Post-Clerical Catholics

I have lived in a number of parishes around the country and often have found that that secular priests live in a world of their own. This world does not require in-depth knowledge of contemporary issues, even the ones that are in conflict with our beliefs. Frankly, it seemed to me many times that in-depth knowledge of Catholicism was not required. This is not to forget that there are many secular priests who labor heroically. Nevertheless. in my experience, I have come across too many priests who lack a sense of spirituality and seem to think they are special people who have made their mark by continuing to breathe. Judging from what I have heard from the pulpit, with some exceptions, secular seminary education seems to be post-high school study. The secular-priest system lacks internal review mechanisms designed to find were improvement is needed and to take measures to insure improvement. This would go against the implicit and explicit values of a system that has its roots in the early Middle Ages, when the feudal society incorporated the Church hierarchy into its system. The values of Lordship Clericalism live on, perhaps now under some review, in today's Church. However, there is much hope, as always. We will always have the Christian Message, no matter how we, or others, fail to carry it.

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Mike Evans | 12/30/2013 - 11:57am

Basic seminary training seems deficient in the pastoral skills needed by today's priests.

A Collegial Church

Pope Francis demonstrated his collegial style in the first moments of his papacy. Speaking from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on March 13, 2013, he made five references to himself as a bishop instead of invoking titles like pope or supreme pontiff, and he asked for the assembled people to bless him and pray for him. He said: “Now let’s begin this journey, bishop and people, this journey of the church of Rome, which is the one that presides in charity over all the churches—a journey of brotherhood, love and trust among us.”

At that time the church had felt the power and significance of the first papal resignation in nearly 600 years, a great act of humility by Benedict XVI and a decision with consequences for the papacy. Now in “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”), an apostolic exhortation published on Nov. 24, Pope Francis lays out his ecclesial vision and calls for a broad program of renewal and reform that touches every level of the church.

“Since I am called to put into practice what I ask of others,” Francis explains; “I too must think about a conversion of the papacy.” An essential element of this conversion is a renewed emphasis on collegiality, the collaboration and shared leadership among bishops in the governance of the church. In the exhortation, Francis expresses the hope of the Second Vatican Council that episcopal conferences could “contribute in many and fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegial spirit,” and he acknowledges that the “juridical status” and “genuine doctrinal authority” of episcopal conferences “has not been sufficiently elaborated.”

This collegial spirit is demonstrated and practiced in the exhortation itself, in which the bishops’ conferences around the world serve as a major point of reference. Pope Francis cites 10 conferences in all, and the list is impressive in its geographical diversity: Africa, Asia, the United States, France, Oceania, Latin America, Brazil, the Philippines, the Congo and India. Francis explains that the papal magisterium should not be expected “to offer a definitive or complete word on every question which affects the church and the world.” He writes: “I am conscious of the need to promote a sound ‘decentralization.’”

This inclusion of regional voices better serves the life and mission of the church. Diocesan bishops, through their service in every corner of the world, have unique access to the experience, perspective, cultural context and pastoral challenges of the lay faithful in their respective dioceses. It is essential for everyone who exercises authority in the church to renew efforts to reach out and listen to how God is working in people’s everyday lives, especially those on the margins of society and the church. Collegiality not only requires greater cooperation among bishops; it also calls for the discovery of new ways to facilitate meaningful and sustained cooperation and dialogue between a bishop and the people of his diocese. In the exhortation, Francis writes that a bishop needs to “encourage and develop the means of participation proposed in the Code of Canon Law, and other forms of pastoral dialogue, out of a desire to listen to everyone and not simply to those who would tell him what he would like to hear.” Dialogue and collaboration are meaningless unless every participant is willing to truly listen with an open heart. Structures are needed to ensure this co-responsibility for fulfilling the church’s mission.

Significantly, Francis is implementing this vision in the preparatory stages of the synod of bishops by inviting the participation of every member of the church. Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the synod, has said the Vatican’s questionnaire about pastoral challenges to family life should be distributed “as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes.” In a recent interview with The National Catholic Reporter, he explained the consultation is intended to “gather information from the grass roots and not limit itself to the level of the Curia or other institutions.”

