Royal Mail commissions Coptic icon for Christmas stamp
From a favorite blog of mine, On Coptic Nationalism, a post on the new stamp from Fadi Mikhail ofUK Coptic Icons.
Universal Church Universal Mission
From a favorite blog of mine, On Coptic Nationalism, a post on the new stamp from Fadi Mikhail ofUK Coptic Icons.
CWN - October 30, 2013
The secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life said in an October 29 address that over 3,000 men and women religious leave the consecrated life each year.
In the address – a portion of which was reprinted in L'Osservatore Romano – Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo said that statistics from his Congregation, as well as the Congregation for the Clergy, indicate that over the past five years, 2,624 religious have left the religious life annually. When one takes into account additional cases handled by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the number tops 3,000.
The prelate, who led the Order of Friars Minor from 2003 until his April 2013 curial appointment, said that the majority of cases occur at a "relatively young age." The causes, he said, include "absence of spiritual life," "loss of a sense of community," and a "loss of sense of belonging to the Church" – a loss manifest in dissent from Catholic teaching on "women priests and sexual morality."
Other causes include "affective problems," including heterosexual relationships that continue into marriage and homosexual relationships, which are "most obvious in men, but also present, more often than you think, between women."
The world, the prelate continued, is undergoing profound changes from modernity to postmodernity – from fixed reference points to uncertainty, doubt, and insecurity. In a market-oriented world, "everything is measured and evaluated according to the utility and profitability, even people." It is "a world where everything is soft," where "there is no place for sacrifice, nor for renunciation."
In a culture of neo-individualism and subjectivism, he added, "the individual is the measure of everything," and people feel "unique in excellence." "Modern man talks a lot" but "cannot communicate in depth."
The solution, he said, is a renewed attention to the centrality the Triune God in religious life, which in turn "brings with it the gift of oneself to others." There must be a clear emphasis on the "radical nature of the Gospel," rather than the "number of members or the maintenance of works."
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CWN - October 28, 2013
A traditionalist prelate's complaint that Pope Francis is a "modernist" is "absolute rubbish," says Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia.
Responding to the charge by Bishop Bernard Fellay, the head of the Society of St. Pius X, the Australian cardinal told a reporter: "To put it politely, I think that's absolute rubbish!" He said that Pope Francis is "a loyal son of the Church, and his record shows it."
Cardinal Pell—who is a member of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis-- said that it was a "reasonable expectation" that the Pontiff would continue giving high priority to his effort to reform the Roman Curia. He said that he expected the Council of Cardinals to meet regularly, every two months, "at least until the middle of next year." When asked whether a reform of the Curia would be completed by that time, however, he replied simply: "Who knows?"
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Since the period of the French Revolution, there has been a series of Marian Apparitions, eight of which – as is commonly known – have been approved by the Church. This is to say that among untold hundreds of alleged apparitions, the Vatican after prolonged and exhaustive investigation accepted these as authentic appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Many details naturally vary between these apparitions, but clearly they possess common features. One of the most noted of these is the tendency ofOur Lady to appear to children, often poor and poorly-educated.
She appeared thus most famously to the child Bernadette at Lourdes and also to the shepherd children of Fatima. But in another of the eight approved apparitions, she appeared in 1846 to the young Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud as they tended flocks near La Salette-Fallavaux in the French Alps.
La Salette! I have been writing at this site about my journeys with Kim through Catholic France. And La Salette made a very, very profound impression on me.
For La Salette contrasted powerfully with the other sites graced by the Mother of God which I visited, for example the Rue du Bac in Paris where Our Lady brought instructions for the Miraculous Medal and Lourdes where Our Lady brought forth miraculous healing water.
If Lourdes then is a site evoking joy, La Salette is very, very different.
For there Our Lady appeared weeping and on the site high in the mountains where the Blessed Virgin appeared to the shepherd children, there are statues.
There is a statue of Mary Mother of God as she appeared, head bent, back bowed down in grief.
And at the base of the statue, I witnessed something I will never forget. I saw crowds of people come and go, not in the happy chatter one might see at Lourdes. But silent and solemn.
This was not within the quiet interior of a church. The statue of Our Lady is outside and there was beautiful sunshine. But the people clustered round Her statue seemed unusually sober. I could not help but feel that many of us who gathered there felt quietly called to look solemnly at our own sin and failing.
This kind of solemness it seems to me is a gift of true Christianity. Catholicism is sometimes associated in the popular mind with a kind of morbid guilt – so opposed to the Freudian pleasure principle!
The truth is, I think, that there is morbid guilt rooted in an egocentric pride, where one bitterly berates oneself, because one does not live up to a false goal of perfection.
Such a goal can only lead to morose guilt and the true Saints knew that in this world they were fallen, hopelessly fallen … However hard they drove themselves, they did not drown in egotistical self-hatred for an unattainable perfection reserved amongst creatures for Our Lady alone.
No, what I saw at La Salette was not I fancy the much-hyped "Catholic guilt", but a sober confrontation with the fact that we all sin every day of our lives … through what we have done and what we have failed to do. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Mea Maxima Culpa.
