Catholic Rocker Matt Maher

Catholic rocker Matt Maher




Matthew "Matt" Guion Maher  is a contemporary Christian music (CCM) artist, songwriter, and worship leader originally from Newfoundland, Canada, who later relocated to Tempe, Arizona. He has written and produced six solo albums to date. Three of his albums have reached the Top 25 Christian Albums Billboard chart and four of his singles have reached the Top 25 Christian Songs chart. He is a practicing Catholic.

Trinidad President to meet with Pope Francis

The Article in the Catholic News of June 30th 2013 says it all:

Chargé d’Affaires at the Apostolic Nunciature, Msgr Pawel Obiedziński, told the Catholic News via email that the official visit of President Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis on July 6 would be not only a meeting of two Heads of State but would also have a “religious meaning” since the President was Catholic.

Msgr Obiedziński said: “Both of them, the President and the Pope, have just started their service, President Carmona as the President of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and Pope Francis as Peter’s successor and Universal Shepherd of the Catholic Church. We have to remember that Church and State are really different, but both of them are called to serve the human being in their respective missions, goals and means…”

The Polish priest added that each official visit was important as it was a moment to “pause for reflection on the profound reasons for the meetings between representatives of the Church and those of the State”.

He explained that those reasons were clearly set out by the Second Vatican Council and, in particular, by Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the modern world:

“The Church and the political community in their own fields are autonomous and independent from each other. Yet both, under different titles, are devoted to the personal and social vocation of the same men. The more that both foster sounder cooperation between themselves with due consideration for the circumstances of time and place, the more effective will their service be exercised for the good of all.” (#76)

President Carmona, who will be accompanied by his wife Reema on the trip to Italy, assumed the presidency on March 18 during an inauguration ceremony at the Hasely Crawford Stadium; five days earlier, on March 13, then Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected to the papacy and took the name Pope Francis.

They assumed office within days of each other and they’re both Catholic, so it’s fitting that Trinidad and Tobago’s Head of State will be meeting the Pope.
Chargé d’Affaires at the Apostolic Nunciature, Msgr Pawel Obiedziński, told the Catholic News via email that the official visit of President Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis on July 6 would be not only a meeting of two Heads of State but would also have a “religious meaning” since the President was Catholic.

FLASHBACK: President Anthony Carmona moves to inspect the nation’s security forces during his March 18 inauguration ceremony. CN FILE PHOTO – Desmond Durham.

Msgr Obiedziński said: “Both of them, the President and the Pope, have just started their service, President Carmona as the President of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and Pope Francis as Peter’s successor and Universal Shepherd of the Catholic Church. We have to remember that Church and State are really different, but both of them are called to serve the human being in their respective missions, goals and means…”
The Polish priest added that each official visit was important as it was a moment to “pause for reflection on the profound reasons for the meetings between representatives of the Church and those of the State”.
He explained that those reasons were clearly set out by the Second Vatican Council and, in particular, by Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the modern world: “The Church and the political community in their own fields are autonomous and independent from each other. Yet both, under different titles, are devoted to the personal and social vocation of the same men. The more that both foster sounder cooperation between themselves with due consideration for the circumstances of time and place, the more effective will their service be exercised for the good of all.” (#76)
President Carmona, who will be accompanied by his wife Reema on the trip to Italy, assumed the presidency on March 18 during an inauguration ceremony at the Hasely Crawford Stadium; five days earlier, on March 13, then Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected to the papacy and took the name Pope Francis.
The Catholic News made numerous attempts to obtain additional information from the Office of the President concerning the visit, but up to press time no information was forthcoming. Meanwhile, Papal Nuncio Archbishop Nicola Girasoli is currently abroad.





