Last Week In Life: June 21, 2021- June 27, 2021
Last Week’s SPECTACULAR STORY OF WEEK
Spider-Pontiff
After the papal general audience on Wednesday June 23, 2021, Pope Francis got greeted by a very special attendee. Spider-Man (AKA Peter Parker) while on vacation. The web crawler was not out catching his usual gallery of villains but was entertaining some children in Rome. He just happen to swing into St. Peter’s square at the request of his good friend Mattia Villardita, a devout Catholic who gets super heroes to come and visit Italy’s sick children in hospitals. He has been doing this ministry for the last 3 years. Spidey even gave Pope Francis his very own Spider mask now making him Spider-Pontiff.
Other Super-Charged heroes have helped these kids by showing up and meeting the pope include, Mr. Incredible, Larry-Boy, The Ninja Turtles, Condor-Man, and Superman who took the Holy Father on a flight above Rome. The spiritual insights that he got from that flight were above most people’s heads.
The Web-head may make the swing across the tiber and take RCIA classes. His friends Daredevil, The Warrior Nun, Nightcrawler and The Phantom Phoenix hold a weekly rosary to pray for the conversion of their crime-fighting brethren. Some henchmen of famous villains have even converted and stopped their evil ways and a few have joined RCIA and became Catholic getting baptised and receiving their sacraments.
Over in America a girl named Ciara Marie Leal (without super powers) is helping others at a Catholic home for single mothers.
Since 2019, Ciara Marie Leal has organized countless donation drives for Mary’s Homes of Hope, a Catholic ministry to women who have experienced homelessness, based in a Denver suburb. She also helped design a website for the organization.
Statistics show that in Colorado, nearly 6% of households with children under the age of 18 are led by a single mother.
However, Leal’s inspiration for her project was more personal. Her own sister is raising two children as a single mother.
“I was close with her when I was younger, but once I got older we kind of drifted apart,” Leal said of her sister. “In 2019, she started coming back into my life, and I noticed the struggles that she’s had as a single mother, who doesn’t have any support or resources.”
– Catholic teen works toward Gold Award by serving single mothers – Catholic World Report
Up above we talked about The Phantom Phoenix(AKA Martin Claver). His story is a very interesting one. He struggled to find his place in the world. He suffered a debilitating leg injury as an ace fighter pilot in World War I and was rejected by society. Without the support of family or the ability to work, Martin became a homeless veteran roaming the streets of Chicago, living off of scraps of food he finds. That is, until he rose from the ashes.
Through a series of unlikely events, Martin discovered that his knowledge of the streets could actually help the country he fought to defend. Working in the shadows as if he was a “phantom,” he encountered criminals and crime scenes, giving the police the hints and clues they need to clean-up the streets of Chicago.
Despite his difficult situation, he wanted to help the police and bring criminals to justice.
Martin is aided in his pursuit for justice by a Polish priest named Fr. Karol, who gave Martin sanctuary in his church basement, establishing a “base of operations” for his detective work and tinkering on new inventions.
And if you want even more Catholic Superhero goodness, you can click on The Five Best Catholic Superheroes (comicbook.com)
And here are 7 Marvel & DC Comicbook Superheroes That Are Catholic | The Catholic Talk Show
In this super-powered Catholic Podcast you will learn…
- How the Daredevil series revolves around the character’s Catholic faith
- The brutal Marvel character that was actually in seminary
- The time Batman was a Catholic Monk
- Why Superman goes to a Catholic priest when he needs help
- When Pope St. John Paul II had his own Marvel comic book
- and much more!
Spider-Pontiff joins Spider-Kid-Saint in fighting the forces of evil.
FEAST DAYS ,HOLIDAYS AND LAST WEEK IN HISTORY
Mon June 21, 2021
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, religious – Memorial
International Yoga Day (international)[39]
National Aboriginal Day (Canada)
World Hydrography Day (international)
- 1749– Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded.
- 1788 – New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
- 1898– The United States captures Guam from Spain. The few warning shots fired by the U.S. naval vessels are misinterpreted as salutes by the Spanish garrison, which was unaware that the two nations were at war.
- 1900– Boxer Rebellion: China formally declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Empress Dowager Cixi.
- 1915– The S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down Oklahoma grandfather clause legislation which had the effect of denying the right to vote to blacks.1963 – Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is elected as Pope Paul VI.
- 1964– Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
- 1979 – Chris Pratt, (Starlord) is born.
