Paul Luvera Journal

Barbara Johnson was one of four children raised as Catholics and sent to Catholic schools. She had been in a committed relationship with another woman for 19 years when her elderly mother became ill. It was Barbara who was with her praying when her mother, Loetta Johnson, 85, died.The funeral mass was arranged at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Maryland. Before the funeral service was held Barbara introduced her lesbian partner to the priest, father Marcel Guarnizo. After the…

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One of the guests at next Sunday's Academy Awards will be a Benedictine nun. Fifty years ago she left a Hollywood movie career to join a cloistered convent. Dolores Hart, 73, is featured in an HBO documentary, God is the Bigger Elvis, which has been nominated for best documentary short category. It is scheduled to be shown on HBO in April 20 12th. The documentary covers her background involving being the star in dozens of Hollywood films and ending up…

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The issue of president Obama and the health and human services ruling on mandatory coverage for contraceptives has been in the news. My own view is that his position was a poor political one as evidenced by his decision to back off and compromise. It was also a flawed one because any government action which is perceived by many people as an infringement on their religiousliberty is a constitutional mistake.That is aside from the fact that survey’s show ninety five percent…

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According to a report in a Christian blog  http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/RA/k/274/No-Greater-Love.htmthe February 13, 1987, issue of The Missileer, a newspaper of the 45th Space Wing, U.S. Air Force, ran this brief and apparently true story by Colonel John W. Mansur: The mortar rounds landed in an orphanage run by a missionary group in the small Vietnamese village. The missionaries and one or two children were killed outright and several more children were wounded, including one girl about eight years old. People from…

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Today is the anniversary of the death of one of my personal hero's, Dorothy Day, who was born in Brooklyn, NY and died November 29, 1980 at age 84 years. If ever there was the common person’s saint, Dorothy is it. Unlike plastic saints this is a woman who struggled through life trying to find her purpose and making a lot of mistakes on the way. She is someone all of us sinners can relate to. She was raised in…

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On November 11th each year the Catholic church celebrates the feast day of St Martin de Tours who died in the year 397. Martin was the son of a calvary officer and when old enough became a soldier himself. A story that has been handed down over the centuries was that when he was at the gates of a city with other soldiers he saw a beggar who lacked warm clothing. Martin cut his military cloak in half and gave…

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I would be remiss if I didn't note the passing of an extraordinary Catholic priest, Gerry Clenahan who died in Ireland September 20, 2011 at age 89. I just learned of his death. Born in Ireland he joined the Oblate Order and was ordained June 29, 1947 as a priest. He assisted the Oblates of St George Canada in establishing Catholic schools there. Later he went to Alaska to act as pastor at villages where he often traveled by boat…

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The Roman Catholic dogma of papal infallibility has been a religious hot point of controversy from the time it was first proclaimed. Articles about the pope's adamant refusal to even allow discussion of women priests have focused on what is being called an increasing problem of "creeping infallibility." What is meant in the Roman Catholic church by the infallibility of the pope? In it's simplest terms the dogma of the Church is that pope is preserved from even the possibility of…

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Lita and I support the missionary diocese of Fairbanks (Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska 1312 Peger Rd Fairbanks 99709-5199) As a result we receive the Alaskan Shepard Newsletter which gives reports of the missionary work being done. In the last issue a novice in the Oregon Jesuits wrote a column about being the only Indonesian Jesuit in Bethel Alaska as part of his novitiate experience. In the article he outlined the general steps of becoming a member of the Society…

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Last week I posted a complaint about the liturgy after attending Sunday Mass which offended some.https://paulluverajournalonline.com/weblog/2011/04/sunday-worship-for-catholics-consists-of-a-liturgy-service-consisting-of-prayer-bible-readings-a-homily-and-the-eucharistic.html But, now Fr. Thomas Reese , a Jesuit priest and former Editor in Chief of America and now a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington has published an article indicating I am not alone in my views. The April 15, 2011 National Catholic Reporter carried his  article "The hidden Exodus: Catholics becoming Protestants." Fr. Reese reports on the…

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