Lucia

Well-Known Member
Any advice for a saint medal for us? MY NEIGHBOR IS DEALING DRUGS NEXT DOOR. sighhhhhh :busted:

Confirmation on the drugs are from the neighborhood kid who who is best friends with my kid because he cuts his yard as his summer job and they made mention of it two days ago. He saw the plants/setup. Someone else told me he had purple growing lights on late night and they suspected. I have once but didn't pay it any mind. You can see them from our driveway...right next to it. I brushed it off.

Yesterday, some weird smell, kinda like burning sage, was all over the place on Sunday morning. Weather cooled down so I had the windows open. I swear I saw a cloud of smoke waft in through our windows. Thought someone was burning yard leaves which is illegal. Then I got scared because there have been about 5 house fires in this area this summer and I know I need electrical work done. It dissipated....then it happened again about 5 times. I was wondering who on earth was having trouble lighting their fireplace or whatever. I was checking my property because this weird smell permeated TWO LARGE rooma of my house and it lingered. Then it hit me, that was WEED MAN!!! It got so bad, I had to close our windows. This man was probably smoking a huge bong next door and blowing it out his window adjacent to our game room. I'm worried the Feds might think it's our house if he's ever raided. So, people were right, this fooh is dealing right next door and we just happen to be the Black people on this block. I won't say anything to the police but dang. SMH. I need a saint's medal in the yard or something. Any suggestions? In a day and age that Black people are under siege, this fool:abducted::bat: is endangering us with the potential, mistaken police raid. :rolleyes:

Yes at bolded right?

Saints that come to mind first

St Micheal Archangel patron saint of officers and in general any kind of "spiritual butt kicking" needed that's my definition :lol:

St Benedict known for casting out all evils and protection

St Padre Pio

Virgo Potens

St Moses the Black
 

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Yes at bolded right?

Saints that come to mind first

St Micheal Archangel patron saint of officers and in general any kind of "spiritual butt kicking" needed that's my definition :lol:

St Benedict known for casting out all evils and protection

St Padre Pio

Virgo Potens

St Moses the Black


LOL! I did get enrolled in St. Benedict and have a medal in the home. That took care of some ghostly nonsense going on in here. I wrote not too long ago about seeing a HUGE angel in the backyard this late Spring or Summer when there was lightening and in a split second when that light hit and dissipated, I saw an angel standing, shielding us from something and in the spot that I had prayed about for when we had those rotten dangerous trees. Dunno if he was St. Michael or not. Padre Pio winked at me once in my dream lol! I've heard of St. Moses the Black but will go read some more and about Virgo Potens prayer. I just wondered if there were something people bury in the yard or something or a specific prayer when you walk around your property or maybe even plant in the street for the whole neighborhood for conversion to g-dly living. You never know. I hope he doesn't do a repeat this weekend. I can't stand the smell of that skunky junk.
 

Lucia

Well-Known Member
LOL! I did get enrolled in St. Benedict and have a medal in the home. That took care of some ghostly nonsense going on in here. I wrote not too long ago about seeing a HUGE angel in the backyard this late Spring or Summer when there was lightening and in a split second when that light hit and dissipated, I saw an angel standing, shielding us from something and in the spot that I had prayed about for when we had those rotten dangerous trees. Dunno if he was St. Michael or not. Padre Pio winked at me once in my dream lol! I've heard of St. Moses the Black but will go read some more and about Virgo Potens prayer. I just wondered if there were something people bury in the yard or something or a specific prayer when you walk around your property or maybe even plant in the street for the whole neighborhood for conversion to g-dly living. You never know. I hope he doesn't do a repeat this weekend. I can't stand the smell of that skunky junk.

Keep praying and when in church you can do several things:

1. have a mass said for safety and protection of your neighborhood especially the children.

2. Make an appointment with the Preist and have your house blessed FYI have him go all throughout the house too even step out into the yard a little and bless. Tell him about the "ghostly" shenanigans.
That will take care of any other shenanigans like you posted above.

If your criminally enterprising breaking bad neighbor sees a Preist around that's a plus too maybe he'll get the hint and close shop or go elsewhere.

3. When they say in mass and ask for out loud intentions ask aloud safety and protection of your neibourhood that will have he whole congregation in agreement like in Matt 18:20 praying for the same goal.

To protect your entire dwelling get 3 more St Benedict (if you want to add some Miraculous Mary Medal coins and place them in the four corners of your home. Fr Riperberger talked about this in his Spiritual Protection YT video and it works. There is a St Benedict protection prayer you can say as well and intend it for your home, neighborhood.

