Time to get ready for vigil mass!!! I'm looking forward to the Exsultet/Easter proclamation, the lighting of the Easter Candle, the majestic Gloria in Excelsis Deo and the sung Litany of the Saints! :grin:

From the Exsultet:
Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!...

May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
 
Time to get ready for vigil mass!!! I'm looking forward to the Exsultet/Easter proclamation, the lighting of the Easter Candle, the majestic Gloria in Excelsis Deo and the sung Litany of the Saints! :grin:

From the Exsultet:
Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!...

May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.

:grin: Awesome! I'm attending Mass tomorrow morning. Can't wait!
 
It was awesome! I think the best part for me, which I didn't notice last year is while they were placing the consecrated host back into the tabernacle, Handel's Hallelujah was playing. Then they lit the ever-burning sanctuary light (which signifies the presence of Jesus in His Temple for any non-Catholics browsing). As they were shouting "King of Kings and Lord of Lords!" the sanctuary light was ascending back up to the ceiling. *chills*

Thank you Jesus! He is risen. Hallelujah.
 
Passover to Mass

Many people do not comprehend what it is that we see, even with the explanations. I guess it's a matter of the spiritual realm:

http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac0306.asp
By Rev. Lawrence E. Mick

The central liturgical ritual among Christians, especially among Catholics, is the celebration of the Eucharist. Among Jews, that title probably belongs to the celebration of the Passover. Since Jesus was a Jew, we should not be surprised to find that there are connections between these two liturgical rituals. Sorting out just what those connections are, however, is not as easy as it might seem. In this Update we’ll try to tackle the task.

At first glance, it seems quite simple. Christians see the first Eucharist as taking place at the Last Supper, the night before Jesus was crucified. The New Testament presents this meal as a Passover meal. So the first Eucharist was a Passover celebration, and the Eucharist is the Christian Passover. There are a variety of problems with that picture, however, as we will see.

A Passover meal?

One problem is that scholars are not sure whether the Last Supper was a Passover meal or not. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) indicate that it was, but John’s Gospel places the Last Supper on the night before Passover. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is crucified at the same time that the Passover lambs were being slaughtered at the temple for the meal that would follow that evening.

For many years, scholars assumed that the Synoptic version was more accurate historically, but recently a consensus seems to be developing that sees John as very concerned about dates and times. This view suggests that John’s dating is correct and that the other writers recast the meal as a Passover meal to make a point about the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The issue cannot be definitively settled at this point, but it should make us careful about assuming that the Last Supper was a Passover meal. Moreover, the descriptions of the meal that come to us from the Gospels do not sound much like the Passover. There is no mention of lamb, or bitter herbs or any of the other elements that were unique to the Passover. (Actually, we’re not too sure how the Passover ritual was celebrated in the time of Jesus, since the first detailed descriptions we have of the Passover ritual are from a later date.)

To further complicate matters, Luke’s Gospel indicates a different pattern for the meal than Mark and Matthew. Luke relates the sharing of a cup first, then the bread and then another cup, a pattern that matches a common Jewish festive meal, but not necessarily the Passover.

Another key point is that Passover is celebrated only once a year, not weekly as the Christian Eucharist was celebrated from the beginning. It is also instructive to note that the Passover required unleavened bread, while Christians used leavened bread for the Eucharist for a millennium in the West and to this day in the East. Scholars suggest that the Eucharist stems more from the common meals Jesus shared with his disciples, especially after the Resurrection, than from the Passover ritual. Not as simple as it seems, is it!

The Meaning of the meal

Whether the Last Supper was or was not a Passover meal, the early Christians saw it as the fulfillment of the Passover. As we noted above, the Synoptic Gospels cast the meal itself as a Passover supper, while John sees Jesus as the paschal lamb sacrificed on the cross. St. Paul also links Christ’s death and resurrection with the Passover in First Corinthians: “Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor 5:7-8).
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To understand the Eucharist, then, it is important for us to understand the meaning of the Passover celebration. The roots of this festival are very ancient, even preceding the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. The later Passover is really a combination of two celebrations: a nomadic tribal sacrifice of a lamb whose blood is sprinkled on the tent pegs to ward off evil spirits and an agrarian ritual marking spring and the harvest of new grain with the use of unleavened bread. As nomads settled among local farmers, these two celebrations were combined.

The Hebrew Bible, however, gives a new meaning to these combined rituals by linking them to the events of the Exodus. As part of that event, God sent a series of plagues to afflict the Egyptians. When the final plague was announced, the death of the firstborn by the destroying angel, the Israelites slaughtered lambs and marked their homes with the blood, thus warding off this evil. Then they fled Egypt in haste, without time for bread to rise, so they ate unleavened bread (see Ex 12:21-36.)

A feast of identity

For the Jews, then, the Passover is a celebration of the Exodus. It is a feast of liberation, rejoicing in God’s wondrous acts on their behalf that set them free from slavery. The Exodus was also the event that established Israel as a people, as God’s chosen people. In the United States, our Fourth of July rituals celebrate our independence and our identity as a nation. Passover had a similar significance for the Jewish people.

In at least one significant respect, though, the Jewish understanding of the celebration was quite different from the way we Americans think of the Fourth of July. We celebrate an event that happened over 200 years ago. We celebrate our continuing freedom, but we think of that past event as long gone and out of reach. Even though some of us may dress up in colonial garb, we don’t really think of ourselves as being present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence or of taking part in the Revolutionary War that achieved our freedom.

For the Jews, on the other hand, remembering the Exodus is more than just a mental recall. The Book of Exodus commands the Jewish father to explain the meaning of the feast this way: “On this day you shall explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt’” (13:8).

All Jews are to celebrate the feast as though they had been alive at the time of the Exodus. They see the feast as somehow bringing them into contact with that ancient event. This is the concept we try to express with the term “memorial” (anamnesis in Greek). Through the ritual observance, the contemporary Jew not only remembers the past but also relives it.

At the same time, the memorial celebration of the Passover also proclaims God’s continuing liberating action on behalf of God’s people in the present day and looks forward to the fulfillment of God’s promises for complete salvation when the Messiah comes. Just as God acted in the past, God continues to act in the present and will act in the future to save us.
 
Cont'd

Christ’s exodus

Jesus drew on this concept of memorial when he told his disciples, during the Last Supper, to “do this in memory of me” (Lk 22:19). The Church has long understood that the celebration of the Eucharist brings us into contact with the saving actions of Christ. That is the way we are able to share in his sacrifice, his exodus through death to resurrected life.

His sacrifice is not repeated; he died once for all and death has no more power over him. But his sacrifice is also eternal and enacting the ritual of the Eucharist enables us to enter into that eternal act.

Though the Church has long held this basic view that the Eucharist brings us into contact with Christ’s sacrifice, it has not endorsed any theological explanation of how this happens.

