There is no definitive answer to the question in the title above because the collective choices based on Free Will of man still have not yet been made by the world's population, and because the definition of "human civilization" is multifaceted and subjective.
Some people may claim that human civilization has improved due to technological advancements in every age and they would be correct, and with 5G wireless technology around the corner, that 2019 will be definitely be a new chapter. However, if man were truly civilized, then there would not have been the need for Christ to enter the world to teach man to love his enemies [1] and to love God and neighbor as himself [2].
If love, as taught by Christ, is the sole measure of human civilization, then man has a long ways to go to be truly civilized, and 2019 is probably not going to be any different than all the years before going back to Adam and Eve after their fall. Regardless, man will continue to advance technologically without much concern for the well-being of every single life in the world and of the planet that is sustaining man's precarious existence.
As 2018 nears its twilight, inebriation helps dull the pains of life replacing them with momentary forgetfulness and artificial happiness. After the hangover, reality once again rears its ugly head. Until collective choices are made to stop all conflicts and exploitations of human and natural resources, and to restore the planet to its pristine condition and dignity to every man, woman and child, everywhere, a new chapter in human civilization is not foreseeable in the successive new years no matter how advanced the technological achievements.
Meanwhile, however, there is a life to be grateful for no matter the size of the cross one needs to carry since it is a triumph when one is able to carry it to the end with courage and humility. Life's journey with the cross does not require one to look back but forward even if it is just, for some, being carried only a few steps until the end for it is those last few steps, or just the one final step, that can make a difference. If one cannot change the world, the world will change for the better with every step that is taken with true gratitude and unconditional love.
Although the new year will soon be here, Christmas is still very much a part of this season. A Benedictine monk once told this blogger when he was a high school student that Christmas, celebrating the birth of Christ, starts on Christmas Day. This year's Christmas ends on January 13, 2019 [3], the Feast of the Lord's Baptism [4]. Therefore, it is not too late to end this year of blogging with Feliz Navidad performed by José Feliciano with the Vienna Boys' Choir, recorded in Vienna 2018--the song begins here on You Tube:
https://youtu.be/L-A4Maw6Jn0?t=4989
Wishing all a Blessed Christmas and a Peaceful New Year!
[1] Quoted in part without references: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven." See https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A43-45&version=NIV
[2] Quoted in part without references: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” See https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22%3A36-40&version=NIV
[3] http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/christmas/index.cfm
[4] http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/christmas/christmas-january-13.cfm
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Beyond Christmas, The Nativity Scene, The Carols, The Lights, The Gifts & The Parties
Often in the midst of Christmas celebrations and of seeing the joy in the faces of children opening their gifts, many do not have in their immediate thoughts what occurred after the birth of Christ. Quoted from Matthew 2 without references and notes [1]:
The Visit of the Magi.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem,
saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”
When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet:
‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”
Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.”
After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
The Flight to Egypt.
When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”
Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
The Massacre of the Infants.
When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loud lamentation;
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be consoled,
since they were no more.”
Besides setting aside the thoughts of the long and difficult journey [2] the Holy Family had to make starting in the middle of the night, and of the Blessed Mother protecting Her beloved child while riding a donkey led by Saint Joseph, many also do not care to remember the blood-thirsty Herod, and the people in positions of power who were/are like him who had/have abused power by taking innocent lives and by forcing indirectly the deracination of families, families who had/have for generations lived in their motherland, families with elderly members and small children, families with debilitated loved ones suffering from illnesses, without the least bit of concern whether they lived or died, and whether they were/are able to travel long distances to foreign lands to seek shelter from violence.
Knowing that all kinds of sufferings from the aftermath of such abuses of power are continuing dampens the joy of Christmas. Like in days of Herod, there are people who are sobbing and lamenting. They cannot be heard only because they are out of sight, out of earshot and out of mind.
For those who had/have blocked from their minds by self-serving rationalizations, convenient denials and opportunistic amnesia the deaths and sufferings that they had/have caused, may each one of them look beyond his/her earthly existence and seek pardon from God with absolute and lasting humility, and may God save them from the fires of Hell and lead their souls to Heaven along with those who have most need of God's mercy [3] who harbor ulterior motives, advocating that killing is the key to peace when the Prince of Peace born to the world on Christmas Day had taught those in the world to love their enemies [4].
[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/2, 1-18.
[2] A Google search reveals that the time to walk one-way between the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and Cairo, Egypt, is 147 hours, or approximately 6 days, 24 hours a day without stopping. See Google directions. It is not certain that the Holy Family was ever in the vicinity of Cairo, or if they even stopped long at any one place within Egypt.
[3] Adapted from the Fatima prayer: https://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/hellb2.htm
[4] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A43-44&version=NIV
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
The Vatican Does Something Right!
Quoted below in its entirety is from the "First Dialogue: Promoting Action On The Commitments Of The GCM By His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin Secretary of State of the Holy See" [1]:
Statement of His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin,
Secretary of State of His Holiness Pope Francis and
Head of the Delegation of the Holy See,
at the First Dialogue: “Promoting Action on the Commitments of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,” Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration
Marrakech, Morocco, 10 December 2018
Mr. Chair,In this dialogue, dedicated to promoting action on the commitments of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the Holy See would like to focus above all on two of those commitments, which it considers among the most fundamental and indispensable if the international community is going to respond adequately to the challenges and opportunities we face in front of increased migration flows.The first is the commitment to peace and development. If we are to fulfill our pledge to making migration voluntary and safe, orderly and regular, we must address the root causes of the migratory flows. As is clearly stated in paragraph 13 of the Global Compact, of which the Holy See is proud to be a leading contributor, “We must work together to create conditions that allow communities and individuals to live in safety and dignity in their own countries.” Therefore, adequate responses to the adverse drivers of migration, most especially, violent conflicts and extreme poverty, must be addressed. [Emphasis added.]These solutions should not be considered the responsibility solely of the country of origin. The international community must also assist if we are to be sure that those constrained to flee might remain in their countries of origin in peace and security. Situations of violence, inhumane living conditions, and economic hardship, as well as natural disasters and environmental degradation, affect not only those countries where they arise but also those countries of transit and destination.This is not only a matter of fulfilling commitments to provide international development assistance and humanitarian aid, but also involves the commitment to the integral human development of every individual, providing each person with the basic conditions and opportunities to live a decent life. Few would leave if they had access to jobs, education, health-care and other basic goods and services that are fundamental to every person’s fulfillment and basic well-being. Also essential to stability are the fundamental rights to be able to practise one’s religion freely, without fear of persecution or discrimination, as well as the right to political participation and freedom of expression. These concerns form an integral part of the “the right to remain”. [Emphasis added.]The second commitment is to integration. Those on the move must be welcomed and treated with dignity, even if it is determined later that they must be safely returned to their country of origin. [Emphasis added.]As laid out in the Global Compact on Migration, all migrants regardless of status, should be guaranteed due process and receive an individual assessment that will determine their status. In the case of children and victims of trafficking, such measures are crucial if we are to respond adequately to their needs and be sure that they not find themselves in the very same situation that they sought to leave behind. We must give preference to policies that favour family reunification and prevent their separation throughout the migration process, while working towards ending the practice of detention, particularly of minors.For those who are given regular status and the possibility of remaining in the country of destination, either temporarily or permanently, it is important to emphasize that integration is neither merely assimilation nor incorporation, but a two-way process rooted in the mutual recognition of the fundamental equality and dignity of all. Such an approach will also help to stem the tide of racism and xenophobia. Those who arrive are, as Pope Francis underlines, “duty bound not to close themselves from the culture and traditions of the receiving country, respecting above all its laws.” At the same time, integration “is not the superimposition of one culture over another, nor mutual isolation, with the insidious and dangerous risk of creating ghettos.” It is rather a mutual enrichment based on mutual and interpersonal respect. [Emphasis added.]These two objectives require an urgent response on the part of the international community. As migrations, even mass migrations, are very likely to continue in the coming years, we consider it necessary to widen the regular and sure channels of emigration through generous and responsible policies, inspired by solidarity and co responsibility.Mr. Chair,Peace, development and true integration are fundamental to ensuring the implementation of the Global Compact. Like bookends, these two commitments keep the other commitments upright and orderly, from minimizing the adverse drivers of migration through peace and development to a successful conclusion of the migratory process in the harmonious integration of the migrant in the new homeland.Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Even if this dialog had taken place before 2003, it would likely have fallen on the deaf ears of many with power to kill by means of "shock and awe," [2] including the invasion of Iraq in 2003 [3], bombing of Libya in 2011 [4], missile strike in Syria in 2013 [5], causing the rise of extremists and their persecution of Christians. There are other conflicts around the world [6], whether they began with debilitating pre-emptive strikes with the goal of regime change is beyond the scope of this blog.
For those who played a part in causing so much suffering and so many deaths throughout history, are these words of apology before death "Lord, I'm sorry" enough to open the door to the Kingdom of God? This is not a question man can answer. On the other hand, man is able to answer a different question: will leaders of the world accept and carry out the commitments outlined in the December 10, 2018, dialog quoted above? The words in it bring out the universality of Catholicism, the brotherhood of man and it is this universal brotherhood, uniting all as children under One God, that in this blogger's opinion that will unlock the Gates of Heaven.
The words below [7] are better to end this entry with than this blogger's, quoted without references:
Do you want more and more of God’s kindness and peace? Then learn to know him better and better. For as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life: he even shares his own glory and his own goodness with us! And by that same mighty power he has given us all the other rich and wonderful blessings he promised; for instance, the promise to save us from the lust and rottenness all around us, and to give us his own character.
But to obtain these gifts, you need more than faith; you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough. For then you must learn to know God better and discover what he wants you to do. Next, learn to put aside your own desires so that you will become patient and godly, gladly letting God have his way with you. This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply. The more you go on in this way, the more you will grow strong spiritually and become fruitful and useful to our Lord Jesus Christ. But anyone who fails to go after these additions to faith is blind indeed, or at least very shortsighted and has forgotten that God delivered him from the old life of sin so that now he can live a strong, good life for the Lord.
So, dear brothers, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen, and then you will never stumble or fall away. And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Wishful Thinking: Carbon Tax Problem Solved Instantly
The "Gilet Jaune (Yellow Vest)" riots in Paris and other parts of France have been on-going for some time. On December 11, 2018, CBS News reported that "the mass-protests which have been seized upon by extremists of all stripes for four weeks in a row" would continue, and that "[a] leader of the Yellow Vest movement indicated that the demonstrations would go ahead. Christophe Chalencon, a blacksmith from southern France who has become a leader of the protest movement, told the Reuters news agency that Macron's peace offering was not enough." [1]
The article continue to report that "[t]he crisis began as protests against a planned fuel tax hike (which Macron has abandoned), but quickly mushroomed into a broad and visceral demonstration of anti-government resentment aimed squarely at the president, who is seen by many as being out of touch with the working French." [2]
The previous post mentioned the Amish people for the second time in this blog. The first time was a post dated November 10, 2015, entitled Top Christian Turns Investment Advisor in which this blogger suggested the use of nuclear power to replace fossil fuel, and that people should live like some of the Amish who do not drive cars, as confirmed by britannica.com: "The Old Order Amish shun personal home-based telephones but will occasionally use a communal one. They also eschew automobiles. They ride bicycles and drive horse-drawn buggies instead, though many of them will, on occasion and in emergencies, ride in cars, trains, and buses operated by others." [3]
Sadly, the talk nowadays focuses on "green energy" as if it can be created out of nothing. No matter how "green" the energy is, it has to depend on fossil fuel for its development, and whatever that would be developed would in time need to be replaced. What would be discarded would likely not biodegrade, thus causing toxicity to seep into the ground, contaminating the water supply.