- 1982– John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
- 1989– The S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, that American flag-burning is a form of political protest protected by the First Amendment.
Tuesday June 22, 2021
Saint Paulinus of Nola, bishop;
Saints John Fisher, bishop and martyr, and Thomas More, martyr
- 1633– The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe in the form he presented it in, after heated controversy.
- 1839– Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears.
- 1870– The United States Department of Justice is created by the S. Congress.
- 1907– The London Underground‘s Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway
- 1942 – The Pledge of Allegianceis formally adopted by US Congress.
- 1969– Judy Garland, American actress and singer (b. 1922) dies.
- 1978– Charon, the first of Pluto’s satellites to be discovered, was first seen at the United States Naval Observatory by James W. Christy.
- 1984– Virgin Atlantic launches with its first flight from London to Newark.
Wednesday June 23, 2021
- 1868– Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the “Type-Writer”.
- 1917– In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.
- 1940– Adolf Hitler goes on a three-hour tour of the architecture of Paris with architect Albert Speer and sculptor Arno Breker in his only visit to the city.
- 1941– The Lithuanian Activist Front declares independence from the Soviet Union and forms the Provisional Government of Lithuania; it lasts only briefly as the Nazis will occupy Lithuania a few weeks later.
- 1960– The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.
- 1972– Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff R. Haldeman are taped talking about illegally using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation‘s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.[
- 1973– A fire at a house in Hull, England, which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale.
- 1991– Sonic the Hedgehog is released in North America on the Sega Genesis platform, beginning the popular video game franchise.
- 2013– Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.
- 2018– Twelve boys and an assistant coach from a soccer team in Thailand are trapped in a flooding cave, leading to an 18-day rescue operation.
Thursday June 24, 2021
Birth of Saint John the Baptist– Solemnity
Last Year on the day we celebrated the birth of John the Baptist we sadly attended the grave-side service for the Gooddale Family. I’m not exactly sure of the extent of their religious beliefs but asked my Patheos Catholic priest friends to offer a Mass for their souls, which they gladly did.
- 1386– John of Capistrano, Italian priest and saint (d. 1456) is born
- 1497– John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.
- 1509– Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England.
- 1880– First performance of O Canada at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français. The song would later become the national anthem of Canada.
- 1916– Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract.
- 1918– First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
- 1922– The American Professional Football Association is renamed the National Football League.
- 1949– The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, starring William Boyd, is aired on NBC.
- 1950– Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed, formally segregating races.
- 1973– The UpStairs Lounge arson attack takes place at a gay bar located on the second floor of the three-story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Thirty-two people die as a result of fire or smoke inhalation.
- 1981– The Humber Bridge opens to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It remained the world’s longest bridge span for 17 years.
- 2012– Death of Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise.
Friday June 25, 2021
- 1788– Virginia becomes the tenth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1848– A photograph of the June Days uprising becomes the first known instance of photojournalism.
- 1876– Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
- 1900– The Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China.
- 1910– The United States Congress passes the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of women or girls for “immoral purposes”; the ambiguous language would be used to selectively prosecute people for years to come.
- 1913– American Civil War veterans begin arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913.
- 1943– The Holocaust: Jews in the Częstochowa Ghetto in Poland stage an uprising against the Nazis.
- 1944 – The final page of the comic Krazy Katis published, exactly two months after its author George Herriman
- 1947– The Diary of a Young Girl (better known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is published.
- 1978– The rainbow flag representing gay pride is flown for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.
- 1981– Microsoft is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington.
- 2009 – Michael Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actor (b. 1958) dies.
Saturday June 26, 2021
World Refrigeration Day(International)
- 4 AD– Augustus adopts Tiberius.
- 699– En no Ozuno, a Japanese mystic and apothecary who will later be regarded as the founder of a folk religion Shugendō, is banished to Izu Ōshima.
- 1409– Western Schism: The Roman Catholic Church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.
- 1740– A combined force of Spanish, free blacks and allied Indians defeat a British garrison at the Siege of Fort Mose near Augustine during the War of Jenkins’ Ear.
- 1906– The first Grand Prix motor race is held at Le Mans.
- 1909– The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity.
- 1924– The American occupation of the Dominican Republic ends after eight years.
- 1927– The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.
