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.
As Judith pointed out below, four hours is meaningless with the thread like this (also, news out of the Vatican can easily be sourced from multiple news agencies and this makes the point about duplication moot).
These threads typically go on UNTIL a new thread is chosen. The subject of thread is generally ignored after the first few dozen posts and all we hear are the same old talking points. Take the threads about clerical abuse, what significance do Marian or Eucharistic beliefs have to do with them? The answer is nothing, but it still gets talked about. How many times has it been stated that when we speak of our Lady of Fatima that Fatima is the name of town in which she appeared, not her name? It happens on every thread and the reason is almost certainly that an unmentionable hate monger once published a "tract" stating that we were talking about Mohammed's daughter.
Is the mother of the head NOT the mother of the Body?
Is Mary NOT the mother of Jesus the Christ?
Is the Church NOT the Body of which Christ is the head?
I don't see the wildness or the rubber.
In related news, I am astonished the a psychologist questions the bonding of infant with mother as important in the development of the ability to love.
I don’t care what the Usual Suspects say. I don’t care what they think about Catholics. I would just like NOT to see the same old junk on every freaking open thread.
I guess the RM can’t do anything about that. We cannot expect him/her to help. We are going to have to make important threads CAUCUS to stop the baiting. It’s infuriating to have to lock the Church doors, but there is no other way to keep the shouting bigots out.
One more thing: If we Catholics did not have open threads, the Usual Suspects and the bigots would have no place to post their hate. They belong to sects so small that there is virtually NO NEWS to post one of their own articles about.
If we did not respond to their vicious baiting, they would have no one to argue with.
They define themselves as NOT CATHOLIC. I see no reason to give them an opportunity to pat themselves on the back and screech high-fives over gotcha posts.
Starve the beast, I say. Give them nothing, and they will die, because they HAVE nothing of their own.
Wrong, because there is NOTHING to stop them from posting their anti-Catholic threads.
The Church has taken the position that Mohammad did not create a god because there is only one God. Mohammad did not change God because because God is omnipotent. Mohammad could only incorrectly describe God.
“Bring it Holy Father.”
This title belongs to God alone, not some sin-filled fallen human. Christ even commanded that we call NO ONE “father” but His Father.
“Wake the people up; wake the dead-behind-the-eyes.”
Only God can do this. This Pope is certainly not helping matters by preaching another Gospel.
I wonder how many here realize that the behavior exhibited here is part of the reason so many people turn away from Christianity. The infighting and mud slinging- from ALL sides- do not honor what Christ gave us through His sacrifice, and those anti-Christian folks out there rightfully question how we can know anything about the Love of Christ when we can’t even obey His commandment to love one another.
Think about how long it has been since Christ walked among man. Think of what has occurred in history and consider what impact that might have had on the development of the “Church” as you may view it. And then question if you could do any better.
Alright, go ahead and flame me. I don’t care. I know I don’t have “it” completely right, but I’m doing the best I can within the limits of being human. The rest is between me and God, and that’s how I view everyone else. If you accept Christ and truly do your best to live by Christ’s teachings, I can get over differences because that’s between YOU and GOD. I believe in right and wrong, and I believe some things are absolutely right and others absolutely wrong... but when it comes down to tradition or liturgy, I wasn’t here to see how things started, so I try my best to live right by God.
Let the flaming begin.
Right, there is nothing to stop them from posting anti-Catholic threads, and that is permitted on FR.
But if we don’t participate, those threads go nowhere. It’s our indignation that makes them happy. If we are not there, they are not fed.
If you are truly interested in the subject read "Crossing the Tiber" by Steve Ray.
I have arrived late to the party, but I am making a few contributions of my own to this point in the thread.
I agree with everything you are saying here, nmm.
Every thread posted about a point of interest to Catholics becomes a battle zone unless it’s made a caucus thread or an ecumenical thread; doing that presupposes that Catholics are going to run into a volume of negative, combative posts unless they put up some kind of barrier to the thread. Then, in doing so, they find they can be accused of not wanting to debate in an open thread (”because they have no logical defense for their views”)
This kind of climate makes for a genuine and quite natural way of turning off posters who would like to come to the forum with their genuine interest and concerns.
>>I would just like NOT to see the same old junk on every freaking open thread.<<
Bullies keep beating on the same kids. Those kids are blamed. The kids are “thin skinned”. If that child leaves, the bully finds another target in the same situation.
We must lay there like a slug, it’s our only defense...lol!
The Pope is the Holy Father; the head of the Church here on earth; the Church that Jesus founded.
Jesus wanted it that way, from Peter to the end of time. The succession of Pope's will be unbroken.
>>This kind of climate makes for a genuine and quite natural way of turning off posters who would like to come to the forum with their genuine interest and concerns.<<
And bait for those who are looking to slam FR.
Read through some of these threads. Fred Phelps couldn’t do worse.
Every word you wrote in this post was already a thought in my mind many times.
You just said it better than I could have. :-)
>>Let the flaming begin.<<
I admire you more than words can say.
This is true. But at least, we could have enjoyed OUR CAUCUS and could very easily boycott a companion adverse one. (BTW, that could help to dry up the latter fairly quickly)
All I know is, it’s FR policy to let the open threads be cesspools.
“They tell us they we are not saved by works yet, I’m told that they MUST evangelize in order to be saved.”
Christians are not saved by evangelizing, but they are asked to do so by their King.
Think about it. What would you do if you saw someone telling others it’s ok to do things God said not to do in the Word, and who even claim doing evil can be justified by pointing to some papers sin-filled fallen men wrote or by their ridiculous twisting of the meaning of few verses in Scripture? Would you be able to stand by and let them lead others to destruction? Or would you try to warn as many of them as you could by proclaiming the truth?
When you pray, the only two choices are to pray to God or Satan. If you are praying to, worshiping, anyone other than God, then it is Satan whom you are praying to. Saying that the Bible has sanctioned a third entity in Mary is false. There is so much that the Pope teaches to Rome that is false.
This kind of thing matters if one cares about worshiping, following, obeying the One True God and not who they would rather God be.
The Word never intended for anyone to even come up with the idea that Christ’s mother was to be elevated above Christ.
It is a total case of how humans can twist anything.
For those that have read the Bible and become Christians it is obvious that this Mary stuff is complete sin-filled human fabricated nonsense, and that following it leads to idolatry and blasphemy.
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