Friday, September 27, 2013

Catholic Monthly News Updates, September-October 2013

collected by Abouna Labib Kobti



You are busy. I will help you then on updating you on important things concerning our Catholic Church. 

On the following Monthly News Updates, I speak about:
1) The Six months Papacy of Pope Francis
2) Summery of his first Encyclical: “Lumen Fidei”, the Light of the Faith
Pope Francis was elected on April 13th, he was enthroned in April 19th, the Feast of St. Joseph. 
Six monhts after his election, September 13th, the Media (religious and non-religious) were speaking about his accomplishments. All were speaking about the new era of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis lead the Church on new ways, he took a new style that did not affect the doctrine of the Church.
No specials: room, car, dress, titles, honors for him or for the clergy...We are servants. Christ humbled himself.
People: openness to all, children, women, poor, special needs, Christians and non Christians, he washee the feet of non Christian women in prison, he answers calls, emails... Christ was all for all.
Homo, abortion, divorce:  Who am I to judge? Christ came to save and  not to judge.
Consecrated life: The Church is a battle field hospital at the service of the poor. Clergy are people to people at the service of all. Christ came as a poor person to serve and not to be served.
Embarrassment: for security, curia, clergy, civil authorities, media. Christ shocked all. He was a sign of change for his time. He gave the good example through his own life.
Afraid of newness: NO! Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Fear of being misunderstood, Christ has been criticized. I will be criticized, but I chose Jesus, as his vicar, and not what others want me to be.
Expect changes then, the Pope is decided to give a new face to our Catholic Church. I am proud to be Catholic.

Thomas Groome, a theology professor at Boston University, called him “a breath of fresh air.” Columnist Michael Gerson described him approvingly as a “disruptive force.” Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” said, “I love this guy!” Chris Rock tweeted that “the new pope might be the greatest man alive.”
2) Summery of his first Encyclical: “Lumen Fidei”, the Light of the Faith


Pope Benedict XVI wrote two Encyclicals on Charity and Hope. He wrote the first part of the new Encyclical “Lumen Fidei” before his resignation. Pope Francis continued it and published it on June 29, 2013.
1)      The Encyclical returns to Vatican II, as the “Year of Faith” (October 2012-November 2013) is the celebration of 50 years after Vatican II. 
2)      It says that “Since faith is one, it must be professed in all its purity and integrity” (no. 48).  So we as Catholic we cannot pick and say I believe in this and do not believe in that. Catholic Faith is not a mall.
3)      God revealed himself because he is Love. Faith then is based on Love. Then “The creed does not only involve giving one’s assent to a body of abstract truths; rather, when it is recited the whole of life is drawn into a journey towards full communion with the living God” (no. 45). It is then a journey of Love.
4)     Faith is a necessity for salvation because based on Love: “The light of love proper to faith can illumine the questions of our own time about truth….  As a truth of love, it is not one that can be imposed by force; it is not a truth that stifles the individual. Since it is born of love, it can penetrate to the heart, to the personal core of each man and woman. Clearly, then, faith is not intransigent, but grows in respectful coexistence with others” no 34.
5)     “Believing means entrusting oneself to a merciful love which always accepts and pardons, which sustains and directs our lives, and which shows its power by its ability to make straight the crooked lines of our history” (no. 13). 
6)      Faith transforms the whole person precisely to the extent that he or she becomes open to love. Through this blending of faith and love we come to see the kind of knowledge which faith entails, its power to convince and its ability to illumine our steps” no 26.
7)       The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence” (no. 4).  “For those early Christians, faith, as an encounter with the living God revealed in Christ, was indeed a ‘mother’, for it had brought them to the light and given birth within them to divine life, a new experience and a luminous vision of existence for which they were prepared to bear public witness to the end” (no. 5).
8)      According to Pope Francis, faith has proven itself essential to the promotion of “justice, law and peace”, by contrast with failed modern ideologies that also claimed those goals.“Modernity sought to build a universal brotherhood based on equality,” he writes, “yet we gradually came to realize that this brotherhood, lacking a common reference to a common father as its ultimate foundation, cannot endure” no. 54.
9)       “Slowly but surely, however, it would become evident that the light of autonomous reason is not enough to illumine the future; ultimately the future remains shadowy and fraught with fear of the unknown. As a result, humanity renounced the search for a great light, Truth itself, in order to be content with smaller lights which illumine the fleeting moment yet prove incapable of showing the way” no 3.
10)    “Only to the extent that love is grounded in truth can it endure over time, can it transcend the passing moment and be sufficiently solid to sustain a shared journey. If love is not tied to truth, it falls prey to fickle emotions and cannot stand the test of time. True love, on the other hand, unifies all the elements of our person and becomes a new light pointing the way to a great and fulfilled life. Without truth, love is incapable of establishing a firm bond; it cannot liberate our isolated ego or redeem it from the fleeting moment in order to create life and bear fruit.” (27)
11)   Faith is truly a good for everyone; it is a common good. Its light does not simply brighten the interior of the Church, nor does it serve solely to build an eternal city in the hereafter; it helps us build our societies in such a way that they can journey towards a future of hope. ” (51)
The Pope is preparing a new Encyclical on Poverty.


International Food Festival Sept. 28-29, 2013

We will be holding our 7th annual International Food Festival featuring delicious dishes representing many cultures. And there will be games and entertainment too!

Date and time:          Saturday, Sept. 28 from 1 PM until 6 PM

                                Sunday, Sept. 29 from 10 AM until 6 PM

Place:                       St Thomas More School Playground

Admission:               $3.00 per person, no charge for children under 7

Free parking and shuttle service

Come for fun, fellowship, and tasty food!