Blogging as Hurricane Zeta bears down on me

 In all my years blogging I actually think this is the first time I have written a post while a hurricane rages outside.  At this hour the storms eye and intense wall is still maybe 90 minutes away.  The city of New Orleans is getting it pretty good right now, and places to the south even more so.  We live a good 45-50 miles north of the Crescent City.  Right now we are getting pretty strong rain and very gusty winds but sustained winds are probably no more than 25 mph.

This is one of the most confounding storms ever.  First of all it is named Zeta because we need the Greek alphabet this year because of the sheer number of storms.  Secondly, no such intense storm has ever hit this close to Halloween.  This is almost unbelievable.  The storm almost achieved Category 3, also unheard of in these parts so late in the season.  

For most of us in the entire region the battle is keeping power.  Not much you can do about that unless you are fortunate to own one of those whole house generators.  I do not have one; I should!  When you live in the woods and are all electric, loss of power means no water, no plumbing, no nothing.  Therefore, I pray that we can keep power or at least be without only for a short amount of time.

Hurricanes have been very unkind to Louisiana this year.  This is our 5th hit yet this is nothing like the devastation felt by the Lake Charles area and other points inland.  They had two strong storms, Laura and Delta that hit within miles of one another in successive months.  Many people there are still not home and many have a long recovery ahead of them.  While we will have impacts, we will suffer nothing like the good people to our west.

So we are so thankful for tons of prayers sent our way; keep them coming please.  I hope to update again tonight(provided we have power) and hopefully tomorrow.

Pir Lady of Prompt Succor, pray for us!

The beauty and the blessings of sacramental marriage

 

The blessings of sacramental marriage

Msgr. Owen F. Campion October 26, 2020

Shutterstock

They talk about the glory that was Rome; well, Vienna had its glory, a cultural mecca, the dazzling center of a great empire, one of the major powers of the earth, Austria-Hungary. It was a monarchy. In direct line to the throne was Archduke Karl, 24 years of age in 1911, when the government announced his engagement to a daughter of the ancient French royalty, the Bourbons, Princess Zita.

The nation rejoiced. Karl was very popular. It was assumed that his eventual reign would bring great days to the empire.

Several weeks before the wedding, the couple canceled all public appearances. Karl went to a monastery for a silent retreat. Zita went to a cloistered convent also to make a retreat.

They explained to the public why they were interrupting all the festivities associated with their grand wedding to go on retreat. They agreed that the first, last and most critical point in marriage for them both would be their obligation, and opportunity, to help each other become saints.

Wedding of Archduke Karl of Austria and Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma in Schwarzau Palace. Public domain

After their wedding, they attended Mass daily. Karl became emperor in 1916, but he shortly was overthrown in the turmoil that followed the First World War. He died in 1922, still a young man, of pneumonia, untreatable in those days. Recognizing Karl’s holy life, Pope St. John Paul II beatified him in 2004. He is Blessed Karl of Austria. Zita survived him until 1989. As she was dying, she told her assembled children to begin the Rosary. She joined them. She drew her last breath praying the Rosary. Her cause for beatification is under Vatican review.

Politics and COVID-19 have distracted the news media somewhat from the recent remarks by Pope Francis about civil unions, or two persons with same-gender sexual attraction in an ongoing relationship. Even so, the papal comments have attracted considerable attention and, frankly, created dismay among some.

The pope, it must be said, in no way repudiated the Church’s teaching that marriage must be a relationship between one man and one woman. He did not urge Church acceptance of marriage between persons of the same gender.

His remarks, the reactions, good and bad, and the context formed by today’s culture make this a good time to think about Church teaching regarding marriage or, for that matter, about sexual intimacy, either among those with heterosexual inclinations or those who experience sexual attraction to persons of the same gender.

For Christians, in the last analysis, marriage, intimacy, sexuality or companionship are not ends in themselves, but they are means to an end. For most spouses, marriage is the most basic element in their lives, but marriage is a part of the overall reality of life.

Blessed Emperor Karl and Empress Zita were right. When all is said and done, marriage, and certainly the Sacrament of Matrimony, are about discipleship and about being saints. Holiness was their goal in life.

