SHOCKING: woman reads gospel and gives homily in st. John's Newfoundland

Although I wasn't present at this Mass my friend who was informed me that this morning at 9:30 a.m. at st. Theresa's Church on Mundy Pond Road in St. John's Newfoundland a woman read the gospel from memory in the center of the Altar and then proceeded to give a homily. This is while two ordained priests looked on as she was doing this.

This practice is fully and explicitly forbidden in the general instruction of the Roman missal as well as in the code of canon law. These are two of the guides which govern all the activities that occur within the church.

If you would like the details of what is contained within these Church documents please go to this exclamation given by Father John trigilio when something similar happened to someone else:

http://www.ewtn.com/vexperts/showmessage.asp?number=346259&Pg=&Pgnu=&recnu=

I am not sure but I fear this could be part of a new program initiated in Newfoundland to deal with the shortage of priests in certain areas. In the case where there is no priest present in a particular area on a Sunday it is permissible for parishioners to have a form of service. However this service would not include Eucharist or anything that is specifically assigned to a priest. Also it requires that there be no priest available at the time. However this was clearly not the case here because there were two priests actually in the church sitting there doing everything else for Mass.

What is happening is that priests are being given an inch and they are taking a mile. This is pretty much what happens every time there is any form of slight change that occurs in the church. There are radicals within the church that will take it to an extreme that was never intended.

Celebrating this mass or father Tony bidgood and another priest who has not been identified. Either one of these priests should have stepped in to stop what was happening here. But it is most likely that father Tony not only didn't try to stop it but had actually set it up.

This is an outrageous disaster. My friend was so distraught and put off by this that he simply walked out of the church. He felt he had no other option. In fact what I told him was that Catholics are forbidden from spending their Sunday celebration at a non-catholic place of worship. If a Catholic Church is not respecting specific and explicit Catholic laws I have to wonder if it would even fulfill one's Sunday obligation. My friend did the right thing by walking out of the church. When something so manifestly wrong is occurring it is our moral duty to stand up and do something about it. I'm not talking about tiny little peccadilloes which can sometimes occur. I'm talking about massive violations of canon law.

He will be contacting the bishop for something to be done about this. Hopefully the bishop will follow his duty invocation and explicitly forbid this action and tell the priest this is unacceptable. My fear in all of this is that the bishop does nothing and ignores canon law.

I will keep you posted on any updates.

Temptation

Does anyone here have struggle with sin? It’s such a huge battle at all times. Various things I find a daily thing. It can be anger, lust, gluttony, sloth, etc. I really do envy people who have been able to transcend these. I know we remain human with temptations until death, so no one really fully “overcomes” these sins, I don’t think. But I think you can get to the point where you are not internally tempted to do certain things. You can recognize they are wrong and you use your will to avoid them. But this also applies to positive things, such as almsgiving or attending religious events.

Ultimately I think a lot of it is habit and being at peace with your life. With habit, we can create a lifestyle where we do not face such temptation all the time. Like eating healthy. At first, because we are still fully addicted, it can be difficult. But once we develop a habit of eating a proper breakfast and having good quality nutrition, the longer we do this, the less we are internally tempted to partake. We may still have, in the back of our minds, the idea that partaking in a particular sin might seem like it would be pleasurable but we aren’t holding on to the door frame to prevent ourselves from doing it.

Anyway like I said many saints have come to this point where they are no longer pulled internally toward a sin. They see it, but they are not really “tempted” by it.

Why do I keep saying “internal”? Well, there are two types of temptation. One is you are being tempted. The other is you are internally tempted, you are struggling to not give in, etc.

For example, if you were offered drugs, if you had no desire for them, someone could still be “tempting you” with them. An internal temptation is one where you are a drug addict and it takes all your will power to decline the offer. In the first example, you are not internally tempted. I feel like after much discipline and habit you can eventually reach that level. I guess that’s our spiritual goal!

How is Everyone’s Lent Going?

