A Miracle, A Coincidence Or A Hoax?

This blogger was corresponding with a friend who is planning a trip to Europe with a stopover in Portugal.  The first place that he thought he and his mother might wish to consider visiting was Fátima.  Thinking that there might be miracle cures happening on occasion at Fátima, Portugal, as they have been occuring at times at Lourdes, France, he searched the internet for them using these key words: "miracle at fatima 2017" but nothing turned up, except for an link to a blog.  The link was copied and pasted to the e-mail that was sent a few days ago.

Being lazy and not wanting to sign in to look under "sent mail," the same key words were used to do a search, expecting that the same link would show up so that it could be shared with readers of this blog.  It did not, and after clicking "next" a few times at the bottom of the Google search pages, he went to the "sent mail" folder for the link.

Here is the link:  https://jadeofnazareth.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/another-fatima-miracle-in-2017/

The link goes to the blog MARY'S SECRETARY Just Another Fool of the Immaculata!  The author's name is Jade and under her "About" tab, she stated that "I am entering the convent to hopefully become a nun." [1]  The post is entitled Fatima Miracle in 2017!  That was exactly what this blogger was looking for, but the "supposed" miracle as reported did not occur in Portugal but in Santa Cruz, California.

Jade's post was dated May 11, 2017, the entirety of which is quoted below, with photographs [2]:

With the one hundred year anniversary of Fatima just three short days away, it shouldn’t surprise any faithful Catholic that Our Lady is at work! Some want miracles, or to see Our Lady, I want that too, but you know what I really desire? For Her Immaculate Heart to triumph, just like She promised one hundred years ago to the three children.  “In the end My Immaculate Heart will triump. [sic]”

This little miracle happened in the Santa Cruz, California area where I currently live.  I wasn’t there to witness it, but I wanted to pass along this blog post with the pictures of the sun…and how it seemed to “pulsate” in just a matter of a minute!:

“I just finished photographing the Divine Mercy procession at Our Lady of Peace Shrine in Santa Clara, California, last Sunday, when three hours later, I was intrigued by the sun behind the 32-foot metal statue of Our Lady, pens viewer. It seemed to be pulsating. See the picture comparison below.

The moment I snapped the photo, three children suddenly appeared without me noticing it until later. They were running up the hill and into my view. Also the sun got much bigger. Both pictures were only one minute apart. The first picture without the children and small sun was taken at 6:42 p.m. and the picture with the children and bigger sun was taken at 6:43 p.m. according to the embedded information of the digital images. Looking at this picture, I could not help but be reminded of the dancing sun at Fatima with the three children. Lucia represented by the big girl on the left, Francisco, the little boy in the middle, and Jacinta on the right. All three are seen running towards Our Lady. What a Divine Coincidence, I thought.”

A picture of the shrine itself:



Let’s all run to Mary!

(Below are thoughts contemporaneous with this entry.)

The part in quotation marks above and the photographs were from another blog since Jade said that "[t]his little miracle happened in the Santa Cruz, California area where I currently live.  I wasn’t there to witness it, but I wanted to pass along this blog post with the pictures of the sun..." There was no mention of the name of the photographer or the source from which she obtained them.

A quick search for the source on the internet revealed the same three photographs appearing in an earlier publication by SPIRIT DAILY  dated April 25, 2017, with these words, quoted below without the three photographs [3]:

“I just finished photographing the Divine Mercy procession at Our Lady of Peace Shrine in Santa Clara, California, last Sunday, when three hours later, I was intrigued by the sun behind the 32-foot metal statue of Our Lady,” pens viewer Mike Dial. “It seemed to be pulsating. See the picture comparison below.

“The moment I snapped the photo, three children suddenly appeared without me noticing it until later. They were running up the hill and into my view. Also the sun got much bigger. Both pictures were only one minute apart. The first picture without the children and small sun was taken at 6:42 p.m. and the picture with the children and bigger sun was taken at 6:43 p.m. according to the embedded information of the digital images. Looking at this picture, I could not help but be reminded of the dancing sun at Fatima with the three children. Lucia represented by the big girl on the left, Francisco, the little boy in the middle, and Jacinta on the right. All three are seen running towards Our Lady. What a Divine Coincidence, I thought.”

Second to the last sentence of the first paragraph quoted immediately above reveals the name of the photographer, Mike Dial, to whom the "supposed" miracle appeared.  Mr. Mike Dial did not say to where the three children ran toward other than up a hill and if there was anything specific that was of interest beyond the hill, or if he had subsequently determined to whom the three children belonged.

A next search on the internet revealed that Mr. Mike Dial had on another occasion took a picture of an unusual looking star that was reported to have moved and then stood still above the Divine Mercy statue "on August 25, 2004 at around 1:00 PM" [4] at Divine Mercy Hills in El Salvador, Misamis Oriental, Philippines [5], and that Mr. Dial is "a balikbayan from Sacramento, California." [6]  [Note: before clicking on the link provided in footnote [4] and [6], please be forewarned that on the left side of the address bar appear the words "Not secure."]

It is up to the reader to decide whether the photographs taken by Mr. Dial in Santa Cruz, California, that seemed to parallel in some ways the event at Fátima, Portugal, that took place some 100 years ago were evidence of a miracle, or merely a coincidence or simply a hoax.


[1] https://jadeofnazareth.wordpress.com/about/
[2] https://jadeofnazareth.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/another-fatima-miracle-in-2017/
[3] http://spiritdaily.org/blog/uncategorized/7248
[4] http://www.thedailytrends.net/2014/03/the-mysteries-and-miracles-of-divine.html
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Mercy_Shrine_(Misamis_Oriental)
[6] http://www.thedailytrends.net/2014/03/the-mysteries-and-miracles-of-divine.html

The Death Of Freedom

Charlie Gard, born August 4, 2016, [1] died Friday night, London time, on July 28, 2017. [2]  It was "a week before his first birthday." [3]

The death of Charlie Gard is in this blogger's mind the death of freedom in the west, a concept over which so many wars had been and are still being fought and so many lives had been lost and are still being lost.  When it mattered to Charlie, and his parents, the institutions that are creatures of a state had denied them their wishes.

Has the world changed so much that personal freedom is no longer paramount, from spying on the private lives of others by a former world leader, to denying an infant's right to life by denying his right to travel as well as access to medical care?

Man was not created by God as an indentured slave to serve God's will unquestionably in exchange for his life in the flesh; rather, he was created as an individual who is free, free even to reject his very own Creator in favor of the one whose sole purpose is to ruin all of creation that had originated from good, by turning it to bad, to be incinerated in Hell for an eternity.

