The New Pope

The Catholic Church has been recently blessed with a new Pope.

On March 13, 2012, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was selected by his fellow Cardinals to lead the Catholic Church as its Pontiff. The fact that a new Pope was selected is not the only special event that happened with Pope Francis' election. Jorge Mario Bergoglio is also the first ever Jesuit to be elected as the Bishop of Rome.

During his time in as the Archbishop of Rome, Bergoglio set himself as a very humble person. He was known for not living in the area setup for the Bishops of Argentina. Everyday he would take the bus to the church where he worked, talking to people on their way to their everyday lives. One could have a chat with the future Pope by simply getting on the same bus as him. 

Now that he is Pope, Bergoglio has not changed who he is. He has changed the norms of being pope that have been followed for centuries regarding the riches that come with the job. He chose not to take all the wealthy accommodations that are given to the Popes, instead opting to live in the Papal Apartments that are used by guests at the Vatican.

Jesuits are known for being teachers, as well as taking vows of poverty in order to be purer and closer to God's people. Due to the fact that Pope Francis is the first Jesuit Pope, we hope that he can teach the Catholic world in how to better lead the lives of men fully alive in communion with God.

-Milo

What the Priest Is Wearing in Mass and Why

Okay, so as an avid Catholic, I attend mass weekly. However, ever since I was little I have always found the clothes that the priest wears interesting. I always tried to guess what color the priest was going to where that day, and I would anxiously wait to see if I was right. Also, the different parts of the “outfit” of the priests always fascinated me.

There are many parts to the “priestly uniform” that makes up the daily vestment for the priest. First, the priest’s vestments are all blessed so that the sacredness of the rituals performed by the priest are all “sacred.” In addition, there are four main parts to the outfit. The cassock is the tight-fitting under robe worn by the priest, as well as other clergy members. Then, the stole is draped over the cassock, as it is the narrow strip of cloth that hangs around the priest’s neck. Then the alb is placed over all of the other clothing; it is the outermost layer of clothing that is colored differently for each season. Lastly, the pectoral cross is placed around the neck of the priest.

In reality, the vestment color that the priest wears depends on the season that the Church is in. The most common coloration is green, which corresponds to “Ordinary Time,” while the purplish color is worn during Lent and Advent. Also, white is worn during Christmas, Easter, and a variety of other solemnities. Red is worn during Palm Sunday, Pentecost, The Feast of Martyrs, and the Feast of the Lord’s Passion. Rose coloration is worn during Gaudete Sunday and Laetare Sunday. Lastly, black is worn during funeral services, and gold vestments can be worn to supplement white, red, or green ones.

            I hope you found this journey through the priest’s clothing as interesting as I did. For any future reading that u may want to do, here are a few links to websites that I found helpful during my research:

Vestment Information

Vestment Colors
-Timmy Mashinski

Description

Hello! We started this blog because it is an assingment we have to do for our Theology II class. In here, my partner and I will be posting a number of posts every week. We have chosen to blog about the one Church: One Holy Catholic and Apostolic (Apologetics, Defense of the Faith, Misunderstandings of the Catholic Church, Catholic Church in general).

Our posts will be for you guys, our readers, in hopes that we can help you 
better understand the Catholic Church. Please do not Judge us, for we do not know everything there is to know about the Church so most of our posts will be about questions which we have encountered in our everyday lives. Our questions will probably be simple and the answers as well. Simple and direct, but with enough explanation so that one can better understand the answer. Maybe a little bit of back story to every question, for example, how said question was cast unto us and how we found our answer.


We will try to post some fun material in here in order to give our blog a casual 
appearance so that you guys will be more interested in checking. It is fair to point out that, because this is our first bloggin experience, there might be some lack of creativity and managing in this blog. 

Our hopes are that his will be a good experience (and a good class project!)

Milo and Timmy