This process is a superb example of bishops and people on a journey together. Archbishop Baldisseri has repeatedly emphasized that while this consultation is not a popular referendum on church teaching, it must still be meaningful and effective. He has said that after his office collects the summaries from the bishops’ conferences, an ad hoc group of experts will examine and summarize the feedback, which will be used to create the instrumentum laboris, the working document for the synod.

The group of experts should include laity and clergy, men and women. Archbishop Baldisseri has said, “We have started taking a different approach...and this will help us a great deal.” This new approach embodies the reality that the church is the entire people of God, clergy and laypeople alike.

Can you be too religious?

Can you be too religious?

When considering this question, note that Jesus himself was hostile to religiosity – and that fundamentalists suffer from a lack of faith

·          

o    Giles Fraser

o     

o    theguardian.com, Tuesday 24 December 2013 09.00 GMT

o    Jump to comments (1062)

Actually, I seriously dislike the words religion and religious. First, there is no such thing as generic religiosity. There are Christians and Jews and Muslims and Hindus. No one practises religion, as such. And second, precisely because the word "religion" describes the common outward format through which these very different belief systems express themselves, it cannot describe each in its specificity. This is particularly tricky when it comes to Christianity, because at its heart is a figure who was thoroughly suspicious and condemnatory of religion. "Jesus came to abolish religion," says the Washington-based poet and evangelist Jefferson Bethke. His YouTube poem Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus received 16 million views within two weeks of it being released.He's right: the New Testament must be one of the most thoroughly anti-religious books ever written. It makes Richard Dawkins look very tame fare indeed.

Jesus spent much of his time laying into the pious and the holy and lambasting the religious professionals of his day. And this was not because he was anti-Jewish – as some superficial readings of his anti-Pharisee, anti-Sadducee, anti-Temple polemics would have it – but precisely because, as a Jew himself, he came out of that very Jewish prophetic tradition of fierce hostility to religiosity. Here, for instance, is the prophet Isaiah on feisty form.

The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me? says the Lord.
I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me. New moons, sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.

This is the sort of theology to which Jesus looked for inspiration. And partly, it was this uncompromising anti-religiosity that got him nailed to a cross.

You may think I am being slippery with the word "religion". So let's take, for instance, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim's influential definition of religion as that which divides up the world into the sacred and the profane. But here again, the Jesus stories have him as thoroughly anti-religious, not least in those narratives that surround his birth. For the idea that God might be found not in the spiritually antiseptic space of some sacred temple, but in the smelly cow shed out the back, is about as hostile an idea to religion as one can possibly imagine. When it comes to Christianity, just being a little bit religious is being too religious. Religion is a pejorative term. So the answer is yes.

Of course, I'd say you cannot be too Christian. That's a different kettle of fish. And if "being too Christian" makes you think of Christian fundamentalists, I'd want to insist that they are simply not Christian enough. Indeed, that it's their lack of faith that makes them cling to a bogus form of certainty and literalism. Mostly, Christian fundamentalists worship a book. They like the safety of having pat answers. But this is just another form of idolatry of which the Hebrew scriptures regularly warn. Worshipping a book and worshipping God are two totally different things. Falling down before a baby, with all the inversion of power that this implies, takes courage not intellectual suicide. It is about the world being turned upside-down, the mighty (including the religious mighty) being cast down and the weak being held up. It is about placing something other than oneself at the centre of the world. And no, I don't think there can be too much of this.

Christmas shopping

Wend your way through the streets of any large city, teeming with Christmas shoppers, where store windows glisten with expensive watches and handbags, and it is all too easy to avert your eyes from those dehumanized shapes in doorways or sprawled on the steps or stretched out in the pews of open churches. Swathed in blankets, they peer out with blank eyes from between scarves and wool hats as they display their cardboard manifestos: House burned down. Wounded Vet. Hungry. Pregnant. Jobless. Help. The message is sobering: We are helpless, abandoned and dependent on your seasonal generosity

In the Spiritual Exercises, the classic spiritual guidebook for retreat directors, St. Ignatius Loyola invites the retreatant to contemplate the great mysteries of the Incarnation and the Nativity. The starting point for these exercises, however, is not the grandeur of the Trinity, “seated, so to speak, on the royal canopied throne,” as Ignatius writes. Instead, he first invites the retreatant to see and consider the various persons on the earth, “so diverse in dress and behavior...some in peace and others at war, some weeping and others laughing, some healthy and others sick, some being born and others dying.”

