For totally different reasons, Saints fans had to wonder what kind of team would the Saints put on the field. Last year it was the head-coach-less Saints and the aftermath of bounty-gate; this year it was the total rebuilding of a defense and the return of the maestro: Sean Payton.
In 2012, no one could have predicted 7-9 and a losing season, the first in 6 years. In 2013, no one could have realistically thought 4-0 at this point with a defense needing total overhaul. Not to mention that once the Saints went out and signed some quality free-agent help for the defense, one by one they fell, injuries sidelining at least 3 quality starters. But after an amazing preseason, where records don't matter but the building of a team indeed matters, the Saints looked pretty good.
Regular season would present an immediate challenge: Atlanta. The hated Falcons were one of the preseason favorites to either win the NFC or be right there with SF for the championship. Oh by the way, Atlanta is 1-3; hmmm. The Saints win a thriller, not to the last defensive stand with seconds left, but win they did! And another nail biter on the road against Tampa left Saints fans feeling happy yet still uneasy at 2-0. The overwhelming victories against Arizona and previously unbeaten Miami has the delirious fans of the 4-0 Saints thinking is this 2009 all over again? I say let's answer that after the next two weeks when road games bring the Saints to Chicago and New England. If the Saints come home from that road trip at 5-1, I say the Saints are indeed contenders.
As 4-0 plays out, the Saints know, as does the football world, that this is a Brees, Graham, Sproles, Colston kind of team. These 4 guys are beasts; the best of the best! It's important to recognize here and now that this offense is getting it done with no Lance Moore, no Mark Ingram(although what's new there) and no real running game and an offensive line that is working hard but not up to par. But again, Brees, Graham, Sproles and Colston is a lot of firepower!!
How bout that defense. This time last year the Saints statistically had the worst defense in the history of the NFL. This year they are ranked in top 5 and are making turnovers happen again. Who are they? The starting d-line has 2 undrafted free agents and Cam Jordan; the LB core has some of it's best talent injured and on the bench. The D-backfield is the best I've seen since that magical 2009 season. By the way, in addition to turnovers the Saints are getting QB sacks too; nothing fires up a crowd like a solid QB sack!
So welcome back coach Payton, thank God for the four offensive superstars named above and thanks coach Ryan for that solid defensive scheme and the unnamed Saints defense that continues to succeed!
Geaux Saints; go ahead and make 2013 magical too!
(Vatican Radio) Pope
Francis on Monday morning held the Public Ordinary Consistory for the
forthcoming Canonization of Blessed Pope John XXIII and Blessed Pope John Paul
II. During the course of the Consistory in the Vatican's Consistory Hall, the
Pope decreed that his two predecessors will be raised to Sainthood on April 27,
2014, the day on which the Church celebrates the Second Sunday of Easter and
Divine Mercy.
After decades of glum trends—fewer priests, fewer parishes—the Catholic Church in the United States has a new statistic to cheer: More men are now enrolled in graduate-level seminaries, the main pipeline to the priesthood, than in nearly two decades.
This year’s tally of 3,694 graduate theology students represents a 16 percent increase since 1995 and a 10 percent jump since 2005, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
Seminary directors cite more encouragement from bishops and parishes, the draw of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and the social-justice-minded Pope Francis, and a growing sense that the church is past the corrosive impact of the sexual abuse crisis that exploded in 2002.
Ultimately, it was “a calling in my heart,” says Kevin Fox.
He walked away from his electrical engineering degree and a job in his field, working with CT scanners, to enter St. Mary Seminary in Wickliffe, Ohio, in his home diocese, Cleveland, this fall.
“I always had an inkling that I might want to be a priest and my parish priest told me he thought I might be called,” said Fox, 24. “But I put it aside.”
With a fresh degree from Case Western Reserve and his first post-graduation job, Fox soon realized the secular path “wasn’t filling my soul with joy.”
