Monthly Archives: May 2010

Church Crisis in America? — Solved.

Posted by —

0

Conversion. Communion. Solidarity.

Sometime this week watch this video.

Don’t break it up. Don’t watch in parts. But instead, set aside 1 hour this week for the special intention of watching it prayerfully whole and entire.

Come back and discuss…

Background Documents: Ecclesia In America – Evangelii Nuntiandi   

END OF POST

Helpful — Compendium of Pope Benedict XVI’s Addresses in Portugal

Posted by —

0

The Restless Friar put this helpful compendium together:

Compendium of Pope Benedict XVI’s Addresses in Portugal

The Holy Father has just concluded his four day trip to Portugal, honoring Our Lady of Fatima and commemorating the ten year anniversary of the beatification of Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto. Here is a Compendium of the various addresses he gave during the trip:

May 11, 2010:

May 12, 2010:

May 13, 2010 – Feast of Our Lady of Fatima:

May 14, 2010:

END OF POST/SOURCE: Psalm 46:11 — A Journey To Truth

(Full Text) Oporto Homily — Pope Benedict XVI

Posted by —

0

From the Vatican’s website:

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Homily for Mass in Oporto
Friday, 14 May 2010

(14 May 10 – RV) Below the full text of Pope Benedict XVI’s homily for Mass in Oporto, Portugal:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,“It is written in the book of Psalms, … ‘His office let another take’. One of these men, then […] must become a witness with us to his resurrection” (Acts 1:20-22). These were the words of Peter, as he read and interpreted the word of God in the midst of his brethren gathered in the Upper Room following Jesus’ ascension to heaven. The one who was chosen was Matthias, who had been a witness to the public life of Jesus and his victory over death, and had remained faithful to him to the end, despite the fact that many abandoned him. The “disproportion” between the forces on the field, which we find so alarming today, astounded those who saw and heard Christ two thousand years ago. It was only he, from the shore of the Lake of Galilee right up to the squares of Jerusalem, alone or almost alone at the decisive moments: he, in union with the Father; he, in the power of the Spirit. Yet it came about, in the end, that from the same love that created the world, the newness of the Kingdom sprang up like a small seed which rises from the ground, like a ray of light which breaks into the darkness, like the dawn of a unending day: it is Christ Risen. And he appeared to his friends, showing them the need for the Cross in order to attain the resurrection.

On that day Peter was looking for a witness to all this. Two were presented, and heaven chose “Matthias, and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:26). Today we celebrate his glorious memory in this “undefeated city”, which festively welcomes the Successor of Peter. I give thanks to God that I have been able come here and meet you around the altar. I offer a cordial greeting to you, my brethren and friends of the city and the Diocese of Oporto, to those who have come from the ecclesiastical province of Northern Portugal and from nearby Spain, and to all those physically or spiritually present at this liturgical assembly. I greet the Bishop of Oporto, Dom Manuel Clemente, who greatly desired this visit of mine, welcomed me with great affection, and voiced your sentiments at the beginning of this Eucharist. I greet his predecessors, his brother Bishops, all the priests, women and men religious, and the lay faithful, and in particular those actively involved in the Diocesan Mission, and, more concretely, in the preparations for my visit. I know that you have been able to count on the practical cooperation of the Mayor of Oporto and the public authorities, many of whom honour me by their presence; I wish to take advantage of this opportunity to greet them and to express to them, and to all whom they represent and serve, my best wishes for the good of all.

“One of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection,” said Peter. His Successor now repeats to each of you: My brothers and sisters, you need to become witnesses with me to the resurrection of Jesus. In effect, if you do not become his witnesses in your daily lives, who will do so in your place? Christians are, in the Church and with the Church, missionaries of Christ sent into the world. This is the indispensable mission of every ecclesial community: to receive from God and to offer to the world the Risen Christ, so that every situation of weakness and of death may be transformed, through the Holy Spirit, into an opportunity for growth and life. To this end, in every Eucharistic celebration, we will listen more attentively to the word of Christ and devoutly taste the bread of his presence. This will make us witnesses, and, even more, bearers of the Risen Jesus in the world, bringing him to the various sectors of society and to all those who live and work there, spreading that “life in abundance” (cf. Jn 10:10) which he has won for us by his cross and resurrection, and which satisfies the most authentic yearnings of the human heart.