4. Get a St Benedict wall crucifix and put that near or over your front door.

Before putting them around have them blessed with the St Benedict exorcism blessing a regular blessing will do but you said there were some shenanigans going on so I'd get the exorcism blessing it can be done on any St Benedict relics.
I even have a St Benedict car visor clip, medals in the home and crucifix at the front door.

You could get a small St Micheal Archangel icon blessed and set him in the back yard or facing the yard from the window or porch etc.

Regarding bolded:
In our town several houses have a medium outdoor icon of Miraculous Mary or Our Lady of Guadalupe or Our Lady of Mount Carmel by the front walkways or in the front flower border garden.

Just some suggestions
HTH and God bless.

Link to exorcism blessing
https://www.romancatholicman.com/st-benedict-medal-with-exorcism-blessing/
 
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kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Keep praying and when in church you can do several things:

1. have a mass said for safety and protection of your neighborhood especially the children.

2. Make an appointment with the Preist and have your house blessed FYI have him go all throughout the house too even step out into the yard a little and bless. Tell him about the "ghostly" shenanigans.
That will take care of any other shenanigans like you posted above.

If your criminally enterprising breaking bad neighbor sees a Preist around that's a plus too maybe he'll get the hint and close shop or go elsewhere.

3. When they say in mass and ask for out loud intentions ask aloud safety and protection of your neibourhood that will have he whole congregation in agreement like in Matt 18:20 praying for the same goal.

To protect your entire dwelling get 3 more St Benedict (if you want to add some Miraculous Mary Medal coins and place them in the four corners of your home. Fr Riperberger talked about this in his Spiritual Protection YT video and it works. There is a St Benedict protection prayer you can say as well and intend it for your home, neighborhood.

4. Get a St Benedict wall crucifix and put that near or over your front door.

Before putting them around have them blessed with the St Benedict exorcism blessing a regular blessing will do but you said there were some shenanigans going on so I'd get the exorcism blessing it can be done on any St Benedict relics.
I even have a St Benedict car visor clip, medals in the home and crucifix at the front door.

You could get a small St Micheal Archangel icon blessed and set him in the back yard or facing the yard from the window or porch etc.

Regarding bolded:
In our town several houses have a medium outdoor icon of Miraculous Mary or Our Lady of Guadalupe or Our Lady of Mount Carmel by the front walkways or in the front flower border garden.

Just some suggestions
HTH and God bless.

Link to exorcism blessing
https://www.romancatholicman.com/st-benedict-medal-with-exorcism-blessing/


Our St. Benedict medal was blessed. I mean, I know the guy had like 5 back surgeries but c'mon son. LOL. I have an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe which I've had for years now. I also have images of Our L-rd framed in two places in the house. I'll ask about the intentions and see what they say. We can't mention out loud our intentions during Sunday Mass. I dunno about daily Mass...maybe then.
 

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
At first, I HATED it! Just hated it! But now, I like confession. I get such a sense of peace and protection in reconciliation. Even if there aren't the biggest sins, I just feel that I'm on this upward road. He is with me. I'm so glad. It's the greatest gift I've ever received (Him)!!! He never leaves me hanging. I may feel abandoned about something for a time but eventually, I find out that He had me all along. I especially love leaving the confessional with that relief and acknowledgement and then my eyes fixate on the ark. It is so comforting. I don't have all the answers but I know He will preserve me and my family. He will watch over the apple of His eye.
 
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Belle Du Jour

Well-Known Member
At first, I HATED it! Just hated it! But now, I like confession. I get such a sense of peace and protection in reconciliation. Even if there aren't the biggest sins, I just feel that I'm on this upward road. He is with me. I'm so glad. It's the greatest gift I've ever received!!! He never leaves me hanging. I may feel abandoned about something for a time but eventually, I find out that He had me all along. I especially love leaving the confessional with that relief and acknowledgement and then my eyes fixate on the ark. It is so comforting. I don't have all the answers but I know He will preserve me and my family. He will watch over the apple of His eye.

Confession--actually ALL the sacraments--are a blessing. I don't understand how people function well without them...I would be a mess. I still don't like having to go but I definitely feel better afterwards.
 

