I read this article on one of the Catholic news websites I frequently check out.
It talks about the wife and daughter of a Shinto priest becoming Catholic at Easter.(Traditionally, Easter is when new Christians are baptized and/or receive the other Sacraments of Initiation, including Confirmation and First Eucharist).
Two things struck me from the article:
1) The Shinto priest considers himself "profoundly fortunately" to having his wife and daughter become Catholic.
2) The sense of duty the Shinto priest has to helping the community...the Asian culture of community before self.
Link: Shito Priest's Family
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Papal Posting
I wish I had some interesting stuff to report on, but I don’t.
Oh, one exciting thing…mom and dad bought me my plane ticket for Vegas in June, so I will see a number of my readers there! I’m looking forward to that!
For most of today, I was help leading a retreat for the Confirmation class I have been helping with at a local parish. Fr. John and I split up different parts of it, but I did a number of the reflection parts. A majority of my talk was on the Holy Spirit, Fruits of the Holy Spirit, Gifts of the Holy Spirit and virtue.
Tidbit by Thomas: And while speaking about church stuff…What do I think of all this stuff about Pope Benedict and this child abuse case? I think 95% of the media hype is thrown out of proportion for it. As usual, the media is looking to rip into the last scandal, whether it be secular or non-secular. For one thing, I would be nice for the reporters to understand their subject matter. For one thing, NBC nightly news reports have been horrible in their semantics, which I think just shows the distortion of their reports. Over the last few days I have heard them say the pope will “preach” Mass, gave a “sermon,” and poorly compare papal infallibility to items it cannot be compared.
First, one does not “preach” Mass. Technically, the priest, or pope, “celebrates” Mass. (Other appropriate terms are to “do” Mass or “say” Mass.) However, one does not “preach” Mass. To “preach Mass” sounds so foreign, that it is actually quite comical.
Second, Catholic Masses have “homilies,” but not a “sermon.” A homily can be a type of a sermon, but not all sermons are homilies. Where’s the hair splitting, you ask? Well a homily is based on the scripture readings, while a sermon is some type of spiritual or moral exhortation which does not have to be based on any scripture readings. Priests, bishops and the pope are ordered to do a “homily” during Mass; they have to talk about at least one of the scripture readings in their and thus give a “homily.” What’s the fuss over talking about at least one of the scripture readings? Well as Mrs. Hanrahan can tell you, not so long ago (40 years ago), sermons were given during Mass. There would be 2-3 readings from the Bible and the priest was not required to mention any of them in their sermons. So there was a disconnect, and often Catholics were criticized for not being based on Scripture. So today, homilies are a critical distinction to show how important the Bible is to Catholicism. (And also, if the pope does not apologize in a homily for any mishap he may have had in any of these cases, don’t be surprised because that’s not the point of a homily.)
And finally, as NBC seemed to try to hint, the pope has the divine gift of papal infallibility, but he is now being tossed around like a secular politician, and because of that Catholics may start to question their faith. However, just because the pope has a gift of infallibility, he is only infallible in matters of faith and morals, and not in things such as saying the weather, pastoral decision making, or even determining the type of music to be used in Mass. Assuming then-Cardinal Ratzinger even knew about the priest in Germany, the decisions about moving pedophile priests would not under the canopy of his infallibility. And as mentioned, he wasn’t even pope at the time of the decision making.
Ok so there’s my rant against the media. That being said, the cardinals electing Pope Benedict knew they were getting a theologian as a pope and not a charismatic pastor. So if you haven’t figured it out already, I don’t think the pope should resign over any of this.
As with any bureaucracy, then-Cardinal Ratzinger, while in name would have been responsible for some of the decisions, he probably just signed his name to some of the stuff which lower peons wrote/decided. More evidence can come to light and I can be wrong, but with what I know I think most of this attack again Benedict has been blown out of proportion. He should somewhere along the line apologize for bad decision making, but that’s about it.
Oh, one exciting thing…mom and dad bought me my plane ticket for Vegas in June, so I will see a number of my readers there! I’m looking forward to that!
For most of today, I was help leading a retreat for the Confirmation class I have been helping with at a local parish. Fr. John and I split up different parts of it, but I did a number of the reflection parts. A majority of my talk was on the Holy Spirit, Fruits of the Holy Spirit, Gifts of the Holy Spirit and virtue.
Tidbit by Thomas: And while speaking about church stuff…What do I think of all this stuff about Pope Benedict and this child abuse case? I think 95% of the media hype is thrown out of proportion for it. As usual, the media is looking to rip into the last scandal, whether it be secular or non-secular. For one thing, I would be nice for the reporters to understand their subject matter. For one thing, NBC nightly news reports have been horrible in their semantics, which I think just shows the distortion of their reports. Over the last few days I have heard them say the pope will “preach” Mass, gave a “sermon,” and poorly compare papal infallibility to items it cannot be compared.
First, one does not “preach” Mass. Technically, the priest, or pope, “celebrates” Mass. (Other appropriate terms are to “do” Mass or “say” Mass.) However, one does not “preach” Mass. To “preach Mass” sounds so foreign, that it is actually quite comical.