We impose nothing, yet we propose ceaselessly, as Peter recommends in one of his Letters: “In your hearts, reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defence to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet 3:15). And everyone, in the end, asks this of us, even those who seem not to. From personal and communal experience, we know well that it is Jesus whom everyone awaits. In fact, the most profound expectations of the world and the great certainties of the Gospel meet in the ineluctable mission which is ours, for “without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. In the face of the enormous problems surrounding the development of peoples, which almost make us yield to discouragement, we find solace in the sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ, who teaches us: ‘Apart from me you can do nothing’ (Jn 15:5) and who encourages us: ‘I am with you always, to the close of the age’ (Mt 28:20)” (Caritas in Veritate, 78).

Yet even though this certainty consoles and calms us, it does not exempt us from going forth to others. We must overcome the temptation to restrict ourselves to what we already have, or think we have, safely in our possession: it would be sure death in terms of the Church’s presence in the world; the Church, for that matter, can only be missionary, in the outward movement of the Spirit. From its origins, the Christian people has clearly recognized the importance of communicating the Good News of Jesus to those who did not yet know him. In recent years the anthropological, cultural, social and religious framework of humanity has changed; today the Church is called to face new challenges and is ready to dialogue with different cultures and religions, in the search for ways of building, along with all people of good will, the peaceful coexistence of peoples. The field of the mission ad gentes appears much broader today, and no longer to be defined on the basis of geographic considerations alone; in effect, not only non-Christian peoples and those who are far distant await us, but so do social and cultural milieux, and above all human hearts, which are the real goal of the missionary activity of the People of God.

This is the mandate whose faithful fulfilment “must follow the road Christ himself walked, a way of poverty and obedience, of service and of self-sacrifice even unto death, a death from which he emerged victorious by his resurrection” (Ad Gentes, 5). Yes! We are called to serve the humanity of our own time, trusting in Jesus alone, letting ourselves be enlightened by his word: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (Jn 15:16). How much time we have lost, how must work has been set back, on account of our lack of attention to this point! Everything is to be defined starting with Christ, as far as the origins and effectiveness of mission is concerned: we receive mission always from Christ, who has made known to us what he has heard from his Father, and we are appointed to mission through the Spirit, in the Church. Like the Church herself, which is the work of Christ and his Spirit, it is a question of renewing the face of the earth starting from God, God always and alone.

Dear brothers and sisters of Oporto, lift up your eyes to the One whom you have chosen as the patroness of your city, the Immaculate Conception. The angel of the Annunciation greeted Mary as “full of grace”, signifying with this expression that her heart and her life were totally open to God and, as such, completely permeated by his grace. May Our Lady help you to make yourselves a free and total “Yes” to the grace of God, so that you can be renewed and thus renew humanity by the light and the joy of the Holy Spirit.

END OF POST/SOURCE

Outrage! — Catholic school girl who refused headscarf for mosque trip labelled a truant

Posted by —

9

NOTICE: You are invited to join the conversation on this post over on Catholic Truth/Scotland.  

‘Whilst I may not require you to pay for this I must require your child to participate…’  

From UK Mail Online:

A Roman Catholic schoolgirl has been labelled a truant after she refused to wear a headscarf during a compulsory trip to a mosque.

Amy Owen, 14, and fellow girl pupils at a Catholic secondary school were told to cover their heads and wear trousers or leggings out of respect for their Muslim hosts.

But when her mother objected, saying she did not want her daughter to ‘dress as a Muslim’, she received a sternly worded warning letter from the headmaster saying she had no choice.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Michelle Davies’ daughter Amy Owen was ordered to wear a headscarf and trousers or leggings for a school trip to a mosque

Peter Lee, head of Ellesmere Port Catholic High School in Cheshire, informed her that the local diocese ‘requires’ pupils to have an understanding of other religions.

In the letter – with words in block capitals and underlined – Mr Lee said the visit was ‘as compulsory as a geography field trip’.

He added: ‘There are two reasons for these visits. One is that the scheme of work in religious studies REQUIRES children to have knowledge and understanding of other world religions.

‘The second is that the school is REQUIRED to promote tolerance respect and understanding. This is known as community cohesion.

‘A failure to do this could result in an unwelcome inspection judgement. None of us would relish that. 

‘Whilst I may not require you to pay for this I must require your child to participate.’  

