Via Crux News

ROME – In what Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople described as a “brave and bold” gesture, Pope Francis gave the patriarch a famous reliquary containing bone fragments believed to belong to St. Peter.

The only time the bronze reliquary has been displayed publicly was in November 2013, when Francis had it present for public veneration as he celebrated the closing Mass for the Year of Faith, opened by Pope Benedict XVI.

The bronze case contains nine of the bone fragments discovered during excavations of the necropolis under St. Peter’s Basilica that began in the 1940s.

In the 1960s, archaeologist Margherita Guarducci published a paper asserting that she had found St. Peter’s bones near the site identified as his tomb.

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Then, the archbishop recounted, Francis asked him to wait for him because he had a gift for his “brother” Bartholomew. The pope came back and led the archbishop to his little blue Ford Focus and they were driven to the Apostolic Palace.

They entered the chapel of the old papal apartment, where Francis chose not to live, and “the pope took the reliquary that his predecessor Paul VI had placed in the little chapel and offered it to his guest,” according to _Vatican News_.

“For us, this was an extraordinary and unexpected event that we could not have hoped for,” _Vatican News_ quoted the archbishop as saying.

I’ve seen some outrage online about this and Pope Francis giving away relics of St. Peter.

I think it is because they have not grasped the long game Pope Francis has. I see this as the Trojan Relic. The Patriach of Constantinople takes it back with him and the first Pope starts working to bring them back into full communion with Rome. Plus we get the relic back went they are once again in full communion.

Now I would have preferred that he give one of the fragments to each of the Patriarchs. Yet, maybe one at a time is best if they don’t catch on to this plot.

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Of course, this post is firmly tongue-in-cheek, but I like my theory. I remember hearing previously that when St. John Paul II was shot that he requested they bring him a reliquary containing the bones of St. Peter. Couldn’t verify that story with a quick search.

A couple of months ago I listened to an interview of Michael Pakaluk by Al Kresta about his new book The Memoirs of St. Peter: A New Translation of the Gospel According to Mark. The subtitle “A New Translation of the Gospel According to Mark” gives you a basic summary of the book. This is both a translation and a commentary.

The title of this book is taken from St. Justyn Martyr’s “Dialogue with Trypho 103” where he mentions the “memoirs of Peter”. While it is not certain that his reference is to the Gospel of Mark, it certainly fits as so many early sources reference Mark being with St. Peter in Rome.

This book goes through each chapter of the Gospel of Mark and after each chapter offers a commentary. Sometimes his translation choices are spelled out in the commentary, which I found useful. Especially in the limited cases where a translation choice is generally different than I am use to.

I certainly found it worthwhile and reviews/blurbs of it by people such as Scott Hahn, C.C. Pecknold, and Thomas L. MacDonald certainly indicate that.

I listened to the Audible version of this book. Thinking back it was an odd choice for me to choose a translation and commentary in audio format. I think it was the fact that when I went to Amazon to pre-order this book I saw that there was an Audible version. There is such a paucity of books of this type or specifically Catholic content on Audible with some exceptions.

Now I am happy that I got the Audible version since it makes me more likely to go back to this in the future. Next time I will probably try listening to just one chapter with commentary a day.

Earlier my parish’s Latin Mass Community started to meet occasionally after Mass to talk about the community and efforts to continue it.

Currently there is one priest celebrating most of the Latin Masses and he is a contract Navy Chaplain serving a couple of local bases. His alternate is another Navy Chaplain serving NAS Jacksonville.

We also have a young parish priest who was ordained just last year and grew up in this parish. Rev. John Sollee showed some interest in learning the TLM. So as a community we sent a letter to our Bishop and our Pastor to request that he get the training. This was approved and so he was trained by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Petter (FSSP) this year. Today was his first public Latin Mass.

I have been very impressed with our diocese’s seminarians and newly ordained priests that I have encountered. This is especially true of Fr. Sollee. I also love it when I hear him preach. He has the ability to introduce more technical terms and then explain them and put them into context. Taking his obvious wealth of knowledge and bringing it all down to earth. His love of the Church and scripture is so obvious. He also made the wise decision when preaching on the Trinity to not introduce any analogies. So I quite enjoyed his homily today and how he said his first Latin Mass. He will be praying the TLM with us once a month.

Last week our Latin Mass community had a milestone. It was the tenth anniversary of the return of the Latin Mass to St. Joseph. After Pope Benedict XVI released Summorum Pontificum there were a couple people who did a lot of work to bring this Mass to St. Joseph. Oddly, I first heard about this via Fr. Z’s blog since there was some pushback from a priest in the Diocese concerning the infamous “stable group” interpretation in the Apostolic Letter. Regardless it obviously went forward. My parish has two churches. The main church was built in 1999. We also have a historic wooden church built in 1883. This is still actively used and is where the Latin Mass is held. The acoustics of the church are quite wonderful.

I am very happy how my diocese has accommodated the Latin Mass. The downtown parish I came into the church in has had the Latin Mass since the indult was granted by Pope John Paul II in 1984. This was when celebration of the TLM had to be approved by the diocesan bishop. Another parish celebrates the TLM on first Saturdays.

