Posts Tagged ‘catholic’

I’m old enough to remember when “Is the Pope Catholic?” was a Rhetorical Question

Posted: December 23, 2019 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine
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One of the advantages of actually reading scripture, having been brought up by devout Catholics and having a faithful priest is that if a Pope says something like this:

The first is all. In front of an unbeliever the last thing I have to do is try to convince him. Never. The last thing I have to do is speak. I have to live consistent with my faith. And it will be my testimony to awaken the curiosity of the other who says: “But why do you do this?” And yes, I can speak then. But listen: Never, never bring the gospel by proselytizing. If someone says they are a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism, they are not a disciple of Jesus. Proselytism is not done, the church does not grow by proselytism. Pope Benedict had said it, it grows by attraction, by testimony. Football teams proselytize, this can be done. Political parties, can be done there. But with faith there is no proselytism. And if someone says to me: “But why?” Read, read, read the Gospel, this is my faith. But without pressure.

emphasis mine

I can reference the opinion of a higher authority in the Church (again emphasis mine):

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.  When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.

Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go, therefore,  and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Matt 28:16-20

Furthermore I recall a fellow named Paul who said this:

I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by (the) grace (of Christ) for a different gospel (not that there is another). But there are some who are disturbing you and wish to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach (to you) a gospel other than the one that we preached to you, let that one be accursed!  As we have said before, and now I say again, if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one that you received, let that one be accursed! Am I now currying favor with human beings or God? Or am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ

St. Paul to the Galatians 1: 6-10 Emphasis mine

Now I don’t pretend to be anywhere near as well trained and educated in theology than the Holy Father nor more familiar with scripture as a whole but as a person with a Computer Science Degree I can certainly read and comprehend a plan set of instructions with the best of them.

So while the Holy Father’s words on living your faith and setting an example are well taken I think I’ll decline to share his advice to judge those who choose to spread the Gospel in the very way that the apostles were instructed by Christ.

Incidentally if you told me as little as ten years ago that I’d hear a Pope say something like this I wouldn’t have believed you, but I’m not worried.

Given the Catholic church survived the Romans, the Huns, the Rest of the Barbarians, the 1st Islamic Invasion, the Black Death, Napoleon, Hitler & the Cold War it’s certainly going to outlast Francis we’ve had 2000 years of Popes and lately we’ve had a good run of saintly ones so I guess we were overdue for a Lemon.

After all Lemon Pope is still the Pope until God decides he isn’t so I will endeavor to give all the respect that the chair of Peter set up by Christ himself deserves trusting that God knows what he’s doing even if I don’t.

And don’t forget pray for the Pope remembering that he is no more and no less deserving of and in need of the mercy of God than anyone else.

Update: Forgot to give a hat tip to Insty here, my bad.

Update 2: Lemon Pope? sounds like a song…

♬ Lemon Pope very iffy

And his message ain’t so sweet

but the truth of the old Gospel

Is impossible to beat ♬

I’m here all week, try the veal.

Remember Canonization doesn’t make a Saint, it just acknowledges one publicly

Posted: December 8, 2019 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine
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There is a very important point that is being missed both by the Vatican in their attempt to block the Canonization of Bishop Fulton Sheen and in the various commentaries on the tactics being used by the Catholic left in positions of power to kill it.

In the long run they don’t matter.

A saint is, by definition a person who is in heaven (the only exceptions to this rule that I’m aware of are certain canonized angels who would are not “human”) beatification or Canonization is merely the church publicly acknowledging this fact which already exists. For example during the entire time the Vatican was blocking the cause of St. Faustina and proscribing against the Divine Mercy devotion, she was in fact a saint, with all the ability to intercede for us in heaven that any other saint has.

I would wager real money that each of us have at the very least dozens of these “unknown saints” in our ancestry from children who died before the age of reason (including the aborted unborn) to devout relatives. Most of these folks will never be known to the Vatican, but are known of course to God.

The number of what I call “unknown saints” in heaven dwarfs the number of canonized saints and is in my opinion one of the greatest untapped resources for the faithful in need. In my own daily prayer routine the 20th the final decade of every 20 decade rosary (the 5th Glorious mystery ) is always prayed in honor of the “unknown saints” and I constantly request prayers from them for people with various needs.

If Cardinal Sheen is a saint in the presence of God no amount of political shenanigans either at the Vatican nor at any dioceses in the nation will end it.

