I have come to realize the importance of Dogma. What we believe influences how we behave and worship. Without dogma we are like boats on a stormy lake without an anchor. I'm proud to be Dogmatic lol!
How depraved and how sacrilegious will it have to get before the Immaculate Heart triumphs? And how utterly terrible will the purification have to be?
I listened to an interivew this morning on a BBC podcast with Billie Jean King. I don't know if many of you remember her? I recall watching her playing tennis on TV from Wimbledon as a child. Time passes Billie is 74 years old now. (Billie Jean King is an American former World No. 1 professional tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King won the singles title at the inaugural WTA Tour Championship) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Jean_King
Billie famously was outed by her lover as a Lesbian, I think she was married at the time. She announced she was a homosexual at a big press conference and became famous for it. She is also a front line Feminist. A great friend of Elton John and I suppose you could say a Queen of the Fmeinist/ Gay Movements, kind of an icon. I was quite prepared to get my back up at her right away. But as I listened to her I found myself surprised at how many wise things she said and found myself nodding in agreement . One thing she was very good on and that was anger. She said if you are talking with someone and they disagree with you it is often best to walk away and leave them. That perhaps at another time they may be more receptive. She was also very good on her parents, working class, very religious , hard working people , straight as a die . She spoke how hurt they were when she was, 'Outed', as a homosexual. Though I was unesy with the fact she blaimed the , 'Outing' and not the fact she choose this lifestyle. Anyway though I disagreed with her in many things, I came away impressed with her in others. She had garnered great life wisdom in so many ways. I had expected to totally reject her, yet came away admiring her in many ways, she has so many personal qualities I singularly lack and an wonderful ability to make allowances for the faults of others, something I also lack. It reminds me of the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. Do you remember? Jesus saw something good in her as well. Which was why He took time to sit and talk with her. To listen.
I think maybe we all have some good and bad in all of us,... many may be a product of our experiences good or bad. It is easy to get along with people who agree with you, but the challenge comes when our core beliefs are challenged. We all can have emotional attachments that can lead us into sin. How do we use those gifts God has given us?
I often think people can do bad things for what looks like good reasons and good things for what looks like bad reasons. I heard a story one time about a very rich lady in Rome many, many years ago who spent all her money in charity round the city and as a result of this and a very public pious life, so much so that many people thought her a living saint. But when she died it was found she had bequeathed in her will a very considerble fund to finance her susequent cause for her canonisation. Needless to say she was never declared a saint. I think there can be considerable confusion, soemtimes it mqay be that people who live almost diabolical lives can attract us in many ways. It reminds me how often we have to back to the Teachings of the Church for understaning. That we have to see things with the eys and mind of the CHurch and the Light of Scripture for understaning. Not our own reason. But, maybe, a little confusion is not a bad thing. Sometiems lately looking at people I cans ee how beautiful they are. I can see why Christ died for them all. Even physically how beautiful they are. Like walking angels. I tell you one group of people who you often see the Light shining through the Darkness to surpirse us and that is the Pagan Philosophers. The Emeror Marcus Aurelius is a good example of this. Marcus persecuted and murdered Christians by the thousands yet so many of the things he said were so wise. I used to have a little book of Aurelius's saying and carry them round with me to read. So wise. But a mass murderer of the Faithful.
I don;t know, did any of you read some of the stories of people who gave their lives and died trying to save others during the events in New York at 9/11? Some of these people who gave their lives, often in a quite extraordinary manner were not believers. This is not unusual in the cases of catastrophe's or wars or exrteme events. Jesus, commenting on such people gave the bottom line, it is all about love. If people who die giving their lives to save friends ; what are we to say of people who gave their lives saving complete and utter strangers? (I have to confess I cried watching this video.) John 15:13 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Pope Francis’s non-judgmental style influenced abortion Yes vote https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/...-style-influenced-abortion-yes-vote-1.3566955
Someone should explain to PF that without life there is no social justice (not that I am on the same page with PF on what constitutes social justice).