Those with the power to deny human life, in a myriad of ways, are behaving like the Devil, full of envy with an insatiable appetite for power over all that comes from God, and over God; yet, in a way, they are far worse than the Devil for even the Devil respects man's Free Will given to man by his Creator, by offering him temptations, so that he may choose, albeit they are highly irresistible, but not by imposing upon him edicts, limiting and eliminating his choices.

When a state limits or takes away man's Free Will to live life without trespassing on others in living theirs freely, by laws, court rulings and punitive taxation, freedom is no longer alive.


[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/charlie-gard-mitochondrial-disease-suffers-legal-battle/
[2] http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40752120
[3] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3248426/charlie-gard-death-life-support-case-treatment-parents-great-ormond-street/

The Catholic Church - Same Symptoms, New Description

The Salt Lake Tribune  on July 26, 2017, published a commentary by Chris Lowney of Religion News Service, entitled Commentary: Is the Catholic Church a capsizing ship?  The commentary is quoted below in its entirety [1]:

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI recently likened the Catholic Church to a capsizing ship. 

Benedict's use of the phrase came in an elegant tribute to Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Germany, who died recently. In it, Benedict praised Meisner's faith and "conviction, that the Lord does not abandon his church, even when sometimes the boat has taken on so much water as to be on the verge of capsizing."

Conservatives in Catholic cyberspace jumped all over that phrase, seeing it as Benedict's coded critique of Pope Francis. After all, Meisner and others had cast doubts on the theological soundness of Pope Francis' recent apostolic exhortation, "Amoris Laetitia," especially its call for more robust engagement with divorced and remarried Catholics. Benedict must be agreeing! Francis is the misguided captain who is capsizing the ship!

Well, Benedict's closest confidant, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, immediately debunked that sinister interpretation as a "fantasy" being peddled by "stupid people." He should know what Benedict intended: Benedict had entrusted the letter to him.

But if the faux controversy arises from nonsense, it nonetheless illustrates a real problem that is hobbling the Catholic Church.

Yes, the Catholic ship is taking on water, as Benedict put it. Our challenges include declining participation in the sacraments, meager engagement with young adults, clergy shortages in the developed world, and trouble conveying our message convincingly to a secular, relativistic modern world.

Gänswein recently cited Benedict as being worried that "the substance of the faith is about to crumble, above all in his homeland." And Pope John Paul II, decades ago, proclaimed the "urgency" of finding new ways to reach out to the modern world.

Well, every modern institution faces crises in this complex, chaotic century. What differentiates great organizations is whether and how they react, specifically their ability to galvanize a robust, united response to their challenges. Faced with urgent crises, healthy organizations rally together to save the institution they love. Unhealthy organizations play the blame game.

I lived through all that as a longtime managing director in a global investment bank that was regularly racked by tumultuous change. Crises often erupted, and our first impulse was to pillory scapegoats and attack rivals.

But, in time, we invariably realized that our circular firing squad was solving nothing and weakening our collective ability to respond. Meanwhile, our collective house was catching on fire (or, to use Benedict's image, our ship was taking on water).

Rallying together to fortify our ship became more important than tarring internal rivals. Urgency was key, as were creative solutions to new kinds of problems.

We understood that we would have to enlist colleagues further down the ranks, apprise them frankly of our challenges and quash their own blame-game tendencies: Part of any leader's job is to lift subordinates above internecine disputes by articulating some compelling strategy that all can embrace and feel part of.

Unfortunately, that isn't happening in the Catholic Church. The recent Benedict contretemps is not an exception but part of a long-standing, destructive pattern.

Indeed, Catholics have by now settled into their own little progressive and conservative tribes, each with their own favorite bishops, websites, religious orders, periodicals and litmus test issues.

It feels great to be able to scratch one's ideological itch, but that hasn't solved any of the church challenges enumerated above. Rather, those problems have continued to fester, now for decades. It's time for us to wake up, and grow up, and to begin revitalizing the church we love.

To be able to float the sinking Catholic Church under Bergoglio and "revitalize" it is probably more a pipe dream than a reality.  There may be those who believe (in Emeritus Pope Benedict's words above) "'that the Lord does not abandon his church, even when sometimes the boat has taken on so much water as to be on the verge of capsizing,'" but the question is whether today's Catholic Church is the one Christ had established, or whether it is so "satanized" that it is no longer recognizable as His church.

Benedict XVI was right that the Church that Christ had built, by His suffering, death and resurrection, is not the Church that He will abandon, but in this blogger's opinion, the one now operating under Christ and Catholicism in name only is better sunk and eliminated from existence than have it continue to sail through time to Hell, based on a (forced) parallel drawn using these words of Christ: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea" [2], and these: "If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire." [3]

In his analysis, Benedict XVI seemed to have been blinded by his loyalty to the Catholic Church when his loyalty ought to be to God by seemingly putting the blame on relativism and secularism in the modern world when it is the failure of those in the Catholic Church who had taught Catholics and non-Catholics alike that sin is relative, in that pedophiles had been sheltered even though they had sinned and while they had continued to sin gravely without remorse, acting as if they were relativists, secularists or atheists by not obeying Christ to love charitably, but instead had abused sexually to the extent that Cardinal Pell who was charged with sexual abuse planned to plead not guilty, as reported by Vatican Radio  in an article dated July 26, 2017, entitled Cardinal Pell to plead ‘not guilty’ in abuse case [4]:

Cardinal George Pell made a brief appearance at an Australian court on Wednesday in a preliminary hearing regarding the accusation of “historical sexual offences”. 

His lawyer said he would plead “not guilty” to the charges leveled against him by police in the state of Victoria.

To think that today's Catholic Church on terra firma  could recover from this sorry state of sin (pedophilia is only one of its many sins) is to think naïvely.  However, the real Catholic Church built by Christ that is in the heart of the individual that is in alignment (as much as possible for sinners) with the Heart of Christ is very much afloat in spirit and is sailing ever so gradually, although not necessarily smoothly, toward Heaven.


