Category Archives: Catholic church

The Reconciliation Challenge

What does your Confession look like? How are you teaching your children to go through their own Sacraments of Reconciliation as time goes by? What do your habits on this particular sacrament say about you? Have you grown in your faith, but forgotten this corner of it?

Does your Confession look like a checklist? I’ll freely confess I had planned on taking this format when I did my First Reconciliation a little less than a year ago. “Bless me Father for I have sinned. This is my first Confession. I’ve a, b, c, e, g, h, j, k, l, m, o, p, r, s, t, v, x, and y’d. For these and for all my other sins I am sorry.” Hold my breath until we get to the Act of Contrition and read that off a little card. Run for the door. Try to avoid ever having to do it again. Repeat as seldom as humanly possible.

I remembered sitting in the room with other parents of the children in my son’s Confirmation class the year before. We were preparing the children for their First Reconciliation and the teacher, Dianne, would for a portion of the class split us from the children and while they worked on a project without us, we would learn about the Sacraments, their origin, and all kinds of other amazing things. I loved the class. I was new to the Faith and like a sponge. I would stay after class and ask a million questions to Dianne who had the patience of a saint. She let me take home the videos we watched in class so I could review my notes and make certain I’d gotten everything out of them. I loved her. I still do.

The other parents and sponsors loathed it, deeply. They wanted to get in, get out, and get it over with.
One Monday when Dianne left us adults to our own devices after explaining to us what to expect on the day the children did their First Reconciliation, encouraging all the families and sponsors to participate as well. I was ecstatic. I was nervous. I was a wreck.

The other adults were terrified. Most started talking and comparing how long since they’d been to Confession. None had gone since their grade school years, high school at best. I was stunned. I’d just spent 8 weeks teaching my son that this was a beautiful Sacrament and that he should participate in it for the rest of his life! I mean, *I* didn’t want to go…but he should! He must! What on God’s green earth were we there for if he wasn’t going to participate in the Faith as soon as he got the excuse to stop?!?!

First Reconciliation for the children came. They were all nervous and rather intimidated. I was too! I’d planned my list (as stated above) and was ready to go in, just like the children, and do my First Reconciliation on the same day as my son. The children slowly went, one by one. I kept waiting for an adult or older sibling to go to the back of the aisle, but no one went. If I stood up I would look like an absolute fool. My son went last and held the door to the Confessional open for Father Joe afterward and they came forward. It was mixed emotions. Pride in my son, relief that I didn’t have to go, and sadness that I’d missed the opportunity.

After transferring to a new parish for a host of reasons, Father Dan assured me that everything was “all good” and offered to take care of my First Reconciliation at the first available opportunity when we came to worship at Mass the next time.

I got there late. On purpose. I figured if Confession ended at 4:30 and Mass started at 5:00 I should be good to squeak in at about 4:45. Or not. Father Dan was leaving the Confessional when he saw me sitting in the pew. He walked right over, smiled at those sitting next to me and said, “Susan, would you watch her son for a minute?” and marched my happy butt back to the Confessional. I’d been called out. Now I was a complete wreck. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t have my list. I didn’t have my Act of Contrition card. If I hadn’t left my purse and car keys with my son I might have booked it for the exit.

As I walked through the door, he asked me if I wanted to sit face to face with him (oh the horror) or kneel on the other side. Seemed rather ridiculous to kneel and “hide” at that point, plus the chair looked infinitely more comfortable to a 5 month pregnant woman than the kneeler. Face to face it was.

I had nothing with me, but since he knew it was my first time he walked me through it. I started the way I knew I was supposed to, but when I got to the “listing my sins” part, my mind started to go blank. Where do you start when you were baptized at 1 month old and are in your (we won’t go there.)? I started to go backwards from the most recent issues I’d had with my struggles. Tears started rolling down my cheeks as I revealed things I wouldn’t even tell my closest friends. I just laid it all out there. No pretty words, no hiding. Just me spewing all the horrible things I’d done that I could remember in one sitting.

At the end I felt amazing. Truly, it was unbelievable.

