Blogger Katrina Fernandez asks: Can we talk about the Pope? Can we have opinions? Can we personally like one Pope more than another? All good questions!

Can we please talk about the pope…

June 1, 2014 By Katrina Fernandez Leave a Comment

… I’m a convert, see, and in my memory I only have two popes.
Benedict and Francis.
So I have to ask, has it always been like this?

Love Benedict and you’re old stodgy fart stuck in the dark ages. Hate Benedict and you hate tradition. Love Francis and you are liberal, neo-con little ‘c’ Catholic. Hate Francis and again, you’re a stodgy old fart stuck in the middle ages.
Are we not allowed to have an opinion about the pope without having our Catholic street cred called into question?
I can like someone but not like every little thing do. I can also dislike someone and still find something pretty decent about them.
So Francis kissed that guy’s hand. JPII kissed that Koran. You know what each instance has in common — neither are exactly great moments in papal history yet the Church didn’t implode in on itself.
Can popes do silly things. Sure they can. Are we any less Catholic for thinking or even saying we think some of the things they’ve been known to do are silly? Do I even need to ask?
Of course not.
So why have we drawn these lines in the sand?
You like Francis, you must be a stinking liberal. You hate Francis, you must be stricken with a spiritual cancer and paranoid.
Honestly, I hate the fact that I can’t even talk about Francis. If I say anything slightly negative than I am not respecting the office of the papacy, am paranoid, and lack faith or some other nonsense. If I express disquiet, or even confusion, than I am spreading the disease of disunity among the faithful.
Do you know how unbelievable hard it’s been to not talk about the pope? Worse, being afraid to express the fact that I’m not in love with every little thing he does.
Why is this?
Can we please talk about the pope? Can we talk about him without the labels? The politics? The mindless group think? And mostly without the ad hominem attacks?
And for the love of all that’s holy, can we please stop mocking each other and pointing fingers?!? It’s really getting embarrassing, the way we are treating each other.

Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thecrescat/2014/06/can-we-please-talk-about-the-pope.html#ixzz33V4cjSHA

Could there be a 3rd veterinarian in the family?

Like his momma and dad, Calvin used the visit to the Greensboro Nature & Science Center to practice being a veterinarian himself, even donning the old white lab coat:

Beheaded for the faith, two early Christian martyrs

Sts. Marcellinus and Peter

Facts

Feastday: June 2
Death: 304

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Though we know very little about these two martyrs under Diocletian, there is no question that the early church venerated them. Evidence of the respect in which they were held are the basilica Constantine built over their tombs and the presence of their names in the first eucharistic prayer.
Pope St. Damasus says that he heard the story of these two martyrs from their executioner who became a Christian after their deaths. Marcellinus, a priest, and Peter, an exorcist, died in the year 304. According to a legendary account of their martyrdom, the two Romans saw their imprisonment as just one more opportunity to evangelize and managed to convert their jailer and his family. The legend also says that they were beheaded in the forest so that other Christians wouldn't have a chance to bury and venerate their bodies. Two women found the bodies, however, and had them properly buried.

It was a Calvin all day kind of day!

Our grandson Calvin, now 21 months and our 10th visit with our little man:

Pope Francis'message for World Communications Day

FrancisMessagesWorld Communication Days

MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS
FOR THE 48TH WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Communication at the Service of an Authentic Culture of Encounter

[Sunday, 1 June 2014]

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we are living in a world which is growing ever “smaller” and where, as a result, it would seem to be easier for all of us to be neighbours.  Developments in travel and communications technology are bringing us closer together and making us more connected, even as globalization makes us increasingly interdependent.  Nonetheless, divisions, which are sometimes quite deep, continue to exist within our human family.  On the global level we see a scandalous gap between the opulence of the wealthy and the utter destitution of the poor.  Often we need only walk the streets of a city to see the contrast between people living on the street and the brilliant lights of the store windows.  We have become so accustomed to these things that they no longer unsettle us.  Our world suffers from many forms of exclusion, marginalization and poverty, to say nothing of conflicts born of a combination of economic, political, ideological, and, sadly, even religious motives.

