Daily Prayer for Priest O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church ... give us holy priests. You yourself maintain them in holiness.
O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares, which are continually being set for the souls of priests.
May the power of Your Mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring the naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priest, for You can do all things. - St. Faustina (Diary, 1052)
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Fr. Pavone Answers Why Pastors Do Not
Preach About Abortion
Priest for Life – Many ask why pastors do not preach more about abortion. One reason that some give is that they do not want to hurt the people in the congregation who have had abortions.
Now it is certainly true that there are people in the congregation who have had abortions, and it is also true that they have pain.
But if they are in pain from their abortion, and the pastor is silent about the topic, what are they to think? They could conclude that the pastor doesn’t know about their pain, or doesn’t care about it, or that though he knows and cares, there is no hope.
But none of these is true. He does know, he does care, and there is hope – and that is precisely why he needs to speak up.
–Fr. Frank
My Dear People,
The real work of the Holy Apostles began when Jesus ascended into Heaven. Before the Crucifixion, Jesus trained His Apostles to preach and teach in the Name. Anxious to begin the journey, the Apostles ask Our Lord if He would destroy by fire, those who rejected the Message. Jesus quietly rebukes them. He continued to journey from village to village bringing good news to the poor.
 The focus had to be on the Gospel. This is why Jesus tells them that the one who sets a hand to the plow and looks at what is behind, is unfit for the Kingdom of God.
So they went forth, and continued to announce the coming of the Kingdom. We are called to the same radical lifestyle longing for Our Lord while living in the world. Pray for the grace to keep one eye on the Lord and the other on this world.
Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark Bozada
May we turn to God for His guidance and direction as we strive to serve one another and the Church with the gifts God has entrusted to our care.
“Pulmonary Hypertension Is Not A Condition Where Abortion Would Be Curative.”
“Successful Inventions Performed In the Past Have Enabled Mother and Child To Survive.”
LifeSiteNews-The Doctrinal Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published a document this week to clarify misunderstandings about the case of an abortion that took place in a Catholic hospital in Phoenix.
A media frenzy erupted in May after Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted announced the automatic excommunication of a nun who contributed to the decision to go ahead with the procedure. The nun in question, Sister Margaret McBride, had claimed that the abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother, who was suffering from pulmonary hypertension.
However, while various media gave the impression that pulmonary hypertension is a condition where abortion would be curative, Catholic medical experts pointed out that this is not the case.
In fact, neonatologist Dr. Paul Byrne explained to LifeSiteNews that with pulmonary hypertension, an abortion, although it may relieve some of the stress on the heart, may also make the situation worse due to the stress of the abortion procedure. Dr. Byrne also explained that the literature on the condition indicates that there have been successful interventions for pregnant women with pulmonary hypertension that have enabled both mother and child to survive.
In its statement, the USCCB Committee presents two scenarios that distinguish “between medical procedures that cause direct abortions,” which it says are “never morally permissible,” and those “that may indirectly result in the death of an unborn child,” which in certain extreme situations can be permissible.
The first scenario – that involving an illicit direct abortion – approximates the situation at the Phoenix Catholic hospital.
“In the first scenario, a pregnant woman is experiencing problems with one or more of her organs, apparently as a result of the added burden of pregnancy. The doctor recommends an abortion to protect the health of the woman.” The abortion, according to the example, “is likely to improve the functioning of the organ or organs, but only in an indirect way, i.e., by lessening the overall demands placed upon the organ or organs, since the burden posed by the pregnancy will be removed.”
Although the bishops admit that in the scenario “the abortion is the means by which a reduced strain upon the organ or organs is achieved,” they nevertheless explain that this amounts to “direct abortion” and is “never permissible because a good end cannot justify an evil means.”
“The surgery directly targets the life of the unborn child. It is the surgical instrument in the hands of the doctor that causes the child’s death. The surgery does not directly address the health problem of the woman, for example, by repairing the organ that is malfunctioning,” they explain.