Today I went to participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time in months. I’d found a million excuses before, but I was at the end of my rope and knew I needed to do it. I’d only gone to Confession that one time before. I’d planned that this would be different. I would be anonymous. I would kneel. I would go through my list and get out of there at the speed of light. And then I fell in the door of the Confessional and went sprawling with the baby onto the floor and he came running to help me up…and it was useless to try and hide again. So I began my second Confession while nursing a 6 month old in front of a priest who could see me. I’d planned on just getting it over and getting out of there. Instead I ended up a pile of tears again, and then cracking jokes as we talked about the fact that I’m not crazy. I left relieved. I was a normal mom with normal fears…who knew?

After getting the exact same feeling as the first time I couldn’t help but think how impossible it would be to feel the same way if I’d hidden and used my x, y, z list of pretty words as a checklist. I wouldn’t have had that unmistakable personal connection with Father Dan. I certainly wouldn’t have been laughing.
What about you? Has your Confession life grown or are you like those adults in the Confirmation class – too scared or too busy to be bothered? Have you seen the inside of a Confessional in the past month? How about the past year? The past decade? Are your children learning to follow you in the Faith? What does your fear or nonchalance teach them?

We’re about to start a new Church year and are just around the corner from Advent. I’m reaching out to you. I’m asking you let’s make this a new start together. In case you didn’t know, you don’t have to break one of the 10 Commandments to go to Confession. While it is a requirement to confess any mortal sins there is nothing wrong with confessing your other sins, especially if it is something you are struggling with and could use the value of spiritual guidance. Can’t we all use God’s hand more in our lives?

I’m going to ask you to make the Sacrament of Reconciliation available to your family at least once every other week. I don’t believe in nagging to Confession. I do believe in making the option available to those you love. It’s very hard for a child under the age of 16 to get to Confession without your help and summoning the courage to say “Mom, I need to go to Confession” might be too much for your children, no matter how much they know you love them no matter what. Make sure you make that option available as often as you can.

Since you’re already going to be there for your family, I’m asking you to join me. Until Easter I am going to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation at least once every other week. Join me. Take the plunge. The Sacrament of Reconciliation takes less than 15 minutes out of your week. Take the time. Go to Confession with me. Then come back and tell me how much better you feel. Tell me how much your life is changing…and I’ll tell you about mine.

USCCB Resources for the Sacrament of Reconciliation: http://usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments/penance/

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Catholics Under Attack

I am not a big fan of Glenn Beck but I agree with every word he says in this video.  He’s a Baptised Catholic, if you didn’t know he was a Mormon (via marriage) when you watch this video you would think he was going back to his Faith!  Pray for him as we do….amazing video, Glenn, thank you for your words!

     
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Sacred Space, Sacred Place: Religious Freedom, the Pill and the Womb

A Guest Post 
By: German Munoz, Ph.D.
March 13, 2012

Obamacare and Religious Freedom
American President Barack Hussein Obama wants to implant a socialist state in America which will control the entire society.  This is not a secret to those who do not rely on the Obama media.  However, he faces several obstacles.

One is the Constitution of the United States which is intrinsically anti-socialist.  Another obstacle is a Catholic Church strengthened with faithful American bishops in communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.

Interestingly, the President attacked both obstacles on February 2012 by undermining the religious freedom protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, and by trying to undermine the authority of the bishops by mandating some Catholic institutions to offer in their insurance policies sterilization services and birth control pills, including those which induce abortion.

Naturally, these are services which the Church considers sinful.  As a result, the Catholic Church will take this matter to the courts to prove that Obamacare and the Department of Health and Human Services are in violation of the religious freedom and freedom of conscience protected by the Constitution.

The Government’s Position and a Response
Obama supporters respond by arguing that many Catholics use birth control pills and that some “Catholic” organizations back the President.  They argue that this issue is not a constitutional one, but simply an effort to give women access to birth control.

This response by government supporters leads to some counter-arguments and reflections:
·         This is a constitutional matter because the Church is being coerced by the government to sell products or to participate in activities it considers sinful, and contrary to Her teachings, and this is a violation of the First Amendment.

·         The fact that some Catholics use birth control pills is totally meaningless as an argument on behalf of artificial birth control because they are not the head of the Church. The truth is that the head of the Church is Christ and the bishops must look to Him and not to the people to make faithful decisions.

·         Many so-called “Catholic” groups supporting Obama are not Catholic at all, for they are not under the authority of the bishops and are not following Catholic teachings, and some are financed by anti-Catholic billionaires.

·         Which constitutional principle gives the President the right to force an insurance company to give “free” birth control pills to its policyholders?

