Fred Phelps

New International Version

Judging Others

New International Version

     "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Matt 7:12

     This makes Pope Francis' declaration: "Who am I to judge" seem prophetic and outstanding.

Is That A Dollar Sign On Cardinal Dolan's Chasuable?

Picture credit: Photo: Cardinal "G.O.P." Dolan "...was blind but now I...uh...I'm still blind." from http://hackwhackers.blogspot.com/2012/05/pay-for-pedophilia.html

"Outmarketed" on gay marriage! Those are the cardinal's words. It seems they are a rather unfortunate choice of words. Here is a supposed religious leader, Dolan, hawking moral values using capitalistic language. I appreciate Bill Lidsey at Bilgrimage for taking up this discussion about being "outmarkedted" and the many wonderful comments that follow.
Bill Lindsey's Bilgrimage Blog On The Money and Dolan


Dolan is doing this after the new pope, Francis, has just released one of the first letters of his papacy criticizing capitalism.
Pope Francis -- Evengelii Gaudium

Not only are Pope Francis' statements about capitalism an affront to Cardinal Dolan's vision of went wrong with his anti-equality crusade,  now there are reports that Pope Francis leaves the Vatican at night to go out to visit with the homeless in Rome.
Pope Francis really meets with and knows the poor...

I will not expect Cardinal Dolan to go out and spend a night on the streets with the homeless of New York. Rather I'd just like for him to meet with a group or even groups of gay and lesbian people. I want Dolan to meet with at least one gay couple, maybe a couple who have been married for years.

It Seems to me, Dolan and his capitalist language and opposition to gay marriage always, always reduce gay and lesbian people and their relationships to an object. It's easier to hate an object. Has Cardinal Dolan ever met, well has he ever gone out on the street to meet gay and lesbian people?

If Pope Francis can leave the Vatican going out and sitting with being with the homeless of Rome, what would keep Cardinal Dolan from talking with and visiting a gay or lesbian couple? If Cardinal Dolan would meet with real gay, lesbian, transgender-ed, even queer people or just  a committed gay or lesbian couple, he might not be so quick, to reduce them to a dollar sign.

A Message For The 30th. Sunday In Ordinary Time - Cycle C

Historical Marker at the Corner of 4th. and Walnut in Louisville, KY

      This gospel parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector is one more of those parables only found in the gospel of Luke. It’s a great story. Two attitudes are portrayed one by the Pharisee and the other by the tax collector. At the end of the story only the tax collector goes home “justified” in contrast to the Pharisee and those represented by his attitude who are convinced of their righteousness and critical and despising everyone else. 

       At times we can be a little like the Pharisee seeing sin everywhere around us while absolving ourselves. It’s like saying: “Let me get that spec out of your eye all the while overlooking the beam in my own eye.” This led the Pharisee and can lead you and me to that attitude of holding all others in contempt. There is a classical rule in spiritual direction that reminds us to be careful about judging because what you despise in others is probably part of your own behavior. 

      The lesson from today’s gospel is that we are all sinners. It is the tax collector who humbly acknowledges that and is the one who stands justified before God and can go home with a peaceful conscience. Even Pope Francis made more news lately in one of his interviews when the reporter asked the first question. “Who is Pope Francis?” He answered: “I am a sinner.” Yes, we are all sinners. It is an important reminder from Luke in today’s gospel.

      I’d like to end this reflection this morning by going in a slightly different direction to a different time, place, and person for an example of taking these words and the attitude of the Pharisee that he is better than everyone else and turning them, well upside down. The time is March 18, 1958. The place is a busy and crowded street corner in Louisville, Kentucky. The corner of 4th. and Walnut. The person is Father Louis or as he is better known, Thomas Merton, a monk from the Abbey of Gethsemani near Louisville. 

      There is now one of those historical markers put there by the State of Kentucky to commemorate the event. It is called a "A Revelation". Here is the text from that historical marker, put up around 2004. “Merton had a sudden insight at this corner Mar. 18, 1958 that led him to redefine his monastic identity with greater involvement in social justice issues. “He was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that he loved all these people…” He found them “walking around shining like the sun.” The experience is related in his book: Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.

      Merton at this time had been in the monastery for about sixteen or seventeen years. He had gone there to find God and become holy through a routine of prayer and discipline by taking himself out of the work-a-day world of everyday life. Then Merton has this Revelation on this busy street corner on a late winter day. Merton in his description of this moment says that he almost blurted out: “Thank God, thank God that I am like other men, that I am only a man among others.” He adds that we do not know it, but we all are going around shinning like the sun. Merton adds if we could see that in one another: "There would be no more war no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed."  Yes, we are sinners. We are also, you and I, going around shining like the sun.

Better Put Those Capae Magnae In Moth Balls Too, For Sure...

Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst in a vintage BMW

Peter Tebartz-van Elst Has Not Caught The Spirit of Pope Francis

Just note the cost of the bath tub in his new palace...

Now It's A Mystical Experience...

In his latest explaination for his resignation, Benedict claims it was a mystical experience.
Francis' charisma confirms that this was God's will.

Perhaps, Benedict was just starting to feel good about himself for the first time in a long, long time. Benedict claimed that his resignation was a good thing and must be God's will because there has been such a warm response to Pope Francis.

I think that maybe Benedict realized that he was tired and worn out from being an intrinsically disordered pope. In February when Benedict announced his resignation, Andrew Sullivan raised some questions about the pope's motivation and more about the special arrangement with Georg.
What about this relationship between Benedict and Georg?

Pope Francis liberated him. “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

Recently, another Jesuit, Fr. Frank Brennan SJ, an Australian, said in an interview that he did not think it was helpful to talk about the homosexual orientation as a disorder. This is what he said: "It's time we dropped the unhelpful, judgmental language of intrinsic and objective disorder when respectfully trying to determine appropriate laws and policies for all people who want to support and nurture each other and their children."
Reflection of Fr. Frank Brennan

Father Brennan is talking about a recent interview conducted by Australian television which included Penny Wong, an openly lesbian politician who with her partner is raising a child. This is what Fr. Brennan said: "Much of the two-hour discussion was not put to air by SBS. At one stage of the discussion in addressing Penny Wong, I said that I found talk of homosexuality being a disorder unhelpful. Addressing Penny Wong, I said that I thought her homosexuality was as natural, complex and mystical as my heterosexuality."

Could it be that Francis was talking about Benedict and Georg? Could this be the source of Benedict's mystical experience?