Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Journalist Turned Missionary

The Neocatechumenal Way is well-known for its missionary life-style.  It has mission families and itinerants.  The members of the Way encourage their youth to different vocations.  Some are called to be married while others are called into the religious life.  It is also well-known that in the NCW, many members were called to be missionaries regardless of whether they are married or single.  Below is a story of a woman who left a successful career to become a missionary in Ethiopia.  She is a member of the Neocatechumenal Way.  You can find the story here


Manrique with local children in Ethiopia. .- Belén Manrique had a promising career in journalism, surrounded by good friends and family. But at age 30, she left her life in Spain behind to become a missionary in Ethiopia.
“I always say that the mission is never boring. It's a thousand times better than what we could imagine. It's a life full of surprises if you put yourself in the Lord's hands,” she told ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language sister agency, during a recent visit to Rome.
“I live in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and my mission is to be a witness to the love of God there where he puts me, to build up the Church because it's very poor there. The Christian community is very weak, and so it is very important to help the people know Jesus Christ,” she explained.
Despite worldly success, “the life I led did not fulfill me,” she said. “The plan God had for me was different, and when I discovered that what he wanted was for me to bring the love of God to people who don't know him, I did not doubt God's call – it wasn't hard for me to leave my job as a journalist or leave Madrid.”
Manrique belongs to the Neocatechumenal Way, an ecclesial movement that focuses on post-baptismal adult formation. She said the movement helped her grow in faith.
“I was able to encounter Jesus Christ and realize that he's the only one who gives happiness to man. I went there where I found the mission the Lord had planned for me.”
Her first destination in Ethiopia was the eastern desert, “where most people are Muslims.”
“I realized it was necessary for the Church to come there to bring the Gospel to those people who don't know [Christ],” she said. “Ethiopia is 50 percent Muslim and 50 percent Christian, but most of them are Orthodox Christians. The Catholic Church is less than 1 percent of the population.”
“We're building a 'missio ad gentes' on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, in a neighborhood where the Catholic Church has no presence. Besides the Orthodox, there are a lot of Protestants,” she said.
Manrique’s work consists of helping out in the parishes, and talking to people. She stressed that success in her mission is “not about gaining followers but of being witnesses and making Jesus Christ known.”
“Not long ago a boy asked me: 'Can you be a Catholic without being a nun or a priest'? Most of the Catholics that have come to Ethiopia are nuns and priests, and so they have that thought.”
She added that she often encounters Ethiopians who want to leave their country, either to flee violence or because they have seen an idealized version of Europe on television, and believe life there to be luxurious and worry-free.
“Every day, there's someone who asks me to bring him to my country, and I tell them that the one who's not going back to her country is me,” she said. “I tell them that I lived in this idyllic world that they want to go to, and I have renounced it.”
“I explain that riches don't give happiness, that I had all that which they long for and it wasn't making me happy.  I'm much happier because God gives happiness and love for one's neighbor.”
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Friday, December 21, 2018

Merry Christmas From RMS Galilee

The following was sent to me for publication.  It is from RMS in Galilee.  The letter was emailed to me as it is, which included the question marks in diamonds. 
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Archbishop Pizzaballa: ���The Diaconate is a service 
to the heart of Christ, which is the Church���
11 December 


December 7, 2018 ��� In the Church of the Domus Galilaeae, in Korazim, Israel, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa ordained Javier Mart��nez Alcal��, a Spanish seminarian of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary.

At the Vigil of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, in the Church of the Twelve Apostles of the Domus Galilaeae in Korazim, the Spanish seminarian, Javier Mart��nez Alcal��, of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Galilee, was ordained deacon for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Present at the event were the team responsible for the Neo-catechumenal Way in the Holy Land and the Gulf Region, the leaders of the communities of Galilee and Jaffa in Tel Aviv, the communities of Tarshiha and Kafar Yasif, where the new deacon completes his formation journey to the faith.

The Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, presided at the celebration, accompanied by Father Rafiq Nahra, Patriarchal Vicar of the Vicariate of St. James and the Diocesan Chancellor, Father Ibrahim Shomali. Also present were the vice-chancellor of the Beit Jala seminary with some professors and many other presbyters of the Latin Patriarchate, of the Greek-Catholic Diocese of Akko and Nazareth and the Greek-Orthodox parish priest of Kafar Yasif. Also, some consecrated religious of the monastery of the Beatitudes and of Shefa���amr participated in the event, the latter also accompanying some parishioners of the Latin parish of St. Joseph, where Javier carries out his diaconal service.

The event was also enriched by the occurrence of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, of particular importance for the Neo-catechumenal Way, since that very day its initiator, the Spanish painter Kiko Arguello, received fifty years ago the inspiration to begin a journey of Christian initiation to be accomplished in community ���which, like the Holy Family of Nazareth, live in humility, simplicity and praise, and where the other person is Christ.���

The readings of the liturgy of the Marian solemnity, entirely in keeping with the event, were the object of the homily of Archbishop Pierbattista, focused on the theme of election and discipleship. In the beginning, he proposed a reflection on the importance of the Word of God, in the dialogue between the faithful and the Lord, which is the basis of Christian life, focused on the initiative of God. This initiative finds its peak in the announcement of the Angel to Mary, ���who does not close the dialogue with God, but remains open to grace.��� Mary���s dialogue with the angel is, in fact, an image of God���s dialogue with man, who never stops despite sin, since God loves man deeply and never leaves him alone. He then His Excellency noted that ���all biblical history, but also our entire history, revolves around the question of God to man: ���Where are you?���, that is the heart of the encounter with God, of which Scripture offers a marvelous synthesis in the story of the fall of Adam and Eve.

Then the Apostolic Administrator continued with a reflection addressed to the newly ordained: ���On the day of your diaconal ordination, the liturgy tells you that you are here by the grace of God, through your intervention, because you have also been asked the question: ������Where are you?��� Through the Word of God, through a Church made up of real people,��� he added, ���surely, today in your heart you will have fears and tremors about your future, but this Word invites you to trust because whoever has brought you here will not abandon you.���

At the end of his homily, the Archbishop then spoke to Javier: ���May you be a servant of the Church, may your whole life be a trusting service to the Word of God, which touched you and that you can witness who you are and to whom you belong.��� At the end of the celebration, Archbishop Pizzaballa greeted the rector of the seminary, Father Francesco Voltaggio, together with his collaborators, thanking them for their training work, and he thanked Father Rino Rossi, director of the Domus Galilaeae, for his evangelization activity and his openness to welcome.

Fr. Paolo Alfieri






Thursday, December 20, 2018

More On Father Guy's Ordination

More information on Father Guy Zidago and his ordination is found on the Internet.  Some of the community members in Guam attended Father Guy's ordination.  According to the article below: The cathedral was packed with supporters from local parishes as well as from as far as the Yukon, Guam, and Ivory Coast. 

The following article can be found here
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First double ordination in decades fills cathedral 