Practically speaking, this means viewing marriage, sexuality and everything in life as instructed and guided by divine revelation, and, whatever the circumstances, seeing life as about being true to the Lord. Christians who experience same-gender attractions and commendably live as celibates understand this. God bless them.

As a boy, friends of my parents had a young son with a bright life ahead of him. Shortly after graduation, he and his college sweetheart were married. About one year later, she was in the third month of pregnancy. The boom fell. He contracted polio, paralyzing him from the chin down for 41 years until he died.

His wife bought a home near the facility that housed him. She sold real estate to make a living. Every morning, and every afternoon, rain or shine, she visited her husband. The baby was born. Her mother sent her all the way through Catholic schools.

She said that her vow to her husband also was to God. By keeping her marriage vows, she felt herself abundantly rewarded.

Supreme Court dominated by "Catholics"

 

6 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices are Catholic — Here’s a Closer Look

The Catholics on the nation’s highest court include Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivers remarks during her swearing-in ceremony Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, on the South Lawn of the White House. (photo: Joyce N. Boghosian / Official White House Photo)

Alyssa Murphy BlogsOctober 28, 2020

With the confirmation of now Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court Oct. 27,  there are now six practicing Catholic justices. Barrett joins Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor and Brett Kavanaugh. To date, there have only been 15 Catholic justices — out of 115 justices total — in the history of the Supreme Court. Here is a quick glimpse at the six currently serving on the highest court in the land. 

 

Justice Clarence Thomas 

Sworn in on Oct. 23, 1991, by former President George H.W. Bush, Clarence Thomas was raised in the segregated south and grew up going to Catholic school. Before finding his calling in law, Thomas was the only African American student at a Catholic seminary. He ultimately left the seminary enrolling in the Jesuit-run College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. While wrestling with the civil rights era and the issue of race, Thomas became involved in the Black Panther movement until he realized all of his actions were fueled by race. As he said in a recent PBS documentary, one day he prayed to God for peace and healing: “If you take this anger out of my heart, I will never hate again.” After graduation, Thomas enrolled in law school at Yale University, finding a new vocation as a lawyer.

In his memoir, My Grandfather’s Son, Thomas talks about his faith and his understanding of rights, saying: “They start with the rights of the individual, and where do those rights come from? They come from God; they’re transcendent. And you give up some of those rights in order to be governed. They’re inalienable rights. And you give up only so many as necessary to be governed by your consent.”

Justice Samuel Alito 

On Jan. 31, 2016, Justice Samuel Alito was sworn in by then-President George W. Bush. Born into an Italian-Catholic family in Trenton, New Jersey, Alito has spoken about the excitement he experienced in his youth when John F. Kennedy was elected president, a unifying moment for many Catholics, as they felt accepted into mainstream society. He received his Bachelor’s from Princeton University where in 1971, he chaired a student conference called “The Boundaries of Privacy in American Society” which supported curbs on domestic intelligence gathering and anticipated the need for a statute and a court to oversee national security surveillance. Alito went on to Yale Law School, where he served as an editor on the Yale Law Journal. He earned his Juris Doctor in 1975.

Justice Alito’s Catholic faith has led him to be an outspoken advocate for religious freedom. In 2017, he was almost prophetic when speaking to a group of New Jersey-based lawyers and judges and said, “A wind is picking up that is hostile to those with traditional moral beliefs.”

 Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Appointed and sworn in by former president Barack Obama on Aug. 8, 2009, Justice Sotomayor was born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents. Her father died when she was 9. She was raised Catholic, spending her formative years in parochial school attending Blessed Sacrament in the Bronx. Being inspired by Nancy Drew books and then the Perry Mason television series, Sotomayor knew she wanted to be a lawyer by the time she was 10. She received her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1979, while serving as editor at the Yale Law Journal.

Despite her recent rulings on the high court with regard to parochial schools, Justice Sotomayor has praised Catholic education, offering her own personal testimony to the role that the education had on her own life. As she told the New York Times in 2013, “You know how important those eight years were? ….what it means for all our families, like my mother, who were dirt-poor. She watched what happened to my cousins in public school and worried if we went there, we might not get out. So she scrimped and saved. It was a road of opportunity for kids with no other alternative.”