·         Why should some insurance policyholders pay for the products involved in the sexual acts of other insured people?

·         Will the order by the government to give free pills be compensated by the insurance companies with higher premiums for other more important medical items, or with dropping them from their policies?

·         Over 80 per cent of women already get birth control pills through their insurance policies and in America there are many ways to get inexpensive or even free pills, so why is Obama picking on the Catholic Church to provide these products?

·         Will the government next force the Catholic Church to pay for abortions?
                                                   
The Sacred and the Veil
The truth is that the Catholic Church’s teachings on life exist in a totally different moral universe compared to the socialist agenda of the government.  The Obama world is alien to any sense of the sacred.

And yet, man, made in the image and likeness of God, must abide by a moral order to live as he ought.  In this moral order he will come in touch with the sacred and respect it.

For instance, when the ancient people of Israel carried the Ark of the Covenant, they covered it with a veil for it was considered sacred.  The same applies to that part of the Jewish Temple considered most sacred, and which was covered by a veil.

Also, the Tabernacle in the Catholic sanctuary, where the body of Christ resides, has a veil at its entrance to respect the sacred.

The Veil before the Womb: Sacred Space, Sacred Place
Not surprisingly, girls are also created with a veil covering and protecting their private parts. This is not because girls and women are sacred.  After all, only God is intrinsically sacred.  It is because in the womb, God, men and women collaborate in the creation of human beings, who have a soul.  This makes the womb a sacred place and a sacred space.

This veil is at the entrance of the vagina which leads to the uterus. It is called the hymen.  It is not there by accident. The veil is a sign that there is something important, something sacred that takes place in the womb. Therefore, it is not there to be ravished or abused with hormones, chemicals and other toxic elements in a birth control pill and in other anti-life devices implanted in this sacred place and sacred space.    

The Church’s Teachings on Female Purity
The Church understands that today She is competing against the “religion of the self”, which tells people that they have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies and souls. 

On the other hand, the Church teaches that we are created by a loving God who has revealed to us the proper way to live and that we have to surrender to Him and to His teachings to find joy. 

The Church recommends the following:

  • Maintaining virginity, that is, the physical and spiritual veil until marriage, though She understands that those who have unwisely lost their virginity before marriage can restore a spiritual virginity by remaining in abstinence until their marriage.

  • Having sex within marriage so if the woman becomes pregnant there is a family unit to raise and love the child, for over 40 per cent of our children do not have a family.

  • Encouraging those living together unmarried but committed to each other in a loving way to marry as soon as possible.

  • Opening the marriage to life.

  • Preserving the life of the unborn.

  • Using natural family planning if there is a need to prevent conception.

  • Preserving marriage so that women and their children do not go from partner to partner, a behavior which hurts the mother and the children.
The Church’s main concern is maintaining the purity of the girls, their happiness within their marriage, and their desire for children.  However, the Church will not force people to follow Her rules.  The Church opens the door to those who want to leave Her, but has always Her doors open to those who want to return to Her.

Natural Family Planning
Fortunately, Catholics who want to control their procreation can rely on many methods which go under the name of “natural family planning”. They have up to 98 per cent success rate in avoiding pregnancy.

Natural family planning does not require paying large sums of money to the “pharmaceutical industrial complex” and it does not lead to many medical problems associated with the pill, such as strokes.

Unfortunately, the cultural elites do not want our girls to know about natural alternatives to artificial birth control. Amazingly, only one per cent of those using natural family planning end up in divorce.

Conclusion
The Church has awakened to see a power-hungry, ideologically driven and truth-challenged President trying to undermine Her.  In addition, many of Her members do not practice Her teachings.  This is a time for prayer, penance, courage and love for Catholics so they are able to defend both the Church and the Republic.


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I love everything that my dear friend and brother in Christ Dr. Munoz writes but this piece has got to be my favorite of all his writing.  God bless you, German!

     
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Time to Restore Order in the Catholic Church

This has got to be the BEST interviews I’ve read regarding the Church in a long time.  It gives me comfort to know that Rome is ON THIS crisis situation and headed in the right direction.  Whether you like Michael Voris or not, doesn’t matter, this message is really from Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.