Although "green energy" may appear "green" or environmentally neutral to some, it nonetheless has its share of negatives. One possible reason that "green" energy is called "green" by those who advocate it is because they see the color of money, the US Dollar, which is called the "greenback" [4], notwithstanding the fact that most life-sustaining plants put out leaves that are green in color. If this is the truth, then the proponents of "green energy" probably do not have Mother Nature and the good of mankind but rather how big a business it can be as their primary motive. They also probably do not care for nuclear power because the technology already exists and they would not be able to accumulate wealth in the manner and in the abundance that they would like by developing new proprietary products and sell them at a premium.
However, they are not the ones that ought to be singled out for they are only few in number. It is the rest of the world, those in developed countries (this blogger included) who are reluctant to give up convenience and comfort, the wealthy ones their luxuries, as well as those in developing countries wanting the very things that rely on cheap energy that those in the developed world have enjoyed for so long.
In reality, nobody really cares about clean energy. Everyone cares about money and standards of living. The French "yellow jacket" rioters are no different than anybody else in the world. If people who claim to be environmentalists were truly concerned, they would live like the Old Order Amish and there would be no need for a carbon tax and Macron's problem would be solved, instantly.
If nations were truly concerned, they would stop manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, most of which rely on fossil fuel to operate.
If the leaders of the world, including the pope, are all Old World Amish, it would be foreseeable that planet earth would in time become more and more like the Garden of Eden.
[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paris-riots-france-emmanuel-macron-fails-to-appease-yellow-vest-protesters/
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amish
[4] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/greenback
The article continue to report that "[t]he crisis began as protests against a planned fuel tax hike (which Macron has abandoned), but quickly mushroomed into a broad and visceral demonstration of anti-government resentment aimed squarely at the president, who is seen by many as being out of touch with the working French." [2]
The previous post mentioned the Amish people for the second time in this blog. The first time was a post dated November 10, 2015, entitled Top Christian Turns Investment Advisor in which this blogger suggested the use of nuclear power to replace fossil fuel, and that people should live like some of the Amish who do not drive cars, as confirmed by britannica.com: "The Old Order Amish shun personal home-based telephones but will occasionally use a communal one. They also eschew automobiles. They ride bicycles and drive horse-drawn buggies instead, though many of them will, on occasion and in emergencies, ride in cars, trains, and buses operated by others." [3]
Sadly, the talk nowadays focuses on "green energy" as if it can be created out of nothing. No matter how "green" the energy is, it has to depend on fossil fuel for its development, and whatever that would be developed would in time need to be replaced. What would be discarded would likely not biodegrade, thus causing toxicity to seep into the ground, contaminating the water supply.
Although "green energy" may appear "green" or environmentally neutral to some, it nonetheless has its share of negatives. One possible reason that "green" energy is called "green" by those who advocate it is because they see the color of money, the US Dollar, which is called the "greenback" [4], notwithstanding the fact that most life-sustaining plants put out leaves that are green in color. If this is the truth, then the proponents of "green energy" probably do not have Mother Nature and the good of mankind but rather how big a business it can be as their primary motive. They also probably do not care for nuclear power because the technology already exists and they would not be able to accumulate wealth in the manner and in the abundance that they would like by developing new proprietary products and sell them at a premium.
However, they are not the ones that ought to be singled out for they are only few in number. It is the rest of the world, those in developed countries (this blogger included) who are reluctant to give up convenience and comfort, the wealthy ones their luxuries, as well as those in developing countries wanting the very things that rely on cheap energy that those in the developed world have enjoyed for so long.
In reality, nobody really cares about clean energy. Everyone cares about money and standards of living. The French "yellow jacket" rioters are no different than anybody else in the world. If people who claim to be environmentalists were truly concerned, they would live like the Old Order Amish and there would be no need for a carbon tax and Macron's problem would be solved, instantly.
If nations were truly concerned, they would stop manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, most of which rely on fossil fuel to operate.
If the leaders of the world, including the pope, are all Old World Amish, it would be foreseeable that planet earth would in time become more and more like the Garden of Eden.
[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paris-riots-france-emmanuel-macron-fails-to-appease-yellow-vest-protesters/
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amish
[4] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/greenback
Smart Phones - New gods Of The World
Words spoken by Lizzie below, quoted from an article entitled In Amish Country, the Future Is Calling published by the New York Times on September 15, 2017, describe the world today [1]:
Quoted in part below from britannica.com is a brief history of the Amish Christians in North America [2]:
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/business/amish-technology.html
[2] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amish
“People are treating those phones like they are gods,” she said. “They’re bowing down to it at the table, bowing down to it when they’re walking. Here we say we don’t bow down to idols, and that’s getting dangerously close, I think.”
Quoted in part below from britannica.com is a brief history of the Amish Christians in North America [2]:
Amish, also called Amish Mennonite, member of a Christian group in North America, primarily the Old Order Amish Mennonite Church. The church originated in the late 17th century among followers of Jakob Ammann.
History And Church Structure
Jakob Ammann (c. 1644–c. 1730) was a Mennonite leader whose controversial teachings caused a schism among his coreligionists in Switzerland, Alsace, and southern Germany. Ammann insisted that any excommunicated Mennonite church member should be shunned socially and that anyone who lied should be excommunicated. Following Jesus’ example, he introduced foot washing into the worship service and taught that church members should dress in a uniform manner, that beards should not be trimmed, and that it was wrong to attend services in a state church. Although Ammann sought reconciliation with the Mennonites, he continued to insist that all who had been excommunicated should be avoided, and therefore his attempts at reconciliation failed. Amish communities sprang up in Switzerland, Alsace, Germany, Russia, and Holland, but emigration to North America in the 19th and 20th centuries and assimilation with Mennonite groups gradually eliminated the Amish in Europe.
The Amish began emigrating to North America early in the 18th century; they first settled in eastern Pennsylvania, where a large settlement remains. Schism and disruption occurred after 1850 because of tensions between the “new order” Amish, who accepted social change and technological innovation, and the “old order,” or traditional, Amish, who largely did not. During the next 50 years, about two-thirds of the Amish formed separate, small churches of their own or joined either the Mennonite Church or the General Conference Mennonite Church.
Most traditional Amish are members of the Old Order Amish Mennonite Church. In the early 21st century there were about 250,000 Amish living in more than 200 Old Order Amish settlements in the United States and Canada; the largest were located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas, and others were found in Wisconsin, Maine, Missouri, and Minnesota. Their settlements are divided into church districts, autonomous congregations of about 75 baptized members. If the district becomes much larger, it is again divided, because members meet in each other’s homes. There are no church buildings. Each district has a bishop, two to four preachers, and an elder; but there are no general conferences, mission groups, or cooperative agencies.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/business/amish-technology.html
[2] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amish
Human Rights - Pope Needs To Learn To Point The Finger At Himself
Quoted in part below without references is from a zenit.org article entitled Pope’s Appeal: Human Rights Must Be at Center, Do Not Fear Going Against the Grain, dated December 10, 2018 [1], with this blogger's suggested text in brackets:
[1] https://zenit.org/articles/popes-appeal-human-rights-must-be-at-center-do-not-fear-going-against-the-grain/
"...observing carefully our contemporary societies, numerous contradictions are found that induce us to ask ourselves if the equal dignity of all human beings, solemnly proclaimed 70 years ago, is truly recognized, respected, protected and promoted in every circumstance. Numerous forms of injustice persist today in the world, fueled by reductive anthropological vision and by an economic model founded on profit [together with a religious model founded on power], which doesn’t [don't] hesitate to exploit, to reject and even to kill man [throughout time, recalling the many wars and the Crusades]. While a part of humanity lives in opulence, [including myself and many bishops, priests and brothers,] another part sees its dignity unknown, scorned and trampled and its fundamental rights ignored and violated.
I think, among other things, of the unborn who are denied the right to come to the world; of those that don’t have access to the indispensable means for a fitting life; of all those that are excluded from an adequate education, and who are unjustly deprived of work or constrained to work as slaves; of those that are detained in inhuman conditions, who suffer torture or to whom the possibility is denied of being redeemed; of the victims of forced disappearances and of their families[; of those sexually abused].
My thought also goes to all those that live in an atmosphere dominated by suspicion and contempt, who are the object of acts of intolerance, discrimination and violence by reason of their racial, ethnic, national or religious belonging.
Finally, I cannot but remember all those that suffer multiple violations of their fundamental rights, in the tragic context of armed conflicts, while unscrupulous merchants of death enrich themselves at the price of the blood of their brothers and sisters.
In face of these grave phenomena, we are all called into question. In fact, when fundamental rights are violated, or when some are privileged at the expense of others, or when they are only guaranteed to specific groups [such as the College of Cardinals and their secular equivalent], then grave injustices are verified, which in turn fuel conflicts with heavy consequences, be it within individual Nations [and religious organizations], be it in the relations between [and among] them.
Therefore, each one is called to contribute with courage and determination, in the specificity of one’s own role, to respect the fundamental rights of every person, especially the “invisible” ones, of so many that hunger and thirst, are [abused,] naked, sick, strangers or detained (Cf. Matthew 25:35-36), who live on the margins of society and are rejected [by those with the power and means to help them.]
This exigency of justice and solidarity has special significance for us [deleteus] Christians [who are not hypocrites], because the Gospel itself invites us to turn our gaze to the littlest of our brothers and sisters, to be moved to compassion (Cf. Matthew 14:14) and to commit ourselves concretely [without taking] to alleviate their sufferings.
On this occasion, I wish to make a heartfelt appeal to all those that have institutional responsibilities [including myself], asking them [deletethem] [ourselves] to put human rights at the center of all policies, including those of cooperation for development, even when that means going against the current.
With the hope that these days of reflection may reawaken consciences and inspire initiatives geared to protect and promote human dignity, I entrust each one of you, your families and your peoples to the intercession of Mary Most Holy, Queen of Peace, and I invoke upon all an abundance of divine blessings.
From the Vatican, December 10, 2018
FRANCIS
[1] https://zenit.org/articles/popes-appeal-human-rights-must-be-at-center-do-not-fear-going-against-the-grain/
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Reorganization Of The Vatican City State
This document entitled LEGGE SUL GOVERNO DELLO STATO DELLA CITTA' DEL VATICANO was published in Italian [1] by the Vatican Publishing Library. An option to translate it was provided. The English version says this: LAW ON THE GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF THE VATICAN CITY.
From just scrolling down to the end of the document containing 35 articles without reading any of it, it looks multi-layered, just like any other secular organization, public and private, non-profit and for profit. How did the church that Christ established get so complicated? And this is only for the Vatican City State which does not include all of the other Catholic orders and entities, each with their own structure, rules and regulations.
Christ led a simple life with none of such complications. This blogger cannot imagine God's Truth to be this complicated, nor Christianity to be so splintered. This is not God's doing but man's because man is unwilling to be humble -- each wants his own way, unwilling to compromise, to love his fellow brother. This is not what Christ had taught. Man has not listened to the words of Christ, nor has His servants obeyed these words in John 13, quoted below without references [2]:
The words "one another" had fallen on deaf ears. Clerics seemed to be willing to wash every other person's feet except one another's.