St. Ignatius then describes God’s compassionate response to so much blindness, suffering and death in the world. He counsels us to hear what the Trinity says, “Let us work the redemption of the human race,” and to see what the Trinity does, “bringing about the most holy Incarnation.” Ignatius says the Lord was born “in the greatest poverty” and experienced “many hardships of hunger, thirst, heat, cold, injuries, and insults.” Though appropriately regarded as royalty by the angels in heaven and the visiting Magi, Jesus was born in a manger, and the family was displaced by the threat of violence.

Those living on the street and in shelters share in the Holy Family’s experience of transience and insecurity. But how often are they welcomed with reverence and joy? Years ago our culture referred to these persons as “down and out” or “Bowery bums,” distinguished from the “deserving poor” who had “pulled themselves together” and were thus worthy of concern. The Christmas message, however, reminds us that those who are without homes are human beings and deserve care. Do we see them that way?

According to a nationwide survey conducted in January 2013 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are approximately 610,000 homeless people in the United States on any given night, with two-thirds living in shelters and the rest on sidewalks, benches and in cars.

The main point, often overlooked, of the feast of the Incarnation, is that when God entered the world in the person of Jesus, the whole of humanity was transformed. Every person, including that huddled person in the gutter, is Jesus inviting—daring—us to love.

Mike Evans | 12/14/2013 - 10:12am

Sadly, even though we know what works to materially assist the homeless get back on their feet and into safe and secure housing, our congress and state legislators refuse to provide the necessary funding. Every heart-breaking story is met with suspicion and then dismissed. The response seems to be that the homeless are suffering from only self-inflicted misery and so we have no responsibility to them. Shame on all of us.

Virgin Birth : Is Sexuality impure?

Our concept of the virgin birth has been infiltrated by a piety which, cannot accord sexuality to the holy.The Christian tradition wants to emphasize what kind of heart and soul is needed to create the space wherein something divine can be born

VIRGIN BIRTH

Christian tradition has always emphasized that Jesus was born of a virgin. The Messiah could only come forth from a virgin's womb. The main reason for this emphasis of course is to highlight that Jesus did not have a human father and that his conception was from the Holy Spirit.

But there is often a secondary emphasis as well, less-founded in scripture.  Too common within that notion is the idea that Jesus was born from a virgin because somehow sexuality is impure, that it is too base and earthy to have a connection to such a sacred event. The holy must be kept separate from what is base. Jesus wasn't just born of a virgin because he did not have a human father; he was also born of a virgin because his birth demanded a purity that, by definition, rules out sex. Our concept of the virgin birth has been infiltrated by a piety which, for all kinds of reasons, cannot accord sexuality to the holy.

What's wrong with this? Beyond denigrating the God-given goodness of sexuality, it misses one of the major aspects of revelation within the virgin birth. There is a moral challenge within the virgin birth, something which invites imitation rather than admiration.

Christian tradition emphasizes a virgin birth (just as it emphasizes a virgin burial, a virgin tomb to parallel the virgin womb) not because it judges that sexuality is too impure and earthy to produce something holy. Rather, beyond wanting to emphasize that Jesus had no human father, the Christian tradition wants to emphasize what kind of heart and soul is needed to create the space wherein something divine can be born.  What is at issue is not celibacy rather than sex, but patience rather than impatience, reverence rather than irreverence, respect rather than disrespect, and accepting to live in tension rather than capitulating and compensating in the face of unrequited desire. A virgin's heart lets love unfold according to its own dictates rather than manipulating it. A virgin's heart lets gift be gift rather than somehow, however subtly, raping it.  A virgin's heart accepts the pain of inconsummation rather than sleeping with the bride before the wedding. That, in the end, is what constitutes virginal space, the space within which God can be born.

