Sunday, September 28, 2014

Pope Benedict joins Pope Francis to honor grandparents


(AP) Pope Francis has hailed the value of the elderly, including his predecessor Benedict XVI, who joined him at a ceremony in St. Peter's Square honoring the contribution of grandparents to society.
Tens of thousands of people, many of them elderly couples and their grandchildren, applauded Sunday when Francis told them that Benedict's living in papal retirement at the Vatican is `'like having a wise grandparent at home.” Francis warmly embraced the frail, 87-year-old Benedict, who used a cane and wore a long white coat despite the warmth of a summerlike morning.

Francis, 77, decried homes for the elderly that are like "prisons," saying the elderly are often "forgotten, hidden, neglected" in society, tantamount to a kind of euthanasia. He said elderly persons transmit "wisdom and faith, the most precious inheritance." 

Link:

Pray for Father Benedict Groeschel

From Women of Grace:

By SBrinkmann

Our ministry received an email from the CFR Lay Associates asking for prayer for Father Benedict Groeschel who took a tumble and hurt the same arm that was so seriously wounded in an accident 10 years ago. We’re being asked to pray for him through the intercession of an old roommate of his, a man who is now on the road to beatification.

The following is the email we received on Sunday:

“May the Lord give you His peace!

Most of us remember when Father Benedict had his accident. It was about 10 years ago, and his life was in a balance. That was when a prayer for Father’s healing was promoted on EWTN. It is believed that it was the power of literally thousands of us praying for Father that moved Our Lord to heal him and restore him to us.

Two weeks ago Father Benedict had another accident. He fell directly on the arm which was shattered so long ago. His age and his weakness contraindicate the surgery that would restore his arm. Although he seems to be doing well, he is weak and in pain.

At yesterday’s associate’s day Father Glenn asked us to begin another round of prayer for Father Benedict, but with a difference. When Fr. Benedict was a novice he lived with a holy friar who is now up for beatification: Venerable Solanus Casey. We are asked to pray the below prayer for Father Benedict through the intercession of Venerable Solanus Casey only, and to pass this prayer on to all contemplative communities, and prayer chains that we know. Yes, we are asking for healing for Father Benedict, but also for the miracle that Venerable Solanus needs for beatification. All for the glory of God.

Thank you!!”

Prayer for Fr. Benedict:

O Gracious and loving father,
we humbly implore You
to look kindly upon Your son and servant
Father Benedict Joseph.

Invoking Your Divine Mercy,
we ask that You manifest in a unique, evident, and wonderful way
relief from the burden of his present illness and injury.

As we approach Your Holy Majesty
with certain faith, sure hope, and full confidence,
we beg to obtain this special grace;
so that he may receive even now
a foretaste of the full reward
that awaits him in the future.

We entrust this prayer in a special way
to Your dedicated and faithful servant,
Father Solanus Casey.

May this holy friar,
who so inspired Father Benedict here on earth,
now powerfully intercede for him from heaven.

Amen.

Link:

Friday, September 26, 2014

Cardinal Burke greeted with a standing ovation in Florida


By John-Henry Westen

(LifeSiteNews.com) Vatican Cardinal Raymond Burke, who is expected to be removed from his position as head of the highest court in the Catholic Church and put in a largely honorific position, is back in his homeland of America this week and if anything the appreciation for him has increased rather than waned.

Opening the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) conference in Orlando yesterday, the former Archbishop of St. Louis received a hero’s welcome with a standing ovation before he could say a word, and another standing ovation after his address.

Cardinal Burke was introduced by Dr. Peter Morrow, incoming president of the CMA and chairman of the conference. In his introduction Dr. Morrow explained how he had converted to Catholicism but hadn’t truly understood his faith until being introduced to Cardinal Burke through his involvement with the Marian Catechist Apostolate founded by Servant of God Fr. John Hardon. He explained how meeting Cardinal Burke and hearing him talk about the faith brought him to a new and more profound understanding of his Faith, which changed his life. He referred to Cardinal Burke as his “spiritual father” in the Church.

With over 600 physicians and other guests in attendance, Cardinal Burke spoke of the challenges that faithful physicians and other health care professionals have in practicing medicine in today’s world. He highlighted the fact that they are on the front lines of the cultural war and how they need to be firm in their faith and stand strong to confront the evil.

In his homily, the cardinal stressed that the Church must never relinquish her mission of service to the sick and suffering, even if conscience demands she shut down her traditional health institutions.

“If secular powers attempt to force the Church to act against her conscience in the care of the sick and in the promotion of good health, and, therefore, the Church has to abandon the care of the sick in the manner in which she has exercised it to the present, then she will have to find new ways to fulfill the mission of Christ which is directed, in a privileged way, to the sick,” he explained. “The Church cannot abandon the care of the sick and dying. With the help of God’s grace, she will never abandon the care of the sick...” (continued)


Link:

Monday, September 22, 2014

President Coolidge, 1st Presidential Film (1924)

The annulment argument: a quick quide to the two sides


By Dr. Edward Peters

(In the Light of the Law) There are basically two groups agitating for annulment reform, one saying that there are too many annulments, the other saying that there are too few. Let me suggest that (a) the first group is mistaken if it thinks the annulment problem lies in the annulment process (ie, Book VII of the 1983 Code and Dignitas connubii) and (b) the second group seeks not so much reform of the annulment process as its effective abolishment.

The first group (those holding that there are too many annulments), can scarcely suggest any procedural reforms (short of requiring tribunals to stamp DENIED on every annulment petition) for nothing about current canon and special law makes declaring marriage nullity easy. Under current ecclesiastical law, nullity must be proven, on specific grounds, based on sworn declarations and testimony, over the arguments of an independent officer, and confirmed on appeal. There are, that I can see, no gaps in the process through which marriage cases may slip quietly but wrongly into nullity. Not even the oft-reviled Canon 1095 (the “psychological” canon upon which most annulments around the world are based) can be written off as a mere legislative novelty for it articulates (as best positive law can) jurisprudence developed by the Roman Rota itself over the last 60 or 70 years.