Chief Justice John Roberts

Chief Justice John Roberts was sworn in to the court on Sept. 29, 2005, by former president George W. Bush. Born in New York and growing up in northwestern Indiana, he attended Catholic school. His college career began at Harvard University studying history before enrolling in Harvard Law School, where he was managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. He began his law career clerking for Circuit Judge Henry Friendly and then-Associate Justice William Rehnquist. Roberts also served the Reagan administration and the George H. W. Bush administration in the Department of Justice and the Office of the White House Counsel. His position led him to argue 39 cases in front of the Supreme Court. 

Roberts and his wife are both practicing Catholics, parishioners of Little Flower Catholic Church, not far from his current home in Maryland. His wife Jane, also an attorney, is very active in the pro-life ministry and has served on the board of Feminists for Life. Roberts was asked about his personal beliefs on abortion during his Senate confirmation hearings in 2005 and after a long pause, he said he’d probably have to recuse himself. The couple live in Maryland with their two adopted children. 

Justice Brett Kavanaugh

On Oct. 6, 2018, Justice Kavanaugh was sworn in to the Supreme Court after being appointed by President Donald Trump after a contentious confirmation hearing. Raised in an Irish Catholic family in Bethesda, Maryland, he attended Georgetown Preparatory School, a Jesuit boys college prep school, where he was two years ahead of Neil Gorsuch, for whom he would later clerk at the Supreme Court and with whom he would eventually serve as a Supreme Court justice.  Kavanaugh studied history at Yale University before entering the university's law school. Before joining the court, he was a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and also worked as a staff lawyer for various offices of the federal government.

Justice Kavanaugh’s presence in the D.C. community not only comes from his public position but also from his care and concern for those in need guided by his strong Catholic faith. As a volunteer for Catholic Charities, he serves meals to the homeless and also coaches CYO basketball in the district. 

 

Justice Amy Coney Barrett

Just this week, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas after being confirmed by the Senate with a strict partisan vote. Trump nominated Barrett to the Seventh Circuit and the Senate confirmed her on Oct. 31, 2017 after a contentious hearing where she was questioned multiple times about her Catholic faith. Throughout her legal career including serving on the federal bench, she has been a Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School, her alma mater. 

Born in New Orleans to a devout Catholic family, Barrett is the oldest of seven children. She attended St. Mary’s Dominican High School, an all-girls Catholic high school. Barrett’s father has been an ordained deacon since 1982. Justice Barrett and her husband have seven children, two adopted from Haiti. They are members of the Catholic apostolate group, People of Praise. During her confirmation hearings, Barrett made only one reference to her faith, thanking all those that had been supporting her saying: “I believe in the power of prayer, and it has been uplifting to hear that so many people are praying for me.”

During her Senate confirmation hearing, Justice Barrett commented on the unlikely friendship between Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg saying: “Particularly poignant to me was her long and deep friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia, my own mentor. Justices Ginsburg and Scalia disagreed fiercely in print, without rancor in person. Their ability to maintain a warm and rich friendship despite their differences even inspired an opera. These two great Americans demonstrated that arguments, even about matters of great consequence, need not destroy affection. In both my personal and professional relationships, I strive to meet that standard.”

Although we see a great divide given the partisan vote that landed Justice Barrett onto the Supreme Court, let us pray that the friendship  of Scalia and Ginsberg will inspire justices, politicians, and laypeople across the country to find common ground and respect. 

Papal General Audience 10.28.2020

 

Pope At General Audience- Copyright: Vatican Media

POPE’S GENERAL AUDIENCE: On Jesus, Man of Prayer (FULL TEXT)

‘Please excuse me if I do not come down to greet you: I will greet you from here but I hold you in my heart’

OCTOBER 28, 2020 12:28STAFF REPORTERGENERAL AUDIENCE

WhatsAppFacebook MessengerFacebookTwitterShare

Share this Entry

Here is the Vatican-provided English text of Pope Francis’ words at today’s General Audience today, Oct. 28, 2020, in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall:

***

POPE FRANCIS

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Paul VI Audience Hall
Wednesday, 28 October 2020

[Multimedia]

---

 

Catechesis on prayer – 12. Jesus, man of prayer

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today, in this audience, as we have done in the previous audiences, I will stay here. I like to come down and greet each one of you, but we must keep our distance, because if I come down, then a crowd forms to greet me, and this is contrary to the measures and the precautions we must take in order to face “Madame Covid”, and it is harmful to us. Therefore, please excuse me if I do not come down to greet you: I will greet you from here but I hold you in my heart, all of you. And you, please hold me in your heart, and pray for me. From a distance, we can pray for each other … and thank you for your understanding.