A priest and a deacon have been ordained in a unique ceremony the likes of which the local Church hasn’t seen for at least 30 years.
Father Guy Zidago and Deacon Felix Min embraced holy orders on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception Dec. 8 – the first time since the 1980s that a local priest and transitional deacon have done so on the same day.
“It was not by chance that God called Mary to do his will. Nor does he call us by chance,” said Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, during the Mass at Holy Rosary Cathedral.
“At work in every vocation is an inner awareness that the call is not of human origin or merely a human choice. Rather, it is a response to the Lord who has first chosen us.”
The cathedral was packed with supporters from local parishes as well as from as far as the Yukon, Guam, and Ivory Coast. The solemn ceremony was held in English, French, and Korean and lasted nearly three hours.
“I thank the Lord for this moment I’m living in,” Father Zidago said. “I am very much overwhelmed with joy and gladness, because I see the promise he made me at baptism being fulfilled.”
Raised in Ivory Coast, Father Zidago grew up with no Christian upbringing and serious feelings of loneliness after his parents split and left him to be raised by his grandparents. He sought the meaning of life in success, money, and relationships, and only realized what he was missing after hearing the Gospel preached at an event by the Neocatechumenal Way.
The community supported him in his search for meaning and encouraged him to make amends with his father. Thanks to their guidance, Guy was baptized a Catholic in 1998. He entered the seminary in 2007, studying in Guam and then Vancouver, where he will now serve as a priest.
Friend Robert Sorogany credits Father Zidago for bringing him to the Catholic faith.
“He never tried to change me. He has a gift of talking to people and used that to change the path I was on,” said Sorogany, who travelled from California for the ordination.
Sorogany said he was a “party man” in his teens when he met Zidago. “I used to party, I used to have fun, and he never told me: ‘Don’t party anymore. Don’t go to clubs.’ He brought me to the Word, to the Bible, to Jesus, to faith. He didn’t try to change my past.”
Now wearing a golden crucifix around his neck and waiting at the back of the cathedral for his turn to congratulate his longtime friend, Sorogany said Zidago’s approach helped him realize the importance of faith.
“If he wants to tell me something is wrong, he doesn’t lecture. He just says: ‘I don’t think it’s good. It’s up to you to make a choice.’”
Sorogany also emphasized the importance of praying for priests. “He needs it. Some people might persecute him. Sometimes, with temptation, evil tries to destroy the faith that brought him to this path. We have to pray for him, so he can continue to pray for us, so we can go to heaven together.”
Father Zidago’s father, brother, and members of the Neocatechumenal Way travelled from Ivory Coast for the occasion.
“Guy is a direct person. He does what God tells him to do. He is very open-minded and truthful in his words,” father Jonas Zidago said in French. “I am happy. Guy has been patient with me.”
Eugene Brou was thrilled the Neocatechumenal Way gained a new priest.
“He is like a son to me,” he said. “This situation that God has blessed us with, I could not miss it. I promised Guy that I would come to his ordination, and God put everything together. Now I am here. Blessed be God.”
Father Guy Zidago will begin his service as a priest at St. Patrick’s Parish in Vancouver.
Meanwhile, Deacon Min is looking forward to his turn to become a priest. His ordination as a transitional deacon Dec. 8 brought him one big step closer to making that a reality.
“During the ordination, as I was standing on the carpet, I thought to myself: ‘This is what it must feel like getting married,’” he joked. “I felt very nervous, and at the same time such joy that God has called me.”
Deacon Min is continuing his seminary studies and could be ordained by the end of 2019. The B.C. Catholic will have more coverage of Deacon Min in an upcoming issue.

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Congratulations To Guy Zidago

Guy Zidago was once a seminarian in Guam RMS.  He was also in a catechist team in Merizo.  I have recently learned that he was ordained a priest on December 8, 2018 in Vancouver.  Congratulations!  Fr. Guy Zidago is the person in the orange vestment.  




Tuesday, December 11, 2018

The Law Is An Unjust Law

The law lifting the statutes of limitations is an unjust law.  There were more people (over 5000) who signed the petition requesting that Governor Calvo not sign the bill into law as opposed to those who signed a petition in favor of the law (approximately 3000 signatures). This is probably the reason its author Senator Frank Blas Jr. was not re-elected.  

While it is true that Guam has twice the rape rate as the rest of the nation, the vast majority of rape occurred outside the Church.  Furthermore, a large majority of the rape and sexual assaults have been reported in a timely manner, allowing the perpetrators to be brought to justice.  This is not the case with the Catholic Church where sexual allegations are coming out 30, 40, and 50 years later.  Passing a bill to lift the statutes of limitations is not going to bring dead priests to justice.  Rather, it allows innocent people to suffer (see the story here).  