In the second scenario they present a case where a surgery to save the life of the mother can be legitimate even if it causes the death of an unborn child.
“In the second scenario, a pregnant woman develops cancer in her uterus. The doctor recommends surgery to remove the cancerous uterus as the only way to prevent the spread of the cancer. Removing the uterus will also lead to the death of the unborn child, who cannot survive at this point outside the uterus,” explains the document.
“The second scenario describes a situation in which an urgently-needed medical procedure indirectly and unintentionally (although foreseeably) results in the death of an unborn child. In this case the surgery directly addresses the health problem of the woman, i.e., the organ that is malfunctioning (the cancerous uterus). The woman’s health benefits directly from the surgery, because of the removal of the cancerous organ. The surgery does not directly target the life of the unborn child.”
While the Bishops Committee document does not discuss excommunication, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”
Bishop Robert Morlino Invites Conservative
Spanish Order to His Diocese;
Angry Parishioners Express Concern
DOUG ERICKSON, Wisconsin State Journal- The effort by Madison Bishop Robert Morlino to staff several Catholic churches in the diocese with priests from a conservative Spanish society has met resistance in another community.
About 200 members of St. Mary’s Parish in Platteville met with Morlino at the church Monday night to question his decision to bring in three priests from the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest to lead the church.
A diocesan official and parishioners who attended the 90-minute meeting described it as largely civil but occasionally heated, with Morlino apologizing toward the end for having raised his voice earlier in the meeting.
 Madison Bishop Robert Morlino with his Seminarians “It was a tough evening for everyone,” said diocesan spokesman Brent King.
The society, based in Murcia, Spain, is known for a staunch, traditional approach to Catholic practice. There are now eight society priests at seven parishes in the diocese.
At other churches where they serve, the priests have prohibited girls from being altar servers, dispensed with the common Catholic practice of using trained lay people to assist with Communion and added Masses celebrated only in Latin.
Morlino invited members of the society to begin serving in the diocese in 2006, primarily in the Sauk City area. Some parishioners praise the priests for deepening their faith and bringing discipline to wayward Catholics; others have left the church, saying the priests’ approach is regressive and too rigid.
“To me, it seems like a step backward,” said Fay Stone, a St. Mary’s member. The priests’ approach is “quite different than we have become accustomed to,” she said.
The parish has about 700 families.
Monsignor James Bartylla, the diocese’s second in command, said in an interview Monday the priests are a good fit for Platteville because their gifts align with aspects of the parish.
Priests from the society are known as good school administrators, Bartylla said, and St. Mary’s has a K-8 parochial school. The society has a special mission to encourage young men to enter the seminary, and the priests will lead St. Augustine University Parish, the campus ministry at UW-Platteville, in addition to St. Mary’s.
“It’s a great blessing in this time of a priest shortage to have these priests here,” Bartylla said.
The priests are replacing Monsignor Charles Schluter, who has served St. Mary’s and St. Augustine for 11 years. In July, Schluter will become the priest at St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Madison’s North Side.
Schluter is “greatly beloved (in Platteville) and has been very effective there, so I know it’s very hard for people to see him move on, and I know that’s part of it,” Bartylla said.
Some parishioners say the timing is bad. The congregation is in the midst of a capital campaign to buy the building it currently rents for its parochial school. The school also is in the process of hiring a new principal.
“With the more conservative priests arriving and a change in the principal, there’s just some unease with the amount of change at one time,” member Lee Eggers said.
Some parishioners also are miffed that the new principal may end up being the father of a society priest. A parish search committee wasn’t aware of that possibility and had verbally offered the position to someone else.
“The entire situation has been handled very poorly,” said member Julie Klein.
King, the diocesan spokesman, said that due to a mix-up, the position had been verbally offered to two people, one of them the father of a society priest. The situation has not been resolved but will be decided by the Rev. Lope Pascual, one of the three society priests who will serve as the primary pastor for the two Platteville parishes.
