Pope Francis

Guess I really am a follower of Francis now!

Pax et bonum

Two deaths: Call me petty ....

Jennifer McKenna Morbelli, a young Catholic woman from New York state, died due to a botched late-term abortion in Maryland. Apparently she was 33 weeks pregnant, and tests showed some sort of fetal anomaly - not specified - so she decided to kill her child.

Her husband and her Catholic parents supported her in this decision, and even accompanied her.

To kill her baby.

Her funeral was a Catholic one.

Maybe she repented of her decision to kill her child before she herself died.

That's between her and God.

Did her husband and parents receive Communion at her funeral Mass with clear consciences after supporting her decision to kill her child?

Maybe they confessed their mortal sins before the Mass.

But all this bothers me.

She was described as a good person.

Who chose to try to kill her baby.

Her family were all Catholics.

Who chose to support the killing of her child.

I can't judge her soul - or theirs. But the whole business just keeps gnawing away at me.

Call me petty. Judgmental. Hard.

But they chose to try to kill a child.

If they had understood and followed the teachings of their Catholic faith, Morbelli would likely still be alive. Depending on the nature of the anomalies, that child might still be alive. Maybe the family would have faced some challenges, but two victims of abortion and the world's skewed and shallow thinking would still be alive.

Instead, a woman and her child are dead, a husband has lost his wife and child, two parents lost a daughter and a grandchild. And from all the accounts, these Catholics don't seem to understand that what they were doing was a mortal sin.

Maybe they did. Maybe they will.

God forgive them.

God forgive me.

Pax et bonum

Testify to Love - At St. Theodore's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioj1jw_ZXRs

Our final hymn Sunday.

Pax et bonum

Cardinal Sean: Okay, so I'm going to mention the conclave

 

I'm seeing more and more people mention Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston as a possible American candidate for Pope (along with Cardinal Dolan of  New York.) Of the two, I actually think Cardinal O'Malley has the better (though still slim) chance. He's been a Cardinal longer, and what he has done in Boston might be appreciated by cardinals from other nations who see a need for cleaning up the abuse crisis and communicating with the world better about it. He has talked about the need for curial reform - and he's young enough perhaps to do it. He's openly pro-lfe. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese - especially important in the Church today. People find his simplicity - wearing his brown Franciscan robes, living simply -  appealing.

We'll see. The conclave starts Tuesday. This morning at Planned Parenthood I said to fellow praying pro-lifers that maybe by next Saturday when we pray again we'll have  a new pope.

A pro-life Franciscan would be nice.

And maybe the Church needs another Franciscan to help rebuild it.

Pax et bonum

There's nothing about the conclave in this

Today a student asked what a billiken was.

This is one.

There's even "The Billiken Rag."

Pax et bonum

40 Days by Matt Maher (my band's version)

Pax et bonum

Snow and ice

I went out this morning at 5:30 a.m. - a crazy fellow, I'd already walked the dog and gone to the corner gas station/mini mart to pick up the Sunday paper - to clean off the wife's car. It's been sitting in the driveway; she's still weeks away from driving after her rotator cuff surgery.

I tried to brush off the snow. No deal; ice had built up in the week since I last drove it. I started chipping at the ice. It was thick. Then I got an idea. I turned the car on with the heater blasting, and sat in the driver's seat reading some section of the newspaper.

I read about the various government impasses at the nation, state, and local levels. I read with amusement the newspaper editorial lamenting the impasses - caused by people the newspaper had endorsed. I read about the city school board that had imposed strict attendance rules for students - even as the meeting attendance rates of its own members all failed to meet the standards they set for students. I read an article about spending gaps between wealthy school districts and poor school districts - and thought: I've been reading articles exactly like this since I began reading newspapers decades ago, all suggesting the same sorts of solutions, few if any of which will be tried. I read about the gun control debate and the slogans spouted by both sides. I read about a dispute over a low/moderate income housing project being proposed for a wealthy suburb. I read about yet another rally to end violence in the city at which people mouthed platitudes and hugged, but did not mention any realistic ways to address the underlying issues of poverty and broken families and more that help to lead to that violence.

After 15 minutes or so of sitting in the car I got out and managed to get all of the now softened and melted snow and ice off. Success.

Then I thought about what I had been reading in the car.

Seems there's lots of snow and ice in the world. Too bad there isn't a convenient moral/ethical/social heater we can just use to blast away at it all and make solving problems a little easier.

I guess we'll just have to keep chipping away.

Pax et bonum