It is scary to think that anyone invovled in the Church these days would even think about using that as an excuse...
This is happening across the country, some dioceses are reporting it others aren't. In some ways this may in the end be another purification process, although one friend I know who has had his job cut is the wrong person for them to let go, while the disenters are being retained.
Tampabay: Donations down, diocese cuts jobs:
After three years of declining contributions, the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg is planning to substantially cut administrative jobs in an attempt to preserve programs.
A severance package has been offered to all of the diocese's 120 full- and part-time employees at its pastoral center in St. Petersburg. The diocese has 75 parishes and 380,000 parishioners in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties.
The administrative employees have until 5 p.m. Wednesday to decide whether to take the offer, which was initially made last month.
Church leaders have no set goal for reducing employees, said the Rev. Alan Weber, vicar general and Bishop Robert N. Lynch's second in command. He said the diocese would rather cut jobs and rework staff responsibilities than cut into support programs.
Tuesday, March 9, 2004
Monday, March 8, 2004
Parish Protests Weakland Confirmation Plans
Interesting. What is most interesting is that Archbishop Weakland would even put himself in this position. What is even sadder is that the associate pastor is making his parishioners to be the bad guys because they are unforgiving! Unforgiving? How about the Archbishop showing a little penitence by staying in a monastery and not performing publicly? Forgiveness is a Christian mandate but so is penitence...If those accused of misusing church funds and carrying on sexually want to stand up in front of the congregation to model their piety let them do it as penitents!
Don't blame the parishioners, Father...have you read the papers lately?
From Post-Crescent - Former archbishop decides to withdraw from service:
"A Brookfield Catholic church has canceled plans to have retired Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland administer the sacrament of confirmation after parishioners objected and threatened to protest.
The Rev. Leonard Van Vlaenderen, an associate pastor at St. John Vianney Catholic Church, said the parishioners were still upset over a $450,000 settlement the Milwaukee Archdiocese paid a man who claimed he was sexually assaulted by Weakland.
Weakland, who had reached the Vatican's mandatory retirement age of 75 when the deal became public in 2002, later admitted an inappropriate but consensual sexual relationship with a man.
In a letter to the parents of about 130 teenagers preparing for confirmation, Van Vlaenderen said he was disappointed by the lack of Christian forgiveness that was shown.
Don't blame the parishioners, Father...have you read the papers lately?
From Post-Crescent - Former archbishop decides to withdraw from service:
"A Brookfield Catholic church has canceled plans to have retired Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland administer the sacrament of confirmation after parishioners objected and threatened to protest.
The Rev. Leonard Van Vlaenderen, an associate pastor at St. John Vianney Catholic Church, said the parishioners were still upset over a $450,000 settlement the Milwaukee Archdiocese paid a man who claimed he was sexually assaulted by Weakland.
Weakland, who had reached the Vatican's mandatory retirement age of 75 when the deal became public in 2002, later admitted an inappropriate but consensual sexual relationship with a man.
In a letter to the parents of about 130 teenagers preparing for confirmation, Van Vlaenderen said he was disappointed by the lack of Christian forgiveness that was shown.
Feast of St. John of God--Paton of Booksellers
Why? Because that is one of the things that he did...from Catholic Online - Saints - St. John of God:
"In Spain he spent his days unloading ship cargoes and his nights visiting churches and reading spiritual books. Reading gave him so much pleasure that he decided that he should share this joy with others. He quit his job and became a book peddler, traveling from town to town selling religious books and holy cards. A vision at age 41 brought him to Granada where he sold books from a little shop. (For this reason he is patron saint of booksellers and printers.) "
In honor of his feast, let me recommend a few books...
If you want to get more out of Mass or you aren't sure what is going on at Mass, let me recommend my bestselling book:
The How-To Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You
Also if you are new to the Rosary or want an aid in helping you meditate on the traditional mysteries and the luminous, again a book that I wrote with Amy:
Praying the Rosary: With the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, & Glorious Mysteries
If you're tired of hearing the "Jesus Seminar" view of the NT then let me recommend this very readable book on Following Jesus by N.T. Wright:
Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship
If you would like to know more about what it means to have a patron saint, read Rick Medina's excellent little book on having Saint Philomena as a patron saint:
I Ask St. Philomena: The Power of Praying with Saints
Confused about who Jesus was? The perfect overview of who Jesus is and how his passion saved us:
Jesus the Christ
Read The Da Vinci Code and confused about the view of Christianity it presented? Amy's new book answers all of your questions:
De-Coding Da Vinci
Throught the intercession of St. John of God, may you be led to purchase the book that'll meet your spiritual needs for this Lenten season!
"In Spain he spent his days unloading ship cargoes and his nights visiting churches and reading spiritual books. Reading gave him so much pleasure that he decided that he should share this joy with others. He quit his job and became a book peddler, traveling from town to town selling religious books and holy cards. A vision at age 41 brought him to Granada where he sold books from a little shop. (For this reason he is patron saint of booksellers and printers.) "
In honor of his feast, let me recommend a few books...
If you want to get more out of Mass or you aren't sure what is going on at Mass, let me recommend my bestselling book:
The How-To Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You
Also if you are new to the Rosary or want an aid in helping you meditate on the traditional mysteries and the luminous, again a book that I wrote with Amy:
Praying the Rosary: With the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, & Glorious Mysteries
If you're tired of hearing the "Jesus Seminar" view of the NT then let me recommend this very readable book on Following Jesus by N.T. Wright:
Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship
If you would like to know more about what it means to have a patron saint, read Rick Medina's excellent little book on having Saint Philomena as a patron saint:
I Ask St. Philomena: The Power of Praying with Saints
Confused about who Jesus was? The perfect overview of who Jesus is and how his passion saved us:
Jesus the Christ
Read The Da Vinci Code and confused about the view of Christianity it presented? Amy's new book answers all of your questions:
De-Coding Da Vinci
Throught the intercession of St. John of God, may you be led to purchase the book that'll meet your spiritual needs for this Lenten season!
