We do indeed need to show joy as Catholics.

 “Be happily and uncomplicatedly Catholic.”

Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe

News Flashes

A Christian village in the Philippines province of Mindanao has been torched by a small Islamic rebel group. Although there were no reported casualties, dozens of families were routed from their homes.                                                   

Milwaukee became the eighth U.S. diocese to declare bankruptcy because of lawsuits and expenses related to sexually molesting of children. Archbishop Dolan did an excellent job in proving false the stupid statement of tort lawyer Jeff Anderson who claimed the Archbishop had hidden $130 million of archdiocesan funds.

A bishop in England has challenged the idea that the Virgin Mary intercedes for the faithful, and suggested that two Marian dogmas were influenced by political considerations.

(Comment: Doesn’t he realize that 99 and 9/10% of our devotion to Mary is from revelations, apparitions and visions?)

 

Pope Benedict XVI socked it to the Middle Eastern governments with this message: “I would like to state once again that the right to religious freedom is not fully respected when only freedom of worship is guaranteed, and that with restrictions. Abstract proclamation of religious freedom is insufficient: this fundamental rule of social life must find application and respect at every level and in all areas; otherwise despite correct affirmations of principle, there is a risk that deep injustice will be done to the citizens wishing to profess and freely practice their faith.”

 

My favorite priest, layperson, breathing saint or organization

 I admire Father Matthew Ruhl, S.J., who is the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church in Kansas City.  As an avid biker, he formed a group who rode 5,052 miles from Cape Flattery, Wash., to Key West, Florida, to promote Catholic Charities USA’s Campaign to Reduce Poverty. I met him when he and his bikers stopped en route in Denver, and the man exudes the joyful faith of our religion. What a splendid example he is for all of us!

                                           Madeline Evans, Denver

(Now, tell me about your favorite Catholic priest, layperson or organization that is making a difference

aljagoe@comcast.net)

 Interesting Sayings

- Evil does not exist or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.
                                                    Albert Einstein

- Sir Anthony Hopkins, the actor who was knighted in 1993, told the UK Catholic Herald this week that he couldn’t live with the certainty of being an atheist. He said: “Being an atheist must be like living in a closed cell with no windows.  I’d hate to live like that, wouldn’t you? We see them, mind you, on television today.”

Don’t worry about your heart. It will last as long as you live.-W.C. Fields
 

Communiqué

-         The author Barbara Elrenreich got a kick out of describing Jesus as a wine-guzzling vagrant. I wonder is she has the guts to call Moses a foundling who betrayed his loving foster parents, became a murderer and then was a poor guide who led his people for 40 years before reaching his destination. If she did, Jewish organizations would have her hide.

Roger Zowinski, Miami, FL

 

-         Regarding your writing about St. Joseph, as a father I find Joseph’s faith amazing. I may go into uncertain situations with a faltering faith but Joseph, not him. He went into a situation with Mary that would have shaken a man like me. I pray that God makes me a father and husband like Joseph.

       (not signed)

-         Those who relish schadenfreude should enlist in the militant Muslin forces.

                                         Dr. Roger Duckworth 

Chuckle Time

The usher tries to discourage an elderly woman from sitting in the front of the church by saying, “The pastor really gives a lousy sermon.”

She says, “Do you know who I am?
“No,” he replies.

“I’ll have you know I am the pastor’s mother.”

The usher then asks, “Do you know who I am?
“No” is her answer.

Then he breathes deeply and says. “Good.”        

 

Special Intentions List

As you pray with a broad brush, please include these loved ones, who have been submitted by our readers. You, too, are invited to send me names of your special persons who are in need of prayer.  My address is aljagoe@comcast.net. They will be on the list for 60 days. At the end of that time, if prayers are still needed, you merely have to renew the name.