________________________________________________________________________________________ **DISCLAIMER**: User comments posted on this website are the sole views and opinions of the comment writer and are not representative of Camsel/Catholic News or its staff. Camsel/Catholic News accepts no liability and will not be held accountable for user comments. Please help us keep our site clean from inappropriate comments by using the flag option. Camsel/Catholic News reserves the right to remove, to edit or to censor any comments. Any content which is considered unsuitable, unlawful or offensive, includes personal details, advertises or promotes products, services or websites or repeats previous comments will be removed. Before posting, please refer to the Comments Policy under Resources - See more at: http://www.catholicnews-tt.net/joomla/frontpage/4727-president-to-meet-pope-jun-30#sthash.i3yUUKqo.dpuf

They assumed office within days of each other and they’re both Catholic, so it’s fitting that Trinidad and Tobago’s Head of State will be meeting the Pope.
Chargé d’Affaires at the Apostolic Nunciature, Msgr Pawel Obiedziński, told the Catholic News via email that the official visit of President Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis on July 6 would be not only a meeting of two Heads of State but would also have a “religious meaning” since the President was Catholic.

FLASHBACK: President Anthony Carmona moves to inspect the nation’s security forces during his March 18 inauguration ceremony. CN FILE PHOTO – Desmond Durham.

Msgr Obiedziński said: “Both of them, the President and the Pope, have just started their service, President Carmona as the President of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and Pope Francis as Peter’s successor and Universal Shepherd of the Catholic Church. We have to remember that Church and State are really different, but both of them are called to serve the human being in their respective missions, goals and means…”
The Polish priest added that each official visit was important as it was a moment to “pause for reflection on the profound reasons for the meetings between representatives of the Church and those of the State”.
He explained that those reasons were clearly set out by the Second Vatican Council and, in particular, by Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the modern world: “The Church and the political community in their own fields are autonomous and independent from each other. Yet both, under different titles, are devoted to the personal and social vocation of the same men. The more that both foster sounder cooperation between themselves with due consideration for the circumstances of time and place, the more effective will their service be exercised for the good of all.” (#76)
President Carmona, who will be accompanied by his wife Reema on the trip to Italy, assumed the presidency on March 18 during an inauguration ceremony at the Hasely Crawford Stadium; five days earlier, on March 13, then Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected to the papacy and took the name Pope Francis.
The Catholic News made numerous attempts to obtain additional information from the Office of the President concerning the visit, but up to press time no information was forthcoming. Meanwhile, Papal Nuncio Archbishop Nicola Girasoli is currently abroad.





________________________________________________________________________________________ **DISCLAIMER**: User comments posted on this website are the sole views and opinions of the comment writer and are not representative of Camsel/Catholic News or its staff. Camsel/Catholic News accepts no liability and will not be held accountable for user comments. Please help us keep our site clean from inappropriate comments by using the flag option. Camsel/Catholic News reserves the right to remove, to edit or to censor any comments. Any content which is considered unsuitable, unlawful or offensive, includes personal details, advertises or promotes products, services or websites or repeats previous comments will be removed. Before posting, please refer to the Comments Policy under Resources - See more at: http://www.catholicnews-tt.net/joomla/frontpage/4727-president-to-meet-pope-jun-30#sthash.i3yUUKqo.dpuf

They assumed office within days of each other and they’re both Catholic, so it’s fitting that Trinidad and Tobago’s Head of State will be meeting the Pope.
Chargé d’Affaires at the Apostolic Nunciature, Msgr Pawel Obiedziński, told the Catholic News via email that the official visit of President Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis on July 6 would be not only a meeting of two Heads of State but would also have a “religious meaning” since the President was Catholic.

FLASHBACK: President Anthony Carmona moves to inspect the nation’s security forces during his March 18 inauguration ceremony. CN FILE PHOTO – Desmond Durham.