In our itinerary of catechesis on prayer, after travelling through the Old Testament, we now arrive at Jesus. And Jesus prayed. The beginning of His public ministry takes place with His baptism in the river Jordan. The Evangelists are in agreement in attributing fundamental importance to this episode. They narrate how all the people came together in prayer, and specify that this gathering had a clearly penitential nature (see Mk 1:5; Mt 3:8). The people went to John to be baptised, for the forgiveness of sins: it is of a penitential character, of conversion.

Jesus’ first public act is therefore participation in a choral prayer of the people, a prayer of the people who went to be baptised, a penitential prayer, in which everyone recognises him- or herself as a sinner. This is why the Baptist wishes to oppose it, and says: “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?” (Mt 3:14). The Baptist understands that it was Jesus. But Jesus insists: His is an act of obedience to the will of the Father (v. 5), an act of solidarity with our human condition. He prays with the sinners of the people of God. Let us keep this clearly in mind: Jesus is the Righteous One, He is not a sinner. But He wished to come down to us, sinners, and He prays with us, and when we pray He is with us, praying; He is with us because He is in heaven, praying for us. Jesus always prays with His people, He always prays with us: always. We never pray alone, we always pray with Jesus. He does not stay on the opposite side of the river – “I am righteous, you are sinners” – to mark His difference and distance from the disobedient people, but rather He immerses His feet in the same purifying waters. He acts as if He were a sinner. And this is the greatness of God, Who sent His Son and annihilated Himself, and appears as a sinner.

Jesus is not a distant God, and He cannot be. Incarnation revealed Him in a complete and humanly unthinkable way. Thus, inaugurating His mission, Jesus places Himself at the forefront of a people of penitents, as if He were responsible for opening a breach through which all of us, after Him, must have the courage to pass. But the road, the journey, is difficult; but He goes ahead, opening the way. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that this is the newness of the fullness of time. It says: “His filial prayer, which the Father awaits from His children, is finally going to be lived out by the only Son in His humanity, with and for men” (no. 2599). Jesus prays with us. Let us keep this clear in our mind and in our heart: Jesus prays with us.

On that day, on the bank of the river Jordan, there is therefore all of humanity, with its unexpressed yearning for prayer. There is, above all, the population of sinners: those who thought they were not beloved by God, those who did not dare cross the threshold of the temple, those who did not pray because they did not consider themselves worthy. Jesus came for everyone, even for them, and He begins precisely by joining them. At the forefront.

The Gospel of Luke, in particular, highlights the climate of prayer in which the baptism of Jesus took place: “Now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heaven was opened” (3:21). By praying, Jesus opens the door to the heavens, and the Holy Spirit descends from that breach. And from on high a voice proclaims the wonderful truth:“Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased” (v. 22). This simple phrase encloses an immense treasure; it enables us to intuit something of Jesus’ ministry and of His heart, always turned to the Father. In the whirlwind of life and the world that will come to condemn him, even in the hardest and most sorrowful experiences He will have to endure, even when He experiences that he has no place to lay His head (see Mt 8: 20), even when hatred and persecution are unleashed around Him, Jesus is never without the refuge of a dwelling place: He dwells eternally in the Father.

This is the unique greatness of Jesus’ prayer: the Holy Spirit takes possession of His person and the voice of the Father attests that He is the beloved, the Son in whom He fully reflects Himself.

This prayer of Jesus, which on the banks of the river Jordan is totally personal – and will be thus for all His earthly life – in Pentecost becomes the grace of prayer for all those baptised in Christ. He Himself obtained for us this gift, and He invites us to pray as He prayed.

