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Originally posted by Deacon John Montalvo:
"Photius,
Odd that you use an archaic term or are you trying to be facetious? The US Department of War ceased as a cabinent department in 1949, when it was renamed the Department of the Army and incorporated into the Department of Defense."

Father John,
While I hardly want to digress into secular politics here, I'll do so minimally to explain myself: I consider it classic double speak that the name of the department was changed from "War" to "Defense" and subsequently, has never had to defend the U.S. (recall that there is now a separate Department of Homeland Security, so the Dept. of Defense officially is not concerned with domestic terrorism). Unless I'm in a setting where decorum requires I call it by its correct name, I refuse to so do. And my interactions with the sorts of folk who work for and think well of that department have formed my opinion that they, by and large, glorify war and put country and government before God.

Photius, Reader

Posted by Brother Ed:

" 1. A lack of confidence in the will of God and that His plan is good and perfect, despite how things might look to me.

2. A lack of focus on my life and what is the important thing I need to be doing -- which is to root out sin and unChristlikeness in my life. More I need to pay attention to this, and less to being angry at things which I can neither change nor have been called (at least at this time in my life -- maybe never -- who knows the mind of God?) to change.

Pray that I regain my focus and become a very small light of Christ to the world around me. That -- by the help of the Holy Spirit -- I can do."


Dear Ed,

May I join you in your request for this prayer? Somehow God uses our sins to His own ends I believe even though He doesn't will them. Maybe it's to bring us into an awareness of our need for Him.

I am not proud of my sins, but they make me aware that I need to come to Him Who can heal them. I can't heal myself.

I am grateful that He doesn't excommunciate me from His body! He calls sinners doesn't He?

Maybe thats why the Latin Church speaks of a felix culpa a happy or blessed sin when it reminds us of the sin of Adam during the Easter Liturgy. The felix culpa made Jesus Incarnation to be soo necessary.

Thanks for reminding me brother ed!

I noted the same thing w/ annoyance. Frankly, Catholics will always seem "weird" to the secular do-what-feels-good crowd. The truth, as we all know, is that Catholicism respects women immensely. I think one has to be a real idiot not to see that. The media is full of idiots, though. (Sorry, I'm annoyed at this, too...forgive me, but that's how I see that aspect.)

JP2 was something that no pope I know of was (he was the only pope that I really have any memory of) - he seemed so real to me. My favorite photo of him was the one sitting in a cell with his would-be assassin. JP2 did something few humans can do - he forgave what seemed unforgivable when it comes right down to how we frail humans think - and he was serene in doing it. He showed us that a human being could imitate Christ in the most extreme of circumstances. He taught us again about forgiveness - a lesson we forget again and again.

My other favorite image of JP2 was a sad and recent video one, when he could not find his voice and a look of frustration and pain came over his face. Sometimes we see our leaders up on a pedestal, like statues and not men, but JP2 never had that "quality." He was so human, so real, so good, so forgiving, and so unselfish - when he looked frustrated, it was because he could not give any more. The man gave all he could. He taught us that even great men become frail. And, in the end, he taught us how a person could die with peaceful dignity during the same week when we saw another, less peaceful and more contentious death played out before the world.

We have a photo of the pope with my my in-laws on our mantel. Their friend became a Cardinal a few years back and he invited them to come to Rome with him. It's just so nice to see a picture of the JP2, a man who was used to world leaders, looking every bit as interested in a recently retired couple from PA as he did on the news talking to presidents and prime ministers. Everything about his body language - the way he leaned in to talk people as if he they were his dearest friends - spoke of deep spiritual love of humanity. My mother-in-law, a very talkative lady, was awed into silence by his presence, and JP2 happily asked a couple things to get her going. She said she liked how he saw a baby and just went "ga ga" over it - a look of absolute joy and attendants left behind as JP2 broke ranks and ran over to bless a child. The man was absolutely beaming with joy - how many of us are like that in our modern age?

Perhaps it is hard for some outsiders, esp. those in the media who are not devout Catholics, to see why so many people loved him so much. I know I had a good cry on Saturday.

Actually, most of the secular press has been a lot more respectful than we might have expected. Granted, we don't expect much from them so it's not that difficult.

But contrast even the worst comments by nonCatholics, who after all don't know any better, with some of the remarks being spewed out by our fellow "Catholics" -- like this one:

On the matter of the War Department I'm entirely with Photius. Though one could nuance it a bit, by suggesting that "Defense Department" fits well into a vocabulary that includes such expressions as "military intelligence" and "government assistance". Nevertheless, Photius is entirely right, both on the moral issue and on the linguistic one - allowing such people to get away with calling themselves by a dishonest term implying a falsehood is contributing to the offense these people are committing.

A pen-name is another matter. To take my own for an example "Incognitus" does not falsely identify me as someone that I am not; it is merely a pleasant way of saying that for reasons of my own I prefer not to be identified here.

Nor for that matter do I know whether Photius really does bear the name of the Saint in question. But neither I nor anyone else is apt to think that our correspondent is the Patriarch himself, risen from the tomb to the Internet! If that really is the Christian name of our correspondent, he has my compliments on his patron Saint. If he has chosen the name for roughly the same reasons that moved me to use "Incognitus" he has my admiration. Perhaps I should add that Saint Photius himself had an excellent sense of humor.