One way to understand what happens is to recognize that the core of Christ’s sacrifice was his commitment to the Father’s will, clearly expressed in the agony in the garden: “Not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42). This commitment led him to the cross and resurrection at one point in history, but Christ’s will is eternally united with the Father’s will.

Christ is forever victim, forever priest. When we celebrate the Eucharist, we are invited to enter into that eternal act, aligning our wills with the Father’s will as Jesus did. Thus we become one with Christ and share in his sacrificial act. This can help us to realize the breadth of the commitment we make when we “do this in memory” of Jesus.

What did Jesus mean by “this”? What are we to do in memory of him? Pope Benedict XVI addressed this question in a homily at World Youth Day in Germany in August 2005. “Jesus did not instruct us,” Benedict said, “to repeat the Passover meal, which in any event, given that it is an anniversary, is not repeatable at will. He instructed us to enter into his ‘hour.’” The pope goes on to suggest that Jesus’ hour is the “hour in which love triumphs” and that we share his hour if we “allow ourselves, through the celebration of the Eucharist, to be drawn into that process of transformation that the Lord intends to bring about.”

In memory of Jesus, then, we are to be transformed by adopting his attitude of love and his commitment to the Father’s will. We share his sacrifice not only by carrying out the ritual of the Mass but also by living our lives in accord with God’s will.

The Amen that we sing at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer at every Mass commits us to a whole way of life. Our Eucharist is only authentic if it expresses the meaning of our whole lives. What we are to do in memory of Jesus is to live and love as he did.

True Liberation

When Jesus described his ministry in Luke’s Gospel, he quoted Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (4:18-19). Those words echo the Passover’s celebration of God as a liberator of the oppressed, and they stand as a challenge to us to embrace Christ’s mission as our own.

Pope John Paul II, in announcing the 2004-2005 Year of the Eucharist—the year that he himself died—reminded us that the Eucharist requires this kind of commitment for its authentic celebration. There is one other point which I would like to emphasize, since it significantly affects the authenticity of our communal sharing in the Eucharist. It is the impulse which the Eucharist gives to the community for a practical commitment to building a more just and fraternal society.

In the Eucharist our God has shown love in the extreme, overturning all those criteria of power which too often govern human relations and radically affirming the criterion of service: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mk 9:35). It is not by chance that the Gospel of John contains no account of the institution of the Eucharist, but instead relates the “washing of feet” (see Jn 13:1-20). By bending down to wash the feet of his disciples, Jesus explains the meaning of the Eucharist unequivocally. St. Paul vigorously reaffirms the impropriety of a eucharistic celebration lacking charity expressed by practical sharing with the poor (see 1 Cor 11:17-22, 27-34).

We cannot delude ourselves: By our mutual love and, in particular, by our concern for those in need we will be recognized as true followers of Christ (see Jn 13:35; Mt 25:31-46). This will be the criterion by which the authenticity of our eucharistic celebrations is judged (Mane Nobiscum Domine, #28).

From Passover to Easter—to Sunday

Jews celebrate God’s saving action in the Exodus every year at Passover. Christians celebrate Jesus’ passing through death to the new life every year in the great three days we call Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. This is the closest Christian parallel to Passover.

Of course, we also celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord every Sunday when we gather for Eucharist, which is why Sunday is sometimes called “a little Easter.”

We don’t celebrate the Passover ritual, but the meaning of the Passover meal and the meaning of the eucharistic meal are related. Our God is a God of freedom and life. Both Christians and Jews celebrate God’s saving love and thus commit themselves to imitating that love. That’s the deepest meaning of both Passover and Eucharist.

Lawrence E. Mick is a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He holds a master’s degree in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of over 500 articles in various publications. His latest book is I Like Being in Parish Ministry: Presider (Twenty-Third Publications).
 
QUESTION:


If you go to confession and you see a family that sits right next to the confessional when there are lines of people...two separate on either side of the sanctuary and every time you see them, they are within 3 feet of the confessional, would you say something to them or to the priest about people trying to listen in? If you are not a parishioner there and you reconcile there ever so often?

I've never said anything directly to them but instructed my son to sit further up so that we do not disrespect privacy...within earshot. They eavesdrop on their own family and it's very obvious because they aren't always kneeled in prayer and their heads turn towards the confessional. Other people are also disrespected this way.

What on earth would possess an entire family to do something like this? Adults, teens, smaller children. :nono: When I see them, I go to the far side of the sanctuary for mine.
 
QUESTION:


If you go to confession and you see a family that sits right next to the confessional when there are lines of people...two separate on either side of the sanctuary and every time you see them, they are within 3 feet of the confessional, would you say something to them or to the priest about people trying to listen in? If you are not a parishioner there and you reconcile there ever so often?

I've never said anything directly to them but instructed my son to sit further up so that we do not disrespect privacy...within earshot. They eavesdrop on their own family and it's very obvious because they aren't always kneeled in prayer and their heads turn towards the confessional. Other people are also disrespected this way.

What on earth would possess an entire family to do something like this? Adults, teens, smaller children. :nono: When I see them, I go to the far side of the sanctuary for mine.


Wow, that's pretty disrespectful to sit so close to a confessional. Sometimes I do wonder why a 90 y.o. has to be in there for 5 minutes, :lachen:. I'm like "Come on, lady! Hurry it up!"
 
I've given a little excerpt concerning the wine and the passover celebration. Be warned, that article is pretty long. Check the link for the full.

Disclaimer: This is for catholic discussion as it concerns the Jewish roots. Jesus as Messiah is not up for debate. If you do not agree with Jesus or Martin Barrick, please open a new thread that will be appropriate to your discussion elsewhere. In other words, I love you, kumbayah, kol b'seder but I don't care. Again, this is for catholic eyes and discussion and anyone else who might ask an honest question about the succession.


http://catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0002.html

Our Jewish Heritage
MARTIN K. BARRACK
The life of our Lord and the practice of Catholics is so much prefigured in our Jewish origins.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no.839) tells us: “When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God. The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God’s revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews “belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ ‘for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.’” The interior quotation is from St. Paul, Romans 9:4.

That concise paragraph tells us that the Catholic Church is the fulfillment and completion of God’s self-revelation that began with Abraham. After seven centuries, God continued His revelation through Moses. The people that He chose to carry His revelation across the next twelve centuries lived in the crucible of the Old Covenant until they were prepared to receive His Messiah, who reconciled Cod with man in the New and Everlasting Covenant. There is a straight line from Moses, who said, “Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you,” (Ex 24:8) to Jesus, who said, “This is My blood of the covenant” (Mt 26:28). The ancient Jewish priesthood continues today in the person of the Catholic priest. Catholics are God’s chosen people, proclaiming His revelation across the centuries until He comes again in glory.