Hi everyone, just checking in to see how your Lent is progressing. We are still in the initial stages of it. I gave up soft drinks, but I should do more I think. That's not much of a penance really, even though I partake frequently. I'm in awe of some people. I knew one girl who gave up meat FOR ALL OF LENT! Crazy. She is Indian so maybe they know more recipes. My fiancée is Indian and vegetarian all her life. But still that's a lot. Others will give up drinking all together, chocolate, etc. some are tall orders.

 

But it all depends. If you never eat chocolate, then giving it up is pretty meaningless. Also some people, including myself in past Lents, give up so little it hardly seems like a penance. Like giving up one flavour of ice cream or maybe not drinking one type of alcohol. Pretty low-end. You should really be looking for something that will bring you closer to God. Look for things that take you away from union with the Almighty, and those are good places to start.

 

I do wonder about people who live an entire life of penance, do they give up something else? Some people have already given a lot. Btw, you can also take up something, like being more helpful or saying more prayers. Not all about stopping everything. What do you do for Lent, write it down below!

Google Search #1 "Why do Catholics...Pray to Mary?"

This is the ninth in a series of articles which are based on the top 9 google searches which come after "Why do Catholics..." in the search suggestions. I start at the ninth and will work my way to #1. If you have follow-up questions or comments, please post them below.

The topic of today's blog is "Why do Catholics Pray to Mary?"

Google Search #2 "Why do Catholics...Pray to Saints?"

This is the eighth in a series of articles which are based on the top 9 google searches which come after "Why do Catholics..." in the search suggestions. I start at the ninth and will work my way to #1. If you have follow-up questions or comments, please post them below.

The topic of today's blog is "Why do Catholics Pray to Saints?"

Google Search #3 "Why do Catholics...Worship Mary?"

This is the seventh in a series of articles which are based on the top 9 google searches which come after "Why do Catholics..." in the search suggestions. I start at the ninth and will work my way to #1. If you have follow-up questions or comments, please post them below.

The topic of today's blog is "Why do Catholics Worship Mary?"

Note: The next (Google Search #2) will be published on Thursday.

Google Search #4 "Why do Catholics...Light Candles?"

This is the sixth in a series of articles which are based on the top 9 google searches which come after "Why do Catholics..." in the search suggestions. I start at the ninth and will work my way to #1. If you have follow-up questions or comments, please post them below.

The topic of today's blog is "Why do Catholics Light Candles?"

Google Search #5 "Why do Catholics...Eat Fish on Friday?"

This is the fifth in a series of articles which are based on the top 9 google searches which come after "Why do Catholics..." in the search suggestions. I start at the ninth and will work my way to #1. If you have follow-up questions or comments, please post them below.

The topic of today's blog is "Why do Catholics Eat Fish on Friday?"

Google Search #6 "Why do Catholics...Pray the Rosary?"

This is the fourth in a series of articles which are based on the top 9 google searches which come after "Why do Catholics..." in the search suggestions. I start at the ninth and will work my way to #1. If you have follow-up questions or comments, please post them below.

The topic of today's blog is "Why do Catholics Pray the Rosary?"

Google Search #7 "Why do Catholics...Believe in Purgatory?"

This is the third in a series of articles which are based on the top 9 google searches which come after "Why do Catholics..." in the search suggestions. I start at the ninth and will work my way to #1. If you have follow-up questions or comments, please post them below.

The topic of today's blog is "Why do Catholics Believe in Purgatory?"

A lot of people have issues with the Catholic idea of purgatory. Now first of all if you look at history most Church fathers believed in purgatory if not all of them. It actually comes from Jewish belief about purification after death. But beyond the biblical and historical proof for the truth of purgatory I think we need to look at common sense. As we know in the Bible in many places it says that nothing imperfect can enter into the kingdom of heaven. It seems a little bit strips that if nothing can enter Heaven that is not perfect that God wouldn't give us some method to be purified before we entered into heaven. Therefore it only seems logical that human beings with minor flaws remaining would have some way of erasing these flaws before entering into a place where everything must be perfect. I would love to know what you think about on this subject. Please leave your comments below.

Please check out the following link for further information about proof for the existence of purgatory. I think it's possible that the article might be a little bit strongly-worded. But if so please try to overlook that. Thank you.