No, the objections of the first group to the number of annulments being declared is, I suggest, not to the annulment process but to the people running that process. Tribunal officers are, it is alleged, too naive, too heterodox, or just too lazy to reach sound decisions on nullity petitions; they treat annulments as tickets to a second chance at happiness owed to people who care enough to fill out the forms. How exactly members of this first group can reach their conclusion without extended experience in tribunal work and without adverting to the cascade of evidence that five decades of social collapse in the West and a concomitant collapse of catechetical and canonical work in the Church is wreaking exactly the disastrous effects on real people trying to enter real marriages that the Church has always warned about, escapes me. Nevertheless that is essentially their claim: the process needs no major reform, processors do.

Neither can the second group (those holding that there are too few annulments) credibly point to specific reforms of the annulment process for (with two exceptions noted below) every phase of the current annulment process is required by natural law to serve the ends of justice (and, as Pope St. John Paul II repeatedly reminded us, the annulment process is about justice—not mercy, not charity, not warm fuzzy feelings, but justice); to eliminate any of these steps would be to gut the unavoidably juridic nature of the annulment process. Natural law requires that presumptions (here, of validity) be overturned only for specific reasons (here, grounds) demonstrated by objective information (here, declarations and testimony) weighed by independent minds (here, judges) subject to review by superiors (here, appeal). Remove any of these steps and, whatever ‘process’ one is left with, it’s not a legal one. Thus I say, push proponents of the second school to be clear, and what most of them must admit seeking is the “de-juridicization” of the annulment process. It’s their right, of course, to make such a proposal, but one should not confuse calls tantamount to elimination of a process with calls for reform of a process. More about that call, below.

First, though, it must be acknowledged that two aspects of the current annulment process are not required by natural law to achieve justice, namely... (continued)


Link:

The Generosity of God


By Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D.

(The Crossroads Initiative) “But that’s not fair!” Most parents have heard this phrase umpteen times. The notion of fairness also known as justice, is built into us. It makes us aware that each of us has certain rights that need to be respected.

But it also means that we each have duties. If others have the right to be paid for their work, those who benefit from that work have the duty to pay them. If others have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we have the duty not to let our pursuit of happiness infringe on their rights.

But we have to widen our perspective a bit. God, the creator of all, is responsible for all the blessings we enjoy. Life in this world was given to each of us as an undeserved, free gift. We have unequal physical talents, features, and abilities, plus diverse spiritual and intellectual gifts as well. They vary a lot from person to person, but what they all have in common is that they come as free gifts from God who didn’t have to create any of us.

This is the necessary background to fully understand a parable that at first shocks our sensibilities. Matthew (20:1-16) records a story of an employer who hires workmen to harvest grapes. He hires members of the crew at various times of the day, so that at the end of the day, some have only worked a few hours while others have worked all day long. There’s grumbling when everyone is paid the same standard day’s wage, regardless of how long they worked. To add insult to injury, those who started last got paid first. “No fair!”

Wait a minute. The master paid those who worked all day exactly what he told them they’d get. He just decided to be generous and pay everybody, even the latecomers, a full day’s wage. Justice does not preclude generosity.

The Pharisees thought that they had always done the will of God and deserved more than the rest, especially the rabble Jesus appeared to favor–including tax collectors and sinners. It roiled them to think that these Johnny-come-lately’s would sit along them in the Kingdom of God.

Truth be told, neither they, nor any of us, are really like the folks who consistently did the will of the Master, working uninterruptedly at the assigned task. Our assigned job is to love the Lord our God with ALL our heart, ALL our soul, and ALL of our strength (Deut 6:4-5) every day of our life. This is only fair since we owe God absolutely everything. But we’ve all unfairly walked off the job at various moments–thumbing our noses at him through our disobedience, pride, and selfishness. Some have gone AWOL longer than others, and some’s sins are more spectacular than others. But the bottom line is that, in terms of strict justice, God does not owe any of us anything except, perhaps, punishment.

But in his extraordinary generosity, the Lord has offered us a deal–if we will accept His beloved Son in faith as Savior and Lord, and through the power of the Spirit seek to do His will, and if we will repent each time we fail, He will give us what we do not deserve–friendship with Him here that opens out to eternal glory hereafter. The first takers for this offer have typically been those most aware of their need for mercy. And this is why the last have usually been first when it comes to the Kingdom of God.

Seems fair to me.

Link:

Saturday, September 20, 2014

The Blurred Vision of Mission of Elizabeth Scalia


By Father Paul Nicholson

The Anchoress, aka Elizabeth Scalia, has posted a very sugary and entirely inadequate article (I have created a link through donotlink.com so you won’t be giving her extra hits by viewing her article!) http://www.donotlink.com/box7 on her private interpretation of the Holy Father, Pope Francis' remark: “Proselytism is solemn nonsense.” The Roman Pontiff made the passing, and ambiguous, remark in a rare interview at the beginning of his pontificate and which, by the way, is non-magisterial -- that is to say, it is not binding in conscience. So Catholics are free to accept it, reject it, or interpret it any way they please.

The Holy Father had his own reasons for saying what he said and, well, it is what it is. But I refuse to accept that this is single remark defines his papacy. How stupid that would be.

The Holy Father did not explain what he meant, or about whom he was talking when he made the statement. He left it ambiguous. Of course, ambiguity is hard to live with, but it isn't the end of the world. All good, faithful Catholics can, and do, give the Holy Father the most generous interpretation of what he meant.

But not Elizabeth Scalia. She narrowly defines it, and proceeds to load upon the Holy Father the weight of her private interpretation.

She has a very specific life experience which colours her world. Sadly, she cannot keep this to herself. Instead, she claims title and privilege as supreme auxiliatrix of the Holy Father, and proceeds to tell us what he meant, and how the Church should be missionary. No doubt, she will have some who think her post correct and clever. But she presents something dreadfully foreign to our Holy Catholic Faith, a picture of the missionary impetus of the Church as a tea party ... and little else. She attempts to link this to the Incarnation of Our Blessed Lord, drawing close to the sinner and winning us by his conviviality.

Really, Elizabeth? Then what went wrong?

