Anonymous wrote:They are trying to create a schism in the church. The American Catholics are cash-rich and are being heavily influenced by Vance's group - MAGA politics. The Italian Catholic church has a lot of expensive real estate but no cash and is heavily influenced by Pope Leo/Pope Francis and traditional Catholic values like care for the poor. One of the reasons Pope Leo was chosen was to keep the American Catholics from taking their cash and going. The fight is going to get ugly and from your report, it seems Pope Leo might be losing.

This! You were hearing from the MAGA side. The priests write their own sermons. That's why you will often hear some frankly heretical stuff.

Anonymous wrote:Here is the lectionary for this Sunday:

https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

It has been set for a long time, so the appearance of the one out four passages in which Paul talks about how the the early Christians worked to feed themselves instead of relying on the communities where they traveled to evangelize to provide charity.

If an idiot priest chose to take this one verse out of context and interpret it to mean that there shouldn’t be SNAP, well that’s not a surprise because it’s a known fact that there are MAGA priests, but that is certainly not the only way to interpret it, nor is it consistent with other passages like the story of loaves and fishes.

Now, if someone wanted to interpret it to mean that Christians who travel to Evangelize should be very careful not to burden the communities they visit then I would agree.

I’m OP. The priests didn’t literally say “SNAP” or “welfare” or “EBT” or any other gov assistance terms in the news and viral on social media the last few weeks — that was me reading between the lines. It just seemed awfully coincidental two Catholic churches which are totally unaffiliated with each other had the same reading and two priests had similar interpretations and expansions essentially demonizing poor people on welfare as lazy, idle, and lacking dignity — albeit the hometown priest was much more aggressive and even used some old school urban “welfare queen” dog whistles.

I think most people would agree children under one are unlikely to contribute to gossip, are typically not valued workers, and have no say in whether their parents were married.

Sounds like this priest may have been ashamed that his Church would have turned away the woman who called Churches asking for formula and recorded their responses , and maybe his parishoners were asking uncomfortable questions this week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We attended Mass locally on Saturday night and then I randomly came across my hometown church’s Sunday morning Mass stream on Facebook. The churches are over 500 miles away from each other had the same reading. And both homilies were on the same vein, although my hometown church’s priest had a much more aggressive posture.

The reading was a passage about not feeding people who don’t work. Then the priests went deeper later into why charity has its limits, you shouldn’t feed the idle, and how destructive idleness and out of wedlock births are.

Is this all purely coincidental with what’s been going on in the news and social media and federal budget and shutdown? I can’t remember ever hearing such posture at church. Of all the things going on in the world, this struck me as really weird — especially the timing.

And this is all statistically and demonstrably true.

Okay? Is it just a coincidence this is the posture at Mass this weekend? There’s a slaughter in Palestine, porn addiction, online gambling addiction, President is pushing usury to new obscene heights with 50 year mortgages and 15 year auto loans — all topics ignored at Mass. Poor people getting some gov assistance for food is THE issue of the times? Very, very weird. I’m sorry. Especially with the economy the way it is with mass layoffs; notably young college grads struggling to start their careers.

Yes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We attended Mass locally on Saturday night and then I randomly came across my hometown church’s Sunday morning Mass stream on Facebook. The churches are over 500 miles away from each other had the same reading. And both homilies were on the same vein, although my hometown church’s priest had a much more aggressive posture.

The reading was a passage about not feeding people who don’t work. Then the priests went deeper later into why charity has its limits, you shouldn’t feed the idle, and how destructive idleness and out of wedlock births are.

Is this all purely coincidental with what’s been going on in the news and social media and federal budget and shutdown? I can’t remember ever hearing such posture at church. Of all the things going on in the world, this struck me as really weird — especially the timing.

And this is all statistically and demonstrably true.

Okay? Is it just a coincidence this is the posture at Mass this weekend? There’s a slaughter in Palestine, porn addiction, online gambling addiction, President is pushing usury to new obscene heights with 50 year mortgages and 15 year auto loans — all topics ignored at Mass. Poor people getting some gov assistance for food is THE issue of the times? Very, very weird. I’m sorry. Especially with the economy the way it is with mass layoffs; notably young college grads struggling to start their careers.

You didn't think each priest got to choose what to talk about did you? Sometimes its looser but sometimes they are told. That's why there is such hierarchy.

Anonymous wrote:We attended Mass locally on Saturday night and then I randomly came across my hometown church’s Sunday morning Mass stream on Facebook. The churches are over 500 miles away from each other had the same reading. And both homilies were on the same vein, although my hometown church’s priest had a much more aggressive posture.

The reading was a passage about not feeding people who don’t work. Then the priests went deeper later into why charity has its limits, you shouldn’t feed the idle, and how destructive idleness and out of wedlock births are.

