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

mtierney said:

The Hail Mary prayer and the Black Plague...

https://aleteia.org/2020/03/17/how-the-black-plague-changed-the-hail-mary-prayer/#.Xu32meMxPxA.email

Adding to prayers to reflect contemporary concerns is continuing to this day.

The "Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary", also known as the "Litany of Loreto" (from the name of the shrine where it is thought to have originated) is a hundreds-of-years-old prayer of invocations, of titles for Mary the mother of Jesus.

Pope Francis added some new titles today.  Included is the title "Solace of Migrants".

Archbishop Arthur Roche "explained that these invocations 'respond to the realities of the time that we are living'. Speaking to Vatican News, he said that many people across the world who are afflicted in many ways, not only by the Covid-19 pandemic, but also forced from their homes because of poverty, conflict and other reasons, are invoking Our Lady."

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-06/pope-francis-loreto-litany-new-invocations.html


Father’s Day and St. Joseph...

https://churchpop.com/2015/06/21/8-little-known-facts-about-st-joseph-the-foster-father-of-jesus/

Here are things you might not know about St. Joseph, the foster father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He has no recorded words in Scripture

He protected the immaculate Mother of God and helped raise the Lord of the Universe! But he doesn’t get even one quote. Rather, he’s a silent, humble servant of God who does his task well, and no more.

He is not even mentioned in the Gospel of Mark – or most of the New Testament

Joseph is mentioned in Matthew, Luke, once in John (someone calls Jesus “the son of Joseph”) – and that’s it. He’s not mentioned at all in Mark or in the rest of the New Testament.

His exit from the story of the Gospels is left unexplained in Scripture

He’s an important figure in the Nativity narratives of Matthew and Luke, and he is included in the story of finding the 12-year-old Jesus with the teachers of the Law in the Temple.

But that’s the last we hear of him. Mary comes up several times during Jesus’ ministry, but Joseph is gone without a trace.

So what happened to him? Various traditions explain this gap by saying that Joseph died around Jesus’ 20th birthday.

He may have been an old widower

Scripture doesn’t tell us how old Joseph was when he married Mary, or really anything about his previous life.

An early tradition, though, claims that he was about 90 years old, and that he had been previously married, had children from that previous marriage, and that his wife had died, leaving him a widower. In this account, he knew that Mary had taken a vow of virginity, and he was chosen to marry Mary and serve as her protector in part because he was old and not interested in starting another family.

This helps to explain why he apparently died while Jesus was a young man, as well as explains why some people are referred to as Jesus’ “brothers” and “sisters” in the Gospels: they could have been Joseph’s children from a previous marriage, and so were Jesus’ step-siblings.



finnegan said:

IMHO, EWTN is the Fox News of Catholic media. 

Not opinion, undisputed fact. Yesterday they ran this campaign ad for Trump under the guise of a Raymond Arroyo "interview" about "Catholic concerns".  


From Catholic University - 

At the World Day of Migrants and Refugees Mass in January 2018, Pope Francis urged people the world over to welcome the stranger. “Migration today is a sign of the times,” he said. “Every stranger who knocks at our door is an opportunity for an encounter with Jesus Christ, who identifies with the welcomed and rejected strangers of every age” (Matthew 25:35-43).
...
Caritas Internationalis, a worldwide charity of the Catholic Church, is the primary sponsor of the campaign along with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Catholic Relief Services, and Catholic Charities USA. The campaign encourages people to encounter migrants and listen to their stories.

The USCCB has supported and embraced the message with its vision of “a world where immigrants, refugees, migrants, and people on the move are treated with dignity, respect, welcome, and belonging.”

As the national university of the Catholic Church in America, we too are “sharing the journey.” In this issue we present stories of students, staff, faculty, and alumni who are answering the call to join in the journey with those seeking refuge and a better life. 

The rest of the story, and profiles of people (Bishops, other clergy and lay people) at the link for this story, "Sharing the Journey".


Did the title for this thread change?


Yes, the title used to be more generic, about the response to Pope Francis; but recently was changed to reflect the "new normal", in response to the pandemic, I believe.  Thread authors are free to change the titles of their threads, and sometimes do to reflect more recent events or concerns.

GoSlugs said:

Did the title for this thread change?

 


"In a word, it is not only the cause of migrants that is at stake; it is not just about them, but about all of us, and about the present and future of the human family.” -Pope Francis

"After years of chipping away at the asylum system and the rights of those in need of protection, the Trump administration is proposing a rule that would effectively end asylum once and for all. This is a crisis moment and historic lowpoint with literal life or death consequences for some of the most vulnerable people in the world."  At the link below, people can sign-up and submit a public comment against the this proposed rule.

Calling the interfaith community to stand with asylum seekers at this crisis moment


nohero said:

"In a word, it is not only the cause of migrants that is at stake; it is not just about them, but about all of us, and about the present and future of the human family.” -Pope Francis

"After years of chipping away at the asylum system and the rights of those in need of protection, the Trump administration is proposing a rule that would effectively end asylum once and for all. This is a crisis moment and historic lowpoint with literal life or death consequences for some of the most vulnerable people in the world."  At the link below, people can sign-up and submit a public comment against the this proposed rule.

Calling the interfaith community to stand with asylum seekers at this crisis moment

 Done.  Thank you nohero.


And, in other news, Fulton Sheen (never a real Saint) still is not a saint.  I suspect this state of affairs will continue as long as we have Popes who view the coddling of fascists as a moral failing.


Well, at least Mr. Klinker is back, so some things are getting back to normal.


