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St. Joseph

St. Joseph

Feast date: Mar 19

St. Joseph is honored with feast days throughout the Liturgical Year. This feast encourages us to look at Joseph's role as husband and head of the Holy Family.

Most of what we know about the life of St. Joseph comes to us from Scripture and legends that have sprung up regarding his life. Though Joseph is only mentioned by two of the evangelists, he is paid the compliment of being a "just" man. This is a way of saying that Joseph was such a good and holy man that he shares in God's own holiness. In addition, Joseph gives us an example of how to be a just spouse and how to have holy relationships.

Joseph's example as a husband can be best seen in how he respected Mary. He realized that God had a special plan for his wife and for his son, and Joseph did everything in his power to help this plan become reality. When Joseph was given chances to give up his vocation to the married life, by divorcing Mary or leaving her, he resisted the temptation and stayed by her side providing support and love.

The feast of St. Joseph Husband of Mary has been celebrated throughout the church since the tenth century and has been honored as the Patron of the Universal Church since 1870. St. Joseph is the patron of workers, carpenters, Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and southern Vietnam.

Saint John Damascene

Icon of Saint John Damaskinos
Image: Saint John Damaskinos | unknown

Saint of the Day for December 4

(c. 676 -749)
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Saint John Damascene’s Story

John spent most of his life in the Monastery of Saint Sabas near Jerusalem, and all of his life under Muslim rule, indeed protected by it.

He was born in Damascus, received a classical and theological education, and followed his father in a government position under the Arabs. After a few years, he resigned and went to the Monastery of Saint Sabas.

He is famous in three areas:

First, he is known for his writings against the iconoclasts, who opposed the veneration of images. Paradoxically, it was the Eastern Christian emperor Leo who forbade the practice, and it was because John lived in Muslim territory that his enemies could not silence him.

Second, he is famous for his treatise, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, a summary of the Greek Fathers, of which he became the last. It is said that this book is for Eastern schools what the Summa of Aquinas became for the West.

Third, he is known as a poet, one of the two greatest of the Eastern Church, the other being Romanus the Melodist. His devotion to the Blessed Mother and his sermons on her feasts are well known.

Saint John Damascene's liturgical feast is celebrated on April 30.


Reflection

John defended the Church’s understanding of the veneration of images and explained the faith of the Church in several other controversies. For over 30 years, he combined a life of prayer with these defenses and his other writings. His holiness expressed itself in putting his literary and preaching talents at the service of the Lord.


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San Antonio archbishop bans retreat center for ‘false teachings’ against Pope Francis

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS, of San Antonio. / Credit: Veronicamarkland, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 18, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller has restricted a local priest and a ministry known as the Mission of Divine Mercy (MDM) for disobedience and for spreading “false teachings,” presented as prophecies, against Pope Francis. 

The apostolate and priest who was sanctioned, meanwhile, are defying the archbishop’s disciplinary measures and have held at least one unsanctioned Mass. 

Garcia-Siller’s disciplinary action follows MDM’s publication of several messages on its website in which the group claimed “God the Father” told one of its members that the pope is a “usurper” and an “enemy of the Church.” 

In response, García-Siller said in a March 15 statement that the group’s “status as a Catholic apostolate of the Archdiocese of San Antonio has been suppressed and revoked by official decree.”

According to the archbishop’s statement, MDM’s founder, Father John Mary Foster, refused to remove the messages from the group’s website despite repeated admonitions, thus breaking his vow of obedience and necessitating that he be barred from publicly practicing his priestly faculties.

Despite the archbishop’s ban, a representative for MDM told CNA that the apostolate plans to continue operating and that Foster celebrated Mass on Sunday.

What did the ‘prophetic messages’ say?

Based in New Braunfels, a town in the Texas Hill Country, MDM has operated as an approved Catholic retreat house and ministry devoted to promoting prayer and contemplating God’s will since 2010. According to García-Siller, the ministry has enjoyed good relations with the archdiocese until now.

Then in February, MDM began posting a series of supposed “prophetic messages” conveyed by “God the Father” to a member of the ministry, identified as “Sister Amapola.”

MDM claimed in one of its website statements that God had a message for priests in which he said: “You have not only let the smoke of Satan infiltrate into My Sanctuary; but you have allowed a whole army of demons to take your places. And you have allowed the usurper to sit on the chair of My Peter — he who is carrying out the Great Treason that will leave My Church desolate.” 

Several other similar messages were posted to the apostolate’s website claiming that the Church was filled with “demons” and “imposters.” 