Later in John 17, Jesus prayed to the Father on behalf of His disciples, quoted below without references [3]:
As much as the Father wants to answer His Son's prayer, He yields to man's Free Will. Sadly, man has not always made the right choices. For this reason, Christianity is no longer united and the Catholic Church is not now functioning as a cohesive whole. Every time when Christianity is made to suffer from within and without, Christ's wounds open up and bleed, so that His blood can continuously wash away man's sins. Love cannot be greater than this or more painful.
Today begins the Second week of Advent. Perhaps it is time for man to work a miracle, to truly live the words of Christ, to heal Christ's wounds, led by those called to follow His footsteps, by words and by example, without fear of ridicule and death, for nobody knows when Christ will come again. The words below are quoted without references [4]:
[1] http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/motu_proprio/documents/papa-francesco-20181125_leggegoverno-cittadelvaticano.html
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13&version=NIV, 13-17.
[3] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+17&version=NIV, 13-26.
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/24, 36-39.
From just scrolling down to the end of the document containing 35 articles without reading any of it, it looks multi-layered, just like any other secular organization, public and private, non-profit and for profit. How did the church that Christ established get so complicated? And this is only for the Vatican City State which does not include all of the other Catholic orders and entities, each with their own structure, rules and regulations.
Christ led a simple life with none of such complications. This blogger cannot imagine God's Truth to be this complicated, nor Christianity to be so splintered. This is not God's doing but man's because man is unwilling to be humble -- each wants his own way, unwilling to compromise, to love his fellow brother. This is not what Christ had taught. Man has not listened to the words of Christ, nor has His servants obeyed these words in John 13, quoted below without references [2]:
“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them...” [Emphasis added.]
The words "one another" had fallen on deaf ears. Clerics seemed to be willing to wash every other person's feet except one another's.
Later in John 17, Jesus prayed to the Father on behalf of His disciples, quoted below without references [3]:
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
As much as the Father wants to answer His Son's prayer, He yields to man's Free Will. Sadly, man has not always made the right choices. For this reason, Christianity is no longer united and the Catholic Church is not now functioning as a cohesive whole. Every time when Christianity is made to suffer from within and without, Christ's wounds open up and bleed, so that His blood can continuously wash away man's sins. Love cannot be greater than this or more painful.
Today begins the Second week of Advent. Perhaps it is time for man to work a miracle, to truly live the words of Christ, to heal Christ's wounds, led by those called to follow His footsteps, by words and by example, without fear of ridicule and death, for nobody knows when Christ will come again. The words below are quoted without references [4]:
“But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
In [those] days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark.
They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be [also] at the coming of the Son of Man.
[1] http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/motu_proprio/documents/papa-francesco-20181125_leggegoverno-cittadelvaticano.html
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13&version=NIV, 13-17.
[3] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+17&version=NIV, 13-26.
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/24, 36-39.
Miracle Or Coincidence on October 25, 2018?
This bit of news was saved but was forgotten. It was found among the bookmarks. A painting of Jesus was untouched after a fire burnt down a "150-year old" church, "First Baptist Church in Wakefield, Massachusetts."[1] Below is a photograph of the church after the fire [2]:
Satan Surrogates And Those Demonically Possessed
This entry is also based on conjecture, like the others. Why this blogger comes up with these strange topics he has no clue. Anyway, this one is up next.
There is a difference between those demonically possessed and those who are Satan's surrogates.
Satan's surrogates choose to do Satan's work in accordance with their individual Free Will by finding substitutes for God, and there are a plethora of them, some can be as basic as a mere suggestion as opposed to something that is tangible.
Those demonically possessed, sometimes dramatized by foaming at the mouth, super-human strength, levitation, anger, violent actions and the like, do not act out of Free Will. Evil enters them for one reason or another. During the possession, they seemed to be so consumed by it that they appear to have no ability to devise skillful plans to tempt, defraud and deviate a person's path toward God and turn it toward Satan.
Once the demons are being driven out, those demonically possessed return to a normal life. They do not then act as Satan's minions, assuming they had never chosen freely to do Satan's work. This cannot be said of those who have wilfully chosen to serve Satan, for no exorcist can free one from one's choice to align oneself with Satan regardless of how many exorcisms are performed.
There is a difference between those demonically possessed and those who are Satan's surrogates.
Satan's surrogates choose to do Satan's work in accordance with their individual Free Will by finding substitutes for God, and there are a plethora of them, some can be as basic as a mere suggestion as opposed to something that is tangible.
Those demonically possessed, sometimes dramatized by foaming at the mouth, super-human strength, levitation, anger, violent actions and the like, do not act out of Free Will. Evil enters them for one reason or another. During the possession, they seemed to be so consumed by it that they appear to have no ability to devise skillful plans to tempt, defraud and deviate a person's path toward God and turn it toward Satan.
Once the demons are being driven out, those demonically possessed return to a normal life. They do not then act as Satan's minions, assuming they had never chosen freely to do Satan's work. This cannot be said of those who have wilfully chosen to serve Satan, for no exorcist can free one from one's choice to align oneself with Satan regardless of how many exorcisms are performed.
Satan's Ways
Satan delights in ruining souls. The way Satan ruins a soul is to convince man to exercise his Free Will to extinguish eternal light and proceed toward eternal darkness. Not even the angel seer, having published books and conducted interviews will ever be able to insist that Hell does not exist unless she is already damned and working for Satan by opening the door for people so they could take the path of decent toward Hell.
The blogger's imagination continues. This metaphoric door that is opened does not reveal the true darkness of Hell but is a false hope of eternal light placed into the minds of those willing to believe it. This false hope is similar to false advertising. What is promised is too good to be true and is not true.
Everything Satan touches is replete with deception. Likewise, anything that is false and misleading has Satan behind it. So,what are Satan's ways? Impersonation of God and camouflaging deceit against the background of truth. This is what an article said about the Antichrist which could very well apply equally to the forerunners of the Antichrist [1]:
How does Satan impersonate God? It mocks Christ by showing its diabolical powers, healing those who need it. In the book this blogger is reading [2], the author(s) [3] implied that by her intervention, as directed by the angels she saw, had turned certain people's lives around, making them better. It was so heart-warming to read these stories, believing them to be real and truthful. Whether such healings came from God or Satan this blogger cannot be absolutely sure.
However, on two occasions so far (into the book), having been lulled into a false sense of comfort and security, that sense was shattered. [*] The first occasion was when he read about a dog that had died had been taken to Heaven to wait for the owner, even though the author(s) said that animals do not have souls, in order that the dog could comfort the owner. It is unclear to this blogger whether the comforting of the owner would take place after the owner had died or while the owner was still alive or both. This is the first time that this blogger is aware of that a dead dog could comfort a person, seemingly replacing God, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin, the true Consolers of souls from Heaven. To say that a dead dog can console a person, this cannot be from God. Does the owner of the dog then pray to the dog? Satan would be happy if the dog owner did or if the dog owner had begun to do so after the author and the dog owner had a conversation as directed by the angels she saw.
The second occasion was when the author(s) was (were) on the topic of suicide. She, supported by the angels she saw, had the audacity to state that everyone has the potential to reach a point of desperation, insinuating that everyone has the potential to take one's own life. This is false: those who love and follow God faithfully will never think of committing suicide no matter how depressed. Then immediately, the author(s) stated God's truth, that nobody is supposed to end one's own life. She and the angels must be really scared to say the opposite because God would be very angry since every life is a gift from God and nobody should end it by choice. A few paragraphs later, the author(s) again said that nobody is supposed to take one's own life but then she added that the angels told her that if a person did commit suicide, the person's soul would be enveloped in God's love and taken to Heaven. This statement has the potential to encourage people who are on the verge of committing suicide who are reading these words to actually kill themselves, thus rejecting God's gift of life, God's love for them, thus their souls may not go to Heaven. This blogger prays for those who had killed and would kill themselves from reading the book cited below would be forgiven because of the strong evil forces that could not be overcome.
In summary, Satan's ways are mockery of Christ, pretending to have powers of healing, and camouflaging lies by inserting them against the background of truth. Here is a video of various kinds of camouflages in the animal kingdom, the pigmy seahorse, the reef stonefish, the dead leaf butterfly are this blogger's favorite on this You Tube video [4]
One more speculation: the author of the book cited here had mentioned an angel that has no name and that she could not see but had from time to time instructed her. She could not see it because she was physically immobilized in such a way that she would be unable to turn around to look at it. This does not sound heavenly to this blogger since there is no need for any Heavenly entity to hide in the shadow. If he were to guess the name of this angel, it would be Lucifer. Had the human author been permitted to turn around and see the face of Satan, it would be so frightful that the human author would turn around immediately, face God and pray incessantly for pardon and mercy.
Those deceived by Satan need to be prayed for in order that they see the light, reject Satan and follow God.
[1] https://activechristianity.org/what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-antichrist
[2] Byrne, Lorna. Love From Heaven. Simon & Shuster, Inc. 2014.
[3] The word author has "s" in parenthesis because the blogger is not sure whether there is just the one author who is human or the book is collaborative work between the human author and certain angels.
[*] At this moment, this blogger's plugged-in and fully-charged laptop screen suddenly went dark. What happened? It had to be shut down and re-booted. Is there some energy that does not wish for this blogger to continue? This entry was started last night. After the computer was turned off, a drinking glass broke unexpectedly in the sink while it was being washed, causing a small cut in the little finger. Is this blogger entering into unforbidden territory? He is a bit scared but with prayer, he will continue.
[4] https://youtu.be/q5pQg7e_sac?t=47 (pigmy seahorse), https://youtu.be/q5pQg7e_sac?t=125 (reef stonefish), https://youtu.be/q5pQg7e_sac?t=146 (dead leaf butterfly). Pigmy seahorse photos on google: https://www.google.com/search?q=pygmy+seahorse&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim9eux25PfAhXIIjQIHZ60ArwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1366&bih=657#imgrc=_
The blogger's imagination continues. This metaphoric door that is opened does not reveal the true darkness of Hell but is a false hope of eternal light placed into the minds of those willing to believe it. This false hope is similar to false advertising. What is promised is too good to be true and is not true.
Everything Satan touches is replete with deception. Likewise, anything that is false and misleading has Satan behind it. So,what are Satan's ways? Impersonation of God and camouflaging deceit against the background of truth. This is what an article said about the Antichrist which could very well apply equally to the forerunners of the Antichrist [1]:
The name of Antichrist has been synonymous with evil down through the ages, but the truth is that when he [/she, both and neither] is finally revealed, the majority of people will not recognize him [/her, both and neither] as the Antichrist. He [/She, both and neither] will not appear repellent; on the contrary, he [/she, both and neither] will be someone who is talented, and ambitious to solve the world’s problems.
How does Satan impersonate God? It mocks Christ by showing its diabolical powers, healing those who need it. In the book this blogger is reading [2], the author(s) [3] implied that by her intervention, as directed by the angels she saw, had turned certain people's lives around, making them better. It was so heart-warming to read these stories, believing them to be real and truthful. Whether such healings came from God or Satan this blogger cannot be absolutely sure.
However, on two occasions so far (into the book), having been lulled into a false sense of comfort and security, that sense was shattered. [*] The first occasion was when he read about a dog that had died had been taken to Heaven to wait for the owner, even though the author(s) said that animals do not have souls, in order that the dog could comfort the owner. It is unclear to this blogger whether the comforting of the owner would take place after the owner had died or while the owner was still alive or both. This is the first time that this blogger is aware of that a dead dog could comfort a person, seemingly replacing God, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin, the true Consolers of souls from Heaven. To say that a dead dog can console a person, this cannot be from God. Does the owner of the dog then pray to the dog? Satan would be happy if the dog owner did or if the dog owner had begun to do so after the author and the dog owner had a conversation as directed by the angels she saw.
