Click here to add your vote:
http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=115200
Monday, August 29, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Mantilla in the Movies: Columbiana
Apparently a character (the grandma) in the new (and violent) action flick, Columbiana, regularly wears a mantilla to mass.
Review by the Catholic News Service below.
_______________________________________________________
Columbiana
By John Mulderig
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Two things to note about Cataleya, the central character in the over-the-top action flick "Colombiana" (TriStar/Stage 6): As a trained assassin, she's very good at killing people; as played by Zoe Saldana, she's even better at looking good while she does it.
Lest you miss the latter point, Cataleya conveniently dons a skintight black leotard to carry out one of her elaborate trademark hits.
What's a nice girl like her doing in the death-for-dollars racket? Well, way back in 1992, as early scenes show us, young Bogota-born Cataleya (Amandla Stenberg) witnessed the fatal outcome of a tiff between her parents and her father's employer, a Colombian drug lord named Don Luis (Beto Benites).
Making her way to the States, the orphaned Cataleya found shelter with her gangster uncle Emilio (Cliff Curtis), a thug with a heart of gold -- if only for his kith and kin.
Already out for revenge against Don Luis and his chief minion Marco (Jordi Molla), the traumatized tot demanded that Tio Emilio immediately teach her how to introduce folks to the Big Sleep. With avuncular wisdom, however, he insisted that she graduate from grammar school first.
Flash forward to the current millennium and we find Cataleya executing contracts for Emilio while still pursuing her dreams of vengeance. But an FBI agent named Ross (Lennie James), though remarkably slow on the uptake, is at least lukewarm on her trail, while her heretofore anonymous romance with increasingly nosy artist Danny (Michael Vartan) also threatens to thwart her plans.
Pure pulp, director Olivier Megaton's shoot'em-up expends ammo at a "Scarface" pace, yet generally demurs from showing the gory consequences of its gun battles, or of its heroine's more creative rub-outs, such as that involving a shark tank.
Catholic viewers may be wryly amused by the fact that Emilio is portrayed as attending Sunday Mass on a regular basis, accompanied by his elderly mother (Ofelia Medina), who still wears a mantilla to church. Like many a mafia don on screen and -- who knows? -- perhaps off it as well, he seems not to have noticed that Gospel values and a life of violent crime are just a tad incongruous.
Maybe he missed that Sunday.
The film contains constant, largely bloodless, action violence, a vengeance theme, brief nongraphic premarital sexual activity, a few uses of profanity, at least one instance of rough language and frequent crude or crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
- - -
Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.
SOURCE
Review by the Catholic News Service below.
_______________________________________________________
Columbiana
By John Mulderig
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Two things to note about Cataleya, the central character in the over-the-top action flick "Colombiana" (TriStar/Stage 6): As a trained assassin, she's very good at killing people; as played by Zoe Saldana, she's even better at looking good while she does it.
Lest you miss the latter point, Cataleya conveniently dons a skintight black leotard to carry out one of her elaborate trademark hits.
What's a nice girl like her doing in the death-for-dollars racket? Well, way back in 1992, as early scenes show us, young Bogota-born Cataleya (Amandla Stenberg) witnessed the fatal outcome of a tiff between her parents and her father's employer, a Colombian drug lord named Don Luis (Beto Benites).
Making her way to the States, the orphaned Cataleya found shelter with her gangster uncle Emilio (Cliff Curtis), a thug with a heart of gold -- if only for his kith and kin.
Already out for revenge against Don Luis and his chief minion Marco (Jordi Molla), the traumatized tot demanded that Tio Emilio immediately teach her how to introduce folks to the Big Sleep. With avuncular wisdom, however, he insisted that she graduate from grammar school first.
Flash forward to the current millennium and we find Cataleya executing contracts for Emilio while still pursuing her dreams of vengeance. But an FBI agent named Ross (Lennie James), though remarkably slow on the uptake, is at least lukewarm on her trail, while her heretofore anonymous romance with increasingly nosy artist Danny (Michael Vartan) also threatens to thwart her plans.
Pure pulp, director Olivier Megaton's shoot'em-up expends ammo at a "Scarface" pace, yet generally demurs from showing the gory consequences of its gun battles, or of its heroine's more creative rub-outs, such as that involving a shark tank.
Catholic viewers may be wryly amused by the fact that Emilio is portrayed as attending Sunday Mass on a regular basis, accompanied by his elderly mother (Ofelia Medina), who still wears a mantilla to church. Like many a mafia don on screen and -- who knows? -- perhaps off it as well, he seems not to have noticed that Gospel values and a life of violent crime are just a tad incongruous.
Maybe he missed that Sunday.