Cardinal Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, wrote to President Trump regarding a federal inmate scheduled for execution on July 17.

"There is no doubt that the crimes for which he was convicted are heinous.  However, killing Mr. Honken will do nothing to restore justice or heal those still burdened by these crimes.  Instead, his execution will reduce the government of the United States to the level of a murderer and serve to perpetuate a climate of violence which brutalizes our society in so many ways.  By commuting this death sentence, you would help to stem the tide of anger and revenge that threatens our country.

"As you know, its use of capital punishment makes the United States an outlier in the world.  Pope Francis has asked our country to end its use of the death penalty and recently clarified the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding the use of the death penalty.  The official Catechism of the Catholic Church declares... 'the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person', and [the Church] works with determination for its abolition worldwide' (n. 2267)."

Archdio of Newark Letter to President.pdf

An appeal to Trump? The guy who wants to fast track executions?

Lot of good that does. He gets off when people suffer - DACA, children in cages, executions, removing Obamacare, cutting food stamps.

Tobin may as well have appealed to Satan.


Klinker said:

And, in other news, Fulton Sheen (never a real Saint) still is not a saint.  I suspect this state of affairs will continue as long as we have Popes who view the coddling of fascists as a moral failing.

I presume you know this, but the Church turf battles regarding Fulton Sheen, including the disposition of his body, have raged for more than a half century.


chalmers said:

I presume you know this, but the Church turf battles regarding Fulton Sheen, including the disposition of his body, have raged for more than a half century.

“Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is "timing"
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way.”
Fulton J. Sheen


 A mere blip in the Church’s 2,000 years!


mtierney said:
it waits on the right time to act,

With the ugly reign of Pope Ratzinger finally just an unpleasant memory, now is the right time to bury forever the idea that Sheen, an unyielding supporter of murderous right wing dictators in Spain and Latin America, could ever be a real Saint.


A Saint’s journey retold in 2020....

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/16/opinion/junipero-serra-catholic-saint.html

History takes a bashing under the demands of the woke folks to erase the works of sinners and saints. 


mtierney said:

History takes a bashing under the demands of the woke folks to erase the works of sinners and saints. 

That's a complete misrepresentation of what's in that essay.  In fact, "History takes a bashing" is what happened when the dark parts of that history were obscured and ignored before the historians among the "woke folks" provided a more complete picture, which is what that essay is about. 


On the other hand, this article’s examination of the future roles of women in Catholic Church is promising.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-16/after-catholic-church-sexual-abuse-crisis-change-women-leaders/12543146

It follows from some actions taken by the Pope, and from some historically revered women within the Church’s history. 


joanne said:

On the other hand, this article’s examination of the future roles of women in Catholic Church is promising.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-16/after-catholic-church-sexual-abuse-crisis-change-women-leaders/12543146

It follows from some actions taken by the Pope, and from some historically revered women within the Church’s history. 

By "some actions taken by the Pope, I assume you're referring to this from your link: "Last Thursday, Pope Francis appointed six women to a group overseeing the Vatican's finances. These positions are thought to be the most senior female appointments in the Church's leadership structure."

Just a local connection to that - the one U.S. member of that council is Cardinal Joseph Tobin, who is our Archbishop for the part of New Jersey that includes Maplewood and South Orange.


I was always taught to learn from my mistakes and be sure not to make the same mistakes in the future. As humans, we are fallible and sinners. We can be both saints and sinners.

That is why it is so necessary to know our history— 2020 people cannot condemn the world‘a inhabitants a few centuries back.  It is useless political (for the most part) posturing.

However, we can certainly learn from history. Knocking down or  defacing statues is the men and women who were honored for what they accomplished way back in the day merely teaches that destruction is the path to take. 

Look around at our cities right now, being destroyed in the midst of a pandemic.

Hate breeds more hate.


nohero said:

By "some actions taken by the Pope, I assume you're referring to this from your link: "Last Thursday, Pope Francis appointed six women to a group overseeing the Vatican's finances. These positions are thought to be the most senior female appointments in the Church's leadership structure."

Just a local connection to that - the one U.S. member of that council is Cardinal Joseph Tobin, who is our Archbishop for the part of New Jersey that includes Maplewood and South Orange.

 Yep, that’s quoted in the article. Reference is also made to other relatively prominent female roles. I’d say more but am running late for a meeting - sorry. 


Defacing or taking down the statues of men whose accomplishment was to fight to preserve slavery, through rebellion against the United States, may be a lot more honorable than the men themselves, or their supporters.  Many such statutes were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a symbol of attempts to restore the white repressive power structure of the pre-war South.  How would you like to be a black person having to look up to a statute every day in the center of town, of a slave-holding general who fought to preserve or restore the pre-civil war power structure?  What message do you think the building and placement of such statutes was meant to send to the black citizens of such towns?

mtierney said:

I was always taught to learn from my mistakes and be sure not to make the same mistakes in the future. As humans, we are fallible and sinners. We can be both saints and sinners.

That is why it is so necessary to know our history— 2020 people cannot condemn the world‘a inhabitants a few centuries back.  It is useless political (for the most part) posturing.

However, we can certainly learn from history. Knocking down or  defacing statues is the men and women who were honored for what they accomplished way back in the day merely teaches that destruction is the path to take. 

Look around at our cities right now, being destroyed in the midst of a pandemic.

Hate breeds more hate.

 


Good News! Fulton Sheen (never a real Saint) still is not a saint.


mtierney said: (on another thread)

His first act back was to post a denigrating comment on the Pope Francis thread which had fewer posts of late.

 No hate.  Just a simple statement of facts.  


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