"You must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control the winds . . . What you cannot turn to good, you must at least make as little bad as you can." — St. Thomas More
Cardinal Dolan launches prayer campaign for pro-life Supreme Court All Christians are invited to pray a 'Novena for the Legal Protection of Human Life' New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, has called for a national prayer campaign effort that “the change in the US Supreme Court will move our nation closer to the day when every human being is protected in law and welcomed in life.” “As soon as Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, pro-abortion groups began lobbying the US Senate to reject any nominee who does not promise to endorse Roe v Wade,” the cardinal said in a statement. “While the US Conference of Catholic Bishops does not support or oppose the confirmation of any presidential nominee,” he said, “we can and should raise grave concerns about a confirmation process which is being grossly distorted by efforts to subject judicial nominees to a litmus test of support for Roe v Wade. And we must pray.” He invited all people of goodwill to pray each Friday from August 3 to September 28 in a “Novena for the Legal Protection of Human Life.” The USCCB said “Call to Prayer” materials will be accessible online. Materials include prayers and educational resources and an invitation to fast on Fridays for this intention. Those wishing to join this nine-week prayer effort can sign up at www.usccb.org/pray to participate in this and subsequent Call to Prayer initiatives via email or text message. “May Our Lady of Guadalupe intercede for the healing of our nation and our people from decades of abortion on demand,” Cardinal Dolan said. http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/america/2018/07/20/cardinal-dolan-launches-prayer-campaign-for-pro-life-supreme-court/
http://m.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/pope-francis-accepts-resignation-of-honduran-bishop-accused-of-sexual-abuse Pope Francis Accepts Resignation of Honduran Bishop Accused of Sexual Abuse Posted by Edward Pentin on Friday Jul 20th, 2018 at 6:07 AM Bishop Juan Jose Pineda Fasquelle was at the center of allegations involving abuse of seminarians and financial misconduct. Pope Francis today accepted the resignation of Bishop Juan Jose Pineda Fasquelle, the auxiliary bishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The bishop was at the center of allegations of sexual abuse and financial misconduct in the archdiocese which led to an apostolic visit in May 2017 at the Pope’s request. The Honduran prelate was a protégé of Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, and in recent months had been left in charge of the archdiocese in the cardinal’s absence. Cardinal Maradiaga is the coordinator of the C9 Group of Cardinals advising the Holy Father on Church reform. In March, the Register obtained testimonies from two former seminarians detailing allegations of sexual misconduct by the bishop. The two men and others feared reprisals from the prelate for speaking out. As well as the abuse, Bishop Pineda, 57, was also reported to have a string of intimate male friends in Honduras and abroad whom he treated with gifts. The bishop was also accused of financial misconduct including misuse of $1.3 million from the Honduran government earmarked for charitable projects but which “completely disappeared.” News of sexual and financial misconduct was first reported by the Italian magazine L'Espresso last December. A source with knowledge of the case told the Register July 20 that “we’ve been waiting for this day in Honduras.” Today’s announcement means “those who have suffered obtain partial justice,” the source added. “The Church has taken steps on the path of truth.” But he lamented that Bishop Pineda remains a bishop and that the hierarchy “keeps covering for these abusers.” Backing reports also obtained from other sources, he said Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga was “aware of everything but always sided with Pineda and not the truth” and that the institutions meant to deal with these cases, such as the apostolic nunciature, “were overridden.” Over the past few months the Register contacted Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga and Bishop Pineda, offering both the opportunity to deny these allegations, but neither responded to our enquiries. “The positive thing,” the source said, “is that something is moving.” *** Update: July 20, 1.10pm CET In a statement issued today, Bishop Pineda said he had handed the Pope his resignation “several months ago,” adding that he had “tried with all my heart” to serve the “People of God” placed under his charge. “If I succeeded, blessed be God,” he said. “If I failed you, I apologize.” The Honduran prelate added that “motives and reasons” for his resignation “are known by God and my superiors,” adding that he “acted in full awareness and freedom. I wish we were all wrong,” he wrote. His resignation, he went on to say, gave him “time for prayer, meditation, personal and continuous formation, so that, in due course, I will continue to give to the Church and to you the best of me.” He added that everyone deserves a time of “rest, formation and prayer.” Bishop Pineda concluded: “I continue as a son of the Church; I continue forward as consecrated; I continue as minister of the Church; I continue forward at the disposition of my superiors; I ask of all of you your prayer and your mercy.” Thanks
Some background on the author of that piece: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/...tle-to-convent-to-carer-and-curator-1.2227692 Note the Jesuit connection. Anyone who thinks that the "Catholic Spring" was confined to the US and wasn't orchestrated by members of the hierarchy needs to wake up and smell the coffee. It has been decades in the hatching and planning and we would have known nothing about it if the Clintons and Podestas hadn't stepped on a few political toes.
Communism has spread its errors; as our Blessed Mother warned. We must not forget Bella Dodd's testimony in the early 50s, to the House of Un-American Activities Committee: “In the 1930s we put eleven-hundred men into the priesthood in order to destroy the Church from within.” Twelve years before Vatican II, she said, “Right now they are in the highest places in the Church.” She predicted that the changes they would implement would be so drastic that “you will not recognize the Catholic Church.” For the sake of those who haven't heard of this before, the following article is a good summary, imho: Lay Eucharistic Ministry Born of Communist Infiltration – By David Martin https://catholicismpure.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/communist-infiltration-of-the-catholic-church/ On June 29, 1972, on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of his coronation, Pope Paul VI declared to the world, “From some fissure the smoke of Satan entered into the temple of God.” The pope was referencing the diabolical forces that had infiltrated the Church through the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Now a key objective of Vatican II was the empowerment of the laity, in keeping with its theme of “active participation of the faithful.” With the Council came the new definition of priesthood as The people of God. It saw the whole Church as one hierarchy or priesthood, but in different ranks, with the ordained ministerial priesthood being only one rank of this priesthood. What was proposed was the fallacy that we are all priests of one hierarchy. “The common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood are nonetheless ordered one to another; each in its own proper way shares in the one priesthood of Christ.” (Lumen Gentium 10) It is a well known and documented fact that the agents of Communism began entering our Catholic seminaries as far back as the 30s for the purpose of destroying the Church from within. Over a thousand such agents had infiltrated the seminaries prior to 1940. The testimonies of ex-communists like Bella Dodd and Manning Johnson who had testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee more than confirm that these agents of the sickle and hammer had been building their forces against the Church with the intention of breaking in and indoctrinating the faithful with anti-church principles. (cont'd)
