Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Pope Offers Beach Ball to Our Lady at Santa Maria Maggiore Before WYD


Here's the Report from News.va:

After his arrival at Ciampino airport, the Holy Father chose to stop at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major to offer a brief prayer to the Blessed Virgin for World Youth Day. 
Seeing the Pope as he entered the Basilica, a group of young people approached him and offered him a T-shirt and a ball. Pope Francis later offered the gifts to the Madonna.
This is one of the great churches of Christendom, and recalls a time when it snowed in the summer as a sign of Our Lady's favor.  It was commemorated by the command of St. Pius V in connection with Trent.  Taken from wikipedia's article:
"During the pontificate of Liberius, the Roman patrician John and his wife, who were without heirs, made a vow to donate their possessions to the Virgin Mary. They prayed that she might make known to them how they were to dispose of their property in her honour. On 5 August, at the height of the Roman summer, snow fell during the night on the summit of the Esquiline Hill. In obedience to a vision of the Virgin Mary which they had the same night, the couple built a basilica in honour of Mary on the very spot which was covered with snow."

41 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Pardon my choice of words but...un-freaking-believeable! I hate to say this but this man is really starting to frighten me, as the Pope, for goodness sake.

Anonymous said...

And he's keeping Ricca (the gay pervert) on his Vatican staff. Under Benedict XVI, Ricca would have been fired that day!!
Pope Francis called for gays to be welcomed and integrated into society. He said "who am I to judge them?".
And this is the Pope???
We've had incompetent, bad, and even evil Popes before....but the last of those were hundreds of years ago. We've had incompetent Popes since, but none evil.
But I'm wondering about now.

Anonymous said...

Jesuit.........that explains a lot!

Dismayed said...

If a layman or a priest in parish church had placed a beachball on the altar I would have been dismayed. But for a Pope to do it...I could hardly believe my eyes when I watched this on the tv news last night.

An altar in a Catholic Church is for the offering of the most sacred of sacred sacrifices...Surely a Pope should know better than this?

Anonymous said...

OK, this is buffoonery. Our kids and students now think it is all a joke. Banal. Pandering. Foolish.

No beauty. No mystery. No reason, philosophy, or wisdom.

It is the teletubby papacy of Mahonyites.

Geremia said...

Remember, he's poor; he doesn't have anything else to offer.

Anonymous said...

I hear ya. But..It isn't "gay", it's homosexual. Words have meaning. Let's not fall into the trap of their marketing ploys.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Every. Single. Word.

Genty said...

How about his shoes?

Anonymous said...

Every day he does something worse. From his very first appearance on the balcony of St. Peter's when he didn't wear the proper vestments, I knew we were in for a bad time.

And unfortunately, I think the Roman Catholic Church is in for a bad time for a few years (hopefully no more than 4).
Then he will either have passed, or resigned...and maybe we will be lucky enough to get a Roman Catholic pope!

I wonder if Benedict XVI is sorry he resigned?

JB said...

wake me up when it's over....

Anonymous said...

It does seem he was offering it for the children who gave it to him. We don't know what his prayer was. Perhaps it was
for children and for himself and his responsibility to them and all who he is bound to guide in... in Christ's love. in the Faith of the Holy Catholic Church...?

Anonymous said...

An offering of flowers, Yes. A beach ball and t-shirt? NO!

It degrades the Blessed Virgin and the Altar of Sacrifice he left it upon.

I am really beginning to think that this man is a radical liberal in the worst sense. I would not be surprised if he undermines Summorum Pontificum, cancels out the investigation of the LCWR in the USA, keeps homosexual Monsignor Ricca in his post and makes him a bishop, makes more pro-gay statements, etc.
He's a loose cannon who is going to bring the Church into big time trouble. The next Pope will be young....and will have to spend most of his time fixing the messes of John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and especially Francis I (S.J.).

Anonymous said...

As with many Vatican II era clergy he may not have an orthodox view of the True Presence. I attended a "Catholic" high school and quite honestly it's a miracle I found my way back to the Faith. I was told unequivocally that the Eucharist was a symbol and taught religious indiffrentisim instead of Catholicism or "comparative religion". Some clergy are phenomenologists that say weather you believe it's a symbol or the Real Presence you are both correct. Has anyone else ever read Ratzinger's 1968 book Introduction To Christianity? his views on the Resurection are unorthodox to put it mildly. Francis very well may not believe that the Tabernacle contains body blood soul & divinity of our Lord.

Watch this video of then Card Bergoglio distributing the Eucharist....
http://youtu.be/WRwAWIXIOWw

It's produced by a sedevacsntist but his actions speak volumes. I'm not advocating sedevacantism, I'm just disturbed by Pope Francis' actions.

Anonymous said...

I am as troubled as you are about all you've mentioned and more. I don't really know what to say about events of just the past few weeks. Yet I keep saying "stuff". We can't know what kind of Pope we'll have young or not. Obviously young is not necessarily
best. Perhaps I've been driven mad as a result of all the madness. I just thought I could consider better possibilities in some of these actions. It was a private devotion despite the age of see and record everything.

Anonymous said...

We all share these concerns but if you read the Caption on this Post. This is only a private devotion and prayer to Our Lady Mother of Jesus who was God and also a human child with a human
mother. I wonder if The Holy Mother ever played
games and such with The Holy Child.

JB said...


Look he's not acting out a scene from Our Lady's Juggler is he? was that was he was thinking?

even if he was, how could he not genuflect?

Tancred said...

I've said this before and I'll say it again, your response to this will depend largely on what kind of liturgy you attend.

I suppose if you're largely familiar with the typical irreverent faire that is forced upon Catholics throughout the world, complete with abuses and even blasphemy, you won't be offended by it and are probably mystified and angered as to why anyone would find fault with it.

