Last week's Catholic Standard has a wonderful article on St. Augustine Parish in Washington DC.
The article states that there are 21 students preparing to be baptized. WOW! Congratulations to Fr. Smith. Also congratulations must be given to the three Handmaid of the Holy Child Jesus sisters. (And they wear habits, so much for not being able to relate to them.)
Note what the article stated about the sisters: discipline, strong morals and a missionary spirit in tow. FANTASTIC!
In addition, Fr. Smith states something about Catholic schools, which I have been stating for a while: Catholic schools are clearly an extension of the mission of the Church.
And to think, this school was on the list to close a couple of years ago by the Archdiocese.
12 comments:
Part 1 of a Two Part Comment:
Fr. Pat should introduce his 21 catechumens to those students of Immaculata High School (in Sommerville, New Jersey) who have spoken out against the corporate practice of Foreign Child Slave Labor Profiteering. It is a subject that Donald Wuerl has inexcusably ignored. Those two groups of students would probably have a synergy which will lead to something great.
This February 18th article, in its mention of the mission of the church, directly relates to the main theme of February posts on this web log. This is because the general topic of this month turned out to be Wuerl's betrayal of and neglect of the mission that the church has had since Pentecost.
Paul VI stated that the mission of the laity is the renewal of the temporal order. This means that it is the laity's moral obligation to change immoral laws and immoral economic policies. Matters involving elective abortion is the obvious example.
Wuerl thwarted the laity's mission while in Pittsburgh, in preference for income bearing government grant and government contract social service programs, thereby allowing legalized mortal sins and their desolate aftermaths to go unchecked and unaccountable in even the court of public opinion --- except for an occasional fruitless statement about the practice of abortion which has been ongoing in America for 36 years.
One thing that Wuerl entirely let suffocate and die was the effort to end America's sin of foreign slave labor product importation. Such products imported involved the labor abuse of children in Haiti and on the Ivory Coast, as well as adults throughout a number of continents. Such importation is equivalent to receiving stolen goods from workers who were not paid a decent wage. Sometimes, this crime is referred to as forced labor, incidentally. Each term means the same thing.
Classically speaking, that sin was known as the "Defraudment of Laborers of their Wages," and when it involves foreign importation, it drains the importing nation's economy. Only corporate management, at high levels, cash in on the practice. The rest of the offending nation gets drained.
For the record, America was not money making by importing extremely low waged sweatshop labor products from China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Haiti, El Salvador, Columbia, etc. Not in the least. That practice caused the International Trade Balance Deficit to increase. This caused the Gross National Product, (aka Gross Domestic Product) to decrease. This, in turn, caused the per capita income of Americans everywhere to decrease. And as anyone can see, the National Debt has heightened beyond the sound barriers of obscenity, with China, Japan, and Hong Kong holding our debt instruments.
The little ones at St. Augustine are too young to hear about trafficking. As an alumna of St. Aufustine I'm very happy. I was baptized there in foyrth grade. It's a good school.
More than a visit by three ghosts on Christmas Eve, Wuerl needs a little girl from Kansas to take him to a wizard for a heart. The first thing that a person must have, in order to be a bishop, is a heart. Wuerl has spent the last twenty-ott years catering to the world of males who would love to wear red ruby slippers, but he entirely snubbed the world of those who never get paid enough to readily run out and get their children new shoes.
And Wuerl goes about D.C. pretending to be oh so caring about the poor. That hypocrite.
Wuerl's hypocrisy is reminiscent of the November 2007 press release that attempted to wake up America to the fact that even crucifixes were being made in Chinese sweatshops. If anyone needs to be enlightened, the following web address will take you to an article that should have the effect of smelling salts. It was cleverly titled, Today Workers Bear the Cross.
Maybe after reading it, you will realize that it's letter writing time, in mass quantities, to the Vatican. It's time to bring back the "Catholic Action Guild." Remember, if we sit back and do nothing, we are going to have to answer to God for this compliance. When you consider the economic factors of the past year and a half, you can see that we already are answering for this mass negligence. It's time to have mercy on the employees of the merciless. Anyone who is silently nonchalant about this, is merciless, too. That includes archbishops.
http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=479
The big question is why empower a China that has been persecuting Christians for decades. That's not too bright.
If Father Patrick were a bishop, how do you think he would operate his diocese? He obviously is in tune to something essentially important. He did earn a B.A. and a license in Sacred Theology from North American College in Rome. He was even on an ABC documentary back in the last 90s. So, he is good to go to a next level.