Therefore, if during an evening of prayer we feel sluggish and empty, if it seems to us that life has been completely useless, we must at that moment beg that Jesus’ prayer also become our own. “I cannot pray today, I don’t know what to do: I don’t feel like it, I am unworthy… In that moment, may your prayer to Jesus be mine”. And entrust yourself to Him, that He may pray for us. He in this moment is before the Father, praying for us, He is the intercessor; He shows the wounds to the Father, for us. Let us trust in this, it is great. We will then hear, if we are trustful, we will then hear a voice from heaven, louder than the voice rising from the depths of ourselves, and we will hear this voice whispering words of tenderness: “You are God’s beloved, you are a son, you are the joy of the Father in heaven”. Just for us, for each one of us, echoes the word of the Father: even if we were rejected by all, sinners of the worst kind. Jesus did not descend into the waters of the Jordan for Himself, but for all of us. It was the entire people of God who went to the Jordan to pray, to ask for forgiveness, to receive that baptism of penance. And as that theologian said, they approached the Jordan with a “bare soul and bare feet”. This is humility. It takes humility to pray. He opened the heavens, as Moses opened the waters of the Red Sea, so that we could all pass behind Him. Jesus gave us His own prayer, which is His loving dialogue with the Father. He gave it to us like a seed of the Trinity, which He wants to take root in our hearts. Let us welcome him! Let us welcome this gift, the gift of prayer. Always with Him. And we will not err. Thank you.

---

APPEAL

I participate in the suffering of the families of the young students barbarically killed last Saturday in Kumba, in Cameroon. I feel great bewilderment at such a cruel and senseless act, which tore the young innocents from life while they were attending lessons at school. May God enlighten hearts, so that similar gestures may never be repeated again and so that the tormented regions of the north-west and south-west of the country may finally find peace! I hope that the weapons will remain silent and that the safety of all and the right of every young person to education and the future can be guaranteed. I express my affection to families, to the city of Kumba and to the whole of Cameroon and I invoke the comfort that only God can give.

---

Special Greetings

I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors who join us for today’s Audience. Upon you and your families I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!

---

Summary of the Holy Father’s words:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, in our continuing catechesis on prayer, we now turn to the life and teaching of Jesus. The Lord chose to begin his public ministry by being baptized in the Jordan river. It is significant that this great event took place in the midst of a community, in an atmosphere of communal prayer and repentance. Sinless himself, the eternal Son of God was baptized by John as a sign of his loving solidarity with sinful humanity. Saint Luke tells us that, after his baptism, as Jesus prayed, the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and the voice of the Father proclaimed him as his beloved Son. By our own baptism, we become sharers in Christ’s sonship through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are thus enabled to share in Jesus’ own prayer, the eternal expression of his dialogue of love with the Father. At every moment of our lives, even those in which we feel the weight of the cross and the burden of our sins, may we persevere in prayer, confident that, as Christ’s brothers and sisters, beloved sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, the gates of heaven are always open to us.

The Feast Day of 2 Apostles

 

Saints Simon and Jude

Saints Simon and Jude,Apostles
First Century

October 28 – Feast
Liturgical Color: Red
Patron Saints of hopeless causes (Jude) and tanners (Simon)

The Apostles laid the foundation for a later generation’s household of faith

There is often a crosshatch of bloody scratches on the right cheek of statues of the suffering Christ in Latin America. It’s called the “Judas Kiss,” a reminder of Judas Iscariot’s act of both affectionately greeting Christ and betraying Him in one sinister gesture. No one kneels before a statue of Judas Iscariot in a Catholic church. No one lights a candle to Judas asking that he restore their lost sight or heal their child’s cancer. But Judas Iscariot wasn’t the only Judas among the Twelve Apostles. Today’s Saint Jude (or Judas) was often confused with his evil contemporary. Since Judas Iscariot was so despised and ignored, and since he shared a name with the good Jude, a tradition gathered over the centuries of petitioning today’s saint only when all other saints had failed to answer one’s prayers. Saint Jude became the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes, then, probably because of the faithful’s reluctance to seek the intercession of one whose misfortune it was to share a name with Christ’s betrayer. Out of confusion or an abundance of caution, Saint Jude thus became a saint of last resort. When the dam was barely holding, when a pulse could no longer be felt, when the rains wouldn’t come, a candle was lit to Saint Jude, hoping against hope, that he would respond.