I'd also put forward that most people who find this inoffensive are probably also among that extremely large group of people who rarely go to confession, if ever, go intermittently to Mass and only believe SOME of the Dogmas (even if they know they exist) which are presented for Catholic's belief.

Tancred said...

Where's the clown makeup?

Anonymous said...

No. You really have me mixed up with someone else. I am so unlike the person you've described. I really can't presently explain what I meant concerning this. I think I am for some reason grasping at straws.
I feel scathed by your response. But I understand it.

Tancred said...

We're used to our senior clergy doing various things which degrade the solemnity of the Church and generally work to lead people away from any Catholic understanding of doctrine at all.

I don't mean to be scathing, but if you felt strongly about the Mass and what it respresents, you might feel strongly about the unwelcome intrusion of degrading pop-culture artifacts and so forth too.

You know, for some reason God was displeased with Cain's sacrifice of vegetables while He was pleased with Abel's sacrifice of lamb.

And today, the only thing that pleases God is the Sacrifice of His son on the altar. I can't imagine how anyone would come to that understanding by a cheap plastic beach ball, or what possible connection that could have to the most significant act a man can accomplish on earth, by confecting his God on an altar to be offered in expiation for his sons and those of his company, the Church.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps we should all practice the "not judging" part.

poeta said...

How exactly does one charitably interpret this gesture? I would love to believe it is anything other than a sacrilege.

Anonymous said...

The Pope was using the beachball as a symbol of all the people at World Youth Day. People had been giving him gifts all week. He was thanking Mary for the safe trip and praying for all the people who had been at WYD. I also notice when he travels, he prays to Mary before and afterwards. It was a way of saying to the people of Brazil and all the young people, I am asking Mary to watch over you, my beloved people.

Anonymous said...

I am glad that some commenters at least saw some sense in
my comment or two. I visit this blog regularly and have never previously had a disagreement with Tancred nor has Tancred with me as far as I could tell. I am in no way what I was described. I understand being fed up and I suppose I seemed among those to be fed up with. I can't further explain just now what I meant by my comment, feeling pretty much on the spot so to speak.

Anonymous said...

Tancred, thanks for saying you don't mean (didn't mean) to be scathing. If you had meant to be I may have had to lie down to recover. I have never experienced most and I do mean not even close, of the liturgical and other abuses in Church teaching that I've read about on the internet. Early on I could barely believe they existed. I may make one further comment on the particular of this action by this Pope to explain myself. I was going to sign off with a gesture of peace. Peace Out specifically, but I don't even know what it means.

Mick Jagger Gathers No Mosque said...

Were this Pope to give Archbishops a hollowed-out pumpkins to wear instead of a palliums, the Neo-Caths would swoon about how this was an act of true humility etc etc etc

Anonymous said...

Hello not Spartacus and Mrs. not Spartacus.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a neo-Catholic, I just think that Mary can handle the beachball. I admire you guys for understanding Latin and understanding the symbolism of the Latin mass. God Bless you and hang in there. (I grew up in a conservative parish, but not the Latin-rite, so I don't think that makes me "neo".)

Anonymous said...

You too can understand the Immemorial Mass of All Ages.
God Bless you.

Anonymous said...

to "it degrades the Blessed Virgin". This is not The Holy Sacrament of The Mass. I am no kind of liberal and prayed that we would have a Holy Pope truly Catholic. We'll have to wait. But this particular action is not a sacrilege. It is not a Sacrament. It is a devotion. How can you really think that the Blessed Mother feels degraded or offended by this loving, simple act of devotion? If a man including the Pope does wrong things but not evil things and perhaps through real ignorance, should we condemn every action of the man, even acts that are pure and
good and not sacrilege? It's a good and pure act of devotion. Why are cameras every damn where?

Anonymous said...

Just this thought. Tancred early on you said that you had some hope in this Pontificate because Francis seemed to have a special devotion to Mary. It seems he does. Don't you think the other things he does are much more problematic than this. The Mother of God is
not cold of heart.

Tancred said...

Sacrilege is in general the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object. In a less proper sense any transgression against the virtue of religion would be a sacrilege.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, maybe I'll give it a try.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for explaining precisely what you meant. I suppose it seems odd that those who visit here regularly and are like minded wouldn't know. I still don't know how I quite feel about this single action. I do seem to think of it as single, unto itself. Perhaps it would have been better that he would have not made this prayer upon the alter and rather
elsewhere. But somehow I feel it was very innocent and seemingly an act of love and sweetness and pure. It is good to not do everything merely by rote. Our Blessed Mother is a cold marble statue. The Holy Mother of Jesus has a loving heart filled with kindness and tenderness. There has been and will be more than enough things that the Pope does to cause consternation and dare I say dismay. Again thanks.

Anonymous said...

Heaven help me! Some mistakes are excruciating.
Our Blessed Mother -Is Not-!! a cold marble statue!!

Unknown said...

One does not place a t-shirt and beach ball upon a Sacred Altar which has been consecrated for the celebration of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - period. This is "Novus Ordo" clap-trap and you display an abysmal lack of piety to deny it.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Martina10 said...

Dont you know he is the "False prophet" as mentioned in the Book of Revelation. More will realise this as time goes by. Evil is the word. but we are supposed to still pray for him

Unknown said...

"The devil has always attempted, by means of the heretics, to deprive the world of the Mass, making them precursors of the Anti-Christ, who, before anything else, will try to abolish and will actually abolish the Holy Sacrament of the altar, as a punishment for the sins of men, according to the prediction of Daniel,' And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice' (Daniel 8:12)." St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church. (1696-1787)

Anonymous said...

"Pope Offers Beach Ball to Our Lady at Santa Maria Maggiore Before WYD" http://agenbolakaki.org