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
How does the Church determine who becomes beatified and what is the origin of it? Catholic Encyclopedia 'excerpt':


Canonization in the Catholic Church is quite another thing. The Catholic Church canonizes or beatifies only those whose lives have been marked by the exercise of heroic virtue, and only after this has been proved by common repute for sanctity and by conclusive arguments. The chief difference, however, lies in the meaning of the term canonization, the Church seeing in the saints nothing more than friends and servants of God whose holy lives have made them worthy of His special love. She does not pretend to make gods (cf. Eusebius Emisenus, Serm. de S. Rom. M.; Augustine, City of God XXII.10; Cyrill. Alexandr., Contra Jul., lib. VI; Cyprian, De Exhortat. martyr.; Conc. Nic., II, act. 3).

The true origin of canonization and beatification must be sought in the Catholic doctrine of the worship (cultus), invocation, and intercession of the saints. As was taught by St. Augustine (Quaest. in Heptateuch., lib. II, n. 94; Reply to Faustus XX.21), Catholics, while giving to God alone adoration strictly so-called, honour the saints because of the Divine supernatural gifts which have earned them eternal life, and through which they reign with God in the heavenly fatherland as His chosen friends and faithful servants. In other words, Catholics honour God in His saints as the loving distributor of supernatural gifts. The worship of latria (latreia), or strict adoration, is given to God alone; the worship of dulia (douleia), or honour and humble reverence, is paid the saints; the worship of hyperdulia (hyperdouleia), a higher form of dulia, belongs, on account of her greater excellence, to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church (Augustine, Reply to Faustus XX.21; cf. City of God XXII.10) erects her altars to God alone, though in honour and memory of the saints and martyrs. There is Scriptural warrant for such worship in the passages where we are bidden to venerate angels (Exodus 23:20 sqq.; Joshua 5:13 sqq.; Daniel 8:15 sqq.; 10:4 sqq.; Luke 2:9 sqq.; Acts 12:7 sqq.; Revelation 5:11 sqq.; 7:1 sqq.; Matthew 18:10; etc.), whom holy men are not unlike, as sharers of the friendship of God. And if St. Paul beseeches the brethren (Romans 15:30; 2 Corinthians 1:11; Colossians 4:3; Ephesians 6:18-19) to help him by their prayers for him to God, we must with even greater reason maintain that we can be helped by the prayers of the saints, and ask their intercession with humility. If we may beseech those who still live on earth, why not those who live in heaven?
 

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
https://cruxnow.com/commentary/2016/09/06/attacks-left-right-confirm-mother-teresas-authenticity/
https://cruxnow.com/commentary/2016/09/06/attacks-left-right-confirm-mother-teresas-authenticity/
Attacks from left and right confirm Mother Teresa’s authenticity


Sisters of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity arrive in St. Peter's Square to attend a thanksgiving Mass following her canonization, at the Vatican, Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. Elevating the "saint of the gutters" to one of the Catholic Church's highest honors, Pope Francis on Sunday praised Mother Teresa for her radical dedication to society's outcasts and her courage in shaming world leaders for the "crimes of poverty they themselves created." (Credit: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia.)

Many on the left disliked Mother Teresa's unyielding pro-life position, while some Catholic traditionalists harbor doubts about her orthodoxy and avoidance of overt evangelization -- and those bricks from both sides are probably a sign that she got things about right.

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Commentary

Like a tennis ball, poor St. Teresa of Calcutta is getting whacked from both sides. In an article for Breitbart, Thomas Williams explains why the left hates Mother Teresa.

The Washington Post published a column, “Why Mother Teresa is Still No Saint to Many of her Critics,” while Salon called her “repugnant” and accused, “it is difficult to remember her legacy as anything other than an inefficient, sanctimonious and wholly ideological franchise.”

Meanwhile the New York Times gave Indian doctor Aroup Chatterjee a soapbox for his continued attacks on Mother Teresa.

Williams suspects that beneath the left’s attacks on Mother Teresa is their hatred of her pro-life stance. The tough little sister had the nerve to use her Nobel Peace prize speech, her speech at a Washington Prayer Breakfast and a Harvard commencement address to speak out against abortion saying famously, “The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion” and “If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”

Williams quotes an essay published by Planned Parenthood entitled, Mother Teresa the Woman of My Nightmares in which Saint Teresa is described as “this very successful old and withered person, who doesn’t look in the least like a woman, especially when she raises her clenched fists in prayer.”

Elsewhere Planned Parenthood’s propaganda merchants fumed, “[Mother Teresa] has become for us the symbol of all that is bad in motherhood and womanhood, an image with which we do not wish to be associated.”

Williams believes left wingers are also repulsed by Mother Teresa’s religiosity. With utter simplicity she stated, “I see Jesus in every human being…I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.”

