Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 146
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A tragic example of the hectoring, and even harassment, from Catholic clergy that was commonplace during this recent election season, made possible by church leaders who told people they'd go to hell for voting a certain way, overlooking the primacy of the informed conscience.
In the last few weeks, I've received dozens of messages through Facebook, telling me of priests who condemned @JoeBiden from the pulpit, told parishioners they were risking damnation, and so on. Some of these people live in dioceses where their bishops made similar remarks.
Tomorrow the long-awaited Vatican report on the former Cardinal Theodore #McCarrick (now Mr. McCarrick) and his crimes of abuse will be released. It will dominate conversation in the US church for weeks, if not months. I've not seen the report, but it is supposed to be lengthy...
The report will most likely detail the sexual abuse, but also how someone like McCarrick could have risen through the ranks, while people knew or suspected his abusive crimes.
(He went from Bishop of Metuchen to Archbishop of Newark to Cardinal-Archbishop of Washington, DC)...
Religious liberty should not be used as a cover for homophobia. Do Catholic adoption agencies also seek to exclude couples who are Jewish or Protestant? They too are not "following church teaching," in one case by not believing in Jesus. Why focus only on same-sex couples?...
To be clear: Catholic institutions and agencies have the right to require their employees to follow church teachings, and the right to decide whom they serve and under what conditions. But increasingly "religious liberty" exemptions are focused only on LGBT people...
...and the only "church teaching" that seems to matter has to do with same-sex marriage. There are many other important church teachings that adoptive couples are probably not following, and there is no exemption sought by Catholic social service agencies.
Gospel: On #AllSoulsDay we are reminded that those who believe in Christ will enjoy everlasting life (Jn 6). They also help us with their prayers. As Nancy Dallavalle writes in @GiveUsThisDayLP, "The generations that go before us live anew in the fragile moments of our lives..."
...We may long for the clean slate, the fresh start, to be self-made--to cast off the weight of despair, to leave the bitterness behind forever. Instead our beloved dead gather round. In Christ we see them fully, as we cannot in the flesh. Their faces press close...
...but their hands urge us forward. Their hands are God's mercy: saturating all creation, rolling the loss and the graced into a single river of love poured into our hearts, coursing through the rivers of all time, carrying us home...
Dear friends: Last night I was finally able to watch the lovely new film "Fatima," which I highly recommend. It's a faithful version of the appearances of Our Lady of #Fatima, in Portugal in 1917 to three young children....
It has a stellar cast and high production values and a fine script. The film reminded me a great deal of "The Song of Bernadette" (1943), about St. Bernadette's visions in Lourdes, especially in its refusal to sugarcoat the initial opposition faced by the young visionaries....
(Both the Fatima visionaries and Bernadette were originally disbelieved by both their parents and the local priest, who later came to support them.) The device of the elderly Sister Lucia (Sonia Braga) being interviewed by a journalist (Harvey Keitel) was a great way to frame...
Attempts to deny that @Pontifex said what he said (or that it was edited to make him say something different) are amazing. Because he's said all these things before, though either privately or not as widely known. Let's look at what he said about #LGBT people in the new film....
1. "Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family."
During an in-flight press conference on the way back from Dublin, in 2018, the Pope said:
"Because that son and daughter has a right to family, and their family is this family, just as it is."