I have stated before that as long as that law is in existence, more allegations will be coming out accusing mainly dead priests.  Father George Maddock is proof of that.  When he passed away on September 30, 2018, a lawsuit was filed against him only twenty-three days later.  Being deceased, Father George cannot defend himself.  

Some people are currently expressing some doubts over these allegations.  Even newstalk Patty Arroyo havve expressed some of her doubts in K57.  You can listen to her in the weblink below dated November 9, 2018.  She expressed some of her doubts over a sexual abuse allegation involving a recently deceased priest who was praised by many students from Father Duenas Memorial School.  

Patty Arroyo with David Sablan on K57

In the interview, it was brought out that any investigative process to determine the merit of the allegation was put on hold or placed aside.  Thus, the Archdiocese is taking the stand that all allegations are true.  The problem with this stand is that it goes against the democratic principle and rights of the accused.  Also, by putting aside all investigative process, one then cannot determine whether the allegations are true or not.    

After the Church had publicly announced that they are claiming bankruptcy, the allegations are coming in faster. The two new priests who were recently accused of sex abuse were Father George Maddock and Father Michael Lee Friel (See the story here).  Both of them are deceased.  Some people are now starting to express some doubts over these allegations; therefore, Patty Arroyo is not alone.  These were some of the comments that were published in the Pacific Daily News:

Ordelia Pritchard
FATHER LEE TOO!!!! This is whole 'sexual abuse' situation is really getting out of hand, and at this point and time, is completely ABSURD; my God, mercy. The names of deceased priests who cannot defend themselves are being tarnished. Father George, the Carmelite Nuns and now, Father Lee?!! Whose next? Pale' Ramon???


Thomas J Hertslet
This is utterly insane. After the priests have died those two come out with accusations, for which the past away priests cannot defend themselves or even if it has happened to ask for forgiveness.
This "$ 5,000,000. bounty" is creating a terrible damage to a peaceful island. Very sad!!!

The law lifting the statutes of limitations is an unjust law.  It is a mistake for several reason.  There is no due process for dead priests. Every accused has a right to due process.  Because the alleged crime took place 30, 40, or 50 years ago, it is difficult to substantiate the allegations with hard evidence.  Because there are no investigations, one would not know whether the allegations are true or false. The entire Church of Guam will also be the one to bear the cost.  In seeking justice for these alleged victims, innocent people (who have nothing to do with the sexual abuse) will bear the punishment and the cost of suffering as they lose their parishes.  

Is it possible that some priests are being falsely accused (including dead priests)?  Yes.  After all, we recently learned that after an investigation from the FBI, even Judge Brett Kavanaugh was falsely accused of sexual abuse.  In fact, the second accuser even came out and finally admitted that she lied in order to derail the judge's confirmation to the Supreme Court (See the story here).  

Below are also a list of falsely accused priests.  


1.  Father Joseph Jiang (See his story here). 


2.  Father Kevin Reynolds (See his story here).


3.  Father Roger Jacques (See his story here).


4.  Monsignor William McCarthy (See story here).


5.  Father Charles Murphy (See story here). 


These are only a few examples.  There are many more.  Moreover, these priests were alive at the time of the accusation and therefore able to fight back. Priests such as Cardinal McCarrick chose not to fight back because he knew he was guilty of sleeping with seminarians and priests.  Priests such as Father Joseph Jiang and Father Kevin Reynolds fought their accusers through the justice system and won while others went to the Vatican and were cleared AFTER an investigation was conducted.  


There are people who say that children don't lie.  The problem, however, is that these are NOT children coming out with these accusations.  These are adults coming out with accusations.  The law lifting the statutes of limitations is an unjust law.  


