The priest who used to live on the street
Catholic News Agency told the remarkable story of Fr Claude Paradis, once homeless, now a priest. In an interview with the Montreal magazine Journal Metro, Fr Paradis recalled how he went into a downward spiral after moving to the city and failing to find a job. He became addicted to drugs and was tempted by thoughts of suicide.
But then, he said, “I had the privilege of meeting God just at the moment I was doubting Him. On a little back street in Montreal, abandoned by people, there was nobody there. Passing by the old church, impelled by I don’t know what instinct, I turned back in there.”
When he went into the church, he was overwhelmed by God’s presence. He decided not only that he wanted to live, but also that he would be “a man of the Church”. Today Fr Paradis ministers to the homeless. “The street brought me to the Church and the Church in the end brought me back to the street,” he says.
Trump and the Pope share a problem
At Crux, John Allen noted that President Trump and the Pope are likely to disagree on many matters. But there is “one point” where the pair “may find common ground, if only in the sense of sharing the same headache: Russia.”
Trump has shown some sympathy with Putin; so, more indirectly, has Francis, by opposing Western intervention against Assad. Trump is accused of being too close to Putin; some Catholics “think the Russians always want ecumenical dialogue to be on their terms”, and wish the Pope would take a firmer line against Russian Orthodox leaders who are close to Putin.
Here at least, Allen wrote, they find themselves in the same boat. “Perhaps if they start to row together, they’ll find other shores to which they can steer as well.”
Is the Church near the end of a 100-year test?
At the National Catholic Register, Mgr Charles Pope said 2017 could be a critical year. “First, it is said that in 1884 Pope Leo XIII had an experience during which he heard God say that he would permit a period of 100 years that would test the Church in Job-like fashion.” When did this century begin? Perhaps in 1917, when Our Lady appeared at Fatima and spoke of the suffering the Church would experience.
One of the Fatima visionaries, Sister Lucia, told Cardinal Carlo Caffarra (one of the dubia cardinals) that “The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family.” In the world and the Church, this battle seems to be escalating.
Mgr Pope said it was time to pray, fast, repent and take up new spiritual practices. “Being sleepy in the battle cannot be an option,” he said. “We are at a turning point. Perhaps the hundred years of trial are ending; they might end well or they might come to a dreadful conclusion. That is why we must pray.”
✣Meanwhile…
✣ At Donald Trump’s inauguration, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York prayed aloud with words from the Book of Wisdom: “God of our ancestors and Lord of mercy, you have made all things. And in your providence have charged us to rule the creatures produced by you …” But those relying on BBC News subtitles were given a different text. Thanks to an apparent technical mix-up, the BBC used text from the children’s TV show The Dumping Ground.As the cameras showed the cardinal intoning the prayer, subtitles told viewers that he was saying: “Look, if you ain’t seen Sasha, just do one, yeah?” The camera moved to Barack Obama, as the subtitles read: “Just shut it, yeah?”
The BBC commented: “We have not found any evidence or had other feedback from viewers that our main output covering the inauguration was subtitled incorrectly.”
✣ As well as unexpected farce, the inauguration saw some unexpected piety. Ryan Zinke, the new secretary of the interior, was spotted wearing socks with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe – the image miraculously printed on St Juan Diego’s tilma. Since Zinke is a Lutheran, the image remains as much an unresolved mystery as the BBC subtitles.
✣The week in quotations
His presence amongst us bishops has always been that of a brother Cardinal Nichols on the departing nuncio Archbishop Mennini Press statement
The Philippines values its special relationship with the Holy See President Rodrigo Duterte Letter to Pope Francis
Pastoral discernment admits of no exceptions to the moral law US ordinariate Bishop Stephen Lopes Pastoral letter
Like putting on make-up The Pope on the difficulty of changing one’s ways in old age El País
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