"Let me get through today, and I shall not fear tomorrow." - St. Philip Neri

The Roman Catholic Church was on the canvass in the late 16th Century, because the clergy had become secularist - priests, bishops, and even Popes more interested in promoting political action than in Doctrine.

Martin Luther threw the hay-maker when he challenged the Church theologically by nailing his 95 theses for debate on the Church door of Wittenberg.

All of the smart money was on the Protestant reforming factions and the Islamist threat posed by Suleiman the Magnificent.

The Catholic Church was not knocked out, but it did hear the ref doing the counting.

Before the ten count, it got off the canvass. The Church went back to its corner, swished some holy water around its choppers and spit the bad blood in the bucket - at the Council of Trent. The Church returned to its roots.

However, Catholics more so than the Red Hats seemed to make the practical difference - Ignatius Loyola - a Dog Faced Wounded Vet - formed the Jesuits and set about actually doing what the Apostles were told to do.

Another gent, Philip Neri worked up the lay people.

Neri was a rich kid from Florence. He decided to put business aside and work to help the Church and moved to Rome. For three years he toyed with idea of being a priest, but determined to work with lay people.

He amassed a group of like minded lay people and through conversations during the business day sought to live lives that would strengthen the Church. It worked. He developed a concept called the Oratory - a place where lay people could pray and discuss their Faith.

Philip Neri's Oratory became so popular that Neri's Confessor urged him to get himself ordained a priest - he did.

Neri used humor to poke fun at false assumptions doctrine and the practical life of most people.

There are Catholics out there concerned with the sad state of Church and continued lap-dogging of some in the clergy - like the President of that PR Driven School in Indiana, gutless 'catholic' politicians who go to Pancake breakfasts with the Knights of Columbus and then do the bidding of Planned Parenthood to kill more kids.

John Powers and Tom Roeser are two of the most public Philip Neri's in Chicago.

My neighborhood is packed with people who live the Gospel, while the chaps being paid to say Mass act like bitchy little girls.

There are priests like Father C. Frank Phillips,C.R. of St. John Cantius Parish at Chicago Ave. & Sangamon on the north side who have sparked devotion through the beauty, grace and dignity of the Traditional Latin Mass ( Novus Ordo & Tridentine) and he has helped attract more Americans to Holy Orders than any seminary. Go to St. John Cantius and witness a Church alive! Packed. Every Mass.

http://www.cantius.org/

The Catholic Church has been on canvass many times in history.

There always seems to be a Philip Neri to help the Church spit out its busted teeth and get back in the fight.


http://stbarbara.blogspot.com/

http://tomroeser.com/

Ignatius Loyola was A Real Man - We Are Given Simpering Fops to Admire by a Loyola Not Worthy to Bear His Name

I wrote a couple of teases set against the Politically Correct and Honesty Challenged Mary Schmich's propaganda piece in the Chicago Tribune. It seems to me that Rep. Greg Harris reached out to Ms. Schmich and offered up a Gay Loyola Law student to get a little traction for his Gay Marriage Legislation.

Mary Schmich was more than compliant. She spotted a weak Institution - Loyola. No sweat.

Our weak and craven societal norms are beaten into our lives on daily basis by the news media - TV, Radio, Print, Internet and Madison Avenue work over time to weasel Progressive Live So dictates into every aspect of our lives.

Those of us who have robust Weinie Immunity Systems developed by early inoculation of sound values and ethics from Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim and even secular humanism recognize the Con Job.

Generally, we smile and Move on.

We need to remember that children come into the world because a man and a woman made love - unless of course you happen to be Melissa Etheridge's Gal Pal and Petre Dish for David Crosby's Little Fish.

A Naperville Superintendent is bringing in Billy Ayers, a Terrorist, and lying that Ayers is an important member of society. He is not - a shabby, self-absorbed little sneak who has lived way too long is not important to young people. He is a distraction as our President would say.

Same-sex marriage is not an important issue. Treating Gay people with courtesy and respect surely is though. Having sex with the same gender as oneself is no more vital to human civilization than masturbation. Both sex acts are natural and ancient and human, but both have nothing to do with family or the propagation of the species. Save the nuance.

Loyola University sounds like it has quit being any kind of a moral or ethical center, much less Catholic University, along with DePaul and Notre Dame which gave up decades ago. Understandable in secular cess-pool like Academia, where a man can call himself a Catholic, or anything else for that matter, without displaying any outwardly visible sign. A Catholic does not accept Abortion, unless one is a Democratic Mayor, Governor, Senator or MSNBC Propagandist. It is understandable that a University would no longer wish to be perceived as Catholic, as does Loyola, for sake of being Diverse and Inclusive - whatever the hell those two fatuous words mean at the moment.

That is too bad. Kids need strong Weinie Immunity Systems. If Loyola will compromise on Catholic truths, They might as well sell the property to the highest bidder - Loyola only quibbles about the cost - to paraphrase Churchill. If a Catholic Jesuit University can not stand for Catholic truth, it will fall for anything. It did. Loyola Fell. Let's see if it gets back up on its feet. St. Ignatius Loyola was only hit in the legs by a cannon ball - he got back up -no problem.

"If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that He has great designs for you, and that He certainly intends to make you a saint. And if you wish to become a great saint, entreat Him yourself to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the cross, which Christ used for His own great sacrifice of boundless charity."

"Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly."

~ Saint Ignatius of Loyola