If Our Lord was simply drawing close to us, to draw us out of sin by his wonderful, warm, inviting personality, meeting with “us” where we were at, and learning our names and our stories -- what went wrong, Elizabeth? Jesus did talk with us, ate with us, laughed and cried with us. I dunno where he helped us to give birth or buried us, but Elizabeth, I don't think we need to be too graphic here. So why didn't people embrace Him and all profess belief in His Incarnation? I mean, if he was just settling in, to get to know people, and laugh with them, and cry with them ... why the horror of the Crucifixion? Because, Elizabeth, Our Blessed Lord drew close not to win friends, but to redeem man. The only way to save a soul is to redeem it, by offering God the holocaust of His life, and submitting in perfect obedience to His Will. He proclaimed a doctrine that was an offence to the Jews -- He made Himself God.

They flung that at Our Lord on Good Friday afternoon, unable to bear the sight of the Redeemer, a worm, and no man: “He made Himself God”.

The work of evangelization is not a public relations campaign. It is not some kind of political effort. It isn't about simply moving in with the sinner and smiling with astonishing indifference at their horrible condition. It is with affability, teaching and instructing the sinner; illuminating his ignorance and helping him grow in the spirit of repentance.

The missionary comes with the understanding that the grace of God can only be obtained by suffering and offering. God will grant the grace in so far as we offer ourselves as immolated victims for the salvation of souls. We must repeat the action of the Mass in the work of Evangelization -- we must acknowledge we are sinners; we must proclaim the Word of God in all its demanding summons to holiness; we must offer ourselves as victims with Christ; we must consecrate ourselves as a living holocaust for sin; and we must share ourselves tirelessly, not holding anything back.

Evangelization without a holocaust is proselytism. Proselytism is imagining that you can win souls for Christ without a sacrifice. It pretends that souls are won by winning arguments or, for that matter, laughing and crying with them.

But Elizabeth Scalia has a hope that we should be dumb enough not to see what she is doing. She is asking us to believe that all we need do for Evangelization is to ease off the doctrine and step up the niceness.

Really, is she expecting anyone who is Catholic to accept this? The fact is, many will accept it, because it is Evangelization without a Cross, an Incarnation without a crucifixion. And to that, her claims will fail, like so many other enthusiasts over the centuries.

Link:

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Moving Beyond


By Father Ray Blake

So according to rumours Cardinal Burke is off to become Cardinal-Patron of the Order of Malta. It is hardly surprising considering his opposition to the new orthodoxies. If anyone has presented himself as the 'loyal opposition' it is Burke. Magister points out that he unlike many other Curial Cardinals has maintained his integrity and that is what I have heard from Rome. He is a Nathanael, 'an Israelite without guile'. Others might jockey for position, like renaissance princes, playing the Machiavellian games that are as much part of the Roman scene today as they were five hundred or a thousand years ago.

Ratzinger might well have appointed his enemies to key positions, so long as they could hold an intellectual position together but things are different now, broken corpses are now on display in the city squares. It is not necessary for the Prince to say anything, or even to know his policies, it is actions that are important and being part of his party. It is not the law but the style of interpreting it that matters. The signs of the times are more important than spoken words, the nuance than what is actually said. The straight bat of Burke was hardly going to survive for long in that environment.
Machiavelli, some clerics bedside reading, calls for examples to made, for occasional acts of cruelty.

What seems to be being said is that the age of dogma and doctrine is dead, everything is pastoral, focus groups replace creeds, there is more concern with how we are conceived by public opinion than any teaching... (continued)


Link:
Related:

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Exile to Malta for Cardinal Burke

As the impeccable prefect of the supreme tribunal of the apostolic signatura, he is on the verge of being demoted to the purely honorary role of “patron” of an order of knighthood. At the behest of Pope Francis

 by Sandro Magister

(Chiesa) VATICAN CITY, September 17, 2014 – The “revolution” of Pope Francis in ecclesiastical governance is not losing its driving thrust. And so, as happens in every self-respecting revolution, the heads continue to roll for churchmen seen as deserving this metaphorical guillotine.

In his first months as bishop of Rome, pope Bergoglio immediately provided for the transfer to lower-ranking positions of three prominent curial figures: Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, and Bishop Giuseppe Sciacca, considered for their theological and liturgical sensibilities among the most “Ratzingerian” of the Roman curia.

Another whose fate appears to be sealed is the Spanish archbishop of Opus Dei Celso Morga Iruzubieta, secretary of the congregation for the clergy, destined to leave Rome for an Iberian diocese not of the first rank.

But now an even more eminent decapitation seems to be on the way.

The next victim would in fact be the United States cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who from being prefect of the supreme tribunal of the apostolic signatura would not be promoted - as some are fantasizing in the blogosphere - to the difficult but prestigious see of Chicago, but rather demoted to the pompous - but ecclesiastically very modest - title of “cardinal patron” of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, replacing the current head, Paolo Sardi, who recently turned 80.

If confirmed, Burke’s exile would be even more drastic than the one inflicted on Cardinal Piacenza, who, transferred from the important congregation for the clergy to the marginal apostolic penitentiary, nevertheless remained in the leadership of a curial dicastery.

With the shakeup on the way, Burke would instead be completely removed from the curia and employed in a purely honorary position without any influence on the governance of the universal Church.

This would be a move that seems to have no precedent.

In the past, in fact, the title of “cardinalis patronus” of the knights of Malta, in existence since 1961, like the previous one of Grand Prior of Rome, has always been assigned to the highest ranking cardinals as an extra position in addition to the main one.

This is what was done with cardinals Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro (appointed Grand Prior in 1896 while remaining secretary of state), Gaetano Bisleti (at the same time prefect of the congregation for Catholic education), Gennaro Granito Pignatelli (cardinal dean and bishop of Albano), Nicola Canali (governor of Vatican City), Paolo Giobbe (leader of the apostolic dataria), Paul-Pierre Philippe (until the age of 75 also prefect of the congregation for the Oriental Churches), Sebastiano Baggio (removed from the congregation for bishops but kept on as governor of Vatican City and camerlengo), Pio Laghi (until the age of 77 also prefect of the congregation for Catholic education).

Two separate cases are those of Cardinal Giacomo Violardo, who succeeded the 89-year-old Giobbe as patron at the age of 71, two months after receiving the scarlet at the end of long service in the curia, and of the outgoing Sardi, appointed pro-patron in 2009 at the age of 75 and made cardinal in 2010 after having been for many years the head of the office that writes pontifical documents.