Or is he needed to operate in the crossroads and squares of life? Well, the church is in dire need of faithful bishops. So, it would be a pathetic thing to overlook Father Smith.
Some of Father Smith's sermon notes are online for anyone interested in encountering the mind of Patrick Smith. It's worth encountering, being that he obviously has been doing something right. They are posted at:
http://www.saintaugustine-dc.org/fatherpat/sermonnotesarchive.html
Even when you encounter the mind of a missionary minded priest, you realize that conversion is an actual grace from God. You then realize that such a priest has an unobstructed flow of grace going through his spiritual wiring.
Whenever a person in authority falls into scandalous disgrace, you expect the higher authorities to review that person's training and handling, all the while asking where they went wrong. Someone should study the progression of Pat Smith, from seminary to Saint Augustine's, all the while asking, "Where did we go right?" The answer might come in handy one day.
Then again, in the end, it's all a matter of grace. Pat Smith is probably a graceful guy.
What if priests were awarded medals for meritorious accomplishments and then required to wear them on their black jackets? Father Smith would look like a Russian general from the Cold War days.
Okay then. Here's Part 3:
To those who are new to this web log, know that the Archdiocese of D.C. Catholic Author has articles that constitute Greatest Hits. Quite frankly, it all began when he defended the honor of Holy Communion, concerning the Pelosi & Dodd sacrileges. It was the article where within the D.C. Catholic guy described Wuerl in one verb phrase; that of Weaseling Out. That was the moment when it became evident that this author is not a coward when it comes to defending Christ and his sacraments.
Now, concerning the February 2010 posts of An Archdiocese of Washington Catholic Web Log, the writer of those articles has being hitting like Joe DiMaggio. Something that was previously gnawing within him, later became a spark, and then it ignited into a fire. So it seems. For the record, this is how the Holy Spirit works.
Interesting how the match stick was fully lit at the time when Wuerl is expected to get the cardinal's hat he does not deserve. So, do not do not do not let the D.C. Archdiocese Guy be ignored, especially if you are a blogger. If you are a like minded blogger, then join forces instead of trying to be popular unto yourself.
Do you really want Wuerl to be made a cardinal? If the Vatican is going to do that, then it might as well declare Satan the Patron of Washington and the United States, while taking the job away from the Immaculate Conception.
Apparently, the prophetic writing of Saint Louis of Montfort is unfolding at this hour in Washington D.C.
Give the D.C. Catholic your written support, at least from time to time, even if you have the literary prowess of a Shakespeare, Racine, and Dickens combined, and therefore believe yourself to be too high to chime in on a blog's comment board. In fact, if you do have such prowess, then support him all the more --- at least from time to time.
And don't forget about Father Patrick Smith. Apparently, Father Pat has the traits of the original Saint Patrick. After all, Patrick walked back onto an island that was considered a lost cause of chieftain barbarism. Then, after the fruits of Patrick flourished, an island the size of West Virginia saved all of Western Europe from the Dark Age mentality.
It is above and beyond the sound barriers of inspiration to see Saint Patrick's spirit back in operation. The archdiocese has got to reclaim those seven abandoned inner city sister schools.
There is definitely a number of missions to accomplish at this hour.
Congratulations to Fr. Smith indeed. May Saint Augustine bring more and more into the fold. May the Archbishop obtain a collection agency to get all that rent from Center City Public Charter Schools Inc. because he will soon need one.
Did anyone notice the nuns are not from the U.S.?
Just noticed that. Internet says that Sister Gloria (the principal) is from Nigeria.
So, the surmise here could be one of a few things:
Either it is that ...
... if St. Augustine's faculty consisted in hypnotized Vatican II Americans, then the conversion success rate wouldn't have been what it is.
or ...
... the presence of a Catholic African native makes the students feel fully welcomed into a Catholic Church that was once stereotyped to be only the religion of Western Europeans, Poles, and Croatians.
or ...
Saint Augustine's is free of the materialistic American mindset engulfed in political correctness.
or ...
Saint Augustine's has the pioneer mindset, being that Sister Gloria is from an entirely different hemisphere, and therefore, the students realize that, in life, the sky is the limit. The converting students, therefore, apparently want to go beyond the sky where the angels soar.
If the church is to cleanse itself of it recent vile, it must return to the sense of sacredness and mysticism.
And what is mysticism?
ANS: Contact with God.
Here's a video that St. Augustine Catholic School just produced:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gqzmvcROpM&feature=vmdshb
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