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Pope Francis praises Father James Martin’s book on the resurrection of Lazarus
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 10 Replies
Pope: Jesus didn’t just talk about eternal life, He gave it to us - Vatican News
Pope Francis pens the preface to the Italian version of the book "Come Forth: The Raising of Lazarus and the Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle" by ...
www.vaticannews.va
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Report: Pope Benedict’s Former Secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein to Be Appointed Papal Nuncio
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 0 Replies
Appointment to Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius is in the works, according to an Italian Catholic news outlet.
The long limbo of Pope Benedict XVI’s former longtime personal secretary may be ending soon.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who fell from influential papal aide to no assignment in the Catholic Church, will soon be appointed papal nuncio to the three Baltic countries, according to a report from an Italian Catholic news outlet.
The story, published by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana and citing unnamed sources, said the archbishop will become papal nuncio to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania — a position that also includes similar duties in neighboring Latvia and Estonia.
It’s not the first time the high-profile prelate has been linked to a far-flung foreign post, however. In March 2023, a Spanish religious news website reported that Archbishop Gänswein might become papal ambassador to Costa Rica, which has not so far come to pass. More recently, in April 2024, an Argentinian newspaper, La Nación, reported that Archbishop Gänswein would soon become a papal nuncio to a country not named in the story.
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
The long limbo of Pope Benedict XVI’s former longtime personal secretary may be ending soon.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who fell from influential papal aide to no assignment in the Catholic Church, will soon be appointed papal nuncio to the three Baltic countries, according to a report from an Italian Catholic news outlet.
The story, published by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana and citing unnamed sources, said the archbishop will become papal nuncio to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania — a position that also includes similar duties in neighboring Latvia and Estonia.
It’s not the first time the high-profile prelate has been linked to a far-flung foreign post, however. In March 2023, a Spanish religious news website reported that Archbishop Gänswein might become papal ambassador to Costa Rica, which has not so far come to pass. More recently, in April 2024, an Argentinian newspaper, La Nación, reported that Archbishop Gänswein would soon become a papal nuncio to a country not named in the story.
Continued below.
Report: Pope Benedict’s Former Secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein to Be Appointed Papal Nuncio
Appointment to Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius is in the works, according to an Italian Catholic news outlet.
GIVEN forum equips young women to pursue their unique callings
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 0 Replies
(OSV News) — Young Catholic women face a lot of pressure today as they try to discern their vocations in life amid a secularized and polarized culture.
One group, originally founded by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious in 2018 after a successful 2016 event, is helping women find affirmation and guidance through a unique mentorship program that encourages them to discover and embrace their God-given gifts.
The GIVEN Art of Accompaniment Mentoring Program
Over 300 Catholic women from all walks of life will gather in Washington from June 8 to 12 to participate in the GIVEN Art of Accompaniment Mentoring Program and the Catholic Women’s Leadership Forum. It will be the fifth GIVEN forumsince the group’s founding; the previous forums were held in 2019, 2020 (online), 2021 and 2022.“Our mission is to help activate the gifts of young Catholic women for the church and the world,” GIVEN Executive Director Michelle Hillaert told OSV News just ahead of the gathering. “We do that by leadership development, faith formation, one-on-one mentoring with our art of accompaniment mentoring year.”
Continued below.
GIVEN forum equips young women to pursue their unique callings
Over 300 Catholic women from all walks of life will gather in Washington from June 8 to 12 to participate in the GIVEN Art of Accompaniment Mentoring Program and the Catholic Women's Leadership Forum.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
Locked up: Meet the elderly and infirm women now in prison for pro-life activism
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 0 Replies
CNA Staff, Jun 6, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).
Since she has been in prison, Jean Marshall, 74, a Catholic and pro-life nurse from Massachusetts, told CNA that she’s received over 150 letters of support, which have lifted her spirits.
Marshall and three other women with major health issues spoke with CNA about their imprisonment and their treatment by the justice system under the Biden administration.
Their crime? In an attempt to save the unborn on Oct. 22, 2020, they participated in a human chain, blockading the inside of a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic run by well-known late-term abortionist Dr. Cesare Santangelo.
