What Pope Francis Thinks About Women in the Church

Demonology In Dixie

The Dish

On the 40th anniversary of The Exorcist, Noel Murray ruminates on the film’s unique significance in the religious South, where he grew up:

The popularity of The Exorcist had the effect of popularizing exorcism itself—or at least that was what I heard around my school, where there were rumors of parents setting their children on fire because they thought their kids were possessed.

Give some credit (or blame) for this to [writer William Peter] Blatty’s studiousness, and [director William] Friedkin’s gifts for documentary like realism, which lent The Exorcist plausibility. Even though the demon in The Exorcist isn’t Satan—and isn’t even part of Christian mythology—the film does reinforce the idea that there are dark forces at work, requiring the righteous to remain vigilant. …

I’ve identified this mentality with the South, because that’s the part of the world I know best (and love, honestly). But The Exorcist is set mostly in…

View original post 93 more words

Pope Talks to Gay Catholic Group (Rough Translation)

Pope, to the amazement of gay Catholics 
“He responded to our letter”

The group Kairos: “The’ve written, he has blessed us.” Even Don Santoro Bergoglio to write: “I want to ask him how he sees our convictions”

MARIA CRISTINA CARRATU ‘

I read it after

Pen and paper. Among the many revolutions made ​​by Pope Bergoglio, in addition to phone calls home to ordinary people (it is these days the news of a family of Galluzzo call to the phone by Francis, who, after having invited her to Assisi, he asked if he could bless it and l ‘ invited to bring “the greetings and the blessing of the Pope” to the parish), there is also the ‘”post effect”. The mountain of letters delivered every day at his residence in Santa Marta, and sent directly to him by those who hope, as well, to join him, bypassing the “obstacles” curia. And now some people think it may have been one of these “messages in a bottle” that inspired the breakthrough of Bergoglio about gays. A letter sent in June to the Pope by various Italian gay Catholics, but whose signatures had been extensively collected in the group Kairos of Florence, very active on this front. And where gays and lesbians asked Francis to be recognized as people and not as a “category” and called for openness and dialogue on the part of the Church, and recalling that the closure “always feeds homophobia.” Not the first of its kind sent to a pope, but which, as told by one of the leaders of Kairos, Innocent Pontillo, “no one had ever even given a nod of response.” This time, however, the answer came.In another letter from the Vatican Secretariat of State (the contents of both letters is private, and only recently it was decided to make known the exchange), which reads, Pontillo explains that Pope Francis “she really enjoyed that that we wrote, calling it an act of ‘spontaneous confidence’ “and” the way in which we had written. ” While the Pope addressed now also the Community of Piagge: “The climate has changed, and who now, for the Church wants something different, must stand with the Pope” recognizes Father Alessandro Santoro. “As a community,” says “we feel freed from too many doctrinal ties of the past, Francis Pope shows that it is possible to pass from mere doctrinal obedience, fidelity to people’s lives.” Which “does not mean that the Church has its doctrine, provided, however, in the center there is the man with his sufferings, as the Gospel says.” 

But not only that: “The Pope also assured us his greeting of blessing.” “None of us had driven to imagine such a thing,” said the representative of Kairos, remembering, by contrast, as the Archbishop of Florence, Giuseppe Betori, “has always refused to even receive us, arguing that otherwise would have been legitimized as homosexuals. ” Now even the Pope Francesco sends his blessing, and who knows that his subsequent issues on homosexuals (“Who am I to judge the gay?” Said the plane back from Rio de Janeiro, and then the disruptive words Catholic Civilization, “God , when they look at a gay person, or endorse the existence with affection, or rejects condemning? must always consider the person “) does not really even need this correspondence. Bergoglio And, meanwhile, write detainees Sollicciano a letter (already delivered directly to him in recent days by the prison chaplain Father Vincenzo Russo), in which recount the tragedies of life prison and invite him to visit them, perhaps at the Ecclesial Convention of the Episcopal Conference to be held in Florence in 2015 and which has already requested the presence of the pope.Hence the idea (on the occasion of the 4th anniversary, October 27, the celebration of the marriage religious, with another man, a woman born man, who Santoro cost the shift away from Piagge), wrote to the Pope “to speak of our community, of what he does and why he is doing, and to ask him to consider how many convictions incurred by us” (as well as for the wedding, even for communion to gay and divorced and remarried).  

The Brittle Certainty Of Fundamentalism

The Dish

Dreher reflects on it:

Fundamentalists don’t compromise. That is their strength. But it’s also their weakness. I went over a book the other day written by a theologically stout Evangelical (which is not the same thing as a fundamentalist). The book was about approaching culture. I found it hard to take, even though I found myself agreeing with the author on most general points. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was that irritated me so much about the book. What finally became clear to me was that it wasn’t so much the opinions the author held as it was the iron grip with which the author held them. It was as if nuance, irony, and complexity were the enemies of clear thought and pure faith. The worldview expressed in this book was pretty conservative, and as I said, I agree with much of it. But it was…

View original post 608 more words

Kris Jenner: Did She Drive Bruce Jenner Away With Insults?