Saint Simon the Apostle is called the “Zealot” in Saint Luke’s Gospel. This may describe his zeal for the house of the Lord or denote his membership in a radical Jewish sect. Zeal is, in any case, a virtue. It must be joined with prudence to ensure that it does not offend for the sake of offending. A zealous soul will, however, lovingly provoke others to consider the things of God through his words, actions, and appropriate silences. Zeal for the house of the Lord has migrated to other concerns in many parts of today’s world. While religious zeal has unfortunately come to be understood as a negative virtue, zeal for planet earth and various other more “acceptable” causes are now seen as positive. The intentional disciple, however, understands zeal in its historical sense as a burning concern for perennial truths, not mere fads, and as a proactive form of love for all those things that lead mankind to God. God is a person, after all, and depends on His friends to defend Him.

Saints Simon and Jude disappear from the pages of the Gospels after the brief mentions of their names. Nothing is known of either of them with any certainty, not even where they evangelized or where they met death. As Apostles, however, we know with certainty that they were key actors in laying the deep foundations of the Church in the rock-solid substrata of the Middle Eastern culture in which they lived. The Catholic Church is the household of faith. An earthly family is united by blood, while the theological family of the Church is united by the Sacraments and the Creed. But it is not sufficient for a family to be united by biological or theological DNA. A family is little if it is not a household. A household works together, prays together, and eats together. A household is where a family feels like a family. A boy may know who his father is, but if he doesn’t share everyday life with that father, their family relationship means little. It is in the household that life happens all over the globe. Mom and dad, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, in the kitchen, around the table, in the garden, at Mass, a band united in both mundane and sacred duties. The Church is the household of faith where God’s family gathers week in and week out, century after century. Christians must not only be united intellectually, but must live united, and feel that unity in their bones. Today’s saints worked long ago to build the household we now enjoy. They dug the well so that we could pull up the water and drink. They planted so that we could reap. They lit the fire so that we could warm ourselves close to the flames, one universal family living in one universal household we call the Church.

Saints Simon and Jude, we ask for your intercession in heaven as members of the Twelve Apostles. Approach the Lord Jesus with our needs in your hands. Answer the prayers we present. Fulfill the petitions we seek.

Pope Francis prays for a Europe with a good future where the church is relevant

 

The Flag of the European Union  (AFP or licensors)

POPE

• POPE FRANCIS
• PIETRO PAROLIN
• EUROPE
• SOLIDARITY

Pope Francis dreams of a Europe of solidarity and respect for all peoples

In a letter to the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis retraces the history and values of the European continent and expresses his desire for fraternity and solidarity among nations amid a period marked by individualistic tendencies.

By Vatican News staff writer

Pope Francis, in a letter to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, shares his visions of a Europe of the future, marked with solidarity, friendship and unity, and true to the spirit of the continent’s founding fathers.

The Pope’s letter comes as the Holy See and the Church in Europe celebrate three anniversaries this year.

First, the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the then-European Community and the Holy See, by its presence as an Observer at the Council of Europe. Second, the founding of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Communities (COMECE), forty years ago. Third, this year also marks the seventieth anniversary of the Schuman Declaration which inspired the continent’s gradual process of reintegration after the two world wars.

In light of these notable occasions, Cardinal Parolin is to make significant visits to EU authorities, the Plenary Assembly of the COMECE and the authorities of the Council of Europe in the near future.

The European Project

In his letter released on Tuesday, Pope Francis highlighted that the European project, born of the realization that “unity is greater than conflict” and solidarity can be “a way of making history”, has began to “show signs of a certain regression” in our days.

The Covid-19 pandemic, the Pope noted, “has emerged as a kind of watershed, forcing us to take a stand.” We can continue to go at it alone, “seeking unilateral solutions to a problem that transcends state borders” or rediscover the path of fraternity that inspired and guided the founders of modern Europe, beginning with Robert Schuman.

Europe, find yourself!