The women are among 10 protesters who participated in the attempt to save the unborn at the clinic that day who were convicted on federal charges under the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which has largely been applied to the prosecution of pro-life activists. All of them, including Marshall, are now incarcerated.
Santangelo’s clinic made news in 2022 when the secular pro-life group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) announced that it had obtained the remains of 115 aborted babies from the clinic by a driver for a medical waste company.
Five of those babies appeared to be of late-term gestation and have become the center of a public dispute between federal lawmakers, pro-life groups, and the D.C. medical examiner’s office — which possessed the remains — over the medical examiner’s refusal to conduct an autopsy to determine whether the babies were killed in an illegal partial-birth abortion.
Continued below.
Locked up: Meet the elderly and infirm women now in prison for pro-life activism
Joan Andrews Bell, Jean Marshall, Heather Idoni, and Paulette Harlow are four pro-life women serving time after being convicted on federal charges for for blockading the inside of an abortion clinic in 2020. / Credit: Chris Bell/Laura Gise/Heath...
www.catholicworldreport.com
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The Sacred Heart of Jesus leads us from misery to mercy
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 0 Replies
Our world needs to hear the message of mercy, perhaps as no other age before. A culture of violence, death, destruction and despair can be healed only by mercy.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is so central to a healthy biblical spirituality that we don’t acknowledge this divine love only once a year; thanks to the apparitions of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the seventeenth century, we commemorate and celebrate the love of Christ for us unto death on the First Friday of every month.
Indeed, one of my fondest memories of grammar school is that of Masses on the First Friday of the month for the entire student body. Since an important part of preparation for receiving Holy Communion in those days called for a three-hour fast from solid foods, that meant that most of us came to school actually fasting from the night before. Right after Mass, we proceeded to the school cafeteria, where our pastor treated us to crumb buns and hot chocolate. Thus, our celebration spilled over into a common meal.
Years later, I would relish the lyrics of the lovely hymn, “Draw Us in the Spirit’s Teather,” with the verse that prays, “May all our meals be sacraments of Thee!”
I share that recollection because of another experience I had many years later. I was seated on a plane, hoping that the seat next to me would go unoccupied. Just minutes before the plane door was shut, a man rushed in and, yes, took the empty seat next to me. While we were still taxiing on the runway, he turned toward me and asked, “Are you a Catholic priest?” “Yes, I am.” “I used to be Catholic.” “What are you now?” “I’m saved, I’m a Christian.” “You weren’t saved as a Catholic?” “No, it was just a lot of rituals. I never heard about the love and mercy of God.” “Did you go to Catholic school?” “Yeah, for a few years.”
“Were you,” I asked, “brought to Mass on the First Fridays?” “Yeah, I think so.” “Well, what were you told about that devotion?” “Oh, something about going nine times and going to Heaven.” “You mean you weren’t told about the love and mercy of Christ, so great that He died for you and that love is experienced every time we make a good confession and receive Holy Communion worthily?” “I guess I wasn’t listening too well.” I hope everyone here this evening has listened better than that poor fellow.
The heart is a symbol with a rich biblical lineage. In Hebrew, both the heart and the bowels represent the very depths of a person—where the cognitive and the affective meet in unity and harmony. Hence, we find passages in the Bible that speak thus: “My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred” (Hos 11:8). Far more than an organ of the body, then, the heart suggests the source of compassion, tenderness, kindness—in short, what we call “mercy.”
An interesting piece of biblical trivia: A quick survey of a biblical concordance reveals that the word “mercy” is used more than 200 times in the Sacred Scriptures, while the word “heart” appears over 600 times! No surprise, then, that St. Augustine, playing with the origins of the Latin word for mercy (misericordia), tells us that God’s grace moves us “a miseria ad misericordiam” (from misery to mercy). “Misericordia,” you see, comes from two words which combine to mean “having a heart for the miserable.”