The Ellesmere Port Catholic High School letter to parents notifying them of the trip to the Al Rahma Mosque in Toxteth, Liverpool

Amy’s mother Michelle Davies refused to back down and, after being told no teachers would be back at school to keep an eye on her daughter, she kept her at home, citing religious objections – as did as many as ten other families.

Yesterday, after the school acted on its threat to class Amy’s absence as truancy, Miss Davies accused it of discriminating against Christian pupils.

‘It’s like they’re putting a gun to your head – either you go to a mosque, or you’re marked down as an unauthorised absence on your record – that’s it no two ways about it,’ the 34-year-old said.

‘It’s like they are saying she is playing truant for not wearing a head scarf. If the trip had been without the leggings and the headscarf, that would have been fine but I wasn’t having my daughter dressed in the Muslim way.

‘She’s proud of her school uniform and what it represents and she should be able to wear it like she would on any normal school trip.

The trip to the mosque was organised so that students could ‘deepen their understanding and broaden their knowledge’ of Islam

‘She likes to learn, she takes history and she is really interested in it, she wants to learn, but she can do that her classroom without changing the way she dresses.

‘I even did some research on the internet about non-Muslims attending mosques and it says you don’t have to adhere to the dress code.

‘I also fail to see how a three-hour trip to a mosque is of any educational value to a Catholic when she can learn about the Muslim faith in the classroom.

‘I can guarantee that if there were ten Muslim girls coming to our school it would adhere to what they wanted, because that’s their faith, their religion, their dress code.’ 

Parents were asked to make a £3 payment towards the Year 9 trip to the Al Rahma Mosque in Liverpool last month, and an 11-point dress and behaviour code from the mosque was circulated.

Miss Davies, a home help, of Ellesmere Port, added: ‘There are some parts of religious education lessons that children who are Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t have to attend because that’s part of their religion, and the fact is Amy is Catholic and not a Muslim.’

Last year, Ofsted praised the school’s ‘caring Catholic ethos’ but said it needed to do more ‘to enhance wider cultural development’.

The school says the trip was an exciting and unique opportunity for students

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1277744/Parents-outrage-children-told-dress-Muslim-mosque-trip–branded-truant.html?ITO=1708&referrer=yahoo#ixzz0nrA6mBp0

Report: Plot To Bomb Pope

Posted by —

11

Moroccan students: ‘Ready to assassinate to earn a place in Paradise…’

(ANSA) – Rome, May 13 – Two Moroccan students expelled from Italy for security reasons last month wanted to kill Pope Benedict XVI, an Italian newsweekly claims in a report coming out Friday.

The Panorama weekly says it has obtained a copy of the expulsion order in which one of the pair, Mohamed Hlal, was allegedly quoted in a police wiretap saying he was “ready to assassinate (the pope) to earn a place in Paradise”.

After the April 29 order against Hlal and his fellow Perugia University student Ahmed Errahmouni, an interior ministry statement suggested that the pair were planning suicide-bomb attacks, but gave no details.

At the time, Maroni said the pair had been linked to jihadi groups, had been taped talking about terrorist activities and were feared set to carry out “extremist” acts.

Hlal, 27, was studying international communications at the Umbria hilltown university which has a large population of foreign students.

Errahmouni, 22, was enrolled at the faculty of mathematics and physics.

The men are living freely in Rabat, Panorama said.

END OF POST/SOURCE

(Full Text) Fatima Homily: Pope Benedict XVI

Posted by —

1

From the Vatican’s website:

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Esplanade of the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima
Thursday, 13 May 2010

Dear Pilgrims,

“Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations […], they are a people whom the Lord has blessed” (Is 61:9). So the first reading of this Eucharist began, and its words are wonderfully fulfilled in this assembly devoutly gathered at the feet of Our Lady of Fatima. Dearly beloved brothers and sisters, I too have come as a pilgrim to Fatima, to this “home” from which Mary chose to speak to us in modern times. I have come to Fatima to rejoice in Mary’s presence and maternal protection. I have come to Fatima, because today the pilgrim Church, willed by her Son as the instrument of evangelization and the sacrament of salvation, converges upon this place. I have come to Fatima to pray, in union with Mary and so many pilgrims, for our human family, afflicted as it is by various ills and sufferings. Finally, I have come to Fatima with the same sentiments as those of Blessed Francisco and Jacinta, and the Servant of God Lúcia, in order to entrust to Our Lady the intimate confession that “I love” Jesus, that the Church and priests “love” him and desire to keep their gaze fixed upon him as this Year for Priests comes to its end, and in order to entrust to Mary’s maternal protection priests, consecrated men and women, missionaries and all those who by their good works make the House of God a place of welcome and charitable outreach.