Image result for justice    

Monday, December 10, 2018

The Future Priesthood of Guam

Despite its closure, Guam RMS continue to produce more fruits.  According to Jokers Wild:
AnonymousDecember 9, 2018 at 7:49 AMDiana I believe there was also an Ordination to the Priesthood for Eneliko and by Guam time today, Antonio will also be ordained. These two are part of the group of seminarians from Samoa.I dont understand these past few years and I probably never will but seeing and hearing of all these fruits and despite all the negative comments and unjust actions, I believe it in my heart that our prayers and support of the former Guam RMS was not in vain. I will forever hold all of the memories and ponder them in my heart.I also support the seminarians who are in the mainland for formation. I know most of them and also did some ministry work with Junee in the past. I hope that they see it through and remain steadfast in their answer to the will of God, no matter what it may be.Pas!-Jokers Wild
Congratulations to Eneliko and Antonio from Samoa. 

With the bankruptcy cloud hanging over the Archdiocese, the future of Guam's priesthood appears very bleak.  Guam currently have four priests in a California seminary. Coadjuator Archbishop Byrnes has learned that it cost an arm and a leg to send even one seminarian off-island.  Coadjuator Archbishop Byrnes is trying very hard to help the formation of our Guam seminarians through a golf tourney fundraiser.  August 2018 was the second golf tourney fundraiser he held to support our Guam seminarians, and this golf tourney was sponsored by the Archdiocese, not by CCOG.  He was able to raise $33,000 (See the story here).  However, the cost of one seminarian in California is approximately $40,000 per year. RMS was able to produce 17 priests for Guam at very little cost. Today, we are struggling to help pay for the formation of 4 Guam seminarians. The money raised in the Second Golf Tourney was not enough to pay for even one seminarian.    

Yes, we are already struggling in assisting our four Guam seminarians in their education, and I do not see CCOG anywhere in this picture. Will the Archdiocese be able to afford to send other men off-island to train for the priesthood?  Probably not......but then again......the Archdiocese can resort to borrowing priests from the Philippines.  Borrowing priests from the Philippines is now the cheapest way to go.  
  

Saturday, December 8, 2018

Upcoming Ordinations

I just received some good news today.  Our Asan 1 brother seminarian Jose Santos Hernandez is being ordained a priest on February 8, 2019 in Mexico.  He was one of the seminarians who was rejected by the Archdiocese.  I just wanted to share this good news that was brought to me.  Hopefully, by February, I will be able to get some photos after his ordination.

As for the four seminarians who were accepted by Archbishop Byrnes, they are currently in the St. Patrick's seminary in California.  These four are Junee, William, Ronald, and Derek.  According to Guamboy, out of the four, only two of them are on track to being ordain a deacon next year.  Those two are Junee and Ronald. Both Junee and Ronald are the product of the Blessed Diego Theological Institue on Guam, which is the same schooling as the RMS seminarians.  

As for the other two, Derek was accepted this past summer into the seminary for the Archdiocese.  And William, who earned a Masters Degree in Theology from the Philippines was told that his credits were not recognized.  Therefore, he was pushed back several years before being ordain a deacon.

At any rate, we also look forward to the two Guam seminarians (Ronald and Junee) who will be ordained a deacon next year.  Both of them received the same training as the RMS seminarians and both of them remained on track.  We also look forward to the ordination of Jose Santos Hernandez into the priesthood.  There are also four other RMS seminarians who will be ordain as deacons or priests in May, 2019.  We also look forward to those ordinations.  Despite that the Yona seminary has been closed down, kudos goes to the Yona seminary and the Blessed Diego Institute for producing all these fruits.         