[1] http://www.sltrib.com/home/5554386-155/commentary-is-the-catholic-church-a
[2] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/18 at 6, quoted without footnotes.
[3] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/18 at 8, quoted without footnotes.
[4] http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/07/26/cardinal_pell_to_plead_%E2%80%98not_guilty%E2%80%99_in_abuse_case/1327214

A Prayer For A Smile

BBC News  published an article in the early morning of July 25, 2017, indicating that Chris Gard and Connie Yates have "ended the case after a US doctor told them it was now too late to treat Charlie's rare genetic condition." [1]  Nobody knows the future of Charlie Gard, but the likelihood that he would leave the world in peace is greater than the world seeing a miracle cure, but that does not mean one cannot pray for Charlie to give his parents a hint of a smile before he departs from this world and goes to Heaven.

The delay tactics being employed by everyone who has anything to do with Charlie Gard preventing him from receiving immediate treatment across the Atlantic are apparent, but it is what it is, and may those whose decisions and actions that have brought a life to this stage with undue deliberations find in their respective futures the opportunity to find God in their lives and repent lest they themselves be met with their own respective measures of mercilessness when they are at the mercy of others when they themselves become infirm and when they are before God at the gates of eternity.

[1] http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40712913

Is The Catholic Church Seriously Starting To Crack?

A bold and insightful article written by the staff of Crux published on July 23, 2017, entitled Vatican article says ‘main obstacle’ for Pope Francis is bishops, priests  seems to point to the beginnings of a serious, and possibly unhealable, division within the Catholic Church.  Part of it is quoted below without hyperlinks [1]:

The summary:

Shortly after one Vatican article stirred debate by asserting there's an "ecumenism of hate" in the U.S. between conservative Evangelicals and Catholics, another over the weekend asserted that the "main obstacle" to implementing Pope Francis's vision for the Church is “closure, if not hostility” from “a good part of the clergy, at levels both high and low.” [Emphasis original.]

The body:

On the heels of one controversial Vatican article alleging an “ecumenism of hate” between conservative Evangelicals and Catholics in America, another potential eyebrow-raiser emerged Saturday claiming that the “main obstacle” to implementing Pope Francis’s vision is “closure, if not hostility” from “a good part of the clergy, at levels both high and low.”

The term “high and low” suggests the author had in mind clergy ranging from senior bishops to ordinary parish priests.

“The clergy is holding the people back, who should instead be accompanied in this extraordinary moment,” said the article by Italian Father Giulio Cirignano, a native of Florence and a longtime Scripture scholar at the Theological Faculty of Central Italy.

The piece appeared in the weekend edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, under the headline of “The Conversion Asked by Pope Francis: Habit is not Fidelity.”

It comes a little over a week after the publication of an essay by Italian Jesuit Fr. Antonio Spadaro and Argentine Protestant Marcelo Figueroa, two close friends of Pope Francis, in the Jesuit-edited journal La Civilità Cattolica. In it, Spadaro and Figueroa described what they see was a “Manichean vision” [2] underlying growing closeness in America between Evangelicals and “Catholic Integralists.”

Cirignano’s piece didn’t focus on the United States, and appeared to be more concerned with Italian realities, though he didn’t specify which country or region he was addressing.

“The main obstacle that stands in the way of the conversion that Pope Francis wants to bring to the Church is constituted, in some measure, by the attitude of a good part of the clergy, at levels high and low … an attitude, at times, of closure if not hostility,” Cirignano wrote.

“Most of the faithful have understood, despite everything, the favorable moment, the Kairos, which the Lord is giving to his community,” Cirignano said. “For the most part, they’re celebrating.”

“Despite that, the portion [of the community] closest to little-illuminated pastors is maintained behind an old horizon, the horizon of habitual practices, of language out of fashion, of repetitive thinking without vitality,” he said.

Cirignano offered several factors to explain what he sees as “closure” and “hostility” from the clergy towards Pope Francis.

The “modest cultural level on the part of clergy, both at high and low levels,” he said, saying that both theological and Biblical preparation is often “scarce.”

An antiquated image of the priesthood, which, according to Cirignano, sees the priest as “the boss and patron of the community,” who, because of his celibate condition, is compensated with “totally individual responsibility,” a sort of “solitary protagonist.”

An old theology, associated with the Counter-Reformation, “lacking the resources of the Word, without a soul, that transformed the impassioned and mysterious adventure of believing into religion,” arguing that “the God of religion … is, for the most part, a projection of man, while “faith” is not in the first place “Man reaching for God, but the opposite.”

“When the priest is too marked by a religious mentality, and too little by a limpid faith, then everything becomes more complicated,” Cirignano wrote. “He risks remaining the victim of many things invented by man about God and his will.”

God, according to Cirignano, “doesn’t tolerate being enclosed in rigid schemes typical of the human mind.”

Instead, he said, “God is love, and that’s all, love as gift of itself. Thus [God] corrects, in a plain way, the million involutions we’re used to putting in the way of love.”

...

Though there’s no indication that Cirignano’s piece was encouraged by Pope Francis, or indeed that the pontiff was even aware of it, Francis himself has frequently taken recalcitrant bishops and clergy to task during the course of his papacy.

Famously, in his December 2014 address to the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s central administrative bureaucracy, Francis ticked off 15 “spiritual diseases” he saw, including “Spiritual Alzheimer’s,” “rivalry and vainglory,” gossip, and even an unhealthy lack of joy he dubbed “funeral face.”

It seems to this blogger that Bergoglio is the one who gives the appearance of a "funeral face" when he is upset.  Better put are these words quoted below without hyperlinks from a blog entitled  ........Choosing-Him  that appeared in a post dated February 4, 2017, entitled Rome covered in Anti-Francis posters [3]: 

The photo chosen for the poster [see below] is classic Francis.  Paraphrasing Francis’ own words, when one exhibits a ‘funeral face’ [4] it reflects the insecurities he has about himself and a ‘pickle face’ [5] shows that one lacks joy.

http://choosing-him.blogspot.com/2017/02/rome-covered-in-posters-critical-of-pope.html

It is not for easy to say whether the extreme liberal or the extreme conservative side of the Catholic Church, or some point along the continuum, is on the side of God.  One would think that there is only one voice for the whole Catholic Church and that "voice" consists of words spoken by Christ. Seriously, how difficult is it to comprehend these words, quoted without paragraph numbers and footnotes [6]:

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

How many songs, operas, poems, stories, movies, compositions have been about love throughout the centuries?  Has love changed with the passage of time?  This blogger senses what love is but knows very little about it, but doubts that its meaning has changed since the time of Adam and Eve.  Perhaps because of his ignorance of love, he concludes that it must be simple.  After all, it is not a subject that is taught at school or has to be studied at length and examined for proficiency, probably because it is universal to mankind; yet, in almost every part of the world, it is disposed of and in its void, the seven deadly sins, namely, pride, gluttony, lust, envy, greed, anger and sloth [7] completes one's being in varying proportions.

