Here is the telegram sent by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, to Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City expressing Pope Francis’ sympathy for the victims of the tragic tornado that struck Oklahoma City yesterday.
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The Holy Father has followed with deep concern the aftermath of the devastating tornado which has struck Oklahoma and he asks you convey to the entire community the assurance of his solidarity and closeness in prayer. Conscious of the tragic loss of life and the immensity of the work of rebuilding that lies ahead, he asks Almighty God to grant eternal rest to the departed, comfort to the afflicted, and strength and hope to the homeless and the injured. In a particular way he commends to the Father of mercies the many young children among the victims and their grieving families. Upon the local civil and religious leaders, and upon all involved in the relief efforts, His Holiness invokes the Risen Lord’s gifts of consolation, strength and perseverance in every good.
Vatican City, 8 May 2013 (VIS) – “The men and women of the Church who are careerists and social climbers, who ‘use’ people, the Church, their brothers and sisters—whom they should be serving—as a springboard for their own personal interests and ambitions … are doing great harm to the Church.” This is what Pope Francis asserted in his address to the participants in the plenary assembly of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) whom he received in audience this morning.
The pontiff spoke to the sisters of obedience, poverty, and chastity: “Obedience as listening to God’s will, in the interior motion of the Holy Spirit authenticated by the Church, accepting that obedience also passes through human mediations. … Poverty, which teaches solidarity, sharing, and charity and which is also expressed in a soberness and joy of the essential, to put us on guard against the material idols that obscure the true meaning of life. Poverty, which is learned with the humble, the poor, the sick, and all those who are at the existential margins of life. Theoretical poverty doesn’t do anything. Poverty is learned by touching the flesh of the poor Christ in the humble, the poor, the sick, and in children.”
“And then chastity, as a precious charism, that enlarges the freedom of your gift to God and others with Christ’s tenderness, mercy, and closeness. Chastity for the Kingdom of Heaven shows how affection has its place in mature freedom and becomes a sign of the future world, to make God’s primacy shine forever. But, please, [make it] a ‘fertile’ chastity, which generates spiritual children in the Church. The consecrated are mothers: they must be mothers and not ‘spinsters!’
Forgive me if I talk like this but this maternity of consecrated life, this fruitfulness is important! May this joy of spiritual fruitfulness animate your existence. Be mothers, like the images of the Mother Mary and the Mother Church. You cannot understand Mary without her motherhood; you cannot understand the Church without her motherhood, and you are icons of Mary and of the Church.”
Continuing, Pope Francis spoke to the superiors about service. “We must never forget that true power, at whatever level, is service, which has its bright summit upon the Cross. … ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them … But it shall not be so among you.’—This is precisely the motto of your assembly, isn’t it? It shall not be so among you.—’Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave’.”
“Your vocation is a fundamental charism for the Church’s journey and it isn’t possible that a consecrated woman or man might ‘feel’ themselves not to be with the Church. A ‘feeling’ with the Church that has generated us in Baptism; a ‘feeling’ with the Church that finds its filial expression in fidelity to the Magisterium, in communion with the Bishops and the Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, a visible sign of that unity,” the pontiff added, citing Paul VI: “It is an absurd dichotomy to think of living with Jesus but without the Church, of following Jesus outside of the Church, of loving Jesus without loving the Church. Feel the responsibility that you have of caring for the formation of your Institutes in sound Church doctrine, in love of the Church, and in an ecclesial spirit.”
“The centrality of Christ and his Gospel, authority as a service of love, and ‘feeling’ in and with the Mother Church: [these are] three suggestions that I wish to leave you, to which I again add my gratitude for your work, which is not always easy. What would the Church be without you? She would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness! A Mother’s intuition.”
Pope Francis touches his head during his Wednesday general audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican May 8, 2013. (Image by: STEFANO RELLANDINI / REUTERS)
(1) One lung?
(2) Bad knees?
(3) And can’t sing?
(4) Likes the bus
(5) Doesn’t like his throne
(6) Doesn’t like the Papal Quarters
(7) Doesn’t like obeying Canon Laws or Vatican Protocol.
(8) Doesn’t like a safer Pope Mobile or to be told what to do, by his security detail
Is he accusing himself, of not being a “good Christian” or implying, that an “opponent” his sermon was aimed , at was a “bad Christian?”
What elderly person complains that doesn’t need a need filled?
If we are going to examine their conscience or culpability for them, then why wait for God to Judge them? You’ve already done it.
I sense he has someone in mind, that he has failed to love, as the target for his homily.
I learn by example. When words don’t line up with what you do – I am less inclined to follow those words. I’ve worked with the sick since I was a child. I have “an ear” for their complaints.
I guess after those babies are kissed, and the cameras are off; when it’s all said and done, he is a phony. He doesn’t practice, what he preaches.
How else did we learn about his illnesses had he not told the world and complained. He must be calling himself names, or in reality, more likely an opponent.
Clever deceptions, I’d say. Clever. But evil, to accuse anyone but oneself of sins.
Folks in hospital or nursing home settings have folks turn a deaf ear all the time – to their plaintive cries, for help.