Google Search #8 "Why do Catholics...Baptize Babies?"

This is the second in a series of articles which are based on the top 9 google searches which come after "Why do Catholics..." in the search suggestions. I start at the ninth and will work my way to #1. If you have follow-up questions or comments, please post them below.

The topic of today's blog is "Why do Catholics Baptize Babies?"

Obviously many people from various Christian traditions do not baptize infants. They say only adults or people of a certain age at least should be baptized because it has to be a conscious act as opposed to something that you are forced to do as an infant and have no choice over. They would say "how can somebody accept the Lord Jesus Christ unless they are of a certain age and can explicitly give consent?". However Catholics would say that the faith is passed down from parents to children and that the parents are the first teachers of their children.  Children do not necessarily need to give explicit permission for everything that is done to them. And as you will see there are many benefits of baptizing infants and potential pitfalls of neglecting to baptize them.

 When we look in the Bible one of the things that Jesus says over and over again is go and baptize all people in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He further goes on to say that unless one is baptized that they cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Catholics throughout the centuries have taken these Commandments very seriously because he doesn't give an exception. Jesus does not say for example that unless a person is baptized "assuming they have reached the age where they can consent to baptism", they cannot be saved. No, instead the command to baptize everyone is explicit and no exceptions are given.

 We also can look at history and find that from very very early in the church, much before any Protestant denominations existed, infant baptism was the norm. All Christians practiced it. It was not until the Reformation that certain Christian sects began removing infant baptism and instead started practicing only adult baptism.  There are many sources of Christian literature that date back to the first one or two centuries of Christianity explaining infant baptism and how it is performed and it is seen as something that naturally occurs for all Christian families. I would suggest looking at the Wikipedia article on this subject because they go into great depth and give a very well-rounded explanation for this practice.

 But when you think about it on another level,  children do not verbally consent to anything until a later age and we must wait even longer before they are old enough to make an independent conscious decision to do something. However just because that is the case does not mean we withhold our culture and values and beliefs from a child until they are of the age where they can make a conscious and personal decision about it. For example we do not wait until a child is 12 or 13 years old to teach them what is right and wrong or to teach them about God or to teach them our language or values. We do that right from the very start when they're very young. Baptism is a form of initiation into the Christian family and into a relationship with God himself. Why would we withhold this amazing gift that God has provided to us just because this is a child who cannot explicitly consent to it. There are many examples of consent in our lives that do not apply to children. For example we would not withhold medicine from an infant simply because they cannot verbally consent to taking it. And if we listen to Jesus and he says baptism is necessary for salvation who are we to say "I think you forgot to mention that this only applies to people of a certain age, Jesus."

 Thank you for reading this article. If you have any questions or comments please by all means feel free to leave them down below. In terms of the article I was referencing on Wikipedia that can be found here.

REAL ARTICLE: Google Search #9 "Why do Catholics...Confess to a Priest?"

Sorry about my last article earlier this morning which didn't publish. Here is the real article. I hope you enjoy. Please leave comments and questions below:

This is the first in a series of articles which are based on the top 9 google searches which come after "Why do Catholics..." in the search suggestions. I start at the ninth and will work my way to #1. If you have follow-up questions or comments, please post them below.

The topic of today's blog is "Why do Catholics Confess to a Priest?"

As a child, the concept of confession to a priest always seems someone scary. It seemed like you would go into a dark room and there would be a priest on the other end and you would be very terrified and you would have to reveal all of your embarrassing secrets and once you were done the priest would sit in judgement and tell you just how terrible and horrible of a person you were. Afterwards he would probably go and tell other people all of the stuff you had done and anytime after that whenever you saw him in public he would look at you judgmentally.

 However after I experienced my very first confession which I admit I do not remember very well I can tell you that this is not what happened at all. I felt good about doing it. But as years went by there have been long periods of time where I did not go to confession. But I can guarantee you that every time I do I feel really good about myself. It's practically indescribable how good one feels after confessing one's sins and feeling completely forgiven by God.