How is this even possible?
How could the guy who was thought to be the greatest athlete in the world and who all of these women thought was an Adonis winning gold in the Olympics with his long hair flying in the wind as he ran be married to a woman who says he is “ugly” and “a loser?”
Seriously, does anyone out there reading this have any insight into how this could have happened?

3 Ways Men Have Failed Women

While I (and others) may not agree with all of this, I just discovered this blog by Kameron and think it is so well-written and astute that I would like to pass it on to the rest of the blogosphere.

Join the Recovering Christian Entrepreneur group on Facebook

Our generation has lost what it means to be a man. This problem is well-noted by many in society, from churches to social commentators to websites like Art of Manliness that focus on teaching modern day men to recover what has been lost. Men have become accustomed to being takers and not givers, which has helped contribute to the breakdown in the family. Many of society’s ills can be traced back to this breakdown, especially considering that the greatest indicator for poverty is marital status. Men have abdicated their responsibility, so I thought it would be beneficial to look at  three important ways that men have failed women, especially in this generation.

#3. We Stopped Working

The Problem: We treat our lives outside of a “job” as a recreational opportunity, devoid of responsibility.

The Analysis: Brett McKay of Art of Manliness has written how modern man’s dilemma is that…

View original post 896 more words

Triggered

Below is a great blog from Echoes of Yesterday about what it is like to be “triggered” by past events, when you suddenly find yourself reliving a bad moment from your past and feeling the things you felt at the time.
As a culture, I wish that we would outgrow our prejudices about mental illness and that we would not discriminate against the illnesses and disorders that afflict the mind, that just like asthma, cancer and diabetes, seem to me to be brought about by a combination of genetics and environment, nature and nurture, what we are born with and what we do to ourselves or have done to us. The brain is part of the body, like the liver or the lungs, and like other parts of the body can be hurt or can inherit conditions that can be helped by medicine and treatment.
And, I wish we would take more responsibility to help those with mental illnesses, both because it is the right thing to do and to create a better, safer society in which homeless people with mental problems are not ubiquitous to every city in this country and where mass shootings and bombings by by people murdering those they have never met and who have never done them harm are not as frequently occurring and accepted and expected a part of American culture as traffic and celebrity gossip.

Priests may be arrested if they minister to faithful in military during government shutdown

Special thanks to Catholibertarian for bringing this to the attention of her blog followers. As an Army War on Terror veteran, I know too well how much military chaplains mean to those of us. Whatever one thinks of the political gamesmanship surrounding the government shutdown or any of the politicians involved, but threatening priests with arrest for ministering to Catholics in the Armed Services, including barring them from conducting Mass, is something I think we should all agree is incredibly wrong, regardless of our faiths or political beliefs.
Also, the reason this is an issue is because there are not enough Catholic military chaplains for the number of Catholics who serve in the military, requiring the military to hire civilian priests. I can testify to this reality because during my time in the Army, almost all of the military chaplains were Protestants. In addition, military personnel of other faiths, such as Buddhists, Jews and Muslims, were frequently dependent on civilian clergy, whether they wanted to attend a service, receive counseling, celebrate their holidays or get married.
I, therefore, am inferring that while Protestants may be largely unaffected, many Catholic military personnel are being hurt by this, and those other religions are hurt even more by this combination of government corruption and a complete lack of compassion for the religious needs of those who serve.

Catholibertarian

Priests who are contracted out to minister to the lay faithful may be arrested if they minister to Catholics in the military during the government shutdown.   Even if a priest volunteers he may be arrested. So if they practice their faith priests could be arrested.  Why the heck should a government shutdown determine whether a priest can say Mass, pray, do weddings and funerals, and hear confessions?  This is clearly a violation of the First Amendment. 

This was brought to my attention byMaggie’s Notebookyesterday.  This is fromMaggie’s Notebook: 

Obama still has 129 staffers working directly for him during the shutdown. Biden has 12. Most don’t know how to do the lesser jobs that need doing – like send a news release! And that’s okay, but when it comes to the spiritual needs of our troops, contracted priests have been threatened with arrest if they voluntarily (unpaid)…

View original post 842 more words

Stop Rewarding Ignorance

Ha! Tea 'n' Danger

View original post

Review: The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton was one of the best writers of Christian apologetics ever, in addition to being a great writer on subjects ranging from politics (he criticized both progressives and conservatives) to art to philosophy. This is a review of this book, “The Everlasting Man.”

The Domain for Truth

G.K. Chesterton is brilliant and witty and I wonder why it took me so long to finally getting around to his work. Since this is my first work by Chesterton, I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t even know what the book was going to be about. Immediately I was struck with Chesterton’s prose, his wit and his humor which lead me to think, “If Chesterton keeps this up, I would definitely enjoy eating up this book!” I can see why great communicators that I enjoyed reading/hearing have quoted, appreciated and benefited from Chesterton—men such as Ravi Zacharias, Doug Wilson, etc. Here in this book, Chesterton explores the history and nature of man in the first half with the second half titled “On the man called Christ.” His first two chapters took to tasks Darwinists and the sort who read too much into the fragmented evidences of early man…

View original post 565 more words