Abbey-Roads2

Or the Kennedys.

That seems to be what the Dems and their political pundits are trying to do with the Obamas at their convention in Denver.  Uh-huh. 

So who can receive communion in the Catholic Church?

According to Cardinal Kasper, non-Catholics such as the late Br. Roger of Taize. 

Cardinal Walter Kasper attempts to explain how someone can be both Protestant and Catholic. Sandro Magister observes: “According to Kasper, it is as if there had been an unwritten agreement between Schutz and the Church of Rome, ‘crossing certain confessional’ and canonical limits.”  - Source  (Obviously many dissidents feel the same way about their differences with the Church.)

No communion for you!

Once upon a time I knew a very devout Lutheran lady who wanted to be Catholic so badly, but she couldn’t because her family would object - seeing her son-in-law was a Lutheran minister.  The good lady spent hours in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, prayed the Liturgy of the Hours, devoted herself to works of charity, and for awhile, a liberal priest permitted her to communicate daily, until a devout nun reminded the priest it was a source of scandal to other protestants who were denied communion, and was also against Church regulations.  The poor woman was distraut, yet politely refrained from approaching the sacrament.

So back to the communions of Br. Roger of Taize.

How do you explain that to many protestants who are not permitted to receive Holy Communion - even though they believe in the Real Presence, as well as dissenting politicians?  How do we evangelize and catechize when such double standards are publicly flaunted?  It is like the gay issue, the rules say, “No homosexuals permitted to ordination” yet they are there - perhaps permitted entrance because of pastoral considerations.  All I am asking, do we follow Church teaching or what?

I’m only a simple man, so I find myself repeating the following prayer incessantly these days: 

“O my God! I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three Divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; I believe that Thy Divine Son became man, and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, who canst neither deceive nor be deceived.”

Links:

Chiesa - Interview with Cardinal Kasper

Roger of Taize

About religious life.

That would be my advice to anyone seriously considering entering a convent or monastery.

A silly news story out of Italy (from the pazzi Neapolitan area no less), concerns a priest who is sponsoring a beauty pageant for nuns.  He claims the group of sisters he works with suggested the idea - to demonstrate that the vocation is not just for ugly women.  WTF?  I know!   Stupid nun’s story here.  (I’m sure the story is an internet hoax:  Despite that, the story dimishes the true, supernatural beauty of the religious vocation and mocks women religious.) 

Martyrdom.

Such a frivolous gesture, especially contrasted with continuing horror stories out of India about Hindu extremists going forward with their persecution of Christians.  Shouting, “Kill the Christians, and destroy their institutions!”  They are attacking Catholic nuns.  One nun was just burned alive, and another gang raped, while their priest was beaten unconscious in the district of Bargarth (Orissa).  Elsewhere, the Missionaries of Charity have been attacked as well.  Read the story here.  (These people will protect a cow yet butcher Christians.) 

And yet, if the story is true, an Italian priest has nothing better to do than host a beauty pageant for nuns.

UPDATE:  The nun beauty pareant was true! - but now it is canceled - story here.  The priest is a Passionist!

Third Order Franciscan and Patron of the Secular Franciscan Order…

But most importantly, a good father to his son.  His piety and virtue lovingly expressed in a letter to his son may sound strange to many modern parents, who typically seek worldly success and emotional fulfillment for their children, often without concern for their salvation.  From the Saint’s letter:

To his dear first-born son, Philip, greeting, and his father’s love.

“Therefore, dear son, the first thing I advise is that you fix your whole heart upon God, and love Him with all your strength, for without this no one can be saved or be of any worth.

“You should, with all your strength, shun everything which you believe to be displeasing to Him. And you ought especially to be resolved not to commit mortal sin, no matter what may happen and should permit all your limbs to be hewn off, and suffer every manner of torment , rather than fall knowingly into mortal sin.” - Source

On the other hand…

A friend of mine who spends much time in France on business, loves to tell me how anti-semitic the French are - how they betrayed the Jews in WWII, and how historically, they had no love for them.  If this be true, St. Louis may have contributed to it as well:

“Dear son, freely give power to persons of good character, who know how to use it well, and strive to have wickednesses expelled from your land, that is to say, nasty oaths, and everything said or done against God or our Lady or the saints. In a wise and proper manner put a stop, in your land, to bodily sins, dicing, taverns, and other sins. Put down heresy so far as you can, and hold in especial abhorrence Jews, and all sorts of people who are hostile to the Faith, so that your land may be well purged of them, in such manner as, by the sage counsel of good people, may appear to you advisable.” - Source 

Just goes to show you, even the saints may have been subject to the trendy ideas of their time; or is it just how we interpret what they said, along with their behavior, through our contemporary myopia and opinion based upon popular consensus?  

He was a good dad though.