The second occasion was when the author(s) was (were) on the topic of suicide. She, supported by the angels she saw, had the audacity to state that everyone has the potential to reach a point of desperation, insinuating that everyone has the potential to take one's own life. This is false: those who love and follow God faithfully will never think of committing suicide no matter how depressed. Then immediately, the author(s) stated God's truth, that nobody is supposed to end one's own life. She and the angels must be really scared to say the opposite because God would be very angry since every life is a gift from God and nobody should end it by choice. A few paragraphs later, the author(s) again said that nobody is supposed to take one's own life but then she added that the angels told her that if a person did commit suicide, the person's soul would be enveloped in God's love and taken to Heaven. This statement has the potential to encourage people who are on the verge of committing suicide who are reading these words to actually kill themselves, thus rejecting God's gift of life, God's love for them, thus their souls may not go to Heaven. This blogger prays for those who had killed and would kill themselves from reading the book cited below would be forgiven because of the strong evil forces that could not be overcome.
In summary, Satan's ways are mockery of Christ, pretending to have powers of healing, and camouflaging lies by inserting them against the background of truth. Here is a video of various kinds of camouflages in the animal kingdom, the pigmy seahorse, the reef stonefish, the dead leaf butterfly are this blogger's favorite on this You Tube video [4]
One more speculation: the author of the book cited here had mentioned an angel that has no name and that she could not see but had from time to time instructed her. She could not see it because she was physically immobilized in such a way that she would be unable to turn around to look at it. This does not sound heavenly to this blogger since there is no need for any Heavenly entity to hide in the shadow. If he were to guess the name of this angel, it would be Lucifer. Had the human author been permitted to turn around and see the face of Satan, it would be so frightful that the human author would turn around immediately, face God and pray incessantly for pardon and mercy.
Those deceived by Satan need to be prayed for in order that they see the light, reject Satan and follow God.
[1] https://activechristianity.org/what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-antichrist
[2] Byrne, Lorna. Love From Heaven. Simon & Shuster, Inc. 2014.
[3] The word author has "s" in parenthesis because the blogger is not sure whether there is just the one author who is human or the book is collaborative work between the human author and certain angels.
[*] At this moment, this blogger's plugged-in and fully-charged laptop screen suddenly went dark. What happened? It had to be shut down and re-booted. Is there some energy that does not wish for this blogger to continue? This entry was started last night. After the computer was turned off, a drinking glass broke unexpectedly in the sink while it was being washed, causing a small cut in the little finger. Is this blogger entering into unforbidden territory? He is a bit scared but with prayer, he will continue.
[4] https://youtu.be/q5pQg7e_sac?t=47 (pigmy seahorse), https://youtu.be/q5pQg7e_sac?t=125 (reef stonefish), https://youtu.be/q5pQg7e_sac?t=146 (dead leaf butterfly). Pigmy seahorse photos on google: https://www.google.com/search?q=pygmy+seahorse&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim9eux25PfAhXIIjQIHZ60ArwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1366&bih=657#imgrc=_
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Learning About The Soul
"Your soul has made no mistake. It's only the human self, the human part of you that makes mistakes" were words spoken by Lorna Byrne, the angel seer [1]. Before receiving Holy Communion, the Catholics say this: "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed." [2]
If the soul does not make mistakes, then why does it need to be healed? Lorna Bryne who had said that she was Catholic had not commented on this, so this blogger would have to come up with something to make sense of it.
This blogger thinks that both positions are correct, and he reconciles this seeming contradiction by means of an analogy. He thinks of the human immune system. It always does something to try and heal the body when it is sick. Sometimes, it is successful, sometimes not. When it is successful, the body returns to its healthy state. When it fails, whatever disease takes over and the body dies.
The fact that the body can no longer stay alive does not mean that the immune system had made a mistake. The immune system, perfect in all of its functions and working tirelessly until the body's last breath, simply gives out because whatever that is attacking the body is too powerful for it to overcome.
The immune system can therefore be compared to the soul that is never wrong, and the disease attacking the body can be compared to the human part that makes mistakes, causing sickness. This is not to say that every incurable disease is caused by human mistakes even though an argument can be made that it is. This contention is beyond the scope of this entry.
When a person makes mistakes by sinning, the soul suffers and needs healing. When the immune system has been weakened, it too, needs healing. In either case, neither the soul nor the immune system had made a mistake even though they both need healing from time to time.
Thus, there is no contradiction between Lorna Byrne's position that the soul does not make a mistake and the Catholic Church's position that the soul needs healing. The soul needs healing after it is infected by sin and the only One Who can heal the soul so infected is the Lord. Likewise, the body needs healing after it is exposed to a disease and only the immune system provided by God can bring the body back to health.
[1] https://youtu.be/gRfJR_p3rlg?list=PLlZR1Ck-Cr0wwxA1WzZebqRaLcIp68t-e&t=4694
[2] https://litpress.org/Products/GetSample/3437/9780814634370
If the soul does not make mistakes, then why does it need to be healed? Lorna Bryne who had said that she was Catholic had not commented on this, so this blogger would have to come up with something to make sense of it.
This blogger thinks that both positions are correct, and he reconciles this seeming contradiction by means of an analogy. He thinks of the human immune system. It always does something to try and heal the body when it is sick. Sometimes, it is successful, sometimes not. When it is successful, the body returns to its healthy state. When it fails, whatever disease takes over and the body dies.
The fact that the body can no longer stay alive does not mean that the immune system had made a mistake. The immune system, perfect in all of its functions and working tirelessly until the body's last breath, simply gives out because whatever that is attacking the body is too powerful for it to overcome.
The immune system can therefore be compared to the soul that is never wrong, and the disease attacking the body can be compared to the human part that makes mistakes, causing sickness. This is not to say that every incurable disease is caused by human mistakes even though an argument can be made that it is. This contention is beyond the scope of this entry.
When a person makes mistakes by sinning, the soul suffers and needs healing. When the immune system has been weakened, it too, needs healing. In either case, neither the soul nor the immune system had made a mistake even though they both need healing from time to time.
Thus, there is no contradiction between Lorna Byrne's position that the soul does not make a mistake and the Catholic Church's position that the soul needs healing. The soul needs healing after it is infected by sin and the only One Who can heal the soul so infected is the Lord. Likewise, the body needs healing after it is exposed to a disease and only the immune system provided by God can bring the body back to health.
[1] https://youtu.be/gRfJR_p3rlg?list=PLlZR1Ck-Cr0wwxA1WzZebqRaLcIp68t-e&t=4694
[2] https://litpress.org/Products/GetSample/3437/9780814634370
Friday, December 7, 2018
UPDATED: Disturbing Thoughts: Lorna Byrne - Who Is She?
"Does Purgatory Exist?" was a post published yesterday, December 7, 2018. These were the concluding words: "... the Truth is for God to know and not this blogger to conclude." They may prove to be somewhat prophetic since Lorna Byrne could very well be a false prophetess, according to a blog post entitled "Lorna Byrne - False Prophetess?" [1] If she is a false prophetess, then this blogger was misled, for he had written these words that began the first part of the conclusion: "...this blogger prefers to believe Lorna Byrne than the saints in the article cited who spoke of Purgatory..."
The more this blogger thinks about what Lorna Byrne had said, the more his interior peace is being troubled, despite the many things she had said were comforting, as well as some that were consistent with this blogger's own knowledge and experience. Her statement on reincarnation was disturbing [2] and so was her blessing of members of the audience seen on a You Tube video. Before the blessing she said this [3]: "And after my death, you will know all about the blessing 'cause the letter has already been written (then the translation, then she continued) it's all good (and she laughed)..." When this blogger heard this, it sacred him. Before saying this, she said that God had said that it was your free will to come (forward for a blessing) or not. By including this statement which is true since it is always a person's choice to choose to remain with God or go with Satan. This blogger would never let her bless him because he would be afraid what kind of words she was reciting in silence which could be some kind of demonic incantation.
Perhaps Purgatory does exist after all! It does not matter if one knows for sure so long as one tries his/her best to do good in accordance with the teachings of Christ.
If Lorna Byrne's is being used by the dark side, does that mean that the end is beginning, when the world begins to see forerunners of the Antichrist? There was another interesting exchange. Lorna Byrne was asked if she had recently met the Queen of Angels [4] together with a second question. She avoided answering the first question directly which was disturbing since the Queen of Angels is the Mother of God, the Woman that crushes the Serpent's head and by not answering the question, Lorna Byrne seemed to be afraid of Her as Satan is afraid of Her.
Miraculously, another person from the audience asked if she had met the Virgin Mary [5] to which she referred to one of her books, and she said in her book she had written that she had seen Her but had to ask who She was since she was a child on a swing. Most visionaries who had seen the Blessed Mother would comment on Her beauty but Lorna Byrne did not seem to care to elaborate further which is uncharateristic of her, and unlike her answers to some questions to which she was happy to spend a long time answering including describing in detail what some of the angels were wearing and how they had appeared to her but not the Queen of Angels Who did not seem to interest Lorna Byrne in the least. There appeared to be some distance between her and the Blessed Virgin Mary which could mean that Lorna Byrne is afraid of Her.
Who is Lorna Byrne? Is she a messenger from Heaven or from Hell?
[1] http://lornabyrne.blogspot.com/p/lorna-byrne-false-prophetess.html
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://youtu.be/gRfJR_p3rlg?list=PLlZR1Ck-Cr0wwxA1WzZebqRaLcIp68t-e&t=6342
[4] https://youtu.be/SdNEUPlSdpA?list=PLlZR1Ck-Cr0wwxA1WzZebqRaLcIp68t-e&t=5870
[5] https://youtu.be/SdNEUPlSdpA?list=PLlZR1Ck-Cr0wwxA1WzZebqRaLcIp68t-e&t=6306
The more this blogger thinks about what Lorna Byrne had said, the more his interior peace is being troubled, despite the many things she had said were comforting, as well as some that were consistent with this blogger's own knowledge and experience. Her statement on reincarnation was disturbing [2] and so was her blessing of members of the audience seen on a You Tube video. Before the blessing she said this [3]: "And after my death, you will know all about the blessing 'cause the letter has already been written (then the translation, then she continued) it's all good (and she laughed)..." When this blogger heard this, it sacred him. Before saying this, she said that God had said that it was your free will to come (forward for a blessing) or not. By including this statement which is true since it is always a person's choice to choose to remain with God or go with Satan. This blogger would never let her bless him because he would be afraid what kind of words she was reciting in silence which could be some kind of demonic incantation.
Perhaps Purgatory does exist after all! It does not matter if one knows for sure so long as one tries his/her best to do good in accordance with the teachings of Christ.
If Lorna Byrne's is being used by the dark side, does that mean that the end is beginning, when the world begins to see forerunners of the Antichrist? There was another interesting exchange. Lorna Byrne was asked if she had recently met the Queen of Angels [4] together with a second question. She avoided answering the first question directly which was disturbing since the Queen of Angels is the Mother of God, the Woman that crushes the Serpent's head and by not answering the question, Lorna Byrne seemed to be afraid of Her as Satan is afraid of Her.
Miraculously, another person from the audience asked if she had met the Virgin Mary [5] to which she referred to one of her books, and she said in her book she had written that she had seen Her but had to ask who She was since she was a child on a swing. Most visionaries who had seen the Blessed Mother would comment on Her beauty but Lorna Byrne did not seem to care to elaborate further which is uncharateristic of her, and unlike her answers to some questions to which she was happy to spend a long time answering including describing in detail what some of the angels were wearing and how they had appeared to her but not the Queen of Angels Who did not seem to interest Lorna Byrne in the least. There appeared to be some distance between her and the Blessed Virgin Mary which could mean that Lorna Byrne is afraid of Her.
