for later reading

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/09/14/pope_homily_for_feast_of_the_exaltation_of_the_holy_cross/1106518

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2014/09/christians-and-communists/

A sonnet to Mary

From Holly Ordway's site

The Annunciation

It seems so simple: tell God yes, and then

Be faithful; listen, trust, obey. So far

So good, but what’s the shape of faith within

An ordinary day? We must be sure

Enough to step out in the dark, to act

(not knowing) just as if we knew the way.

But knowing that we do not know, we wait

With empty hands for gifts whose shape and name

Are still unknown. Now Sanctus bells ring clear

To call us to the presence of the Word

Made flesh. That one most blessed ‘yes’ is here

Renewed, that we might bear into the world

His life and light. We take the bread and cup,

The gift of joy that breaks and blesses us.

Paranoia: we haz that

So, Peres thinks the Pope should "join" the UN's one world religion, and agree that there is no truth in religion, only opinions.

can you say "Anti christ new world order" children?

The Catholic point of view is that certain things are true, and we can't stop insisting on it. However, in the name of charity, we are supposed to say what we believe quietly and calmly (according to Peter) and not go to war over it.

so instead of "religious wars" I predict the takeover of Catholic institutions by the PC, who will then go on and implement the PC religion (Gay marriage, ok. Abortion? No problem. Euthanasia? It's good for us).

Despite all the talk of "religious wars", a lot of them were push back, such as the Crusades which were about defending Christians being persecuted, but degenerated into war thanks to the warlike Normans (Viking descendants). Even the early Arab conquests didn't push religion on their subjects: that came later, when someone read the Koran and decided to imitate what Mohammed did to his enemies.

And of course, the crusades were only a minor blip against Islam: The real killer of Muslims was  Genghis khan, who is now being idolized in some quarters, massacred millions of Muslims...including the entire city of Baghdad. Not from religion, but because they opposed him taking them over.

These massacres were so bad that when one of his Nestorian Christian generals almost persuaded the French to join in and help them conquer what was left of Islam in the Levant and in Egypt, the Pope stepped in and said no.. in a clash of barbarians against the civilized, back the civilized.....so the Crusader states stayed neutral and the Egyptians pushed them back.

That would make a great alternative history story...what if the Mongols had taken over Egypt and destroyed Islam?

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semi related issue:

Cardinal Dolan will allow gay activists to use the St Patrick's day parade to promote that their lifestyle is compatible with Catholicism.

Well, they are in the Mardi Gras, but that parade doesn't celebrate the fact that America, unlike the UK, allowed Catholics to worship and run their institutions in freedom.

Now, however, Dolan is obeying the NYTimes, and the only ones upset are those who happen to think God didn't make a mistake when he made men and women complementary and biologically different, and that maybe there is a reason for almost all societies up to the last 20 years to see that marriage is a way to protect women and chilldren and be there to support the family in times of trouble and sickness. Marriage is biologically based, and all the sympathy for gay couples won't change biology, nor the fact that idealistic laws that ignore reality tend to lead not to utopia but to dystopias.

Well, anyway, Monseignor Pope wrote a column about how the parade has become an excuse for drunkeness and no longer has any relationship to it's original reason to be, let alone supporting the church as such.

And Wuerl, who looked the other way when all the priests from our diocese hit the gay bars in Pittsburgh, has pulled the column from the diocese blog.

Ah, but the internet is forever, and Father Z links to the column...here. at Buzzfeed, of all places.

Here’s the full text of the post, copied from blog before it was apparently removed:

Time to End the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner?
By: Msgr. Charles Pope
The time for happy-clappy, lighthearted engagement of our culture may be nearing an end. Sometimes it takes a while to understand that what used to work no longer works. Let me get more specific.
Decades ago the “Al Smith Dinner” was a time for Republicans and Democrats to bury the hatchet (even if only temporarily) and come together to raise money for the poor and to emphasize what unites us rather than what divides us. But in the old days the death of 50 million infants was not what divided us. We were divided about lesser things such as how much of the budget should go to defense and how much to social spending. Reasonable men might differ over that.
But now we are being asked to raise toasts and to enjoy a night of frivolity with those who think it is acceptable to abort children by the millions each year, with those who think anal sex is to be celebrated as an expression of love and that LGBTQIA… (I=intersexual, A= Asexual) is actually a form of sanity to which we should tip our hat, and with those who stand four-square against us over religious liberty.
Now the St. Patrick’s Parade is becoming of parade of disorder, chaos, and fake unity. Let’s be honest: St. Patrick’s Day nationally has become a disgraceful display of drunkenness and foolishness in the middle of Lent that more often embarrasses the memory of Patrick than honors it.
In New York City in particular, the “parade” is devolving into a farcical and hateful ridicule of the faith that St. Patrick preached.
It’s time to cancel the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner and all the other “Catholic” traditions that have been hijacked by the world. Better for Catholics to enter their churches and get down on their knees on St. Patrick’s Day to pray in reparation for the foolishness, and to pray for this confused world to return to its senses. Let’s do adoration and pray the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet unceasingly for this poor old world.
But don’t go to the parade; stay away from the Al Smith Dinner and all that “old school” stuff that hangs on in a darkened world. And as for St Patrick’s Day, it’s time to stop wearin’ the green and instead take up the purple of Lent and mean it. Enough of the celebration of stupidity, frivolity, and drunkenness that St Paddy’s day has become. We need penance now, not foolishness. We don’t need parades and dinner with people who scoff at our teachings, insist we compromise, use us for publicity, and make money off of us. We’re being played for (and are?) fools.
End the St Patrick’s parade. End the Al Smith Dinner and all other such compromised events. Enough now, back to Church! Wear the purple of Lent and if there is going to be a procession, let it be Eucharistic and penitential for the sins of this age.
For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!
How say you?