Is this all purely coincidental with what’s been going on in the news and social media and federal budget and shutdown? I can’t remember ever hearing such posture at church. Of all the things going on in the world, this struck me as really weird — especially the timing.

And this is all statistically and demonstrably true.

They are trying to create a schism in the church. The American Catholics are cash-rich and are being heavily influenced by Vance's group - MAGA politics. The Italian Catholic church has a lot of expensive real estate but no cash and is heavily influenced by Pope Leo/Pope Francis and traditional Catholic values like care for the poor. One of the reasons Pope Leo was chosen was to keep the American Catholics from taking their cash and going. The fight is going to get ugly and from your report, it seems Pope Leo might be losing.

Anonymous wrote:We attended Mass locally on Saturday night and then I randomly came across my hometown church’s Sunday morning Mass stream on Facebook. The churches are over 500 miles away from each other had the same reading. And both homilies were on the same vein, although my hometown church’s priest had a much more aggressive posture.

The reading was a passage about not feeding people who don’t work. Then the priests went deeper later into why charity has its limits, you shouldn’t feed the idle, and how destructive idleness and out of wedlock births are.

Is this all purely coincidental with what’s been going on in the news and social media and federal budget and shutdown? I can’t remember ever hearing such posture at church. Of all the things going on in the world, this struck me as really weird — especially the timing.

All very consistent with most all religions, not just Christian teachings.

Well, no surprise that the readings were the same in two different places. They’re always the same, although there are sometimes multiple options, because they’re standardized.

I think what St. Paul was going after were idle, exploitative louts whose only contribution to the community was gossip and discord. Consistent with what later became known as the “Protestant work ethic,” he liked to see people keep busy building up the Kingdom.

I suspect it is difficult to preach on this periscope, especially taken in isolation. There are people who game the system. But there also are people in great need. I think that on average, people would rather not rely on charity. I think that some people have never learned to live any other way, and that is sad.

I think the reading works better when taken in context with the first reading — about living justly, and the Gospel — about being prepared for hard times and hanging tough when necessary. Looked at in that light, one can read Paul as calling people to examine their own motives, not the motives of others.

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't sound New Testament compliant to me.

Lots of churches have "sermon idea" type publications. Sounds like that might have happened.

It's a sad state of affairs when Christian churches give up on compassion for people who are imperfect. That's kind of the whole point.

I'm sorry, OP.

II Thessalonians 3:10

Paul was speaking to the early church not about people who can't work, but those who choose not to.

Here is the lectionary for this Sunday:

https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

It has been set for a long time, so the appearance of the one out four passages in which Paul talks about how the the early Christians worked to feed themselves instead of relying on the communities where they traveled to evangelize to provide charity.

If an idiot priest chose to take this one verse out of context and interpret it to mean that there shouldn’t be SNAP, well that’s not a surprise because it’s a known fact that there are MAGA priests, but that is certainly not the only way to interpret it, nor is it consistent with other passages like the story of loaves and fishes.

Now, if someone wanted to interpret it to mean that Christians who travel to Evangelize should be very careful not to burden the communities they visit then I would agree.

Doesn't sound New Testament compliant to me.

Lots of churches have "sermon idea" type publications. Sounds like that might have happened.

It's a sad state of affairs when Christian churches give up on compassion for people who are imperfect. That's kind of the whole point.

I'm sorry, OP.

Anonymous wrote:We attended Mass locally on Saturday night and then I randomly came across my hometown church’s Sunday morning Mass stream on Facebook. The churches are over 500 miles away from each other had the same reading. And both homilies were on the same vein, although my hometown church’s priest had a much more aggressive posture.

The reading was a passage about not feeding people who don’t work. Then the priests went deeper later into why charity has its limits, you shouldn’t feed the idle, and how destructive idleness and out of wedlock births are.

Is this all purely coincidental with what’s been going on in the news and social media and federal budget and shutdown? I can’t remember ever hearing such posture at church. Of all the things going on in the world, this struck me as really weird — especially the timing.

While there's nothing weird about the timing (as you say, the reading was the same) the interpretation certainly is weird, but I fear pretty ordinary for Catholic Churches, these days.

We attended Mass locally on Saturday night and then I randomly came across my hometown church’s Sunday morning Mass stream on Facebook. The churches are over 500 miles away from each other had the same reading. And both homilies were on the same vein, although my hometown church’s priest had a much more aggressive posture.

The reading was a passage about not feeding people who don’t work. Then the priests went deeper later into why charity has its limits, you shouldn’t feed the idle, and how destructive idleness and out of wedlock births are.

Is this all purely coincidental with what’s been going on in the news and social media and federal budget and shutdown? I can’t remember ever hearing such posture at church. Of all the things going on in the world, this struck me as really weird — especially the timing.