Continued below.
www.catholicworldreport.com
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is so central to a healthy biblical spirituality that we don’t acknowledge this divine love only once a year; thanks to the apparitions of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the seventeenth century, we commemorate and celebrate the love of Christ for us unto death on the First Friday of every month.
Indeed, one of my fondest memories of grammar school is that of Masses on the First Friday of the month for the entire student body. Since an important part of preparation for receiving Holy Communion in those days called for a three-hour fast from solid foods, that meant that most of us came to school actually fasting from the night before. Right after Mass, we proceeded to the school cafeteria, where our pastor treated us to crumb buns and hot chocolate. Thus, our celebration spilled over into a common meal.
Years later, I would relish the lyrics of the lovely hymn, “Draw Us in the Spirit’s Teather,” with the verse that prays, “May all our meals be sacraments of Thee!”
I share that recollection because of another experience I had many years later. I was seated on a plane, hoping that the seat next to me would go unoccupied. Just minutes before the plane door was shut, a man rushed in and, yes, took the empty seat next to me. While we were still taxiing on the runway, he turned toward me and asked, “Are you a Catholic priest?” “Yes, I am.” “I used to be Catholic.” “What are you now?” “I’m saved, I’m a Christian.” “You weren’t saved as a Catholic?” “No, it was just a lot of rituals. I never heard about the love and mercy of God.” “Did you go to Catholic school?” “Yeah, for a few years.”
“Were you,” I asked, “brought to Mass on the First Fridays?” “Yeah, I think so.” “Well, what were you told about that devotion?” “Oh, something about going nine times and going to Heaven.” “You mean you weren’t told about the love and mercy of Christ, so great that He died for you and that love is experienced every time we make a good confession and receive Holy Communion worthily?” “I guess I wasn’t listening too well.” I hope everyone here this evening has listened better than that poor fellow.
The heart is a symbol with a rich biblical lineage. In Hebrew, both the heart and the bowels represent the very depths of a person—where the cognitive and the affective meet in unity and harmony. Hence, we find passages in the Bible that speak thus: “My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred” (Hos 11:8). Far more than an organ of the body, then, the heart suggests the source of compassion, tenderness, kindness—in short, what we call “mercy.”
An interesting piece of biblical trivia: A quick survey of a biblical concordance reveals that the word “mercy” is used more than 200 times in the Sacred Scriptures, while the word “heart” appears over 600 times! No surprise, then, that St. Augustine, playing with the origins of the Latin word for mercy (misericordia), tells us that God’s grace moves us “a miseria ad misericordiam” (from misery to mercy). “Misericordia,” you see, comes from two words which combine to mean “having a heart for the miserable.”
Continued below.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus leads us from misery to mercy
www.catholicworldreport.com
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The Triumph of the Therapeutic Mentality
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 0 Replies
The first of a two-part essay in response to James Martin, SJ, on experience, respect, morality, and authority.
In response to the question—by what standards are these experiences to be judged?—the therapeutic mentality presupposes that a person’s life experience is self-validating. Experience is granted an authority that sometimes even for Christians trumps the Bible’s own moral authority;3 indeed, an individual’s experience is taken to be “a final arbiter of truth and falsehood in the Church.”4 But I shall argue that this turn to individual experience as self-validating or authenticating is “no more acceptable that any of the other historically recurring attempts to make of private inspiration a supreme court for adjudicating the gospel.”5
In the epigraph to this article, Aidan Nichols correctly affirms, “It is not experience we should trust but the transmutation of experience by Scripture and Tradition.”A good example of the therapeutic mentality is found throughout the recent book by James Martin, SJ, titled Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity (hereafter, BB).6 Significantly, Fr. Martin does not argue for the authority of experience as self-justifying; rather, it is a presupposition of his work. There are two other presuppositions that play an important role in Fr. Martin’s work: his understandings of dialogue and of respect.