Above all, Sardi’s retirement would not be a compulsory act, since the age limit of 80 does not apply to positions outside of the curia. And in fact, with the exception of Paulo Giobbe, all of the aforementioned cardinal patrons went on to a better life “durante munere.”

Burke is 66 years old, and therefore still in his ecclesiastical prime. Ordained a priest by Paul VI in 1975, he worked at the apostolic signatura as an ordinary priest with John Paul II, who made him bishop of his native diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1993. It was again pope Karol Wojtyla who in 2003 promoted him as archbishop of the prestigious see, once cardinalate, of St. Louis, Missouri. Benedict XVI called him back to Rome in 2008, and made him a cardinal in 2010.

With a very devout personality, he is also recognized as having the rare virtue of never having struck any deals to obtain ecclesiastical promotions or benefices.

In the liturgical and theological camp, he is very close to the sensibilities of Joseph Ratzinger. He has celebrated a number of times according to the ancient rite, even donning the “cappa magna,” as do cardinals George Pell and Antonio Cañizares Llovera, without being punished for this by Pope Francis.

A great expert in canon law, and appointed to the apostolic signatura for this reason, he is not afraid to follow it to the most uncomfortable consequences. Like when, to the tune of articles of the Code - number 915 to be precise - he upheld the impossibility of giving communion to those politicians who stubbornly and publicly uphold the right to abortion, bringing the rebukes of two colleagues in the United States valued by Pope Francis, Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston and Donald Wuerl of Washington.

Free in his judgments, he has been among the very few to make critical remarks on “Evangelii Gaudium,” pointing out that in his view it is orientational but not truly magisterial. And in view of the upcoming synod of bishops, he has repeatedly taken a stand against the ideas of Cardinal Walter Kasper - well known to be in the good graces of Pope Francis - in favor of communion for the divorced and remarried.

The dicastery headed by Burke, eminently technical, recently accepted an appeal from the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate against a provision issued for them by the congregation for religious. A courageous move on the part of Burke, situated within the context of the punitive action undertaken by the Vatican congregation against one of the most substantial realities of Catholic traditionalism, an action that Pope Francis endorsed by approving in specific form the congregation’s decision to prevent the Friars of the Immaculate from celebrating the Mass according to the “Tridentine” rite. It is only with this kind of pontifical approval, in fact, that a decree of the curia can overturn standing law, in this case the motu proprio of Benedict XVI “Summorum Pontificum.”

It is difficult to identify among these episodes the ones that may have have had the greatest influence on the fate of Cardinal Burke.

But it is easy to predict that his definitive downgrading will provoke both a tumultuous reaction within the traditionalist world, where Burke is seen as a hero, and a corresponding wave of jubilation in the opposite camp, where he is instead considered a bogeyman.

On the latter side it can be recalled that the “liberal” Catholic commentator Michael Sean Winters, in the “National Catholic Reporter” of November 26, 2013, had called for the head of Cardinal Burke as a member of the congregation for bishops, because of the nefarious influence, according to him, that he was exercising over episcopal appointments in the United States.

On December 16, in effect, Pope Francis humiliated Burke by crossing him off from among the members of the congregation. To the hosannas of “liberal” Catholicism, not only in the United States.

The pope certainly did not do so out of obedience to the wishes of the “National Catholic Reporter.”

But now he seems right at the point of giving the go-ahead for the second and more grave demotion of one of the most untarnished personalities the Vatican curia knows.

__________


English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.

Link:
Related:

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Here’s what Shakespeare’s plays sounded like with their original English accent

From Abraham at twentytwowords.com:

In this short documentary, linguist David Crystal and his son, actor Ben Crystal, look at the differences between English pronunciation now and how it was spoken 400 years ago. They answer the most basic question you probably have right now — How do you know what it sounded like back then? — and they discuss the value of performing Shakespeare’s plays in the original accent…


Link:

Pope says world's many conflicts amount to piecemeal World War Three

By Stefano Rellandini

REDIPUGLIA Italy (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Saturday the spate of conflicts around the globe today were effectively a "piecemeal" Third World War, condemning the arms trade and "plotters of terrorism" sowing death and destruction.

"Humanity needs to weep and this is the time to weep," Francis said in the homily of a Mass during a visit to Italy's largest war memorial, a large, Fascist-era monument where more than 100,000 soldiers who died in World War One are buried.

The pope began his brief visit to northern Italy by first praying in a nearby, separate cemetery for some 15,000 soldiers from five nations of the Austro-Hungarian empire which were on the losing side of the Great War that broke out 100 years ago.

"War is madness," he said in his homily before the massive, sloping granite memorial, made of 22 steps on the side of hill with three crosses at the top.

"Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction," he said.

In the past few months, Francis has made repeated appeals for an end to conflicts in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Gaza and parts of Africa.

"War is irrational; its only plan is to bring destruction: it seeks to grow by destroying," he said. "Greed, intolerance, the lust for power. These motives underlie the decision to go to war and they are too often justified by an ideology ...," he said.

Last month the pope, who has often condemned the concept of war in God's name, said it would be legitimate for the international community to use force to stop "unjust aggression" by Islamic State militants who have killed or displaced thousands of people in Iraq and Syria, many of them Christians.

In his homily, read at a sombre service to thousands of people braving the rain and which included the hauntingly funereal sound of a solitary bugle, Francis condemned "plotters of terrorism" but did not elaborate.

Link:

Friday, September 12, 2014

The Real Heroes of the 1863 Draft Riots


By Father George Rutler

(Crisis Magazine) The staircase in my rectory is lined with pictures of the twelve pastors who preceded me in my parish, which is called Hell’s Kitchen.  I hope that thirteen is a benign number. While the neighborhood now is experiencing the most promising real estate development in the history of the nation, it did not get its nickname for being what it is now.  Here is where the boatloads of Irish immigrants from the Great Famine arrived at the nearby docks, amid terrible poverty, crime and vice, giving our vocabulary the “Paddy wagon” and “donnybrook.” The faces of my first predecessors are serious, for those pastors had a hard job to do for God and I cannot hope to fill the shoes of those men who toiled in ill streets.