Msgr Obiedziński said: “Both of them, the President and the Pope, have just started their service, President Carmona as the President of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and Pope Francis as Peter’s successor and Universal Shepherd of the Catholic Church. We have to remember that Church and State are really different, but both of them are called to serve the human being in their respective missions, goals and means…”
The Polish priest added that each official visit was important as it was a moment to “pause for reflection on the profound reasons for the meetings between representatives of the Church and those of the State”.
He explained that those reasons were clearly set out by the Second Vatican Council and, in particular, by Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the modern world: “The Church and the political community in their own fields are autonomous and independent from each other. Yet both, under different titles, are devoted to the personal and social vocation of the same men. The more that both foster sounder cooperation between themselves with due consideration for the circumstances of time and place, the more effective will their service be exercised for the good of all.” (#76)
President Carmona, who will be accompanied by his wife Reema on the trip to Italy, assumed the presidency on March 18 during an inauguration ceremony at the Hasely Crawford Stadium; five days earlier, on March 13, then Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected to the papacy and took the name Pope Francis.
The Catholic News made numerous attempts to obtain additional information from the Office of the President concerning the visit, but up to press time no information was forthcoming. Meanwhile, Papal Nuncio Archbishop Nicola Girasoli is currently abroad.

memories of Fathers day 2013

My fathers day 2013 was pretty good. It started with breakfast and a joint children's card. I decided to share the card because it so rocks.

Next Stop ... Saint John Paul II

New miracle paves way for Canonization of John Paul II. Here is an article from the Vatican News agency Zenit.explaining the ongoings:

June 19, 2013 (Zenit.org) H. Sergio Mora

Several media agencies reported that The Commission of Theologians of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the second miracle, which occurred after John Paul II’s beatification, and which is an indispensable condition for his canonization.  However, the official confirmation has yet to be announced by the Holy See. The proclamation of John Paul II’s sanctity will take place just eight years after his death.

Following the approval of the second miracle, the consensus is now necessary of the Commission of Cardinals and Bishops of the aforementioned dicastery, which will be meeting in the next few weeks. Pope Francis would then give his approval and fix the date of the ceremony.

The verdict of the Medical Commission of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints was given at the end of April – the inexplicable cure of a woman attributed to John Paul II. The miracle took place on the night of May 1, 2011, the day of Pope Wojtyla’s beatification. Nothing is known about its nature, but it has been referred to as very impressive.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder, postulator of the cause, presented the alleged miracle last January to the doctors for their examination and statement on its miraculous nature.

The two doctors of the Vatican Consultation were the first to approve it, considering it an inexplicable cure. The clinical material was then presented officially to the dicastery and discussed by the Consultation, a commission of seven doctors.

The Consultation, headed by cardiologist Patrizio Polisca, who looked after John Paul II, Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis, agreed that the cure was inexplicable.

The miracle that made John Paul II’s beatification possible was the inexplicable cure of a nun, Sister Marie Simon Pierre, who was suffering from Parkinson’s.

The Church establishes that after the Commission of Cardinals approves the heroic virtues of a candidate, a first miracle is necessary to proclaim him Blessed, as confirmation by God, given that in a whole human life there can be unknown factors that impede holiness. If the cause is that of a martyr, a first miracle is not necessary. A Blessed may be venerated publicly in the local Church, namely, in his diocese.

A second miracle is required for canonization, after the candidate has been proclaimed Blessed .

Canonization bestows on the candidate the title of Saint, allowing them to be venerated with public devotion by the whole Catholic Church.

St Jospeh included in Eucharistic prayers

Woo Hoo! Lets hear it for St Joseph. He is given greater significance in the church and the Mass. I am happy about this. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments have released a document in which they "biged up" St Joseph. Following from this, saint Joseph is now included in the Eucharistic Prayers II, III, and IV in the Roman Missal.

Exercising his paternal care over Jesus, Saint Joseph of Nazareth, set over the Lord’s family, marvelously fulfilled the office he received by grace. Adhering firmly to the mystery of God’s design of salvation in its very beginnings, he stands as an exemplary model of the kindness and humility that the Christian faith raises to a great destiny, and demonstrates the ordinary and simple virtues necessary for men to be good and genuine followers of Christ. Through these virtues, this Just man, caring most lovingly for the Mother of God and happily dedicating himself to the upbringing of Jesus Christ, was placed as guardian over God the Father’s most precious treasures. Therefore he has been the subject of assiduous devotion on the part of the People of God throughout the centuries, as the support of that mystical body, which is the Church.