Thirty years ago, trying to express this, I wrote poem entitled, Virgin Birth. Today I blush at the youthful idealism in that poem; but, on my better days, I take counsel from the young man who wrote those lines:

Virgin Birth

The perennial paradox, peculiar to this Father and Son

Specialists in confounding human wisdom withdrawn from wonder.

A virgin gives birth, not to sterility, but to a Messiah.

What has virginity to do with giving birth? Nothing!

When wisdom wastes words wandering towards a truth that will not set us free.

Virginity and inconsummation: Incomplete heart and flesh,

wrestle with a God who has no flesh

who won't let flesh meet flesh

ache, awaiting completeness

to stave off sterility, truly the unforgivable sin against the spirit of life.

But sterility becomes pregnant with yearning for the spirit that sleeps with God at night and       

     impregnates with messianic spirit those patient enough to yearn and sweat lonely tears

rather than ruin gift

with impatience.

Only virgins' wombs bring forth messiahs because they alone live in advent

waiting a delaying bridegroom

late, hopelessly beyond the eleventh hour.

Still the virgin's womb waits

Refusing all counterfeit lovers and impatience

which demand flesh on flesh and

a divine Kingdom on human terms.

Messiahs are only born

     in virginity's space

     within virginity's patience

     which let God be God and

     love be gift.


Why a virgin's womb for a Messiah's birth? Why an obsession with purity within the Christian tradition? Because, as we all know only too well, our lives are full of most everything that is not virginal or pure: impatience, disrespect, irreverence, manipulation, cynicism, grandiosity; and, as we all know too, within this matrix no messiah can be gestated.

Discernment

Discernment: Consolation and Desolation

TV game shows require contestants to make quick decisions that have “significant” consequences—get it right and win a million dollars; get it wrong and go home empty-handed. In real life, few of our decisions carry that same kind of drama; however, many of them are indeed very significant. Luckily, we usually have more than a few seconds to make most of our significant decisions in life. One of the things we can do with the time we have before making a decision is to practice discernment. In the Ignatian tradition, discernment involves two key words: consolation and desolation. In her book, The Inner Compass, Margaret Silf provides an excellent description of the role these two words play in our process of discernment.

What do we mean when we talk of consolation and desolation? We are really only talking about our orientation, and the bottom line is this: which direction is our life taking us—toward God [consolation] or away from him [desolation]?

Here are some of the main symptoms of desolation and the most commonly experienced blessings of consolation.

Desolation

• turns us in on ourselves
• drives us down the spiral ever deeper into our own negative feelings
• cuts us off from community
• makes us want to give up on things that used to be important to us
• takes over our whole consciousness and crowds out our distant vision
• covers up all our landmarks
• drains us of energy

Consolation

• directs our focus outside and beyond ourselves
• lifts our hearts so that we can see the joys and sorrows of other people
• bonds us more closely to our human community
• generates new inspiration and ideas
• restores balance and refreshes our inner vision
• shows us where God is active in our lives and where he is leading us
• releases new energy in us

What to do…

In Desolation:

1. Tell God how you feel and ask for help.
2. Seek out companionship.
3. Don't go back on decisions you made in consolation.
4. Stand still and remember your inner map.
5. Recall a time of consolation, and go back to it imagination.
6. Look for someone who needs your help, and turn your attention toward them.
7. Go back to 1.