The film contains constant, largely bloodless, action violence, a vengeance theme, brief nongraphic premarital sexual activity, a few uses of profanity, at least one instance of rough language and frequent crude or crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
- - -
Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.
SOURCE
Monday, August 15, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Heads of State and Pope Benedict - Update
Chile
Croatia
2 March 2011, Chilean President, Sebastian Pinera, Pope Benedict XVI and Chilean President's wife Cecilia Mores.
Croatia
Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor (R) kisses Pope Benedict XVI's (C) hand. 04 June 2011.
Hungary
Iceland
Pope Benedict XVI with Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson (L) and Grimsson's wife Dorrit Moussaieff (R), 04 March 2011.
Latvia
Pope Benedict XVI with Latvian President Valdis Zatlers and his wife Lilita Zatlere. April 14, 2011.
Lebanon
Lebanon President Michel Sleiman and his wife with Pope Benedict XVI, February 24 2011
Poland
Pope Benedict XVI with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, May 2, 2011.
Pope Benedict XVI with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana, 17 February 2011.
For more see here.
On the tongue and while kneeling: what are your thoughts?
Below is an article quoting Cardinal Llovera to the effect that Catholics should receive communion on the tongue while kneeling!
I receive on the tongue but do not kneel at the ordinary form mass.
I am not sure whether I am brave enough to start kneeling to receive ... I already feel like the odd one out wearing my mantilla.
What do you think?
______________________________________________________________
I receive on the tongue but do not kneel at the ordinary form mass.
I am not sure whether I am brave enough to start kneeling to receive ... I already feel like the odd one out wearing my mantilla.
What do you think?
______________________________________________________________
“On the tongue and while kneeling”
Cardinal offers guidance on receiving Communion, urges correction of liturgical abuses
Lima, Peru (CNA) -- Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, has recommended that Catholics receive Communion on the tongue, while kneeling.
“It is to simply know that we are before God himself and that He came to us and that we are undeserving,” the cardinal said in an interview with CNA during a recent visit to Peru. His remarks came in response to a question on whether Catholics should receive Communion in the hand or on the tongue.
He recommended that Catholics “receive Communion on the tongue and while kneeling.” Receiving Communion in this way, the cardinal continued, “is the sign of adoration that needs to be recovered. I think the entire Church needs to receive Communion while kneeling.”
“In fact,” he added, “if one receives while standing, a genuflection or profound bow should be made, and this is not happening.”
“If we trivialize Communion, we trivialize everything, and we cannot lose a moment as important as that of receiving Communion, of recognizing the real presence of Christ there, of the God who is the love above all loves, as we sing in a hymn in Spanish,” said Cardinal Canizares.
In response to a question about the liturgical abuses that often occur, Cardinal Canizares said they must be “corrected, especially through proper formation: formation for seminarians, for priests, for catechists, for all the Christian faithful.”
Such a formation should ensure that liturgical celebrations take place “in accord with the demands and dignity of the celebration, in accord with the norms of the Church, which is the only way we can authentically celebrate the Eucharist,” he added.
“Bishops have a unique responsibility” in the task of liturgical formation and the correction of abuses, the cardinal said, “and we must not fail to fulfill it, because everything we do to ensure that the Eucharist is celebrated properly will ensure proper participation in the Eucharist.”
Source: California Catholic Daily
“It is to simply know that we are before God himself and that He came to us and that we are undeserving,” the cardinal said in an interview with CNA during a recent visit to Peru. His remarks came in response to a question on whether Catholics should receive Communion in the hand or on the tongue.He recommended that Catholics “receive Communion on the tongue and while kneeling.” Receiving Communion in this way, the cardinal continued, “is the sign of adoration that needs to be recovered. I think the entire Church needs to receive Communion while kneeling.”
“In fact,” he added, “if one receives while standing, a genuflection or profound bow should be made, and this is not happening.”
“If we trivialize Communion, we trivialize everything, and we cannot lose a moment as important as that of receiving Communion, of recognizing the real presence of Christ there, of the God who is the love above all loves, as we sing in a hymn in Spanish,” said Cardinal Canizares.
In response to a question about the liturgical abuses that often occur, Cardinal Canizares said they must be “corrected, especially through proper formation: formation for seminarians, for priests, for catechists, for all the Christian faithful.”
Such a formation should ensure that liturgical celebrations take place “in accord with the demands and dignity of the celebration, in accord with the norms of the Church, which is the only way we can authentically celebrate the Eucharist,” he added.
“Bishops have a unique responsibility” in the task of liturgical formation and the correction of abuses, the cardinal said, “and we must not fail to fulfill it, because everything we do to ensure that the Eucharist is celebrated properly will ensure proper participation in the Eucharist.”
Source: California Catholic Daily
Friday, August 5, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)