Experience, Dialogue, and Respect
Against the background of the presupposition of the therapeutic mentality that grants such authority to experience that it renders it self-justifying, we can understand why Fr. Martin does not argue but implicitly presupposes that “same-sex” attraction is good from the order of creation and even finds justification for this in scripture. That is, a homosexual qua homosexual is “wonderfully made” (Psalm 139), as Martin suggests in asking a same-sex attracted person to reflect on himself and his experience in light of that psalm (BB, 134-137). In this connection, it follows that Martin holds it to be legitimate to ground human identity in so-called homosexual orientation, which encompasses an individual’s personal and social identity. How does Fr. Martin justify the legitimacy of the self-description of a person’s identity, indeed, insisting on it? The only criterion that he suggests legitimizes it is individual experience. Individual experience becomes a supreme court for adjudicating the gospel, the teachings of the Church. This leads him to the conclusion that a person’s homosexuality is a creational given rather than being in itself inherently disordered, a sign of brokenness, an expression of man’s fallen condition. For example, Fr. Martin portrays the fact that persons with same-sex attraction find happiness in their same-sex attracted relationships, and can be caring and loving to each other as self-justifying experiences; that is, because they find their same-sex sexual relationships satisfying in many ways, they must be good. But since God is the source and end of all blessings, the anthropological question regarding the particularity of God’s will and purpose in creating man as male and female arises here (Gen 1:27; 2:24), regarding the question whether individual experience legitimizes same-sex attraction.
No, it doesn’t. The creation of male and female receives the judgment of goodness by God, which is his blessing. The Church has always understood same-sex intercourse to be inconsistent with Scripture, tradition, natural law reasoning – and, in particular, with Christian anthropology, which teaches sexual morality and hence marriage to be an intrinsically male-female union. Martin holds that there are “goods” in same-sex relationships – “love,” “commitment,” “fidelity,” “mutuality.” But we must not treat them as neutral goods abstracted from particular sexual behavior, which the Church unequivocally rejects, and from the larger culture of homosexuality – to say nothing of the worldview (the sexual revolution!) underpinning the interpretation of these goods.
Continued below.
www.catholicworldreport.com
“By the triumph of the therapeutic mentality, indeed therapeutic way of life, I mean a gospel of personal happiness in which happiness rests on the justification of self-authenticating experiences. This therapeutic way of life is pervasive throughout the domain of, for example, homosexual sexual experiences in which “no criteria of validity [for those experiences is offered] other than the therapeutic experience of conviction.”2
In response to the question—by what standards are these experiences to be judged?—the therapeutic mentality presupposes that a person’s life experience is self-validating. Experience is granted an authority that sometimes even for Christians trumps the Bible’s own moral authority;3 indeed, an individual’s experience is taken to be “a final arbiter of truth and falsehood in the Church.”4 But I shall argue that this turn to individual experience as self-validating or authenticating is “no more acceptable that any of the other historically recurring attempts to make of private inspiration a supreme court for adjudicating the gospel.”5
In the epigraph to this article, Aidan Nichols correctly affirms, “It is not experience we should trust but the transmutation of experience by Scripture and Tradition.”A good example of the therapeutic mentality is found throughout the recent book by James Martin, SJ, titled Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity (hereafter, BB).6 Significantly, Fr. Martin does not argue for the authority of experience as self-justifying; rather, it is a presupposition of his work. There are two other presuppositions that play an important role in Fr. Martin’s work: his understandings of dialogue and of respect.
Experience, Dialogue, and Respect
Against the background of the presupposition of the therapeutic mentality that grants such authority to experience that it renders it self-justifying, we can understand why Fr. Martin does not argue but implicitly presupposes that “same-sex” attraction is good from the order of creation and even finds justification for this in scripture. That is, a homosexual qua homosexual is “wonderfully made” (Psalm 139), as Martin suggests in asking a same-sex attracted person to reflect on himself and his experience in light of that psalm (BB, 134-137). In this connection, it follows that Martin holds it to be legitimate to ground human identity in so-called homosexual orientation, which encompasses an individual’s personal and social identity. How does Fr. Martin justify the legitimacy of the self-description of a person’s identity, indeed, insisting on it? The only criterion that he suggests legitimizes it is individual experience. Individual experience becomes a supreme court for adjudicating the gospel, the teachings of the Church. This leads him to the conclusion that a person’s homosexuality is a creational given rather than being in itself inherently disordered, a sign of brokenness, an expression of man’s fallen condition. For example, Fr. Martin portrays the fact that persons with same-sex attraction find happiness in their same-sex attracted relationships, and can be caring and loving to each other as self-justifying experiences; that is, because they find their same-sex sexual relationships satisfying in many ways, they must be good. But since God is the source and end of all blessings, the anthropological question regarding the particularity of God’s will and purpose in creating man as male and female arises here (Gen 1:27; 2:24), regarding the question whether individual experience legitimizes same-sex attraction.