 

 Juanita Caldwell, Isola Todd, David Abbey, Linwood “Skip” Williams, Roseanne Somlock, Nicholas Gallagher, Tom Lewis, Donald Whitcomb, Violeta Zepeda, John Aylor, Rev. Joseph Marini, Enrique Portillo,

 Sharon McPike, Tom Ryan, Joseph Normile, Jim Quimby, Russell Edwards,    

Rev. Stephen Huffstetter, Hugh Cannon, Eric Moore, Joan Barrett, 8-year-old Michael Fotta and his parents, Lolita Alvarez, Camilus Musselman,

 Ed Block, Isobel Milligan, Peter Bartkiewiez and his family,

 Joe Toles, Bob Earll, Camilus Musselman,   Ed Cole, Bishop Thomas Olmsted, Jay Parker, William Stephenson, Roger Stoven, Bob Abbott, Denny Kline, Lois Pinkin, Larry Mannino, Cheryl DeSantis, Lenore Sommers

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Laura Marsh, the cholera victims in Haiti, those in refugee camps throughout the world.

To Hell With Trivia!

We do indeed need to show joy as Catholics. My motto — “Be happily and uncomplicatedly Catholic.”

Michael J. Sheehan  Archbishop of Santa Fe

 

To Hell with trivia that is trying to damage my Catholicism. If my treasure chest, filled with gold, gems and wealth of fantastic value, was covered with scratches, dust and rust, I wouldn’t dump it into the trash bin. 

The Church is a treasure chest. During the past 2000 years it has been reshaped and battered, but it is a sturdy strongbox, protecting what is of real essence. During its long history it has been buffeted by heretics, corrupt Popes, schisms and ridiculous decisions and actions.  Today, here is a sampling of the blows it is taking:

- Pope Benedict seems to have stumbled with his discussion of condoms. On this slippery slope, he intended to espouse a tradition of Catholic moral reasoning.

- After spending $500,000 to renovate the church in Lorain, Ohio, the bishop ordered it (and 50 other churches) to close.  In ignoring the protests of parishioners, he refused to engage them in meaningful dialogue.

- The universal scandal of homoerotic priests gets much publicity, even though it involves less than 2% of the splendid religious who are devoting their lives to the Church.

- The Vatican Bank is accused of money laundering.

- In 1996 Catholic Common Group Initiative warned that without addressing polarization, “the Church would be torn by dissension and weakened in its core structures.”

- To the outside world and many Catholics, the Church is so enamored with and dedicated to the Pro-Life cause that it is viewed as merely an anti Pro-Choice organization.

- “For heaven’s sake, why doesn’t the Church realize we should again have married priests?”

- “When are those old bachelors in clerical garb going to wake up to the times, and ordain women deacons?”

- etc. etc.-etc.-etc.

          That enough for the treasure chest — let’s look inside. There we find items, some over 4000 years old that confirm the birth of our religion; these are the revelations from God to the Jewish people.  Next, there are 2000 years of documentation of our Faith confirming that (a) there is one God, and (b) as Jesus, God became man. Inside, we find the Holy Spirit and nineteen centuries of devotion to the Virgin Mary. There is a recording of millions of martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for our Faith.

          Also, there also are the accumulated thoughts and writings of outstanding theologian, like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Of greatest value is the Sacrament of Communion — the Holiest of the Holy.

         

As Joyful Catholics we think both historically and spatially. We attempt to see things with the lucidity of a child’s eyes. As the French Dominican, Father Bro, stated, “If he so wishes, each of us succeeds perfectly in suffocating the questions that disturb him in anesthetizing them.”

Regarding the endless flow of trivia attacking our Church, we embrace basic truths, We have neither the time or interest in becoming the judge, jury and executioner of our dust-covered treasure chest with its scratches and rust. It will survive ’til the moon is no longer.

          In 1481, in Florence, Father Girolamo Savonarola, O.P., wrote: “At the end of the life of reason is the contemplation of divine things. So the more perfect a man abstracts himself from earthly things and devotes himself to the contemplation of that which is divine, the more perfect will be his life.