Thursday, November 29, 2018

The Once and Future Catholic Church

The following article was written by Father Gordon MacRae.  His article can be found here.
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The Book of Daniel and the Gospel of Mark warn of a great tribulation to come. Its early signs are already upon us and require invoking the Patron Saint of Justice.
A strange case has been simmering in the courts of the European Union for several years, and it came to an even stranger close at the end of October. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld a 2011 Austrian court verdict against a seminar presenter, a woman, for “disparaging religious doctrines.” In a 2009 seminar sponsored by the conservative Freedom Party in Austria, the woman recounted an event in the life of Muhammad ibn Abd Allah whose 7th Century proclamations of the Qur’an gave birth to Islam. The event is well documented.
In 620 AD, at the age of 56, soon after the death of his first wife, Muhammad married a young girl named A’isha. At the time of their marriage, A’isha was six years old. Muhammad described her as “very attractive and of a lively mind.” Many of the revelations resulting in the Quran occurred while he was in her company.
One day, when she was left behind during one of Muhammad’s expeditions, she returned to the group accompanied by a young man. This set off a monstrous scandal that threw the girl’s marital fidelity into doubt. Muhammad then dictated what he described as a divine revelation that assured him of her innocence. This story is recounted in the Qur’an (24:11-20).
In 2009, in an Austrian seminar entitled “Basic Information about Islam,” the seminar presenter described the story of the marriage of Muhammad and A’isha’concluding, “A 56-year-old and a six-year-old?… What do we call it if not pedophilia?” In 2011, the Austrian court convicted the woman, imposing a fine for statements that constitute “an abusive attack on the Prophet of Islam.”
The woman appealed the verdict to the European Court of Human Rights. Last month, the verdict was unanimously upheld by an ECHR panel of seven judges including judges from Ireland, Germany, and France. The ECHR judges reasoned that the marriage between Muhammad and six-year-old Aisha lasted until Muhammad’s death when Aisha was 18-years-old. Thus, according to the court, “the marriage need not be motivated by pedophilia.”
The ECHR further reasoned that the convicted woman’s observations about the marriage could “stir up prejudice and threaten religious peace” and “could only be understood as having been aimed at demonstrating that Muhammad was not worthy of worship.” The ECHR arrived at this conclusion after having “carefully balanced her right to freedom of expression with the right of others to have their religious feelings protected.”
I could go into a long protracted analysis of a double standard in what constitutes “stirring up prejudice and threatening religious peace” – and how political correctness influences it – but I think you may already get the point. If you contrast the above story with the treatment the Catholic Church has been receiving in the news media and power centers of Western Culture, the duplicity is not at all subtle.
Sometimes you have to stand back a little from scandal in the Catholic Church to see a more panoramic view. The scandals feel less personal then, but also seem more ominous. A view from a little distance will leave you with a sense that there have been, and still are, some nefarious agendas behind the scenes of the Catholic abuse story.
The truth is that the world in which we live is retreating from all the institutions that once gave us meaning and purpose, and, most important of all, identity. “Losing my religion” is not just a 1991 pop culture hit by R.E.M. It is a cultural calamity.
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Without doubt, trust in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has been strained in recent years. There is no denying it, and some of that distrust is justified by inconvenient truths that too many have tried to keep hidden. But look around you. Where DO you place your trust? Our politics are at the brink of civil war. Our news media once respected as the “Fourth Estate,” has hit rock bottom in public trust. Among polls of Americans, Congress is the second lowest source of trust among all institutions and the news media lower even than that.
Fatherhood has retreated into the forests. Families are falling apart. Gender has become confused, and a product of the will instead of the heart of one’s identity. In the Western world, the psyches of the young have become fragile. Universities pamper screaming mobs of students who block points of view that challenge them. Conservatives make them feel “unsafe.”
Colleges hire grief counselors to help 20-something year-old men and women cope with a C-level grade, or the trauma of being exposed to ideals, or of seeing a mouse in their dorm room. The resilience of young people – though still with some courageous exceptions – is under siege.