So overall I am very appreciative of our Latin Mass Community and the large range of people it attracts. This also goes for the choir and the hymn selections which often includes Gregorian Chant. So much to love. Although I am also appreciative of the Ordinary Form of Mass I attend in this historic Church along with the ones I attend at the adjacent Eucharistic Chapel.

The other day on Twitter I was hearing positive things about tweets from the USCCB Twitter account @USCCB. Had I fallen into an alternate universe where the bureaucratic USCCB were able to engage in Twitter? What happened? Mostly I wondered who was the person and team behind it.

So I was certainly interest when CNA published this story Who’s responsible for the USCCB’s Twitter?.

Baltimore, Md., Jun 13, 2019 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- Over the course of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring general assembly, questions arose online: what was going on with the suddenly-chatty USCCB Twitter account? Did they give an intern, or perhaps a particularly hip young priest or enthusiastic new convert the password? Had the account been hacked?

As it turns out, none of those were true. The account is run by Connie Poulos, a 31-year-old content and marketing coordinator at the USCCB. She’s not an intern – and has worked for the conference since 2017, originally as a digital media specialist – and she’s not a convert, and she’s definitely not a priest. She’s married, and she and her husband are in the process of adopting a son from China.

Poulos sat down with CNA during this week’s general assembly to discuss what prompted the USCCB’s new online persona. Apparently, this strategy was part of a larger plan to attempt to present a more humanizing look at the bishops of the conference, and better to engage with the account’s 156,000 Twitter followers.

“When I first started in 2017, we didn’t engage on this level, but we did engage,” she explained. “Then, McCarrick happened.”

The article showcases some of the tweets and the amount of engagement when the account asked “If you are a young Catholic who is still Catholic, what has made you stay?”

Many of the replies encapsulate a way forward. They were certainly not a cry for watering down the faith.

Still I was annoyed by one thing. The @USCCB account replied to many of the tweets answering this question. Yet if someone mentioned, the TLM – no reply. I saw a lot of such tweets and mostly they were not from people just trolling the USCCB, but young people impacted by the Latin Mass. They should not have been ignored as if they were lepers.

Update: On my Facebook page, Connie Ann Poulos replied to this specific paragraph:

You know, it’s interesting. It was pure human error on my part and now it’s become a thing. I tried to click “like” on each one, but that doesn’t show up. I think if I were to go in and seek them out now it might be obvious. I know there were some that I was like “awesome!” or “amen” or “thanks for sharing” but we literally had a complete tidal wave of TLM responses so it was hard to keep up.

I do see how they would have felt ignored, though, and I am sorry about that. Maybe I can find a way to do something.

Now just waiting for them to ask us older Catholics, “what has made you stay?” Although I sure the answers would have some of the same range as answered here.

I often enjoy books that are meant to be read daily which are focused on writings from a specific author, topic, or theme.

Generally these books have short enough entries to be able to be picked up and read during any time of the day.

There is also a sub category related to liturgical seasons for daily readings during, for example, Advent and Lent.

I am usually reading through two or more of this genre during the year.

So here is a list of some of my favorite daily readers.

Co-Workers Of The Truth by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

After reading through this collection of Ratzinger’s essays and other writings over the year, I started from the beginning again. There were just so many times I highlighted quotes from this collection or otherwise was struck by something he wrote. No doubt I will be returning to this book.

A Daily Defense: Apologetics Lessons for Every Day by Jimmy Akin

As the title shows, this covers a short lesson in apologetics for every day of the year (including and extra day for leap years). This is not just common apologetic fare, but very interesting takes on common to more uncommon apologetic topics.

The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C.S. Lewis

This is one I have been reading this year and have greatly enjoyed the selections taken from his apologetics works and his novels. The curation of these selections is excellent.

A Year with the Church Fathers by Mike Aquilina

Anything by Mike Aquilina is bound to be excellent. That holds true here. Every single entry is pretty much gold. So often I find myself reading one of the selections and really reflecting on it. They hit me hard.

A Year with John Paul II: Daily Meditations from His Writings and Prayers

Saint Pope John Paul II’s writings could be rather dense. Mostly the selections try to pull from his more accessible writings. Very worthwhile.

A Year With the Saints: Daily Meditations with the Holy Ones of God by Paul Thigpen

The strength of these style daily compilations are dependent on the author. In this case Paul Thigpen’s selections are what makes this one of my must haves. Just a joy to read. The Imitation Leather version of this book is also worthwhile.

A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God by Paul Thigpen

Another compilation by Paul Thigpen and another one I greatly recommend. Also the Imitation Leather version enhances the daily reading.

Here are some suggestions for some that are daily reading for Liturgical Seasons.

Advent

• Prepare Him Room: Advent Family Devotions by Amy Welborn Excellent and deep reflections and a bargain at $.99
• Rejoice! Advent Meditations with Mary, Journal by Fr. Mark Toups
• Advent with Saint Teresa of Calcutta: Daily Meditations
• Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas This is a collection of writings from various Catholic and Protestant writers. Mostly the selections are very good, some are total duds.

Lent

• Meditations for Lent from St. Thomas Aquinas I go through this every Lent.
• The Cries of Jesus from the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology While this is not technically a daily reader. I used it as one during Lent. The selected essays are exceptional.
• Reconciled to God – Daily Lenten Devotions by Amy Welborn Pure gold.