Who is Lorna Byrne? Is she a messenger from Heaven or from Hell?
[1] http://lornabyrne.blogspot.com/p/lorna-byrne-false-prophetess.html
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://youtu.be/gRfJR_p3rlg?list=PLlZR1Ck-Cr0wwxA1WzZebqRaLcIp68t-e&t=6342
[4] https://youtu.be/SdNEUPlSdpA?list=PLlZR1Ck-Cr0wwxA1WzZebqRaLcIp68t-e&t=5870
[5] https://youtu.be/SdNEUPlSdpA?list=PLlZR1Ck-Cr0wwxA1WzZebqRaLcIp68t-e&t=6306
"Love Yourself"
"Love yourself" is a concept that is somewhat foreign to this blogger, but he is now trying to teach himself how it is done. He has a long ways to go to know what loving oneself means and how love of oneself is supposed to feel like.
He had heard people talk about it before but rejected it because he knew better due to pride. He believed that one does not exist to love oneself in this world but to give of oneself, otherwise it would be selfishness, that God does not like selfish people and that one needs to be like the self-sacrificial Christ.
Of course, he had never been able to be like Christ. In that sense, he might know what self-love is due to his unwillingness to make sacrifices. On second thought, one can make sacrifices without any love when sacrifices become routine obligations that need to be fulfilled, when consecrations of bread and wine are done without putting one's heart and faith into it because it has become repetitive and mechanical (not that this ever happens -- just a random thought).
Many a times posts in this blog included the two most important commandments, quoted again below in part without references [1]:
Speaking subjectively, the first commandment above is easier to follow relative to the second, not that it alone by itself is easy to follow at all. It is the second that is so hard to follow that makes the first one look easy. This blogger had never truly understood the second greatest commandment until now, realizing that its operative words are not just to "love your neighbor" but to "love your neighbor as yourself." Thus, if one does not love or know how to love oneself, how is one able to love one's neighbor as oneself?
To read "self-sacrifice" into the second most important commandment is to re-write it this way: You shall sacrifice yourself for your neighbor. If this is what Christ wants, He would have used the word "sacrifice" but He chose to use the word "love" instead.
While this is being composed, these thoughts came to mind: Christ had sacrificed Himself on the cross for the remission of sins. This had to take place for God to show how much God loves man even though man had sinned and continues to sin. Love therefore precedes sacrifice.
If love had been reciprocated in the Garden of Eden by Eve and Adam, then there would not have been the need for a sacrifice. This is contradicted by a certain school of thought that Christ's sacrifice was not a plan B, but rather a plan A from the very beginning. This blogger disagrees because plan A was perfect, with God giving man his Free Will.
With Free Will comes a risk, the risk of disobedience by refusing to resist temptation, by not choosing to love God but rather to be like God. It was the perfect Plan A with Free Will formed out of love that had given rise to Plan B, also formed out of love, in order than man's sins can be be wiped clean. Plan B was not a fix for Plan A that went awry: it was man who had gone astray, not God's mistake in Plan A, that Plan B had to come into existence.
Man's refusal to love God so pained God that God had to heal that pain through love, a love like no other, by incarnating His only Son so that God can be loved perfectly, and it is only this perfect love, through perfect obedience, tested by temptations and endured with sufferings, that can heal.
Love, therefore cannot be equated with sacrifice. Love is greater than that. Self-sacrifice is a part of love, not love in its entirety. Love also embodies compassion, forgiveness and everything that is pure and good that comes from God. Every person has the ability to love another but in order to give the gift of love, one has to know how to love and what it is like to be loved.
Loving purely is innate. Some have been hurt when they were children, some even as adults. Ironically, the withholding of love is not the antidote to pain; it is by loving purely (again) that reduces the hurt.
Therefore, this blogger thinks that this is what Christ wants all to do: to love God first, then love yourself, and then love your neighbor as yourself, in that order.
[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22, 36-39.
He had heard people talk about it before but rejected it because he knew better due to pride. He believed that one does not exist to love oneself in this world but to give of oneself, otherwise it would be selfishness, that God does not like selfish people and that one needs to be like the self-sacrificial Christ.
Of course, he had never been able to be like Christ. In that sense, he might know what self-love is due to his unwillingness to make sacrifices. On second thought, one can make sacrifices without any love when sacrifices become routine obligations that need to be fulfilled, when consecrations of bread and wine are done without putting one's heart and faith into it because it has become repetitive and mechanical (not that this ever happens -- just a random thought).
Many a times posts in this blog included the two most important commandments, quoted again below in part without references [1]:
“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.
Speaking subjectively, the first commandment above is easier to follow relative to the second, not that it alone by itself is easy to follow at all. It is the second that is so hard to follow that makes the first one look easy. This blogger had never truly understood the second greatest commandment until now, realizing that its operative words are not just to "love your neighbor" but to "love your neighbor as yourself." Thus, if one does not love or know how to love oneself, how is one able to love one's neighbor as oneself?
To read "self-sacrifice" into the second most important commandment is to re-write it this way: You shall sacrifice yourself for your neighbor. If this is what Christ wants, He would have used the word "sacrifice" but He chose to use the word "love" instead.
While this is being composed, these thoughts came to mind: Christ had sacrificed Himself on the cross for the remission of sins. This had to take place for God to show how much God loves man even though man had sinned and continues to sin. Love therefore precedes sacrifice.
If love had been reciprocated in the Garden of Eden by Eve and Adam, then there would not have been the need for a sacrifice. This is contradicted by a certain school of thought that Christ's sacrifice was not a plan B, but rather a plan A from the very beginning. This blogger disagrees because plan A was perfect, with God giving man his Free Will.
With Free Will comes a risk, the risk of disobedience by refusing to resist temptation, by not choosing to love God but rather to be like God. It was the perfect Plan A with Free Will formed out of love that had given rise to Plan B, also formed out of love, in order than man's sins can be be wiped clean. Plan B was not a fix for Plan A that went awry: it was man who had gone astray, not God's mistake in Plan A, that Plan B had to come into existence.
Man's refusal to love God so pained God that God had to heal that pain through love, a love like no other, by incarnating His only Son so that God can be loved perfectly, and it is only this perfect love, through perfect obedience, tested by temptations and endured with sufferings, that can heal.
Love, therefore cannot be equated with sacrifice. Love is greater than that. Self-sacrifice is a part of love, not love in its entirety. Love also embodies compassion, forgiveness and everything that is pure and good that comes from God. Every person has the ability to love another but in order to give the gift of love, one has to know how to love and what it is like to be loved.
Loving purely is innate. Some have been hurt when they were children, some even as adults. Ironically, the withholding of love is not the antidote to pain; it is by loving purely (again) that reduces the hurt.
Therefore, this blogger thinks that this is what Christ wants all to do: to love God first, then love yourself, and then love your neighbor as yourself, in that order.
[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22, 36-39.
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Does Purgatory Exist?
Quoted below is The Council of Trent's first decree concerning purgatory [1]:
CONCERNING PURGATORY
FIRST DECREE
Began on the third, and terminated on the fourth, day of December, MDLXIII., being the ninth and last under the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius IV.
Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has, from the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, taught, in sacred councils, and very recently in this oecumenical Synod, that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls there detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar; the holy Synod enjoins on bishops that they diligently endeavour that the sound doctrine concerning Purgatory, transmitted by the holy Fathers and sacred councils, be believed, maintained, taught, and every where proclaimed by the faithful of Christ. But let the more difficult and subtle questions, and which tend not to edification, and from which for the most part there is no increase of piety, be excluded from popular discourses before the uneducated multitude. In like manner, such things as are uncertain, or which labour under an appearance of error, let them not allow to be made public and treated of. While those things which tend to a certain kind of curiosity or superstition, or which savour of filthy lucre, let them prohibit as scandals and stumbling-blocks of the faithful. But let the bishops take care, that the suffrages of the faithful who are living, to wit the sacrifices of masses, prayers, alms, and other works of piety, which have been wont to be performed by the faithful for the other faithful departed, be piously and devoutly performed, in accordance with the institutes of the church; and that whatsoever is due on their behalf, from the endowments of testators, or in other way, be discharged, not in a perfunctory manner, but diligently and accurately, by the priests and ministers of the church, and others who are bound to render this (service).
If Purgatory is truly a place God created, then there should be no fear that people talk about it and question it. Yet, the Catholic Church wants to silence this discussion by these words from the passage quoted above [2]:
But let the more difficult and subtle questions, and which tend not to edification, and from which for the most part there is no increase of piety, be excluded from popular discourses before the uneducated multitude. In like manner, such things as are uncertain, or which labour under an appearance of error, let them not allow to be made public and treated of.
That is just the first decree. It goes on and on. Scrolling further down one reads this, quoted in part [3]:
ON REFORMATION
EIGHTH DECREE
CHAPTER I.
Cardinals and all Prelates of the churches shall be content with modest furniture and a frugal table: they shall not enrich their relatives or domestics out of the property of the Church.
One can easily doubt that every single Cardinal and all the Prelates (including the ancient "holy fathers") are (were) honestly and truly satisfied with "modest furniture and a frugal table" with no desire whatsoever and resisting all temptations to have nicer furnishings and better tables.
There is a strong likelihood that clerical modesty and frugality are mere theoretical constructs with little basis in reality. One only needs to look at the opulence displayed at the palazzo in Castel Gandolfo [4] for confirmation.
Perhaps the Holy Spirit did instruct the Catholic Church to decree the existence of Purgatory, in order to cleanse the sins of the clerics, because their hypocrisies cannot be washed clean by the Blood of Christ even though priests say something like this at every Mass: "...This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for many so that sins may be forgiven..." Apparently, the Blood of Christ not enough to cleanse sins in this life. There has to be a backup called Purgatory in the next, according to the Catholic Church.
If one still has questions about the existence of Purgatory, there is an article on it entitled "3 Sobering Visions of Purgatory from the Saints" that one can read. [5] Of these three alleged visions, this comment by Maria Faustyna Kowalska is most astonishing [6]:
“I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in purgatory. The souls call her ‘The Star of the Sea.’ She brings them refreshment. I wanted to talk with them some more, but my guardian angel beckoned me to leave. We went out of that prison of suffering. [I heard an interior voice, which said] ‘My mercy does not want this, but justice demands it. Since that time I am in closer communion with the suffering souls.’” (Diary of St. Faustina 20)
Maria Faustyna Kowalska stated that the Mother of God brought "refreshment" to souls in Purgatory. She did not say what kind of "refreshment" the Blessed Virgin Mary brought. Do souls which are spirits need refreshment? Can they consume refreshment like those who are still living? Are souls in Purgatory not supposed to suffer in order that "justice" be served? If so, why would the Blessed Mother bring "refreshment" to alleviate the suffering of souls in Purgatory? Would that not be considered as an obstruction of Divine Justice? If not, then that would mean that Divine Love can overcome Divine Justice which would eliminate the need for Purgatory. Incidentally, is it not St. Faustina who spoke of Divine Mercy? Why then did it occur to her that during her purgatorial vision she heard "justice demands it"? Which is true: Divine Mercy or Divine Justice?