These are the “people whom the Lord has blessed”. The people whom the Lord has blessed are you, the beloved Diocese of Leiria-Fatima, with your pastor, Bishop Antonio Marto. I thank him for his words of greeting at the beginning of Mass, and for the gracious hospitality shown particularly by his collaborators at this Shrine. I greet the President of the Republic and the other authorities who serve this glorious Nation. I spiritually embrace all the Dioceses of Portugal, represented here by their Bishops, and I entrust to Heaven all the nations and peoples of the earth. In God I embrace all their sons and daughters, particularly the afflicted or outcast, with the desire of bringing them that great hope which burns in my own heart, and which here, in Fatima, can be palpably felt. May our great hope sink roots in the lives of each of you, dear pilgrims, and of all those who join us through the communications media.

Yes! The Lord, our great hope, is with us. In his merciful love, he offers a future to his people: a future of communion with himself. After experiencing the mercy and consolation of God who did not forsake them along their wearisome return from the Babylonian Exile, the people of God cried out: “I greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being exults in my God” (Is 61:10). The resplendent daughter of this people is the Virgin Mary of Nazareth who, clothed with grace and sweetly marvelling at God’s presence in her womb, made this joy and hope her own in the canticle of the Magnificat: “My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”. She did not view herself as a fortunate individual in the midst of a barren people, but prophecied for them the sweet joys of a wondrous maternity of God, for “his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation” (Lk 1:47, 50).

This holy place is the proof of it. In seven years you will return here to celebrate the centenary of the first visit made by the Lady “come from heaven”, the Teacher who introduced the little seers to a deep knowledge of the Love of the Blessed Trinity and led them to savour God himself as the most beautiful reality of human existence. This experience of grace made them fall in love with God in Jesus, so much so that Jacinta could cry out: “How much I delight in telling Jesus that I love him! When I tell him this often, I feel as if I have a fire in my breast, yet it does not burn me”. And Francisco could say: “What I liked most of all was seeing Our Lord in that light which Our Mother put into our hearts. I love God so much!” (Memoirs of Sister Lúcia, I, 42 and 126).

Brothers and sisters, in listening to these innocent and profound mystical confidences of the shepherd children, one might look at them with a touch of envy for what they were able to see, or with the disappointed resignation of someone who was not so fortunate, yet still demands to see. To such persons, the Pope says, as does Jesus: “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?” (Mk 12:24). The Scriptures invite us to believe: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (Jn 20:29), but God, who is more deeply present to me than I am to myself (cf. Saint Augustine, Confessions, III, 6, 11) – has the power to come to us, particularly through our inner senses, so that the soul can receive the gentle touch of a reality which is beyond the senses and which enables us to reach what is not accessible or visible to the senses. For this to happen, we must cultivate an interior watchfulness of the heart which, for most of the time, we do not possess on account of the powerful pressure exerted by outside realities and the images and concerns which fill our soul (cf. Theological Commentary on The Message of Fatima, 2000). Yes! God can come to us, and show himself to the eyes of our heart.

Moreover, that Light deep within the shepherd children, which comes from the future of God, is the same Light which was manifested in the fullness of time and came for us all: the Son of God made man. He has the power to inflame the coldest and saddest of hearts, as we see in the case of the disciples on the way to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:32). Henceforth our hope has a real foundation, it is based on an event which belongs to history and at the same time transcends history: Jesus of Nazareth. The enthusiasm roused by his wisdom and his saving power among the people of that time was such that a woman in the midst of the crowd – as we heard in the Gospel – cried out: “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you!”. And Jesus said: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (Lk 11:27-28). But who finds time to hear God’s word and to let themselves be attracted by his love? Who keeps watch, in the night of doubt and uncertainty, with a heart vigilant in prayer? Who awaits the dawn of the new day, fanning the flame of faith? Faith in God opens before us the horizon of a sure hope, one which does not disappoint; it indicates a solid foundation on which to base one’s life without fear; it demands a faith-filled surrender into the hands of the Love which sustains the world.