Perhaps those who are most influential in shaping the Catholic Church and keeping it from falling apart ought not to waste time and words theorizing about love but actually love for once.  Maybe, just maybe, would the Catholic Church then be a place that can help sinners overcome the seven deadly sins and begin paving the way for all to Heaven.



[1] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/07/23/vatican-article-says-main-obstacle-pope-francis-bishops-priests/
[2] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/07/13/jesuit-journal-close-pope-says-manichean-vision-behind-trump/
[3] http://choosing-him.blogspot.com/2017/02/rome-covered-in-posters-critical-of-pope.html
[4] http://callmejorgebergoglio.blogspot.com/2015/03/whats-up-with-frown-francis.html
[5] Ibid.
[6] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22, 36-40.
[7] http://www.deadlysins.com/

A "Saint" And A Trial Of Two Alleged Criminals

On July 17, 2017, Crux  published an article by Inés San Martín entitled First Vatican trial under laws against financial crime to open Tuesday, quoted below in part [1]:

A Vatican criminal trial against two former members of a foundation overseeing the Vatican’s Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital is set to start Tuesday, on charges of illicitly using foundation funds to help finance the remodeling of the apartment of Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, former Secretary of State under Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

Bertone himself, however, was not an object of the investigation and does not face any charges.

Giuseppe Profiti, who was president of the Bambino Gesù foundation until 2015, and Massimo Spina, the former treasurer, were called to appear before Vatican judges beginning July 18. If they fail to attend court, they will be charged with contempt, according to a July 13 statement from the Vatican’s press office.

After a Vatican investigation which lasted more than a year, Profiti, Spina and their lawyers were notified of the charges June 13, and had until July 11 to supply evidence for their defense.

The Vatican statement said Profiti and Spina “were paid” more than almost $500,000 for “completely non-institutional ends,” using the money to refurbish Vatican property in order “to benefit Gianantonio Bandera’s company.”

Bandera is an Italian businessman whose construction company performed much of the work on Bertone’s Vatican residence.

In short, this trail is about the alleged misuse of funds in the neighborhood of half a million dollars belonging to the Vatican's hospital funds to improve Vatican property.  Is this not about taking money from one pocket of its owner and putting it in the other?  How dare these operatives misappropriate funds that were supposed to benefit the poor, the sick and needy and spend them on real estate improvements at the Vatican?  While this blogger does not think that this criminal, he does think that it is unethical, bordering on sinful, but not unforgivably sinful, taking into consideration the amount of money that is involved.

Below is a photograph of Domus Sanctae Marthae (Saint Martha's House), "a plain but capable $20 million hotel built just for this purpose by Pope John Paul II in 1996." [2]  It was built "[t]o ensure electors in the papal conclave are sequestered from any outside influence, all voting cardinals." [3]

"Photo by Rene Shaw"

Jesuit Father James Martin said that this hotel is by no means luxurious or "posh."  To prove his point, he posted interior photographs of a suite from another source (see below) [4]:

Bedroom
http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2010/01/domus-sanctae-marthae.html

Sitting Room
http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2010/01/domus-sanctae-marthae.html

According to Father James Martin, that "[a]long with 22 single rooms and one apartment, the Domus has 106 suites." [5]

He also said, quoted without hyperlink [6]:

Over six years of my working life were spent booking rooms for two major hotel chains. And I gotta tell ya — a Renaissance or Adams Mark this ain't. If anything, this is a devout monk's conception of a business-class hotel. It does have a dining room, several conference rooms, plus a main chapel and two smaller chapels to accomodate private Masses. So it is a bit more than an ecclesial Motel 6.

But no mezzanine with deluxe shopping. No pool with swim-up entrances and tiki bar; in fact, the one "bar" it has consists of two vending machines, one for coffee and one for soft drinks. No California King beds with 17"-deep mattresses and small mountains of pillows. If you want to watch TV, there are a couple of rooms with six straight-backed chairs in them (however, the satellite receiver will be turned off for the conclave) — no in-room X-Box, Skinemax or Netflix ... which is just as well.

Mind you, I'm not saying that the beds are uncomfortable, or that the food is substandard; that's not what the "star system" is about. But if you're not there on Church business, you don't want to stay there on vacation. Retreat, yes; vacation, no. Give it two and a half stars for its unique amenities, but don't push it further.

This blogger does not doubt Father James Martin's observations and conclusions.  In fact, a traveler on vacation who is thinking of staying at the Domus Sanctae Marthae should heed his advice - "don't."  After all, it is only a bit more than an "an ecclesial Motel 6."

Here is another observation of the Domus Sanctae Marthae by Sherri Ferris, quoted in part [7]:

From the outside, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, revealed a rather 1960’s dormitory style building but once you walked through the glass doors and into the lobby and grand stair cases, there were lovely plants, tended by the Sisters of Charity, spectacular oil paintings and elegant inlaid marble floors. In fact the floor of my room was beautifully hand crafted herringbone tongue and groove wood, polished faithfully every morning by the staff. The floors were the most beautiful part of the building. The lighting on the other hand was often florescent and as our PPI lighting expert, Frederick Warhanek, would say, not the most flattering or appealing.

The room itself was a bit austere but certainly comfortable with a glass topped desk, wooden chest of drawers, built-in closet, television and an air-conditioner that only worked part-time in the summer (May was on the cusp and consequently even though the temperature was in the low 80’s, was not functioning.) The schedule reminded me of the type of rigid schedule one would find in hotels in the former Yugoslavia – heating or cooling rooms was strictly by the calendar. But alas, this was no doubt due to budget considerations.

Like many things in Italy that don’t consistently work, internet access required some expert help from one of the resident Monsignors. ...

Something just does not seem to add up here, at least not in this simpleton's mind.  John Paul II who had spent $20 million in the years leading up to 1996, the year of completion of "an ecclesial Motel 6" with 22 single rooms, one apartment and 106 Spartan-looking suites had become a saint, whereas two individuals who spent half a million on the renovation of a Vatican apartment in 2013 to 2014 [8] are being treated as if they were criminals.

Disregarding the differential between the value of a dollar circa 1996 and circa 2014, the amount of money that had been spent on the Domus Sanctae Marthae is significant at $20 million, even in 2017 dollars.