Both Maria Faustyna Kowalska and Lidwina of Schiedam mentioned in the article cited above heard from their respective guardian angel. Fast forward to today, to the angel seer of the present, Lorna Byrne who, on a You Tube video that took place in the Czech Republic, said that God had never shown her Purgatory and that perhaps it did not exist. She also filled in a lot more detail which is better watched and listened to [7] than reading about them here.
In conclusion, this blogger prefers to believe Lorna Byrne than the saints in the article cited who spoke of Purgatory, but then the Truth is for God to know and not this blogger to conclude.
[1] http://www.thecounciloftrent.com/ch25.htm
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3859590/See-Pope-lives-just-not-one-Luxurious-Papal-apartments-opened-public-time-Francis-refused-stay-plush.html
[5] https://aleteia.org/2013/11/01/3-sobering-visions-of-purgatory-from-the-saints/
[6] Ibid.
[7] https://youtu.be/gRfJR_p3rlg?list=PLlZR1Ck-Cr0wwxA1WzZebqRaLcIp68t-e&t=4659
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Is It Possible To Talk About God Without Defining, Confining And Playing God?
This is the most difficult question this blogger has asked and the most difficult one to answer so far. Before starting this entry, this blogger admits that he had in many instances been self-righteous in thinking that the conclusions he had drawn were at least reasonable. He could not have been more wrong, particularly with respect to conclusions about God, the Son of God, the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin Mary. For his errors, he asks for understanding and pardon.
Yet, if he were truly repentant, he would delete the blog. For some reason, he is reluctant to do so, regardless of the errors he had made and will continue to make. Such conduct, one can assume, showcases pride, Satan's favorite sin.
To answer the question posed by the title of this entry, the answer is no: it is not possible to talk about God without defining, confining and playing God. If God is not being talked about, would God be then moved from the forefront of one's mind to parts that are reserved for things that are irrelevant and that one would rather forget?
So which is the lesser of two evils: to not talk about God or to speak on behalf of God and thus playing God? Is this question ever asked and answered by the Apostles, the saints (exempting those whom had been chosen specifically to have actual visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and/or Her Son, Jesus to convey messages to the world), the popes and the clerics? What about the preachers of other religions who talk about God? Are all of them not putting words in God's mouth and playing God?
Is God so predictable that God cannot act beyond those words that are written by man? Does God not have Free Will, and can God not change His mind? God chose the Jews in the beginning, then when the Son of God came, did He not heal a Samaritan along with the Jews [1], did He not speak with a Samaritan woman [2] and did he not heal a Cannanite's woman's daughter [3]?
If God cannot be defined or confined, then who and what religion can speak definitively for God?
On what grounds can the Catholic Church claim that every single one of its doctrines is inspired by the Holy Spirit and is therefore from God? Even something as basic as the Mass, there are differences between the Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo [4]. Without uniformity, how can the Catholic Church consider itself universal?
Perhaps it does not make any difference whether there is uniformity within the Catholic Church or if the church is even Catholic, so long as one has absolute faith in God and has in the forefront of one's mind God, and strives to be holy always and love purely without ulterior motives, and examines one's conscience often, calling to mind one's failures and asking God for pardon.
On the other hand, maybe one is permitted to play God, unless these words were not really the words of Christ but put together by power-seeking sinners: “'The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.'” [5] And these too: "'Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.'" [6]
With so many conflicting positions within the Catholic hierarchy today, whose words are correct and heard and bound in Heaven? To separate the words that are bound in Heaven from the actions taken on earth in contradiction to those words comes under the heading of hypocrisy, a topic Christ Himself addressed [7].
Perhaps the answer to the question who can speak for God asked earlier is this: "You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers." [8]
[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+17%3A11-19&version=NIV
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4%3A1-42&version=NIV
[3] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+15%3A21-28&version=NIV
[4] https://www.thoughtco.com/traditional-latin-mass-vs-novus-ordo-542961
[5] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10%3A16&version=ESV
[6] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+18%3A18&version=DRA
[7] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew23:6, also https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+23&version=NIV
[8] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew23:6, at 8.
Yet, if he were truly repentant, he would delete the blog. For some reason, he is reluctant to do so, regardless of the errors he had made and will continue to make. Such conduct, one can assume, showcases pride, Satan's favorite sin.
To answer the question posed by the title of this entry, the answer is no: it is not possible to talk about God without defining, confining and playing God. If God is not being talked about, would God be then moved from the forefront of one's mind to parts that are reserved for things that are irrelevant and that one would rather forget?
So which is the lesser of two evils: to not talk about God or to speak on behalf of God and thus playing God? Is this question ever asked and answered by the Apostles, the saints (exempting those whom had been chosen specifically to have actual visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and/or Her Son, Jesus to convey messages to the world), the popes and the clerics? What about the preachers of other religions who talk about God? Are all of them not putting words in God's mouth and playing God?
Is God so predictable that God cannot act beyond those words that are written by man? Does God not have Free Will, and can God not change His mind? God chose the Jews in the beginning, then when the Son of God came, did He not heal a Samaritan along with the Jews [1], did He not speak with a Samaritan woman [2] and did he not heal a Cannanite's woman's daughter [3]?
If God cannot be defined or confined, then who and what religion can speak definitively for God?
On what grounds can the Catholic Church claim that every single one of its doctrines is inspired by the Holy Spirit and is therefore from God? Even something as basic as the Mass, there are differences between the Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo [4]. Without uniformity, how can the Catholic Church consider itself universal?
Perhaps it does not make any difference whether there is uniformity within the Catholic Church or if the church is even Catholic, so long as one has absolute faith in God and has in the forefront of one's mind God, and strives to be holy always and love purely without ulterior motives, and examines one's conscience often, calling to mind one's failures and asking God for pardon.
On the other hand, maybe one is permitted to play God, unless these words were not really the words of Christ but put together by power-seeking sinners: “'The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.'” [5] And these too: "'Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.'" [6]
With so many conflicting positions within the Catholic hierarchy today, whose words are correct and heard and bound in Heaven? To separate the words that are bound in Heaven from the actions taken on earth in contradiction to those words comes under the heading of hypocrisy, a topic Christ Himself addressed [7].
Perhaps the answer to the question who can speak for God asked earlier is this: "You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers." [8]
[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+17%3A11-19&version=NIV
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4%3A1-42&version=NIV
[3] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+15%3A21-28&version=NIV
[4] https://www.thoughtco.com/traditional-latin-mass-vs-novus-ordo-542961
[5] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10%3A16&version=ESV
[6] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+18%3A18&version=DRA
[7] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew23:6, also https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+23&version=NIV
[8] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew23:6, at 8.
Monday, November 19, 2018
Conference Of Bishops In Baltimore 2018
Quoted from Catholic News Agency in an article entitled Cupich and Wuerl collaborated on alternative sex abuse proposal dated November 16, 2018 [1]:
It has become clear that the Catholic Church prefers to do its own dirty laundry, assuming that it gets around to doing it in the first place, rather than sending it out to the cleaners for fear that they will uncover so much dirt that cannot be removed easily.
That Catholic Church has shown that it is no different from any other non-religious institution that has for its primary objective which is the need for self-preservation in order to continue to operate as an on-going concern without regard to those for whom it exists to serve.
The Church for which God sacrificed His only Son is not this Catholic Church which is mired in scandals and politics and run by hypocrites and unholy men who show no signs of humility and poverty and no interest in spending time to "lead the souls entrusted to their care toward an intimate relationship with the Lord." [2] If their souls are not already dammed, may they waste no time in seeking forgiveness and mercy through repentence and supplication before God while restoring the Catholic Church that Christ by His crucifixion, death and resurrection had raised in three days. [3]
[1] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cupich-and-wuerl-collaborated-on-alternative-sex-abuse-proposal-10934
[2] https://docplayer.net/23867774-The-rosary-of-the-seven-sorrows-of-our-lady.html, section 9; also at https://www.companionscross.org/sites/default/files/file-attachments/The%20Rosary%20of%20the%20Seven%20Sorrows%20of%20Our%20lady_edited.pdf, 9th page
[3] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/2, paragraph 19.
The conference’s proposed plan would have established an independent lay-led commission to investigate allegations against bishops. The Cupich-Wuerl plan would instead send allegations against bishops to be investigated by their metropolitan archbishops, along with archdiocesan review boards. Metropolitans themselves would be investigated by their senior suffragan bishops.
It has become clear that the Catholic Church prefers to do its own dirty laundry, assuming that it gets around to doing it in the first place, rather than sending it out to the cleaners for fear that they will uncover so much dirt that cannot be removed easily.
That Catholic Church has shown that it is no different from any other non-religious institution that has for its primary objective which is the need for self-preservation in order to continue to operate as an on-going concern without regard to those for whom it exists to serve.
The Church for which God sacrificed His only Son is not this Catholic Church which is mired in scandals and politics and run by hypocrites and unholy men who show no signs of humility and poverty and no interest in spending time to "lead the souls entrusted to their care toward an intimate relationship with the Lord." [2] If their souls are not already dammed, may they waste no time in seeking forgiveness and mercy through repentence and supplication before God while restoring the Catholic Church that Christ by His crucifixion, death and resurrection had raised in three days. [3]
[1] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cupich-and-wuerl-collaborated-on-alternative-sex-abuse-proposal-10934
[2] https://docplayer.net/23867774-The-rosary-of-the-seven-sorrows-of-our-lady.html, section 9; also at https://www.companionscross.org/sites/default/files/file-attachments/The%20Rosary%20of%20the%20Seven%20Sorrows%20of%20Our%20lady_edited.pdf, 9th page
[3] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/2, paragraph 19.
Sunday, November 18, 2018
"Good works don’t make the news"
Quoted from Catholic.net [1]:
The good works of the Church that "is manifested in the Eucharist and in good works" are not in the news because Bergoglio himself does not bring them to the forefront. Bergoglio seems to be mostly preoccupied with political matters both internal and external and obsessed with power, relegating the Eucharist, the Church and the true Word of God to the sidelines. Thus, it is no surprise that the article cited has this caption: "Good works don't make the news."
[1] http://catholic.net/op/articles/5150/martyrdom-doesnt-make-the-news.html
[2] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/mass-casa-santa-marta/2018-11/pope-francis-homily-daily-mass-martyrdom-does-not-make-news.html
At Mass at the Casa Santa Marta [on or about "15 November 2018" [2]], the Pope comments on the day’s Gospel, saying that the Church is made manifest “in the Eucharist and in good works.” [Emphasis original.]
The Church grows “in simplicity, in silence, in praise, in the Eucharistic sacrifice, in fraternal community, where all are loved,” and none are rejected. That was the message of Pope Francis during the daily Mass celebrated in the chapel at Casa Santa Marta. Commenting on the day’s Gospel (Lk 17:20-25), the Pope said that the Kingdom of God “is not spectacular,” and that it grows in silence. [Emphasis original.]
Good works don’t make the news
The Church, he said, is manifested “in the Eucharist and in good works,” even if they don’t “make the news.” The Bride of Christ has a temperament given to silence; she produces fruit “without making a fuss,” without “sounding the trumpet, like the Pharisees”: [Emphasis original.]
...
The good works of the Church that "is manifested in the Eucharist and in good works" are not in the news because Bergoglio himself does not bring them to the forefront. Bergoglio seems to be mostly preoccupied with political matters both internal and external and obsessed with power, relegating the Eucharist, the Church and the true Word of God to the sidelines. Thus, it is no surprise that the article cited has this caption: "Good works don't make the news."
