Ferder and Heagle

Interesting tale of a nun and priest who have been at the center of much silliness in the Catholic Church and may even be responsible for sowing some of the chaff amidst the wheat…yet joyfully continue along the path.

From The Seattle Weekly:

As they turn to walk toward their offices from the lobby, Heagle gently sends Ferder forward by putting his hand on the small of her back. It is an intimate gesture, born of a relationship that spans some 30 years. The twoare so obviously close that some have observed they seem like husband and wife. Ferder says the relationship is celibate but acknowledges their “deep, deep friendship.” They live and work in the same house, teach together, and write books together. Together they belong to what they call a “support group” of friends who socialize and take trips, composed of three priests and three nuns. It seems as close to marriage as a nun and priest in good standing can get.

Pope Concludes Catechesis of John Paul

After almost a year, Pope Benedict today concluded the catechesis of his predecessor:

At the beginning of the general audience Benedict XVI recalled that today’s catechesis was the last “of the long cycle begun years ago by my beloved predecessor, the unforgettable John Paul II,” who wished to cover “the entire sequence of Psalms and Canticles that constitute the basic fabric of the Liturgy of the Hours and of Vespers.

“Having reached the end of this textual pilgrimage – like a journey through a flower garden of praise, invocation, prayer and contemplation – we now come to the canticle that closes the celebration of Vespers: the Magnificat.”

The Pope went on: “It is a canticle that reveals … the spirituality … of those faithful who recognized themselves as ‘poor,’ not only in detaching themselves from all forms of idolatry of wealth and power, but also in profound humility of heart, free from the temptation to pride and open to the irruption of divine saving grace.”

No Greater Love–St. Valentine

From the CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA:

At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), and these two seem both to have suffered in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, but at different distances from the city. In William of Malmesbury’s time what was known to the ancients as the Flaminian Gate of Rome and is now the Porta del Popolo, was called the Gate of St. Valentine. The name seems to have been taken from a small church dedicated to the saint which was in the immediate neighborhood. Of both these St. Valentines some sort of Acta are preserved but they are of relatively late date and of no historical value. Of the third Saint Valentine, who suffered in Africa with a number of companions, nothing further is known.

Opus Dei Turns the Tables

Take the interest created by the Code to explain who they really are…

 

From Entertainment Weekly:

 

"It’s very sad that Opus Dei and the Catholic Church were portrayed unfairly in the novel," said Opus Dei spokesman Brian Finnerty. "What we’re trying to do is take advantage of the interest to explain what the real Opus Dei is all about."….

…Finnerty’s job these days is to promote the group and give reporters tours of the building, a $69 million corner edifice in midtown Manhattan housing a luxurious conference center on five floors as well as accommodations and offices for around 65 members.

Catholicism in America–Sad News

Thanks to Amy for pointing this sad news out to me. I made a thirty day retreat here, so you could say that I lived here for a month! Beautiful, majestic building. The price seems like a steal–the land itself I would think would have gone for that…a sad tale of the ruins of Catholicism in this country. Pray for the new day that is coming!

From Fitness unit buys Auriesville Retreat House:

“The American Sports Committee Inc. paid $600,000 in cash for the 63,000-square-foot building and surrounding 76 acres.

The Jesuits will retain the rest of the acreage and the shrine will remain open, said the Rev. Walter Modrys, treasurer for the New York Province of the Society of Jesuits, the shrine’s New York City-based parent organization.

Modrys said money from the sale will fund improvements to other buildings and to support continuing programs at the shrine.”

Pope: Christ Heals the Human Condition

From AsiaNews.it:

“Today, the gospel passage tells of the healing of a leper and expresses, with great effectiveness, the intensity of the rapport between God and man, summed up in a stupendous dialogue: ‘If you want, you can heal me!’ says the leper. ‘I do want, be healed’, responds Jesus, touching him with his hand and healing him from his leprosy (Mk 1:40-42). Here we see condensed all the history of salvation: that gesture of Jesus, who stretches out his hand and touches the sore body of the person who invokes him, perfectly manifests the will of God to restore his fallen creation, restoring it to life ‘in abundance’ (Jn 10:10), eternal life, full, happy. Christ is the ‘hand’ of God stretching out to humanity, so that it may emerge from the mobile sands of sickness and death, and get back on its feet on the steady rock of divine love (cfr Ps 39:2-3)”.

The pope added: “Today I would like to entrust to Mary ‘Salus infirmorum’ all the sick, especially those who, in every part of the world, suffer from solitude, misery and marginalization as well as deficiency of health. I also bear particularly in mind those who attend to the sick and engage themselves for their healing. May the Holy Virgin help each one to find comfort in body and spirit, thanks to adequate health assistance and brotherly charity capable of transforming itself into concrete and supportive attention.” And when giving a greeting in Polish, he asked that “considerate love boost the strength of those who bring help to the sick”.”

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

Also a day designated for special prayers for the infirmed.

Official web sites of lourdes

Cardinal George Issues Ultimatum to Priests

From ABC7Chicago.com: Letter from Cardinal George asks priests to come forward:

“And then, the Archbishop of Chicago delivered a direct demand of all who wear the collar.

‘There is so much I remain unaware of, yet I am, in the end, responsible for it all. I want to say now that if there is any priest that is leading a double life, he should for the sake of the Church come forward.’”

Before and After

Before:

After:

South Dakota House Passes Bill to Ban Abortions

If it makes it through the process, may end up in Supreme Court.

From KELO TV:

The South Dakota House has passed a bill that would nearly ban all abortions in the state, ushering the issue to the state Senate.

Supporters are pushing the measure in hopes of drawing a legal challenge that will cause the US Supreme Court to reverse its 1973 decision legalizing abortion.

The bill banning all abortions in South Dakota was passed 47-to-22 in the House.

Amendments aimed at carving out exemptions for rape, incest and the health of women were rejected.

The bill does contain a loophole that allows abortions if women are in danger of dying. Doctors who do those abortions could not be prosecuted.

MercySong Ministries of Healing

Vinnie Flynn and his lovely family. You’ve seen them on EWTN singing the Chaplet of Divine Mercy:

http://mercysong.com/

St. Scholastica-Twin Sister of St. Benedict

From the Office of Readings:

Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict, had been consecrated to God from her earliest years. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year. He would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate.
One day she came as usual and her saintly brother went with some of his disciples; they spent the whole day praising God and talking of sacred things. As night fell they had supper together.

Their spiritual conversation went on and the hour grew late. The holy nun said to her brother: “Please do not leave me tonight; let us go on until morning talking about the delights of the spiritual life”. “Sister”, he replied, “what are you saying? I simply cannot stay outside my cell”.

When she heard her brother refuse her request, the holy woman joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray. As she raised her head from the table, there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain that neither Benedict nor his brethren could stir across the threshold of the place where they had been seated. Sadly he began to complain: “May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?” “Well”, she answered, “I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery”.

Reluctant as he was to stay of his own will, he remained against his will. So it came about that they stayed awake the whole night, engrossed in their conversation about the spiritual life.

It is not surprising that she was more effective than he, since as John says, God is love, it was absolutely right that she could do more, as she loved more.

Three days later, Benedict was in his cell. Looking up to the sky, he saw his sister’s soul leave her body in the form of a dove, and fly up to the secret places of heaven. Rejoicing in her great glory, he thanked almighty God with hymns and words of praise. He then sent his brethren to bring her body to the monastery and lay it in the tomb he had prepared for himself.

Their minds had always been united in God; their bodies were to share a common grave.

She is the patron: Against rain; convulsive children; nuns; storms.

Turkey, Moslems and Catholics

I lived in Turkey for a year when I was in my early twenties. We were stationed at an outpost, about 50 km outside of Istanbul and used to travel by bus every Sunday to the Italian consulate for Mass in English said by a Salesian priest. We always sang the same three songs in English Immaculate Mary, Come Holy Ghost and Holy God, We Praise Thy Name. Besides the four Americans from the base, the rest were all workers in the American and Canadian consulates.

Two stories about Turkey in the news today:

First a Friar is threatened, this on the heals of the priest who was murdered:

A group of Turkish youths threatened to kill a Catholic friar, grabbing him by the throat and shouting “God is Greatest”, just days after a Catholic priest was shot dead in Turkey, the friar said on Friday.

Martin Kmetec, a Franciscan friar from Slovenia, opened the door of his house on Thursday to find seven or eight angry men in their twenties.

“He took me by the throat and pulled me inside and said ‘we’re going to finish you off’ … he also said Allahu Akbar (Arabic for God is Greatest),” Kmetec told Reuters by telephone from his church in the province of Izmir.

Kmetec closed the door on the youths, who said they were nationalists and the group, after trying to break the door down, left.

Next, Pope Benedict will travel to Turkey in November:

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer’s formal invitation to Pope Benedict XVI was conveyed to the Vatican on Thursday. Sources said that the Pope’s visit to Turkey was scheduled to take place between November 28th-December 1st, 2006.
After his election, the Pope stated that he wanted to participate in the feast day of St. Andrew in 2005 and meet Fener-Greek Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul, and the Fener-Greek Patriarchate invited the Pope to Turkey.

However, following arguments on this invitation, the Vatican officials said that they expected formal invitation from Ankara. Then, President Sezer formally invited the Pope to Turkey in 2006.

First Lady Meets with Pope

“We share a lot of the same values”…aren’t some of “we” Catholics?

“The American people are a religious people, of course all different religions. But we share a lot of the same values with the Catholic Church,” Bush told Vatican Radio in an interview taped in Washington before her departure and broadcast Thursday.

Can’s for Christ

I too witnessed what Amy had related yesterday. In our local, rather run-down convenience store is a trash can right in front of the lotto machine with a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a title “Can’s for Christ.” Another sheet explains that two young girls memebers of “Challenge” are raising money for the birthday of the founder of the Legionaires, Marcial.

Rather strange. The bishop of the diocese frequents this convenience store, I wonder if he has seen it yet?