 Obviously so far I'm just talking about emotions. But my first point as to the legitimacy of the sacrament of confession is the emotional and spiritual benefits that we derive from it. At first many people are skeptical about it, they fear the worst. But once they experience love and forgiveness it is an indescribable feeling that you can attain nowhere else. One thing I often say is that many people are willing to spend a lot of money speaking to psychologists or therapists or psychiatrists or a whole multitude of people who are willing to listen. They put forth their problems and the professional listens to them and give them advice on how to live a better and happier life. People who are cognizant of mortal sins they have committed generally feel bad about those. And they want to go somewhere where they can get them off their chest and receive spiritual counseling and get back into the grace of God.

 Many people object to the institution of the sacrament of confession because they say there is no need to go to a man to confess your sins. They say why not simply go directly to God? But again I would ask in response the same question rhetorically when it comes to psychologist: Why must we go to speak to somebody about any mental or psychological issues that we are having? Why not just find information at a library and solve the problem ourselves? But for anybody who has ever experienced a powerful negative emotion can tell you, trying to completely resolved an issue totally on your own can sometimes be very difficult if not impossible.

I would like to add a caveat to say that according to Catholic theology forgiveness obviously can be given directly from God and we do not need to go to confession to receive forgiveness. However this applies under certain circumstances and certain conditions. For example your contrition must be perfect. This can sometimes be difficult to attain.

 Also it is very important to remember that according to Catholic theology it is not the man called a priest who is forgiving your sins. It is God himself. In fact according to Catholic teaching there is only one priest and that is Jesus Christ and the men we call priests are actually acting in the name and in the person of Jesus Christ himself becoming somewhat his hands and feet on this Earth. It is the same thing when the priest is saying the prayers of consecration to change the bread and wine into the body and blood soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. The priest is not doing this by his own power but rather he is re-presenting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary. Therefore Jesus is not being sacrificed again and again at every Mass but rather the one and only sacrifice is being  re-presented to us in the modern day. Everything the priest is doing is done in what's called Persona Christi which means in the Person of Christ. It's as if Christ himself is doing it. Therefore when a person goes to confession and the priest hears the confession and gives him absolution he is doing so in the Person of Jesus Christ and not by his own power.

I can imagine at this point that many people are asking where is the proof of this from the Bible? The main biblical proof for the existence of confession is when Jesus Christ tells his followers to tell their sins to one another. He is specifically talking to the apostles who he is giving a special Ministry to. Through Apostolic succession other Bishops retain his power which Jesus intended to pass down after he had departed from the Earth. Therefore he is telling the new apostles to listen to sins. Also he tells the same apostles that they have the power to forgive sins on Earth. But again we must always remember and stress that it is not the apostles or Bishops or priests themselves who are forgiving the sins but God himself. Many times throughout the Bible it is said that only God can forgive sins and therefore we do not contradict this because we do not claim that it is the actual man, the priest, who is himself forgiving sins.

 This is just a brief overview of some of my thoughts about the sacrament of confession. Obviously there are thousands of more pages that could be and have been written about this subject already. So by all means if you're looking for anything else please go look for it. If you would like specific biblical references to any of the allegations I have made please feel free to ask me for them in the comments section below. Also keep in mind comments can be anonymous, you do not need to register in order to leave a comment on my blog. I thank you very much for stopping by today and I will be posting a new question and answer tomorrow as we count down the top 9 things people have searched for in relation to why Catholics do certain things.

Sorry about Lack of Article

Hey guys, there was supposed to be an article today about why Catholics confess to a priest. Unfortunately I didn’t publish it in time. It should be available later tonight or tomorrow morning. The other articles in the series should be available on time. Sorry about any inconvenience!

Google Search #9 "Why do Catholics...Confess to a Priest?"

This is the first in a series of articles which are based on the top 9 google searches which come after "Why do Catholics..." in the search suggestions. I start at the ninth and will work my way to #1. If you have follow-up questions or comments, please post them below.

The topic of today's blog is "Why do Catholics Confess to a Priest?"

LOVING ANIMALS, HATING HUMANS??

