Abbey-Roads2

They weren’t there.

Cardinal Newman, who desired to be buried with his friend Fr. Ambrose St. John, was discovered not to be there when the Venerable’s casket was opened.  Here is the story:

“Brass, wooden and cloth artefacts from Cardinal Newman’s coffin were found. However there were no remains of the body of John Henry Newman. An expectation that Cardinal Newman had been buried in a lead lined coffin proved to be unfounded.” - Archdiocese of Birmingham

It appears Divine Providence took care of the Cardinal’s desire to remain with Fr. Ambrose after all.  Sweet.

The Vatican rejects gay ambassador.

Call me naive, but I did not think it would make a whole lot of difference who a country sent to the Vatican as ambassador.  I’m certain the Holy See has accepted people at variance with Church teaching, such as atheists and communists as ambassadors in the past, so you can understand why I’m confused by this.  Considering the source - I’m sure I don’t have the complete story - there has to be more to it.  Of course, I don’t know much about the world of international diplomacy either, perhaps someone who does would be kind enough to comment?  Here is what I know:

“The next French envoy to the Holy See has been chosen after Roman Catholic officials rejected the first candidate because he is gay.

AFP reports that another candidate was rejected because he is divorced.

The rejected gay candidate, Jean-Loup Kuhn-Delforge, is in a civil pact with his partner and is a career diplomat.

The Pope visited France last month and was happy to be received by Presi dent Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni, who divorced his first wife to marry Ms Bruni.” - Source 

If Obama is elected, Caroline Kennedy has been talked about as the next ambassador to the Vatican.  How would that work out?  She is pro-abortion and pro-gay.  As everyone knows, I completely support Church teaching on homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, life issues, and so on - I’m just wondering out loud here - not arguing against Vatican protocol or siding with gay dissidents. 

Every government has the right to accept or reject the credentials of foreign diplomats.  I have read that the Vatican expects ambassadors to conform to Catholic morality, hence the rejection of divorced and remarried candidates as well.  Nevertheless, I still do not understand how that works with atheists, communists, protestants, and Muslims?

Thanks to Pewsitters for the link.

A little story…

I was very little when I asked St. Francis to be my patron.  Growing up, my older brother resented me.  I was the “baby” from my mom’s second marriage.  He was the older brother from her first marriage.  It became obvious to me - later in life - he harbored some resentment towards me because,  (being 3 years younger than him), he always had to take care of me when we went out to play.  Since I wasn’t good at sports, he made me sit on the sidelines while he and his friends played.  He often ridiculed me, calling me  “a sissy”.  Then one day at Mass, I may have been in 1st grade, the priest spoke about St. Francis of “A Sissy” - and I almost started to cry.  I could not believe there was a patron saint just for sissies, and so I became attached to Our Holy Father St. Francis ever since.  (My brother later informed me I had the sissy part wrong - it was Assisi - the name of the saint’s town.  I didn’t care.)