[1] http://catholic.net/op/articles/5150/martyrdom-doesnt-make-the-news.html
[2] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/mass-casa-santa-marta/2018-11/pope-francis-homily-daily-mass-martyrdom-does-not-make-news.html
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Catholic Church Sex Scandals In France
punch.com reported on October 22, 2018, as follows [1]:
About a month earlier, on September 20, 2018, New Strait Times reported as follows [2]:
Catholic churches in France, a country where so many saints came from are apparently not exempt from sex scandals, and based on the reports, apparently not all sex scandals are homosexual even though the majority of them in the news are homosexual.
Can one therefore conclude reasonably that homosexuals are more sexually active than heterosexuals? Probably not because priests are sexual beings regardless of whether one is homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual. Perhaps the reason why there are more homosexual scandals in the Catholic Church is because the majority of clerics are gay. If, however, the majority of the clerics are straight, then there would likely be many more girls and young women who would be molested and raped than boys and young men.
A cleric's inability to remain chaste is not a function of sexual orientation but is dependent on the cleric's ability to control his sexual impulses. One's inability to curtail one's sexual drive is not limited to clerics (straight, gay or bi) but is common among men, not just those who are famous, powerful and wealthy.
[1] https://punchng.com/priest-commits-suicide-after-abuse-claims/
[2] https://www.nst.com.my/world/2018/09/413090/french-priest-commits-suicide-church-over-accusation-molesting
A priest in central France accused of sexually assaulting a minor committed suicide in his church, Catholic authorities said Monday, the second French priest to take his life over abuse claims in a month.
Pierre-Yves Fumery, 38, hanged himself in his presbytery in the town of Gien in the Loire valley. His body was found on Saturday.
....
Orleans bishop Jacques Blaquart, whose diocese includes Gien, called it a “moment of suffering and a tragic ordeal”.
Blaquart said some members of Fumery’s parish had brought attention to the priest’s “inappropriate behaviour” towards children aged 13, 14 and 15, including a girl “that he took in his arms and drove home several times.”
About a month earlier, on September 20, 2018, New Strait Times reported as follows [2]:
RENNES: A 38-year-old French priest in a northern French town committed suicide in his church after being accused of molesting a young woman, local prosecutors and police sources told AFP on Wednesday.
Jean-Baptiste Sebe killed himself Tuesday in the church north of Rouen amid allegations from a local mother that her grown-up daughter had been a victim of “indecent behaviour and sexual assault,” a police source said.
Catholic churches in France, a country where so many saints came from are apparently not exempt from sex scandals, and based on the reports, apparently not all sex scandals are homosexual even though the majority of them in the news are homosexual.
Can one therefore conclude reasonably that homosexuals are more sexually active than heterosexuals? Probably not because priests are sexual beings regardless of whether one is homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual. Perhaps the reason why there are more homosexual scandals in the Catholic Church is because the majority of clerics are gay. If, however, the majority of the clerics are straight, then there would likely be many more girls and young women who would be molested and raped than boys and young men.
A cleric's inability to remain chaste is not a function of sexual orientation but is dependent on the cleric's ability to control his sexual impulses. One's inability to curtail one's sexual drive is not limited to clerics (straight, gay or bi) but is common among men, not just those who are famous, powerful and wealthy.
[1] https://punchng.com/priest-commits-suicide-after-abuse-claims/
[2] https://www.nst.com.my/world/2018/09/413090/french-priest-commits-suicide-church-over-accusation-molesting
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Suggested Read: Theodore McCarrick, Donald Wuerl & The Papal Foundation
Written by Matthew B.O'Brien, a publication entitled THE PAPAL FOUNDATION & MCCARRICK’S CONFLICT OF INTEREST reads like a fiction filled with intrigue [1].
[1] https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/09/the-papal-foundation-mccarricks-conflict-of-interest
[1] https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/09/the-papal-foundation-mccarricks-conflict-of-interest
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Truth & Evidence - Viganò's Third Letter
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò's third letter was reviewed by americamagazine.org in an article entitled In third letter Viganò repeats accusations but offers no new evidence on McCarrick case [1]. The entirety of the letter is published by lifesitenews.com in an article entitled Archbishop Viganò issues third testimony, refutes accusations of Cardinal Ouellet [2] in which Archbishop Viganò specifically said, "Let me restate the key points of my testimony," [3] key words that americamagazine.org failed to mention in its article.
Archbishop Viganò's third letter was a continuing dialogue between him and those who in the Catholic hierarchy subservient to Bergoglio. It was never intended to introduce new evidence. The conclusion that this third letter repeats the first without presenting new evidence misses the point, the point being that evidence so difficult to obtain in this world is not the case before God.
Before God one does not need to offer documents or testimony to prove the truth. God knows everything. From God one cannot run or hide. One can do nothing but tremble (this blogger had experienced this once -- it was absolute fear in full mental nakedness). Archbishop Viganò apparently knows this, quoting from his third letter [4]:
This Judge, sometimes referred to as the "terrible" Judge, is considered by some to be "terrible" not because the Judge is nasty, wrong or unfair but because "[He] will render to every person salvation or damnation according to what he has deserved" "even in [H]is infinite mercy," [5]. He is feared because of one's sins. This blogger believes that upon seeing humility and repentance, the Judge lets His abundant love and mercy take over, leading souls to Heaven, possibly through Purgatory.
The question in the above-quoted passage would probably not be the only "dreadful" one asked of Carlo Maria Viganò, if indeed there is even a question and answer period. This blogger thinks that there is none. In absolute silence before the Judge, the soul knows with unbearable clarity (too much clarity) every truth and every sin resulted from commission and omission sending unmitigable fear throughout its entire constitution.
If anyone thinks that the game of "hide and seek" with the truth has to do only with worldly evidence and ends when life ends, one needs to think again, carefully.
[1] https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/10/19/third-letter-vigano-repeats-accusations-offers-no-new-evidence-mccarrick-case
[2] https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archbishop-viganos-third-testimony
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
Archbishop Viganò's third letter was a continuing dialogue between him and those who in the Catholic hierarchy subservient to Bergoglio. It was never intended to introduce new evidence. The conclusion that this third letter repeats the first without presenting new evidence misses the point, the point being that evidence so difficult to obtain in this world is not the case before God.
Before God one does not need to offer documents or testimony to prove the truth. God knows everything. From God one cannot run or hide. One can do nothing but tremble (this blogger had experienced this once -- it was absolute fear in full mental nakedness). Archbishop Viganò apparently knows this, quoting from his third letter [4]:
But I am an old man, one who knows he must soon give an accounting to the Judge for his actions and omissions, one who fears Him who can cast body and soul into hell. A Judge who, even in his infinite mercy, will render to every person salvation or damnation according to what he has deserved. Anticipating the dreadful question from that Judge – “How could you, who had knowledge of the truth, keep silent in the midst of falsehood and depravity?” -- what answer could I give?
This Judge, sometimes referred to as the "terrible" Judge, is considered by some to be "terrible" not because the Judge is nasty, wrong or unfair but because "[He] will render to every person salvation or damnation according to what he has deserved" "even in [H]is infinite mercy," [5]. He is feared because of one's sins. This blogger believes that upon seeing humility and repentance, the Judge lets His abundant love and mercy take over, leading souls to Heaven, possibly through Purgatory.
The question in the above-quoted passage would probably not be the only "dreadful" one asked of Carlo Maria Viganò, if indeed there is even a question and answer period. This blogger thinks that there is none. In absolute silence before the Judge, the soul knows with unbearable clarity (too much clarity) every truth and every sin resulted from commission and omission sending unmitigable fear throughout its entire constitution.
If anyone thinks that the game of "hide and seek" with the truth has to do only with worldly evidence and ends when life ends, one needs to think again, carefully.
[1] https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/10/19/third-letter-vigano-repeats-accusations-offers-no-new-evidence-mccarrick-case
[2] https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archbishop-viganos-third-testimony
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
Friday, October 19, 2018
Some Ambivalence Over The Possibility Of Building Up The Catholic Church In A Digital World
Quoted from an article entitled Synod of Bishops on Young People: Becoming digital missionaries published by Vatican News on October 17, 2018 [1]:
Admittedly, having "'digital missionaries'" is not quite the same as having a virtual Catholic Church, but it is a step closer to having one. Whether or not a "digital" Catholic Church is a good idea is hard to say.
This blog's existence is made possible by digital technology. Without it, this blogger's thoughts would likely either not be written or if written, would be on paper that would be piled up in a dark corner of a closet that would never again see the light of day, so that not a single person on earth would have a clue as to how disturbed and convoluted a mind can be, one that allows for crazy thoughts to form. Not having this blog could actually be better for society by not filling up cloud storage space with worthless words, but the same cannot be said for having a virtual Catholic Church, in some cases.
By being in this blogosphere, one is able to reach readers in far away places one has never seen and readers who may be nearby whom one would likely not ever meet or know personally. This is amazing indeed, considering that this blogger who is a nobody, who is insane and incoherent at times, has unexpectedly reached a handful of readers (often less than that), but blogging in cyberspace with a tiny audience is quite a different matter from building up the Catholic Church in it that has the potential to reach 1.28 billion Catholics worldwide [2].
This is a good thing on the one hand, particularly for those who live alone in seclusion or in remote areas who would then be able to connect with "'digital missionaries'" which is better than having no connection at all but on the other, is it enough to have encounters via various internet portals with no chance of any direct one on one interaction with a person as opposed to an image of one? Is watching a Mass online sufficient to satisfy the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation? If not, then why not? Adoration of a virtual Blessed Sacrament is already available on You Tube [3]. What about receiving Holy Communion from a 3-D virtual priest by logging in and using one's own unique 3-D emoji?
How would the crucifixion of Christ be accepted and believed if it were digitized as opposed to real suffering on the cross? A digitized version would be like an animation based on a fantasy that is no different from any other kind of morbid entertainment, except that the crucifixion of Christ is real, historic and not entertainment. The most important moments of Christianity are the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ, without which the Last Supper would have little to no meaning which is the underpinning of the Catholic Mass. Would watching the consecration of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ on a screen in 4K (or better) and in 3-D be more like having "make-belief" friends on social media that one never truly knows than like having real friends one can meet, hug and laugh together? The answer is an unequivocal "yes." Therefore, watching is the opposite of participating in real time the moment of transubstantiation when the Holy Spirit descends in the space in which one is present (body, mind and soul) and awakens one's faith in God and calls one's attention to the real presence of Christ.
For some it is challenging enough to have unwavering faith in God Whom they do not see or hear. A distance between them and God therefore exists. Having a virtual Church, one that replaces a structure into which one is able to walk and be in awe and perhaps even for a fleeting moment feel the true presence of Christ within it and within oneself, the distance between one who is already lacking absolute faith in God could increase. Not that it is only possible to feel Christ's presence kneeling before a cross in a church or a chapel as compared to sitting at home in front of a screen, the sensation between the two is different and in this blogger's opinion, are not perfect substitutes, until he is convinced that during a future apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that She would ask a for a digital shrine be built in cyberspace instead of asking as She did San Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin [4] to construct a shrine on Tepeyac Hill where the apparition occurred [5].
Is the world about to arrive at a juncture where one is able to to choose between what is real and what is pretense while not being able to distinguish clearly one from the other? Perhaps the foundation of pretense within the Catholic Church has already been laid long ago since there is no more incense to elevate prayers to Heaven and the Body and Blood of Christ have been treated as substances that can hardly be deemed as holy and reverential under the Novus Ordo Mass in contrast to the Tridentine Mass. In a fully digital world, none of this would matter since the Church and the entirety of the Mass would be virtual.