Dom Basil Matthews - a national treasure

EARLY LIFE - Born in the San Juan area of Trinidad on September 2nd 1911, Basil stephen Matthews later attended the College of the Immaculate Conception (St Mary’s College), an all-boys secondary school founded by the Roman Catholic Holy Ghost Fathers in 1863. 

THE PRIEST - When he left St Mary`s in 1928 and went up –literally and figuratively – to the Mount St Benedict`s Seminary to commence his studies for the priesthood. Matthews took his priestly vows in 1935 and then went on to the Benedictine College of Theology in Louvain, Belgium; from Louvain it was on to Fordham University, New York, where he earned a Master’s degree in sociology: He also took a PhD at Fordham. 

CRISIS IN THE WEST INDIAN FAMILY - While at Mount st Benedict Dom Basil was one of the assigned counsellors of the many who came to the monastary. His experiences in that role led to his publication of Crisis of the West Indian Family, one of the earliest sociological works on Caribbean family problems

THE DOM - Dom is short for Dominus (Latin for lord/ master). It is a title of respect commonly used when addressing monks. 

THE INTELLECTUAL - In the United States Dom Basil taught at Fordham University, the Graduate School for Social Work , Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart (New York)  Howard University and Talladega College, Alabama`s oldest historically black college.

The Dom was in the U.S in 1943 when he became one of  two New York based Trinidadians to have been recruited by Eric Williams to assist with the planning for a conference under the theme “The Economic Future of the Caribbean ”:   Eric Williams hosted the conference at Howard University in Washington, DC. in June 1943.

At some point Howard University requested Dom Basil's services to develop an "intellectual academic base for the integration of black experience into the curriculum of the University". While working on that project, he was assigned to the Graduate School of Social Work where he was Chairman of Human Behaviour in the Social Environment, and later Chairman of the Graduate Studies at the School of Communications involving print and broadcast media. 

ST BENEDICTS COLLEGE - When Dom Basil was sent to minister in the San Fernando region in the early 1950s, he felt that he had to do something about the lack of educational opportunity in the district. In 1953, Matthews began laying the foundation for what evolved into St Benedict's College.  He encouraged the church to purchase land from the Lucky family in La Romaine and their home was used as the building to house the primary school. Many scoffed at his idea but Dom Basil was undaunted and with the support of Archbishop Ryan, some businessmen and parishioners, he was able to bring his dream to fruition. St. Benedict's College opened its doors on September 11, 1956 with 220 students. It was to be one of the first comprehensive schools in the country for besides the normal grammar school subjects, a number of technical and vocatioanl subjects formed part of the curriculum. In 1957, with support of the then Minister of Education, Dr. Patrick Solomon, St. Benedict's became a government assisted school. There was a steady expansion from then on. the staff room block was opened in 1960. the auditorium in 1961 and the playing field in 1963 at La-Romaine by the Sea. Dom Basil believed that excellence in sports would develop the self-esteem of students which would lead to an improvement in academic standards.Alas, the Dom was drummed out of St Benedict`s in 1968 amidst allegations of financial misconduct; though never substantiated these charges will shadow him to the grave. 

A NATIONAL HERO -Apart from his principalship at St Benedict's College, he taught for several years at the Abbey School at Mt St Benedict, and was a lecturer for the Extra Mural Department of the University of the West Indies at St Augustine. He also served as a vice-president of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association for several years

A PRIEST NO LONGER - In 1981, news was received in Trinidad that Pope John Paul II had consented to an application by Dom Basil made three years previously for a release from his priestly vows. The application had been forwarded through Archbishop Anthony Pantin and Abbot Hildebrand Greene of the Abbey at Mount St Benedict. 

