A Glimpse Inside the Conclave

From Cardinal Anthony Okogie of Lagos as reported in Catholic News:

Reminiscing on his first Conclave experience, the Cardinal said that if he was elected Pope he would have collapsed, explaining that to be elected Pope one must be able to speak more than four international languages.

"That place they call Conclave is a top secret place and I was going there for the first time, like many of the cardinals. I was filled with big awe. I felt as if I wasn't really in the world especially when they said 'everybody out of the room.'

"You will swear and after that they will read the rules and regulations and thereafter the ballot papers are distributed. There is no nomination," he explained.

Cardinal Okogie said that they were free to interact with anybody until the order is given for all that non-eligible electors to go out as the papers are distributed to the electors.

"I believe really that there is something supernatural about the Conclave," he said, wondering how everybody could be backing one particular individual but after the first ballot, that person's name would suddenly disappear.

Mass Revision not Massive Changes

What the bishops are voting on is a more accurate translation of the Mass. If you've attended Mass in Spanish you already know that the English translation isn't exactly the same.
Aren't people use to the current translation? Absolutely.
So why change? Because the translation we currently use isn't exact and doesn't match the Scripture from which it is taken.
Pray for the bishops.

Now Amazon for Groceries

For all you non perishibles...?

St. Andrew: Pope's Audience on a Hot Roman Day

From Asia News Italy:

Today, Benedict XVI drew a picture of the personality of the brother of Simon, Andrew, who was the “first-called”, and therefore he is known as the “Protoclete”. The Pope said: “It is certain that because of the brotherly relationship between Peter and Andrew, the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople feel, in a special way, like sisters.” He continued: “To highlight this relationship, my predecessor Pope Paul VI, in 1964, restored the relics of St Andrew, which until then had been kept in the Vatican Basilica, to the Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of the city of Patrasso in Greece, where according to tradition, the apostle was crucified.

The Pope did not talk merely about Andrew’s role as evangelizer of the Greek world; he also drew attention to his attitude when faced with the Cross on which he was to die. Tradition has it that Andrew defined the Cross as “blessed” because it was taking him to Jesus: an attitude that invites the faithful “to consider and to welcome” evils that strike us, “our crosses… as part of the cross of Christ”.

After recalling that the Gospels mention Andrew several times, showing him to be an eminent figure among the Twelve, the Pope added: “Very ancient traditions see Andrew not only as the interpreter of some Greeks meeting Jesus, they consider him as the Apostle of the Greeks in the years following Pentecost; they inform us that for the rest of his life, he proclaimed Jesus to the Greek world. Peter from Jerusalem reached Rome through Antioch to exercise his universal mission; Andrew, meanwhile, was the apostle of the Greek world: thus they appear in life and in death as true brothers – a brotherhood that is symbolically expressed in the special ties of the Sees of Rome and Constantinople, truly sister Churches”.

Benedict XVI also recalled the tradition of the death of Andrew at Patrasso, “where he too was submitted to the torment of crucifixion. At that supreme moment, however, like his brother Peter, he asked to be put on a cross different to that of Jesus. In his case, it was a saltire, x-shaped, tilted cross, that would become known as the ‘cross of St Andrew’. This is what the Apostle is said to have uttered on that occasion, according to an ancient narrative (from the early sixth century) entitled the Passion of Andrew: ‘Hail, O Cross that has been sanctified by the body of Christ, and adorned with his limbs as with precious stones! Before the Lord was nailed to you, you inspired fear on earth, but now you inspire heavenly love, and are desired as a blessing. Believers know how much joy you possess, how many gifts you have prepared. Thus I come to you assured and joy-filled, so that you may graciously receive me, the disciple of Him who hung upon you; O most beautiful cross that received majesty and beauty by carrying the body of Christ!... Take me, o cross, release me from my life among men and bring me to the Master so that through you he will receive me, he, who through you has saved me. Hail o Cross, yes hail!’” Evident here, continued Benedict XVI, is a very profound Christian spirituality, which considers the Cross not so much an instrument of torture as an incomparable means of full assimilation with the Redeemer. We must learn a very important lesson from this: our crosses acquire value if they are considered and welcomed as part of the cross of Christ, if they are touched by the reflection of his light. It is only through that Cross that our sufferings too are made noble and acquire their true meaning. The apostle Andrew, then, teaches us to follow Jesus promptly (cfr Mt 4:20; Mk 1:18), to speak to Him enthusiastically when we meet, and especially to cultivate a relationship of genuine familiarity with him, well aware that only in Him, we find the ultimate sense of our life and death.”

Cardinal's Predicted Clarification Arrives (see below)

I regret any confusion my words may have caused because I did not make myself sufficiently clear.”

The Parish of My Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation

To be merged which I thought this had already happened, does this really mean close?

Catholic diocese announces parish changes

From the Manchester Union Leader:

The St. Joseph Parish in Hinsdale will merge with the St. Stanislaus Parish in Winchester. The new parish, which will be known as "Mary, Queen of Peace," will share a pastor with the St. Bernard Parish in Keene.

Did He Challenge Them The Way Jesus Challenged?

Being with sinners and outcasts definitely is what Jesus did, but he brought them a life giving message that changed them forever--that seems to be what's missing here:

Ousted Newton priest cheered at gay pride service

``I told a friend of mine, about a month ago, that I was going to be here today, speaking at the gay pride interfaith service, and she said to me, `What's a Catholic priest doing at a gay pride service?' Cuenin said. ``My response was, `Why wouldn't a Catholic priest be here?' In the tradition of my own Christian faith, it seems to me, as I read it, that Jesus was always with those who were often the target of hatred and persecution."