Such sin must be taken seriously, but not turned into hatred. The experience of knowing that through the Sacraments we are not only cleansed but also LOVED is at the very core of an authentic Catholic spirituality.
Still sin is serious. And there at La Salette was a powerful ambiance bringing me at least an unforgettable reminder of that fact. At Lourdes Our Lady brought joy; here she brought tears. Both are important.
And for what was Our Lady weeping? It is evident in fact, that she was weeping for the Lost Piety of Catholic France.
For the Lady appeared to the children bowed down with tears and with these words:
"Come near, my children, be not afraid; I am here to tell you great news.
If my people will not submit, I shall be forced to let fall the arm of my Son. It is so strong, so heavy, that I can no longer withhold it.
For how long a time do I suffer for you! If I would not have my Son abandon you, I am compelled to pray to him without ceasing; and as to you, you take not heed of it.
However much you pray, however much you do, you will never recompense the pains I have taken for you.
Six days I have given you to labor, the seventh I had kept for myself; and they will not give it to me. It is this which makes the arm of my Son so heavy.
Those who drive the carts cannot swear without introducing the name of my Son. These are the two things which makes the arm of my Son so heavy."
To the modern utilitarian mind which measures tragedy only in quantifiable terms – how much food or poverty there is or is not for example – Our Lady´s distress can appear baffling.
Now I believe Our Blessed Mother is weeping for all the poor, all the exploited, the starving, the cold and freezing. Of this I have no doubt.
But at La Salette she appeared explicitly weeping for lost piety … To remind us what tragedy there is in this.
And she appeared with another message baffling for the modern mind: that this loss of piety could not continue without serious consequence – for whether the idea pleases or not, we reap what we sow. There is theequilibrium of divine justice.
The materialistic mind reels at all this and more that Our Lady said to the children of La Salette in 1846. But at the site of her appearance in those French mountains, still drawing floods of the faithful in a palpable presence of contemplation and even healing sorrow, I am glad to say that my own all-too-modern mind was untroubled by any doubt at all as to the tears of Our Lady …
And how in the years since, I am grateful to say that I too begin to feel with a heart ever more pierced this sense of lost reverence. It goes without saying of course, that there is no comparison between the piercing that the stony recesses of my heart only begin to feel and the unfathomable piercing Her Immaculate Heart must feel.
FROM: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2010/01/the-lost-piety-of-catholic-france-ii-our-lady-of-la-salette/
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CWN - October 23, 2013
"If the Church did not bring Jesus, she would be a lifeless church," Pope Francis told his weekly audience on October 23.
Continuing his series of talks on the nature of the Catholic Church, the Pope devoted his Wednesday audience—which drew nearly 100,000 people to St. Peter's Square-- to the Virgin Mary as a model for the Church.
Mary is a model of faith, the Pope said, because she was a devout Jew, awaiting redemption, when God's plan was revealed to her. "From that moment Mary's faith receives a new light," the Pope said. "It is focused on Jesus."
For years Mary lived out her live of faith "in the simplicity of the thousand daily tasks and worries of every mother," the Pope continued. Her role changed, however, at the time of the Crucifixion, when she again accepted God's will. "There, her maternity broadened to embrace every one of us, to lead us to her Son."
Mary is thus a model of charity as well, the Pontiff said. He reminded his audience that immediately after the Annunciation she hurries to provide help for her cousin Elizabeth. However the Pope called attention to the joy that Elizabeth experienced when she realized that Mary had brought the Savior into her house. This is the Virgin's role, Pope Francis said: to bring Christ to us.
"Thus is the Church," the Pope said. "She is not a humanitarian organization; she is not an NGO, but rather she is sent to bring Christ and his Gospel to all."
by Jonathon Van Maren
Editor's Note: I've retained the original spelling and grammar of the posts for accuracy, so all mistakes belong to the original posters.
One of the most convenient things about abortion is that it takes care of the perceived "problem" in a permanent way—people walk into the abortion clinic with a child growing inside them, and leave after the child's forcible eviction. The pro-life movement tries to prevent people from entering the abortion clinic in the first place, and urges people to seek healing if they decide to go through with the abortion after all.
So what happens to the babies after they are killed?
Some, we know, are cremated. Others are tossed in the trash, and discovered by pro-lifers like Dr. Monica Miller, who dutifully record their fate and give them the funeral and respect their humanity demands. But what about the other babies—the ones shipped off in containers and sealed buckets to pathology labs? When searching for the answer to that question, I found a series of horrifying testimonies on a Student Doctor Network Forum hosted by St. George's University. On the discussion board, those who worked with the bodies of aborted babies shared their horror at what they saw.
"Anyone get tripped on these?" one wrote (spelling and grammar errors his), "I'm talking especially the big ones, where you can actually make out facial expressions like they knew they were being hacked the hell up (im serious). I almost went bonkers once over one, that is some scary crap. Am I the only pathologist who freaks when a 0.5 cm eye ball comes rolling out of bag and stares right at you…I know we are thinking this, just no one in pathology is talking about it."