In Consolation:

1. Tell God how you feel and thank him.
2. Store this moment in your memory to return to when things get tough.
3. Add this experience to your life map.
4. Use the energy you feel to further your deepest desires.
5. Let the surplus energy fuel the things you don't like doing, and do them.
6. Go back to 1.

excerpts from The Inner Compass by Margaret Silf

God's wife

God's Wife LOOK OUT FOR THE LAST STORY...... IT WILL KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF. Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once Talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the Contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was: A four-year-old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old Gentleman's' yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, 'Nothing, I just Helped him cry.' ********************************************* Teacher Debbie Moon's first graders were discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had a different hair color than the other members. One of her students suggested that he was adopted. A little girl said, 'I know all about Adoption, I was adopted.' 'What does it mean to be adopted?', asked another child. 'It means', said the girl, 'that you grew in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy!' ********************************************* On my way home one day, I stopped to watch a Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first- base line, I asked one of the boys what the score was 'We're behind 14 to nothing,' he answered With a smile. 'Really,' I said, 'I have to say you don't look very discouraged.' 'Discouraged?', the boy asked with a Puzzled look on his face. 'Why should we be discouraged? We haven't Been up to bat yet.' ********************************************* Whenever I'm disappointed with my spot in life, I stop and think about little Jamie Scott. Jamie was trying out for a part in the school play. His mother told me that he'd set his heart on being in it, though she feared he would not be chosen. On the day the parts were awarded, I went with her to collect him after school. Jamie rushed up to her, eyes shining with pride and excitement. 'Guess what, Mom ,' he shouted, and then said those words that will remain a lesson to me....'I've been chosen to clap and cheer.' ********************************************* An eye witness account from New York City , on a cold day in December, some years ago: A little boy, about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering With cold. A lady approached the young boy and said, 'My, but you're in such deep thought staring in that window!' 'I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,'was the boy's reply. The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel. By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks.. Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, 'No doubt, you will be more comfortable now.' As she turned to go, the astonished kid caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked her. 'Are you God's wife?' ********************************************* SEND TO ALL WHO LOVE AND CARE FOR CHILDREN. Hope this put a smile on your face it  Sure did mine!

Mojud - Listening To Your Inner Wisdom

Judith Glaser talks about being addicted to being right and retribution

Robert Thurman & Sharon Salzberg Love Your Enemies - Part 1

Key to Understanding Pope Francis

The key to understanding Pope Francis: the 99 lost sheep

By Phil Lawler 

If the Pope’s main responsibility is to keep us all comfortable, then Pope Francis is failing miserably.

But that’s not really the Pope’s job, is it?

For the past several weeks—and more than ever in the past 24 hours, since the release of the Pope’s blockbuster interview in America-- friends have been complaining that the Holy Father has a tendency to say things in a way that could cause confusion. He makes statements that the media can easily distort, they say. And they’re undoubtedly right.

But there’s a precedent for that way of speaking. Jesus made people uncomfortable. The Lord’s words and gestures were often misinterpreted, and his critics found it easy to put things in an unfavorable light. Jesus ate with tax-collectors and sinners, they charged; He didn’t show sufficient respect for the Law. Now the Vicar of Christ is subject to similar accusations. Somehow it fits.

Would it be better, really, if the Pope limited himself to statements that could not possibly be distorted? Should he stop trying to make subtle distinctions, or making new observations about controversial topics? That would be a form of self-censorship: shaping the message to suit the media. Far better, I think for the Pope to speak frankly, telling the truth in and out of season, letting the chips fall where they may

The Good Goatherd

to

Bro Noel writes from timor

I had given it the title:  "The Good Goatherd".  I have included Syria in it.

Here is the article:

The Good Goatherd

 

                        …….. with apologies to all!

 

(The parable of the Good Shepherd awakens in us feelings of joy and gratitude since the Lord has left the ninety-nine in the wilderness to go after the lost one – that’s me on his shoulder we know.

 

In actual fact it seems to be the ninety-nine of us who stray regularly and so I’ve tried to rewrite this parable.)

 

So he told them this parable:  “What man of you, having a hundred goats, if he has lost ninety nine of them, does not leave the remaining one in the wilderness, and go after the ninety nine which are lost, until he finds all of them and brings them back, carrying some on his shoulders and herding the rest back with great difficulty.  And when he comes home he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them “Rejoice with me for I have found my goats which were lost”.

 

Then the Good Goatherd went on to explain:

 

Do you see those goats over there?  I found them selfishly grazing away on a good patch of grass.  They were just not allowing any of the other hungrier looking goats to come near the grass.  Somehow these goats had begun to believe that the shape of their horns and the color of their hooves had put them in a special class.