The first of them was Monsignor Arthur J. Donnelly who built a huge parish from scratch in 1857, regularizing marriages and tending abandoned children, and trying to form a Catholic culture just as Archbishop Cullen had managed to do somewhat in Dublin where, contrary to romance, oppression had long neglected the moral norms of the Church.  Donnelly was pastor during the Civil War and was appalled by what was happening to his people and nation as he tried to establish the parish.  The great church, school, and convent that he established were moved a generation later two blocks north to make way for the Pennsylvania Station.

The Draft Riots took place July 13-16 in 1863. They had precedent in Cincinnati in 1862 where Bishop John Purcell’s brother, the Reverend Edward Purcell, was singular in his anti-slavery publicity through The Cincinnati Telegraph. Orestes Brownson, whom John Henry Newman hoped might join his new Catholic University in Dublin, observed that pro-slavery Catholics for the most part  “only acted out the opinions they had received from men of higher religious and social position than themselves,” and insisted that  “had they been guided properly, the riots would never have taken place, or at least the main participants in them would not have been Irish Catholics.”

In New York the riots lasted four days and at least 120 were killed, while some estimates have 500 or more. Over 2,000 were injured, and more than 50 businesses and homes and two Protestant churches were destroyed. Racism melded with religious bigotry and some Protestant churches were threatened because they were pro-Republican and centers of the abolition cause.  Rioters sacked the Protestant “Five Points Mission” as a parish priest, at great danger to himself, tried to stop them while wearing his stole and waving his Breviary. Two blocks from my rectory a black man was lynched on a lamp post, mutilated, and set on fire.  The nearby Presbyterian church was about to be torched when Monsignor Donnelly appealed to the mob and the church was saved.   Today at Mass I sit in a large oak chair that was the gift of the Presbyterian minister and his elders in gratitude for their rescue. When Monsignor Donnelly died in 1890 after thirty-three years as pastor, the Presbyterians attended his Requiem Mass, the first they had ever seen.  Many of the overwhelmed police were Irish Catholics, horrified at what they saw, and they behaved heroically, like the local regimental Colonel Henry O’Brien, who was killed protecting a policeman... (continued)


Link:

Bill Maher ABSOLUTELY CRUSHES Charlie Rose For Comparing Islam To Christianity


Link:

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Catholic League bowing out of New York's St. Patrick's parade

(Associated Press) NEW YORK – The Catholic League says it will sit out next year's St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York because parade organizers aren't letting an anti-abortion Catholic group march.

Catholic League head Bill Donohue said Thursday that his organization won't participate in the March 2015 parade for the first time in 20 years.

Parade organizers said last week that they would allow OUT(at)NBCUniversal to march. That's an LGBT resource group at the company that broadcasts the parade.

Gay activists say inviting the NBC employee group isn't enough.

But Donohue says parade organizers promised him that if a gay group could march under its own banner, a "pro-life" Catholic group would be included also.

He says the organizers backed out of their pledge.

Parade spokesman Bill O'Reilly called the Catholic League's decision disappointing.

Link:
Related:

FR. MACRAE’S 20 YEARS IN PRISON

By Bill Dononue

(The Catholic League) Next week marks the 20th anniversary of Father Gordon MacRae’s unjust prison sentence. What happened to him is unbelievable. My account of his ordeal was posted today on his website, www.thesestonewalls.com. To read it, click here.

Links:



Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Unfaithful Bishops and Catholic Media



By Michael Voris

(ChurchMilitant.TV)  Hello everyone and welcome to The Vortex where lies and falsehoods are trapped and exposed. I’m Michael Voris.

The Catholic Establishment Media cannot be trusted. They are in the pockets of the US bishops, many of whom have a strange view of the Church.

Case in point – the failure to report on the scandal caused by Cardinal Dolan, repeated scandals actually, but more on the media in a moment.

We can certainly thank Cardinal Dolan of New York for one thing – his wicked endorsement of active homosexuals being allowed to march under their sodomite banner in the St. Patrick’s Day parade has finally taken the mask off the loss of supernatural faith among various bishops and cardinals in the US hierarchy.

If you hear only one thing from this episode, it is this – various bishops and other leaders in the Church do not believe the Catholic faith. They do not possess supernatural faith.

This is clear by their actions, statements, silence in the face of assorted evils and willingness to so frequently change the topic from sexual immorality to social justice.

Their version of social justice is a scam, a fraud that diverts attention from the REAL evil in the Church these days – the sins of sexual impurity and their failure to address them.

They don’t address them because they don’t really care about them - and they don’t really care about them because they don’t really believe there are any supernatural consequences for them. If they DID believe that, then they certainly have a very odd way of demonstrating their fear for their flock and our eternal lives.

Quote evidently, they don’t believe souls got to hell for these sins because – at the end of the day – they don’t really believe that anyone goes to hell. That’s why they keep their mouths shut about sin, hell, and the need for confession. They don’t take it seriously.

They don’t believe hardly any souls – if actually any go to Hell – and that is THE hallmark of their lack of supernatural faith – it is the episcopal heresy of our day. It is a heresy of silence fueled by a lack of supernatural faith.

There is the report of a talk that Bishop Sheen was giving one day about Hell, when a lady in the front row piped up and said, “I don’t believe in hell”, and the Venerable bishop Sheen responded, “You will when you get there Madam.” Take copious notes here bishops – very careful notes – there is a Hell and souls go there. Check the scriptures.

You may not have noticed, but it has been almost a week since news broke of the decision by Cardinal Dolan (one leader who appears lacking in the supernatural faith department based on his continued, non-stop causing of scandal to the faithful) and his decision about gays in the parade.

Almost entire week. In this week, we have been paying very close attention to the internet sites of the Catholic Establishment Media – EWTN, Catholic News Agency, Zenit, Catholic Answers, the Catholic page on Patheos, and a host of others. The only place we could find anything about this evil was at the National Catholic Register’s bloggers’ page where Pat Archbold from Creative Minority Report wrote a brilliant piece.

There isn’t one word, not one OFFICIAL word covering this story of Cardinal Dolan applauding the inclusion of people in a parade .. dedicated to the memory of one of the Church’s greatest saints .. who celebrate their mortal sin and indentify themselves accordingly. To add insult to his sin of scandal, Dolan has agreed to lead the parade as Grand Marshal. Disgusting.