This $20 million spent by JP2 could have gone to fund the Vatican’s Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital, but that did not happen.  This sum of money was presuambly not designated to assist the poor; nonetheless it was church funds and funds belonging to the Church, some of which were possibly from donations that were likely not being donated for large-scale real estate improvements but rather to assist the poor, and those who serve Christ in the cloth are supposed to be poor and poor in spirit, just like San Francesco d'Assisi and Sainte Bernadette Soubirous, not real estate moguls.

JP2 was never truly poor, or perhaps even poor in spirit.  "Growing up, John Paul was athletic and enjoyed skiing and swimming. He went to Krakow's Jagiellonian University in 1938 where he showed an interest in theater and poetry." [9] He was nevertheless canonized a saint, for reasons that escape this blogger.

JP2 had good intentions in having the Domus Sanctae Marthae built, "the primary purpose of [which was to provide] accommodation for Cardinals during the conclave to elect a new Pope," [10] as if these Cardinals could not have been housed elsewhere, as if a conclave could not take place without such a building. Below is a brief history of conclave accommodations, quoted in part from an article in the New York Times  dated April 5, 2005, entitled JOHN PAUL II: LIFE IN ROME; The Cardinals' Hotel: Not a Spot for the Bread and Water Routine That Was Used in 1271 [11]:

In 1271, after the papal throne was vacant for three years, anxious Catholics locked up the indecisive cardinals in a crumbling building and put them on a strict diet of bread and water until they made a decision. For an extra dose of motivation, the roof was removed. After enduring rain and harsh sunshine, the cardinals finally elected Pope Gregory X.

Conditions had improved by 1978, the year of the last conclave, but compared with the way of living that most cardinals are used to, the shelter was very modest. Beds were on loan from a local missionary college; the lamps were too weak to read by. The extent of the luxuries were a washbasin and some soap, some notepaper and a desk to write on.

Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, the archbishop of Genoa at the time, found much to be desired during his stay in Rome. He referred to his quarters during the brutal Rome summer of August 1978 as an ''airless tomb.''

He was evidently not the only one who felt that way. The election lasted all of a day before the cardinals elected Pope John Paul I. He died shortly after, and the conclave that selected John Paul II had similarly uncomfortable accommodations.

Cardinal Silvio Oddi, who died in 2001, often complained in his later years about the hardships of conclave housing.

''The cardinals are almost all old, with prostate problems, tired -- with a bathroom for every 10 people,'' he was quoted as saying in L'espresso, describing the 1978 experience. ''I slept near the toilet, but I saw these poor old people crossing 70-meter corridors to get to the bathroom, which they found occupied. Such pain, and what a humiliation. The cardinals had to make their own beds.''

Since a conclave does not take place often, it would probably be less expensive to take over entire floors of 5-star luxury hotels in Rome to accommodate the Cardinals during a conclave than to build a $20 million "ecclesial Motel 6" with Father James Martin giving it "two and a half stars for its unique amenities" then having to maintain it over the years.

Admittedly, half a million in renovation costs for one apartment can be said to be relatively expensive, depending of course, on the quality of products used.  Somehow, this blogger very much doubts that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone would be pleased to see his apartment looking like a suite at the Domus Sanctae Marthae after the renovation.

It would be interesting to find out how much profit the construction company had earned for the work done on Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's apartment and how much profit the construction company or companies had earned for building Domus Sanctae Marthae, and if JP2 who spent the $20 million on Domus Sanctae Marthae ought to be brought to trial as well, post-mortem.

Even more interesting would be to hear Bergoglio defend JP2's spending of $20 million on a building that could have gone into a fund for the poor and the sick, one that was supposedly built with functioning modern conveniences, that he has chosen to stay in over the Apostolic Palace [12] despite its Spartan appearance.

Perhaps the Vatican's motto ought to be "God helps those who help themselves" [13] and not "help the poor."

[1] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/07/17/first-vatican-trial-laws-financial-crime-open-tuesday/

[2] http://religionnews.com/2013/03/26/pope-francis-opts-for-vatican-guesthouse-instead-of-papal-apartment/
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://impracticalcatholic.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-luxurious-domus-sanctae-marthae.html#.WW17a4TyvIU
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] http://www.protocolprofessionals.com/articles_vatican.htm
[8] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/07/17/first-vatican-trial-laws-financial-crime-open-tuesday/
[9] https://www.biography.com/people/john-paul-ii-9355652
[10] http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2010/01/domus-sanctae-marthae.html
[11] http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803E3DC1F3FF936A35757C0A9639C8B63&mcubz=0
[12] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/02/130328-pope-francis-vatican-casa-santa-marta-apartment-rome-catholic/

At The Intersection Of Religion And Politics

In this blogger's imagination, there is an intersection, figuratively speaking, that Christians and believers of other religions go to voice their political opinions.  Sometimes, this imaginary intersection becomes too real when a celebrant at Mass intertwines politics with his homily.  Such creatures remind this blogger of Eve, the one who was not satisfied with what God has given to her and Adam, who did not love God unconditionally, but instead want to become God herself and in her feeble mind, thinking that she could be like God, that she would have knowledge and power, just like those who have power in their positions within a religion who act like as if each of them were God, judging, and speaking for God, especially those within the Catholic Church, who together (with a limited number of exceptions) are apparently not satisfied with what they were once called to do, to be like Christ, to be humble, to preach to people, and to be like His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to pray for (and with) them, so that they might amend their wicked ways (which in reality is a constant work-in-progress, which is why God's mercy is necessary to save man from eternal damnation), but they do not--not frequently praying and not always sincerely and faithfully with love for sinners and to God, but instead find excitement in passing politics, keeping their adrenaline flowing in their relatively sedative lives within the confines of their respective orders and congregations, supported by tax-exempt donations that they spend on themselves first, without sharing with the very needy that they always preach about, so they might as well defrock themselves and run for office, including Bergoglio, who is not only dabbling in politics, but who is immersed in it, which prompted John L. Allen Jr., editor of Crux, to publish an article dated July 16, 2017, entitled Agree or not, it’s good to know what Vatican insiders think of America [1], which lays out the intricacies of Vatican politics which lie beyond the interests and the intellect of this blogger to appreciate.

This blogger is a simpleton and can only grasp simple concepts.  First is poverty.  It is the old currency of the modern Catholic Church, without which it would likely be silenced.  Apparently nobody can eliminate it.  Christ had said "The poor you will always have with you; but you will not always have me." [2]

Refugees are the new currency of the Catholic Church.  As a result of this new currency, the Catholic Church has developed a partial blindness that does not see the path that refugees take is a two-way street, that those who are able to receive them can travel to the places that the refugees originate and set up infrastructures there, raise their standard of living and provide them with assistance in their respective countries that they had once called home.  Of course, very few, if any, of those power players ensconced within the Catholic Church would even think of leaving their creature comforts behind and serve the very ones they talk about; they only pay lip-service to them, delegating to others to come up with a plan and do the difficult work.