In a world like this, media can help us to feel closer to one another, creating a sense of the unity of the human family which can in turn inspire solidarity and serious efforts to ensure a more dignified life for all.  Good communication helps us to grow closer, to know one another better, and ultimately, to grow in unity.  The walls which divide us can be broken down only if we are prepared to listen and learn from one another.  We need to resolve our differences through forms of dialogue which help us grow in understanding and mutual respect.  A culture of encounter demands that we be ready not only to give, but also to receive.  Media can help us greatly in this, especially nowadays, when the networks of human communication have made unprecedented advances.  The internet, in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity.  This is something truly good, a gift from God.

This is not to say that certain problems do not exist.  The speed with which information is communicated exceeds our capacity for reflection and judgement, and this does not make for more balanced and proper forms of self-expression.  The variety of opinions being aired can be seen as helpful, but it also enables people to barricade themselves behind sources of information which only confirm their own wishes and ideas, or political and economic interests.  The world of communications can help us either to expand our knowledge or to lose our bearings.  The desire for digital connectivity can have the effect of isolating us from our neighbours, from those closest to us.  We should not overlook the fact that those who for whatever reason lack access to social media run the risk of being left behind.

While these drawbacks are real, they do not justify rejecting social media; rather, they remind us that communication is ultimately a human rather than technological achievement.  What is it, then, that helps us, in the digital environment, to grow in humanity and mutual understanding?  We need, for example, to recover a certain sense of deliberateness and calm.  This calls for time and the ability to be silent and to listen.  We need also to be patient if we want to understand those who are different from us.  People only express themselves fully when they are not merely tolerated, but know that they are truly accepted.  If we are genuinely attentive in listening to others, we will learn to look at the world with different eyes and come to appreciate the richness of human experience as manifested in different cultures and traditions.  We will also learn to appreciate more fully the important values inspired by Christianity, such as the vision of the human person, the nature of marriage and the family, the proper distinction between the religious and political spheres, the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, and many others.

How, then, can communication be at the service of an authentic culture of encounter?  What does it mean for us, as disciples of the Lord, to encounter others in the light of the Gospel?  In spite of our own limitations and sinfulness, how do we draw truly close to one another?  These questions are summed up in what a scribe – a communicator – once asked Jesus: “And who is my neighbour?” (Lk 10:29).  This question can help us to see communication in terms of “neighbourliness”.  We might paraphrase the question in this way: How can we be “neighbourly” in our use of the communications media and in the new environment created by digital technology?  I find an answer in the parable of the Good Samaritan, which is also a parable about communication.  Those who communicate, in effect, become neighbours.  The Good Samaritan not only draws nearer to the man he finds half dead on the side of the road; he takes responsibility for him.  Jesus shifts our understanding: it is not just about seeing the other as someone like myself, but of the ability to make myself like the other.  Communication is really about realizing that we are all human beings, children of God.  I like seeing this power of communication as “neighbourliness”.

Whenever communication is primarily aimed at promoting consumption or manipulating others, we are dealing with a form of violent aggression like that suffered by the man in the parable, who was beaten by robbers and left abandoned on the road.  The Levite and the priest do not regard him as a neighbour, but as a stranger to be kept at a distance.  In those days, it was rules of ritual purity which conditioned their response.  Nowadays there is a danger that certain media so condition our responses that we fail to see our real neighbour.

It is not enough to be passersby on the digital highways, simply “connected”; connections need to grow into true encounters.  We cannot live apart, closed in on ourselves.  We need to love and to be loved.  We need tenderness.  Media strategies do not ensure beauty, goodness and truth in communication.  The world of media also has to be concerned with humanity, it too is called to show tenderness.  The digital world can be an environment rich in humanity; a network not of wires but of people.  The impartiality of media is merely an appearance; only those who go out of themselves in their communication can become a true point of reference for others.  Personal engagement is the basis of the trustworthiness of a communicator.  Christian witness, thanks to the internet, can thereby reach the peripheries of human existence.

As I have frequently observed, if a choice has to be made between a bruised Church which goes out to the streets and a Church suffering from self-absorption, I certainly prefer the first.  Those “streets” are the world where people live and where they can be reached, both effectively and affectively.  The digital highway is one of them, a street teeming with people who are often hurting, men and women looking for salvation or hope.  By means of the internet, the Christian message can reach “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  Keeping the doors of our churches open also means keeping them open in the digital environment so that people, whatever their situation in life, can enter, and so that the Gospel can go out to reach everyone.  We are called to show that the Church is the home of all.  Are we capable of communicating the image of such a Church?  Communication is a means of expressing the missionary vocation of the entire Church; today the social networks are one way to experience this call to discover the beauty of faith, the beauty of encountering Christ.  In the area of communications too, we need a Church capable of bringing warmth and of stirring hearts. 

