Is this the image of the new Pope?

There is a lot of talk about this 55year old Cardinal from Manila. Here is what wiki has to say about him:

Luis Antonio Tagle (Latin: Aloysius Antonius Tagle) (born June 21, 1957, in Manila) is a Roman Catholic Filipino cardinal, titular-archpriest of the Church of Saint Felix of Cantalice at Centocelle and de facto Primate of the Philippines. Appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, Tagle succeeded the Archbishop Emeritus, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales. Tagle is also the Professor of Dogmatic Synthesis at the Graduate School of Theology of San Carlos Seminary, the archdiocesan major seminary of Manila, and an Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at the Loyola School of Theology of the Ateneo de Manila University.

Tagle is known for his charismatic nature.He has become involved in many social issues in the Philippines with emphasis on helping the poor and the needy while maintaining opposition against atheism, abortion, contraception, and the Reproductive Health Bill. Tagle currently wields strong religious and political influence as the country's primate, with an estimated 2.8 million professed Roman Catholics in the Archdiocese.

Tagle was installed on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and is currently the head of the Metropolitan See of Manila along with its mother church, the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, as both its metropolitan archbishop and archpriest.

Tagle was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in a papal consistory on November 24, 2012 at Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Despite his appointment as Archbishop of Manila, Tagle is still the presenter of The Word Exposed, a Catholic television programme produced by the Jesuit Communications Foundation, which also maintains a non-official FaceBook account while all his official correspondences and press releases are maintained and released by the Archdiocesan Chancery of Manila.
He is also co-presenter on Kape't Pandasal ("Coffee and Prayer", a pun on the term kape't pandesal or "coffee and salted bread"), an early morning religious inspirational programme partly produced by the same network.

My mothers bed

When my mother was alive, I would go to her house and chat with her a while. Then I would head off to her room, lie on her bed and proceed to fall asleep. This was a situation that all my siblings found themselves in. Mummy's bed was the comfort, serenity and peace away from their lives. A place that we could feel relaxed enough to fall asleep in the middle of the day.

When you think about it, it is only natural that we all gravitate to mummy's bed. My kids do so now. When they are scared, sick, tired, upset, angry, frustrated or just looking for a hug, my wife and I are sought out (my wife is sought first.. I am the plan B). At night our bed is the comfort zone for bad dreams... or the bigger ones will prefer to rally out the flu in our bed rather than theirs (and that's not good for us).

Even my 50 year old brother would find himself on mummy's bed when he would come by for a visit. 

My mother has passed on now, and I have that bed. My brother still seeks it out, but it is not the same for him now. Even for me, it is not the same. My daughter sleeps in the bed. It offers no comfort or tranquility.

The trick of mummy's bed wasn't the bed...it was that we were coming home.

We were children again... not a care in the world.

Today, Jesus is saying.... you are my child. Don't worry about anything. Just ask and it will be given.

Praise God for that.

Don't mess with nuns, especially if they carry guns

Thanks to pinktiger355 who I got this image from

He who enters the Conclave as Pope, leaves it as a Cardinal

So the Italians have a word to describe a cardinal that is good Pope material. He is called Papabile. Now here is what Wikipedia has to say about the term Papabile:

PAPABILE (Italian pronunciation: [paˈpaːbile], pl. papabili) is an unofficial Italian term first coined by Vaticanologists and now used internationally in many languages to describe a Catholic man, most often a cardinal, who is thought a likely or possible candidate to be elected pope. A literal English translation would be "pope-able" or "one who might become pope".

In some cases the cardinals will choose a papabile candidate. Among the papabili cardinals who have been elected pope are Eugenio Pacelli (Pius XII), Giovanni Battista Montini (Paul VI), and Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI). However, at times the College of cardinals elect a man who was not considered papabile by most Vatican watchers. In recent years those who were elected pope though not considered papabili include John XXIII, John Paul I, and John Paul II. There is a saying among Vaticanologists: "He who enters the conclave as pope, leaves it as a cardinal."

The list of papabili changes as cardinals age. For instance Carlo Maria Martini was thought to be papabile until he retired from his see upon reaching 75 years of age. The list of papabili in the 2005 papal conclave shows who was considered papabile at the death of John Paul II. As Pope Benedict XVI was one of the oldest men on the list, most men on the list remain among his potential successors.

One hour (not two hour) masses on a regular sunday please..