Foster endorsed the messages, saying in a video that the Church is facing an “extreme crisis,” which he said justifies his disobedience to the archbishop. He pointed to the controversial Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans, which approved blessings for same-sex couples, as an example of “confusion and harm” being sown by Francis.

“From this statement and others of a similar nature that we’ve received, the terrible conclusion seems clear: Bergoglio [Pope Francis] is exercising illegitimate authority and acting as the enemy of Christ and his Church,” Foster said. “Given this extreme crisis, we are obeying God in publishing these messages, even without our archbishop’s permission.”

Archbishop bans MDM

García-Siller issued three official decrees on March 15, barring MDM as an apostolate, removing Foster as the group’s leader, and barring Foster from exercising priestly faculties.

“Whereas the activities of the Reverend FOSTER and the Mission of Divine Mercy have led to confusion and division and have caused grave scandal to the faithful … I WITHDRAW my approval of the ‘Mission of Divine Mercy’ as a Catholic apostolate,” one decree reads.

In so doing, the archbishop restricted the Christian faithful from associating with MDM and ordered that the apostolate not “use the name Catholic or call themselves a Catholic association.”

The archbishop further prohibited Foster from publicly exercising his priestly ministry on MDM grounds and ordered him to enter a “time of spiritual retreat” for six months. The decree said that if Foster violated the prohibition, he could face a total ban on publicly exercising his priestly ministry in the archdiocese.

The archdiocese declined to comment further on the matter, directing CNA to the archbishop’s decrees and statement.

According to the decrees, Foster and MDM have 10 days to appeal the archbishop’s decision.

MDM continues to defy archbishop

Emily Jebbia, a representative for MDM, told CNA that despite the archbishop’s ban, Foster celebrated Mass at the New Braunfels retreat center on Sunday. According to Jebbia, the Mass was attended by about 450 people, which she said is more than double the amount at a normal Sunday service. 

Jordan McMorrough, a representative for the archdiocese, confirmed with CNA that the Mass was in violation of the bishop’s decree. 

Jebbia said that though MDM has yet to confer with canon lawyers since the archbishop’s decree, apostolate staff plan to continue their ministry.

Jebbia said that MDM has previously had a “cordial” relationship with García-Siller and that they take the archbishop’s statement seriously. Nevertheless, she said that “given that we think this is an unprecedented situation in the Church, we have to act in an unprecedented way in obedience to what we believe God has asked us to do.”

Asked if MDM hopes to reconcile with the archbishop, Jebbia said “yes,” but she qualified her response by saying: “We hope that the [arch]bishop will be open to what is happening here at the mission.”

Pope Francis accepts resignation of Dominican Republic auxiliary bishop

Pope Francis on March 18, 2024, accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Ramón Benito Ángeles Fernández of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. / Credit: Archdiocese of Santo Domingo

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 18, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of an auxiliary bishop of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, Ramón Benito Ángeles Fernández, who turned 75 on March 17. In February the archdiocese denied that he was under investigation for the alleged abuse of a minor in 1994, as the Infovaticana website had reported.

“The Holy Father has accepted the resignation of the position of auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) presented by H.E. Ramón Benito Ángeles Fernández, titular bishop of Febiana,” the Vatican Press Office reported March 18 without giving further details about Pope Francis’ decision.

The pontiff accepted the prelate’s resignation just one day after his 75th birthday, the age at which bishops present their letter of resignation, after which the pope decides whether to accept it or not, in accordance with the provisions of Canon 401 of the Code of Canon Law.

The Archdiocese of Santo Domingo stated in a brief announcement on Facebook that “in the Code of Canon Law every bishop is asked to present his resignation from the office entrusted to him upon reaching 75 years of age.”

In an article published March 18, Infovaticana noted that the pope accepted the resignation “as was foreseeable,” having been “given only one day’s extension.”

In its Feb. 16 statement, the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo said: “We have no evidence about the alleged investigation, originally published by a digital media outlet in Spain, which does not belong to any ecclesial body.”

“We understand that the aforementioned publication seeks to damage the reputation of Bishop Benito Ángeles and our Church,” the archdiocese noted.

Consulted that same day by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, the apostolic nunciature in the Dominican Republic said that the current nuncio, Archbishop Piergiorgio Bertoldi, who has held the position since mid-2023, “does not have information” on the issue and that the inquiry should be directed to the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo, whose statement has been the only response to the Infovaticana claim.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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