Pointing out that an age of rapid change can bring with it “a loss of identity, especially when there is a lack of shared values,” Pope Francis urged the continent, re-echoing the words of Pope Saint John Paul II in the Santiago de Compostela, saying: “find yourself, be yourself.”

He called on the continent not to look back at its past “as an album of memories”, but rather to rediscover its “most deeply-rooted ideals.”

“Be yourself! Do not be afraid of your millenary history, which is a window open to the future more than the past. Do not be afraid of that thirst of yours for truth, which, from the days of ancient Greece, has spread throughout the world and brought to light the deepest questions of every human being. Do not be afraid of the thirst for justice that developed from Roman law and in time became respect for all human beings and their rights. Do not be afraid of your thirst for eternity, enriched by the encounter with the Judeo-Christian tradition reflected in your patrimony of faith, art and culture,” the Pope said.

Europe of the future

Reflecting on the kind of Europe we envision for the future and its distinctive contribution to the world, Pope Francis laid out four images.

First, a “Europe that is a friend to each and all.” Pope Francis said he envisions a land “respectful of everyone’s dignity, in which each person is appreciated for his or her intrinsic worth” – not from an economic standpoint or as a mere consumer. A continent that protects life at every stage, from conception until its natural end, as well as a land that promotes work as a means of personal growth and the creation of employment opportunities.

Pope Francis’ second dream is of a “Europe that is a family and a community.” The Pope said he aspires for a land respectful of the “distinctiveness of each individual and every people”, which becomes a “genuine family of peoples, all different yet linked by a common history and destiny.”

The Pope also dreams of an “inclusive and generous” Europe which is “welcoming and hospitable,” and where charity – the highest Christian virtue - overcomes every form of selfishness and indifference. Here, solidarity, which demands that we care for one another, will lead us towards “guiding those most vulnerable towards personal and social growth.” 

As solidarity also involves “being a neighbor to others,” it will mean for Europe to be willing, “through international cooperation to offer generous assistance to other continents” including Africa where “there is a need to resolve conflicts and to pursue a sustainable human development.” The Pope also urged Europe to meet the present challenge of migrants, enabling them “to learn, respect and assimilate the culture and traditions of the nations that welcome them.”

Pope Francis’ fourth dream is of a Europe marked by a healthy secularism “where God and Caesar remain distinct but not opposed.” The Holy Father said he thinks of a land where believers are free to profess their faith in public and to put forward their points of view in society.

Christians have a task

“Christians today have a great responsibility,” said Pope Francis. “They are called to serve as a leaven in reviving Europe’s conscience and help generate processes capable of awakening new energies in society.”

The Holy Father, therefore, enjoined all believers to “contribute with commitment, courage and determination to every sector in which they live and work.”

Concluding, Pope Francis entrusted Europe to the protection of her patrons: Saints Benedict, Cyril and Methodius, Bridget, Catherine, and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

This time, it is us. Hurricane Zeta is coming to my neighborhood tomorrow afternoon

 

More Catholic Church vandalism and an arrest; when will this stop?

 

Pastor: Man arrested after allegedly vandalizing altar of Louisville Catholic church

St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Louisville, Ky. (Source: sanctum360.org)

By Shellie Sylvestri | October 26, 2020 at 11:04 PM EDT - Updated October 26 at 11:06 PM

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in Louisville confirmed a man was arrested for reportedly damaging the church’s altar Sunday.

In a letter written to members of St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Phoenix Hill, Fr. Paul Beach said a man who “appeared to be experiencing the effects of drug intoxication” entered the church and damaged the front altar.

Beach said a security guard was on duty and police were called on the suspect.

“The police responded quickly and in sufficient numbers to subdue this individual without further harm being done. I am grateful for their commendable call to duty,” Beach wrote.

Beach said nothing that was damaged inside the sanctuary is irreplaceable and asked people to pray for the person who was arrested. He also said the church takes pride in being open 24/7.

“The first thing I ask of you is to pray for this poor soul who committed these acts, who is so obviously troubled,” he wrote. “He is currently in police custody and will be prosecuted for his crimes. In Christian charity we ought to pray for him.”

The suspect’s name was not revealed in the letter, nor his charges. WAVE 3 News has reached out to the Louisville Metro Police Department for more information, but have yet to hear back.