IN THE BOSOM OF ABRAHAM - The former monk spent most of his time in the United States. He died in an Aberdeen Mississippi nursing home on April 7, 1999  after a long illness. He was 87.

happy fathers day

This year I am so much taken with the idea of fathers day, The radio talk shows, which are mostly hosted by men, seem to be hyping the day.... and why not?

My dad died when I was seven years old and my mum never remarried. Most of my neighbours were in single family situations. So it was not until I became a father that I realised the significance of fathers day. Even in the church Mary has large billing. There is a feast of the holy name of Jesus, and one of Mary. There is a feast of the sacred heart of Jesus, and one of Mary. I don't think there is one Cathollic church that is dedicated to God the Father.

Saint Joseph has two feast days: St Joseph the Worker (mayday) and St Joseph the Just (lent).... but what about St Joseph the Father.... nothing!

This is the first year that my family made a big deal of fathers day.. I got breakfast in bed, a beautiful home made card and a gift of a T shirt. Now it's off to Mass.

In my family,  when we do our morning prayers, we ask the intercession of St Joseph as patron saint of fathers. and so we do today on Fathers day with a prayer that is noted to be from around AD50:

Oh St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

Oh St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your divine son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

Oh St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while he reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss his fine head for me, and ask him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. 

St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us. Amen

.

the cult of Eck

Eckenkar - a cult of self is alive and doing well in Trinidad. This group publishes daily spiritual sayings and has weekly initiation meetings. A friend of mine went to one of these meetings and described what I call suggestive behaviour and hypnosis. She was put into a meditative state (the entire group was) then after awhile they were told to be at the ocean and feel the water spray up on them as the wave hits the rock. My friend claims to have felt the water and opened her eyes expecting to be wet from someone throwing water on her. She never went back.

Eckencar was founded by a fella called Paul Twitchell. Paul was a writer who has been accused of plagiarism. He dabbled in eastern religions and came up with a philosophy which he later registered as a religion when the IRS went after him for tax evasion.

There are now lots of websites enlightening people about this cult, all you have to do is google.

Jesus the pelican

So my son had his first communion last week. A few days before that he visited rosary monastery and saw the process of the baking of the hosts. He was shown the "big" host and saw an image of a bird feeding its young from a tear in its chest.

The image is actually one of the Pelican. Elizabeth Braidwood on her website says this of the pelican.

The pelican of the Middle Ages was thought to pierce herself in her breast in order to feed her blood to her young. Alternate stories tell of how the pelican would kill her young in a fit of pique, and then pierce her breast in later remorse. The blood thus brought forth, falling on the dead chicks, brought them back to life.

Generally, depictions of the pelican are meant to indicate Christ the Saviour who shed his blood in a like manner.

In medieval heraldry, a pelican is an eagle-beaked bird always shown plucking at her breast. If shown alone she is blazoned (described in heraldic terms) as "vulning herself". If the young are shown with the parent, she is blazoned as "a pelican in her piety". 

The Physiologus, a second century work of a popular theological type, described animals both real and imaginary and gave each an allegorical interpretation. It told of the pelican drawing the blood from its own breast to feed its young. The physical reality which probably resulted in this legend is that the long beak of the pelican has a sack or pouch which serves as a container for the small fish that it feeds its young. In the process of feeding them, the bird presses the sack back against its neck in such a way that it seems to open its breast with its bill. The reddish tinge of its breast plumage and the redness of the tip of its beak prompted the legend that it actually drew blood from its own breast.

The Physiologus, and later Latin Bestiaries of the Middle Ages, found the action of the pelican, so interpreted, as a particularly appropriate symbol of the sacrifice of Christ the Redeemer shedding His blood, and thus the symbol of the pelican grew to have a wide usage in Christian literature and art. Thomas Aquinas did indeed use the figure of the pelican in his beautiful hymn appointed to be sung in Thanksgiving after Communion, the Adoro Te Devote:

"Pie Pellicane, Jesu Domine,
Me immundum munda Tuo sanguine. (verse 3)
O Loving Pelican, O Jesu Lord,
Unclean am I but cleanse me in Thy blood."

