Croatian pro-life coin and Archbishop of Avignon lets gender-benders have it

Here are a couple of noteworthy and encouraging bits of news.

First… I have to go to Croatia.  It keeps popping up on my radar.  I had a note from a recently ordained Croatian priest looking for a little help for a building project.  And there was the World Cup.  And now there is this…

I read at Messa in Latino that in Croatia a new 25 Kune coin has been issued with the image of an unborn child.

Also, I read at lefty La Croix that the Archbishop of Avignon has caused a stir.  During a major arts festival

French archbishop causes controversy during Avignon arts festival

[…]

The Archbishop of Avignon’s [Jean-Pierre Cattenoz] homily broadcast during the Avignon Festival that champions performing arts has evoked strong criticism especially since the archdiocese also canceled a fundraising campaign in objection to some of the images and messages displayed during the festival.

On Sunday July 15, in the middle of the Avignon Festival, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Cattenoz’s Mass in the Avignon Cathedral was broadcast on Radio France Culture.

“The Festival is a marvelous occasion for us to answer Jesus’ call to evangelism,” said the archbishop.

The month-long Avignon Festival, founded in 1947, is one of the most important contemporary performing arts events in the world.

It is traditional to broadcast one of the Sunday Masses in Avignon Cathedral during the Festival. What was new this year, however, was that the archbishop decided to give the homily himself.

His focus was on “gender, the theme of this year’s festival” and he also called for “conversion and the discovery of the message of the Gospel.

On the Wednesday after the Mass, an article criticizing the archbishop’s homily was published in the weekly paper, Marianne.

Titled “The public channel France Culture broadcasts a fundamentalist Catholic sermon on LGBT and against Simon Veil,” the article caused a storm of debate on social media.

I have never met anyone who is L, G, B, T or, now, Q. I only see and know people with the richness of their femininity and masculinity inscribed in their flesh and deep within their most profound being,” the archbishop said.  [Good for him!]

He “marveled,” he said, “at the complementarity between man and woman, at the love that springs between them and gives rise to the gift of life.”

Abortion, assisted suicide, IVF, surrogacy, eugenics – all became possible in the name of a primary principle since 1968: ‘It is forbidden to forbid… my pleasure is my right.’

He denounced what then came about: “decriminalizing everything and making it a right.” [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

Archbishop Cattenoz quoted John Paul II: “Abortion is the most abominable crime that there is … the victim is not even able to cry out in its suffering,” and Mother Teresa, who said, “Abortion is abominable because it is a mother killing her own child.”

The archbishop then targeted, without mentioning her name, Simone Veil.

“I am telling you, I wept a few weeks ago when I saw the body of the woman who led the battle to legalize abortion being laid to rest in the Panthéon of the Republic,” he said.

As he concluded, the archbishop of Avignon emphasized the wishes of Jean Vilar, the Festival’s founder, for religion to be given a place in the program. [What do want to be that it won’t be next year?]

He also referred to Pope Francis’ advocacy for the family in mid-June, during an audience with a delegation of the Forum of Family Associations.

In his advocacy, the pope recalled the Nazi obsession with “racial purity” and, in reference to the abortion of babies who have something wrong, said, “We do the same as the Nazis … but with white gloves.

Relations between the Archdiocese and the Festival are complicated. On the same weekend as the broadcast of the Sunday Mass, the archdiocesan resource center decided to end a fundraising campaign launched on July 10, objecting to some of the images and messages displayed at the Festival. [I am not sure what this part is all about.]

[…]

There’s more to the article and the poster problem, which I found rather difficult to piece together.  But the sermon of the Archbishop… yahoo!

Fr. Z kudos to Archbishop Cattenoz.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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10 Comments

  1. monstrance says:

    Awesome Archbishop !
    We need a thousand more just like him.
    Hope the authorities don’t arrest him.
    Then again, it would make his witness even stronger.

  2. Ivan says:

    “I had a note from a recently ordained Croatian priest looking for a little help for a building project.

    This part of the article makes me really happy!
    God bless you fr.Z!

  3. Julia_Augusta says:

    I was in Croatia a couple of years ago. It was disappointing. Communism killed off a lot of good things there, including the cuisine which had a lot of Venetian influences. Most of the coastal towns are tourist traps with bad food and it doesn’t help that cruise ships flood very small towns with thousands of people in one day. The one place I stayed that was outstanding was Villa Meneghetti, a vineyard with a few rooms.

    But if you are going for higher purposes than roasting on a hot beach, you’ll be okay, especially if you are with the locals who are very hospitable.

  4. Charivari Rob says:

    I would heartily recommend Dubrovnik.

  5. jaykay says:

    “I had a note from a recently ordained Croatian priest looking for a little help for a building project.”

    Would it be possible to give details, Father? I’m sure many would love to help – and for those of us in Europe the Euro goes a long way in Croatia (not part of the Euro-zone). However, in your discretion. As ever.

  6. bibi1003 says:

    So would I, Charivari Bob. I visited the old town area of Dubrovnik in 2009, the year I came into the Church. I remember the beautiful Church of St. Blaise with the gold statue of the patron saint of Dubrovnik at the top, watching over and protecting the city.

  7. ejcmartin says:

    Although I have seen the Croatian 25 Kuna coin making the rounds on pro-life sites etc., it appears that the coin was actually issued in the year 2000. Perhaps Croatia’s recent run in the World Cup brought it out of the woodwork.

  8. Gripen says:

    The pictured coin seems to be dated 2000, but I’d love to add one to my collection whether it was minted in 2000 or in 2018. They’re stupidly expensive on eBay, though…anyone know of Croatian sources to purchase from?

  9. tzabiega says:

    I just looked up the good Archbishop of Avignon’s bio page on catholic-hierarchy.org and he was appointed bishop by Saint Pope John Paul II in 2002 and one of his co-consecrating bishops was…current Cardinal Robert Sarah.

  10. oklip955 says:

    I will have to see if my cousin can send me one. Most of my dad’s family is still in Croatia. Also last time around 2000 that I was there, in the small town railway stations, I found small Catholic chapels. Really. I was suprised. Got to the station early and was told that instead of waiting in the waiting area, to go instead and waiting in the chapel. That was a shock.

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