Surprisingly, the attacks on Mother Teresa don’t come only from the atheist secularists. While they were annoyed by her high octane Catholicism, some Catholic conservatives think she wasn’t Catholic enough. Extreme traditionalists are suspicious of Mother Teresa for several reasons.

Writing on his blog, aka Catholic, Louis Verrecchio criticizes Catholics who applaud Mother Teresa’s pro-life stance. He has the idea that to be pro-life is to substitute an ideology for Catholicism. He then goes on to blame Mother Teresa for not being a true Catholic. Instead she is a crypto-Freemason because she eschewed overt evangelization and proselytism.

“Truly” he writes, “Mother Teresa could very well be considered the Patron Saint of both Free Masonry and Pro-Lifeism.”

Meanwhile, writing at Tradition in Action website, Marion T. Horvat PhD asks, “Is Mother Teresa of Calcutta a Saint? If you have to ask, I guess the answer is ‘No.'”

Horvat goes on to question Mother Teresa’s orthodoxy from selected pull quotes, criticizes both her position not to proselytize while she also criticizes the gentle form of baptism the nuns used when the dying asked to be baptized. Tradition in Action piles on the anti-Mother Teresa verbiage with a collection of articles entitled, “Mother Teresa Prays to Buddha,” “Doubts About the Orthodoxy of Mother Teresa,” and “The Pedophile Spiritual Director of Mother Teresa.”

Should Mother Teresa be above all criticism? Of course not, but the criticism from both the right and the left is rarely balanced or objective. The odd thing is that both radical traditionalists and radical leftists are united in their dislike. Shakespeare said “misery makes strange bedfellows.” It would seem Mother Teresa does too.

Rather than undermine her reputation, the attacks on Mother Teresa are a good indicator of her authenticity. When a person is attacked from only one side of the ideological divide one suspects that they are on the other side. However, whenever a person is attacked from both liberals and conservatives they must be getting it just about right.

At the very heart of her life and ministry was Mother Teresa’s devotion to Jesus Christ and his gospel. In this life she must have heard his words, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”

In her present life no doubt those words are still echoing.
 

Belle Du Jour

Well-Known Member
Satan doesn't attack his own :yep:

If people will come for Litte Mother Teresa, then who won't they come for? A woman caring for dying sick discarded people is being dragged through the mud while the Kardashians are celebrated. Something very off there o_O
 

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Satan doesn't attack his own :yep:

If people will come for Litte Mother Teresa, then who won't they come for? A woman caring for dying sick discarded people is being dragged through the mud while the Kardashians are celebrated. Something very off there o_O


Been thinking about this for some time now. It's because she unequivocally stood by the teachings of the Church on abortion and the sanctity of life. The abortionists and all who support them were very angry with her. Don't we all struggle every day to survive? We protect our lives...so do humans in their most vulnerable state. SMH.
 

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
https://www.ncronline.org/news/just...want-stronger-church-response-police-killings

Black Catholic leaders want stronger church response to police killings

  • At the Archbishop Lyke Conference in San Antonio, attendees hold signs referencing recent police shootings of young black men and urging Catholic bishops to respond. (Kevin Winstead)
Peter Feuerherd | Jul. 11, 2016

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In the world of African-American Catholic life, San Antonio was the place to be July 5-9. The annual Archbishop Lyke Conference, named for the late former Atlanta archbishop James P. Lyke, was to explore and celebrate liturgy and worship in the black American tradition. The expectation was that there would be joyous song, praise, and dance at the meeting, held at the Oblate School of Theology.

And then reality hit. As word spread about the killing by police of Alton Sterling on July 5 and Philando Castile on July 6, young black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, respectively, joyous praise no longer was appropriate.

"We can't just be happy," said one young participant.

The youth at the conference led the way in redirecting the meeting agenda, according to Jesuit Fr. Joseph A. Brown, professor of Africana studies* at Southern Illinois University, the conference keynoter.

"We shifted to real-world issues," Brown told NCR, noting that the conference atmosphere abruptly changed. At its conclusion, a photo of participants included young people holding signs proclaiming "Black Catholics Support Black Lives Matter" and "Where Are Our Bishops?"

We are excited to launch Making Peace, a new reporting series that will explore peace and nonviolence. Learn more

A sprinkling rite included the names of young black men killed by police. Brown told NCR that in response to the anger and pain felt by many African-American Catholics, bishops across the nation should hold rites of reconciliation in their cathedrals to address the sin of racism.