We also find a reference in Dante's Paradiso (25.113), and in Act IV, scene V of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Laertes says to the King:

"To his good friends thus wide I'll open my arms;
And like the life-rendering pelican,
Repast them with my blood."

In medieval and baroque art, the pelican is often found as an ornament on altars, chalices, and tabernacle doors.

The Cathedral of the immaculate conception painted by Cazabon

Jean Michael Cazabon was born of French parentage, the son of Francis Cazabon, in Trinidad on September 20, 1813. His parents, owners of a sugar plantation, were "free colored" immigrants from Martinique, who had come to Trinidad following the Cedula of Population of 1783.

In 1826, at the age of thirteen, Cazabon went to school at St. Edmund's College, Ware, England, returning to Trinidad in 1830. In about 1837 he sailed for Paris to study medicine. He gave up these studies and started off as an art student under Paul Delaroche a leading painter in Paris. His parents' wealth supported his pursuits and those of his family for many years in an enviable life-style and only later in life did he find it necessary to earn a living from his paintings.

He followed the familiar pattern for students at that time, travelling extensively in France and Italy painting the landscape. His work was shown at the Salon du Louvre in 1839 and every year from 1843 to 1847. His philosophy and style follow closely that of the contemporary French landscape artists. In 1843 he married a French woman, Rosalie Trolard. In 1845 he visited Trinidad, returning to Paris in 1851 to publish a series of eighteen lithographs, "Views of Trinidad, 1851". After the birth of his second daughter in Paris in 1852, he returned with his family to Trinidad.

Cazabon soon became popular as a society painter, not only with his paintings of Trinidad scenery, but also with his portraits of the planters and merchants of Port of Spain and their families. He taught art, and provided illustrations of local events for English newspapers. In Trinidad, Cazabon's most important patron was Lord Harris, the English Governor from 1848 to 1854, recording many of his social functions and excursions. The Harris Collection of 44 paintings, now displayed at the family home at Belmont in Kent, England, is perhaps the most important collection of nineteenth century visual references of Trinidad. Several other less extensive, but important collections were commissioned by William Burnley, the Scottish-American planter, John Lamont and the Earl of Dundonald. In 1857 he published a second series of eighteen lithographs of local scenes, Album of Trinidad. In 1860 he published, with the photographer Hartmann, a series of sixteen lithographs entitled Album of Demerara, and in that same year contributed one of the scenes in Album Martiniquais, published by Hartmann and the lithographer, Eugene Ciceri.

In 1862, Cazabon moved with his family to Saint Pierre in Martinique. He hoped that Saint Pierre, described then as the Paris of the New World, would offer a metropolitan spirit that Trinidad lacked, and provide a greater appreciation for his art. Finding much the same attitudes prevailing, he returned to Trinidad about 1870 and attempted to pick up the threads of his former life. Never to regain his social standing, he began to drink to dull his disillusionment. Hawking his paintings around Port of Spain, he became known only as a drunken, though gentle, old eccentric. In 1888, while working at his easel, he died of a heart attack, and the following day was unceremoniously buried in Lapeyrouse Cemetery.

His work was displayed in the Salon de Louvre in Paris in 1839 and 1843-1847.

June Johnston retires

I beleive that all things must pass.... and so Mrs June JOhnston has retired as the editor of the Port of Spain archdiocese Catholic News. God bless you in your retirement Mrs Johnston. I hope good things for you.

You know it must be hard being an editor - Trying to put new things in place to briong new life to the Catholic news, trying to make a newspaper interesting in an age when other media including the internet seems to devour peoples attention and their willingness to even read.

The Catholic news has strived and continus to strive through it all.