Trinity Sunday-Pope's Angelus

From Asia News Italy:

This Sunday, dedicated to the most Holy Trinity, Benedict XVI addressed 40,000 people who came to St Peter’s Square to pray the Angelus. He stressed how “thanks to the Holy Spirit, who leads to understanding of the words of Jesus and guides one into all the truth (cfr Jn 14:26; 16:13), believers may know, so to speak, the intimacy of God himself, discovering that He is not infinite solitude but communion of light and love, life given and received in an eternal dialogue between Father and Son in the Holy Spirit – Lover, Loved One, and Love, to echo St Augustine.”

And although men cannot see him now, “the entire universe, for those who have faith, speaks of the One and Triune God. From the stellar systems to the microscopic particles, all that exists goes back to a Being who communicates through a multiplicity and variety of elements, like an immense symphony”, in which “all beings are arranged according to a harmonic dynamism that we can analogically call ‘love’. But it is only in the human being – free and endowed with reason – that this dynamism becomes spiritual; it becomes responsible love as a response to God and neighbour in a sincere giving of self. In this love, the human being finds his truth and happiness. Among the many analogies of the ineffable mystery of the One and Triune God that believers are capable of discerning, I wish to cite the family. This is called to be a community of love and life, in which diversities must come together to form a ‘parable of communion’.

Tropical Storm Alberto Expected This Weekend

It's a Tropical Depression right now....

For all things tropical....

The Mega Weather Blog

and the

Sun Sentinel of Ft. Lauderdale that I think has the best tropical storm coverage outside of the blog listed above online.

In Florida

Police Officer Dresses In Drag To Catch Red Light Runners

Running the Good Race

Joseph, running the bases...

Next Archbishop of Minneapolis?

Bishop Samuel Aquila according to one newspaper.

Huh?

Catholic Bishop William Skylstad said Thursday that his own investigation found no evidence to support a woman's claim that he sexually abused her 40 years ago.

His own investigation? How could anyone put that out with a straight face?

Fr. Benedict on Venerable Solanus Casey

An Interesting Visitor, in the one sentence where Fr. Benedict references recently visiting St. Felix Friary where he once witnessed Solanus in ecstasy--I was with him, in fact drove him there. It was a blessed event as he would stop and recount his experiences of this future saint(I pray) of the Church.

Expect a Clarification from Cardinal McCarrick

McCarrick: Same-Sex Civil Unions Acceptable, But Not Marriage

I think it is the term "union" that should be unacceptable to a Catholic, not the "rights" issues.

New Bishop of Raleigh, New Auxiliary for Philly

The Holy Father has:

Appointed Bishop Michael Francis Burbidge, auxiliary of Philadelphia, U.S.A., as bishop of Raleigh, (area 82,524, population 4,073,983, Catholics 188,101, priests 138, permanent deacons 37, religious 118), U.S.A. He succeeds Bishop Francis Joseph Gossman, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

Appointed Msgr. Daniel E. Thomas of the clergy of the archdiocese of Philadelphia, U.S.A., pastor of the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption, as auxiliary of the same archdiocese (area 5,652, population 3,875,021, Catholics 1,479,895, priests 1,048, permanent deacons 224, religious 3,733). The bishop-elect was born in Philadelphia in 1959 and ordained a priest in 1985.

Jesus Only Changed the Name of One

Simon bar Jonah, from the weekly audience:

Jesus did not usually change the names of his disciples”, in fact, “He never gave a new name to any of his disciples. However he did so with Simon, and that name, translated in Greek as Petros, would crop up several times in the Gospels and would end up by replacing his original name. This fact takes on particular significance when one recalls that in the Old Testament, changing a name was usually a prelude to entrusting one with a mission (cfr Jn 17:5; 32:28ff). In fact, the intention of Christ to attribute special importance to Peter within the Apostolic College emerges in many instances: in Capernaum, the Teacher went to lodge in Peter’s house (Mk 1:29); when the crowd flocked to the banks of the lake of Gennesaret, Jesus chose Peter’s boat from the two moored there (Lk 5:3); when in particular circumstances, Jesus took three disciples to accompany him, only Peter is always recalled as the first of the group: the same happened in the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus (cfr Mk 5:37; Lk 8:51); in the Transfiguration (cfr Mk 9:2; Mt 17:1; Lk 9:28), during the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (cfr Mk 14:33; Mt 16:37). And again: it was Peter who was approached by the tax collectors at the Temple and the Teacher paid for himself and for Peter alone (cfr Mt 17: 24-27); it was Peter whose feet He washed first at the Last Supper (cfr Jn 13:6) and it was only for him that He prayed so that his faith would not fail and that he may in turn strengthen his brothers (cfr Lk 22: 30-31)”.

“Peter himself is, after all, aware of his unique position: it is he who often, in the name also of the rest, speaks out, asking for an explanation for some difficult parable (Mt 15:15) or the exact meaning of a precept (Mt 18:21) or the formal promise of reward (Mt 19:27).”

Three New Auxilary Bishops for Brooklyn

Monsignor Octavio Cisneros, Monsignor Guy Sansaricq, and Monsignor Frank J. Caggiano.

A Faith in Flux

Series in the Philadelphia Enquirer on Catholicism

Conflict Over Textbook in Czech Republic

Catholic Church, educators clash over school textbook

Why does any religious educator think making fun of our faith is an acceptable way of teaching an eigth grader to embrace it?