Diocesan officials apologized Monday for the mix-up.
Member Barb LeGrand said she went into the meeting very worried that trained lay people such as herself would no longer be allowed to offer Communion to the homebound, a ministry the church has offered for 20 years.
After the meeting, LeGrand said she was feeling slightly upbeat because Pascual had agreed to meet with her and others about the ministry’s future. “He seems like a very nice man,” she said of Pascual, whom she met for the first time Monday.
King said he does not anticipate the bishop will change his mind on the new priest appointments. The message from the bishop to parishioners was to get to know the priests and give them a chance to explain why they make the decisions they do, King said.
“It’s our hope that, given the opportunity, the parishioners will grow to love the priests and the priests will love the congregation,” King said.
We Must “Thirst” Now For the Lord!
My Dear People,
When the Lord poured out a spirit of “grace and petitions” upon the house of David, He was doing two things. First, He was strengthening Israel’s hunger for Him. Secondly, He was opening Israel’s heart to His Divine Mercy and Love. That is the petition part. King David prefigures the Christ. Zechariah uses the image of the “son” being thrust through (sacrificed) preparing Israel for the Crucifixion, and have the choice to “repent” of their sin, or “reject” the One who was thrust through for our sins.
The prophets says their will be a future time of great conversion when mankind will see the great love God has for us in His Son Jesus Christ on the Cross. Only believers will live on. All will be purified of their sin and uncleanliness. So we must “thirst” now, for the Lord Himself. He will satisfy our hunger and thirst. Come to the living waters!
Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark Bozada
May we learn to deny our wants a little more, so that we can more fully follow our Lord’s example of charity to others.
To Combat the Evil One!
The Catholic Church’s most famous exorcist says more should be done to fight the devil. Father Gabriele Amorth  has conducted 70,000 exorcisms for the church during his lengthy career.
In an interview with Italian daily, Corriere Della Sera, the 85-year-old priest said it would be worth extending the practice of exorcism.
“It would not be a bad idea,” he told the daily. “In Italy moral decay is evident. Families are often breaking down.
“Do you know what I would do if I was the Pope for a moment?” he asked. “I would provide every opportunity for exorcisms. Like the Orthodox Church. There you do not need the permission of a bishop.”
Amorth recounted his battles against the devil in a dozen books, translated into 28 languages. The latest, Memories of an Exorcist, recounts his experiences with a number of victims with which he worked.
He said when people are possessed by the devil they often speak in incomprehensible languages as well as Greek, Latin and Aramaic.
B16: “Well Celebrated Mass Is Best Catechesis.”
Zenit News, Pope Benedict XVI-The doctrine of the Eucharist — and its relevance for believers — is not sufficiently understood and must be a catechetical priority, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope affirmed this Wednesday when he went to the Basilica of St. John Lateran to address participants at the convention for the Diocese of Rome.
The Holy Father told his diocese that a “more profound knowledge of the mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord” is a necessity for the communities of Rome.
“At the same time,” he added, “in the missionary spirit that we wish to nourish, it is necessary to spread the commitment to proclaim such Eucharistic faith, so that every man will encounter Jesus Christ who has revealed the ‘close’ God, friend of humanity, and to witness it with an eloquent life of charity.”
The Pontiff went on to give a reflection on the Eucharistic mystery, considering Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary and how it is memorialized. He acknowledged that “sacrifice” is no longer a popular word.
“However, properly understood,” he said, “[sacrifice] is and remains fundamental, because it reveals to us with what love God loves us in Christ.”
Entering a reality
Benedict XVI affirmed that Mass itself, “celebrated in the respect of the liturgical norms and with a fitting appreciation of the richness of the signs and gestures,” fosters and promotes Eucharistic faith.
“In the Eucharistic celebration,” he said, “we do not invent something, but we enter into a reality that precedes us, more than that, which embraces heaven and earth and, hence, also the past, the future and the present. This universal openness, this encounter with all the sons and daughters of God is the grandeur of the Eucharist: We go to meet the reality of God present in the body and blood of the Risen One among us.”