Other black Catholic leaders last week called on the church to be unambiguous in its condemnation of violence, particularly regarding police officers who kill young black men. They argued for increased and better police training, and overcoming what they said was a reluctance among some bishops to speak out because many Catholics work as police officers.

"It's shocking and deplorable that this is happening so frequently in different parts of the country," said Fr. Kenneth Taylor, pastor of Holy Angels Catholic Church in Indianapolis and president of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus. He said the shootings of young black men by police is something "I have not seen on the radar" of the national conference of bishops.

"There is an element of the church that doesn't want to look like they are going against law enforcement," he said.

He said that community policing strategies have improved police/civilian relations in Indianapolis. It's common, said Taylor, for police to meet with students at his parish school, which is predominantly African-American.

But the recent shootings, he said, are bound to increase tensions. "It's going to put more on edge. It has a potential for really escalating out of control."

Milwaukee-based Franciscan Sr. Callista Robinson, president of the National Black Sisters' Conference, said there is a need "to excise the sin of racism" in the country. She suggested that better police training could be a start in curbing police shootings.

Her organization was founded in 1968, a particularly turbulent year for race relations, including the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and riots across the country. The group was formed to address issues of racism in the church and to spur action on justice concerns.

"We are facing the same issues we faced in 1968," said Robinson.

She said the shootings of five police officers in Dallas on July 7 by an Army veteran with a vendetta against police, "will not help the situation. ... The violence has to stop. We have to look at ways to make that happen."

Fr. Michael Pfleger is a white priest and pastor of St. Sabina Church in Chicago, a largely African-American congregation. Pfleger has a long history of social activism, and is known for a prophetic speaking style, akin to that of African-American preachers.

He noted that this month is the 50th anniversary of King's march in Chicago, an effort to address racism and segregation in a large northern city. That effort was met with large-scale resistance at the time.

"We can take all he said then and just change the date," said Pfleger. "It is the same reality."

He said outrage should exist about the shootings by police of black youths across the church, not just in African-American parishes.

"The wealthy and the removed are co-conspirators," he said. "It is not a time for anyone to be silent. The church will become what she is called to be or become irrelevant," he said.

In a column shared on the website of CBS-affiliate station WWL-TV, Redemptorist Fr. Maurice Nutt, director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans, addressed the killing of Sterling in nearby Baton Rouge, La.

He noted that African-American men comprise about a quarter of Baton Rouge's population, but are 100 percent of those recently killed by police officers.

"This is an American dilemma that transcends Baton Rouge. That city just happened to have the latest videotaped killing of a black man," he wrote.

He addressed criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement for its focus on young black men being killed by police.

"Why does this mantra infuriate some in the dominant culture? Is it not a prerogative of any ethnic group to affirm their right to exist and not be killed? When people rebuff the purpose of the Black Lives Matter movement by insisting, 'All lives matter,' they not only miss the point that all lives are not at risk but also further diminish the realities of racism and oppression in our country," he wrote.

He wrote that Black Lives Matter is needed because young black men are nine times more likely to be killed by police than other Americans.

"Peace is not a polite conversation between the oppressor and the oppressed. Peace is dismantling the hierarchies of oppression," he wrote. "Peace is redistribution of the economic and social power. Peace does not come from seeking the lowest common denominator, but in seeking radical and universal principles that will be fair to all."

Fr. Bryan Massingale, a priest of the Milwaukee archdiocese who will begin teaching theology at Fordham University in New York this fall, commented that too many recent church statements focus on racial relationships, not racial justice. He said there is a "disembodied spirituality" apparent among many priests, who are ill-prepared to confront justice issues in their pastoral work.

He said bishops should pay attention to four factors in dealing with July's crisis:

  • "The sanctity of all lives," and the belief that "life is sacred."
  • "We can support police while also calling for reforms in policing."
  • While all lives are sacred, "the reality is that the playing field is not and has not been level. African-Americans have a very different encounter with the criminal justice system."
  • And, he said, bishops need to listen to the concerns of African-American Catholics and others in the black community.
At St. Benedict Catholic Church in Oakland, Calif., a largely African-American church, pastor Fr. Jayson Landeza asked parishioners to share their thoughts on the situation at Masses the weekend of July 9-10. What he found echoed much of what was said at San Antonio's Archbishop Lyke Conference.

"Incredible pain (and) fear that our society has taken a step back regarding race relations and how African-Americans are perceived," Landeza shared on his Facebook page. "Terrified for their sons and grandsons, particularly regarding interactions with law enforcement. Angry about the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Heartbroken about the killing of the five Dallas officers. Much tears shed."