.....
""
Jesus is prefigured in the wine. When the afikomen is broken and passed around for all to take and eat, Jews at the Seder table drink the third of four cups of wine, called the cup of blessing because it represents the blood of the sacrificed paschal lamb in Egypt on that memorable Passover night. That was the cup Jesus gave to His apostles, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” Jesus did not drink the fourth, the kalah cup, with his apostles. After his capture at Gethsemane, Jesus asked Peter, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?” Jesus drank the last cup on the cross from a sponge full of vinegar held to His mouth, said in a loud voice, kalah (it is finished), bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.
 
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...brew-text-sparks-major-debate-among-scholars/

Mysterious Jesus-Era Stone With Ancient Hebrew Text Sparks Major Debate Among Scholars

Apr. 30, 2013

JERUSALEM (TheBlaze/AP) – Interesting archeological finds are generally pretty fascinating. That’s why the so-called Gabriel Stone, like many religious artifacts before it, has captured so much attention. Discovered in Jordan 13 years ago, the tablet contains mysterious Hebrew writing — and has been a source of intriguing debate among scholars.


In addition to the odd writing, the stone features the archangel Gabriel. Jerusalem scholars continue to examine the message’s purported meaning, as the stone is at the center of a new exhibit in Jerusalem.


The so-called Gabriel Stone, a meter (three-foot)-tall tablet said to have been found on the banks of the Dead Sea, features 87 lines of an unknown prophetic text dated as early as the first century BC, at the time of the Second Jewish Temple.


Scholars see it as a portal into the religious ideas circulating in the Holy Land in the era when was Jesus was born. Its form is also unique — it is ink written on stone, not carved — and no other such religious text has been found in the region.


Curators at the Israel Museum, where the first exhibit dedicated to the stone is opening Wednesday, say it is the most important document found in the area since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
“The Gabriel Stone is in a way a Dead Sea Scroll written on stone,” said James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum. The writing dates to the same period, and uses the same tidy calligraphic Hebrew script, as some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of documents that include the earliest known surviving manuscripts of Hebrew Bible texts.


The Gabriel Stone made a splash in 2008 when Israeli Bible scholar Israel Knohl offered a daring theory that the stone’s faded writing would revolutionize the understanding of early Christianity, claiming it included a concept of messianic resurrection that predated Jesus. He based his theory on one hazy line, translating it as “in three days you shall live.”
His interpretation caused a storm in the world of Bible studies, with scholars convening at an international conference the following year to debate readings of the text, and a National Geographic documentary crew featuring his theory. An American team of experts using high resolution scanning technologies tried — but failed — to detect more of the faded writing.



Knohl, a professor of Bible at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, eventually scaled back from his original bombshell theory but the fierce scholarly debate he sparked continued to reverberate across the academic world, bringing international attention to the stone. Over the last few years it went on display alongside other Bible-era antiquities in Rome, Houston and Dallas.


600x399115.jpg

An ancient stone with mysterious Hebrew writing and featuring the archangel Gabriel is being displayed in Israel, even as scholars continue to argue about what the inscription means. Credit: AP

A museum worker points at the ‘Gabriel Stone’ as it is displayed at an exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 30, 2013. An ancient stone with mysterious Hebrew writing and featuring the archangel Gabriel is being displayed in Israel, even as scholars continue to argue about what the inscription means. Credit: AP


Bible experts are still debating the writing’s meaning, largely because much of the ink has eroded in crucial spots in the passage and the tablet has two diagonal cracks the slice the text into three pieces. Museum curators say only 40 percent of the 87 lines are legible, many of those only barely. The interpretation of the text featured in the Israel Museum’s exhibit is just one of five readings put forth by scholars.


All agree that the passage describes an apocalyptic vision of an attack on Jerusalem in which God appears with angels on chariots to save the city. The central angelic character is Gabriel, the first angel to appear in the Hebrew Bible. “I am Gabriel,” the writing declares.


The stone inscription is one of the oldest passages featuring the archangel, and represents an “explosion of angels in Second Temple Judaism,” at a time of great spiritual angst for Jews in Jerusalem looking for divine connection, said Adolfo Roitman, a curator of the exhibit.


The exhibit traces the development of the archangel Gabriel in the three monotheistic religions, displaying a Dead Sea Scroll fragment which mentions the angel’s name; the 13th century Damascus Codex, one of the oldest illustrated manuscripts of the complete Hebrew Bible; a 10th century New Testament manuscript from Brittany, in which Gabriel predicts the birth of John the Baptist and appears to the Virgin Mary; and an Iranian Quran manuscript dated to the 15th or 16th century, in which the angel, called Jibril in Arabic, reveals the word of God to the prophet Mohammad.
 
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Pretty interesting artifact of the only kind found? Ink on stone and signed by Archangel Gabriel? Pre-Jesus? Reminds me of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
 
I'm saying it reminds me of how Our Lady appeared on that cloak and has been examined to be a substance that cannot be determined. Ink on stone...they usually carved on stone. I do hope it's not determined to be a fake.
 
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-allen-pope-francis-20130929,0,5439607.story


Misreading Pope Francis
Roman Catholic conservatives and liberals alike wrongly believe the pontiff wants to blow up the church as we know it.

By Charlotte Allen

September 29, 2013

Pope Francis' highly publicized recent interview with an Italian Jesuit magazine has ushered in a new era for the Roman Catholic Church — an era of record levels of misinterpretation of the pontiff's words, both by the liberal media and by conservative Catholics who have been grousing about Francis ever since he washed the feet of a Muslim girl during Holy Week.

The remark most focused on was this: "We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods.... The teaching of the church … is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time."

How were the pope's remarks portrayed? The New York Times headline for its story about the interview read: "Pope Says Church Is 'Obsessed' With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control." Not to be outdone, the New York Daily News headlined: "Blunt pontiff tells flock to quit yammering about gay marriage, abortion, and contraceptives" Here's CNN: "Pope Francis: Leave Gays Alone."

SLIDE SHOW: Pope Francis' small steps to lift liberals' hearts

There was also a cavalcade of social media postings. Daily Beast columnist Andrew Sullivan, an openly gay Catholic who had sneered at Francis' predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, for calling homosexuality an "intrinsic disorder," tweeted ecstatically: "I am, I must confess, still reeling from Pope Francis' new, lengthy and remarkable interview." Actress Jane Fonda, who isn't a Catholic but who obviously sees Francis as an ally in her perennial battle against Republicans, tweeted: "Gotta love new Pope. He cares about poor, hates dogma. Unlike US Congress. Cutting $40bil from food stamps." Matthew Yglesias, a columnist for Slate, confessed in a tweet that he liked "a lot of this new Pope's ideas, but still have serious doubts about the part where Jesus dies for my sins and rises again."