Health care is the newest currency of the Catholic Church. This currency is the trickiest: it inflates with advancements in medical technology which are expensive to develop, and the Catholic Church believes that anyone is entitled to them even though it does not think that everyone is entitled to be housed in a mansion (the equivalence of staying at a modern, well-equipped hospital) and being served by a team of helpers to maintain the living quarters, to clean and to cook (the equivalence of having highly trained doctors and nurses in attendance and costly medications).  When all the Catholic basilicas, cathedrals and churches around the world are turned into first-class medical facilities (each with a chapel inside or shrine next door for worship and prayers) serving the needy in their health-care needs, then the Catholic Church can preach about health care access for all without being hypocritical.

This blogger recommends the Catholic Church to stay out of politics entirely and listen carefully to the words of Christ: "The poor you will always have with you; but you will not always have me," [3] paying particular attention to the second half of the sentence, which this blogger believes to mean that it is far more important to look inward and spend time with Christ, by examining one's own conscience and praying for forgiveness and guidance and become, ironically, poor in spirit first, before attending to the poor, lest one may not have Christ in the "always" of eternity, despite busying oneself with the politics of the poor.  In other words, one needs to walk the path of Christ, to be faithful to God, to love God, to be humble, holy, loving and forgiving in every way before one looks to others, to lift them up, if not economically, habitably and healthfully in this life, then spiritually toward Heaven in the next, for it is there where true riches are kept.


[1] https://cruxnow.com/analysis/2017/07/16/agree-not-good-know-vatican-insiders-think-america/
[2] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/26 at 11.
[3] Ibid at 11.

Suffering And Glory

One can say that life is unfair, but what is unfair about living a life that represents somewhat the suffering Christ during His Passion or one that demonstrates partially His glory during His Transfiguration?  In either case, one is close to Christ, and when one is close to Christ, one cannot be far from Heaven.

There are many examples of people suffering in the world, but there are not many instances where select individuals are chosen to show man a glimpse of Heavenly glory.  Of those chosen, the exceptional ones are far and few in between. Without keeping readers in suspense who probably already know a child by the name of Alexander Malofeev - Александр Малофеев - who "was born in Moscow" [1] on "21.10.2001." [2]

Alexander Malofeev
http://www.alexander-malofeev.com/biografiya-gb

Alexander Malofeev is a classical pianist.  There are numerous videos of him playing the piano on his You Tube channel. [3]  There was once a politician who had said that Russia was the "Evil Empire" and there are probably many who still believe that to be true.  If Russia were truly so evil, why did God give to a Russian boy such exceptional talent in piano playing, but not give any talent of equal or bigger magnitude to one of the hatemonger's offsprings?  Could it be that envy and hate which belong to Satan does not beget goodness which is from God?

For those who envy and hate, as a result of judging, there is this gospel passage (quoted without footnotes) [4]:

1 “Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
2 For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
3 Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye?
5 You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

Having the kind of talent that Alexander Malofeev has, especially at his young age, is impossible by human design, but being able to play so many compositions so musically and perfectly from memory requires practice and dedication. Those who care to listen to this gift from God through the hands of Alexander Malofeev are given a quick glimpse into what Heaven has in store.

A good number of people who would never know of Alexander Malofeev's existence could say that they, too, have seen glimpses of Heaven.  This statement is based on the number of views on You Tube that exceed 2 billion, and as of July 12, 2017, there are 14 such videos, with the most viewed having "2,904,148,095 views," [5] but then popularity is not necessarily a pathway to Heaven, since the well-traveled roads are paved with unrepentant pride and loveless envy that dead end in Hell with no way out, unless the mercy of God allows these souls to hear the music of Heaven, which may or may not be sounds that are similar to those of a twelve year old Alexander Malofeev on the piano playing Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Cadence A.Korto, S244 [6], or him as a fourteen year old playing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 1 in C Major, K.279, 1st movement [7], allowing them to follow the direction they are coming from and ascend.

The full extent of God's glory is beyond one's imagination, so one ought to feel blessed to exist in the same period as one who can deliver a tiny sample of it; at the same time, one ought not be envious of others with gifts so great while being bitter with pains so seemingly unbearable, for no pain is comparable to the ones Christ suffered during His Passion. It is in embracing life's sufferings with acceptance and whatever gift that has been given without expectation that one is able to begin to love God unconditionally and be close to God in this and the life after.



[1] https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/orchestra/piano/malofeev/
[2] http://krainevcompetition.com/en/participants-en/alexander-malofeev/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/user/Mr1AleksA/featured
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/7
[5] http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/magazine-feature/7709247/youtube-most-watched-videos
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-r2aU3_9CI
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRtspFOrt5I

Words Of Cardinal Robert Sarah

An article dated May 17, 2016, published by cnsnews.com, entitled Vatican Cardinal to Americans: ‘In Your Nation, God Is Being Eroded, Eclipsed, Liquidated’  is quoted below in its entirety, without hyperlinks, photograph or video inserts [1]:

"In your nation, God is being eroded, eclipsed, liquidated," Cardinal Robert Sarah, who was appointed as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis in 2014, told hundreds of prominent Catholic clergy and lay people attending the 12th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast Tuesday in Washington.

In what he called "portentous times" for the Catholic Church and for the world, Cardinal Sarah condemned same-sex marriage, transgender bathroom laws, and attacks on the family as "demonic".

“All manner of immorality is not only accepted and tolerated today in advanced societies, it is even promoted as a social good,” the African cardinal said. “The result is hostility to Christians and increasingly, religious persecution.”

“This is not an ideological war between competing ideas,” Sarah told the D.C. gathering. “This is about defending ourselves, children and future generations from the demonic idolatry that says children do not need mothers and fathers. It denies human nature and wants to cut off an entire generation from God.”

“The entire world looks to you, waiting and praying to see what America resolves on the present unprecedented challenges the world faces today. Such is your influence and responsibility,” said the archbishop emeritus of Conakry, Guinea.

“I encourage you to truly make use of the freedom willed by your founding fathers lest you lose it,” he warned his American audience.