Now, after years of pure science, Fox is immersed in pure theology–and loving it. The challenges of the culture, such as crude jokes from strangers about the abuse crisis, have not dissuaded him.
“I feel the church has done a great deal to deal with (preventing) abuse and the seminary took a lot of care in screening and training us to make sure we are the good guys,” Fox said.
Fox is one of 72 students currently enrolled in the undergraduate and graduate programs at St. Mary, the highest number in decades, said the Rev. Mark Latcovich, president and rector.
Latcovich credits encouraging current seminarians and priests who are “our best recruiters. If they are happy and witnessing their faith and opening their hearts, that enthusiasm and joy is contagious.”
Young men today “want to give their life for something that counts. These men are tired of living in a culture of relativism. They want to say there must be something true, beautiful and good. They have discovered the beauty of God,” said Latcovich.
Monsignor Craig Cox, rector of St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, Calif., said the upward trend leading to their current record class of 92 graduate seminarians began six years ago.
He also cited “a renewal of idealism,” a stronger push for vocations by priests and bishops, and “receding damage” from the abuse crisis.
Cox, who sat in on admission discussions, says his students are drawn from Southern California to Las Vegas and range in age from 22 to 45. While they’re younger than previous classes, they bring “a great level of maturity” to get through a rigorous admissions process.
“Ultimately, I believe that the Spirit is at work,” Cox said.
CARA’s new statistical look at the church shows the seminary-to-priesthood patterns and other shifts in American Catholic life:
* Annual ordinations have inched back up to the 1995 level of 511 new priests, still far below the peak of 994 in 1965.
* New ordinations won’t catch up to the thousands of retirements and deaths of ‘60s-era priests: the total number continues to slide from 58,632 priests in 1965 to 39,600 in 2013.
* The number of parishes without a resident priest is still growing – up from 3,251 in 2,005 to 3,554 now.
* A two-decade-long trend of parish consolidations and closings has led to fewer parishes where pastoral care is led by a deacon, religious sister or brother, or a layperson. Their number peaked in 2005 at 553 and now is down to 428.
Blame demographics, says CARA’s senior research associate, Mary Gautier.
“Catholics don’t live where they lived 15 years ago. They’ve moved south and west, from urban to suburban areas and they didn’t take their parishes with them,” Gautier said. “The smaller, older lay-led places without a resident priest are often the first to be closed.”
The church keeps growing – 1 percent a year. CARA offers two totals, varying by the source: 78.2 million if you go by self-identification recorded in surveys; 66.8 million if you go by the “Official Catholic Directory” where parishes report their numbers.
Meanwhile, the declining numbers of people who identify with Protestant denominations has led to falling numbers in their seminaries since 2006, said Eliza Brown, spokeswoman for Association of Theological Schools, which represents more than 270 seminaries.
Between 2006 and 2012, the number of students enrolled in Master of Divinity programs at Protestant and non-denominational Christian seminaries fell from 31,532 to 29,249, Brown said.
“Their congregations are less able to afford for full-time, theologically educated clergy,” she said. “And students, who graduate with debts, can’t afford to take part-time or low-paying pulpit positions.”
>>>First seen at Deacon's Bench!
This year’s tally of 3,694 graduate theology students represents a 16 percent increase since 1995 and a 10 percent jump since 2005, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
Seminary directors cite more encouragement from bishops and parishes, the draw of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and the social-justice-minded Pope Francis, and a growing sense that the church is past the corrosive impact of the sexual abuse crisis that exploded in 2002.
Ultimately, it was “a calling in my heart,” says Kevin Fox.
He walked away from his electrical engineering degree and a job in his field, working with CT scanners, to enter St. Mary Seminary in Wickliffe, Ohio, in his home diocese, Cleveland, this fall.
“I always had an inkling that I might want to be a priest and my parish priest told me he thought I might be called,” said Fox, 24. “But I put it aside.”
With a fresh degree from Case Western Reserve and his first post-graduation job, Fox soon realized the secular path “wasn’t filling my soul with joy.”