Disgusting as well is the hypocrisy of the sites and media sources of the Catholic world who hold themselves out as reliable sources of news and information in the Catholic world. This proves the case once and for all – they are NOT reliable sources. They are every bit as bad as the secular media who spin and distort and keep THEIR mouths shut about evils in the secular world. The Catholic Establishment Media is bought and sold, owned lock stock and barrel by the Establishment Church and various bishops like Charles Chaput who set the agenda and determine what can be talked about and what can’t.

They possess as much journalistic integrity as many of the bishops possess supernatural faith – which is to say – painfully little. If they had integrity, they could not have ignored the most sensational story to hit the Catholic world in months – in fact, since Dolan said on national TV, “Bravo” about gay would be NFL linebacker Michael Sam’s coming out as gay. Can you imagine one of the apostles saying bravo to mortal sin?

That little incident, by the way, earning Dolan the unflattering nickname of “Cardinal Bravo”.

There is simply no rationale for any of these internet supposed-news outlets to ignore the most talked about story on the Catholic internet in months. No rationale that is – except they are controlled by the very bishops and powers that they would need to expose in any reporting – so that aint gonna happen.

Bottom line then – they cannot be trusted. None of them. This story about Dolan and the gays in the St. Patrick’s Day parade made SECULAR news for gosh sake. We here at Church Militant.TV produced a Special report that had a reach of close to 100,000 on our Church Militant.TV Facebook page alone.

Add in all the other faithful Catholic websites and blogs willing to talk about this and there is simply no excuse at all, under any circumstances that the Catholic Establishment Media can offer for ducking on this story – except their masters don’t want it covered.

We are indeed in strange times in the Church my fellow Catholics. For decades now, as this crisis of faith has unfolded in the hierarchy, various Catholics have simply been left in the dark about it, and contributing to that darkness are other Catholics in a position to help do something about it. They have not. So other Catholics must rise up and do something.

GOD Love You,

I’m Michael Voris

Link:
Related:

Monday, September 8, 2014

Wicked Bishops


By Michael Voris

Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Vortex, where lies and falsehoods are trapped and exposed. I’m Michael Voris.

When a Catholic bishop who is given care of souls does just the opposite, then he is a wicked bishop.

What New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan has done in welcoming gays officially into the parade celebrating one of the most revered saints in the Church is purely diabolical. That’s right, Your Eminence, someone has got to say it to you flat out—you are in the grip of the devil.

You continue to be a non-stop source of scandal for the faithful, both in what you do and in what you fail to do.

You have in this case given your blessing to an organized group of souls publicly celebrating their sodomy in a parade that celebrates the sanctity of a man who converted a nation away from paganism.

What you are doing is evil, and if you can’t see that, then you are blind.

You give your approval to sin—public approval to mortal sin from a Churchman. You have done this before, but never on so grand a scale. You give active homosexuality a free pass in your archdiocese.

You are not fit to be a successor of the Apostles. You sully the bride of Christ with your wickedness.

You invite the most anti-Catholic man ever to hold the White House to a public dinner. Even after other bishops and cardinals made private appeals to you to rescind the invitation, you went ahead with it.

You go on national television and distort the Gospel of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ with your horrible comments about gay football player Michael Sam, saying “Bravo” to his sodomy. What the hell is wrong with you?

What other conclusion can people who love the Church draw, other than you don’t.

To everyone who cares about the Church, looking in from the outside, it looks like you no longer believe the Catholic faith—because as you know, there is no such thing as a partial Catholic—you’re either all in or not.

But you and other wicked people in the Church have allowed an attitude to grow, an atmosphere to come to life, where people think they are free to pick and choose what they want.

Do you think you have any chance of escaping hell when you die if you don’t repent of all this before your death? Do you even believe in Hell?

You cavort with child-killing politicans, you give them shout-outs at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, you go on national television to an audience of millions and practically mock the idea of ever preaching against the sins of the flesh—the sins that the Mother of God revealed to the seers at Fatima most souls go to hell for.

And in the area of what you do NOT do—you do not support faithful Catholics who want some sanity in their parish community, free from all the modernist deformations you celebrate. Instead you threaten to close their parishes.

You do NOT make a clear definitive statement in support of Jesus Christ when standing with followers of the false religion of Islam. You confuse the faithful about the nature of Islam by your silence. You will not call it for what it is—a heresy, a false religion. Islam denies the divinity of Christ; it rejects the Holy Trinity. Muslims do not possess supernatural faith. And knowing all this, you publicly encouraged followers of this false religion to remain in it.

How dare you parade, now literally parade, around New York in the red robes of a bishop, meant to signify the death you would happily undergo to preserve the flock, when in reality, far from preserving them from death, you are actually bringing death to them. You need to repent publicly and swiftly. You need to admit the many sins and scandals you have caused and tell the world you were wrong. You need to lay aside your ego, your need to be praised by men, for the sake of your own soul and the souls of those whom you influence.

What you are doing is evil and wicked. You tear at tradition-minded Catholics and support and uphold sodomites. Do not think the punishment visited on you will not be of the most severe sort when you die, perhaps even before you die, if you do not change. You need the humility to publicly recognize your sin, admit it, repent of it, and resign your office now. And for the record—any other bishops in the United States who have lost their faith need to step aside as well for the same reasons.

The time has come—for an authentic Catholic Uprising!

GOD Love you.

I’m Michael Voris

Link:
Related:

Saturday, September 6, 2014

A Dispute between Archbishop Sheen and Francis Cardinal Spellman

Repost from September 13, 2011:

A Dispute between Archbishop Sheen and Francis Cardinal Spellman

From Vidimus Dominum:

(By: Paul I Murphy, La Popessa)

In 1957 Francis Cardinal Spellman, the powerful Archbishop of New York, insisted that Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Society for the Propagation of the Faith owed the Archdiocese of New York one million dollars for supplies that the Society had distributed to impoverished people around the world. This dispute eventually made its way into the Pope’s office, and was settled when Pope Pius XII learned via a phone call to President Eisenhower that the surplus aid had been donated by the U.S. government to the Church free of charge. Not wishing to humble a longtime friend before another prelate of a lesser rank, the Pope reminded the two bishops that forgiveness was Divine and they should go in peace. He then gave them his blessing.