I was having a discussion with my cousin recently. He says he is tired of the long masses. I know his distress. My children always complain that the mass is too long. I wonder if the mass was half an hour if I would still get that complaint. The reality is that there are some parishes that people stay for about two hours in the church.Now that is reduiculous. I have never really paid attention, but I have been told that the dominican masses go on for one hour.. and one hour only.

Well maybe so, but they don't have all the fru fru that our other masses have. We must celebrate our parishioners birthdays, and new people, and visitors, and those from abroad, and those who lost a love one, and those who have aniversaries (of any sort) and then we have the announcements and then on some days we have one parish group thanking some individuals and  there are other reasons that keep us in after the offical mass has ended. Weather people like it or not, this fru fru is important. It helps build a sense of comunity.

The real issue is the time of the homily. Someone once told me that the homily must be of a certain length. Well, I don't know. I have heard some really great homilies that left me so enthused, and others that I really couldn't remember, even after just hearing it minutes before. In this day of entertainment, I don't want to be entertained, but I do want to be fed. I want to hear the word of God and feel compelled to follow it.

It is true that very few people are great orators. Father Mechelle DeVertueil homilies were epic for my children. They understood his homilies. They enjoyed them. His homilies were really just very short explainations of what the scripture told us in the reading and what we are being asked to do. ... very very short. The homilies took just a few minutes.

Some homilies leave an impression. The last nuncio to Port of Spain gave a homily on the Catholic church not being a tent revival. When I made that statement in the newsletter, one particular Charismatic Catholic was very upset. Another homily by an irish priest, Father Tiernan, moved me and my wife to be against the death penalty. Still another homily I heard got me upset with the priest as I interpretted his soliloquay as racist..... so homilies can leave you with some feeling... long or short.

Perhaps what can be said in twenty minutes, can also be said in ten minutes. There is such a thing as over explaining, and repeating yourself. It is a distastful thing to be put into a lecture hall and have the same thing said to you over and over. Similarly, in the over explaining  process, you could loose the AUDIENCE. Loosing an audience is of course bad, because now they are no longer being spiritually fed,  but also they are also loosing interest in going to church... and they become indifferent to the word of God.

Some might find that they are being fed in other parishes or denominations... and that is not good for catholic community.

So in closing I would like to say that I am in agreement with my cousin. The masses should be kept to one hour. I wonder what the Archbishop can do about this.

Arab King gives land to Catholic church

The King of Bahrain has donated 9,000 square metres of land to the Catholic Church for the construction of a cathedral.

Mgr Camillo Ballin, mccj, Apostolic Vicar of north Arabia, vicariate which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia told Fides that he was in Kuwait when he received a request for a meeting from the King of Bahrain's Minister, Shaykh Ahmed Bin Ateytallah Al Khalifa, who later handed him the deeds to the land.
Mgr Ballin was keen to highlight that the document was dated 11 February, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes that in Bahrain corresponds to Our Lady of Arabia .

"Our prayers have been answered," writes the Bishop. "Our Lady of Arabia is capable of doing miracles!"
Bishop Ballin said that 13 February he was invited to the royal palace for a meeting with King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa with all the religious authorities, and was that he was going to be seated seated next to the King as a guest of honour. He said this would enable him to personally thank the King for this gift. The new church will be Cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of Arabia.

Here is what Wikipedia says about the land:

In August 2012, the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia was created and its headquarters was decided to be in Bahrain. The largest Catholic church in the Persian Gulf is to be constructed in Awali, south of Manama, the countries capital.The land for the church is being provided by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa due to a request from Pope Benedict XVI in December 2008, and will cover 9,000 square meters. It will be the headquarters for the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia, and also open to other Christian denominations. Protests from various Islamist groups have occurred over the donation. Although Bahrain does have a small native Christian population, most Catholics in Bahrain are ex-patriots from India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, and Western countries. Many parishioners are people who cross the border from Saudi Arabia, where there are no churches and it is illegal to be a Christian.There are currently two churches in the country; Sacred Heart Church in the capital Manama, and Our Lady of the Visitation in Awali in central Bahrain.

continuous applause for Pope Benedict

At the Ash Wednesday Mass the faithful broke out in continuous applause for Pope Benedict. A Solemn, yet humble man, he will be missed and while applause is not what we might call liturgical, How can we help ourselves. God bless you Pope Benedict XVI