Posted on 05/05/2010 10:48:55 AM PDT by markomalley
"Fatima is a particularly significant place for this Pope," said Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi on Tuesday, noting that it was also a destination for two former Popes. The Holy Father has a thorough knowledge of the history of the Marian sanctuary, he added.
Fr. Lombardi held a press conference at the Vatican to prepare the media for the Pope's next trip out of the Vatican. He will be visiting Portugal from May 11-14.
The spokesman referred to the Pope's stop in Fatima on May 13 as the highlight and "heart" of the upcoming four-day trip to Portugal, according to Vatican Radio. But, he pointed out, Benedict XVI will not be the first Pope to visit the Marian shrine.
Two other Pontiffs have been to Fatima. In 1967, the sanctuary hosted Paul VI, and John Paul II visited in 1982, 1991 and 2000, at which time the visionaries Jacinta and Francesco were beatified.
The Portuguese shrine is not unfamiliar to Pope Benedict, since as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger extensively studied the message of Fatima. Fr. Lombardi said on Tuesday that the Pope has been involved with history of the Marian sanctuary in a "very deep, personal way."
It was him, for example, who was called upon to give a theological perspective when the third secret of Fatima was made public in 2000.
The Vatican spokesman said that the Holy Father will also deliver an intense message during his Fatima visit. Upon his arrival at the sanctuary on May 12, he will remember John Paul II and the 29th anniversary of the assassination attempt that nearly took his life on May 13, 1981.
This visit marks the Holy Father's 15th Apostolic Journey abroad in his five years and is his first to Portugal as Pope.
During today's general audience, the Holy Father greeted the people of Portugal in their language, telling them that he will be there this coming weekend at the invitation of the president of the nation and the episcopal conference.
He said he was "happy to be able to visit the 'land of Holy Mary'" on the 10th anniversary of the beatification of the shepherd children.
According to Portuguese press reports, local police are planning for a cumulative total of 450,000 people at the celebrations in Lisbon, Fatima and Portugal during the four-day visit.
Also, I don't think it was the institution that He hated (the chair of Moses), but the hypocrisy that can develop within it - the leaven of the Pharisees. In any religion, if a person joins and becomes a leader and becomes hypocritical and lords it over people, he will be judged worse than the people who commit the same sins but don't pretend to be religious.
I think this is a temptation even for anyone who takes religion seriously, not just those in religious institutions. Husbands are sometimes tempted to say "wives obey your husbands" while acting like oafs, for example. Enemies will be tempted to call you to act charitably while they mercilessly war against you. Sometimes He calls us to suffer at the hands of the Pharisees, as He did. I admit I have a hard time with that.
I believe He often MOST ANOINTS those who have no claim to fame and who are even on the periphery of congregations in a lot of ‘social star’ respects.
LOL. That's for sure!
Can we please keep this thread on the higher topic? There are other forums for politics, science, “weird”, “conspiracy”, “UFOs”, etc.
Related threads:
The Vatican and UFOs
"The Omega Secret" [UFOs and the Vatican]
Vatican and UFO: Secretum Omega [Extraterrestrial Culture Day]
Secretum Omega Part II [Extraterrestrial Culture Day]
Vatican Official Confirms the Existence of Extraterrestrials [Friday afternoon tinfoil alert]
Fatima: The new Movie… Deception a-go-go [the Fatima apparitions were really UFO manifestations]
Do space aliens have souls? Inquiring minds can check Jesuit's book
Vatican prepares for extraterrestrial disclosure
Vatican looks to heavens for signs of alien life
Vatican looks to heavens for signs of alien life
The Vatican joins the search for alien life
Vatican Observatory examines theological implications of finding alien life
Vatican Seeks Signs of Alien Life... E.T. phone Rome!
Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens ("The extraterrestrial is my brother")
Does Jesus save aliens?
The Truth Is Out There. Extraterrestrials, Probably Not
I’d be more than happy to discuss your thoughts on Onanism.
WOW.
THANKS.
Guess I should copy all those off to a Word file.
Much appreciated.
I met the gal who was so close to all those Vatican officials this past March at the Aztec Symposium. Much more impressive than I expected. She’s a top flight researcher and author.
—PAOLA LEOPIZZI HARRIS—
Why is this off limits?
Certainly He rains on the just and the unjust.
Thx.
So, thank you, dear brother in Christ, and please keep on keeping on.
Discussing posters’ sex lives (real or imaginary) on the Religion Forum is “making it personal.”
I’m not. I’m discussing his theology of it.
If you want to discuss Onan again, then go ahead - but don’t state the sexual preferences of another Freeper because that is “making it personal.”
The older I get, the fewer things really get my dander up.
They just aren’t worth the bother.
Besides, I’d rather be in charge of my emotions instead of allowing some external situation or person(s) to be in charge of MY emotions.
Some things annoy me hereon. Most mildly to moderately, if at all.
Rank double standard stuff, rank hypocrisy and some degrees of idolatry and blasphemy can energize me.
Yet, most of the time, even those energized moments are not all THAT exercised. I’m still very calm in my Laz-Y-Boy. No great sweat; no great rise in blood pressure or heart rate or respiration rate.
After all, it’s ‘just’ squiggles on a screen. Folks will make of them whatever their past, their genetics and their current thrownness and context lead them to make of them.
I like to preend that some of our pontificating bears eternal consequences for God’s Kingdom. And, if we act and write out of good heart motives the least bit led of His Spirit—I expect they will—regardless of what others think.
God has a knack for causing all things to work for Believers’ good as well as for the good of His kingdom—regardless.
That way, HE GETS THE GLORY.
GOD ALONE. NOT MAN. NEVER MAN. NOR GRADUATED MAN . . . at least not comparatively.
I didn’t continue my discussion earlier because I was embarrassed for you.
It’s clear that you think (contrary to Christian tradition) that Onanism does not encompass masturbation.
Perhaps you could clarify if you think masturbation is forbidden under the moral law.
You really don’t get that your comments of this nature are not welcome here, do you?
Offenses against ChastityIs proclaiming this part of Catholic teaching unwelcome on Free Republic?
2352 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action."137 "The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose." For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved."138
To form an equitable judgment about the subjects' moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.
But God forbid we proclaim sexual morality in its fullness. Then come the cries for censorship.
I honestly think you’re getting some sort of weird thrill out of posting a titillating word on the Religion Forum.
Do you care to explain the relevance of your veering into this topic, to the topic of the thread? Is this somehow related to Pope Benedict’s “intense” message?
I fail to see how this could be the case.
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. - Matt 12:35-37
When things get hurtful, it may not make sense to us here in this mortal life, but it all works together for the good for those of us who love God and are the called according to His purpose.
Now who's making it personal?
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