It seems to me that this would be a perfect time to begin a devotion to the “Unknown Saints” and I submit and suggest a daily request that this great untapped source of spiritual grace pray for the hierarchy of the Church might be exactly what we need during these hours of crisis.

Under the Fedora Latin and English, Biden & History, NYT vs Alex Stephens, LGBTQ vs Legal Documents, Dick’s Vs Guns

Posted: August 22, 2019 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine, culture, elections, politics, primaries
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My post on Canon Turner’s 1st Mass got a lot of attention considering it wasn’t instalanched and I wanted to make a point that might have been unclear.  I have been to the Latin mass before just not a high mass of the type that was on display.  Personally I think it would be healthy for both the vernacular and the Latin masses to both be offered in all parishes.  It would be a perfect illustration of Christ as fully human and our brother while also fully Divine as our God.  I think it’s healthy to remember both.

I don’t see why anyone is surprised that Joe Biden got the decade wrong that RFK & MLK were assassinated.  Given the historical ignorance of the young who tend to vote democrat these days and the attempts to re-write history such a mistake makes perfect sense.  Of course, maybe 1968 identifies as a year in the 70’s

Speaking of re-writing history the NYT 1619 project attempt to reframe a false history as true has actually been going on for a long time by the left.  It’s been a full generation since Mary Lefkowitz Not out of Africa and the backlash she got for refusing to teach myth as history the only difference is now their bold enough to admit it and no amount of facts such as the Vice President of the Confederacy’s attack on the founding fathers for opposing Slavery and considering it evil will stop it.  What happened with Lefkowitz was the broken window theory of this type of thing

On a similar subject that’s a pet peeve of mine on twitter this week the subject of Transgenders altering their birth certificates to change their birth sex/name is something I think is very wrong.  A birth certificate is a legal document recording an actual event.  Namely a person was born of a particular sex to a particular set of parents on a particular date at a particular place.  These are all facts and are not subject to the whims or vanity of others.  Now if you wanted to create a document that was a “certification of live birth”  where a city can certify that a person who has a different legal birth name and a different legal birth sex was in fact born at a particular place on a particular year that would be a fair compromise but we have no business changing the written record.

Finally there is word that Dicks Sporting goods which made a big deal about being woke on guns is considering discontinuing guns altogether.  It actually makes perfect sense when you consider the reaction by gun owners to the company’s previous move:

“I’m not furious, not at all. They made a business decision. I get it. They want to step out of their non-political lane and become corporate activists. I can calmly step out of my lane, too. And given every chance I get, I will not use their products,” he said.

If buyers of guns with long memories are still angry and not going to your stores and you have no interest in getting their business back it’s a logical business decision to stop carrying items that might appeal to that customer base, the remaining guns and hunting items in this case,  and move to a set of items that appeal to the customers you still have.

It’s the same principle that MSNBC and the NYT is using when moving away from reality why give facts when your remaining base will only pay for propaganda?

Kasich, Flake, Sanford and Walsh I’ve seen this game in the Church before

Posted: August 22, 2019 by datechguy in catholic, election 2020, elections, politics, Uncategorized
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Via Kurt Schlichter I saw this thread concerning responding to this Washington Post story about these anti Trump republicans efforts to find a primary challenger to Donald Trump. My answer to the thread is that not only does it not surprise me in the least but I’d be shocked if they gave it up.

At first I was going to compare them to Dick’s sporting goods dumping guns, after all if you have a different customer base there is no point it trying to cater to the old one but on sober reflection this is more analogous  to this question as to why dissident Catholic groups and theologians remain in the church. 

Someone once asked a famous dissenting theologian why she remained in the Church if she found so much of its doctrine and practice so detestable.

She answered, “It’s where the Xerox machine is.” In other words, she remains b/c the Church butters her bread and pays her rent. The Church provides her with the resources she needs to undermine the Church.

as I put it in another post about a dissident group of protestants:

If they join other denominations they’re just another face in the crowd and are no longer significant, if they form independent churches they become a small congregation that won’t last a generation but as long as they remain dissenters within the the UMC then they are assured of getting attention, fawning press and financial support from outside organizations opposed to this vote and anxious to redefine sin for their own purposes.

As long as they are still nominally republican they remain newsworthy, once they decide to leave the party then they aren’t worthy of coverage or financial support from the left.

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