Overheard in the Sacristy

“God is my assignment editor.” — An unnamed obituary editor, quoted on a Web site about funny sayings overhead in newsrooms, Overheardinthenewsroom.com.

“Now is the time for us all, and in particular for consecrated persons to stand up for the truth and to call upon our fellow Catholics and leadership to do the same, or to cease identifying themselves as Catholics.” – Archbishop Raymond Burke at the Institute on Religious Life conference, Saturday, April 10, 2010

“I wouldn’t worry about the police. This is what I’d worry about. ” — –St. Bernard (La.) Sheriff’s Chief Deputy James Pohlmann, pointing to the life-sized crucifix mounted to the wall, after thieves broke into Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Violet, La., and stole donated Christmas presents that had been collected by the church. He was quoted by The Times-Picayune.

“Most people confuse tradition with the era that immediately preceded their own.”

“One of the most amazing surprises of the presidency was the fact that people’s prayers affected me.”–Former President George W. Bush quoted by The Washington Post October 27, 2009.

«…El Hermano Rafael, aún cercano a nosotros, nos sigue ofreciendo con su ejemplo y sus obras un recorrido atractivo, especialmente para los jóvenes que no se conforman con poco, sino que aspiran a la plena verdad, a la más indecible alegría, que se alcanzan por el amor de Dios. ‘Vida de amor… He aquí la única razón de vivir’”, dice el nuevo Santo. E insiste: ‘Del amor de Dios sale todo’. Que el Señor escuche benigno una de las últimas plegarias de San Rafael Arnáiz, cuando le entregaba toda su vida, suplicando: ‘Tómame a mí y date Tú al mundo’. Que se dé para reanimar la vida interior de los cristianos de hoy. Que se dé para que sus Hermanos de la Trapa y los centros monásticos sigan siendo ese faro que hace descubrir el íntimo anhelo de Dios que Él ha puesto en cada corazón humano…»–Homilía de Benedicto XVI el día de su canonización.

“A nation that kills its children has no future.” — Mother Theresa of Calcutta

I met then Archbishop Stafford during my novitiate year in Denver many eons ago. I was glad to read this from a somber intellectual:

Vatican cardinal: Obama is ‘Aggressive, Disruptive and Apocalyptic’

Saturday November 15, 2008

Categories: Bishops, Catholic, Church , Politics, Pope

Father Newman (see below) may have at least one big gun on his side, rhetorically if not canonically or theologically. According to the student newspaper of Catholic University of America, Cardinal Francis Stafford, a longtime American in the Roman Curia, on Thursday night painted an apocalytpic picture of the America he sees in the wake of Obama’s victory:

His Eminence James Francis Cardinal Stafford criticized President-elect Barack Obama as “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic,” and said he campaigned on an “extremist anti-life platform,” Thursday night in Keane Auditorium during his lecture “Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II: Being True in Body and Soul.”

“Because man is a sacred element of secular life,” Stafford remarked, “man should not be held to a supreme power of state, and a person’s life cannot ultimately be controlled by government.”

“For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden,” Stafford said, comparing America’s future with Obama as president to Jesus’ agony in the garden. “On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake.”

Cardinal Stafford said Catholics must deal with the “hot, angry tears of betrayal” by beginning a new sentiment where one is “with Jesus, sick because of love.”

The lecture, hosted by the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, pertained to Humanae Vitae, a papal encyclical written by Pope Paul VI in 1968 and celebrating its 40 anniversary this year.

Stafford also spoke about the decline of a respect for human life and the need for Catholics to return to the original values of marriage and human dignity.

“If 1968 was the year of America’s ’suicide attempt,’ 2008 is the year of America’s exhaustion,” said Stafford, an American Cardinal and Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary for the Tribunal of the Holy See. “In the intervening 40 years since Humanae Vitae, the United States has been thrown upon ruins.”

This destruction and America’s decline is largely in part due to the Supreme Court’s decisions in the life-issue cases of 1973, specifically Roe v. Wade. Stafford asserted these cases undermined respect for human life in the United States.

“Its scrupulous meanness has had catastrophic effects upon the unity and integrity of the American republic,” said Stafford.

Wow. I bet that wasn’t the tenor of Obama’s chat with the Pope the other day. Then again, lieutenants are there to do the dirty work so the white cassock stays clean.

“Money is like manure. It should be spread around.” — Thorton Wilder