her semester abroad, I had beans on  toast for supper!

Full disclosure: I remember watching the last coronation of Elizabeth in 1953 — same year I met my future husband — in newsreels, of course! 




mtierney said:

I remember watching the last coronation of Elizabeth in 1953 — same year I met my future husband — in newsreels, of course! 



I have questions.

1. When was Elizabeth’s first coronation?

2. When are you and your future husband planning to marry?

3. How did you meet him in newsreels?


Yet more coronation-related millinary info…

Madoc Cairns, Staff Writer

Dear Reader,

Saturday was a big day for big hats. Never mind the impractical headgear in Westminster Abbey – in Rome, 23 recruits were sworn into the Swiss Guard at a ceremony in the Vatican’s San Damaso courtyard. In 2019, the papal bodyguard swapped its metal morion helmets (designed to protect against mercifully less-frequent pike attacks) for thermoplastic models, 3D-printed in Switzerland to a near-identical specification. Watching the Archbishop of Canterbury screw St Edward’s crown onto the King’s head, one imagined His Majesty might have appreciated some similar innovation (the Diamond Jubilee State Coach has air-conditioning, after all). The guards’ commander, Christoph Graf, told his new men that “the clothes don’t make the man” and they should wear their blue, orange and red gala uniforms “not as a stage dress but as an expression of your service”. It is to this end that recruits swear their allegiance on 6 May, the anniversary of the Sack of Rome when 147 Swiss Guards died defending Pope Clement VII from the mutinous troops of the Holy Roman Empire; the guards placed a wreath to their memory in the Roman Protomartyrs Square on Friday evening. Each new guard has completed basic training with the Swiss army and devotes himself to the pontiff and his successors “with all my strength, sacrificing, if necessary, even my life in their defence”. Like the much-provoked guardsmen outside Britain’s royal palaces, the Swiss Guard has a proper function belied by a chocolate-box costume – but the get-up doesn't necessarily get in the way of the function. In a pitch-side conversation over the Coronation weekend, I observed how silly much of the Coronation kit looked in the coverage; my wiser interlocutor pointed out that it hadn’t been designed for high-definition telly but for crowds and congregations who needed kingship conveyed in a distant glimpse. (In fact, the 1953 broadcast probably struck the perfect balance, grainy black-and-white capturing the gothick of the occasion.) Since the Swiss Guards don’t fight and die for the Pope all that often nowadays, it’s as well to have something that reminds us and them what they are about – props and dress which in a glimpse summon up five centuries of doing just that. But as Col Graf says, the clothes – and the crowns, for that matter – only count if they are “an expression of service”. Otherwise they really are silly.



What a genuine peace activist does -

Pope Francis’ secret Ukraine-Russia peace mission, explained

"Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Pope Francis has looked for ways to stop the war. To achieve that goal and serve as a mediator, he has sought to avoid taking sides. Nevertheless, he has stated clearly that Russia is the aggressor and several times a week speaks of 'martyred Ukraine.' He has spoken out against the more than 430 days’ war on no less than 120 occasions, in speeches, homilies, press conferences and interviews."

...

"That both Russia and Ukraine would issue denials of a peace mission is to a certain degree comprehensible as neither side wants to stop fighting at this moment. Ukraine wants to regain its lost territory before considering a peace plan and is about to launch a major military offensive to achieve that goal. Russia, for its part, wants to defend all the territory it has taken since 2014 and, if possible, make further gains. To say one is ready to discuss a ceasefire, much less a peace plan, would be equivalent to a sign of weakness on the Ukrainian part and would leave Russia in a stronger position since it holds Ukrainian territory. The Russians, too, do not want a ceasefire; they need to make further gains if they are to consolidate what they have already captured."



Happy Mother’s Day to all!

For all mothers on this special day. I am truly blessed that I will see and hear from three of my four children today.

However, I do look forward to a daily exchange of recollections of my son, who passed away in 2014, at the age of 49. He was a lovable human being and an irresistible force of nature.


I am spending the day honoring my mother, a career woman and an academic who literally ruled the Earth (within the confines of her classroom) and put up with absolutely no sexist BS, no matter how venerable the sexist might have been.


Mtierney, I hope your Aussie Mothers Day is a good day. We had rain, which ultimately a blessing but a dampener for many family gatherings.

I haven’t yet found the reason we observe this event a month before you do; at least all the MOL Mums get a rerun in June. 