Another pathologist, identifying himself as "Andy Milonakis," responded by saying,"Totally trippy man. We get a fair number of fragmented fetuses from abortion procedures and they come in a container with formalin. The fact that they're all hacked up is disturbing to begin with. Of course, there is the whole eyeball issue which freaks me out as well. Echoing in my mind is the sound effects from the movie Psycho…Reee Reee Reee Reee Reee Reee Reee!"
The original poster continued, describing an absolutely nightmarish scene:
"One incident really freaked me, it was a boy fetus, at least 3+ pounds, around 24+ weeks. It sat decomposing because the rest of the staff was AFRAID of it, Im not joking. Then the chief of staff told me to deal with it because I was the FNG (f-kcin new guy) so I went to work. Pulled out 2 well formed arms and then the torso, headless. The head was at the bottom of the container, when I pulled it, he had this expression of such utter horror it flipped me wayyyy out, my PA saw it and ran, literally left work and went on disability (Im serious here). It was like a headless screaming baby, like it had been born at least for a split second to realize it was screwed and let out one agonal yelp. The story of this reverberated around the department, someone actually accused me of doing what should have been a ME case and threatened to call the medical board! Im not joking, I woke up once shortly after that in a cold sweat with piss running down my leg....not pretty."
It is the eyes, it seems, that disturbs those dealing with the corpses of butchered pre-born children the most. Another pathologist wrote:
"Most of my abortion-path anecdotes come from my PSF. Here one of the residents grosses most of them in as part of some project he is doing, and we are more than happy to let him.
1) Anencephalic baby, otherwise intact. Those are disturbing to look at. Saw quite a few and they never really get comfortable to look at.
2) When doing one POC that was about 12-15 weeks, somewhere around there, I put through the entire hand into a histology block, so that I could see what a developing hand looked like. The histotech freaked out when she saw it and I wasn't allowed to do that again. So I stuck later to doing things that weren't recognizable, such as the full cross section of the 8 week fetus anencephalic head, and the full larynx, etc.
3) The strangest are when you get the macerated contents, and you are able to recognize a few parts here and there - usually a leg or an arm, sometimes the heart. But it's odd when you can't find a large portion of it.
4) There was a stillborn birth at about 12 weeks or so and it was sent to the morgue for some reason, and never claimed. A couple of months later the family decided they wanted an autopsy. So I had to do an autopsy on a mummified 12 week fetus. They had bothered to put the little bonnet on its head, but otherwise it was shriveled and brown.
5) 16 week or so fetus, the POC is sent down as one specimen, and there is a second specimen labeled "heart." They wanted us to identify if there were any clear cardiac anomalies. It was about the size of a marble. I took it to the dissecting scope and found the PFO but that was about all I could tell.
6) about a 12 week fetus, sent down POC and wanted to know if it was an imperforate anus.
On a related note though, eyeballs are the specimen that freaks me out the most. Cutting into an eye makes me squeal. I remember doing it the first time in anatomy lab and I felt like I was sticking a knife into my own eye."
Some of the anecdotes on the discussion board are even worse, simultaneously morbid and macabre:
"I usually like chow down on White Castle while my trusty lab assistant has to stack all the baby body parts, limb amputations and reduction mastectomies into the incinerator. It has almost a Nazi concentration camp feel it all sometimes, one of my assistants today tried to joke about this leg and aborted fetus we were transporting, I snapped "have some f-ing respect!!" then started laughing too, you cant help it. Its so unbelievably insane. Nothing med school prepares you for.
PS-Anyone else hear the story about the 1200 aborted fetuses that were found during a siemic refit underneath a California hospital?? Turned out the company they were hiring to incinerate them was just stuffing em under the foundation. When the hospital admin found out they got pissed and had the pathology staff yanking molded abortions out for days..."
Others, it seems, got used to what they saw:
"In any case, no, abortions don't freak me out whatsoever. Maybe if a twin IUFD case showed up and one was giving the other a Dirty Sanchez, well, perhaps then I would take pause. Until then, no amount of googly eyeballs or tiny jaws dislocated "mid-scream" does anything to humanize the little sacks of neverweres for me.
There are quite a few things that I find disturbing, but few of them spill directly out of the womb."
But occasionally, the reality of abortion would hit home unexpectedly. Another poster responded:
"Before med school I worked as a autopsy tech/path lackey and one of my jobs was dumping the old surg path specimens to drain off the formalin and then bag the specs for incineration. Sounds unpleasant but I actually enjoyed it cause I could listen to NPR and not be bugged. Anyhow, I would get going fast just dumping specimen after specimen in the sink, until one day I dumped a whole intact fetus, ~ 25 weeks old into the sink. Closest I ever came to fainting. So completely unexpected after seeing gallbladders and colons day after day."
These people work in the dark underbelly of our society, where the corpses of the inconvenient arrive to be disposed of. They see the rotting bodies brought about by the narcissism of our culture's rotting soul. No sacrifice is too great for the right to live how we want, even if it means others cannot live at all.
A culture basing its collective lifestyle on killing is unsustainable. We may not be able to revive the skeletons in our closet. But we can at least open the closet.