Finally came the commentary. Yglesias' Slate colleague William Saletan wrote a 1,600-word column titled "Pope Francis Is a Liberal" and hinting that the pontiff was on the verge of ditching such Catholic doctrinal "mistakes" as papal infallibility and the ban on birth control. NARAL Pro-Choice America, the pro-abortion lobbying organization, posted an orange e-card on its Facebook page reading "Dear Pope Francis, Thank you. Signed, Pro-choice women everywhere." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who has been denounced by her fellow Catholics for supporting abortion rights, declared that Francis was "starting to sound like a nun" — a reference to American sisters who were censured by the Vatican for publicly challenging church doctrine and promoting "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."

Ironically, many conservative Catholics, who disagree with liberals on practically everything else, actually agree with their archenemies that Francis is poised to radically alter the Catholic Church. A tweet from the group blog Rorate Caeli — so arch-traditionalist that its banner consists of a photo of the last pre-Second Vatican Council pope, Pius XII, who died in 1958 — asserted that Francis may be "the Successor of St. Peter" but "he's not the owner of the Church or her doctrine." On Fr. Z's Blog, an Internet refuge for Catholics fed up with having to sing folk songs at Mass instead of Gregorian chants, a commenter wrote: "It's insulting to be told we Catholics who are fighting against the great evils of the day are spending too much time on such things (you know, those mortal sin things) and apparently are mean curmudgeons who aren't nice enough to people."

In fact, Francis, as he made clear in his interview, isn't likely to deviate from any aspect of traditional Catholic teaching. He reiterated that God doesn't "condemn and reject" anyone, including gays, but loves them, is cognizant of the pain they feel and yearns for them to repent of their sins and confess them. The very day after the interview was published, Francis, in an audience with Catholic gynecologists, vociferously denounced abortion as a symptom of today's "throwaway culture."

But that is in some ways beside the point. The Catholic Church really is changing, although not exactly in the fashion liberals would like. The church is changing because the world itself is changing. The hegemony of the West, technologically advanced but in demographic, economic, cultural and religious decline, may well be over. The previous pope, Benedict XVI, was born and raised in Germany, and his high aesthetic and intellectual ethos may have represented the last gasp of that rich and self-confident Western European civilization, rooted in Christianity, that gave us Michelangelo, Shakespeare and Mozart.

Christianity is moribund in the European West. It is, however, robustly alive in the East and in the global South, as religion scholar Philip Jenkins noted in his 2002 book, "The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity." And it is the Southern Hemisphere — Argentina — from which Francis has sprung.

Francis is the first pope of the Next Christendom. At the moment, it's not exactly a prosperous Christendom. It is, however, a Christendom that can turn out 3 million people to sleep in their cheap jeans and sweatshirts as they wait for Francis to say Mass on Copacabana beach. These are people for whom gay marriage is a First World problem, and for whom abortion is a desperate measure born of shredded family life and crushing poverty, rather than a "my body, my choice" political cause.

Francis was speaking to those people and for those people in his interview when he said that the church had to be more like a "field hospital after battle." He was reminding us that nobody is worthless, and that even in these degraded times, Christianity offers hope for all — and, most important, forgiveness.

Charlotte Allen writes frequently about politics and religion. She is the author of "The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus."

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times
 
CONFESSION

Are all of our sins—past, present, and future—forgiven once and for all when we become Christians? Not according to the Bible or the early Church Fathers. Scripture nowhere states that our future sins are forgiven; instead, it teaches us to pray, "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our deb...tors" (Matt. 6:12).

The means by which God forgives sins after baptism is confession: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Minor or venial sins can be confessed directly to God, but for grave or mortal sins, which crush the spiritual life out of the soul, God has instituted a different means for obtaining forgiveness—the sacrament known popularly as confession, penance, or reconciliation.

This sacrament is rooted in the mission God gave to Christ in his capacity as the Son of man on earth to go and forgive sins (cf. Matt. 9:6). Thus, the crowds who witnessed this new power "glorified God, who had given such authority to men" (Matt. 9:8; note the plural "men"). After his resurrection, Jesus passed on his mission to forgive sins to his ministers, telling them, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:21–23).

Since it is not possible to confess all of our many daily faults, we know that sacramental reconciliation is required only for grave or mortal sins—but it is required, or Christ would not have commanded it.

Over time, the forms in which the sacrament has been administered have changed. In the early Church, publicly known sins (such as apostasy) were often confessed openly in church, though private confession to a priest was always an option for privately committed sins. Still, confession was not just something done in silence to God alone, but something done "in church," as theDidache (A.D. 70) indicates.

Penances also tended to be performed before rather than after absolution, and they were much more strict than those of today (ten years’ penance for abortion, for example, was common in the early Church).

But the basics of the sacrament have always been there, as the following quotations reveal. Of special significance is their recognition that confession and absolution must be received by a sinner before receiving Holy Communion, for "[w]hoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:27).

The Didache
"Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life. . . . On the Lord’s Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure" (Didache 4:14, 14:1 [A.D. 70]).

The Letter of Barnabas
"You shall judge righteously. You shall not make a schism, but you shall pacify those that contend by bringing them together. You shall confess your sins. You shall not go to prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of light" (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).

Ignatius of Antioch
"For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are also with the bishop. And as many as shall, in the exercise of penance, return into the unity of the Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ" (Letter to the Philadelphians 3 [A.D. 110]).

"For where there is division and wrath, God does not dwell. To all them that repent, the Lord grants forgiveness, if they turn in penitence to the unity of God, and to communion with the bishop" (ibid., .

Irenaeus
"[The Gnostic disciples of Marcus] have deluded many women. . . . Their consciences have been branded as with a hot iron. Some of these women make a public confession, but others are ashamed to do this, and in silence, as if withdrawing from themselves the hope of the life of God, they either apostatize entirely or hesitate between the two courses" (Against Heresies 1:22 [A.D. 189]).

Tertullian
"[Regarding confession, some] flee from this work as being an exposure of themselves, or they put it off from day to day. I presume they are more mindful of modesty than of salvation, like those who contract a disease in the more shameful parts of the body and shun making themselves known to the physicians; and thus they perish along with their own bashfulness" (Repentance 10:1 [A.D. 203]).

Hippolytus
"[The bishop conducting the ordination of the new bishop shall pray:] God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Pour forth now that power which comes from you, from your royal Spirit, which you gave to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and which he bestowed upon his holy apostles . . . and grant this your servant, whom you have chosen for the episcopate, [the power] to feed your holy flock and to serve without blame as your high priest, ministering night and day to propitiate unceasingly before your face and to offer to you the gifts of your holy Church, and by the Spirit of the high priesthood to have the authority to forgive sins, in accord with your command" (Apostolic Tradition 3 [A.D. 215]).