“Their descendants shall be known among the nations, […] they are a people whom the Lord has blessed” (Is 61:9) with an unshakable hope which bears fruit in a love which sacrifices for others, yet does not sacrifice others. Rather, as we heard in the second reading, this love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor 13:7). An example and encouragement is to be found in the shepherd children, who offered their whole lives to God and shared them fully with others for love of God. Our Lady helped them to open their hearts to universal love. Blessed Jacinta, in particular, proved tireless in sharing with the needy and in making sacrifices for the conversion of sinners. Only with this fraternal and generous love will we succeed in building the civilization of love and peace.

We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete. Here there takes on new life the plan of God which asks humanity from the beginning: “Where is your brother Abel […] Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!” (Gen 4:9). Mankind has succeeded in unleashing a cycle of death and terror, but failed in bringing it to an end… In sacred Scripture we often find that God seeks righteous men and women in order to save the city of man and he does the same here, in Fatima, when Our Lady asks: “Do you want to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the sufferings which he will send you, in an act of reparation for the sins by which he is offended and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?” (Memoirs of Sister Lúcia, I, 162).

At a time when the human family was ready to sacrifice all that was most sacred on the altar of the petty and selfish interests of nations, races, ideologies, groups and individuals, our Blessed Mother came from heaven, offering to implant in the hearts of all those who trust in her the Love of God burning in her own heart. At that time it was only to three children, yet the example of their lives spread and multiplied, especially as a result of the travels of the Pilgrim Virgin, in countless groups throughout the world dedicated to the cause of fraternal solidarity. May the seven years which separate us from the centenary of the apparitions hasten the fulfilment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.

END OF POST

NY billboard from unemployed greets president today — ‘I need a freakin job. Period.’

Posted by —

0

This sign greeted President Obama in Buffalo today:

From USA Today:

President Obama isn’t getting an altogether friendly welcome in Buffalo today.

Critics have put up a billboard with a New York-type of response to the 9.9 percent unemployment rate: “Dear Mr. President: I need a freakin’ job. Period. Sincerely, inafj.org.”

The INAFJ Project is the creation of Buffalo businessman Jeff Baker, who lost his small business 15 years ago.

“We employed 25 people and it was the most heartbreaking situation I’ve been through in my life,” Baker told CBS News.

(By the way, what does INAFJ stand for? Why, “I Need A Freakin’ Job,” of course.)

A more traditional critique comes via an op-ed in The Buffalo News by local Republican Congressman Chris Lee.

Lee said encouraged Obama to “really listen” to the people of western New York, and said too many presidential policies threaten to choke off economic recovery.

“We also need to recognize that Washington’s spending is linked to our economic health,” Lee wrote. “In just two more years, according to the president’s own estimates, the debt will surpass the size of our entire American economy.”

END OF POST/SOURCE

Ecclesial Movements: SOLT, The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity

Posted by —

0

‘Our Lady as Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, lives this communion of relationship with God more deeply than anyone else, and as Our Mother, she seeks to share these relationships with all of us. She desires to draw us into the very communion of love with the Most Holy Trinity that she herself lives. We have been created for this…’

Editors Note: I have a special place in my heart for the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. In fact, I offered Holy Mass for Fr. Flanagan, all the needs of SOLT, and for the New Evangelization this week as I served the altar with my son. My affection for SOLT is born from Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity–a great interior reality of beauty, truth, and peace intimately associated with our faith leading into union with God… Not long ago, I chanced upon a video teaching of Fr. Flanagan’s [found here] on evangelizing young people and their nations. I encourage anyone with even one single bone of love for church and neighbor to take the time and watch… I promise, you will not be confused about the evangelical path the Church in America is called to follow for the sake of souls and their salvation– Hopefully, and prayerfully, the video and article below will help towards that happy end…

Ecclesial Movements: SOLT, The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity 
 By Fr. Sam Medly, SOLT

Reflections from our Founder, Father James Flanagan, SOLT 

In the wake of the traumatic world events of the last century and the disintegration of relationships at all levels, it is the total love, the complete gift Jesus makes of Himself in the Mystery of His Incarnation and Redemption, which restores us to communion again with Our Father and heals the divisions that are found within ourselves and with others.  

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (CATHOLIC ONLINE) – Every Religious Community raised up by God has a special gift to give to its age and the ages to come. Jesus Christ, as the Lord of history, disposes all things in Divine Providence, through the Holy Spirit, that they may be taken up into Himself and given back to the Father at the end of time.