It is because of this, the Holy Father affirmed, that liturgical prescriptions are not mere “external things” but “express concretely this reality of the revelation of the body and blood of Christ.”
Hence, he contended, the best catechesis on the Eucharist is the Eucharist itself, well celebrated.
Individual altars
Later in his address, the Bishop of Rome noted how the Eucharistic celebration must lead to charity.
“Feeding on him we are freed from the bonds of individualism and, through communion with him, we ourselves become, together, one thing, his Mystical Body,” he said. This surmounts the differences of profession, class and nationality to form “one great family, that of the children of God.”
“When we receive Christ,” the Pope added, “the love of God expands in our innermost self, modifies our heart radically and makes us capable of gestures that, by the expansive force of good, can transform the life of those that are next to us. [...] A celebrated Eucharist imposes on us and at the same time renders us capable of becoming, in our turn, bread broken for brothers, coming to meet their needs and giving ourselves.
“Because of this, a Eucharistic celebration that does not lead to meet men where they live, work and suffer, to take to them the love of God, does not manifest the love it encloses. To be faithful to the mystery that is celebrated on the altars we must, as the Apostle Paul exhorts us, offer our bodies, ourselves, in spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God in those circumstances that require dying to our ‘I’ and constitute our daily ‘altar.’”
Msgr. Charles Pope Addresses Scandalous Clothing!
 Does How We Dress Affect How We Worship? Picture taken in 1969 at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Canton, Massachusetts
Msgr. Charles Pope gives us some background issues and principles before he gives us his dress code.
1. Scripture – There is very little in Scripture that seems to spell out the proper way to dress for sacred worship. There is the general directive to Adore the Lord in holy attire (Psalm 96:9; Ps 29:2)
2. Church norms and rules – There are no official and specific Church norms or requirement for lay persons who attend Mass mentioned in Canon Law or the Sacramentary. Surely for priests and other clergy there are many rules and norms but I am unaware of any currently binding norms for the laity. Although the veils were once required for women, the 1917 Code of Canon Law was abrogated and the current code is silent on any requirement.
3. Hence it seems that Culture supplies most of the norms regarding what is considered appropriate attire for Church. And, alas our culture is currently quite unhelpful to us in this regard. Here in America we have become extremely casual about the way we dress for just about everything. It seems we almost never dress up anymore. This has changed somewhat dramatically in my own life time of just less than 50 years. “Sneakers” or “tennis shoes” as we called them were for sports or running around and playing in the neighborhood. But we would never even think of wearing them to school and certainly not to Church. I remember having a special set of shoes just for church. In the 1960s, it was also expected that I would go to Church in formal, pressed trousers, a button down shirt, and, except in the hottest months, a tie and even a suit jacket in winter. My sister and mother always wore a dress. Pants would not even have been considered for them. For the younger girls a skirt and a blouse might be OK but preferably a dress with a hat or veil.
But things changed dramatically around 1970. The photo above right was taken in 1969 at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Canton, Massachusetts. It was the end of an era. Within five years neckties were lost and jeans and a t-shirts came to be the norm. Most of the women as we discussed lost the veil, and dresses gave way to more casual pants suits and then also to other more casual things like jeans etc. Shorts for men and women, unthinkable in previous years also began to appear in church as did tank tops and other beach attire. Within ten years the culture of dressing up for Church was almost wholly abandoned. Now wearing a tie to Church would seem stuffy and formal.
4. Hence at the cost of seeming old and stuffy I might like to suggest a few norms and I hope you’ll supply your own as well:
- Men should wear formal shoes to Church. We used to call these hard shoes (because they were) but today many formal shoes are actually quite comfortable.
- Men should wear trousers (not jeans).
- Men should never wear shorts to Church.