Effective Christian witness is not about bombarding people with religious messages, but about our willingness to be available to others “by patiently and respectfully engaging their questions and their doubts as they advance in their search for the truth and the meaning of human existence” (BENEDICT XVI, Message for the 47th World Communications Day, 2013).  We need but recall the story of the disciples on the way to Emmaus.  We have to be able to dialogue with the men and women of today, to understand their expectations, doubts and hopes, and to bring them the Gospel, Jesus Christ himself, God incarnate, who died and rose to free us from sin and death.  We are challenged to be people of depth, attentive to what is happening around us and spiritually alert.  To dialogue means to believe that the “other” has something worthwhile to say, and to entertain his or her point of view and perspective.  Engaging in dialogue does not mean renouncing our own ideas and traditions, but the claim that they alone are valid or absolute.

May the image of the Good Samaritan who tended to the wounds of the injured man by pouring oil and wine over them be our inspiration.  Let our communication be a balm which relieves pain and a fine wine which gladdens hearts.  May the light we bring to others not be the result of cosmetics or special effects, but rather of our being loving and merciful “neighbours” to those wounded and left on the side of the road.  Let us boldly become citizens of the digital world.  The Church needs to be concerned for, and present in, the world of communication, in order to dialogue with people today and to help them encounter Christ.  She needs to be a Church at the side of others, capable of accompanying everyone along the way.  The revolution taking place in communications media and in information technologies represents a great and thrilling challenge; may we respond to that challenge with fresh energy and imagination as we seek to share with others the beauty of God.

From the Vatican, 24 January 2014, the Memorial of Saint Francis de Sales.

 

FRANCIS

Traveling yesterday I missed the Feast of the Visitation! A Feast we should all remember!

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By Scott P. Richert

A stained-glass window of the Visitation in Saint Mary's Church, Painesville, OH.

(Photo © Scott P. Richert)

Introduction to the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

The feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrates the visit of the Mother of God, with the child Jesus in her womb, to her cousin Elizabeth, who was herself six months' pregnant with the forerunner of Christ, Saint John the Baptist. At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel, in response to Mary's question "How shall this be done, because I know not man?" (Luke 1:34 ), had told her that "thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: Because no word shall be impossible with God" (Luke 1:36-27). The evidence of Elizabeth's own near-miraculous conception had called forth Mary's fiat: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word." It is thus appropriate that the very next action that Saint Luke the Evangelist records is the Blessed Virgin "making haste" to visit her cousin.

Quick Facts:

• Date: May 31.
• Type of Feast: Feast.
• Readings: Zephaniah 3:14-18a or Romans 12:9-16; Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6; Luke 1:39-56 (full text here)
• Prayers: The Hail Mary; The Magnificat; the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary
• Other Names for the Feast: The Visitation

The Significance of the Visitation:

Arriving at the house of Zachary (or Zacharias) and Elizabeth, Mary greets her cousin, and something wonderful happens: John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth's womb Luke 1:41). As the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 puts it in its entry on the Visitation, Mary's "presence and much more the presence of the Divine Child in her womb, according to the will of God, was to be the source of very great graces to the Blessed John, Christ's Forerunner." John's leap was no ordinary movement of an unborn child, for as Elizabeth tells Mary, "as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy" (Luke 1:44). His joy, the Church has held from the time of the early Church Fathers, came from his cleansing at that moment of Original Sin, in accordance with the angel Gabriel's prophecy to Zachary, before John's conception, that "he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15). As the Catholic Encyclopedia notes in its entry on St. John the Baptist, "as the presence of any sin whatever is incompatible with the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the soul, it follows that at this moment John was cleansed from the stain of original sin." (For more on John's cleansing from Original Sin, see Who Was Born Without Original Sin?)
Elizabeth, too, is filled with joy, and cries out in words that would become part of the Hail Mary, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb," before acknowledging her cousin as "the mother of my Lord" (Luke 1:42-43 ). Mary responds with the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), a canticle or biblical hymn that has become an essential part of the Church's evening prayer (vespers). It is a beautiful hymn of thanksgiving, glorifying God for choosing her to be the mother of His Son, as well as for His mercy "from generation until generations, to them that fear Him."