Once outside the Pope’s office an enraged Cardinal Spellman turned to Archbishop Sheen and shouted angrily, “I will get even with you!” Unmoved, the Archbishop replied while looking squarely at the Cardinal with his penetrating dark eyes, “Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius!”

Unfortunately for Archbishop Sheen, Cardinal Spellman made good his threat. His much watched television series was not renewed despite its increasing popularity, and the Archbishop was transferred to a small diocese in Upstate New York, which Cardinal Spellman and other prelates referred to as an “ecclesiastical Siberia.”

Link:
Related:

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Time to End the St. Patricks Parade and the Al Smith Dinners?

Via Google cache:

By:

(Archdiocese of Washington) The time for happy-clappy and light-hearted engagement of our culture may be nearing an end. Sometimes it takes a while t understand that what used to work no longer works. Let me get more specific.

Decades ago the “Al Smith Dinner” was a time for republicans and Democrats to lay aside the hatch and come together to raise money for the poor and to emphasize what unites us rather than what divides us. But in the old days the death of 50 million infants was not what divided us. We were dived about lesser things like how much o the budget should got to defense and to social spending. Reasonable men might differ over that.

But now we are being asked to raise toasts and to roast and to enjoy a night of frivolity with those who think it is okay to abort children by the millions each year, with those who think anal sex is to be celebrated as a form of love, and that.e LGBTQIA…etc (I=intersexual A= Asexual)  is actually a form of sanity to which we should tip our hat,  with those who stand four-square against us over religious liberty.

Now the St. Patrick’s Parade will become of parade of disorder, chaos and fake unity. Frankly, lets be honest, St. Patrick’s Day nationally has become a disgrace of drunkenness and foolishness in the middle of Lent that more often embarrasses the memory of Patrick than honors him.

Now it is about to become absurdity in NYC with the “parade” devolving into a farcical and hateful ridicule of the Faith St. Patrick preached.

It’s time to cancel the St. Patrick’s Parade, and the Al Smith Dinner and all other sorts of ‘catholic’ traditions that have been stolen by the world. Better for Catholics to enter their churches on their knees on St. Patrick’s day an pray in reparation for the foolishness to end for this confused world to return to its senses. Lets do adoration and pray unceasingly the rosary and divine mercy chaplet for this poor old world.

But don’t go to the parade and stay away from Al Smith Dinners and all that “old school” stuff that hangs on in a darkened world. Re. St Patrick’s day, it is time to stop wearing the green and take up the purple of Lent and mean it. Enough of the stupidity, frivolity and drunkenness that St Patty’s day has become, we need penance now, not foolishness and parades and dinner with people who scoff at our teachings, insist we compromise, use us for publicity  and make money off of us. We are being played and we for (and are?) fools.

End the St Patrick’s parade. End the Al Smith Dinner and all compromised events like them. Enough now, back to Church, wear the purple of Lent and if there is going to be a procession, let it be Eucharistic and penitential for the sins of this age.

For the sake of your sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!

How say you?

Link:
Related:

Go Get 'Em, Mother!



Related:

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Bishop Sheen Cause Suspended, Call for Prayer


From the Catholic Post:

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is a news release from the Diocese of Peoria. It was distributed to the media on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014.

-----

It is with immense sadness that the Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, Bishop of Peoria and President of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, announced today that the Cause for Sheen’s beatification and canonization has for the foreseeable future been suspended. The process to verify a possible miracle attributed to Sheen had been going extremely well, and only awaited a vote of the Cardinals and the approval of the Holy Father. There was every indication that a possible date for beatification in Peoria would have been scheduled for as early as the coming year. The Holy See expected that the remains of Venerable Sheen would be moved to Peoria where official inspection would be made and first class relics be taken. Subsequently, the Archdiocese of New York denied Bishop Jenky’s request to move the body to Peoria. After further discussion with Rome, it was decided that the Sheen Cause would now have to be relegated to the Congregation’s historic archive.

Countless supporters especially from the local church in Central Illinois have given their time, treasure and talent for this good work with the clear understanding that the body of Venerable Sheen would return to the Diocese. Bishop Jenky was personally assured on several occasions by the Archdiocese of New York that the transfer of the body would take place at the appropriate time. New York’s change of mind took place as the work on behalf of the Cause had reached a significant stage.

Bishop Jenky is what is technically called the “actor” of the Sheen Cause. The Diocese of Peoria and the Sheen Foundation have prayed and labored for this good work for the last twelve years. The Bishop is heartbroken not only for his flock in Peoria but also for the many supporters of the Sheen Cause from throughout the world who have so generously supported Peoria’s efforts. It should be noted, however, that saints are always made by God not by man. Efforts for many causes have sometimes taken decades or even centuries. Bishop Jenky urges that those who support the Sheen Cause continue their prayers that God’s will be made manifest.

No further comment will be released at this time.

Link:
Deja Vu from November 10, 2010 - Whispers in the Loggia:

Holy Fulton: Amid Dispute Over Resting Place, Peoria Halts Sheen Sainthood We interrupt this hiatus for an intriguing story of particular note....

Arguably the most influential figure in the four-century history of American Catholicism, nearly a year after Fulton Sheen was celebrated anew across the globe on the 30th anniversary of his death, the iconic prelate's boyhood diocese has suddenly pulled out of leading the charge for his beatification.

In a release posted to its website late last week, the Peoria-based Archbishop Sheen Cause announced the surprise move thus: It is with great sadness and disappointment, Bishop [Daniel] Jenky announces that after nine years of effort and sacrifice, the Diocese of Peoria is suspending its efforts on behalf of the Beatification of Fulton J. Sheen. The Archdiocese of New York has made it clear that it is not likely that they will ever transfer the remains of Fulton J. Sheen to his home diocese of Peoria...  (continued)

Related:

BREAKING: NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade Goes Gay - Dolan Cheers!



Related:

The Battle Heats Up



Related:

St. Patrick’s Day Parade ending ban on gay groups


(New York Post) New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will finally end its ban on gay groups marching in its annual Irish celebration, organizers said Wednesday.

OUT@NBCUniversal — a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender affinity group at 30 Rock — will be flying its banner and marching up Fifth Avenue on March 17, officials said.