No, it doesn’t. The creation of male and female receives the judgment of goodness by God, which is his blessing. The Church has always understood same-sex intercourse to be inconsistent with Scripture, tradition, natural law reasoning – and, in particular, with Christian anthropology, which teaches sexual morality and hence marriage to be an intrinsically male-female union. Martin holds that there are “goods” in same-sex relationships – “love,” “commitment,” “fidelity,” “mutuality.” But we must not treat them as neutral goods abstracted from particular sexual behavior, which the Church unequivocally rejects, and from the larger culture of homosexuality – to say nothing of the worldview (the sexual revolution!) underpinning the interpretation of these goods.
Continued below.
The Triumph of the Therapeutic Mentality
www.catholicworldreport.com
On culture wars and the hypocrisy of the Catholic Left
- By Michie
- One Bread, One Body - Catholic
- 0 Replies
Many Catholic liberals, not content to criticize the politics of pro-life Catholics, are now moving the goalposts even further.
Continued below.
www.catholicworldreport.com
Continued below.
On culture wars and the hypocrisy of the Catholic Left
www.catholicworldreport.com
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Can Christians Still Support Trump after the Guilty Verdict?
- By Aldebaran
- American Politics
- 246 Replies
THE THREAD HAS CLEARLY DRIFTED OFF-TOPIC LONG AGO AND HAS RUN ITS COURSE
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If God is Blessing Russia, Are They The Bad Guys?
- By Halbhh
- Current News & Events (Articles Required)
- 118 Replies
This came to mind since Russia is currently declaring agricultural emergencies today in 10 regions.
I thought it would be good though to revisit your post -- I'm hoping you will.
(it's always good to be humble -- this is just the temporary world that will pass away and nothing here will be remembered in the Life to come -- so "store up treasures in heaven" Christ said, not on Earth....)
Let me highlight 2 things of interest to you, first:
In 2022 the U.S. was simply continuing to plant less acres in wheat, as more farmers choose to plant other crops instead....
As you can see here:
Corn and soybean acreage has increased since the 1990s, while fewer acres are planted with wheat
Since 1993, combined acreage planted to corn, wheat, soybeans, and upland cotton in the United States has ranged from 219 million to 242 million acres. Starting in the 1990s, policy changes increased planting flexibility provided to farmers. These changes have allowed farmers to respond to market signals for their cropping choices. Over the past 10 years (2014–23), the combined annual planting acreage for these crops has maintained a higher average (236 million acres) than the previous decade (232 million acres). Since 1993, the three highest combined annual planting totals for corn, wheat, soybeans, and cotton occurred in 2012, 2014, and 2018. Combined acreage in 2023 increased from the previous year to 238 million acres with increased corn and wheat plantings, which offset decreased soybean and cotton. Combined planted acreage for the four crops in 2023 marked their 7th largest since 1993.
USDA ERS - Agricultural Production and Prices
Markets for major agricultural commodities are typically analyzed by looking at supply-and-use conditions and implications for prices. From an economic perspective, these factors determine the market equilibrium. In the U.S. agricultural sector, many interactions and relationships exist between...
www.ers.usda.gov
Next, it's very notable that in 2022, the U.S. had a record total agricultural production value -- the highest ever value of all crops by far the U.S. has ever had.
So.....if you think agricultural production indicates if we are doing well as Christians, then in the year you thought the U.S. did poorly, in actual reality that year -- 2022 -- was a year that in reality the U.S. did the best ever agriculturally....
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