Origen
"[A final method of forgiveness], albeit hard and laborious [is] the remission of sins through penance, when the sinner . . . does not shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from seeking medicine, after the manner of him who say, ‘I said, "To the Lord I will accuse myself of my iniquity"’" (Homilies on Leviticus 2:4 [A.D. 248]).

Cyprian of Carthage
"The apostle [Paul] likewise bears witness and says: ‘ . . . Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor. 11:27]. But [the impenitent] spurn and despise all these warnings; before their sins are expiated, before they have made a confession of their crime, before their conscience has been purged in the ceremony and at the hand of the priest . . . they do violence to [the Lord’s] body and blood, and with their hands and mouth they sin against the Lord more than when they denied him" (The Lapsed 15:1–3 (A.D. 251]).

"Of how much greater faith and salutary fear are they who . . . confess their sins to the priests of God in a straightforward manner and in sorrow, making an open declaration of conscience. . . . I beseech you, brethren, let everyone who has sinned confess his sin while he is still in this world, while his confession is still admissible, while the satisfaction and remission made through the priests are still pleasing before the Lord" (ibid., 28).

"inners may do penance for a set time, and according to the rules of discipline come to public confession, and by imposition of the hand of the bishop and clergy receive the right of Communion. [But now some] with their time [of penance] still unfulfilled . . . they are admitted to Communion, and their name is presented; and while the penitence is not yet performed, confession is not yet made, the hands of the bishop and clergy are not yet laid upon them, the Eucharist is given to them; although it is written, ‘Whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor. 11:27]" (Letters 9:2 [A.D. 253]).

"And do not think, dearest brother, that either the courage of the brethren will be lessened, or that martyrdoms will fail for this cause, that penance is relaxed to the lapsed, and that the hope of peace [i.e., absolution] is offered to the penitent. . . . For to adulterers even a time of repentance is granted by us, and peace is given" (ibid., 51[55]:20).

"But I wonder that some are so obstinate as to think that repentance is not to be granted to the lapsed, or to suppose that pardon is to be denied to the penitent, when it is written, ‘Remember whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works’ [Rev. 2:5], which certainly is said to him who evidently has fallen, and whom the Lord exhorts to rise up again by his deeds [of penance], because it is written, ‘Alms deliver from death’ [Tob. 12:9]" (ibid., 51[55]:22).

(cont'd)
 
.....(cont'd)

Aphraahat the Persian Sage
"You [priests], then, who are disciples of our illustrious physician [Christ], you ought not deny a curative to those in need of healing. And if anyone uncovers his wound before you, give him the remedy of repentance. And he that is ashamed to make known his weakness, encourage him so that he will not hide it from you. And when he has revealed it to you, do not make it public, lest because of it the innocent might be reckoned as guilty by our enemies and by those who hate us" (Treatises 7:3 [A.D. 340]).

Basil the Great
"It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation of God’s mysteries is entrusted. Those doing penance of old are found to have done it before the saints. It is written in the Gospel that they confessed their sins to John the Baptist [Matt. 3:6], but in Acts [19:18] they confessed to the apostles" (Rules Briefly Treated 288 [A.D. 374]).

John Chrysostom
"Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to them: ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose, shall be loosed.’ Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding; but they can only bind the body. Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very heavens. Did [God] not give them all the powers of heaven? ‘Whose sins you shall forgive,’ he says, ‘they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.’ What greater power is there than this? The Father has given all judgment to the Son. And now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men [Matt. 10:40; John 20:21–23]. They are raised to this dignity as if they were already gathered up to heaven" ACA Ingrida Di Mantoocese of the Missouri Valley Priesthood 3:5 [A.D. 387]).

Ambrose of Milan
"For those to whom [the right of binding and loosing] has been given, it is plain that either both are allowed, or it is clear that neither is allowed. Both are allowed to the Church, neither is allowed to heresy. For this right has been granted to priests only" (Penance 1:1 [A.D. 388]).

Jerome
"If the serpent, the devil, bites someone secretly, he infects that person with the venom of sin. And if the one who has been bitten keeps silence and does not do penance, and does not want to confess his wound . . . then his brother and his master, who have the word [of absolution] that will cure him, cannot very well assist him" (Commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:11 [A.D. 388]).

Augustine
"When you shall have been baptized, keep to a good life in the commandments of God so that you may preserve your baptism to the very end. I do not tell you that you will live here without sin, but they are venial sins which this life is never without. Baptism was instituted for all sins. For light sins, without which we cannot live, prayer was instituted. . . . But do not commit those sins on account of which you would have to be separated from the body of Christ. Perish the thought! For those whom you see doing penance have committed crimes, either adultery or some other enormities. That is why they are doing penance. If their sins were light, daily prayer would suffice to blot them out. . . . In the Church, therefore, there are three ways in which sins are forgiven: in baptisms, in prayer, and in the greater humility of penance" (Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed 7:15, 8:16 [A.D. 395]).

*****************

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004

IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
 
A refreshing accurate, albeit secular, reporting of Pope Francis via World News:

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

Pope Francis, using strong language to condemn a “Vatican-centric view” of the Roman Catholic Church, says that church leaders have too often been narcissists, “flattered and sickeningly excited by their courtiers.”

Extending his departure in style from his predecessor, Benedict XVI, Francis vowed in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that he would do everything in his power to change that view.

“The church is or should go back to being a community of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops who have the care of souls, are at the service of the people of God,” he said.

The pope suggested that the church should rethink the relationship between its leaders and the faithful.

“Leaders of the Church have often been Narcissus, flattered and sickeningly excited by their courtiers. The court is the leprosy of the papacy,” he said.

Asked what he meant by “the court,” Francis said that he did not mean the Curia — the officials who govern the church from Vatican City — but something more like the quartermaster’s office in an army, which provides clothing and equipment to troops.

“It is Vatican-centric,” he said. “It sees and looks after the interests of the Vatican, which are still, for the most part, temporal interests. This Vatican-centric view neglects the world around us. I do not share this view and I'll do everything I can to change it.”

The pope said that he was against what he called “clericalists,” saying that when he meets one, “I suddenly become anti-clerical.” He referred to St. Paul’s outreach to pagans and other religions, said that the church should include people who feel excluded, and preach peace.

In a reference to the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, which led to modern reforms in the church, the pope said: “This includes a dialogue with non-believers. After that, not so much was done in this direction. I have to the humility and ambition to do so.”

The interview was conducted last week in the Vatican guest house, where Francis, who has been praised for what is seen as a simpler and more humble approach to the papacy, lives in a low-key residence.

The interview appeared as Francis begins a three-day meeting with a group of eight cardinals gathered from around the world with the task of reforming the Vatican administration, the Curia.

Last month the pope said the church should not focus on issues like abortion, contraception, and gay marriage to the extent that it neglects other aspects of the faith.