 Quoting St. John Paul II that “the future of the world and the Church pass through the family,” Sarah pointed out that “this is why the Holy Father openly and vigorously defends Church teaching on contraception, abortion, homosexuality, reproductive technologies, the education of children, and much more.”

“The generous and responsible love of spouses made visible through the self-giving of parents who welcome children as a gift of God makes love visible in our generation. It makes present the perfect charity of eternity. ‘If you see charity, you see the Trinity,’ wrote St. Augustine,” the cardinal noted.

However, a broken family can also be the source of deep psychological wounds, he said.

 “The rupture of the foundational relationship of someone’s life through separation, divorce or distorted imposters of the family such as co-habitation or same-sex unions is a deep wound that closes the heart to self-giving love into death, and even leads to cynicism and despair. These situations cause damage to the little children through inflicting upon them deep existential doubt about love….

"This is why the devil is so intent on destroying the family. If the family is destroyed, we lose our God-given anthropological foundations, and so find it more difficult to welcome the saving good news of Jesus Christ: self-giving, fruitful love.”

 “Sadly, the advent of artificial reproductive technologies, surrogacy, so-called homosexual marriage, and other evils of gender idolatry will inflict even more wounds in the midst of the generation we live with,” said Sarah, who is also the author of God or Nothing.

“Advanced societies including, I regret, this nation, have done and continue to do anything possible to legalize such situations….This is why it is so important to fight to protect the family, the first cell of the life of the Church in every society.”

The cardinal warned that “hidden” forms of religious persecution are just as damaging to believers as physical attacks.

"Even in this yet young 21st century of barely 16 years, one million people have been martyred around the world because of their belief in Jesus Christ. Yet the violence against Christians is not just physical, it is also political, ideological and cultural.

"This form of religious persecution is equally damaging, yet more hidden. It does not destroy physically, but spiritually… This is the will of the Evil One: to close Heaven out of envy.

“Do we not see signs of this insidious war in this great nation of the United States?" Sarah asked.

"In the name of tolerance, the Church’s teaching on marriage, sexuality and [the] human person are being dismantled. The legalization of same-sex marriage, your beginning to accept contraception within healthcare programs and even bathroom bills that allow men to use the women’s restroom and locker rooms.

“Should not a biological man use the men’s restroom? How simpler can that concept be?” the cardinal asked to applause and laughter from the audience.

“How low we are sinking for a nation built on a set of moral claims about God, the human person, the meaning of life and the purpose of society, even by America’s first settlers and founders….

“George Washington wrote that the establishment of civil and religious liberty was the motive that induced him into the field of battle. Today we find ourselves before the battle of sickness…. I call this sickness the liquidation, the eclipse of God.”

The Church’s challenge today is to “fight with courage and hope… and not be afraid to raise her voice to denounce the hypocrites, manipulators and the false prophets” who would lead the faithful astray.

“The battle to preserve the roots of mankind is perhaps the greatest challenge the world has faced since its origins,” Sarah said.

“Be prophetic, be faithful, pray” for the soul of America and to “help stem the tide of evil that is spreading throughout the world,” the cardinal exhorted. “For in the end, it is God or nothing.”

The words of Cardinal Robert Sarah quoted above by the article, although somewhat dated, echo through time, and are just as relevant today as the day they were spoken.

More recently, in an article dated April 3, 2017, published by the Catholic Herald, the Cardinal said "that the Church had experienced 'devastation, destruction and wars' not only in the liturgy, but also in doctrine, morals and Church discipline[, and that] '[m]ore and more voices of high-ranking prelates stubbornly affirm obvious doctrinal, moral and liturgical errors that have been condemned a hundred times, and work to demolish the little faith remaining in the people of God.'" [2]

Sadly, these "high-ranking prelates" who "stubbornly affirm obvious doctrinal, moral and liturgical errors" think like their boss, Bergoglio, who probably regrets appointing Cardinal Robert Sarah "as the new head for the Vatican congregation that oversees and determines liturgical practices for the global Catholic church" in 2014. [3]


[1] http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/african-cardinal-american-catholics-your-nation-god-being-eroded
[2] http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/04/03/the-church-and-the-liturgy-face-a-profound-crisis-says-cardinal-sarah/
[3] https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-appoints-guinean-cardinal-robert-sarah-lead-vatican-liturgical-congregation

Sex And Drugs In A Vatican Apartment (Updated July 7, 2017, With Footnote 3)

Quoted below, in part, is from a heavy.com  article entitled Luigi Capozzi: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, dated July 6, 2017, without hyperlinks [1]:

The Vatican is embroiled in another sex scandal.

Sometime last month, Vatican police raided an apartment home belonging to the secretary of Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio and allegedly discovered an ongoing gay orgy that was fueled by drugs, Italian media reports say.

Those same media reports have identified the man in question as Monsignor Luigi Capozzi, the secretary for Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, who serves as the president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

Capozzi was ordained in 1992 and has worked in numerous roles within the Roman Catholic church ever since. He was about to be appointed a bishop, Italian media reports say.

A related article, also from heavy.com, entitled Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, dated July 5, 2017, is quoted in part below with hyperlink included [2]:

Pope Francis is reportedly “enraged” after Vatican police raided an apartment belonging to the secretary of Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio and discovered a drug-fueled gay orgy.

Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano reported on June 28 that police raided the home after neighbors complained that people were “constantly coming and going” from the entrance of the home in the evening.

The apartment home is typically reserved for “superiors, prefects, presidents or secretaries of the Roman Curia,” not “simple Monsignor,” the newspaper reported. The luxury vehicle that was given to the secretary, with a Holy See license plate, was often used as cover to transport the drugs without being stopped by police.

Coccopalmerio’s 50-year-old secretary of duties is named Luigi Capozzi. Reports say that partly because of the raid, Pope Francis “has decided to accelerate the retirement” of the 79-year-old Coccopalmerio, who serves as the president for the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts in addition to many other congregations.

Presumably, these uninhibited priestly indulgences in sex and drugs did not involve children or adulterous acts, otherwise this entry would take on a different tone altogether.  Neither of the two heavy.com  report cited above indicated whether acts of sodomy was involved.  Whether it is between a man and a woman or another man, sodomy is contrary to nature, but whether it is specifically, or impliedly, forbidden by the teachings of Christ and the Ten Commandments is open to debate, or perhaps not. [3]

What is clear, however, is that at least one man, perhaps there were others, who had committed himself to serving Christ by wearing a priestly collar but had nonetheless indulged in drug-enhanced acts of debauchery.  The question then is how do drugs and gay orgies advance the purposes to which these priests, assuming that there were more than just one, had vowed to dedicate their lives?  They do not.