The Father Himself gives gifts to bring this about. The gift He gives is always the gift of His Beloved Son. Therefore the gift that every religious community has to give is always a gift of Jesus Christ. This can be seen in the history of the Church from its beginnings.

In the time of Saint Benedict, when corruption was rampant in Rome, Our heavenly Father gave to the world the gift of the prayer and work of Christ through the founding of monastic communities under St. Benedict and his sister St. Scholastica. This transformed the Church and the culture of its time, reaching into areas of art and literature and effecting great change.

In the time of St. Francis, when the Church was being choked by riches, God our Father renewed the Church with the poverty of Christ through St. Francis and St. Clare and the founding of the Franciscan order. This gift of Christ reanimated the Church and revived the life and missionary activity of its people, leavening the thought and the culture of the age. It continues to enrich the Church and the world today.

In order to stem the tide of heresies in his day, St. Dominic gifted the Church and world again with the preaching of Christ. This gift of teaching and preaching has flourished for centuries through the Dominican order.

St. Ignatius of Loyola brought the power of the name of Jesus to bear upon the developments of his time in the wake of the Protestant Reformation and the great need for evangelization and missionary activity. From this was born one of the greatest orders of the Church, the Society of Jesus, or, the Jesuits.

St. Alphonsus Liguori renewed the Church by drawing attention to the gift of the Redemption won by Christ to which the Redemptorist and Redemptoristine Orders have dedicated their works and their lives now for hundreds of years. Some of the greatest mission preachers, whose main object is to awaken people to graces of conversion, have been Redemptorist Priests.

St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, in their reform of the Carmelite order, reminded the Church of the need to place God before all else. God alone. This answered and still answers today the deepest interior yearning of the human heart.

All of these Saints and Founders, and many more, were responsible for helping to heal and renew the Church and the world of their times. They were the ones chosen by God, to bring true and salvific change into the world through their holiness and the fulfillment of the great tasks entrusted to them.

These Founders saw, in the signs of their own times, the needs that were present. They were given a vision by our heavenly Father and led by the Holy Spirit to reach to those needs, especially through the establishment of communities dedicated to the same vision, communities who continue to fulfill the work of Christ and His Church down through the ages of time.

It is in this light that one must look at the birth of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. And it is in this same light that one must look at the Founder, Fr. James Flanagan, who was prepared beforehand and raised up by God to serve the very great needs of the Church in our day with the unique gifts of Christ and Our Lady, especially in their Trinitarian life.

What is the gift Our Father gives to the Church and the world today through Our Lady’s Society? It is the mystery of Trinitarian love expressed in the self-sacrificing gift of Jesus in His Paschal Mystery: His Life, Sufferings, Death, Resurrection and Ascension.

In the wake of the traumatic world events of the last century and the disintegration of relationships at all levels, it is the total love, the complete gift Jesus makes of Himself in the Mystery of His Incarnation and Redemption, which restores us to communion again with Our Father and heals the divisions that are found within ourselves and with others. This gift heals the isolation and alienation that modern man experiences within himself and brings him to the destiny for which he was created: communion with the Most Holy Trinity and with all others, as one Family of Our Father.

Our Lady as Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, lives this communion of relationship with God more deeply than anyone else, and as Our Mother, she seeks to share these relationships with all of us. She desires to draw us into the very communion of love with the Most Holy 

Trinity that she herself lives.  We have been created for this.

The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity lives a Marian-Trinitarian spirituality of communion which is arrived at through discipleship of Jesus and Mary. Members seek to draw all others into this communion through the living out of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ in His own Trinitarian relationships, just as Our Lady did.  Day to day the members of Our Lady’s Society strive to live graced friendships and obedience of relationships; they strive to  model in concrete form Trinitarian relationships and the spirit of family through a common life and spirituality and through serving together as priests, religious, and laity,  on Family Ecclesial Teams.

For more information about SOLT visit http://societyofourlady.net 

If you are interested in a vocation to: the priesthood, contact Fr Glenn Whewell at priestvocations@societyofourlady.net  to become a religious sister contact Sr Mary Emmanuel: soltsistersvocations@gmail.com to volunteer at a SOLT mission as a lay person, inquire about lay formation, or if you want to do something more for the Church contact Fr Dale Craig: soltlaity@societyofourlady.net

———————

Fr Samuel Medley is a priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity who is the Director for the Institute of New Evangelization at Our Lady of Corpus Christi.  He can be conacted: frsamuelmedley@gmail.com  or you can listen to his homilies on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/magnificat-anima-mea-domino/id359949798.