“We have to find a new balance,” he said in an interview published in Jesuit journals. “Otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the gospel.”

In the interview with La Repubblica, Francis disclosed some of his own fears before being elected by a conclave of cardinals in March.

“When in the conclave they elected me pope, I asked for some time alone before I accepted,” he said in the interview. “I was overwhelmed by great anxiety, then I closed my eyes and all thoughts, including the possibility of refusing, went away.”

Eugenio Scalfari, the co-founder and former editor of La Repubblica, who conducted the interview with Francis said he was “shocked” when the pope called to set up the interview.

“I answered, and he simply said: ‘Good morning, it’s Pope Francis. You wrote me a letter in which you said you would have liked to meet me and get to know me, so here I am. Let’s book an appointment. Is Tuesday OK with you? The time is a bit of a pain, 3 p.m.…is that OK?’” said Scalfari recounting the conversation to NBC News.

Scalfari, 89, describes himself as an atheist. During the summer he posed a series of questions to Francis about atheism in an open letter. The pope responded to his questions in a lengthy opinion piece, with the simple byline “Francesco,” published in the newspaper on Sept.11.

“The most surprising thing he told me was: ‘God is not Catholic.’ I asked him what he meant, since he is the leader of the Catholic Church, and he told me that ‘God is universal, and we are catholic in the sense of the way we worship him.”

The opportunity to interview the new leader of the Catholic Church was enough to awe even a seasoned reporter.

“In 60 years of career as a journalist, I interviewed many important people, and I became friends with some of them. But I never thought I could feel I would become a friend of a pope.”

NBC News Claudio Lavanga, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
 
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This will be a strict reference thread for Roman Catholic books. Bibles, study guides, references, podcasts, websites that we can all recommend and refer to for new and old sources to educate ourselves or continue our education/ maintain in the Catholic faith.

Whether multigenerational cradle Catholic, newly minted convert, non-Catholic and curious about why we do what we do. All are welcome. :)

There will be another thread for open Q&A Disccusion for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Catholic Books, Study Guides, and References
https://www.longhaircareforum.com/threads/catholic-books-study-guides-and-references-etc.761517/

Catholic Random Thoughts
https://www.longhaircareforum.com/threads/catholic-random-thoughts.638851/

some Catholic info here as well:
https://longhaircareforum.com/threads/for-catholics-documentsarticles.626427/

Catholic Novenas and Prayers
https://www.longhaircareforum.com/threads/catholic-novenas-and-other-prayers.765049/

Catholic Q and A
Original
https://www.longhaircareforum.com/threads/for-catholics-q-a.606405/#post-15464749

Christian Forum Rules
https://longhaircareforum.com/threads/rules-for-christianity-forum.50150/

Regarding threads on various religions
https://longhaircareforum.com/threads/regarding-threads-on-various-religions.790853/
_________________
Index under topic or related topic, the page number then post number will be listed (ex: P1#1) where you can find references, links etc...

Thread Index:

Bibles Approved by Catholic Bishops, Catechism Books, Prayer Books, Prayer, Culture, History
P1#2, P1#3, P1#10, P2#52, P2#54, P3#62, P3#73, P3#80, P4#102

The Rosary, Our Lady
P1#3, P2#47, P3#61, P3#63, P4#116

Sacraments, Sacramentals
P3#74, P3#82,P4#119, P5#123,

Apologetics, Defending the Faith
P1#4, P1#13, P3#66, P3#76, P3#84, P3#87, P3#88, P3#89, P3#90, P4#109, P4#112, P5#122 P5#128, P5#131, P5#132, P5#137

Bible Study, Scripture Study, Catholic Doctrine, Theology
P1#3, P1#6, P1#8, P1#10, P1#12, P2#36, P2#39, P2#60, P3#64, P3#81, P3#82

Belief, Faith, Belief in God
P1#4, P1#12, P2#54

Marriage, Parenting, Family, Relationships, Courtship, Chastity, Commitment, Contraception, Abortion
P1#8, P1#21, P1#23, P2#49, P3#61, P3#70, P3#75, P3#77, P3#81, P5#130

Spiritual Warfare, Spiritual Protection
P1#10, P1#11, P2#53, P2#54, P3#76, P5#127, P5#133, P5#134

Atheism, New Age/Laws of Attraction LOA, Occult Practices, Witchcraft, Paganism,
P1#17, P3#67, P3#68, P3#69, P4#117

Random Info:
Where to buy Mantillas/Veils
P1#19

Discernment
P2#50, P3#81

Troubled Persons Retreat
P3#71

Steubenville Conferences
P3#72, P3#77, P3#79

Homeschool
P3#78
 
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Ask any question (staying within forum rules of course) regarding Roman Catholicism, Faith in Jesus Christ, Mary Mother of Christ, Rosary, Novenas, purgatory, 7 Sacraments ( Baptism, Holy Communion/Eucharist, Confession/Recinciliation/Penance, Confirmation/Chrismation, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders, Anoiting of the sick) etc below and some one will answer. All are welcome, no judgment here, and there are no dumb questions.

There is what people believe about Catholics and who Catholics really are and what Catholics actually believe.

Catholic Books, Study Guides, and References
https://www.longhaircareforum.com/threads/catholic-books-study-guides-and-references-etc.761517/

Catholic Random Thoughts
https://www.longhaircareforum.com/threads/catholic-random-thoughts.638851/

some Catholic info here as well:
https://longhaircareforum.com/threads/for-catholics-documentsarticles.626427/

Catholic Novenas and Prayers
https://www.longhaircareforum.com/threads/catholic-novenas-and-other-prayers.765049/

Catholic Q and A
https://www.longhaircareforum.com/threads/catholic-q-a-discussion-all-welcome.761527/

Christian Forum Rules
https://longhaircareforum.com/threads/rules-for-christianity-forum.50150/

Regarding threads on various religions
https://longhaircareforum.com/threads/regarding-threads-on-various-religions.790853/
 
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@Lucia

Re-inventing the wheel, It's been around for a few years now. If you head a new thread or search older ones under "For Catholics:....." and you will pull up many threads for that very purpose. There's just not that many of us here and maybe that's why it appeared we had no threads or participation. But maybe this new one will revive the old discussions.

I don't know if you were around during the time that the CF almost closed down in some ways for the request of a sub-forum which was not granted. Catholics had practically no leeway to express themselves without counter opinions on our theology base so you couldn't even post/ask, express yourself in a catholic manner without being condemned. But you know, Shimmie set it right. I thank her for that. Several people apologized to each other and there's been peace ever since. I just hope it continues. I personally don't like legalistic stuffs because they are usually full of personal opinions touted as G-d's unmutable laws. For example, how you should dress (pants not ok, skirt ok, above knee not ok, no shoulders etc.), how you should live as a single woman (alone, with parents) etc.