*This story has been updated to correct Jesuit Fr. Joseph A. Brown's title.

[Peter Feuerherd is a professor of communications and journalism at St. John's University in New York and contributor to NCR's Field Hospital blog.]
 

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Before anyone can claim that Pope Francis has been silent on the issue:

http://www.ibtimes.com/pope-francis...icans-pope-us-visit-puts-focus-social-2114749

Pope Francis And Black Lives Matter: For African-Americans, Pope US Visit Puts Focus On Social Justice And Racial Disparity
By Aaron Morrison @aaronlmorrison On 09/25/15 AT 7:35 PM

NEW YORK -- Harlem's barbershops, beauty salons, sneaker stores and even the liquor market advertising premium spirits are all familiar to Valerie Massard, an African-American woman who has lived for 47 years in the historic black neighborhood. But Roman Catholicism isn’t.

“This is history for me and my daughter,” she said Friday as she joined hundreds of black and brown faces along an upper Manhattan street reserved for Pope Francis’ motorcade Friday. Massard, a Baptist, had gathered with others to see the pope visit a Catholic elementary school during his whirlwind tour of New York City. “To me, he’s a Christian and he was chosen by God to be a messenger for Christ,” she said, adding that the pontiff was appealing to many black Americans because "he's opening up and showing that things need to change to help all of the people, not just some of them."

Pope Francis' visit to Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Harlem, just a few blocks east of Malcolm X Boulevard, named after the Black Muslim icon and human rights activist who was assassinated in 1965, during the African-American civil rights movement, represented another step in the growing relationship between the Catholic Church and the African-American community in the U.S.


  • Pope Francis greets people inside Our Lady Queen of Angels School on Sept. 25, 2015, in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Photo: Stephanie Keith-Pool/Getty Images

  • Pope Francis speaks to a child inside Our Lady Queen of Angels School in East Harlem, New York City, on Sept. 25, 2015. Photo: Reuters/Stephanie Keith
.
While blacks make up a sliver of the nation's Catholic population, some of the faith’s African-American leaders and adherents said the pope’s message on injustice and inequality was an implicit admonishment that blacks had not yet achieved true social and economic parity with their white counterparts. The pope’s repeated mentions of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. this week during his first trip to the United States was an affirmation of what social justice activists have said for most of the year leading up to his visit -- that black lives matter and deserve equal access to the American dream, said some black Catholics.

“I think the pope has already communicated that the voices of the locked out and the left out should be listened to,” said Marc Morial, a lifelong Catholic who is president and CEO of the National Urban League, a black civil rights organization based in New York City. “That’s what the Black Lives Matter movement has been about,” he said, referring to the national social justice movement that first emerged in 2013 as a Twitter hashtag campaign protesting police brutality.

Morial, who was among civil rights leaders invited to the state arrival ceremony for Francis at the White House on Wednesday, said it was most important that the Catholic Church’s U.S. bishops and priests take to heart Francis’ message of social justice advocacy as a charge for all Catholics.

“I don’t expect that [the pope] will go through a checklist of every nuance and political issue,” Morial said by phone Thursday from Washington, D.C. “But are [church leaders] listening and hearing the pope on social justice, and what does that mean going forward?”

A Message Of Civil Rights

The pope is in the middle of a six-day, historic visit to the northeastern United States, where his plans included stops in Washington, New York City and Philadelphia -- major cities with sizable black and Latino populations. Income inequality, the environment, religious freedom and acceptance of immigrants have been themes in his remarks to national and global leaders in Washington, D.C., the United Nations and New York City. Finding solutions to racial disparity is a responsibility of clergy and lawmakers alike, the pope said.

“If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance,” Francis said Thursday to members of the U.S. Congress. Politics should be “an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good,” the pope continued. He added: “I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort.”

Pope Francis is applauded as he arrives to give his speech to the U.S. Congress, in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24 2015. Photo: Reuters/Tony Gentile

During two separate speeches in Washington, the pope evoked the legacy of King, the Protestant civil rights leader whose campaign for full civil and political rights for African-Americans helped the country dream of a better future. “That dream continues to inspire us all,” Francis told Congress.

But one day earlier, he acknowledged that the nation had not reached the symbolic mountaintop that King once preached about. “To use a telling phrase of the Rev. Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note, and now is the time to honor it,” the pope said Wednesday at the White House.

Black leaders across the nation said they found the pontiff's theme of civil rights inspiring. Bishop Shelton Fabre of the Houma-Thibodaux diocese, just outside New Orleans, attended Francis’ address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill on Thursday. The pope’s message on social justice could not have been any clearer, he said Friday by phone from Schriever, Louisiana.