          With our pertinacity to basics, we Joyful Catholics put aside the peripheral and focus on essential truths.  We nod in agreement to this statement by Saint Francis de Sales, “My God, what a shame that we are so inconstant! Surely, there is no stability in us and yet this is the most essential quality in the spiritual life.”

 

 

And let me have your thoughts. (aljagoe@comcast.net)

 

Other recommended Catholic blogs

Sacred Space (the Jesuits in Ireland) Saint Louis Catholic

Shepherd of Fort Worth (a new blog by Bishop Kevin W. Vann)

 

Recommended readings

-         “Dead and Back Again”, by Marilyn Prever in the November/December Touchstone.

-          “Cash-cowed” by Margaret O’Brien Steinfels in the November 19 Commonweal.

-         “Courageous creativity and rigorous fidelity” in the November Homiletic & Pastoral Review.

 

Last week, the winner of the autographed copy of Light Reading for Good and Wayward Catholic is Sheila Rassmen in Calmar, IA. Here are the answers:

1.     Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton’s maiden name was Bayley

2.     John was not one of the missionary companions of Paul.

3.     Next to Warsaw, Chicago is the city with the largest Polish population.

The Catholic Church is Finished

 

“We do indeed need to show joy as Catholics.   My motto — Be happily and uncomplicatedly Catholic.”

Michael J. Sheehan

Archbishop of Santa Fe

 

The Catholic Church is Finished

 The current issue of The Atlantic magazine presents 14 of “the most powerful ideas of the year”, and the above is one of them.  For our discussion, I would like to add to the title “True or False.”

          Going first, I would shout “false!”, but I think we who do not realize the Church has serious problems have our heads in the sand.  Here are items listed in the June Catholic World Report:

-         Cardinal Sean Brady in Ireland supports a national inquiry into abuse by Irish priests and religious.

-         Pope Benedict accepts resignation of one admittedly guilty Irish bishop two more resignations expected.

-         In 2001, French Biship Pican received a suspended sentence for covering up for a priest who had raped a boy and assaulted ten other.

-         Another French bishop apologized for accepting a priest who had raped a boy in Quebec and continued doing so in France.

-         In Belgium, Bishop Vangheluwe resigned, admitting he sexually abused a minor.

-         Bishop Muller in Norway resigned for the same reason.

-         Sweden’s only bishop wants to resign for not having acted when informer of sexual misbehavior of his priests.

-         In Germany, Bishop Mixa resigned, admitting having sexually abused children.

-         The bishops in Switzerland apologized to victims of clergy sex abuse

-         Archbishop Butitlhagale of Johannesburg said, “The image of the Catholic Church is virtually in ruins because of the bad behavior of its priests. We are slowly but surely bent on destroying the Church.”

-         Bishop Koda in Tanzania aresigned for his “alleged moral failures.”

-         In Brazil, three priests were suspended for alleged homosexual activities with teens and child pornography.

-         Seven Ontario bishops and a Cardinal accused of cover-up of a priest who was later convicted of abusing 13 your men.

-         Retired Bishop Lahey in Nova Scotia is accused of abusing a resident in an orphanage.

(for lack of space, I’ll not continue)

Positive action is required by our Church leaders to eliminate this cancerous condition.

          Perhaps, as it is a man-made rule, celibacy for priests and women religious should be a choice. For the first 1,000 years of Christianity, married priests was the norm. Why not let the Church become of age by accepting women deacons and married priests?  In my opinion, a priest has limited exposure for self-improvement because he doesn’t have a wife to point out his weaknesses along with his good points.  Also, if the marriage of a priest doesn’t work out, divorce should be expected and accepted as it is in 50% of other marriages.

          In telling of his work in Brooklyn, Father Anthony Andreassi, CO, wrote, “I am spending a wearying amount of time counseling discouraged parishioners and students, trying to offer reasons for them to stay in the church. They are turned off by statements and actions from church leaders who seem out of step with their lives. The latest onslaught of clergy sexual-abuse allegations and revelation of espiscopal mismanagement have only made their disillusionment worse.”