Restore Order by Real Catholic TV:

Cardinal Piacenza explains ‘crisis’ of Catholic priesthood (Catholic Caucus)
cna ^ | October 11, 2011

Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 5:20:58 PM by NYer

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza addressing seminarians in Los Angeles. Credit: Juan Martín Barajas

Los Angeles, Calif., Oct 11, 2011 / 10:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In an exclusive interview, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, addressed the “crisis” in the Catholic priesthood as portrayed by the media and said that each priest must respond by living his vocation faithfully.

As prefect, Cardinal Piacenza has the primary responsibility – after the Pope – of promoting the proper formation of diocesan priests and deacons. He is also responsible for the religious formation of all Catholics, especially through catechesis. 

Cardinal Piacenza was born on Sept. 15, 1944, in Genoa, Italy.  He was ordained a priest on Dec. 21, 1969 and was named president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Goods of the Church in October of 2003. Later that year, he was ordained a bishop.

He was named secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy and was ordained an archbishop on May 7, 2007. In October of 2010, he was named prefect of the congregation. Then on Nov. 20, 2010, he was made a cardinal.

Cardinal Piacenza granted an interview to CNA while he was in Los Angeles, Calif., where he was attending a meeting with the archdiocese’s priests.
The full interview follows.

CNA:  A series of events and exaggerated reporting by the secular media has created a “crisis,” so to speak, of the image of a Catholic priest. How can we rescue that image for the good of the Church?


Cardenal Piacenza: In Catholic theology, image and reality are never separate. Image is repaired by repairing the interior. We must bring about healing first of all from “within.” We should not be too concerned about how things appear on the outside, but rather about “truly being.” It is easy to identify the dynamics that move these campaigns and the interests behind them.

We must never hide, but wherever necessary, we must recognize mistakes with humility and truthfulness and be willing to repair, whether humanly or spiritually, trusting more in the Lord than in our own poor human strengths. That is how the rescue will come, when a priest is who he is supposed to be: a man of God, a man of the sacred, and a man of prayer and, therefore, completely at the service of others, of their authentic and comprehensive well-being, whether spiritual or material, and of the good of the community as such.

CNA: How can we help Catholics who are disillusioned see that the so-called “sexual scandal” of the Church in no way defines the ministerial priesthood or the Church?

Cardinal Piacenza: On human level it is understandable –  as the Holy Father mentioned during the in-flight interview on his way to Germany – that some might think that they cannot see themselves in a Church in which certain despicable acts occur. However, on that occasion Benedict XVI himself clearly invited us to go to the heart of the nature of the Church, which is the living Body of the Risen Christ that prolongs His existence and salvific action through time.

The horrible sins of a few do not delegitimize the good actions of many, nor do they change the nature of the Church. They certainly weaken her credibility enormously, and therefore we are called to work ceaselessly for the conversion of each person and for that evangelical radicalness and fidelity which should always characterize an authentic minister of Christ. We should remember that in order to be truly believable we have to be true believers.

CNA: Some believe that this “crisis” is another argument in favor of reforming the way the priesthood is lived. For example, the demand for married priests as a solution to both the loneliness priests experience and the lack of priestly vocations. What does “reforming the clergy” really mean in the mind and magisterium of Pope Benedict XVI? 

Cardinal Piacenza: This kind of argument, if it were followed, would create an unprecedented break. The suggested cures would make the disease even worse and would turn the Gospel on its head. The issue is loneliness? Why? Is Christ a ghost?  Is the Church dead or alive? Were the holy priests of centuries past abnormal men? Is holiness a utopia, a matter for a predestined few, or a universal vocation, as the Second Vatican Council reminded us? If the climb is arduous, we should take vitamins, strengthen ourselves, and with great impetus, continue upwards with joy in our hearts.

Vocation means “calling,” and God continues to call, but we need to know how to listen, and in order to listen we must not cover our ears. We need to be silent, we need to see examples and signs and we need to draw close to the Church as the Body in which the encounter with Christ always takes place.

In order to be faithful we must be in love. Obedience, chastity in celibacy, total dedication to the ministry without limits of time or days, are not seen as constrictions if one is truly in love, but rather as the demands of the love that one cannot help but give. They aren’t a bunch of “no’s” but rather one big “yes,” like that of the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation.

