tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post5748612952887529996..comments2024-02-14T03:56:12.027-08:00Comments on La Salette Journey: Father John Catoir: Only half the truthPaul Anthony Melansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08455719838570381999noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-53899161697950878542009-07-27T14:51:54.779-07:002009-07-27T14:51:54.779-07:00The following comment was emailed to me today and ...The following comment was emailed to me today and was written by Tom Syseskey:<br /><br />"On its website (http://www.catholicfreepress.org/) this week's Catholic Free Press <br />has a good article ('Patron of Priest's') but a bad photo to accompany it.<br /><br />'One picture is worth a thousand words.' The picture of the priest with two altar servers (one definitely female and the other androgynous) undermines the idea of a masculine priesthood - in one way or another."<br /><br />Tom served as librarian at Thomas More College in Merrimack, New Hampshire.Paul Anthony Melansonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08455719838570381999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-26152520909175910562009-07-27T07:23:57.835-07:002009-07-27T07:23:57.835-07:00News Briefs
Nigerian cardinal blasts laxity of Am...News Briefs <br />Nigerian cardinal blasts laxity of American culture, priesthood<br />July 27, 2009 <br /><br />In an interview in which he defended the discipline of priestly celibacy, Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie of Lagos condemned the laxity of American culture and some American priests. <br /><br />Contrasting the priesthood shortage in the US with the more positive Nigerian vocation picture, Cardinal Okogie said that “those people there [in the US]…they don’t value anything any more. And how do you want priests to come from a place like that?” <br /><br />When the interviewer referred to “an American priest [who] was caught smooching and kissing his girlfriend at a Miami beach,” the prelate interjected: <br /><br /><br />I am happy you said America. This is Nigeria. Whatever happens there; it is still the universal Church. It pains me. We are all the same body of Christ. It pains me. It shouldn’t be …but I am here in Nigeria and I can speak of Nigeria. If any stupid priest or bishop in Nigeria feels he wants to copy the American model, then there is something wrong with his head. <br /><br />Cardinal Okogie, now 73, has served as Archbishop of Lagos since he was 36. Pope John Paul II created him a cardinal in the consistory of 2003.Ellen Wironkenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15037753678014941848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-5279910391891288482009-07-27T05:40:21.605-07:002009-07-27T05:40:21.605-07:00This week's Catholic Free Press features an ar...This week's Catholic Free Press features an article by Patricia Keating Clark titled "Untimely death of a superstar" in which she compares Michael Jackson to Jesus the Christ: "'He reminds me of Jesus,' I said to my husband." <br /><br />Ms. Clark writes, "The C.C.D. teacher in me sees another comparison to Jesus here. In Catholicism we recall at every Mass what is referred to as the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. This is when Jesus rides on a donkey into the big city at the peak of his public life to the happy noise from throngs of screaming fans. After making a few unpopular public comments, however, days later the same crowd is shouting 'crucify him!' When I heard the news of Jackson's untimely death I thought about this. How, through our insatiable appetites for entertainment to invigorate our insufferably boring lives, we had all participated in the public killing of Michael Jackson. The stunningly beautiful photo in the paper the next day sent a chill up my spine. Before a stadium of spectators, there he stands, dressed in white, arms outstretched. There's no cross behind him, but he appears to be crucified. And where else but on the front page of the newspaper." <br /><br />There you have it folks. This is what is presented as "Catholicism" in the Catholic Free Press. Michael Jackson, a sad pop-star with a huge drug habit who was accused of molesting children (and who paid 20 million to one alleged victim) is compared to Jesus the Christ. Michael Jackson is portrayed as a crucified one who was killed because we ordinary folk who live boring lives have an insatiable appetite for entertainment. <br /><br />I won't bother to explain why comparing Michael Jackson to Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, is a rank obscenity. If you cannot see that for yourself, you are in all likelihood already lost. <br /><br />But how sad that so many solid Catholic writers do not appear in the CFP but such chaff is offered on a regular basis. <br /><br />This is a real tragedy.Marie Tremblaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-66277810985701435122009-07-26T12:47:32.449-07:002009-07-26T12:47:32.449-07:00Loss of Sense of Sin Needs Urgent Attention, Says ...Loss of Sense of Sin Needs Urgent Attention, Says Pope<br /><br />Appeals to U.S. Bishops to Promote Sacrament of Penance<br /><br />VATICAN CITY, MAY 14, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II lamented the loss of the sense of sin in the world as he urged a group of U.S. bishops to promote the sacrament of penance.<br /><br />Addressing the bishops of California, Nevada and Hawaii, who are on their five-yearly visit to Rome, the Pope said that the "courage to face the crisis of the loss of the sense of sin, to which I alerted the whole Church early in my pontificate, must be addressed today with particular urgency."<br /><br />In his 1984 apostolic exhortation "Reconciliatio et Paenitentia," the Holy Father warned that "the loss of the sense of sin is a form or fruit of the negation of God: not only of the atheist, but also of the secularist."<br /><br />This phenomenon implies a paradox. "While the effects of sin abound -- greed, dishonesty and corruption, broken relationships and exploitation of persons, pornography and violence -- the recognition of individual sinfulness has waned," he said.<br /><br />"In its place a disturbing culture of blame and litigiousness has arisen which speaks more of revenge than justice and fails to acknowledge that in every man and woman there is a wound which, in the light of faith, we call original sin," John Paul II lamented.<br /><br />"Sin is an integral part of the truth about the human person. To recognize oneself as a sinner is the first and essential step in returning to the healing love of God," he said.<br /><br />"Given this reality, the bishop's duty to indicate the sad and destructive presence of sin, both in individuals and in communities, is in fact a service of hope," the Pope said.<br /><br />"Far from being something negative, it strengthens believers to abandon evil and embrace the perfection of love and the fullness of Christian life," he added..."<br /><br />Full article at Zenit. <br /><br />I too am concerned that Fr. John Catoir is really doing a disservice to Catholics. We have heard enough from pop-psychology gurus telling us that the notion of guilt is "medieval" or "archaic." We don't need more New Ageish philosophy from a Catholic priest. Catholics and others are hungry for truth. Thank you Paul for promoting and defending the perennial truths of Catholicism.Michellenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-51728532502311754622009-07-26T10:11:26.162-07:002009-07-26T10:11:26.162-07:00Father Catoir writes, "The truth is that the ...Father Catoir writes, "The truth is that the holiest Catholic is the one who is most loving and kind." He then cites John 15:11 in which Jesus says, "I have told you this so that...your joy may be complete." Told us what? Father Catoir omits the previous verse which supplies us with context: "If you keep My commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in his love."<br /><br />In other words, we will have complete joy only if we keep His commandments. Then we will remain in His love and we will possess complete joy.<br /><br />Father Catoir is on the wrong track. "Needless guilt" is not the problem today. Today, as John Paul II reminded us regularly, there has been a loss of the sense of sin.<br /><br />I read where something like 80 percent of Catholic couples practice contraception. We have couples in the Church living in sin - fornication -others who are engaging in homosexuality, and still others who abort or who vote for politicians who promote abortion.<br /><br />Needless guilt or that guilt which is justified?John Ansleynoreply@blogger.com