Politically, we are at each others’ throats in a game of one-upmanship and gotcha. It seemed to reach its most hurtful and horrifying peak in the public spectacle to which we were subjected in the Senate confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, guilty for being accused. That was the point at which I realized that we have reached a new low, and cannot descend much further without dissolving our union in hate.
In October this year, a middle-aged man in Florida mailed pipe bombs to a long list of political figures with whom he disagrees. Then a middle-aged man in Pittsburgh, a Holocaust denier on social media, killed eleven worshippers in a Synagogue after posting a rant about Jews and President Trump. Much of the news media played down the fact that the man despised Trump. Politics, that once honorable favorite pastime of America, has become dangerous.
OUR ONCE AND FUTURE FAITH
The same is true or is fast becoming true, in our Church. Canadian Catholic blogger, Michael Brandon wrote in response to a post on These Stone Walls awhile back: “The Catholic Church has become the safest place in the world for children, and the most dangerous place in the world for Catholic priests.” I wrote of the origin for that conclusion in a controversial post that was shared 25,000 times on social media: “Five Years of Pope Francis in a Time of Heresy.”
The news media would have us all believing that the now forty-year-old sexual abuse scandal “could bring down the Catholic Church.” This is nonsense. The Church will survive this, but there is a far more pernicious threat that the news media makes it a point not to cover. I found a scary analysis of it in “The Catholic Crisis,” a fine article in Commentary (May 2018), by Sohrab Ahmari who also has a panoramic view of why Catholicism stands at a precipice and, surprise, the sexual abuse story is but a symptom of it, not the cause.
Sohrab Ahmari is a London editor for The Wall Street Journal and a senior writer at Commentary, a journal of thought and opinion established by the American Jewish Committee. He is completing a memoir on his journey to Catholicism, and, as such, a journey that forms his compelling panoramic view of the Church and its fate in the modern world. His article, “The Catholic Crisis” is a review of a new book by The New York Times’ columnist, Ross Douthat, To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism.
Both Ahmari and Douthat note that “the principle duty of a Catholic” is not to the pope, but to “the truth the papacy exists to preach, to preserve, and to defend.” Mr. Ahmari wrote:
“There is a reason to worry that lately a spirit of relativism has entered the Roman Church that threatens to undermine its unity and catholicity. That should concern Catholics and non-Catholics because the Church is the living bedrock of the West and one of the last bastions of the principal that moral truth is moral truth yesterday, today, a thousand years from now.”
In Pope Francis, both writers see a papacy that “thrives in ambiguity.” Their evidence is found among a list of perplexing notions including recent comments by Pope Francis calling into question the existence of hell. Defenders of the Pope excused the incident as a misreading of the Pope’s remarks by leftist, atheist journalist Eugenio Scalfari. However, as Ahmari points out, this particular faux pas was the fifth interview Pope Francis has granted to this journalist.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis has remained unresponsive to a request for dialogue and clarification on some controversial points in Amoris laetitia. American Cardinal Raymond Burke and other conservative cardinals posed a series of “Dubia” asking whether the prohibition on authorizing communion for those divorced and remarried in a civil, but not sacramental, union still stands. The pope, according to Ahmari, “first ignored, and then ridiculed them.”
Mr. Ahmari also reports on Ross Douthat’s “fascinating speculation” on the future of Catholicism, and it is one in which conservatives should find cause for hope. As I have written in previous posts, the Church and faith will survive this current age of doubt. In the meantime,
fidelity is our only effective response to it. But Ross Douthat offers a more sobering source of hope summarized by Ahmari:
“The liberals simply don’t have the numbers… theological liberalism is in demographic decline, and liberal orders struggle to attract vocations. Church coffers may be full, but the pews are empty. The leading lights of theological liberalism are octogenarians, and there are no successors in the wings.”
“Conservatives and traditionalists, meanwhile, have the numbers, the intellects, the energy. Orders that prize tradition and orthodoxy are thriving worldwide. In population terms, Africa is a beacon of hope for conservatives, a continent where weekly Mass attendance averages 70 percent (compared with just 20 percent in Europe) and where the Church wins nine million new believers each year.”
