Hartmann - here in Jakarta we serve at Mass at Kolese Gonzaga, a Jesuit run high school. On Saturday evening, there is a mass in Spanish, presided over by a Spanish priest who is one of the Vatican diplomats working in country. The community of consists of South Americans, Spanish, Italians, French, Australians and a few from the USA. 

Three religious sisters from Mexico of the Congregation of the Clarissan Missionary Sisters of the Most Blessed Sacrament organize the mass.

The chapel at the school has the most beautiful hand-carved wooden crucifix - very Indonesian in style.

After mass, my family and I tried a new Italian restaurant, Mamma Rosy. It was marvelous and delicious. Our table looked into the kitchen and we were able to see Mamma Rosy direct her kitchen staff. Being liturgically correct, we enjoyed a lovely bottle of Rosso de Montalcino.

Blessed Pentecost to you!

Phil Lawler weighs in:

American conservatives sometimes complain that the Vatican should recognize liberal activists and social engineers as enemies of the faith. There’s justice in that complaint, but the argument works both ways. Conservatives should recognize the Catholic Church as a defender of the moral order that makes productive capitalism possible. There’s a natural alliance to be made, if only both sides recognize it.

During his talk to new ambassadors at the Vatican today, Pope Francis made a very interesting claim. If the world’s financial system were reformed along ethical lines, he promised, the result would “produce in its turn an economic reform to benefit everyone.” I don’t claim to know exactly what he means, but wouldn’t you like to hear more?

"Ethics lead to God, who is situated outside the categories of the market".

I suspect that leading people to Christ is the goal of the Pope, and one way to do this is to bring up the issues of ethics and morality in relation to economic matters.

To me, the heart of his address is the "profound human crisis in the world today" - the "denial of the primacy of human beings".  We have become a "throw away culture".

He certainly critiques us well when he speaks of widespread corruption and says that indebtedness and credit distance us from the real economy and citizens from their real buying power.

He is trying to articulate the long held Church view for a preference for the poor.

Certainly when the Pope strays from his expertise on humanity, faith, and morals, we laity have a duty to speak up, especially on issues on which we have expertise. Paul Ryan is a good example of one who can articulate sound ethical and moral economic policies. This Pope, not so much.

Agreed. It's the old "out of sight, out of mind" myth. Seeing a picture makes the baby a person, and that is what they don't want to admit.

Amen Peter! When Christ said “be not afraid”, the good archbishop heard him loud and clear.

Here he is again speaking on good and evil:

Tolerance is a working principle that enables us to live in peace with other people and their ideas. Most of the time, it’s a very good thing. But it is not an end in itself, and tolerating or excusing grave evil in a society is itself a grave evil. The roots of this word are revealing. Tolerance comes from the Latin tolerare, “to bear or sustain,” and tollere, which means, “to lift up.” It implies bearing other persons and their beliefs the way we carry a burden or endure a headache. It’s actually a negative idea. And it is not a Christian virtue. 

Catholics have the duty not to “tolerate” other people but to love them, which is a much more demanding task. Justice, charity, mercy, courage, wisdom – these are Christian virtues; but not tolerance. Real Christian virtues flow from an understanding of truth, unchanging and rooted in God, that exists and obligates us whether we like it or not. The pragmatic social truce we call “tolerance” has no such grounding.

Something I just remembered:

In May 2009, Archbishop Raymond Burke delivered what can be described as a manifesto for Catholic life in this country – we can do well to become familiar with this speech that was given at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.  As the Archbishop said, we have to know who we are, both as Catholics and as Americans. The greatest gift we can give to our country is a faithful Catholic life. But to be obedient we have to know our faith, and I am afraid that many do not.

Let us not give way to discouragement in our exercise of patriotism but rather be confident of the essential contribution which our Catholic faith makes to the life of our nation.

Pseudo: Your post calls to mind the closing paragraphs of Archbishop Chaput's "Render Unto Caesar":

America's great witness to the world has always been its legacy of freedom. Despite its sins and flaws, our nation's history is finally a story of opportunity, religious harmony, respect for the human person, constitutional democracy, and the rule of law. These great achievements made America a beacon. Generations of Catholics have rightly embraced America as their own. But if our nation now exports other values - violence, greed, vulgarity, abortion, a rejection of children - American Catholics must work to change that or be held responsible.

We make the future of our country and our world by the history we create in our actions now. We need to remember why we're here.

I am in agreement with Bemused Canuck.

The Church will survive - America may not.

Happy Ascension Day Mama Toad.

I love the Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo painting - it helps draw us into the mystery.

I also love this first paragraph from St. Leo the Great's sermon from today's second reading in the Office of Readings:

At Easter, beloved brethren, it was the Lord’s resurrection which was the cause of our joy; our present rejoicing is on account of his ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvelous when, in spite of the withdrawal from men’s sight of everything that is rightly felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.

Red Feline - I am coming from the position of the Catholic Church - those words on tolerance came from 3 or 4 talks given by Archbishop Charles Chaput.

GFL - my moral primitivism has been around for a long time and the Catholic Church has held these truths for 2000 years. I am called to love you and will pray for your salvation. Since we are apparently even, I hope you will do the same for me. 

Great post Paules.

We shouldn’t tolerate the push for SSM.

Tolerance is a working principle that enables us to live in peace with other people and their ideas. Most of the time, it’s a very good thing. But it is not an end in itself, and tolerating or excusing grave evil in a society is itself a grave evil. The roots of this word are revealing. Tolerance comes from the Latin tolerare, “to bear or sustain,” and tollere, which means, “to lift up.” It implies bearing other persons and their beliefs the way we carry a burden or endure a headache. It’s actually a negative idea. And it is not a Christian virtue.

As a Catholic  I have the duty not to tolerate other people but to love them, which is a much more demanding task.

Tolerance today is portrayed as the overarching glue that holds everything together. Why should we tolerate evil and immorality? Whether we like it or not, we are called to properly use the working principle of tolerance to enable us to live in peace with our neighbors. But this first must stem from love of God, and this means fidelity to truth.

The normative way to become Christian is through Baptism with proper matter (water) and form (in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit).

One must also believe in the Trinity: God is three persons in one Being.

Far from being just a moral or ethical code, Christianity is "an experience of love; it's welcoming the person of Jesus," Pope Benedict XVI said.
"Many people today have a limited concept of what the Christian faith is because they identify it with a mere system of beliefs and values and not with the truth of a God revealing himself in history, eager to communicate with humanity one-on-one in a relationship of love," he said.
Faith "isn't an illusion, escapism, a comfortable safe haven or sentimentalism," rather it is something that engages one's whole life and it proclaims the Gospel with courage, the pope said Nov. 14 during his weekly general audience.

Your post is truly something wonderful Donald, I really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Excellent post Paules – I just love the absolute truth that absolute truth doesn’t exist.

The left and Islamists both belong to the community that hates Christianity, and both hate the West – the leftists through self-loathing and the Islamists through their creed.

Both the leftist progressives and Islamists are evil. It is evil that binds them, and evil that will destroy them.

Well said CJS.

If by compassion you mean to "suffer with", I have no compassion for the brothers. They willfully committed an act of terror. Justice demands punishment.

To love one's enemy - to will their good - is what Jesus called us to do.

We entrust the dead brother's soul to the mercy of God and pray for the conversion of the younger brother.