An extremely disturbing and worrisome trend that I have been seeing over the past couple of years is people having much more concern, love, and compassion for animals than they do for human beings. This is extremely worrying and troubling because it means that our values as a society are completely screwed up. Just yesterday I was watching a movie called XXX starring Vin Diesel as Xander Gear. As they are introducing one of the female characters they showed her with a rifle pointed towards a lion in Africa. The lion was in the crosshairs and it seemed as if she was about to shoot the lion but then she moved her scope over slightly to see three human beings. They were carrying bows and arrows and we're about to shoot a lion. What did she do? Well of course she shot the humans. One she shot the gun out of his hand and the other she just shot in the leg and then she proudly declared that she was making the playing field more even and implied that the three humans would now be eaten by the lion. This produced for her a large amount of pleasure and joy in the thought that this lion would now feast upon its potential killers.

I'm assuming most people feel exactly the same way as this and that's why I'm so disturbed with this trend in our society. In the Book of Genesis God clearly places human beings above all animals and says that we are the stewards of animals and that they are part of our dominion over the Earth. However we have completely reversed this to the point where a human life is practically meaningless to most people and they would much rather see a human or many humans being killed than an animal. We witnessed this back when Cecil the lion was killed by a hunter. Now keep in mind having a regulated lion hunt which brings in tens of millions of dollars and is very specific about what people are allowed to kill can actually be hugely beneficial to the overall lion population. This is something I've talked about at length in other areas and you can look up information about this on the internet. But that's not the point I want to make here because even if there is no overall economic value to killing a lion we should not feel as if killing a lion or any other animal for that matter is anywhere near equal to killing a human being which is far far worse. One of the Ten Commandment is Thou shalt not murder. But when they say this they're not referring to animals because animals cannot be murdered per se. Animals can be killed but they cannot be murdered because murder involves one person killing another.

 One of the reasons that most people now value the lives of animals more than humans is because they have no moral basis on which to make decisions. They do not understand that human beings have a very special relationship with God because they are born and will live for all of eternity hopefully with God who created them. Animals on the other hand lack rationality and are not fully aware of their own existence and therefore they do not live forever but their animal soul dies when they die. Because people have no basis in morality anymore, they have no way of telling what is more valuable than anything else. They believe that all animals are more important and more valuable than human beings which is absolutely sad and will lead to tragic consequences. One of the things that I've noticed is that many people who become animal rights activists do not do so because they care so much about animals but because they have a deep hatred for humans I was at work one time and a lady said that if she sees a video of a human being being injured or killed, most of the time she will burst out laughing. However if she ever sees a video of an animal being hurt in any way shape or form she will break down sobbing and become very upset. This is an extremely anti-human position to take.

 In the Book of Genesis God gives humans dominion over the entire Earth and tells them to use the Earth to advance their own cause. We are in control of all of the animals of the earth and have dominion over all of them. But sadly we are losing our value for human life. That's one of the reasons why abortion is so prevalent and also know euthanasia is becoming completely out of control. It's sad and disgusting that we will care more about random animals then we will about our fellow human beings. Often the same people who are out advocating on behalf of dumb animals will at the same time advocate euthanizing anybody who they do not want to take care of or do not have time for any more. Let's end this absolute hatred of human beings and start living as God wants us to live once again.

Breaking news

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/762498/paris-explosion-several-feared-dead-suspected-gas-leak

Explosion in France. Not trying to have the details yet. Continue to follow this story to find out more.

READER QUESTION: Is Birth Control ALWAYS Wrong?

Today I received a question from a reader of the blog in reference to the article found here. Here was the question:

Interesting thoughts to have stumbled upon, that birth control is completely immoral for a practicing Catholic. However, I don't think it's as black or white as that.How about in cases where a woman is on certain medications that would prevent healthy pregnancies (for the baby and/or mother), yet they are married? Should they never be intimate with their spouse? Or risk their (or future child's) health? I think of course the answer should be "no."It's not exactly a common case, of course, but some women, after having certain cancers or hormonal conditions are put on birth control pills for optimal health and well-being. Sometimes this is just for a short time, but for others, it's for years. Where would the Catholic church stand on this, in your opinion?