I would say the first place to gain insight is Mass and to pay attention and participate in the liturgy. Take an RCIA again (for converts) or biblical studies at the parish. Those are good resources you posted for continued catholic education.
 
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A theology of the body -Pope John Paul II

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Woman-He-Created-Them/dp/0819874213

Love and responsibility - Cardinal Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II now St John Paul)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/08..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0N4E5JM3HATTJ3FBYKM7


If you really loved me - Jason Evert

http://www.amazon.com/You-Really-Loved-Questions-Relationships/dp/1933919248/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434608822&sr=11&keywords=if+you+really+loved+me


Scott Hahn genesis to Jesus interview


 
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http://www.interfaithfamily.com/new...ommunity/The_Jewish-Catholic_Connection.shtml

The Jewish-Catholic Connection
By Julie Wiener
Reprinted with permission from The Jewish Week.

July 16, 2008--A few months ago, Pope Benedict XVI, decked out in trademark white robes and white skullcap, became the first pontiff to enter an American synagogue.

The visit to Manhattan's Park East Synagogue--where the pontiff apparently opened his speech with a "shalom"--was an indicator of how, despite some stumbling blocks, Catholic-Jewish relations have never been better.

The same might be said for Catholic-Jewish relationships.

popesederplate250.gif

Rabbi Arthur Schneier presents Pope Benedict XVI with a Seder Plate at the Park East Synagogue in New York. REUTERS/Gary Hershorn.
Since my husband, Joe, is a lapsed Catholic, my radar is always up for Jewish-Catholic marriages. However, in two years of writing this column, I have not had to look far for examples of such couplings: whether the topic is gentiles at the seder table or women who convert to Judaism after many years of marriage, virtually every interfaith family I encounter is Jewish-Catholic. And the same is true in my social circle and extended family, despite the occasional Jewish-Protestant or Jewish-Hindu pairing.

I'm not the only one who's noticed this Catholic-Jewish attraction. Suzette Cohen, a longtime facilitator in Atlanta of the Mothers Circle, a program for non-Jewish women raising Jewish children, estimates that at least 60 percent of her participants are Catholic or formerly Catholic even though she's "in Georgia, a Baptist part of the world."

In his recent book, The New American Judaism: The Way Forward on Challenging Issues From Intermarriage to Jewish Identity (Palgrave Macmillan), Rabbi Arthur Blecher notes that in the approximately 1,000 Washington, D.C.-area interfaith couples he has interviewed in the past two decades, slightly more than half of the gentile spouses were Catholic. "It made no difference whether a man or woman was the Jewish partner," he writes, adding later that Jews and Catholics share a "social affinity."

The U.S. Religion Landscape Survey released this spring by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life also confirmed the trend, finding that 12 percent of married Jews have Catholic spouses, while only 7 percent have Protestant spouses (the rest are married to Jews, atheists or people of other faiths). That's in spite of the fact that American Protestants outnumber American Catholics nearly 2 to 1.

Of course the Pew study, which drew on a miniscule sample of 682 Jews, is not the most reliable source of Jewish demographic information. And there is little other data on the topic. But even number crunchers note that the anecdotal evidence about Jewish-Catholic couples has some weight.

Len Saxe, director of the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis' Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, says that while his own research on interfaith families hasn't examined the disproportionate number of Catholic partners, the trend "shouldn't be surprising."

The majority of American Protestants today are Evangelicals--"folks who are socio-demographically very different from Jews" while Catholics tend to cluster in the same East Coast and Midwestern metropolitan hubs that American Jews have traditionally called home, Saxe notes.

Lisa Stein, an Irish Catholic in suburban Chicago who is in the process of converting to Judaism (and, in case the name didn't tip you off, is married to a Jew), says that the two cultures share a "huge emphasis on family and family history but have styles different enough that it keeps it really interesting."

For example, "when his family gets together, it's always desserts and pastries," she laughs. "When my family gets together, it's whiskey and wine."

Indeed, my husband Joe frequently laments the poor booze selection at the Jewish functions we attend, while the grub his French Canadian and Irish kin serve up makes the lamest kiddush luncheon look gourmet.

I must confess, I entered our marriage with many negative stereotypes about my husband's people. Although my hometown, Pittsburgh, has a large Catholic population, I grew up in a Jewish enclave and, because many Catholics attended parochial schools, the few gentiles in my public school classes were mostly Protestant. Snobbily (and erroneously), I admit, I thought of Catholics as socially conservative, poorly educated anti-Semites with working-class Pittsburgh accents; however, in my years with my liberal, upwardly mobile, doctorate-holding, philo-Semitic, New England-reared hubby my thinking has, fortunately, matured.

As I've learned more about both Judaism and Catholicism, I see many parallels in the two religions, which--in contrast to Protestantism--both emphasize ritual and good deeds over faith and communal worship over a personal relationship with God. While the two are in many ways poles apart, both tend to place a high premium on the obligation of individuals and government to help the poor. And as Joe often notes on Shabbat, Jewish and Catholic rituals may differ in their meaning and symbolism, but they share common elements: candles, bread and wine. Both also employ sacred languages and, just as the Reform movement, which once eliminated most Hebrew from worship, has reintroduced it, the Catholic Church has in recent years brought back some Latin.

For Catholics like my husband and Stein who miss the ritual but not the dogma or hierarchy of the Church, liberal Judaism offers an attractive alternative, one that in many cases poses less of a threat to their Catholic relatives than other faiths--after all, Judaism is the source of Catholicism, whereas Protestantism was founded as a repudiation of it.

In addition to the geographic and spiritual overlaps, American Jews and Catholics share much culturally. While this is changing with the influx of (mostly Catholic) Latino immigrants, American Catholics have long tended, like American Jews, to be white ethnic descendants of late 19th- and early 20th-century European immigrants. Perhaps because of this, both groups share a certain alienation from the Protestant majority that once held court, a sense (whether fair or not) that WASPs are humorless and repressed.

Of course Jewish-Catholic pairs, while dominant today, probably won't be for long. That's because the white ethnic strain of American Catholicism is giving way to the Latino one, a group that, at least for now, hasn't yet made it in large numbers to the highly educated, upper-middle-class circles American Jews frequent. Instead, those same circles are increasingly populated by Asian-Americans, growing numbers of whom--if anecdotal reports are to be trusted--are marrying Jews.

For now, however, while it's not every day the pope shows up at shul, on any given Shabbat you can bet that at least a few of his adherents and former adherents are sitting in the synagogue pews.
 