 

That other group of my goats had gone to Syria of all places.  Well, the goats in Syria seemed to have had good places for grazing although they did seem to be a bit too controlled and would have liked more freedom.  But there were some of my goats helping one group of the Syrian goats to destroy the grazing ground of the other group and vice versa.  Some years ago, when I was looking out for the 99 goats that had left my flock then I found them in Kuwait or kicking around in some smaller grazing grounds like Liberia, San Salvador, Panama, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka to name a few.  What made my task of getting them safely out was the presence of some of my bigger goats nearby, who it now appears had encouraged and instigated these of my other goats in the first place.  At times some of the bigger goats seemed to be of help but most of the time they would just be coming in the way.

 

I had quite a time with those goats over there.  They actually come from the same stock.  When I found them, however, they had already grouped themselves against each other.  One group called itself the Goatee Rouge and another group (further divided into smaller groups) was the Goatee Goat’s Liberation Front while the largest group just called itself the Goatee Goat’s Republic of Goatland.

 

Once again, it was the presence of other goats that made my task more difficult.  Wittingly or unwittingly they seemed to have kept the Goatee Goats more intent on kicking up the luscious ground they were standing on.  Soon that ground would have been useless for everybody.

 

But ultimately I succeeded.  See how friendly and mild they appear now.  You should have seen them then:  some so full of hatred and violence, others steeped in selfishness and meanness and still others either too naïve or who couldn’t care less.  When I had gone searching for the lost ninety nine and had seen these around, I couldn’t believe that they were mine.  But mine they were.

 

Come my friends, rejoice with me.

Faith in God can not generate violence

"No more violence in the name of God Faith can not generate intolerance"

POPE BERGOGLIO

The admonition of Francis hearing at the International Theological Commission. "God is not a man to aminaccia"

GIACOMO GALEAZZI CITY 'OF THE VATICAN

"God is not a threat to humans. The faith in the one God and the thrice-holy is not and can never be generating violence and intolerance, "warns Francis Pope received in audience by the International Theological Commission." Faith in the one God and the thrice-holy is not and can not never be generating violence and intolerance - highlights the Pontiff -. Instead his highly rational nature gives it a universal dimension, capable of uniting people of good will. On the other hand, the final revelation of God in Jesus Christ now makes it impossible for any use of violence "in the name of God."

And 'because of its rejection of violence, for winning the bad with the good, with the blood of his Cross, Jesus has reconciled men with God and with each other. " Thus, "the revelation of God is really a good news for all men. God - has marked - it is not a threat to humans. " The Church is first of all required to live within itself the social message that port in the world. The fraternal relations between the believers, the authority as a service, sharing with the poor: all these traits that characterize the life of the Church since its origin, can and should be a model for living and attractive for different human communities, family up to civil society. "

Theologians from the Pope addressed the teacher and pastor: "Your mission is both fascinating and dangerous." It is fascinating because "the research and teaching of theology can become a true path of holiness, as attested by many Fathers and Doctors of the Church." But, says Better World, "is also risky because it involves temptation: the aridity of heart, pride, even the ambition." He adds: "St Francis of Assisi once addressed a short note to his brother Anthony of Padua, where he said among other things:" I like to teach sacred theology to the brethren, provided, in the studio, you do not turn off the spirit of the holy prayer and devotion. "

For the gift of the Holy Spirit, the members of the Church have the "sense of faith". It is a sort of "spiritual instinct" that allows you to feel with the Church and to discern what is right according to the apostolic faith and the spirit of the Gospel. Of course, the "sensus fidelium can not be confused with the sociological reality of a majority opinion." It is therefore important and is a task of theologians, "develop criteria that allow you to discern the authentic expression of the sensus fidelium." For its part, the Magisterium has the duty to be attentive to what the Spirit says to the churches through the authentic manifestations of the sensus fidelium. "This focus is of utmost importance for theologians." Benedict XVI "has repeatedly pointed out that the theologian should listen to the living faith of the poor and the little ones to whom it pleased the Father to reveal what was hidden from the wise and the learned." In short, "theology is the science and wisdom and theologians are true pioneers of the Church's dialogue with other cultures.''