Second, Catholic Masses have “homilies,” but not a “sermon.” A homily can be a type of a sermon, but not all sermons are homilies. Where’s the hair splitting, you ask? Well a homily is based on the scripture readings, while a sermon is some type of spiritual or moral exhortation which does not have to be based on any scripture readings. Priests, bishops and the pope are ordered to do a “homily” during Mass; they have to talk about at least one of the scripture readings in their and thus give a “homily.” What’s the fuss over talking about at least one of the scripture readings? Well as Mrs. Hanrahan can tell you, not so long ago (40 years ago), sermons were given during Mass. There would be 2-3 readings from the Bible and the priest was not required to mention any of them in their sermons. So there was a disconnect, and often Catholics were criticized for not being based on Scripture. So today, homilies are a critical distinction to show how important the Bible is to Catholicism. (And also, if the pope does not apologize in a homily for any mishap he may have had in any of these cases, don’t be surprised because that’s not the point of a homily.)
And finally, as NBC seemed to try to hint, the pope has the divine gift of papal infallibility, but he is now being tossed around like a secular politician, and because of that Catholics may start to question their faith. However, just because the pope has a gift of infallibility, he is only infallible in matters of faith and morals, and not in things such as saying the weather, pastoral decision making, or even determining the type of music to be used in Mass. Assuming then-Cardinal Ratzinger even knew about the priest in Germany, the decisions about moving pedophile priests would not under the canopy of his infallibility. And as mentioned, he wasn’t even pope at the time of the decision making.
Ok so there’s my rant against the media. That being said, the cardinals electing Pope Benedict knew they were getting a theologian as a pope and not a charismatic pastor. So if you haven’t figured it out already, I don’t think the pope should resign over any of this.
As with any bureaucracy, then-Cardinal Ratzinger, while in name would have been responsible for some of the decisions, he probably just signed his name to some of the stuff which lower peons wrote/decided. More evidence can come to light and I can be wrong, but with what I know I think most of this attack again Benedict has been blown out of proportion. He should somewhere along the line apologize for bad decision making, but that’s about it.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Warming up in Minnesota
Well, yes, since I’m posting in the middle of the day during a weekday, I’m not substituting today. However, I did get to do a good amount of substituting last week.
One of the movies I had to show to a Western Civilization class was Rabbit-Proof Fence. I would highly recommend it! While some of the scenes could have better lighting to see what was happening (or perhaps it was hard to see because we were watching it in a room that had some light coming in from the hall ways etc), the point and moral of the story was very powerful. It is a movie made in 2002 about the Aboriginals in Australia based in the 1930s. Without giving anything away, the striking part of the movie is that this was only a couple generations ago. The children in the movie could have been my grandparents. Of course, that is not to take away anything from all the struggles my grandparents had to go through, but I think these incidents show us we have come quite a long way in the last 80 years.
Weather update in Minnesota, we have reached the mid 50’s in the Twin Cities! Wow, it might as well be summer already! Although, one does not need 50 degree weather for shorts and t-shirts…30 degrees is warm enough for people around here!
Tidbit by Thomas: I was watching EWTN, the Catholic cable station, over the weekend, and I heard one of the well known commentators on there make a statement that struck me. He said, “We need to live in the moment.” For a second, I thought I may have been on the Buddhist station. But he repeated himself, “We need to live in this moment; we don’t need to worry about what the future may have for us.” The point he was making was something I guess I had known, but had never been able to put my finger on directly or had been able to express clearly myself. His point: God gives us enough grace for this moment; God give us the grace when we need it; God has taken care of us in the past and will take care of us in the future when we get there; in conclusion, if we don’t use the graces we are given for this moment, we are wasting God’s gift to us. SO once again, Catholicism and Buddhism cross similar paths….Live in the moment; there will not be another moment like it again.
One of the movies I had to show to a Western Civilization class was Rabbit-Proof Fence. I would highly recommend it! While some of the scenes could have better lighting to see what was happening (or perhaps it was hard to see because we were watching it in a room that had some light coming in from the hall ways etc), the point and moral of the story was very powerful. It is a movie made in 2002 about the Aboriginals in Australia based in the 1930s. Without giving anything away, the striking part of the movie is that this was only a couple generations ago. The children in the movie could have been my grandparents. Of course, that is not to take away anything from all the struggles my grandparents had to go through, but I think these incidents show us we have come quite a long way in the last 80 years.
Weather update in Minnesota, we have reached the mid 50’s in the Twin Cities! Wow, it might as well be summer already! Although, one does not need 50 degree weather for shorts and t-shirts…30 degrees is warm enough for people around here!
Tidbit by Thomas: I was watching EWTN, the Catholic cable station, over the weekend, and I heard one of the well known commentators on there make a statement that struck me. He said, “We need to live in the moment.” For a second, I thought I may have been on the Buddhist station. But he repeated himself, “We need to live in this moment; we don’t need to worry about what the future may have for us.” The point he was making was something I guess I had known, but had never been able to put my finger on directly or had been able to express clearly myself. His point: God gives us enough grace for this moment; God give us the grace when we need it; God has taken care of us in the past and will take care of us in the future when we get there; in conclusion, if we don’t use the graces we are given for this moment, we are wasting God’s gift to us. SO once again, Catholicism and Buddhism cross similar paths….Live in the moment; there will not be another moment like it again.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
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