  • http://www.usnews.com/news/world/ar...cuador-leg-of-samerica-trip-next-stop-bolivia
    Pope to Bolivia: We Have a Role to Play
    Pope insists on church role in Bolivia amid efforts by Morales to limit Catholic influence.
    85

    Pope Francis is presented with a gift of a crucifix carved into a wooden hammer and sickle, the Communist symbol uniting labor and peasants, by Bolivian President Evo Morales in La Paz, Bolivia, on Wednesday.

    Associated Press July 8, 2015 | 11:05 p.m. EDT + More

    85

    By NICOLE WINFIELD and CARLOS VALDEZ, Associated Press

    LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Pope Francis arrived in Bolivia on Wednesday on the second leg of his South American tour and immediately insisted that the Catholic Church continue to play an important role in society amid efforts by the government of President Evo Morales to curb its influence. He later called for dialogue between Bolivia and Chile over their longtime border dispute.

    Morales hugged the pope as he descended from the Boliviana de Aviacion plane and hung a pouch around his neck of woven of alpaca with indigenous trimmings. It is of the type commonly used to hold coca leaves, which are chewed by people in the Andes to alleviate altitude sickness. It wasn't known if Francis chewed any leaves, though he was served mate tea made with coca leaves, chamomile and annis on the plane from Quito, Ecuador.

    La Paz stands at 4,000 meters (about 13,120 feet) above sea level, and the Vatican decided to keep the pope's stay to just four hours to limit any problems for the 78-year-old pontiff, who has only one full lung. Francis, though, seemed in fine form, bundled against the cold and wind by a white shawl that he donned for his popemobile ride into town past thousands of people who came to greet him, waving handkerchiefs and singing songs of welcome.

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    Woman in wheelchair lifted toward Pope Francis
    KGUN - Tucson, AZ

    23279681.jpg


    At an airport welcoming ceremony with Morales by his side, Francis praised Bolivia for taking "important steps" to include the poor and marginalized in the political and economic life of the country, South America's poorest.

    Morales came to power championing Bolivia's 36 indigenous groups and enshrined their rights in the constitution, and under his leadership Bolivia's economy has boomed thanks to high prices for its natural gas and minerals. But Morales has roiled the local church by taking a series of anti-clerical initiatives, including a new constitution that made the overwhelmingly Catholic nation a secular country.

    In his speech, Francis noted the Catholic faith took "deep root" in Bolivia centuries ago "and has continued to shed its light upon society, contributing to the development of the nation and shaping its culture."

    "The voice of the bishops, which must be prophetic, speaks to society in the name of the church, our mother, from her preferential, evangelical option for the poor," he said.

    [READ: Racial Politics and Hugo Chavez's Failed Socialist Legacy]

    Morales, for his part, recalled how the Catholic Church in the past was on the side of the oppressors of Bolivia's people, three-quarters of whom are of indigenous origin. But Morales, an Aymara Indian known for anti-imperialist and socialist stands, said things have changed with this pope and the Bolivian people are greeting Francis as someone who is "helping in the liberation of our people."

    "He who betrays a poor person, betrays Pope Francis," Morales said.

    In a deeply personal gesture soon after he arrived, Francis stopped his motorcade along the highway heading into town at the site where a Jesuit priest, the Rev. Luis Espinal, was left in 1980 after being detained and tortured by Bolivia's paramilitary squads.

    "Remember one of our brothers, a victim of interests that didn't want him to fight for Bolivia's freedom," Francis said from the popemobile to a crowd gathered at the site. "Father Espinal preached the Gospel, the Gospel that bothered them, and because of this they got rid of him."

    Morales gave Francis some politically loaded gifts, including one apparently with a link to Espinal — a crucifix carved into a wooden hammer and sickle, the Communist symbol uniting labor and peasants. The slain priest had a similar crucifix.

    [MORE: Pope Francis' Climate Change Encyclical Presents Challenge to GOP Field]

    Another politically charged gift was a copy of "The Book of the Sea," which is about the loss of Bolivia's access to the sea during the War of the Pacific with Chile in 1879-83. Bolivia has taken its bid to renegotiate access to the Pacific to the International Court of Justice, arguing that its poverty is due in part to being land-locked. Chile has argued the court has no jurisdiction since Bolivia's borders were defined by a 1904 treaty.

    Francis referred to the border dispute in a speech to civil authorities later in La Paz, calling for countries of the region to improve their diplomatic relations "in order to avoid conflicts between sister peoples and advance frank and open dialogue about their problems."

    "I'm thinking about the sea, here," he said. "Dialogue is indispensable. Instead of raising walls, we need to be building bridges."

    Francis denounced the constant "atmosphere of inequality" in Bolivia, where despite its economic advances in recent years nearly one in four Bolivians lives on $2 a day. And while prosperity has come to some with economic growth averaging 5 percent annually, it has "opened the door to the evil of corruption," Francis said.

    Bolivia has a notoriously corrupt judiciary, with some 1,000 judges and 300 prosecutors under investigation or on trial for corruption.

    [LINK: Pope Francis Finds Favor Across the World]

    After the brief stop in La Paz, the pope flew to Santa Cruz in Bolivia's central lowlands, where he will spend the rest of his visit to the country.

    Francis and Morales have met on several occasions, most recently in October when the president, a former coca farmer, participated in a Vatican summit of grassroots groups of indigenous and advocates for the poor who have been championed by Francis. Their shared views on caring for society's poorest, and the need for wealthy countries to drastically change course to address climate change, have bumped up against Morales' clashes with the local clergy.

    As soon as Morales took office in 2006, for example, the Bible and cross were removed from the presidential palace. A new constitution in 2009 made the overwhelmingly Catholic nation a secular state and Andean religious rituals replaced Catholic rites at official state ceremonies.

    "There are some challenging issues in terms of Evo Morales taking on a quite combative role against the church, which he sees as a challenge to his authority," said Clare Dixon, Latin American regional director for CAFOD, the English Catholic aid agency. "The church is also questioning some decisions made about development in the country."

    [READ MORE: Briefing: Pope Looks to the Future, S.C. Church Has Racially Charged Past]

    Morales had pledged to safeguard the interests of Bolivia's indigenous. But he has alienated lowlands natives by promoting a highway through a nature reserve and authorizing oil and natural gas exploration in wilderness areas. Cheered by environmentalists abroad for his demand that wealthy nations do more to combat climate change, Morales has been under fire at home from critics, including activists in the church, who say he puts extracting petroleum ahead of clean water and forests.

    Francis is expected to raise environmental concerns during his Bolivian sojourn, just as he did in Ecuador. Other highlights of the trip include his visit to the notoriously violent Palmasola prison, where a battle among inmate gangs in 2013 left 30 people dead. As in many Latin American prisons, inmates largely control the inside of Palmasola, which teems with some 3,500 prisoners, more than four in five still awaiting trial.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Frank Bajak and Paola Flores contributed to this report.

    ___

    Nicole Winfield on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nwinfield

    Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 
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