Abbey-Roads2

Benedict condemned no one.

Benedict XVI mentioned gay marriage in a recent message on peace.  Many in media are focusing upon his so-called condemnation of global warming fear mongers.  He didn’t condemn anyone - he simply is asking for reason to prevail and recommending prudence, urging people to avoid politicising the subject and arriving at hasty conclusions which could do more to harm humanity.  But as I stated, he also mentioned gay marriage - okay, same-sex marriage if that is more PC for you:

His message, “The Human Family, A Community of Peace,” also spelled out the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to gay marriage, saying that any weakening of the traditional family was “an objective obstacle on the road to peace.” - Reuters

I find it interesting that the dissident Catholics, who labor in vain to change Church teaching on SSA issues, while assailing the pope as being out of touch with modern science, are also major players in the peace and justice movement.  Of course, Benedict XI’s statement saying the movement for same-sex marriage is “an objective obstacle on the road to peace,” will be roundly mocked by the same people who oppose - to use their words - the papalism and the imperialism of the Catholic church.

Transferring relics.

This is a dumb story.  People are upset that the Capuchins have plans to move St. Pio’s relics to the new audience-hall style church that has been built adjacent to the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo.  I’m convinced it is only because they hate the architecture of the new church.

Followers of St Padre Pio, Italy’s best loved saint, are up in arms over a plan to move his relics from the crypt of the church where he is buried in southern Italy to a nearby modern church designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano.

A Padre Pio website run by Francesco Traversi, a Turin lawyer, said “Padre Pio must not be touched”. Mr Traversi said he had written to Pope Benedict XVI to say that to exhume the remains of a saint would amount to “sacrilege”. The transfer of the remains requires the permission of the Holy See. - Times

The relics of the saints have been transferred for centuries, while the action was often marked as a feast day, as well as being an occasion for the increase of miracles, as the relics were in transition.  People protest way too much.  Get a grip. 

The next President of the United States.

Americans love firsts - so the next President will be either a black man or a woman.  The religious arguments going on with the Republican candidates will never get any of them elected. 

My father’s son…

I was talking to a friend the other day about dads and sons.  Growing up, my friend told me he never wanted to be like his dad, he didn’t like his dad - his dad was cruel.  I shared some memories about my own father.  I told him I didn’t want to turn out like my dad either, my dad was cruel too.  I recalled how when my dad was with his friends, if I would speak or ask questions, he reacted with contempt and hostility and told me to shut up.  He would display such scorn towards me, that I left his presence in fear.  Later on, he sometimes would look at me and say, “I don’t want you to turn out like your dad.”  I didn’t want to either.  Inevitably, we are all our father’s sons - the effects remain.

Talkin’ old monks…

“Keep company with yourself and look to yourself every day and hour, every minute, that your image be ever gracious.  See, here you have passed by a small child, passed by in anger, with a foul word, with a wrathful soul; you perhaps did not notice the child. but he saw you, and your unsightly and impious image has remained in his defenseless heart.  You did not know it, but you may thereby have planted a bad seed in him, and it may grow, and all because you did not restrain yourself before the child, because you did not nurture in yourself a heedful, active love.”- Fr. Zosima, Talks and homilies, The Brothers Karamazov.

So, what can I say?

Well it’s time I moved off
But it’s been great just listening to you
And I might even see you next time I’m passing through
You’re right there’s so much going on
No one seems to want to know
So keep well, keep well old friend
And have another drink on me
Just ignore all the others you got your memories
You got your memories… - Talking Old Soldiers, Elton John

[Photo:  Old Staretz.  Thanks to The Crescat.]

And other bull$#!@.

Eat, Pray, Love.  Oprah is promoting this book by Elizabeth Gilbert- in fact, yesterday she just did another show on the book.  It is a best seller which is apparently liberating women from whatever keeps them back from self-pleasuring themselves with the freedoms they are missing out on in life.  (Not a few end up leaving their husbands as the author had.)  You can read a review of the new age spiritual classic here. 

Anagrammatic coincidence.

The so-called war on Christmas is fought on many fronts.  One familiar enemy of Christmas has always been the Evangelical/Fundamentalist Christians, once known as Puritans.  For these folks, any tradition associated with Christmas that smacks of Roman-ism is deemed satanic.  (And Catholics are worried about “The Golden Compass” maligning the Church!)

Writing on his blog, author John Shore claims that Santa is Satan:  “And Santa being Satan certainly explains a lot. For one, it explains the red suit. It also explains the flying reindeer. Remember how scary the flying monkeys were in The Wizard of Oz? Clearly, making mammals fly is an earmark of the malevolent. And seriously, what would you rather have flying over you: a 50-pound monkey, or a 500-pound reindeer? That wide-brimmed hat the Wicked Witch of the West wears might protect her from monkey droppings, but is it really going to help against a team of reindeer flying overhead?” - Read more.

As every good Christian ought to know, Santa traces his origins to St. Nicholas   - and he is definitely not the anti-Christ.  I’m not saying the commercialized version of santa Shore describes has much to do with the Catholic saint, but he certainly is not a danger to children’s souls either.  Christian parents, especially Catholics, should have enough faith to be able to differentiate the reality from the myth for their kids - at an appropriate age.  All too often religious people imagine the devil in the wrong places and disguises… while he is busy fitting-in  elswhere.

Circumventing authority.

Gay activists in the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis are making an issue over Archbishop Nienstedt’s authority  to defend faith and morals for Catholic faithful.  These unhappy people, otherwise known as dissident Catholics, are writing letters of resistance to the editors  of various newspapers, calling television news to document protests, while using their blogs to put pressure upon the Church to change Her traditional teaching regarding homosexual sexual activity. 

Many of these people are the same ones who insist there is no gay agenda to change culture, the Church, or the world.  Ah!  But there is an agenda.  On one “Catholic” blog site, which is against just about anything that is traditionally Roman Catholic (such as papalism- as the author refers to it), I found an offering suggesting ways dissidents may discreetly circumvent authority.  The presentation was given by a sister of the nearly extinct order of women religious known as the Sisters of St. Joseph.

How to dress up in sheep’s clothing - strategies for the wolf.

What follows is from a local gay activist’s weblog:  “Sponsored by the Homophobia and Heterosexism Working Group of the Justice Commission of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Sister Jeannine’s talk was entitled “Transforming Hierarchical Structures,” and offered a number of “guiding principles” for such transformation within the Catholic Church, along with some concrete strategies by which this much needed transformation can and is being achieved.

1. Active compliance: when we work actively with those within the hierarchical system and abide by whatever decision comes about. We make our position known but nevertheless comply. In this way the hierarchy at least knows of an alternative position and seeds of change may well have been planted.

2. Creative circumvention: when we follow the letter of the hierarchical law but not its spirit. An example: Lay people, forbidden to preach during Mass, give a “talk” before or after Mass.

3. Prophetic obedience: when one follows in the tradition of Jesus and the prophets and publicly name and confront structures that are oppressive to people.” - The Wild Reed

“Homophobia and Heterosexism Working Group of the Justice Commission of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet” - HUH?

No earth-shaking revelation from Sr. Jeannine, to be sure.  However, the above excerpt from The Wild Reed helps to demonstrate that these people spend a great deal of time researching ways in which to circumvent Church teaching.  Through a more in-depth examination of the literature disseminated by a couple of the organizations associated with this local movement,  I couldn’t help but be impressed by the extent to which these people immerse themselves in gay studies programs and ongoing education, comprising questionable academic and scientific research as regards homosexuality.  The group seems to be very well equipped and organized in their assault upon Church teaching and discipline.  Riding the coat-tails of a well-established reputation, once enjoyed by the formerly vibrant order of the Sisters of St. Joseph, these false teachers have created a convenient platform from which to carry on their battle.  Yet hopefully, not for long.  

Thoughts on death for All Hallows Eve.

I think our culture is scared of death, hence the refusal to say when someone has died that they died.  We say things like passed away, passed on, or just “so and so passed“.  Passed what?  As everyone knows, we deny that abortion or euthanasia is killing as well - for instance, to be pro-abortion is referred to as pro-choice - very clean and easy.  Innocent victims of war are referred to as colateral damage.  Reading obituaries, people who died from terminal cancer are said to have “passed away after a courageous battle against cancer.“  Often, when we attend a Catholic funeral, one hears this, “They are in a better place” or “they are still with us” or “they are home with God” and so on.

We deny death, fear death, resist death, yet our culture is entertained by it, which may be one reason why we have so many horror films.  Halloween is often a time to mock death - which also seems to be another expression of denial.

Remembering our end.

The saints are often shown contemplating death as seen in the above painting of St. Jerome by Carravagio;  memento mori- remember death, is a traditional Christian maxim.  It’s purpose is much like that of the blessing we receive on Ash Wednesday during the imposition of ashes, “Remember thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return”.  The remembrance of death helps the Christian to order his life through repentance, conversion, mortification and detachment.  It reminds us that we are exiles on earth, and that we must prepare for eternal life.  It is a good thing.

Catholic veneration of the saints and their relics, is a pious custom dating back to the first martyrs and before.  Remember the Israelites carried with them the bones of Joseph in the Exodus.  In Churches throughout the world, there are wonderful reliquaries containing body parts of the saints; skulls, arms, fingers and so on.  This can strike the non-believer as macabre, while some Catholics think the practice is grotesque and medieval.  (I don’t - I have dozens of first class relics.)  Yet most traditional Catholics have no problem whatsoever with the bodies or body parts of the saints venerated as relics.  The bodies of the saints, once tabernacles of the Holy Spirit, are holy - not scary.

Capuchin catacombs.

This year I used skulls to decorate the front of my house for All Hallows Eve, in the tradition of the Mexican Day of the Dead, as a reminder of death, in the same spirit as the saints shown contemplating a skull.  (These props have nothing to do with devils and witches as some fundamentalists might suggest they do.)  Catholics ought to remember that in some monasteries, skulls were placed in the refectory to remind the religious of death; as such, the skull served as an exhortation to temperance.

The European Capuchins had an intriguing custom of keeping the bones of the dead in an ossuary, or underground cemetery in the crypts of their churches.  (I believe the custom dates back to ancient times, and especially amongst early monastics, such as the monks of St. Catherines’s in Sinai.)  Anyone who has been to Rome surely must have visited the Capuchin cemetery on the Via Veneto, decorated entirely with the bones and skulls of deceased monks, many dressed in their habits. Some of the photos shown in this post are from the Capuchin ossuaries of Rome and Polermo.  To the contemporary person, or most unbelievers, these displays seem gruesome and distasteful - which seems to me another example of our repugnance and fear of death.

The incorruptables.

In some of the European Capuchin catacombs, a few of the bodies appear to be incorrupt - although they are said to be mummified.  Interestingly enough, these bodies resemble some of the saints bodies that are said to be incorrupt.  The bodies of St. Clare of Assisi and St. Catherine of Bologna come to mind.  The skin of these saints is dark and leathery, adhering to the skull and bones, similar to the photo shown above from the Palermo catacombs.  Nevertheless, their state of incorruption is viewed as miraculous and a sign of their purity and holiness.  In the case of the unidentified man shown above, the preservation would be considered natural.

When the Church canonizes saints, the matter of incorruptibility is not taken into consideration, in fact the recently discovered incorrupt body of Blessed John XXIII has been largely regarded as a natural phenomenon by the Vatican.  However, for the “little ones” amongst the faithful, the state of incorruption is a sign of the person’s holiness.

Having said that, most bodies of the saints corrupt, as all other bodies do.  Which reminds me of Dostoevsky’s novel, “The Brothers Karamazov”.  When Fr. Zosima died, his body began to decay almost immediately, and some of the other monks believed it to be a sign that Zosima was not a good monk.  Yet Fr. Zosima was a very holy monk.  Just so, St. Therese of Lisieux predicted her body would decay, so has to give hope to all the little ones.  It seems to me incorruption is not the irrefutable sign of holiness we believe it to be.

The meaning of All Hallows.

The day of the Dead and All Hallows reminds us that death comes to us all, reminding us it is how we have lived that determines our fate.  It is also a time to remember those who have gone before us in death, some immediately to glory, all of the saints; and some awaiting the beatific vision in purgatory, all souls.  Understood in that context, Haloween is not the bad holiday fundamentalists make it out to be.

For a good history of Halloween, go to Pro Ecclesia and read Jay’s post.  I found Jay’s post while reading Fr. Longenecker, who also has a good bit of advice concerning the holiday. 

Yeah - just my thoughts on All Hallows.  Don’t forget to have fun.

Religion can never be a vehicle for hate.

Visiting Naples the Holy Father said, “Faced with a world lacerated by conflicts, where at times violence is justified in the name of God, it is important to re-emphasize that religion can never be a vehicle of hate; never, in the name of God, can we justify evil and violence.” - Zenit 

He was addressing those gathered in Naples for the 21st International Encounter of Peoples and Religions, organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio.  This event is connected to the Assisi gatherings for Peace, which in the past have been the source of much controversy amongst traditional Catholics.  Pope Benedict refrained from attending the latest Assisi congress, yet recommended yesterday that religious people should work to promote peace and the “spirit of Assisi”.

Understanding and respect.

Appealing for understanding amongst people, the Holy Father stated that the Catholic Church intends “to continue along the road of dialogue to promote understanding among different cultures, traditions and religious wisdom.”

“I ardently desire that this spirit spread more and more, especially where the tensions are strongest, where freedom and respect for the other are denied and men and women suffer the consequences of intolerance and misunderstanding,” the Pope added. - Zenit  

Hitting close to home.

Though the Holy Father is addressing the disharmony which exists between various religions and cultures, his words should resonate into our every day life and relationships with others.  This is a subject I have been wrestling with for the past several days, no - months, as my posts here would indicate.

The tempests in a tea pot blogging foments, revealing at times the cruel underbelly of otherwise decent people, trouble me.  You’ve read it all.  Gay people attacking the Church, Catholics attacking those who promote the so-called  gay agenda.  Catholic bloggers writing that another man blogging is a fake priest; me writing a sort of rebuttle to demonstrate that one of the more popular  orthodox  bloggers could be a fake nun, since she may have made a mistake in terms.  (I was simply trying to illustrate the arrogance of the blogosphere.)  And then there are the intolerant traditionalists who mistrust nearly every development in the Church since Vatican II.

Tolerance for the intolerant.

In fact it is many of the uber-traditionalist  types who abjure anything at all to do with the “spirit of Assisi” and among other things, view it as a conspiracy to establish a one world religion.  Yet many other Catholics have been repelled by the liturgical abuses which occurred right under the Pope’s nose at previous meetings in Assisi, and look upon the events with equal suspicion.  What a complex world, huh?

Perhaps a world without love - or dogma dogs  gone wild.

[Photo: The Holy Father venerating the relic of St. Januarius in the Naples Cathedral.  I wonder if he prayed to him?  ;)]