Abbey-Roads2

What did  the Pope really say?

He essentially told the Bishops  they screwed up.  He was talking about how the sexual abuse crisis was handled.

[Photo:  Vincenzo.]

Quote of the week.

Tough talk is fun and even necessary in this age of almost universal effeminacy, but I can think of nothing tougher and more truly manly than “Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism.” - Western Confucian

Think about it.  But remember Michael Anthony Monsoor  - and all the other men like him as well.  Manliness is one thing - but heroism is greater. 

The heartthrob from the Vatican.

I didn’t say it - Time magazine did, and oodles of female Catholic bloggers think it.  And maybe some men…  Watching EWTN’s coverage of the Pope, Fr. Neuhaus remarked, “What a handsome head of hair!”  I laughed out loud because I was sure he was speaking of Monsignor Ganswein.  Turns out he was talking about Pope Benedict’s mane of white.  I’m sure they’ll be talking about him before the trip is over. 

Oops!  This was supposed to go on my other blog. 

Good catch!

One of my favorite priest-bloggers, the dashing Fr. Blake of St. Mary Magdalen’s U.K.  noticed something different about the length of Pope Benedict’s cassock - he compared photos from yesterday as the Pope was leaving Rome, with photos of the Pontiff  in Washington.  This is what “Fr. Marple” noted:

Papal hemlines…

Notice anything about the Apostolic hemline? A rarely seen glimpse of the papal socks. Is the Holy Father a bit bulkier around the body? Compare the pre and post flight pictures.

It looks like he has been forced to wear body armour. In Europe he wanders around with relatively little security, in the gun toting USA things are going to be very different. - Fr. Blake

Happy Birthday Holy Father.

April 16 marks the Holy Father’s 81st birthday - as everyone must know by now - happy birthday Holy Father!  It is also the feast day of St. Benedict Joseph Labre, the French mendicant, pilgrim, fool for Christ who died in 1783.  I can’t help but wonder if Joseph Ratzinger’s parents may have named their son after St. Benedict Joseph since he was born on the Saint’s feast day.  (I may not be alone in this assumption, see this site.)  At any rate, as Pope, he is today Benedict Joseph.  Interesting contrast, don’t you agree?  (I wish Holy Father would reference St. Benoit-Joseph sometime.)

Since my childhood I had a special devotion for St. Benedict Joseph, that grew deeper after my conversion in my early 20’s.  His life both thrilled and attracted me, so peculiar as it was to Western minds.  He is said to have resolved to live as St. Alexis, an early Roman pilgrim, after he realized he was not called to monastic life.  This meant a life of absolute destitution and homelessness, wandering from Church to Church, shrine to shrine.

Sharing the life of the poorest of the poor, Benedict Joseph nevertheless shared his bread and whatever alms he received with the poor he lived amongst.  He was often the object of derision by children, who sometimes taunted him, pelting him with stones, yet in obedience to his motto concerning Christ from the Gospel, “he walked in peace through the midst of them.”

Eventually nearly everyone recognised his contemplative holiness and charity, growing to esteem the Saint as a holy man, to such an extent that the massive crowds at his funeral reacted in much the same manner as those at the funeral of John Paul II, shouting: “Santo! Santo!” - ”The saint is dead!”  Astonishing tribute for a homeless beggar man.

There is a website dedicated to my friend, make a pilgrimage to it for his feast day, and maybe say a prayer for me and of course the Pope on his birthday.

“Jesus-Christ allait en paix au milieu d’eux.”

To learn more about St. Benedict Joseph, visit:

St. Benedict Joseph Labre

Oratio
Deus, qui sanctum Benedictum Josephum Confessorem tuum humilitatis studio, et paupertatis amore tibi uni adhaerere fecisti: da nobis eius suffragantibus meritis: terrena cuncta despicere, et caelestia semper inquirere. Per Dominum.

O God, who madest thy holy Confessor Benedict Joseph, by his zeal for humility and his love of poverty, to cleave only unto thee: for the pleading of his merits, give us grace to spurn all things earthly, and ever to seek after heavenly; through our Lord.