          My personal blow was learning that my former daughter-in-law, who had very active in the Church since childhood, said she had a sudden “epiphany”, realizing she was in an all-mail church and has joined the Episcopalians.

 In regard to corrective actions the Church should take, let me have your thoughts, which I will share with our other readers. (joyfulcatholic@comcast.net)

          Quiz

Last week, the winner of the autographed copy of Light Reading for Good and Wayward Catholic  is Susan Fox in New Orleans. Here are the answers:

1. The sons of Jebedee whom Jesus nicknamed “Sons of Thunder” were James and John.
2. 130 is the maximum number of Cardinals permitted to elect a Pope

(Comment, I wish the maximum age were 50.)

1. The patron saints of farmers is Isidore.

 

News flashes

-         Bishop Felipe Arizmendi in Mexico lit a blaze when he blamed child abuse by priests on eroticism on television.

-         Commenting on the U.S, Conference of Catholic Bishops publication of “Setting the Record Straight,” Commonweal magazine said, “If the authors of this publication wish to seize a ‘new opportunity for the Catholic community to come together in defense of human life,’ they can start by not questioning the motives of those Catholics who disagree with them about how best to interpret the provisions of the new health-insurance law.  On questions such as this, disagreement should not be understood as a threat to unity, but as a sign of the church’s intellectual vitality.

       “American bishops too often seem to fear that any acknowledgement of the complexity of the issue of the church’s teaching on abortion would weaken their own position.”

(Comment – AMEN!)

-         Even though half of Catholic schools have closed since 1965, with a 20% drop in enrollment in the past ten years, Timothy Dolan, New York’s archbishop is working on a strategic initiative to save the Catholic schools in his archdiocese by co-operating closely with Catholic universities.

 This is in opposition to converting the schools into charter status (as in Washington, DC) and they no longer operate as religious establishments.

(Comment – Congratulations, Bishop Dolan, may other Catholic educators follow your lead.)

-   A sign outside the Church of God in Phoenix: HONK IF YOU LOVE  JESUS; TEXT WHILE DRIVING IF YOU WANT TO MEET HIM.

Don’t Fight With a Duck!

Favorite Quote

The Church involves a tension between the human and the divine. It does so because it stems from the Incarnation, which is the primary tension involving the fully divine in the person of Jesus
Rev. William P. Clark, O.M.I.  

Don’t Fight With a Duck! 

When I returned home from a week’s stay in my place in Florida, I wanted to tell friends my torn-up left hand was from a fight with an alligator.  But the embarrassing truth is that I had a losing round with a duck. (“A what!?” is the response I get when I tell of this event.)

 The last day of my visit, I went over to meet a new neighbor who had recently moved in next door. As I was walking on the lawn, I was shocked to realize something had grabbed hold of the back of my left leg and wouldn’t let go. I turned around and found that a large Muscovy* duck had attacked me.

 As I tried to kick it off, I slowly fell on the ground. At age 72 (At 80 I started counting backward and will be 71 next year), my balance ain’t what it used to be. The man-eating duck keep biting me, and when I got up, I grabbed it by the neck and it became limp.  I started taking the critter down to dump in the lake when it suddenly became a violent flapping volcano. In a flash, it reached up with its webbed foot and took off the top of my left hand. I released it and the damned duck waddled off, claiming victory.

  Mary, the new neighbor, heard the commotion and came to my rescue. Inside her house, she used her entire supply of band aides to stop the bleeding.  She is a 6’2” blonde with a heart in proportion to her size.  After her first aid treatment, she came back with me to meet my wife and began our new lifetime friendship.