That’ll be the only gay group marching in the 2015 version of the world’s largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade, but other LGBT groups can apply in future years, spokesman Bill O’Reilly said.

The organizing committee said this move to “change of tone and expanded inclusiveness is a gesture of goodwill to the LGBT community in our continuing effort to keep the parade above politics.”
OUT@NBCUniversal applied to be in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, according to Craig Robinson, executive vice president and chief diversity officer at NBCUniversal.

It wasn’t immediately clear why OUT@NBCUniversal was chosen or if there were any other openly gay groups that applied.

“We welcome the parade committee’s decision to accept OUT@NBCUniversal’s application to march and enthusiastically embrace the gesture of inclusion,” Robinson said.

“Our employees, families and friends look forward to joining in this time-honored celebration of Irish culture and heritage.”

Organizers insisted they are “remaining loyal to church teachings,” and O’Reilly said Cardinal Timothy Dolan — grand marshal of the 2015 parade — was “very supportive” of including gay groups in the event.

In a prepared statement Wednesday, Dolan didn’t outright endorse the move — but said the parade remains “close to its Catholic heritage.”

“Neither my predecessors as archbishop of New York nor I have ever determined who would or would not march in this parade (or any of the other parades that march along Fifth Avenue, for that matter),” he said, “but have always appreciated the cooperation of parade organizers in keeping the parade close to its Catholic heritage.”

“I know that there are thousands and thousands of gay people marching in this parade,” Dolan has said previously. “And I’m glad they are.”

Over the years, the parade’s ban on openly gay groups has grown problematic.

Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to march in this past year’s parade, and Guinness beer withdrew as a sponsor.

The Guinness loss was a huge factor in forcing parade organizers to change their long-standing policy, a former grand marshal told IrishCentral.com.

Guinness officials also played a role in brokering the deal that brought OUT@NBCUniversal into the 2015 parade, according to IrishCentral.com.

“Once an iconic company like Guinness showed it was standing up, pretty much everyone else had to follow,” the one-time grand marshal said.

Obviously, gay individuals have always marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade — but they’ve never before been allowed to participate under a banner identifying them as gay.

About 320 groups will be marching in the 2015 parade, the committee said.

“Organizers have diligently worked to keep politics — of any kind — out of the parade in order to preserve it as a single and unified cultural event,” organizers said. “Paradoxically, that ended up politicizing the parade.”

Politicians, city workers in uniform, marching bands, bagpipers and Irish dancers have all been stalwarts of the parade, which began in 1762.

Gay rights advocates hailed Wednesday’s announcement but said it was long overdue.

“It’s about time,” said GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.

“Discrimination has no place on America’s streets, least of all on Fifth Avenue. As an Irish-Catholic American, I look forward to a fully inclusive St. Patrick’s Day Parade that I can share with my wife and children, just as my own parents shared with me.”

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito — who, like de Blasio, did not march in this year’s parade over the gay flap — hailed the organizers’ move.

“This is a welcome first step and a good day for New Yorkers who believe in fairness, equality, and human rights,” she said. “For far too long, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade excluded New Yorkers just because of who they [want] to love. I am happy organizers finally realized that this parade is better when all are invited.”

Former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is openly gay, said parade organizers have lifted a “terrible mark of discrimination and bigotry” by allowing a gay group to march.

“Today faith had been rewarded. After close to 25 years of struggle and hard work, the terrible mark of discrimination and bigotry has finally been lifted from Fifth Avenue and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade,” said the one-time mayoral hopeful.

“All of the members of the LGBT community and our allies deserve great thanks for never giving up and remaining committed, proud, and strong. I also want to wholeheartedly thank [parade organizers] the [Ancient Order of Hibernians] and Cardinal Dolan for taking this important step forward.”

Link:
Related:

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Nunsense at TIME

From The Digital Hairshirt:
So Drudge is promoting TIME magazine's article by Jo Piazza that says this:
Today's generation of nuns are progressive women, two things the Church isn't used to. 
Nuns are an endangered species. They are dying and not being replaced.
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (aka CARA), in 2014 there are just 49,883 religious women in America, down 13% from 2010 and down 72% from 1965.

Now, let's look at this article.  It heads out by saying that the decline is attributable to a lack of appreciation of the nuns by the evil patriarchy of the Vatican.
The Vatican doesn’t celebrate these women. In fact, it has done the very opposite. Attacks on American nuns have been happening since 2008, when the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life initiated an “Apostolic Visitation,” a euphemism for investigation, of the nuns.
The nuns nicknamed it the Great Nunquisition and in the past eight years they’ve come under scrutiny from the church patriarchy.
I have some problems with that connection.  For a woman to assume the habit of a religious order requires some great sacrifice on her part.  She will not marry.  She will take vows of celibacy, obedience, and poverty.  She will live in community with her fellow sisters and become, as it were, a "bride of Christ."  Now, to whom does she pledge obedience?  Ultimately, it is to the Church and those whom She has set in place as its authority, i.e., the Magisterium.

In short, it is a life of humility that she voluntarily takes on.  Sometimes the humility can be seen clearly, as with Blessed Mother Teresa.  Most of us would not relish washing the wounds of a leper.

So, consider this:  these humble women, living lives of service . . .

Do you think they choose this lifestyle to be "celebrated" by the Vatican?
The young women who could be the nuns of tomorrow share a lot of the same values as the nuns of today. They are fiercely dedicated to the concept of social justice and doing good in the world. Seven in 10 millennials consider themselves social activists, and 72% of them are eager to participate in a nonprofit young professional group. 
They want to be of service. 
I recently spoke to a young woman who was discerning to be a Catholic sister, but changed her mind before she took perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 
I asked her why and the answer was very simple and yet disheartening. 
“I want to work for an employer that values what I do.”
Then may I suggest she did not have a vocation to become a religious sister.  Because it is not a job with an employer - it is a vocation to serve and emulate Christ.  What Piazza just described is antithetical to the the mindset of someone wishing to enter the religious life.

The author lists examples of nuns (sisters, really - a nun technically is a religious women living a contemplative, cloistered life, like my beloved Handmaids of the Precious Blood) who should be lauded:... (continued)

Link:
Related: