Feast of St. Bartholmew

You can read what Pope Benedict has said about the Apostle in The Apostles, and here is what Vultus Christi has to say:

A Learned Rabbi

Today is the feast of Saint Bartholomew, the apostle whose other name is Nathanael. A native of Cana in Galilee and a friend of the Apostle Philip, Nathanael was a rabbi learned in the Scriptures. Tradition says that he preached the Gospel in Armenia and India. Apart from that we know little about him. In art, one can recognize him by the flaying knife that he holds in his hand, a symbol of his martyrdom.

Come and See

Philip introduced Nathanael to Jesus. Philip simply repeated the words of Jesus to Andrew and Simon Peter: “Come and see”(Jn 1:39). The most effective apostolate is the one by which souls are brought directly to Jesus by means of a simple invitation. Arguments, disputes and debates are to no avail; it is the experience of Christ that convinces and converts. How often has exposure to the Most Holy Eucharist — the sacramental experience of the living Christ truly present — been the occasion of a complete conversion!

The Secret Suffering of Blessed Mother Teresa

The book  Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light will be released on Sept. 19th, but is available for preorder now.

From Time Magazine:

On Dec. 11, 1979, Mother Teresa, the “Saint of the Gutters,” went to Oslo. Dressed in her signature blue-bordered sari and shod in sandals despite below-zero temperatures, the former Agnes Bojaxhiu received that ultimate worldly accolade, the Nobel Peace Prize. In her acceptance lecture, Teresa, whose Missionaries of Charity had grown from a one-woman folly in Calcutta in 1948 into a global beacon of self-abnegating care, delivered the kind of message the world had come to expect from her. “It is not enough for us to say, ‘I love God, but I do not love my neighbor,’” she said, since in dying on the Cross, God had “[made] himself the hungry one — the naked one — the homeless one.” Jesus’ hunger, she said, is what “you and I must find” and alleviate. She condemned abortion and bemoaned youthful drug addiction in the West. Finally, she suggested that the upcoming Christmas holiday should remind the world “that radiating joy is real” because Christ is everywhere — “Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor we meet, Christ in the smile we give and in the smile that we receive.”

Yet less than three months earlier, in a letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, that is only now being made public, she wrote with weary familiarity of a different Christ, an absent one. “Jesus has a very special love for you,” she assured Van der Peet. “[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak … I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand.”

The two statements, 11 weeks apart, are extravagantly dissonant. The first is typical of the woman the world thought it knew. The second sounds as though it had wandered in from some 1950s existentialist drama. Together they suggest a startling portrait in self-contradiction — that one of the great human icons of the past 100 years, whose remarkable deeds seemed inextricably connected to her closeness to God and who was routinely observed in silent and seemingly peaceful prayer by her associates as well as the television camera, was living out a very different spiritual reality privately, an arid landscape from which the deity had disappeared.

Vatican Airlines?

From the BBC:

The Vatican is to launch a low-cost charter flight service to transport pilgrims to holy sites worldwide.

The inaugural flight on 27 August will go from Rome to Lourdes in France.

A small Italian airline, Mistral, will provide the planes, with the interiors decorated with sacred inscriptions such as: “I search for your face, Lord.”

Other destinations could include Fatima in Portugal and Santiago di Compostela in Spain, the Holy Land, Poland and a Catholic shrine in Mexico.

The vicar of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, is expected to be on the first flight to Lourdes, which already attracts eight million pilgrims each year.

“Mommy! Do you see? The statue of Mary is smiling.”

A grace-filled moment from Minnesota Mom:

We really do like Mary around here.

So when the opportunity came to see the Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, we took it, even though it meant making our way into the city and dealing with the traffic, the parking, and the organizational feat of getting my four children out the door. (I only had four at that point. Somehow it often seemed like more.)

The Cathedral was full-to-bursting with hundreds of little Catholic school kids from all over the Twin Cities and beyond. Every last uniformed one of them had assembled to pray, sing, and peer curiously at the mystical, miraculous presence at the front of the church.

After the liturgy we were invited to move closer, and so my own small group of five approached the statue. We waited quietly while a little girl in a blue uniform got her picture taken with Mary. Suddenly I saw the somber expression on Our Blessed Mother’s face become a broad, beaming smile. I assure you that I did! And then, in the midst of this surreal, is-this-really-happening? moment, my oldest son grabbed my arm and exclaimed:

“Mommy! Do you see? The statue of Mary is smiling!”

To their dismay, none of my other children saw this. The story, though, is retold often—especially on these beautiful Marian feasts when we are reminded of the power of her intercession, and of her love.

St. Rose of Lima

From the Office of Readings, words from St. Rose:

Our Lord and Saviour lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: “Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven”.
When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people of every age, sex and status: “Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips: We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions.
We must heap trouble upon trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the sons of God and perfect happiness of soul”.
That same force strongly urged me to proclaim the beauty of divine grace. It pressed me so that my breath came slow and forced me to sweat and pant. I felt as if my soul could no longer be kept in the prison of the body, but that it had burst its chains and was free and alone and was going very swiftly through the whole world saying:
“If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men”.

World’s Oldest Father

#21 at age 90, from the Daily Mail:

Indian farmer Nanu Ram Jogi, who is married to his fourth wife, boasts he does not want to stop, and plans to continue producing children until he is 100.

Mr Jogi admits he is not certain how many children his series of four wives have borne him – but counts at least 12 sons and nine daughters and 20 grandchildren.

The Queenship of Mary

From the Office of Readings:

Observe how fitting it was that even before her assumption the name of Mary shone forth wondrously throughout the world. Her fame spread everywhere even before she was raised above the heavens in her magnificence. Because of the honour due her Son, it was indeed fitting for the Virgin Mother to have first ruled upon earth and then be raised up to heaven in glory. It was fitting that her fame be spread in this world below, so that she might enter the heights of heaven on overwhelming blessedness. Just as she was borne from virtue to virtue by the Spirit of the Lord, she was transported from earthly renown to heavenly brightness.
So it was that she began to taste the fruits of her future reign while still in the flesh. At one moment she withdrew to God in ecstasy; at the next she would bend down to her neighbours with indescribable love. In heaven angels served her, while here on earth she was venerated by the service of men. Gabriel and the angels waited upon her in heaven. The virgin John, rejoicing that the Virgin Mother was entrusted to him at the cross, cared for her with the other apostles here below. The angels rejoiced to see their queen; the apostles rejoiced to see their lady, and both obeyed her with loving devotion.
Dwelling in the loftiest citadel of virtue, like a sea of divine grace or an unfathomable source of love that has everywhere overflowed its banks, she poured forth her bountiful waters on trusting and thirsting souls. Able to preserve both flesh and spirit from death she bestowed health-giving salve on bodies and souls. Has anyone ever come away from her troubled or saddened or ignorant of the heavenly mysteries? Who has not returned to everyday life gladdened and joyful because his request had been granted by the Mother of God?
She is a bride, so gentle and affectionate, and the mother of the only true bridegroom. In her abundant goodness she has channelled the spring of reason’s garden, the well of living and life-giving waters that pour forth in a rushing stream from divine Lebanon and flow down from Mount Zion until they surround the shores of every far-flung nation. With divine assistance she has redirected these waters and made them into streams of peace and pools of grace. Therefore, when the Virgin of virgins was led forth by God and her Son, the King of kings. amid the company of exulting angels and rejoicing archangels, with the heavens ringing with praise, the prophecy of the psalmist was fulfilled, in which he said to the Lord: At your right hand stands the queen, clothed in gold of Ophir.

American Pilgrimage

For anyone interested in making this pilgrimage see  Pilgrimage for Restoration and check out the FAQ page.

 From Spero News:

In late September, one group of such spiritual wayfarers walks the seventy miles from Lake George, New York, to the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville. Their journey is called the “Pilgrimage for Restoration.”

Make no mistake, the spartan nature of the pilgrimage is deliberate. Mr. Gregory Lloyd, the pilgrimage organizer, openly declares it “an exercise of penance and prayer.” Lloyd, a philosopher, linguist, and happy father of seven, is the Executive Director of the National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (NCCL), an organization whose members and affiliates “embrace the traditional doctrine and practice of Holy Church, with all its demands.”

Perhaps it is to train these tough-minded Catholics for “all its demands” that they exercise their faith in such a foot-blistering manner.

The pilgrimage, now in its twelfth year, is no mere athleticism, though. It is a spiritual exercise “for the restoration of a new Christendom, and in reparation for sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” Lloyd says. Pilgrims walk through the woods of verdant upstate New York singing hymns, praying the Rosary, and meditating together in their small brigades, each of which is named after a saint or an important Christian mystery. At night, they camp in tents or under the open sky.

With the recent publication of Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum, the papal motu proprio making the traditional Latin Mass more widely available, it is likely that this year’s pilgrims will be offering heartfelt prayers of thanksgiving. Since its inception some twelve years ago, the Pilgrimage for Restoration has always had priests who celebrate that rite of Mass as part of the routine of prayer. In fact, one intention of the pilgrimage has long been “the restoration of the Catholic family and the Latin liturgical tradition.”

The Masses on the pilgrimage trail are offered in a makeshift chapel-tent, while the closing Liturgy is a Solemn Mass, complete with Gregorian Chant and all the austere pageantry of Latin Christendom.

The pilgrimage’s combination of arduous physical effort and interior delight accompanying the spiritual exercises (especially the predawn daily Latin Mass) has been described as “the agony and the ecstasy.” All is not painful, though, and certainly nothing is dour in this journey. In fact, there is plenty of Christian mirth along the way, especially when the young people stage a talent show on Thursday night.

Global Warming Update: Artic August

NYC Sets Record For Coldest Day:Chilliest August High Set In 1911

Don’t forget to bundle up if you’re headed out in New York City today. After all, it is August 21.

The city along with the rest of the tri-state region is feeling the chilly effect of a cold front sweeping through the region, accompanied by cool rain showers.

Tuesday’s high temperature in Central Park was just 59 degrees. The normal high for today is 82 degrees. The normal low is 67.

Q & A with Pope Benedict: Priorities in Ministry

In today’s world of constant activity the person involved in ministry is beseiged with many duties and tasks to the point that the prospects can overwhelm the individual. Of course when one thinks of the Pope’s task and his age to boot–he is the perfect person to answer this question:
In exercising  pastoral ministry we are increasingly burdened by many duties. Our tasks in the management and administration of parishes, pastoral organization and assistance to people in difficulty are piling up. What are the priorities we should aim for in our ministry as priests and parish priests to avoid fragmentation on the one hand and on the other, dispersion?

Pope Benedict’s Answer:

That is a very realistic question, is it not? I am also somewhat familiar with this problem, with all the daily procedures, with all the necessary audiences, with all that there is to do. Yet, it is necessary to determine the right priorities and not to forget the essential: the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.

On hearing your question, I remembered the Gospel of two weeks ago on the mission of the 70 disciples. For this first important mission which Jesus had them undertake, the Lord gave them three orders which on the whole I think express the great priorities in the work of a disciple of Christ, a priest, in our day too.

The three imperatives are: to pray, to provide care, to preach. I think we should find the balance between these three basic imperatives and keep them ever present as the heart of our work.

Prayer: which is to say, without a personal relationship with God nothing else can function, for we cannot truly bring God, the divine reality or true human life to people unless we ourselves live them in a deep, true relationship of friendship with God in Jesus Christ.

Hence, the daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist is a fundamental encounter where the Lord speaks to me and I speak to the Lord who gives himself through my hands. Without the prayer of the Hours, in which we join in the great prayer of the entire People of God beginning with the Psalms of the ancient people who are renewed in the faith of the Church, and without personal prayer, we cannot be good priests for we would lose the essence of our ministry. The first imperative is to be a man of God, in the sense of a man in friendship with Christ and with his Saints.

Then comes the second command. Jesus said: tend the sick, seek those who have strayed, those who are in need. This is the Church’s love for the marginalized and the suffering. Rich people can also be inwardly marginalized and suffering. “To take care of” refers to all human needs, which are always profoundly oriented to God. Thus, as has been said, it is necessary for us to know our sheep, to be on good terms with the people entrusted to us, to have human contact and not to lose our humanity, because God was made man and consequently strengthened all dimensions of our being as humans.

However, as I said, the human and the divine always go hand in hand. To my mind, the sacramental ministry is also part of this “tending” in its multiple forms. The ministry of Reconciliation is an act of extraordinary caring which the person needs in order to be perfectly healthy. Thus, this sacramental care begins with Baptism, which is the fundamental renewal of our life, and extends to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick. Of course, all the other sacraments and also the Eucharist involve great care for souls. We have to care for people but above all — this is our mandate — for their souls. We must think of the many illnesses and moral and spiritual needs that exist today and that we must face, guiding people to the encounter with Christ in the sacrament, helping them to discover prayer and meditation, being silently recollected in church with this presence of God. And then, preaching.

What do we preach? We proclaim the Kingdom of God. But the Kingdom of God is not a distant utopia in a better world which may be achieved in 50 years’ time, or who knows when. The Kingdom of God is God himself, God close to us who became very close in Christ. This is the Kingdom of God: God himself is near to us and we must draw close to this God who is close for he was made man, remains man and is always with us in his Word, in the Most Holy Eucharist and in all believers. Therefore, proclaiming the Kingdom of God means speaking of God today, making present God’s words, the Gospel which is God’s presence and, of course, making present the God who made himself present in the Holy Eucharist.

By interweaving these three priorities and, naturally, taking into account all the human aspects, including our own limitations that we must recognize, we can properly fulfil our priesthood. This humility that recognizes the limitations of our own strength is important as well. All that we cannot do, the Lord must do. And there is also the ability to delegate and to collaborate. All this must always go with the fundamental imperatives of praying, tending and preaching.

Interview with Pope’s Brother

Here and here are two questions:

Recently, there have been critical voices – because of the Motu proprio and the statement that the Protestant churches aren’t churches in the narrow sense. How much do such controversies affect you ?

Ratzinger: It barely affects me, I have to admit. I only have contacts to people who wish my brother and me well. The negative voices only get to me through detours, where they’ve already been “purified” and don’t hurt me anymore.

You aren’t being confronted in person with such criticism ?

Ratzinger: No, I’m not. But, these critical voices were to be expected – if everything were to go smoothly, it wouldn’t be a good Pontificate. A person who is active in God’s kingdom has to expect resistance, just like our Lord, who also encountered enemies time and again. It can’t all be hunky dory. (literally “peace, joy and pancakes”)

Q & A with Pope Benedict XVI: Formation of Conscience

Often the key topic of post Vatican II moral theology and the excuse why people think of the Church as a cafeteria rather than a banquet is how conscience has been taught (or at least understood).  Here is the Question:

The question I wanted to ask you is about the formation of conscience, especially in young people, because today it seems more and more difficult to form a consistent conscience, an upright conscience. Good and evil are often confused with having good and bad feelings, the more emotive aspect. So I would like to hear your advice.

And the Pope’s answer:

This first question reflects a problem of Western culture, since in the last two centuries the concept of “conscience” has undergone a profound transformation. Today, the idea prevails that only what is quantifiable can be rational, which stems from reason. Other things, such as the subjects of religion and morals, should not enter into common reason because they cannot be proven or, rather, put to the “acid test”, so to speak. In this situation, where morals and religion are as it were almost expelled from reason, the subject is the only ultimate criterion of morality and also of religion, the subjective conscience which knows no other authority. In the end, the subject alone decides, with his feelings and experience, on the possible criteria he has discovered. Yet, in this way the subject becomes an isolated reality and, as you said, the parameters change from one day to the next.

In the Christian tradition, “conscience”, “con-scientia”, means “with knowledge”: that is, ourselves, our being is open and can listen to the voice of being itself, the voice of God. Thus, the voice of the great values is engraved in our being and the greatness of the human being is precisely that he is not closed in on himself, he is not reduced to the material, something quantifiable, but possesses an inner openness to the essentials and has the possibility of listening. In the depths of our being, not only can we listen to the needs of the moment, to material needs, but we can also hear the voice of the Creator himself and thus discern what is good and what is bad. Of course, this capacity for listening must be taught and encouraged.

The commitment to the preaching that we do in church consists of precisely this: developing this very lofty capacity with which God has endowed human beings for listening to the voice of truth and also the voice of values.

I would say, therefore, that a first step would be to make people aware that our very nature carries in itself a moral message, a divine message that must be deciphered. We can become increasingly better acquainted with it and listen to it if our inner hearing is open and developed. The actual question now is how to carry out in practice this education in listening, how to make human beings capable of it despite all the forms of modern deafness, how to ensure that this listening, the Ephphatha of Baptism, the opening of the inner senses, truly takes place. In taking stock of the current situation, I would propose the combination of a secular approach and a religious approach, the approach of faith.

Today, we all see that man can destroy the foundations of his existence, his earth, hence, that we can no longer simply do what we like or what seems useful and promising at the time with this earth of ours, with the reality entrusted to us. On the contrary, we must respect the inner laws of creation, of this earth, we must learn these laws and obey these laws if we wish to survive. Consequently, this obedience to the voice of the earth, of being, is more important for our future happiness than the voices of the moment, the desires of the moment. In short, this is a first criterion to learn: that being itself, our earth, speaks to us and we must listen if we want to survive and to decipher this message of the earth. And if we must be obedient to the voice of the earth, this is even truer for the voice of human life. Not only must we care for the earth, we must respect the other, others: both the other as an individual person, as my neighbour, and others as communities who live in the world and have to live together. And we see that it is only with full respect for this creature of God, this image of God which man is, and with respect for our coexistence on this earth, that we can develop.

Here we reach the point when we need the great moral experiences of humanity. These experiences are born from the encounter with the other, with the community. We need the experience that human freedom is always a shared freedom and can only function if we share our freedom with respect for the values that are common to us all.

It seems to me that with these steps it will be possible to make people see the need to obey the voice of being, to respect the dignity of the other, to accept the need to live our respective freedom together as one freedom, and through all this to recognize the intrinsic value that can make a dignified communion of life possible among human beings. Thus, as has been said, we come to the great experiences of humanity in which the voice of being is expressed. We especially come to the experiences of this great historical pilgrimage of the People of God that began with Abraham. In him, not only do we find the fundamental human experiences but also, we can hear through these experiences the voice of the Creator himself, who loves us and has spoken to us.

Here, in this context, respecting the human experiences that point out the way to us today and in the future, I believe that the Ten Commandments always have a priority value in which we see the important signposts on our way. The Ten Commandments reinterpreted, relived in the light of Christ, in the light of the life of the Church and of her experiences, point to certain fundamental and essential values. Together, the Fourth and Sixth Commandments suggest the importance of our body, of respecting the laws of the body and of sexuality and love, the value of faithful love, of the family; the Fifth Commandment points to the value of life and also the value of community life; the Seventh Commandment regards the value of sharing the earth’s goods and of a fair distribution of these goods and of the stewardship of God’s creation; the Eighth Commandment points to the great value of truth. If, therefore, in the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Commandments we have love of neighbour, in the Seventh we have the truth.

None of this works without communion with God, without respect for God and God’s presence in the world. In any case, a world without God becomes an arbitrary and egoistic world. There is light and hope only if God appears. Our life has a meaning which we must not produce ourselves but which precedes us and guides us. In this sense, therefore, I would say that together, we should take the obvious routes which today even the lay conscience can easily discern. We should therefore seek to guide people to the deepest voices, to the true voice of the conscience that is communicated through the great tradition of prayer, of the moral life of the Church. Thus, in a process of patient education, I think we can all learn to live and to find true life.

Pope: “Christ Not Looking for Tired Conformists”

Division? The pope comments on yesterday’s Gospel, from Zenit:

The Pope said this today to those gathered at the pontifical residence at Castel Gandolfo to pray the Angelus. He added that being instruments of Christ’s peace means “defeating evil with good.”

Speaking about the words of Jesus from today’s Gospel — “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” — the Holy Father clarified that this saying “means the peace that he came to bring is not synonymous with the simple absence of conflict.”

“On the contrary, the peace of Jesus is the fruit of a constant struggle against evil. The battle that Jesus has decided to fight is not against men or human powers but against the enemy of God and man, Satan,” the Pontiff emphasized.

He continued: “Those who desire to resist this enemy, remaining faithful to God and the good, must necessarily deal with misunderstandings and sometimes very real persecution.

“Thus, those who intend to follow Jesus and commit themselves without compromises to the truth must know that they will face opposition and will become, despite themselves, a sign of division among persons, even within their own families.”

Benedict XVI said that love for one’s parents is “indeed a sacred commandment,” but added that it “cannot be set in opposition to the love of God and Christ.”

“In such a way, in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus, Christians must become ‘instruments of his peace,’ according to the celebrated expression of St. Francis of Assisi,” the Pope said. “This is not an inconsistent and superficial peace but a real one, pursued with courage and tenacity in the daily commitment to defeat evil with good, paying in person the price that this carries with it.”

Speaking in German, he added, “Christ is not looking for tired conformists, but witnesses of courageous faith, those who burn in the fire of his love.”

Fire at the Beach, Myrtle Beach September 14-15

Come hear me speak! I’m giving two workshops:

HOW WE BECOME CHRIST AT MASS
When we celebrate the Eucharist we die to ourselves. We move with the Church’s movements. We speak the Word of God, not our words. We literally are conformed to Christ. Learn a new way to see what you are already doing.

WHY CONFESSION IS STILL IMPORTANT
If you want to get the most out of the Eucharist, then you need to recapture the Sacrament of Reconciliation and discover how much Christ wants to love you. A fresh look at the Sacrament based on the author’s book A Pocket Guide to Confession.

Calling God “Abba”

In a few weeks, Bishop Tiny Muskens will retire–look for the Pope to graciously accept his resignation immediately. You may not know the name, but no doubt you have heard the news that Bishop Muskens has made in the past few days when he indicated in an interview that God doesn’t care what he is called and so we might as well just go ahead and call him “Allah” to mend fences with the Muslims. Now of course, this is rather naive and even though Bishop Muskens indicates that priests in Indonesia regularly use “Allah” rather than God when celebrating Mass, I doubt any Muslim I have ever known would find this something that would please them–unless Jesus suddenly became just another prophet and Mohammed was seen as the final and greatest prophet–something that it seems people of Bishop Musken’s ilk would probably readily agree to as well.

Which brings us back to Joseph Ratzinger’s Jesus of Nazareth. Why is this book so timely? Because it points out what Christians who have died for their faith believe about Jesus Christ, not only that he was sent by God (and as Ratzinger points out was the “prophet” that Moses had prophesied would come–something Muslims claim refers to Mohammed), but that he was God incarnate and gave us a definitive revelation about who and what God is like. Jesus gives God a human face! What was Jesus’ name for God? The infant’s name for a father–”Abba” or in English it might be rendered “dada.”

Those who have been baptized in Christ, now share in his Sonship and as Saint Paul says in his Letter to the Galatians “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6). This is the way of the followers of Christ.

Bishop Muskens represents the many reasons why the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has to release documents reminding Catholics that we believe that the fullness of revelation has been given through Christ and is present in the Catholic Church–for some reason quite a number of Catholics seem to have skipped class on the day that was taught and are all to ready to adopt the practices of other faiths and traditions without blinking and eye and calling themselves Catholics.