Incognitus

To All,

The fact that the secular media has picked this up in the way they have, shows us all, agree with him or not, that the world has lost a great man. A man of the times, a voice much needed in a world filled with so much wrong and hate. This voice was rooted in the Gospel of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He was someone who tried to bring the Gospel, in all its Truth, to anyone and everyone who is willing to accept it. We may never see the likes of such a person so widely visible throughout the world again in our lifetimes.

I, for one, have already started praying to John Paul the Great. May God have mercy on us all.

Bill

Originally posted by incognitus:
" ... Nor for that matter do I know whether Photius really does bear the name of the Saint in question. But neither I nor anyone else is apt to think that our correspondent is the Patriarch himself, risen from the tomb to the Internet! ..."

"Photios" is my baptismal name (I was baptized in Greek). I'd think that signing myself "as Reader" would dispel any notions that I have delusions of being the Patriarch. Also, there are several other Saints Photii. On the lighter side, as a seminarian, I spent a summer as a cell attendant to a bishop. Once, as I was serving tea, I asked him whether he wanted lemon or honey with his tea, to which he replied, "Not as I like it, but as you do. You are a glorious Patriarch and I, a humble Bishop!"

That aside, my kudos to you for agreeing with my technically off-topic diatribe on double speak.

Photius the Atrocious (as my classmates called me)

Actually I believe the media is doing an outstanding job with the death of the Pope. What an opportunity to witness to the world, and every devout Christian leader, whether Evangelical or RCC, has used it these part few weeks.

If on the other hand, a few malcontents in the RCC decided to state their grievance, we can't blame the media for trying to give another viewpoint. When I hear them, I can only think that why are they trying to change Christianity, when they should allow Christianity to change them.

As for FOX news, they were really not in competition with the other stations. I think CNN and MSNBC continued with their amazing coverage in order to compete with FOX and it's more conservative take of current events. REmember, it was not FOX that was the 'liberal' and anti Christian station during the past years.

And let's not forget, fifteen years ago, even the word GOD was a no-no. Very politically incorrect.

We are seeing the Holy Spirit in action. It is for this that our great Pope John Paul II sufferred so dearly...and to think I'm Orthodox.

Zenovia

Having wasted much of my recent life snared in this web, I do not believe that anyone rises from the tomb to the internet :rolleyes:

This is one of the best places on the internet, thanks to the fine people who post here, but those who rise will be far above this place.

YES!!! Zenovia, you hit the nail on the head. What you say goes for all those malcontents who try to re-shape Christianity in their own image and likeness. They want a Church that affirms them in their vices (contraception, homosexual acts, serial polygamy, you name it) instead of challenging them to live up to a higher standard with the help of God's grace.

May the soul of our departed Pontifex Maximus rest in peace eternally, Amen.

LatinTrad

Amen Zenovia & LT, so true. Much prayer will be needed during the next couple of weeks.

Lord have mercy and strengthen the next Pappa to resist these temptations and concessions.

Pokoj,

james

Altar Boy and all...

I was also getting upset by some of the things I was seeing and hearing on the air these past two weeks. Monday my hometown paper ran an editorial by a professor of religion at Duke, talking about how the majority of Catholics in the US are disaffected with the Church...at that point I had to start laughing at the whole thing. The dissenters are a small minority, as I think most of us know, yet they have the loudest voices, simply because dissent sells newspapers...fir the most part, it's not Catholics who are out of step with the Church, it's the media who is out of step with Catholics. When I realized that, it became more of a joke than an annoyance.

There is a plus to all the media attention as well. In the past few weeks I have had many of our fundamentalist and evangelical customers asking me questions about what they have been reading and hearing and it's been making for great discussions.

There is really no point in going after the media in all of this..their job is the bottom line after all, sell papers and get ratings. I think the real blame has to lie with us, the American people as a whole, because of the fascination so many have with scandal. The media is just going where the money is.

Vie

Yesterday on the local NYC news radio channel, they had a feminist nun speak out against the Church, and how it has to change, because, in her words, "its stand on premarital sex, homosexuality, celibacy, and contraception, are intrinsically against sex and that is why they have lost numbers in North America, and they have only themselves to blame". She went on to say that "Humanae Vitae is also intrinsically against sex, and that sex in the estimation of the church is only for procreation".

Is there anything worse than a dissenting, feminist nun? Sheesh! :rolleyes:

This seems to be the main battle cry of most of the dissenters and I can never understand it. They have free will, no one is stopping them from having sex when and where they want it. If they think that what they are doing is so natural and wholesome, why do they need the Church to sanction it so badly?

Vie

This is basically what I have said for years. Once upon a time, those who could not, or would not, accept church teaching, had the integrity and intellectual honesty to leave. They were called Protestants. They had integrity enough to not stay in an organization in which they did not believe. Today, there is an enormous pride coupled with dissent. It's as if the church is wrong, and given enough time, the dissenters can correct the errors of the Church.