  That night before getting to sleep, as a joyful Catholic, I used my “thank You!” mantra to recount this event and its aftermath. First was receiving the treasure of our new friend Mary. If the duck had attacked my wife instead of me, we would be looking forward to a Christmas meal of roasted duck instead of turkey.  At the medical clinic I met many splendid young and dedicated people, especially the efficient doctor, who looked like he had just finished high school.  While he was stitching up my hand and I was lying, saying it didn’t hurt, I thought of what real pain must be like. I remembered that, as I was doing, Christ had stretched out His hand, but He did this to get a spike pounded through His wrist.  And He did this for you and me — Wow! Thank You, Christ.

 Another benefit is that it has made an amusing story for the wonderful people I visit in the nursing homes I visit. All-in-all, I’m glad it happened because it woke me up to the wonders and benefit of being a joyful Catholic. Amen!

*Muscovites are a South American duck species which reach over 20 pounds and can take two people to restrain. Their feet have strong sharp claws. (You betta believe it!)

 Admired saying

 The Christian faith is this: encounter with Christ, the living Person who gives life a new horizon and thereby a definitive direction.

                                Jeff Ziegler, in The Catholic World Report

 

News flashes

– (Church in crisis) Detroit archdiocese is losing $42,000 a day and laying off 1/3 of staff.  The Catholic World Report

–(for Catholics who have nothing better to do) Michelle Obama is criticized for having worn a black veil when she met Pope Benedict XVI. U.S.Catholic, Org. 

– Be aware of the dissenters, calling themselves “the American Catholic Council” who are trying “to create a new Church”. The Catholic World Report

 Haiku time

(Submitted by Susan Keller in Omaha, Nebraska) 

Rejoice!

When God became Man

This renewed all creation.

Yes, God became man! 

(send me yours: joyfulcatholic@comcast.net 

Recommended reading

-         “More ‘Access’ Means Less Care” in November issue of

The Catholic World Report  www.catholicworldreport.org  

-         http://www.zenit.com/  (daily news from the Vatican)         

Last Week’s Quiz Results

The first winner of a gift copy of Light Reading for Good and Wayward Catholics, who clocked in at 3:32 PM on November 26, is Jim Beckingham in Tucson, AZ.

 1.     What were the names of the two future disciples whom Jesus found casting their nets into the sea, and he told them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”?

Simon and his brother Andrew

2.     Who was the saint, born in Assisi in 1193, who established an order of women devoted to the poor?

Saint Claire

3.     The Vatican Library originated in which time?

(a)  13^th Century

(b)  <15^th Century>

(c)   17^th  Century

Chuckle time

 Internal Revenue Agent: Father Kincaid, is it true that your parishioner, John Jones donated $10,000 to your church last year?”

  Father Kincaid: He will.

My favorite priest

(Submit your favorite priest to joyfulcatholic@comcast.net)

          As there is no current recommendation (shame on you!), I submit a very special person: Brian Burnie, an English self-made millionaire who sold his 16 million pound country hotel and gave the proceeds to cancer charities. He said, “We live in a me, me, me society, and it has always been important for me to think of others. My ambition is to die penniless.  We came into the world with nothing and we should leave with nothing.”     

London Telegraph  5/20/2009

 

Special Intentions List

As you pray with a broad brush, please include these loved ones, who have been submitted by our readers. You, too, are invited to send me names of your special persons who are in need of prayer. My address is joyfulcatholic@comcast.net. They will be on the list for 60 days. At the end of that time, if prayers are still needed, you merely have to renew the name.

Juanita Caldwell, David Abbey, Amie Ellis, Linwood “Skip” Williams, Gerry Paradiso, Nick DeCarlo, Tom Medved, Bob Haines, Eileen Grotsky,

Rebecca Matthews, Roseanne Somlock, Nicholas Gallagher, Tom Lewis,

Violeta Zepeda, Rev. Joseph Healy, John Aylor,

Rev. Joseph Marini, Enrique Portillo, Sharon McPike, Joe Berger, Tom Ryan.

Note that Susan McGahee has now entered Eternal Paradise. We still keep her in our prayers.