Now, after years of pure science, Fox is immersed in pure theology–and loving it. The challenges of the culture, such as crude jokes from strangers about the abuse crisis, have not dissuaded him.
“I feel the church has done a great deal to deal with (preventing) abuse and the seminary took a lot of care in screening and training us to make sure we are the good guys,” Fox said.
Fox is one of 72 students currently enrolled in the undergraduate and graduate programs at St. Mary, the highest number in decades, said the Rev. Mark Latcovich, president and rector.
Latcovich credits encouraging current seminarians and priests who are “our best recruiters. If they are happy and witnessing their faith and opening their hearts, that enthusiasm and joy is contagious.”
Young men today “want to give their life for something that counts. These men are tired of living in a culture of relativism. They want to say there must be something true, beautiful and good. They have discovered the beauty of God,” said Latcovich.
Monsignor Craig Cox, rector of St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, Calif., said the upward trend leading to their current record class of 92 graduate seminarians began six years ago.
He also cited “a renewal of idealism,” a stronger push for vocations by priests and bishops, and “receding damage” from the abuse crisis.
Cox, who sat in on admission discussions, says his students are drawn from Southern California to Las Vegas and range in age from 22 to 45. While they’re younger than previous classes, they bring “a great level of maturity” to get through a rigorous admissions process.
“Ultimately, I believe that the Spirit is at work,” Cox said.
CARA’s new statistical look at the church shows the seminary-to-priesthood patterns and other shifts in American Catholic life:
* Annual ordinations have inched back up to the 1995 level of 511 new priests, still far below the peak of 994 in 1965.
* New ordinations won’t catch up to the thousands of retirements and deaths of ‘60s-era priests: the total number continues to slide from 58,632 priests in 1965 to 39,600 in 2013.
* The number of parishes without a resident priest is still growing – up from 3,251 in 2,005 to 3,554 now.
* A two-decade-long trend of parish consolidations and closings has led to fewer parishes where pastoral care is led by a deacon, religious sister or brother, or a layperson. Their number peaked in 2005 at 553 and now is down to 428.
Blame demographics, says CARA’s senior research associate, Mary Gautier.
“Catholics don’t live where they lived 15 years ago. They’ve moved south and west, from urban to suburban areas and they didn’t take their parishes with them,” Gautier said. “The smaller, older lay-led places without a resident priest are often the first to be closed.”
The church keeps growing – 1 percent a year. CARA offers two totals, varying by the source: 78.2 million if you go by self-identification recorded in surveys; 66.8 million if you go by the “Official Catholic Directory” where parishes report their numbers.
Meanwhile, the declining numbers of people who identify with Protestant denominations has led to falling numbers in their seminaries since 2006, said Eliza Brown, spokeswoman for Association of Theological Schools, which represents more than 270 seminaries.
Between 2006 and 2012, the number of students enrolled in Master of Divinity programs at Protestant and non-denominational Christian seminaries fell from 31,532 to 29,249, Brown said.
“Their congregations are less able to afford for full-time, theologically educated clergy,” she said. “And students, who graduate with debts, can’t afford to take part-time or low-paying pulpit positions.”
>>>First seen at Deacon's Bench!
"Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who prowl throughout the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen." 
Exactly 33 years to the day prior to the great Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, that is, on October 13, 1884, Pope Leo XIII had a remarkable vision. When the aged Pontiff had finished celebrating Mass in his private Vatican Chapel, attended by a few Cardinals and members of the Vatican staff, he suddenly stopped at the foot of the altar. He stood there for about 10 minutes, as if in a trance, his face ashen white. Then, going immediately from the Chapel to his office, he composed the above prayer to St. Michael, with instructions it be said after all Low Masses everywhere.
September 27, 2013. (Romereports.com) It was a historic meeting between Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, and Patriarch John X, the leader of the Orthodox Church of Antioch, one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East.