It Wasn't the Americans who Kidnapped Aristide...
The locals think it was the "spirits"...
I am reminded of a protestant pastor in Jacksonville who showed me a picture that his son had taken in Haiti (this would have been 20+ years ago) in which there was a beast of some sort amongst the people...he claimed it was a demon--it was strange looking, whatever it was...
From Telegraph | News | Voodoo spirits get credit for Aristide's flight:
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide did not flee Haiti because he lost his nerve. Neither did the United States blackmail him. No, the most satisfying explanation for the country's recent upheavals is that the spirits were offended and taking their revenge.
Voodoo, an exotic synthesis of African, Caribbean and Roman Catholic beliefs, with freemasonry mixed in too, pervades every facet of life in Haiti, so its role in the downfall of Mr Aristide is, for most, beyond dispute.
Just as its flags, murals, shrines, rum, rattles and images of madonnas and saints lurk, invisible from the outside, in slum temples, the religion underlies each momentous event in the nation's history.
The rise and fall of Mr Aristide, its first democratically elected leader and an ordained Catholic priest who adopted as his symbol the cockerel, a voodoo icon, illustrates this. Mr Aristide, whose library contained many books on the national religion, was guilty of the voodoo equivalent of hubris and then struck down by its version of nemesis, several voodo priests said this week.
Comparing himself to the heroes who won Haiti's slaves freedom from the French two centuries ago was a fatal mistake, they said, one that the heroes, by now spirits themselves, punished.
I am reminded of a protestant pastor in Jacksonville who showed me a picture that his son had taken in Haiti (this would have been 20+ years ago) in which there was a beast of some sort amongst the people...he claimed it was a demon--it was strange looking, whatever it was...
From Telegraph | News | Voodoo spirits get credit for Aristide's flight:
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide did not flee Haiti because he lost his nerve. Neither did the United States blackmail him. No, the most satisfying explanation for the country's recent upheavals is that the spirits were offended and taking their revenge.
Voodoo, an exotic synthesis of African, Caribbean and Roman Catholic beliefs, with freemasonry mixed in too, pervades every facet of life in Haiti, so its role in the downfall of Mr Aristide is, for most, beyond dispute.
Just as its flags, murals, shrines, rum, rattles and images of madonnas and saints lurk, invisible from the outside, in slum temples, the religion underlies each momentous event in the nation's history.
The rise and fall of Mr Aristide, its first democratically elected leader and an ordained Catholic priest who adopted as his symbol the cockerel, a voodoo icon, illustrates this. Mr Aristide, whose library contained many books on the national religion, was guilty of the voodoo equivalent of hubris and then struck down by its version of nemesis, several voodo priests said this week.
Comparing himself to the heroes who won Haiti's slaves freedom from the French two centuries ago was a fatal mistake, they said, one that the heroes, by now spirits themselves, punished.
Think The Passion of the Christ was Violent?
On Saturday two Christian men were axed to death in Egypt...
From Yahoo! News - Egypt Deploys 1,000 Police After Christians Killed:
Egyptian authorities deployed some 1,000 police around a southern town on Saturday to forestall any Muslim-Christian clashes after two Christian men were killed in a street brawl, security sources said.
The Christians were axed to death after a donkey being ridden by a Muslim man slipped on the wet roadway outside their house in the town of Salamoun, about 350 km (220 miles) south of Cairo, they said.
The donkey rider was later arrested and questioned. Witnesses in the town said there had been no further violence but the situation was tense.
Salamoun, a Nile valley town of about 40,000 people, is close to 40 percent Coptic Christian but was also a stronghold of militant Islamists who fought the government in the 1990s. "
From Yahoo! News - Egypt Deploys 1,000 Police After Christians Killed:
Egyptian authorities deployed some 1,000 police around a southern town on Saturday to forestall any Muslim-Christian clashes after two Christian men were killed in a street brawl, security sources said.
The Christians were axed to death after a donkey being ridden by a Muslim man slipped on the wet roadway outside their house in the town of Salamoun, about 350 km (220 miles) south of Cairo, they said.
The donkey rider was later arrested and questioned. Witnesses in the town said there had been no further violence but the situation was tense.
Salamoun, a Nile valley town of about 40,000 people, is close to 40 percent Coptic Christian but was also a stronghold of militant Islamists who fought the government in the 1990s. "
The Passion--$212,034,000
They say the second weekend is the real test for whether a movie is good or not. Well, The Passion of the Christ has passed that test...
From Box Office Mojo > Box Office By Movie: "Total as of Mar. 7, 2004: $212,034,000 (Estimate)"
It's been the #1 movie, everyday since its release.
From Box Office Mojo > Box Office By Movie: "Total as of Mar. 7, 2004: $212,034,000 (Estimate)"
It's been the #1 movie, everyday since its release.
Sunday, March 7, 2004
Cross Meditations
Jesus said if anyone wanted to follow him, they should take up their cross and get behind him...currently you have two movements going on:
The presentation of the horrid suffering of the Cross
and...
The denial that there is any cross in life.
I continue to post a daily look at how the cross of Christ is a beacon to the way we approach our lives, click on the gate to the right to view today's entry.
The presentation of the horrid suffering of the Cross
and...
The denial that there is any cross in life.
I continue to post a daily look at how the cross of Christ is a beacon to the way we approach our lives, click on the gate to the right to view today's entry.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)