END OF POST/SOURCE

 5/10/2010

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Massachusetts Catholic School Rejects Lesbians’ Son

Posted by —

2

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press Writer Jay Lindsay, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 12, 7:15 pm ET

BOSTON – A Roman Catholic school has withdrawn its acceptance of an 8-year-old boy with lesbian parents, saying their relationship was “in discord” with church teachings, according to one of the boys’ mothers.

It’s at least the second time in recent months that students have not been allowed to attend a U.S. Catholic school because of their parents’ sexual orientation, with the other instance occurring in Colorado.

The Massachusetts woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about the effect of publicity on her son, said she planned to send the boy to third grade at St. Paul Elementary School in Hingham in the fall. But she said she learned her son’s acceptance was rescinded during a conference call Monday with Principal Cynthia Duggan and the parish priest, the Rev. James Rafferty.

“I’m accustomed to discrimination, I suppose, at my age and my experience as a gay woman,” the mother said. “But I didn’t expect it against my child.”

Rafferty said her relationship “was in discord with the teachings of the Catholic Church,” which holds marriage is only between a man and woman, the woman said.

She said Duggan told her teachers wouldn’t be prepared to answer questions her son might have because the school’s teachings about marriage conflict with what he sees in his family.

Rafferty and Duggan did not respond to requests for comment.

Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese, said it learned about the school’s decision late Tuesday. He said the archdiocese is now in “consultation with the pastor and principal to gather more information.”

Donilon said the archdiocese does not have a policy prohibiting the children of same-sex couples from attending its schools.

Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage, in 2004, and the Catholic Church strongly opposed the decision. The woman, who is not married to her partner, said she didn’t expect the church to approve of her relationship but didn’t think it should affect her son’s education.

The case mirrors a situation in Boulder, Colo., in which the Sacred Heart of Jesus school said two children of lesbian parents could not re-enroll because of their parents’ sexual orientation. The Denver Archdiocese posted a statement in support of the school’s decision.

Gay rights groups later took out full-page newspaper ads in protest.

In 2004, a lesbian couple in Eugene, Ore., filed a lawsuit against a Catholic elementary school after officials there declined to admit their daughter. Their lawyer said the refusal violated Eugene’s city code, which forbids discrimination based on sex, marital status, domestic partnership status or sexual orientation.

Meanwhile, in California some Catholic schools have allowed children of openly gay parents to enroll. For example, in 2005 officials at St. John the Baptist School in Costa Mesa agreed to keep in the school two adopted sons of a gay couple. But the case drew an angry response from some parents and forced the school to later draw up new admission guidelines.

Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Family Equality Council, an advocacy group for gay and lesbian parents, said as gay and lesbian families become more common more families are running into private schools that refuse to enroll their children based on parents’ sexual orientation.

“It’s, unfortunately, legal, but there’s no question that it’s wrong,” Chrisler said. “It’s sad that any school would deny a child an education because of who their parents are.”

In Hingham, the woman said she and her partner don’t regularly attend church but are Christian and wanted their son to have a strong education that also emphasized Christian values, such as compassion and empathy. They also found the size of the small K-8 school appealing and saw it as entry into a strong Catholic schooling tradition that extends through college.

The church’s stance against homosexual relationships was no shock, but the woman said she didn’t think it was a deal-breaker, given the church’s “many variations of tolerance,” such as its inclusion of families of divorce, which the church doesn’t recognize.

“There are many different non-traditional families that fall under the umbrella of the Catholic Church, and I guess we assumed we would fall under one of those,” she said.

The woman and her partner filled out both their names during the application process — which asked for the names of “parents” rather than mother and father — and attended an open house together at the school in February.

“We weren’t hiding,” she said.

They paid their deposit and got uniform order forms, and last week the woman visited Rafferty to discuss their son’s religious education. At that meeting, Rafferty started asking questions about her relationship with her partner, the woman said. A few days later, he and Duggan called with the decision.

Her son will likely be back in public school next year, since it may be too late to get into another private school, she said.

“I think overall, it’s a missed opportunity,” she said.

___

Associated Press writer Russell Contreras in Boston contributed to this report.

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

END OF POST