The reform of the clergy? It is what I have been calling for since my time as a seminarian and later as a young priest (I am referring to 1968-69), and I am thrilled to hear the Holy Father continually call it one of the most urgent reforms needed in the Church. But let us remember that the reform we are speaking about is Catholic and not “worldly!”
To be extremely brief, we could say that the Pope greatly values a clergy that is truly and humbly proud of its identity and completely absorbed with the gift of grace it has received, and that consequently sees a clear distinction between the “Kingdom of God” and the world. A clergy that is not secularized and does not succumb to the passing fads and ways of the world. A clergy that recognizes, lives and proposes the primacy of God and understands how to bring out all of the consequences that flow from it. This means trusting not so much in structures or in human endeavor but rather, and above all, in the strength of the Spirit.

CNA: There is often talk of “women priests.” In fact, a movement exists in the United States that is demanding that women be made priests and bishops. It claims to have received this mandate from the successors of the apostles.

Cardinal Piacenza: Apostolic tradition in this sense is absolutely unequivocally clear. The great, uninterrupted tradition of the Church has always recognized that the Church has not received the power from Christ to confer ordination on women.

Any other claim smacks of self-justification and is historically and dogmatically unfounded. In any case, the Church cannot “innovate,” simply because she does not have the power to do so in this case.  The Church does not have greater power than Christ!

When we see non-Catholic communities led by women we should not be shocked, because where the ordained priesthood is not recognized, leadership is obviously entrusted to the lay faithful, and in such a case, what’s the difference if that lay faithful is a man or woman? The preference of one over the other would be a mere sociological fact and therefore changeable over time. If they were only men it would be discriminatory. The issue is not between men and women but between ordained faithful and lay faithful, and the Church is hierarchical because Jesus Christ founded it that way.

Priestly ordination, which is particular to the Catholic Church and to the Orthodox churches, is reserved to men, and this is not discrimination against women, but rather a consequence of the unsurpassed historicity of the act of the Incarnation and of the Pauline theology on the mystical body, in which each one has his own role and is sanctified and produces fruit consistent with his own place. 

If this is seen in terms of power, then we are totally off base, because in the Church only the Blessed Virgin Mary is “suppliant omnipotence” like none other, and thus she is more powerful in that sense than St. Peter. But Peter and the Virgin Mary have distinct roles that are both essential. I have heard this in not a few circles of the Anglican Communion as well.

CNA: From the point of view of numbers and quality, how does the Catholic Church look today in comparison with her recent past, and how does the future look?

Cardinal Piacenza: In general, the Catholic Church is growing in the world, especially because of the enormous contributions from the continents of Asia and Africa. These young churches are bringing a great freshness to the faith.

In recent decades – if I could use the expression – we have been playing rugby with the faith, hitting each other and sometimes hurting each other, and in the end no one scores any points.

There have been and there are problems in the Church, but we need to look forward with great hope! Not so much in the name of some naïve or superficial optimism, but rather in the name of the magnificent hope that is Christ, made real in the faith of each person, in the holiness of each person and in the perennial authentic reform of the Church.

If the great event of the Second Vatican Council was a breath of the Spirit that has blown into the world through the windows of the Church, then we need to recognize that a lot of worldliness has also blown in with the Spirit, creating a current and blowing the leaves all over. We’ve seen everything, and yet nothing has been lost, but order must patiently be restored. Order is restored above all by strongly affirming the primacy of the Risen Christ, present in the Eucharist. There is a great peaceful battle to be waged which is that of perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, so that the entire world can become part of a network of prayer. United to the holy Rosary, in which we reflect on the salvific mysteries of Christ together with Mary, this will generate and develop a movement of reparation and penetration. 

I dream of a time in which there will not be a single diocese without at least one church or parish where the Sacrament of Love is adored day and night. Love must be loved! In every diocese, and better yet in every city and town, there should be hands raised to heaven pleading for a downpour of mercy upon everyone, those close and those far away, and then everything would change. 

Do you remember what happened when Moses’ hands were raised and what happened when they fell? Jesus has come to bring fire and he wishes for it to burn everywhere in order for the civilization of love to appear. 

This is the climate of the Catholic reform, the climate for the sanctification of the clergy and for the increase in holy priestly and religious vocations. This is the climate for the growth of Christian families that are true domestic churches. [emphasis mine] This is the climate for collaboration from the lay faithful and the clergy.  We must truly believe this, and in the United States there are and always have been many promising resources. Continue forward!

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