When a man commits his life to Christ, he ought to abide by his commitment.  His priestly collar signifies the existence of a contract between his conscience and his will to dedicate himself fully in serving Christ.  While no man can be perfect, a man does not need to take extra steps to magnify his need for sexual expression, to turn what is an individualized simple biological need into a group sex and drug extravaganza.



[1] http://heavy.com/news/2017/07/luigi-capozzi-gay-orgy-drugs-vatican-coccopalmerio-monsignor/
[2] http://heavy.com/news/2017/07/francesco-coccopalmerio-cardinal-gay-raid-vatican-drugs-capozzi/
[3] Footnote added July 7, 2017:  On July 7, 2017, lifesitenew.com  published an article entitled Archbishop criticizes pro-gay Vatican advisor for book normalizing homosexuality. See https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archbishop-criticizes-pro-gay-vatican-advisor-for-book-normalizing-homosexu  Part of the article is quoted below without hyperlinks:

As newly-appointed Vatican advisor Father James Martin continues his campaign for greater openness to homosexuality in the Catholic Church, a prominent archbishop has now stepped up to correct the Jesuit priest’s misuse of Catholic teaching.

In a column Thursday, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput criticized Father Martin for failing to be clear about the sinfulness of homosexual acts.

Chaput said that while Martin is correct in stating that the Church must have “respect, compassion and sensitivity in dealing with persons with same-sex attraction,” this does not give a license to him or other influential leaders within the Church to suddenly start ignoring Biblical teaching on sexuality.

“What the text regrettably lacks is an engagement with the substance of what divides faithful Christians from those who see no sin in active same-sex relationships,” the archbishop wrote in a column titled A letter to the Romans.

Pointing to St. Paul’s condemnation of homosexual practices, Chaput added: “If the Letter to the Romans is true, then persons in unchaste relationships (whether homosexual or heterosexual) need conversion, not merely affirmation. If the Letter to the Romans is false, then Christian teaching is not only wrong but a wicked lie.  Dealing with this frankly is the only way an honest discussion can be had.”

Fr. Martin in his June 2017 book titled Building a Bridge urges Catholics who identify as “gay” to begin “conversations” with their bishops so as to move the Church in the direction of eventually normalizing homosexuality as part of God’s creation.

The disagreement between the two schools of thought rages on without any resolution in sight while some of those who are supposed to uphold the current position of the Catholic Church that "'under no circumstances can [homosexual acts] be approved' (CCC 2357)" (ibid) are likely continuing to engage in gay sex no matter what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says.  Whoever expects "conversion" of those in "unchaste" relationship can keep expecting, and whoever expects the Catholic Church to decree the practice of homosexual acts to be acceptable can also keep expecting, for no conversion can be successful without steadfast will and no man can bend the will of Mother Nature, and that too, whether homosexuality is biological or not, is another disagreement that does not look like it is ending anytime soon.  See http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-genetic-homosexuality-nature-nurture-20151007-story.html (biological - article published October 8, 2015) and https://concernedwomen.org/images/content/bornorbred.pdf (non-biological - article "last updated in June 2000").

In conclusion, this blogger believes that Archbishop Chaput is on the right side of the disagreement, and even if he erred, he has erred on the side of purity and holiness and nobody who lives a life of purity and holiness lives it contrary to the teachings of Christ.  Any other manner of living requires an abundance of prayers asking for forgiveness, for which an even greater abundance of God's mercy is necessary since there is not enough time in one's life to pray for the forgiveness of all of one's trespasses.

Perspectives On Baby Charlie Gard

A scathing article in the Federalist  dated June 30, 2017, written by Daniel Payne entitled The Vatican’s Statement On UK Baby Condemned To Die Is Frightening  [1] had this to say, quoted in part, with hyperlink included:

The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life yesterday released a statement that waffles between limp-wristed equivocations and outright willful ignorance of church teaching. If this is where the Vatican now makes its stand, then the most vulnerable members of society—which is to say all of us, at some point—are in trouble.

The points that follow the above-quoted paragraph are succinct, easy-to-understand and ultimately convincing.

The Vatican has since changed its position, as reported in an article entitled Pope reverses Vatican stand on British sick baby case  published by Huron Daily Tribune  on July 2, 2017, [2].  In an about-face, this was reported by EWTN News on July 2, 2017 [3]:

“The Holy Father follows with affection and emotion the story of Charlie Gard and expresses his own closeness to his parents,” read a July 2 statement issued by Vatican spokesman Greg Burke.

“He prays for them, wishing that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end will be respected.”

In the blogger's opinion, the words above belie the truth. Even with these crafty words, a scintilla of truth has revealed itself in the last part of the second statement, that Bergoglio wished that the parents care for Charlie Gard "to the end" will be respected.  Is the Vatican seeing an "end" that this blogger does not?  With faith and prayers, and medical treatment, this could be a beginning for Charlie Gard.

An article in the guardian  entitled Donald Trump offers help for terminally ill baby Charlie Gard dated July 3, 2017, reported what the specialist in the United States had to say to the British court [4]:

During a hearing at the high court in April, Mr Justice Francis considered evidence from a specialist who would oversee any treatment Charlie had at a hospital in the US.

The specialist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said therapy would provide a “small chance” of a meaningful improvement in Charlie’s brain function.

He told the court via a telephone link from America: “It may be a treatment, but not a cure. [Charlie] may be able to interact. To smile. To look at objects.”

It is well-known that "a smile is worth a thousand words." For the parents of Charlie Gard, a smile from their son is unquantifiable.  To think that anyone can deny Charlie Gard his smile, and for the Vatican to be indifferent to life speak to the hearts and minds of many powerful individuals whose collective redemptive value is as about close to nil as it can be without their souls having already entered into an eternity with the Devil.

One might ask why did God give to the world Charlie Gard? It is in suffering that Christ is alive, and it is in Christ's sufferings that reveal the black-heartedness of sinners whose hearts do not readily bleed red like the blood of Christ but hardly bleed at all, for their hearts are nearly dead to eternal life.


[1] http://thefederalist.com/2017/06/30/vaticans-statement-baby-condemned-die-frightening/
[2] http://www.michigansthumb.com/news/medical/article/Pope-reverses-Vatican-stand-on-British-sick-baby-11262297.php
[3] http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=15862
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/03/donald-trump-offers-help-for-terminally-ill-baby-charlie-gard