This year, there’s been special recognition of women unable to have to have children (for all kinds of reasons), stressing that this does not negate their effectiveness in society nor their beauty and role model qualities. It’s also Pink Bun time (pink frosting on finger buns, sweet knot rolls etc with or without pink ‘freckles’/100s & 1000s to raise funds for cancer research), Parkinson’s & MND fundraising time, children’s literacy  fundraising time etc. The Lifeline Book Sale is on soon, secondhand library books to raise $$$ for mental health and anti-suicide programs. 
It’s a great season here, I wish you could be here.  And roses and golden wattle bloom in a few weeks! 
(we could almost forget that we have a by-election coming up, and a referendum)


Good post Joanne.  

I think it is also important that we are sensitive to the plight of those for whom Mother's and/or Father's Day is an awful reminder of abuse suffered and survived.  I have one friend in particular for whom this season is a particular burden to be endured year after year.  We should remember that, just because a person is biologically capable of having children, that doesn't necessarily mean that they should.


joanne said:

Mtierney, I hope your Aussie Mothers Day is a good day. We had rain, which ultimately a blessing but a dampener for many family gatherings.

I haven’t yet found the reason we observe this event a month before you do; at least all the MOL Mums get a rerun in June. 

This year, there’s been special recognition of women unable to have to have children (for all kinds of reasons), stressing that this does not negate their effectiveness in society nor their beauty and role model qualities. It’s also Pink Bun time (pink frosting on finger buns, sweet knot rolls etc with or without pink ‘freckles’/100s & 1000s to raise funds for cancer research), Parkinson’s & MND fundraising time, children’s literacy  fundraising time etc. The Lifeline Book Sale is on soon, secondhand library books to raise $$$ for mental health and anti-suicide programs. 
It’s a great season here, I wish you could be here.  And roses and golden wattle bloom in a few weeks! 
(we could almost forget that we have a by-election coming up, and a referendum)

Spent Mother’s day on Long Beach Island. Picture perfect weather, incredible meal  at one of the many fine restaurants in Beach Haven, with my oldest  son and his friend. Telephone calls with another son and his wife and their daughter, along with a chat with my daughter and her kids made for a love-filled day!


"Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed so easily."

- Dorothy Day.


mtierney said:

A saint in the making…..

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/20/nyregion/the-good-even-saintly-ship-dorothy-day.html

I am all in favor of this but I think her beliefs about charity and poverty might be controversial amongst many conservative American catholics.

Upside, she seems likely to be the subject of any alarming revelations during her canonization.  I don't think the Vatican wants to take any chances after their recent missteps in the NYC area.


mtierney said:

A saint in the making…..

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/20/nyregion/the-good-even-saintly-ship-dorothy-day.html

William F. Buckley was discussed recently in the "Rose Garden" thread.  As it happens, he had a very "National Review" opinion of her.

In a debate on "The Catholic in the Modern World", Buckley presented "a Conservative view", paired with the editor of the Catholic magazine Commonweal, who presented "a Liberal view". This was Buckley's "view" of the "Liberal view" and of Dorothy Day -

"Go through one hundred issues of The Commonweal—to name a single but wholly representative journal of liberal Catholic opinion—and you are not likely to find a sustained criticism of any left American or left proposal. If the figure on the Left is a Catholic, he is almost sure to be immune—as Dorothy Day, for instance, is. Bear in mind I am not suggesting that The Commonweal is secretly sympathetic to the grotesqueries that go into making up the Catholic Worker movement: but I am struck by the significance of the fact that The Commonweal does not criticize, let alone anathematize, the slovenly, reckless, intellectually chaotic, anti-Catholic doctrines of this good-hearted woman—who, did she have her way in shaping national policy, would test the promise of Christ Himself, that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against us."

The Catholic in the Modern View | Conservative vs. Liberal | Commonweal Magazine


Happy Laudato Si’ Week to those who celebrate.

https://laudatosiweek.org/


Happy Buddha's Birthday!


Also how about a warning? I wasn’t quite ready for a picture of what appears to be a dehydrated corpse. 


dave said:

Happy Buddha's Birthday!

And happy Shavuot, too! (Festival of Weeks, commemorating the giving of the Law/Ten Commandments) Christians will celebrate Pentecost on Sunday, sorta thinking it’s almost the same thing but no, not really. Ours is also one of the harvest festivals, celebrated with yummy dairy treats - blintzes, cheesecakes, quiches, tiropitas, cheesy pastas, rice puddings, baked custards, etc. 


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