Consecrate Them in the... Poverty.

I came across this story about Pope Francis being 'furious' over Cardinal Bertone's plans to retire in a four-story penthouse and truth be told, I became "furious" myself.

Picture this: You are parents of a child who is sexually attracted to same sex. For years, you explain the teachings of the Church as they pertain to that attraction and the only course for living with it: celibacy and the Sacraments of Christ's Church.

Along comes a prelate who contradicts Church teaching and works to persuade your child to tell him his sexual temptations are a gift from God and he or she should act on those temptations.

This disordered priest causes your child to believe you have been lying to him, you hate him, the Catholic Church hates him. He begins to resent and fight with you and resent the teachings of the Church. His relationship with you is deeply wounded but he grows closer to the disordered prelate who holds a homosexual match dating club in the basement of his parish where the group encourages and supports sexual activity. He meets another man and falls in love. The priest is overjoyed and counsels them to get married, adopt children. The priest 'blesses' your son's marriage in a ceremony that simulates the Sacraments. He dies in that state several months or years later, or continues to live in a way that obstructs him from his salvation.

You spend years asking his bishop to reign him in. You send hundreds of communications to the bishop, nuncio, Holy See - all of which are responded to with platitudes or go unanswered.

Nobody gives a flying fig about you, your child and the hundreds of thousands like him, all the way to the top. It goes on like this for decades.

When a new Pope gets elected, you hear him implying he's here to change the 2000 years of Popes before him whose focus on doctrine and rules was small-minded and Catholics do not need to make judgments on right and wrong actions when faced with temptation. You hear him infer that faithful Catholics are self-absorbed promethean neopelagians and little monsters.

Your son calls you to hold the Pope's words up as further conviction you don't know real Church teaching and you are a bigot or hateful person.

One day, you open the National Catholic Reporter and see the Pope kissing the hands of the priest who led your son into the abyss and concelebrating Mass with him. You open the National Catholic Register to read Mother Angelica's journalist telling readers her bullshit detector went off when she read about how upset you were by it.

Then today you read the Pope, who rides around in a popemobile costing one-half million dollars, is finally 'furious'. He is furious about a priest whom he believes is not doing what he thinks should be done with... his money.

The Pope is concerned about what priests are doing with money, what you and I are doing with money, what governments are doing with money.

I don't know about you, but if I never hear this Pope talking about money again it will be too soon.

With Pope Francis, you can spend decades engaging in the destruction of souls, robbing thousands of salvation and he will roll out the red carpet and kiss your hand and call the journalists to take pictures of it so his act can be published in newspapers --- but you better not do something he doesn't like with money or he will get furious!

I had to discipline myself not to let my... (and I hate to use the word)...disgust get traction.

It's hard not to think about the damage and hurt being done to so many Catholics who have lost their children, people they love to the disordered prelates whose apostolates are advancing with the Pope's actions, statements and complete silence on Church teaching.

I am astounded by Catholics who see it all happening and believe pretending we don't will help those scandalized by it.

That is conjecture that just isn't gelling, especially given the catastrophic damage it did during the pedophile shuffles.

Acknowledging what we all see and know is damaging and hurtful and reminding them how to hold onto Christ's Church and Sacraments through the storm makes much more sense to me.

I thought I could find some wisdom and peace in Scripture and so I looked up Wednesday's reading as I am scheduled to lector.

Absolutely gorgeous reading from St. Paul. But I did not find solace and peace in them. In fact, it was just the opposite.

I read the Gospel for the day and thought about the dichotomy between it and the perception Pope Francis is fostering in the world. Intentional or unintentional - it doesn't matter - because it goes on like the energizer bunny. It keeps on going and going.

Here's the Gospel for Wednesday:

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying:
“Holy Father, keep them in your name
that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,
and I guarded them, and none of them was lost
except the son of destruction,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you.
I speak this in the world
so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the Evil One.
They do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”


What is it, exactly, we are being consecrated in?

We don't recognize it because we've been on the edge of our seat waiting for the truth and we have yet to hear it.

A lot of kisses and a lot of talk about..and furor over the...money.

I really hope he can put his big boy pants on.

I hope he has big boy pants.

This week is a rocking week in our Church. I hope you are all praying the powerful Novena, going to daily Mass when you can.

Let it rain.
Let it rain.
Open the floodgates of Heaven.