History of the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

The Visitation is only mentioned in Luke's Gospel, and Luke tells us that Mary stayed with her cousin about three months, before returning home just before Elizabeth gave birth. Gabriel, as we have seen, told Mary at the Annunciation that Elizabeth was six months' pregnant, and Luke seems to indicate that the Blessed Virgin departed for Elizabeth's home very soon after the Annunciation. Thus, we celebrate the Annunciation on March 25 and the Birth of Saint John the Baptist on June 24, about three months apart. Yet we celebrate the Visitation on May 31. Why?
While many Marian feasts are among the first feasts to have been celebrated universally by the Church, East and West, the celebration of the Visitation, even though it is found in Luke's Gospel, is a relatively late development. It was championed by Saint Bonaventure, and adopted by the Franciscans in 1263. When it was extended to the universal Church by Pope Urban VI in 1389, the date of the feast was set as July 2, the day after the octave (eighth) day of the feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist. The idea was to tie the celebration of the Visitation, at which Saint John had been cleansed of Original Sin, to the celebration of his birth, even though the placement of the feast in the liturgical calendar was out of sync with the account given by Luke. In other words, symbolism, rather than chronology, was the deciding factor.
For close to six centuries, the Visitation was celebrated on July 2, but with his revision of the Roman calendar in 1969, Pope Paul VI moved the celebration to the last day of the Marian month of May so that it would fall between the feasts of the Annunciation and the Birth of Saint John the Baptist.

Louisiana Governor vetoes surrogacy bill; indeed a Pro-Life move

Jindal vetoes surrogacy bill

Show caption

Advocate staff photo by TRAVIS SPRADLING -- Louisiana Capitol Building.

MICHELLE MILLHOLLON

mmillhollon@theadvocate.com

June 01, 2014

 

For the second year in a row, Gov. Bobby Jindal has vetoed legislation that sought to set up a legal framework for surrogacy births in Louisiana.
Jindal announced the veto Saturday, three days before the end of the legislative session. His chief of staff, Kyle Plotkin, delivered the news by phone Saturday morning to state Sen. Gary Smith, who co-sponsored the legislation.
The governor, in his veto message, wrote that “despite the good intentions and hard efforts of the author, this legislation still raises concerns for many in the pro-life community.” He said he couldn’t “in good conscience, sign this bill.”
With his veto, Jindal killed legislation that attempted to give parents legal protection when they turn to a surrogate to carry their biological children. The bill’s sponsors — a state senator and a state representative whose wives grappled with reproduction issues — made a number of concessions without ever garnering the governor’s support.
For Smith, D-Norco, the surrogacy bill’s co-sponsor, it was a day of vetoes. The governor vetoed two other bills Smith sponsored. Smith said the surrogacy veto was the one that shocked him.
Smith angrily accused the governor of pandering to national anti-abortion organizations in advancement of his political ambitions. Some legislators have remarked on the governor’s out-of-state travels — often to raise money for his national nonprofit group — during the legislative session.
“He knows that he should’ve let this go into law,” Smith said. “When’s Bobby going to come home? When is he going to pay attention to Louisiana’s needs and Louisiana’s wants instead of the misinformed notions of people outside Louisiana?”
Opposition to the bill, however, could be found inside Louisiana even though the legislation breezed through the House and the Senate. Louisiana Family Forum, which had declared itself neutral on the bill, asked the governor to veto it. Anti-abortion interests, including the Catholic Church, never embraced the proposal.
The Legislature dispensed with one huge issue for conservatives the first year of debate on the surrogacy proposal by excluding gay couples from qualifying for the legal framework. Courts would recognize surrogate contracts only involving couples whose marriages are recognized under Louisiana law — in other words, the union between a man and a woman.
Another concession was to require a doctor to deem the surrogacy a medical necessity — nixing the possibility of a woman turning to a surrogate out of convenience or vanity.
An insurmountable obstacle remained: Surrogacy and in vitro fertilization are intertwined, raising the question of what would happen to excess embryos generated to foster the successful creation of a child.
Louisiana Family Forum, which casts itself as the voice for traditional families, expressed neutrality after a compromise was reached to criminalize financial compensation other than medical, legal and travel expenses for the surrogacy. After the bill went to the governor’s desk, Louisiana Family Forum apparently had second thoughts.

