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Celestine V resigned as pope on Dec. 15, 1294 after just five months. It is said that he was promoted beyond his level of competency and there does not seem to be any real dispute about that.
That does not mean, however, he wasn’t holy. He would be later named a saint and is the patron of bookbinders.
Saint Valentine, There Were Three — Today commemorates the martyrdom of Saint Valentine. Actually, three Saint Valentines as three different men named Valentine were martyred on this day way back according to Church tradition.
One of them died in Africa with a number of others. Little is known about him and he is not associated with customs of romantic love that have evolved around this date.
The others were a priest and a bishop who were martyred outside Rome in late 3rd century. According to tradition, the priest was caught marrying Christians who at the time were being persecuted and was arrested. The Emperor Claudius took a liking to him until the priest hit a little too close to home in discussions about faith and Jesus, so he ordered him beaten and beheaded.
According to tradition, the Bishop was under house arrest in the custody of a Judge Asterius who put his faith to the test by asking him to restore the sight of his blind daughter. He did and the judge destroyed his home idols and converted. The Bishop was later rearrested and executed as he continued to practice his faith despite the decree of Claudius.
The romantic tradition appears to have been started by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, and was based on the notion that birds mate in mid-February around the time of Saint Valentine’s Day.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput told a packed crowd of 500 at Saint Elizabeth Church in Chester Springs, Pa. they better vote Nov. 6, reports Catholic Online.
Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church, 100 S. Penn St., Clifton Heights will soon be putting the sermons of Father John Ciurpita on line.
Father John Ciurpita gives the traditional blessing of the baskets Easter Sunday outside Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church on Penn Street in Clifton Heights, Pa. Obama Catholic Solution Clueless — Below is a left wing newspaper’s take on Obama “solution”,if you care to read it.
Having the Catholic hospital or college insurance company pick up the tab for the morning after pill or contraceptives is misguided.
1)most catholic affiliated institutions are self-funded with regard to insurance.
So a Catholic institution would have to find and negotiate a price with an independent insurance provider to provide for this cost.Talk about asking the Church to act in this overtly hypocritical manner is an affront!
2)Where there isn’t self insurance ,to think that an insurance company isn’t going to pass along these added costs,to its other subscribers, Catholic and non-catholic is duplicious.
3)The Secular Humanist talking point is to stress this as a”woman’s health issue” is bogus whith so many Planned Parenthood offices throughout the USA.
IMO:when you think of the “compromise”,it is is 100% politically driven.
Which is to say,if Obama wins the election,he will reverse his “compromise”
Don’t forget Obama’s attitude on health care.NO COMPROMISE!!!
Wake up America
Obama Anti-Catholic Mandate Petition — An online petition has been started at WhiteHouse.gov asking the Obama Administration to rescind their perversely anti-Catholic mandate requiring all Catholic employers to provide contraceptives/abortifacients to their employees.
The petition — which can be found here — has a goal of getting 25,000 names by Feb. 27. As of this post it has 22,333.
Goldman Sachs Backs Mitt Gay Marriage — Bloomberg.com reported, Feb. 1, that Goldman Sachs Group workers contributed $106,580 to Mitt Romney’s presidential bid in the fourth quarter of last year and that Goldie is his largest source of campaign bucks at a half-million total so far.
Goldman Sachs does like to spread its money around. It gave boatloads to Barack Obama and got Timothy Geithner as secretary of the treasury in return, along with a whole lot of bonus people.
And it gave boatloads to George W. Bush, and got Henry “TARP ’em” Paulson as secretary of the treasury along with a whole lot of bonus people. Bush, by the way, was the one who picked Geithner for president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
In other Goldman Sachs news, its CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, became the first national corporate spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual advocacy group.
Mexicans Address Manners At Mass This appeared in Sunday’s, Jan. 29, bulletin of Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Clifton Heights Pa.
A priest in Mexico City is recommending Catholics turn off their cell phones, dress appropriately and arrive on time in order to participate more fully in the Mass.
In an article entitled “Good Manners In God’s House,” published by the Archdiocese of Mexico City’s News Service on Jan. 16, Father Sergio Roman said Mexican Catholics should remember where they are when they attend Mass on Sundays.
“Don’t smoke, don’t eat or drink at church. Don’t chew gun or stick it under the pews. Don’t chatter with others. Don’t pray your own personal prayers out loud,” the priest wrote.
“Take a bath, remove your hats, dress properly, because the Mass is a celebration. Respect the postures called for by the liturgy,” he added. “Give up your seat for an elderly person or for a woman. If you dose off at least don’t snore. Mind your manners!”
Fr. Roman also responded to complaints about babies crying during the Mass, saying that while sometimes parents are at fault for not taking their babies out of the church, “We cannot prohibit families with children from attending Mass.”
To do so would be to betray “the love the church proclaims for the family.” However, we can teach mothers and fathers to take them outside for a few minutes until they calm down,” he said.
“My sacristan has a basket of lollipops which he discretely hands out to children who are crying,” the priest noted. “Little by little, children will understand that the Mass requires that they be on their best behavior.”
Fr. Roman underscored that in almost every parish there is a liturgy team made up of lay people who volunteer to serve the congregation, and he invited Mexican Catholics to participate as lectors, ushers and assistants at their local parishes.
The Mass is your Mass. Look at it this way so that you can experience it more deeply,” he said.
One suspects that there are a whole lot of American parishes saying, “gee I wish we had these problems.”
Obama Sneers Catholic Faith-Based Exemption — The Obama administration has turned down repeated requests from Catholic bishops, hospitals, schools and charitable organizations to revise its religious exemption to the requirement that all health plans cover contraceptives and sterilization free of charge.
This could indicate that the Obama administration is filled with anti-Catholic bigots but that may not be the case. It could very well be that its hope is that the Catholic Church is driven to end these services further strengthening the government monopoly.
Regardless of the reason Catholics better wake up and end their love affair with the Democrat Party.