“The pope would remind us that when we put our hearts and minds together as sisters and brothers in the Lord, we have done well by minority communities,” said Fabre, who is also chairman of the subcommittee on African-American affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Together, we can do wonderful things for God,” he added, quoting the words of the Catholic missionary, Mother Teresa.

Staggering Black-White Disparities

There were more than 69 million Catholics in the U.S. in 2013, according to the National Catholic Education Association. But only 3 percent of U.S. Catholics are black, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis of religious affiliation data.

Although Catholicism is among the most racially diverse faith groups in America, it has that distinction thanks to a sizable Hispanic minority. The two largest historically black Protestant Christian denominations, the National Baptist Convention and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, have almost exclusively black members, the Pew Research Center’s analysis found.

Those faith traditions lent the voices of King, who was a Baptist minister, and activist Rosa Parks, who was a member of the AME church, to the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. But black Catholics were not absent from the movement, said the Rev. Maurice Nutt, director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans.

Black Catholics participated in the King-led march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama in 1965 and the anti-poverty March on Washington in 1963, Nutt said Thursday by phone from New York City. “We serve a God who is a God of justice and who hears the cries of the poor,” he said.

The African-American unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in August, more than double the 4.4 rate for whites. For black Americans, who make up about 13 percent of the country’s 318 million residents, income and wealth have been stagnant as the U.S. economy recovered from the recession of 2007-09, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. White families on average had seven times the wealth of African-American families, according to a recent study by the Urban Institute, an economic policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. In addition to an income and wealth gap, social justice activists have decried healthcare and criminal justice disparities between black and white Americans.

The recent civil unrest and protests over police-involved deaths in the majority-black cities of Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore have prompted a Black Lives Matter symposium at Xavier University, scheduled for early November. The Catholic Church missed many opportunities to evangelize the African-American community and has not always gone out of its way to learn black history and culture, Nutt said.

“If we value life and see it as holy and sacred, then we must seek to save all lives and protect the most vulnerable and innocent in our communities,” said Nutt, a Redemptorist priest for more than 25 years. “This would include black-on-black murders in our urban communities, as well as the unwarranted murders of unarmed black people [by police].”

'He's Showing Others How To Be Christ-like'

A crowd in Harlem let out a collective groan Friday when two large city sanitation trucks pulled in front of them, blocking their view of the street the pontiff was on. Some were not able to see Francis on his first pass at the Our Lady Queen of Angels School, but 26-year-old Michelle Darden did.

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“I never got to see [Popes] John Paul or Benedict,” said the lifelong black Catholic who traveled from New Jersey and waited two hours along police barricades. “I can relate to him [Francis] because he’s putting himself out there” as a man of the people who seems aware of the issues important to black Americans, she added.

Darden and her friend, Danielle Burger, a 27-year-old black Catholic and fellow New Jerseyan, said they'd follow the pope to his next and final stop in Philadelphia, where he was expected to visit a prison and hold Mass on Saturday for thousands at the World Meeting of Families. “I love his message about volunteering,” Burger said, referring to Francis’ visit with poor and homeless residents of Washington, D.C. “He’s showing others how to be Christ-like.”

Darden and Burger left the area before Francis’ motorcade rounded the corner away from the school. This time, nearly everyone got a glimpse of the pope smiling and waving from his Fiat. In the diverse crowd of black, white and Latino New Yorkers, there were very few dry eyes.
 

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Source

Archbishop Blasts “Catholics” for Choice Ad Saying Women Abort Their Babies “in Good Faith”

National Micaiah Bilger Sep 14, 2016 | 12:52PM Washington, DC



Catholic leaders in Texas and Minnesota blasted a new advertisement this week that urges Catholics to support abortion as a “Catholic social justice value.”

The group “Catholics for Choice” is running the full-page newspaper ad in dozens of states, encouraging Catholics to support abortion and taxpayer funding for it. The ad has sparked outrage in the Catholic community because it contradicts church teachings on the sanctity of life.

The full-page ad that ran in the Chicago Tribune had the bold heading “Abortion In Good Faith” and the photo of a woman described as a Catholic grandmother and former state legislator. A quote attributed to her read: “I know firsthand that today’s elected officials need to hear your voice so they do the right thing, ensuring that women who are not well off are not financially burdened by the choices they make.” Below was a red banner with the message, “Public funding for abortion is a Catholic social justice value.” The name “Catholics for Choice” appeared at the bottom.