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The group’s leader, Gene Mills, told Jindal in a letter that the legislation would not prohibit doctors from creating or implanting multiple embryos into the surrogate’s womb and then selectively destroying them to prevent a multiple birth.

“Governor Jindal, I caution you to consider the unresolved conflict that remains with the common IVF practice of fetal selective reduction. I referred in committee to a ‘bridge too far,’ and this instrument, though dramatically improved, is that bridge. My personal conviction is that I cannot, in good conscience, advise you to sign this bill,” Mills wrote.
Smith said he was thunderstruck by Mills’ letter. “It’s a good piece of legislation, even with all the compromises in it. It would help families here in Louisiana, couples in Louisiana, who want to have their own biological children,” Smith said.
Jindal wrote in his veto letter that his heart goes out to couples who struggle with miscarriages and infertility. “All Louisianians are at liberty today to engage in informal agreements regarding surrogacy — this is simply a question of whether we ought to codify and regulate such agreements, and if so, what these regulations ought to entail,” he wrote.
Surrogacy births — in which a couple’s embryo is implanted in another woman — are not illegal in Louisiana.
The contracts between the surrogate and the parents just aren’t enforceable in the state’s courts, leading to many couples going out of state rather than risk a legal battle in uncharted waters.
Jindal vetoed similar legislation last year. House Bill 187 seemed to have a smoother journey through the Legislature this year after the legislation’s sponsors reached a compromise early in the session with some of the opponents. However, that compromise apparently fell apart.
The Catholic Church was steadfast in its opposition to the legislation because of its stance on in vitro fertilization.
The surrogacy legislation had its genesis in the struggles of Smith and his wife, Katherine, to become parents. Smith and his wife turned to out-of-state surrogates after discovering Katherine could not carry children.
The Smiths eventually had two children through surrogacy, going outside Louisiana each time to a state with a legal framework for the arrangement. Their son and daughter are their biological children.
Sen. Smith sponsored legislation last year to make it easier for married couples to use surrogates in Louisiana. Helping him with the legislation this year was state Rep. Joseph Lopinto, R-Metairie. Lopinto and his wife, Lauren, also struggled to have children. They eventually had twins through in vitro fertilization. They did not use a surrogate.
Smith said time remains in the session to override the governor’s veto. A veto override requires 70 votes in the House and 26 votes in the Senate.

Pope Francis Ascension message for Regina Caeli address

Sunday June 1st with Pope Francis:

 

Pope Francis "Alone, without Jesus, we can do nothing!" Ascension Message

ASIA NEWS IT REPORT: At the Regina Caeli, the Pope Francis emphasizes that although Jesus ascended to the Father, He is still next to us "here in the square": His "gift" to the Father are his wounds, "the price of forgiveness " that the Father always gives . The Church is a "outward bound community; Even cloistered communities, the elderly and the sick. He recalls the victims of violence in Ukraine and the Central African Republic and entrusts them to Mary , Queen of Peace . The World Day of Social Communications and the beatification of Mother Speranza di Colvalenza .
Vatican City ( AsiaNews ) - The " keyword " of the Feast of the Ascension is "going" or rather "leaving" ... : Jesus leaves to be with his Father, the disciples leave to go out into the world". This is how Pope Francis described the Solemnity of the Ascension , which is celebrated 40 days after Easter (or the following Sunday) .   Speaking to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for the recitation of the Regina Caeli , the Pope explained, "Jesus leaves, he ascends to heaven, that is, returns to the Father from whom he had been sent into the world. But this is not a separation, because He remains with us forever, in a new form ... Jesus remains present and active in the affairs of human history with the power and the gifts of his Spirit, He is right beside each of us: even if we cannot see him with our own eyes, He is there! He accompanies us , guides us, He takes us by the hand and raises us when we fall. The  risen Jesus is near to the Christians who are persecuted and discriminated against , he is close to every man and woman who suffers ". Speaking off the cuff the Pope added: "Jesus is close to us here in the square. Together let us all say: The Lord is with us. Do you believe this ? Let us say together : the Lord is with us".
And again, speaking off the cuff , he asked the question: " And what does he brig as a gift to the Father? His wounds ... He says : Look Father, this is the price of the forgiveness that You give . And when the Father looks at us, He forgives us because He always sees the price of this forgiveness ... Do not be afraid to ask for forgiveness because Jesus paid for us".