Quite by accident in the last few weeks, I came across a much more local summation of the state of the Church in North America, and it seems bleak. At least, it did for me until I got to the last few stunning paragraphs.
In a climate in which I thought the faithful had abandoned the notion of the Church as a mirror of justice, a faithful Catholic, a lawyer no less, concluded his stunning take on the state of the Church by profiling what the witch hunt has meant for one wrongly imprisoned priest. Don’t miss “Priests, Good and Bad” by Frank Friday published at American Thinker (October 27, 2018).
THE PATRON SAINT OF JUSTICE
Some extraordinary things can be found in Ordinary Time. It is by no human design that readings assigned long ago for the Sunday liturgy arose just weeks ago at a time of tribulation for the Catholic Church. The readings for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time were anything but ordinary. Their timing seems a divinely inspired gift.
But before I proceed down this path through the labyrinthine ways of Sacred Scripture, I want to share with you a message from a very good priest and a friend, Father Stuart MacDonald. Writing from Ontario, Father Stuart is a canon lawyer and author of the TSW guest post, “Last Rights: Canon Law in a Mirror of Justice Cracked.”
Readers may recall from my posts in recent months that a new GTL tablet allows me to receive messages from those who establish a messaging account at GTL’s mainframe, (www.ConnectNetwork.com). At the time of his guest post, Father Stuart established a messaging connection and, along with a few other readers, has been helping to keep me up to date on matters affecting the Church at this critical time.
His messages have included entire missives from and about Archbishop Carlo Viganò and his challenge to Pope Francis centered on the controversy over former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. This is a time of great tribulation for faithful Catholics, and especially so for priests who feel their loyalties torn and their allegiance under clouds of doubt. I am not shielded behind These Stone Walls from the doubt and pain experienced by so many priests right now.
A few weeks ago, Father Stuart sent a series of messages to me containing Archbishop Viganò’s published response to Cardinal Ouellet. Archbishop Viganò has challenged Pope Francis for his handling of the Cardinal McCarrick affair and other matters. I wrote about this in a series of posts I will link at the end of this one.
Just days before sitting down to type this post, wondering what on earth I could write about without taking a side on the vortex of information and misinformation, Father Stuart sent me this message:
“I have been so shaken by all this that a few weeks ago, I informed my small congregation that henceforth all weekday masses would be ad orientem because the time has come to focus on Christ and not the cult of the priest and his performance. I pray the canon in Latin sotto voce now and we pray the Prayer to St. Michael at the end of every mass. Call me foolish if you want, but it is the only way I am going to survive.”
The world might call him foolish, but I could only call him faithful. And like me, he perhaps had no idea when he wrote that message that the Mass readings for the following Sunday, the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, provided a solid basis in Scripture for what he has undertaken. The Book of Daniel (12:1-3) calls upon Michael, the Great Prince, and Guardian of your people,” while the Gospel of Mark (13:24-32) warns of a time of great tribulation. For many, that time has come. I can only add to Father Stuart’s resolve the words of Saint Peter, Bishop of Rome:
“Stay sober and alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Advent Announcement

Image result for NativityWe had our Advent Announcement last night.  Kudos to the 90 Guam NCW youth who traveled to Saipan.  Our Guam youth got together with the NCW youth of Saipan and helped clean up the chapel and other debris left by Super Typhoon Yutu.  They were also greeted by Bishop Ryan, and he was able to celebrate the Eucharist with them.  

We have also learned that the reason there were no organized effort of WYD Panama was due to the availability of the flights.  However, David said that they will try to attend the WYD in Panama, but only the youth who are 18 years old and up may attend due to the time constraints.  

We were also given instructions on how to prepare the coming Advent.  As usual, we will have our "Belen" (nativity) up, and we will be saying the novenas.  Advent is a reminder that Jesus Christ is coming.  We were also reminded that although Christ came the first time, He also told us that He will come a second time.  We don't know when that time will be; nevertheless, we need to prepare ourselves for His coming.

Friday, November 23, 2018

Kudos To The NCW Youth

Kudos to Guam's NCW youth who left to Saipan to help in the recovery effort, which was devastated by Super Typhoon Yutu.  God bless you!!  

And Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!

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