On Monday, the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas under Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller responded to the pro-abortion ad after it appeared in the San Antonio Express-News. The archdiocese described the ad as inaccurate and a misrepresentation of Catholic Church teachings.

“For more than 2,000 years, the Church has steadfastly proclaimed that respect for all human life at every stage is foundational to the Catholic faith,” the archdiocese wrote on its website. “Abortion from the earliest tradition of the Church has been considered immoral.

“Direct abortion, or the intentional killing of a human being living in the womb, is always seriously immoral because as persons the right-to-life is the most basic and fundamental right we possess,” it continued.



The Minnesota Catholic Conference similarly described the ad as a “woeful” misrepresentation of Catholic teaching on abortion, CNS reports.

The “Catholics for Choice” campaign “disregards the need to defend vulnerable human life in all its stages — a principle at the core of authentic social justice,” the Minnesota bishops’ conference said in a statement Monday.

The pro-abortion group said it published the ads on Monday in more than 20 local and national publications, including Politico, the Nation, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Dallas Morning News and La Opinion. People have reported seeing the ads in Texas, Florida, Illinois and Minnesota, according to Mercatornet.

The ad hints at one of abortion activists’ top goals: to repeal the Hyde Amendment and force taxpayers to directly pay for abortions. Pro-abortion Democrat Hillary Clinton promised to help the abortion industry achieve the goal, and her running mate Tim Kaine, a self-professed Catholic who has a pro-abortion voting record, is refusing to say how he would vote on the issue.

On a website set up to promote the pro-abortion campaign, “Catholics for Choice” states: “The harsh restrictions on public funding for abortion mean that lower-income women don’t have access to abortion when they need it. Women who are dependent on Medicaid, employees of the federal and state governments, military members, and millions of others who are dependent on public funding simply don’t get the same kind of care as women with money. That is not Catholic.”

The “care” that “Catholics for Choice” describes involves the deliberate destruction of innocent human beings. In contrast, the Catholic Church teaches that care and respect must be extended to every human being, not just select groups.

“Upholding the sacred dignity of all human life is the duty of every member of society and this duty must be taken seriously in order to ensure that we are a part of a culture that affirms the right to life for all, especially the most vulnerable among us,” the Texas archdiocese said.

“It is our hope that one day Catholics for Choice will take the time to acquaint themselves with basic Catholic teachings, and acknowledge the truth of the Catholic faith, and not choose to misrepresent her teachings with false and inaccurate information and ads that only work to confuse and mislead the public,” it continued.

In response to the ad, the Minnesota Catholic Conference suggested that Catholics donate to pregnancy resource centers that “care for both mothers and children in a manner consistent with true social justice.”

A number of Catholic bishops have denounced “Catholics for Choice” for describing itself as “Catholic” because of its pro-abortion mission. The group is not affiliated with the Catholic Church.
 

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
^ Those people are not Catholics. They are heretics.

And Kaine is a disgrace.

Revelations 3: 8,9

8‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9‘Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them
know that I have loved you.



Our Bishop put an insert into our Bulletin about it. These folks will stop at nothing to confuse people - those who aren't very strong in their faith nor knowledgeable. Here's what he had to say:
 

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kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
I can comprehend the concept of embracing poverty as a virtue compared to chasing money and this world but....do you ever get the feeling that we push it as an excuse or default explanation for all the greed that exists in this world when we won't delve too deeply into it? Sometimes, I get the feeling that we gloss over the miseries of this world because we are too afraid to tackle these issues on a personal level - one where we see our personal responsibility. We talk in generalities but not specifics. It's like, "Let's not be greedy and alleviate the poverty in this world and the prejudice" but not, "
Let's stop and think about all the ways we are prejudiced against Blacks and Arabs." We bring up the general concept of reconciliation without specifically addressing how the oppression is carried out..

Well, we have organizations, surely, but what about the majority of people hearing homilies and never get into these organizations, seminars, programs? Is it enough to skirt around it and not name specifics? We're having trouble identifying them to eradicate them. It's like slapping ourselves on the hands and moving on.

The reading on Habakkuk from Sunday is understood. We can't blame G-d for the evils in this world. He has a time of retribution. But the gospels compel us to dig deeply. We have got to get beyond our comfort levels.
 

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Keeping my beautiful Catholic sisters in my prayers. How are you all doing? Now that things are calming down for me, I have more time to post. Yay!


Hanging on! It's a rough ride this election year. It can truly consume one if not for care. Thank you for thinking of us.:circle:
 
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