The Pope underlined then the disciples "leaving", which is very close to what has become his motto on the Church must "move out to the margins of society". But Jesus is also present through the Church, which He sent to extend His mission. The last words of Jesus to his disciples is the mandate:" Go therefore and make disciples of all nations "(Mt 28:19). This is a clear mandate, it is not optional! The Christian community is a "outgoing", "outward bound" community. And you may say: But what about the community of cloistered Yes , those, too, because they are always "outward bound" in prayer, their heart open to the world , the horizons of God, and the elderly, the sick? they too, through prayer and union with the wounds of Jesus".
"Jesus says to his missionary disciples - he added - " I am with you always , until the end of the world" (v. 20) . Alone, without Jesus, we can do nothing! Our strengths, our resources , our capabilities are not enough in apostolic work, even if they are necessary. Without the presence of the Lord and the power of his Spirit, our work, even though well-organized it is ineffective ".

"But I would like you not to forget the gift that Jesus brings to the Father. What is the gift? His wounds. And together with Jesus Mary our Mother accompanies us. She is already in the house of the Father, she is the Queen of Heaven, and so we invoke her at this time , but just as Jesus is with us, she walks with us, she is the Mother of our hope".

After the Marian prayer, Francis, "with a heart saddened", recalled "the victims of the tensions that still continue in some regions of Ukraine, as well as in the Central African Republic".  "I renew my heartfelt appeal  - said the pope - to all parties involved, that misunderstandings be overcome and that dialogue and reconciliation might be sought with patience. May Mary , Queen of Peace , help us all with her ​​maternal intercession".

And together with the faithful he repeated twice: "Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us".

The Pope then recalled that today, Solemnity of the Ascension , we celebrate the World Day of Social Communications, "on the theme of communication at the service of the culture of encounter". "Social communications - he explained - can foster a sense of unity in the human family, of solidarity and commitment to a life of dignity for all. Let us pray that communication, in all its forms, really be at the service of encounter between people, communities, nations, an encounter based on mutual respect and listening".

Finally , the pope announced that yesterday in Colvalenza "Mother Speranza was proclaimed Blessed. Born in Spain under the name of María Josefa Alhama Valera, she was the founder of the Handmaids of His Merciful Love in Italy. May her testimony help the Church to proclaim everywhere, with concrete and daily gestures, the infinite mercy of the heavenly Father for each person". The Pope asked all those present to salute the beatification of Mother Speranza with a round of applause.

Ascension Sunday in Greensboro (somebody forgot to tell the Priest)

Not being one of the dioceses that leaves the Ascension on a Thursday (40 days after Easter and where it belongs) I knew that Mass in Greensboro would be the Feast of the Ascension.  Apparently, the parish we visited had an older visiting Priest for the weekend and he admitted, good naturedly, that he prepared a homily for the 7th Sunday in Easter.  Oops!  Not to worry, he adapted well, and, of course, being a Priest for so many years of his life, he certainly knows all there is to know about the Ascension!


We attended Mass at St. Pius X in Greensboro, a church that somehow we have missed over these past 10 years of visiting our son.   Of great interest to me was the Permanent Deacon at Mass.  I noticed that he was wearing, under his vestments, a clerical shirt and a Roman collar.  We do not wear such clerics here in Archdiocese of New Orleans so I found out that in Greensboro, the Permanent Deacon can wear clerics at Mass and at specific assigned ministries.  Interesting side bar to my Mass participation today. 


From what I observed, and by reading the parish bulletin, this is yet another robust parish here in what once was the Bible-belt.  I have attached a link to their website at the end of this article.


So now my wife and I feel like we have 4 church homes away from home: Blessed Sacrament in Burlington NC, St Paul in Greensboro, Our Lady of Grace in Greensboro and now St. Pius X in Greensboro NC. 




http://www.stpiusxnc.com/