Of course I have my issues with the paper that I have often vented on this blog. I beleive that it does not highlight the stresses and victories of Catholics in the greater world. There is so much news out there: Zenit, Catholic News Agency, Lifesite, etc... and we hear so little in the catholic news about the battels that the faitful outside of Trinidad fight. Perhaps it is not part of the format to delve too much into international news.

Another thing, is that the newspaper is too clean. I always think of agressive discussion and opinions on topics. That way, our faithful can be made aware on what the church teaches on specific issues... and understand why people think the way they do. But I am a bachanalist (as people who like controvercy is called in Trinidad). so thank God June isn't so inclined.

Whatever the direction of the paper, I know that I would not be able to run that preiodical as June did. Thank you June for your contribution. Thank you for giving me a chance to write in the newspaper. Thank you for all that you have done that in some way has touched someone. May God continue to bless you.

Pope Francis and the miracle of the Eucharist in Buenos Aires

At seven o’clock in the evening on August 18, 1996, Fr. Alejandro Pezet was saying Holy Mass at a Catholic church in the commercial center of Buenos Aires. As he was finishing distributing Holy Communion, a woman came up to tell him that she had found a discarded host on a candleholder at the back of the church. On going to the spot indicated, Fr. Alejandro saw the defiled Host. Since he was unable to consume it, he placed it in a container of water and put it away in the tabernacle of the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.

On Monday, August 26, upon opening the tabernacle, he saw to his amazement that the Host had turned into a bloody substance. He informed Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis), who gave instructions that the Host be professionally photographed. The photos were taken on September 6. They clearly show that the Host, which had become a fragment of bloodied flesh, had grown significantly in size. For several years the Host remained in the tabernacle, the whole affair being kept a strict secret. Since the Host suffered no visible decomposition, Cardinal Bergoglio decided to have it scientifically analyzed.

On October 5, 1999, in the presence of the Cardinal’s representatives, Dr. Castanon took a sample of the bloody fragment and sent it to New York for analysis. Since he did not wish to prejudice the study, he purposely did not inform the team of scientists of its provenance. One of these scientists was Dr. Frederic Zugiba, the well-known cardiologist and forensic pathologist. He determined that the analyzed substance was real flesh and blood containing human DNA. Zugiba testified that, “the analyzed material is a fragment of the heart muscle found in the wall of the left ventricle close to the valves. This muscle is responsible for the contraction of the heart. It should be borne in mind that the left cardiac ventricle pumps blood to all parts of the body. The heart muscle is in an inflammatory condition and contains a large number of white blood cells. This indicates that the heart was alive at the time the sample was taken. It is my contention that the heart was alive, since white blood cells die outside a living organism. They require a living organism to sustain them. Thus, their presence indicates that the heart was alive when the sample was taken. What is more, these white blood cells had penetrated the tissue, which further indicates that the heart had been under severe stress, as if the owner had been beaten severely about the chest.”

Two Australians, journalist Mike Willesee and lawyer Ron Tesoriero, witnessed these tests. Knowing where sample had come from, they were dumbfounded by Dr. Zugiba’s testimony. Mike Willesee asked the scientist how long the white blood cells would have remained alive if they had come from a piece of human tissue, which had been kept in water. They would have ceased to exist in a matter of minutes, Dr. Zugiba replied. The journalist then told the doctor that the source of the sample had first been kept in ordinary water for a month and then for another three years in a container of distilled water; only then had the sample been taken for analysis. Dr. Zugiba’s was at a loss to account for this fact. There was no way of explaining it scientifically, he stated. Only then did Mike Willesee inform Dr. Zugiba that the analyzed sample came from a consecrated Host (white, unleavened bread) that had mysteriously turned into bloody human flesh. Amazed by this information, Dr. Zugiba replied, “How and why a consecrated Host would change its character and become living human flesh and blood will remain an inexplicable mystery to science—a mystery totally beyond her competence.”

Only faith in the extraordinary action of a God provides the reasonable answer—faith in a God, who wants to make us aware that He is truly present in the mystery of the Eucharist.