- Men should wear a decent shirt, preferably a button down shirt. If it is a pullover shirt it should include a collar. Wearing a plain t-shirt without a collar is too informal.
- Men should consider wearing a tie to Church and in cooler weather, a suit coat. Some may consider this a bit too stuffy and formal but who knows, you might be a trend setter!
- Now as I talk about women I know I’ll get in some trouble!
- Women should wear decent shoes to Church. Flip flops, beach sandals etc. seem inappropriate.
- Women should not wear shorts to Church.
- Women, if they wear pants, should never wear jeans to Church. Some nice slacks that are not too tight can be fine.
- Women should consider wearing a dress or at least a skirt in preference to pants. It just looks a bit more formal than pants.
- Women should wear a nice blouse (if they are not wearing a full dress). The blouse or shirt they wear should not be too tight.
- Sleeveless garments are pushing it a bit but can be acceptable.
- Women should never wear tank tops, tube tops, spaghetti straps, or bare midriffs to Church. Editor’s Note: How about adding low-cut or tight shirts and blouses.
- Well, you may have at this list. Add or subtract as you will.
A final thought: Clothes say something about what we think, what we value. They also influence how we behave and feel. That our culture has become so casual about everything says something about us. I cannot exactly articulate it but it seems to say, “nothing is really all that important.” But that is not true. Going to God’s house IS important. Being ministered to by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is astounding. Casual attire in these circumstances is simply inappropriate if we really think about what we are doing, where we are going and who it is we will meet. It does not necessarily follow that we must wear tuxedos and formal gowns. But decent semi-formal attire seems wholly appropriate. Sunday is special, God’s House is special. Somethings really ARE important and our clothing and demeanor ought to reflect this truth.
Edited for length. Full article here:
Sound off! What do you think?
My Dear People,
Pray for Priest
Why was Jesus so attracted to sinners? Throughout the Gospel, we find Our Lord actively seeking out sinners, and those who were lost. Our Gospel today is no exception. The sinful woman who desired to only be at the feet of Jesus, anoints His feet with oil. She bathed Jesus’ feet with oil. She bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears. Then, she wiped His feet with her hair. The feet were the dirtiest part of the body. They walked through dirt and raw sewage found in the city streets. Here action was a great act of humility.
The others at the table were critical of Jesus’ attention to her. In the middle of the ordeal, Jesus declares that He has forgiven her sins. The guests were all asking themselves, who is Jesus that He dares to forgive sin? Only GOD can forgive sin. Many ask the same question of Catholic priests in the confessional. Who is he to forgive my sins? He is only a man like us. This is true. Priests are sinful humans too. But it is JESUS Himself who forgives our sins through the action of the priest in the name of the Church. We have to be careful not to become like the Pharisees, who were critical of the Lord. Pray for priest. Ask God to give them a double portion of the Holy Ghost, so that they all may serve humbly in the name of Jesus.
Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark Bozada
May we seek Christ Jesus in the confessional, asking for His Divine Mercy and Forgiveness.
My Dear People,
The multiplication of loaves and fishes is a testimony of God’s Divine Providence. As in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Jesus consecrates simple gifts and makes them divine. So great the blessing, that there were twelve fragment baskets leftover. All who witnessed this great miracle were amazed at the five thousand who were fed with the few loaves and fishes.
As Catholics, we are blessed to received the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity at every Holy Mass. Jesus multiplies His graces for us through the Holy Bread come down from Heaven. This “miracle” is God’s gift to us through the consecrated hands of the priest. In order to benefit from the graces of this sacrament, we have to be properly disposed. Frequent reception of the Eucharist requires us to frequent the confessional. Don’t waste any Eucharistic grace by coming unprepared to Holy Mass. May God continue to bless us abundantly at each and every Mass.
Entrusting you to the care of Our Lady,
Fr. Mark Bozada
May we remember that the baskets of leftover loaves and fishes, remind us that God can work wondrous deeds when we are willing to share.
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