Since they aren’t the Pope, their cries for help are ignored by their younger caretakers. I’ve seen it more often, than not.
But, isn’t it true – that GOD said – the Priest or Levite would go out of their ways not to help a man who was robbed, beaten and left for dead on the side of the road – in the Good Samaritan Story?
It wasn’t a Religious Person who helped the ailing man. It was a Good Samaritan who went out of his way and went the “extra mile” to love and care for that unfortunate man.
Food for thought, Pope.
“I was hungry and, you gave me to eat.”
I was hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and I found none, today.
(Only in Christ).
Another Way of Looking at this is well …
FRANKLY – I AM TIRED OF POPES WHO TACITLY COMPLAIN ABOUT BEING A POPE – A PAPA.
That’s all men need to hear, of a Pope complaining, because his job is getting too hard.
How hard can it be?
A Pope is waited on hand and foot. You have everything handed to you. Even your chasuble is held just so – so you don’t trip over yourselves in your very lavish threads.
Meanwhile real people don’t buy new clothes for years. They put up with that bad boss, abusive spouse, or politician.
Seems with the Pope bow-outs and the tacit complaints of the New Pope; fathers of a family and young single men are being given the example that they too, can vacate the family, when the going gets too tough.
So many examples of getting old: which one to follow? Christ. Only Christ. Popes must be followed, but to what extent? Their examples? Which Pope? The current one, speaks good one minute and is sharp the next. He seems to like to tell people off. And, insult them. I saw two women from Africa received that way. But, they kept smiling despite the Pope’s brusk words to them.
They were more of a good example to me, than what the Pope said to them.
Makes you want to “throw up” doesn’t it? Slobbering love fest of two very stupid and liberal Presidents of the United States and Costa Rica.
God bless the United Nations NGO’s for the inroads of help Costa Rica get richer in money but poorer in “Family Values” with their Sex Education Clinics that Peddle Contraceptives, Condoms and encourages their high-in-demand sex trade in their Legal Prostitution Country that even boasts of Sex Trade Unions so that the Prostitutes are supposedly “guaranteed” to be disease free.
Shows to me, that United Nations and Obama and the US Ambassador to Costa Rica have a Liberal Agenda – for Costa Rica; to undermine further the influence of the Pope and their Catholic Cardinals.
The fact President Chinchilla is allowing Sex Education to be taught to children by these strangers, and not their local churches and parents – shows to the world that Costa Rica is in a hurry to go the Way the USA is going – towards Hell, everyday, from letting IDIOTS in Schools teach our kids “How to Violate their Catholic Faith.”
Just remember Costa Ricans: Catholics are Number 10 on Obama’s List of Terrorists in the new US Army Manual.
Are you envious of The United States of America’s declination in Morals? Years from now, when your lives and your marriages and your families fall apart, you will recall what I wrote today.
You will weep, from having been duped into thinking this is prosperity. It is not progress. It is regress.
Listen to the Pope.
Listen to your braver, conservative Bishops. Do not listen to those Bishops who make deals with the devil and mental gymnastics, to explain away the Roman Catholic Faith.
You are dealing with a US President who will use you and abuse you and when you don’t hop to his pied piper tune, he will invade you, and do a regime change like he is doing in Syria. *If I was a Costa Rican, I would not listen to nor believe his sugar-coated lies.
Obama has the reputation for the US Massacres, which are “False Flags.” Obama has a reputation of Foreign Regime changes, for allowing the US Military to be ruled, by NATO; no longer by the US Congress.
Obama in the past has engaged, in Gay-Sex, Drugs, in the past. And, Obama has been suspected, in the deaths of his gay lovers, political opponents, and our US Ambassador to Libya, and the Navy Seals who died defending him.
If you want to trust the US President Obama – go ahead. But don’t say, I didn’t warn you. If you met the US President – big deal! Pray for his conversion. God is not happy with Obama. So, don’t be fooled by Obama’s Lies, and Empty Promises!
Listen to your gut! Listen to The Pope. And, listen to your conservative Clergy.
Blessed Pope John Paul II said, “The family is the basic unit of society. As the family goes, so goes the nation.”
Costa Rican Bishops Outraged Over New ‘Hedonistic’ Sexual Education Curriculum
There is a brewing controversy in the schools of Costa Rica over some of the proposed changes to the school curriculum, specifically dealing with sexual education.
In a recent statement the Bishops of Costa Rica denounced and heavily criticized a new sexual education curriculum that was recently approved by the Costa Rican government. They claimed that the new school curriculum promotes a “hedonistic” and ideological view of sexuality that is biased and morally insufficient.
The statement, published on Aug. 27, states that the material provided to the children from the school promotes and insists on highlighting gender neutrality while also pushing and advocating for sexual deviancy.
The bishops say that the materials are “so repetitive that … it’s more about propaganda than education,” according to the statement.
The new additions to the school curriculum are scheduled to take effect in the 2013 school year. Local religious leaders say that the proposed sexual education program does not provide a comprehensive view of such material, given that it does not include the religious attitudes or beliefs of students and parents.
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