A dialogue'' at the same time critical and benevolent, which should facilitate the reception of the Word of God by the people of every nation, race, people and tongue.'' A reflection, theological, clarifies the Pope, which also extends to the field of the social doctrine of Christ based on the ad that'' he reconciled men with God and with each other.'' '' In fact, it is this same peace that is at the center of the reflection of theologians on the social doctrine of the Church. "This" is intended to translate in the reality of social life the love of God for man, manifested in Jesus' Christ''.

Francis Parmar - new Provincial of Gujarat, India

Francis Parmar - New Provincial of Gujarat Jesuits, India

News Updates:

Fr.Francis Parmar S.j has been appointed as the New Provincial of Gujarat Jesuit province, on 30 November 2013 by the Superior General of Jesuit order, Rev. Fr. Adolfo Nicolas from Rome. He will assume charge  a little later.

Fr.Francis Parmar was born in Nadiad, Gujarat on 02-12-1950. He began his initial training in the Jesuit order at Mt Abu, Rajasthan. After finishing his theological studies at Vidya Jyoti, Delhi, he was ordained a priest on 05-05-1979.

Having completed his B.A in Gujarati-Sanskrit at Gujarat University, he studied for M.A in Socio-Linguistics at the University of George Town, Washington D.C. He had also done Masters in pastoral theology at Vidya Jyoti, Delhi. All through out his life in the Society of Jesus, he has held very many responsible posts such as Juniorate in-charge, Rector of the formation houses, Dean of the theologate and Principal of two colleges. He was twice elected as the Procurator of Gujarat and he took part in the meetings of the procurators of the Society of Jesus in 1999 and in 2012. The Gujarat Jesuit Province is really blessed in having the first local Jesuit to lead the province as the New Jesuit Provincial of Gujarat. The Gujarat Jesuit Parivar extends best wishes and prayers for a fruitful service in his new responsibility.

With best wishes and in Union of Prayers,

Socius- Gujarat Province

Fr.Lawrence Dharmaraj

Pope Francis won the Internet. Literally.

[What about The jesuits in Gujarat? devasia]

By Daniel Burke, CNN Belief Blog Co-editor

(CNN) - It's official: Pope Francis is the most talked-about person on the planet.

More folks have been chatting about the popular new pontiff online this year than Edward Snowden, Kate Middleton or even the Internet's favorite bad girl, Miley Cyrus.

That's according to the 14th annual survey from the Global Language Monitor, a Texas-based company that trackers top talkers on the web. The GLM says their rankings are based on an analysis of English-language blogs, social media and 275,000 electronic and online news media.

The GLM broke their research into three categories: top words, top phrases and top names.

Besides being the Internet's top name, the Pope's Twitter handle, @Pontifex, was the fourth most talked about word thus far in 2013.

The top three words were: "404," the numeric code for a broken web-page; "fail," the one-word taunt for all-things unsuccessful; and "Hashtag," the "#" used to denote topics on Twitter.

Paul JJ Payack, president and "Chief Word Analyst" at GLM says the 404 and "fail" got a big boost from the problematic launch of the Obama administration's website for purchasing health care under the Affordable Care Act.

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The year's top phrases also have a negative vibe: "toxic politics;" "federal shutdown;" and "global warming/climate change" took the top three spots.

Somehow, those phrases still seem more optimistic than last year's most popular phrase: Apocalypse/Armageddon. The End Times fascination probably reflected interest in the failed prophecies of Harold Camping, a doomsday radio preacher who predicted the world would end last year.

Besides the pope, here are the Internet's other most talked-about proper names in 2013:

2. Obamacare

3. The National Security Agency

4. Edward Snowden

5. Kate Middleton

5a. "HRH Georgie,"  the nickname of Prince George of Cambridge, son of Middelton and Prince William

6. The IRS

7. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz

8. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie

9. The Tea Party

10. The Boston Marathon bombers

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