Whether a virtual Catholic Church will deepen one's faith or distances one further and further from God remains to be seen. The results will likely be mixed. Those with unyielding faith in God will likely not be affected one way or the other. Those who are in remote areas and who are living in isolation because of their nature may benefit from having a virtual Church, but those who are half-hearted, hypocritical and not prayerful may be even more perfunctory and superficial in their faith.
[1] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2018-10/synod-youth-2018-press-briefing5.html
[2] https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/global-catholic-population-tops-128-billion-half-are-10-countries
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqW1lENuph0
[4] http://www.ewtn.com/spanish/saints/santos/juan_diego_biograf%C3%ADa.htm
[5] "On 9 December 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the Bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her." See https://www.guadalupeshrine.org/resources/saint-juan-diego
Today at the Synod briefing the press were told that a repeated theme in conversation in the Synod assembly was how the Church can be part of the digital world. For this, the Church needs “digital missionaries”.
Admittedly, having "'digital missionaries'" is not quite the same as having a virtual Catholic Church, but it is a step closer to having one. Whether or not a "digital" Catholic Church is a good idea is hard to say.
This blog's existence is made possible by digital technology. Without it, this blogger's thoughts would likely either not be written or if written, would be on paper that would be piled up in a dark corner of a closet that would never again see the light of day, so that not a single person on earth would have a clue as to how disturbed and convoluted a mind can be, one that allows for crazy thoughts to form. Not having this blog could actually be better for society by not filling up cloud storage space with worthless words, but the same cannot be said for having a virtual Catholic Church, in some cases.
By being in this blogosphere, one is able to reach readers in far away places one has never seen and readers who may be nearby whom one would likely not ever meet or know personally. This is amazing indeed, considering that this blogger who is a nobody, who is insane and incoherent at times, has unexpectedly reached a handful of readers (often less than that), but blogging in cyberspace with a tiny audience is quite a different matter from building up the Catholic Church in it that has the potential to reach 1.28 billion Catholics worldwide [2].
This is a good thing on the one hand, particularly for those who live alone in seclusion or in remote areas who would then be able to connect with "'digital missionaries'" which is better than having no connection at all but on the other, is it enough to have encounters via various internet portals with no chance of any direct one on one interaction with a person as opposed to an image of one? Is watching a Mass online sufficient to satisfy the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation? If not, then why not? Adoration of a virtual Blessed Sacrament is already available on You Tube [3]. What about receiving Holy Communion from a 3-D virtual priest by logging in and using one's own unique 3-D emoji?
How would the crucifixion of Christ be accepted and believed if it were digitized as opposed to real suffering on the cross? A digitized version would be like an animation based on a fantasy that is no different from any other kind of morbid entertainment, except that the crucifixion of Christ is real, historic and not entertainment. The most important moments of Christianity are the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ, without which the Last Supper would have little to no meaning which is the underpinning of the Catholic Mass. Would watching the consecration of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ on a screen in 4K (or better) and in 3-D be more like having "make-belief" friends on social media that one never truly knows than like having real friends one can meet, hug and laugh together? The answer is an unequivocal "yes." Therefore, watching is the opposite of participating in real time the moment of transubstantiation when the Holy Spirit descends in the space in which one is present (body, mind and soul) and awakens one's faith in God and calls one's attention to the real presence of Christ.
For some it is challenging enough to have unwavering faith in God Whom they do not see or hear. A distance between them and God therefore exists. Having a virtual Church, one that replaces a structure into which one is able to walk and be in awe and perhaps even for a fleeting moment feel the true presence of Christ within it and within oneself, the distance between one who is already lacking absolute faith in God could increase. Not that it is only possible to feel Christ's presence kneeling before a cross in a church or a chapel as compared to sitting at home in front of a screen, the sensation between the two is different and in this blogger's opinion, are not perfect substitutes, until he is convinced that during a future apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that She would ask a for a digital shrine be built in cyberspace instead of asking as She did San Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin [4] to construct a shrine on Tepeyac Hill where the apparition occurred [5].
Is the world about to arrive at a juncture where one is able to to choose between what is real and what is pretense while not being able to distinguish clearly one from the other? Perhaps the foundation of pretense within the Catholic Church has already been laid long ago since there is no more incense to elevate prayers to Heaven and the Body and Blood of Christ have been treated as substances that can hardly be deemed as holy and reverential under the Novus Ordo Mass in contrast to the Tridentine Mass. In a fully digital world, none of this would matter since the Church and the entirety of the Mass would be virtual.
Whether a virtual Catholic Church will deepen one's faith or distances one further and further from God remains to be seen. The results will likely be mixed. Those with unyielding faith in God will likely not be affected one way or the other. Those who are in remote areas and who are living in isolation because of their nature may benefit from having a virtual Church, but those who are half-hearted, hypocritical and not prayerful may be even more perfunctory and superficial in their faith.
[1] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2018-10/synod-youth-2018-press-briefing5.html
[2] https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/global-catholic-population-tops-128-billion-half-are-10-countries
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqW1lENuph0
[4] http://www.ewtn.com/spanish/saints/santos/juan_diego_biograf%C3%ADa.htm
[5] "On 9 December 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the Bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her." See https://www.guadalupeshrine.org/resources/saint-juan-diego
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Women Demanding Greater Participation In The Catholic Church
EWTN News Nightly raised the issue on women not having enough say in the decision-making process in the Catholic Church in its October 16, 2018 broadcast on You Tube [1]. This blogger has a response, not only on this issue but on every other issue everywhere in the world about which women have complained bitterly for not having enough participation, because men have been largely in charge, relegating women to the periphery. His response is in the form of a question: where do men come from?
Every male come from the womb of a woman. This woman is his mother. He owes his life to her. She is the most important person in his life, from infancy to boyhood, even to adulthood. While he is growing up, he relies upon his mother who feeds him, raises him, teaches him and who sets an example for him so that when he grows up, he can become the man his mother wants him to become.
A man, therefore, is the product of his mother, a woman. How can women, as a group, claim that they do not have participation in areas dominated by men? Is a woman not the first person who has the most influence in the life of a boy? This influence is critical to the formation of boy who is to become a man. Based on this assertion, why do women blame men for excluding them when women are the ones with the greatest impact upon the life of a man?
What about those boys whose mothers have left them during infancy or boyhood, and boys whose mothers do not love them and who find them to be burdensome? Can women blame these boys for excluding women in their lives when they grow up to become men?
Look at Jesus Whose Mother is the Virgin Mary Who is blessed among women, Who loves Her Son dearly, and look at where She is now and the powers She has -- even Satan fears Her.
[1] https://youtu.be/W-f61sXJH4Q?t=707
Every male come from the womb of a woman. This woman is his mother. He owes his life to her. She is the most important person in his life, from infancy to boyhood, even to adulthood. While he is growing up, he relies upon his mother who feeds him, raises him, teaches him and who sets an example for him so that when he grows up, he can become the man his mother wants him to become.
A man, therefore, is the product of his mother, a woman. How can women, as a group, claim that they do not have participation in areas dominated by men? Is a woman not the first person who has the most influence in the life of a boy? This influence is critical to the formation of boy who is to become a man. Based on this assertion, why do women blame men for excluding them when women are the ones with the greatest impact upon the life of a man?
What about those boys whose mothers have left them during infancy or boyhood, and boys whose mothers do not love them and who find them to be burdensome? Can women blame these boys for excluding women in their lives when they grow up to become men?
Look at Jesus Whose Mother is the Virgin Mary Who is blessed among women, Who loves Her Son dearly, and look at where She is now and the powers She has -- even Satan fears Her.
[1] https://youtu.be/W-f61sXJH4Q?t=707
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Paul VI - A Modern-Day Gay Saint?
Pope Paul VI was canonized a saint by Bergoglio on Sunday, October 14, 2018 [1]:
Paul VI, being labeled by the Vatican as a "'pope of modernity'" is truly right and just. An article entitled Paul VI's Homosexuality: Rumor or Reality? written by Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D., published on February 1, 2008, [2] suggests the that Paul VI was gay and had a boyfriend before he was pope, when he was Cardinal Montini, Archbishop of Milan. [3] This supposed rumor was "confirmed by another author, a serious professor and journalist who had worked at the Vatican in the papal quarters." [4]
If this is true, and why would it not be based on the probability that at least one of the popes throughout the centuries could have been a homosexual man, then the Vatican and Bergoglio must have known about it. Not that a homosexual man could not ever live a holy life and be a saint, but that it would be important for Catholics to know that a gay man had been canonized a saint. It is little wonder that the Vatican had called Paul VI "the 'pope of modernity'" since he could very well had been gay.
The Vatican also stated that Paul VI had exerted his influence upon many things, among them "'seminary formation ... and many other areas of ecclesiastical life.'" Interestingly, the truth of this statement reinforced the assertion that the article cited above had quoted which also helps to provide some insight to the state the Catholic Church is in today [5]:
By highlighting the above, this blogger is not insinuating that all homosexual clerics are hypocrites and sexual perverts that prey upon children and seminarians nor is he is implying that all heterosexual clerics are holy and sinless.
In conclusion, this ought to be the truth--anyone can be holy and saintly (generically-speaking), regardless of one's gender, race, sexual orientation, and might he add one's religion to this partial enumeration, and one's past (recalling the conversion of Saul to Saint Paul on the road to Damascus [6]).
[1] https://www.npr.org/2018/10/14/657277667/oscar-romero-pope-paul-vi-elevated-to-sainthood
[2] https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a02tPaulV_Accusations.html
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] https://catholicexchange.com/the-conversion-of-st-paul
The Vatican calls Paul VI the "pope of modernity" for his influence on changes in "liturgy, seminary formation, theological study, and many other areas of ecclesiastical life."
Paul VI, being labeled by the Vatican as a "'pope of modernity'" is truly right and just. An article entitled Paul VI's Homosexuality: Rumor or Reality? written by Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D., published on February 1, 2008, [2] suggests the that Paul VI was gay and had a boyfriend before he was pope, when he was Cardinal Montini, Archbishop of Milan. [3] This supposed rumor was "confirmed by another author, a serious professor and journalist who had worked at the Vatican in the papal quarters." [4]
If this is true, and why would it not be based on the probability that at least one of the popes throughout the centuries could have been a homosexual man, then the Vatican and Bergoglio must have known about it. Not that a homosexual man could not ever live a holy life and be a saint, but that it would be important for Catholics to know that a gay man had been canonized a saint. It is little wonder that the Vatican had called Paul VI "the 'pope of modernity'" since he could very well had been gay.
The Vatican also stated that Paul VI had exerted his influence upon many things, among them "'seminary formation ... and many other areas of ecclesiastical life.'" Interestingly, the truth of this statement reinforced the assertion that the article cited above had quoted which also helps to provide some insight to the state the Catholic Church is in today [5]:
Another change observed ... was the sudden appointment of homosexuals to positions of prestige and responsibility close to the Papacy.
By highlighting the above, this blogger is not insinuating that all homosexual clerics are hypocrites and sexual perverts that prey upon children and seminarians nor is he is implying that all heterosexual clerics are holy and sinless.
In conclusion, this ought to be the truth--anyone can be holy and saintly (generically-speaking), regardless of one's gender, race, sexual orientation, and might he add one's religion to this partial enumeration, and one's past (recalling the conversion of Saul to Saint Paul on the road to Damascus [6]).
[1] https://www.npr.org/2018/10/14/657277667/oscar-romero-pope-paul-vi-elevated-to-sainthood
[2] https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a02tPaulV_Accusations.html
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] https://catholicexchange.com/the-conversion-of-st-paul
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