According to Catholic doctrine, birth control cannot be used as an artificial way of preventing pregnancy. However, if a medication is prescribed to treat a particular condition, and as an unintended side effect, prevents pregnancy, then it is morally licit. So it all goes back to the purpose. Kind of like taking drugs to get high would be immoral, but taking drugs to treat an ailment which incidentally caused the person to be high, that would not be immoral.

With regards to the other question, if a woman knew for certain that giving birth to a child could cause damage or problems for her or her child, then this would be a legitimate reason to avoid having sex during fertile times in order to reduce the chance of conception. It would also be acceptable to refrain from sex altogether. The church accepts people understanding their bodies and fertility and doing what is necessary to avoid pregnancy. This does not violate natural law. Sort of like if you knew eating late at night causes weight gain and you avoid this, that is not wrong. But purging after eating would probably not be considered okay.

Again, with adequately serious reasons, Catholics are permitted to take steps to avoid pregnancy, which do not involve artificially altering the way the human body functions.

Hope this helps. If anyone has any further questions, let me know!

Catholic Mass is sometimes a FREE FOR ALL

Have you ever watched a movie which shows a Catholic Church? Usually it is somewhat dark with beautiful architecture all around. You can see a section where there are many candles lit, there are statues and icons of many things all over the place. There are beautiful wooden pews and there are people all around in the pews kneeling down praying silently. Some are probably attending Eucharistic adoration and worshiping Jesus Christ in the holy sacrament. There may even be incense. There is a deep spirituality happening in these scenes. It is a place to go for contemplation, to feel God's presence and to reflect on life.

 Well if you're looking for such a place I suggest that you find them in movies because lately these scenes do not often reproduce themselves and real life very much anymore. Usually when I walk into a Catholic Church people are talking and laughing and shaking hands and patting others on the back and telling jokes and so on. The sad part is that this doesn't just happen before Mass or after Mass this happens during Mass! There is almost no sense of reverence whatsoever. That's why I like to say that Catholic Mass with the vernacular translation and with the catchy homilies by the priest has become basically a free-for-all.

 Today I went to mass and they were having multiple baptisms at the same time. Baptisms are one of the worst times to go if you want to see people acting as they should. During the entire mass in which their child will be baptized into the sacrament of initiation of the Catholic church and become part of the body of Christ, most of the people in attendance again are laughing and joking and telling jokes and playing with the baby and talking very loudly and not paying any attention whatsoever. My question is why are they even there? I think a lot of the time it's because the grandmother or grandfather of the child insists that the child be baptized and that's what happens. But these people have no interest or no information or no knowledge about the church whatsoever and so their presence is just a token appearance. They have no interest or intention of ever continuing to attend mass in any way shape or form. They are simply there to placate the desires of their parents by having the children baptized.

 But I suspect that this may also be the logic behind why so many people act so inappropriately during mass. Even today just before communion actually I saw a woman popping gum or some other form of food into her mouth. It wasn't even as if she had accidentally come into the church with gum in her mouth. She specifically put gum into her mouth right before going up for communion. This is basically a sacrilege and completely unacceptable and wrong.

 I understand that many priests nowadays have this extreme desire to appear hip and trendy and to be seen as a social justice warrior and so on. But these behaviors and activities must end and they must end immediately. People need to be informed on a daily basis that they are attending the holy sacrifice of the mass that was instituted by Jesus Christ and his re presentation of his passion and Death on the cross at Calvary for our salvation. If people actually understood this would they really be telling jokes and laughing out loud in such a context? I really sincerely doubt it. And if they do continue to laugh and joke and carry on even after they understand the meaning of what is happening I think they need to be told by the priests to get out of there. I can already see people's response to what I am saying. They are shocked and aghast that I would ever suggest somebody be told to leave the church. But is this a Catholic Church where we are presenting the body and blood soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ? Or is this some kind of bar downtown where we can go and have a few drinks with buddies and make a few jokes? Well if it's the former then it's really not out of place to tell somebody who has no idea what's going on to leave. There's really no point in even being there if you have no interest in it.

 But as usual I would really like to hear what you have to say on this topic so please add your comments below and we'll continue this whole discussion in the comments section. Have a great day!