- 1948 – Shirley Jackson‘s short story The Lottery is published in The New Yorker
- 1959– Swedish boxer Ingemar Johansson becomes world champion of heavy weight boxing, by defeating American Floyd Patterson on technical knockout after two minutes and three seconds in the third round at Yankee Stadium.
- 1967– Karol Wojtyła (later John Paul II) made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.
- 1974– The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
- 2000– The Human Genome Project announces the completion of a “rough draft” sequence.
- 2003– The S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.
- 2007– Pope Benedict XVI reinstates the traditional laws of papal election in which a successful candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes.
- 2015– Five different terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia, Somalia, Kuwait, and Syria occurred on what was dubbed Bloody Friday by international media. Upwards of 750 people were either killed or injured in these uncoordinated attacks.
- 2015 – The S. Supreme Courtruled, 5–4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Sunday June 27, 2021
Saint Cyril of Alexandria, bishop and doctor of the Church – Optional Memorial
National PTSD Awareness Day(United States)
- 1844– Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are killed by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois
- 1898– The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia.
- 1905– During the Russo-Japanese War, sailors start a mutiny aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin.
- 1950– The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War
- 1966– J. Abrams, American director, producer, and screenwriter is born.
- 1974– U.S. president Richard Nixon visits the Soviet Union.
- 2001– Tove Jansson, Finnish author, illustrator, and painter (b. 1914) dies.
- 2001 – Jack Lemmon, American actor (b. 1925) dies.
Bishop Barron’s Homily of the Week
Last Week’s News of the World
Social Justice Issues
The U.S. bishops’ conference on Thursday emphasized the need to welcome immigrants after the Supreme Court resolved a challenge to the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.
“Going forward, we must work as a nation to welcome the newcomer and respond to those in need with Christ-like compassion,” stated Bishop Mario Dorsonville, auxiliary bishop of Washington and chair of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee, on Thursday.
EXPLAINER: Calls to #FreeBritney and court conservatorships (apnews.com)
When Britney Spears, who turns 40 this year, speaks to a Los Angeles judge at her own request on Wednesday, she’ll do it 13 years into a court-enforced conservatorship that has exercised vast control of her life and money. But what is a conservatorship, exactly?
Here’s a look at how conservatorships operate, what’s unusual about hers, and why the cry to #FreeBritney keeps getting louder.
Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy paper sells out final edition (apnews.com)
The final edition of Hong Kong’s last remaining pro-democracy paper sold out in hours Thursday, as readers scooped up all 1 million copies of the Apple Daily, whose closure was yet another sign of China’s tightening grip on the semi-autonomous city.
Across the densely populated metropolis, people lined up early in the morning to buy the paper, which in recent years has become an increasingly outspoken critic of Chinese and Hong Kong authorities’ efforts to limit the freedoms found here but not in mainland China. The paper was gone from newsstands by 8:30 a.m.
Trouble in the World
Witness tells of horror as truck rams into Arizona bike race (apnews.com)
Bicyclist Tony Quinones had only just shaken hands with a fellow cyclist and wished him good luck in this weekend’s community race in an Arizona mountain town when a truck sped into a crowd of bike riders.
Suddenly, Quinones said in an interview Sunday, he was “watching bodies going on top of the hood, bodies going to the left, bodies going to the right” about six minutes after the race had started.
The “good Samaritan” who fatally shot a gunman following an attack that left a Colorado police officer dead was himself killed by an officer responding to the chaotic scene, investigators said Friday.
Johnny Hurley, 40, was seen holding the suspect’s rifle when a responding officer arrived at the busy Olde Town district in the Denver suburb of Arvada on June 21, police said. In a video message, Arvada Police Chief Link Strate said Hurley shot the suspected gunman, identified as Ronald Troyke, with a handgun moments after he killed veteran officer Gordon Beesley.
He said Hurley likely saved further bloodshed when he killed Troyke.
Hundreds of search-and-rescue workers wielding diamond-tipped drills and sonar scanners probed a smoldering mountain of wreckage Friday during the second full day of the painstaking effort to find signs of life inside a collapsed 12-story condominium tower near Miami Beach.
Burmese protesters have faced a “nightmare of repression and violence,” according to a missionary priest who is close to the Catholic community in the Southeast Asian country.
“For the Burmese Church, this is the hour of confession of faith, courageous witness, and martyrdom,” Fr. Gianni Criveller told ACI Stampa, CNA’s Italian-language sister news agency.
Church and State
Iran’s hard-line president-elect says he won’t meet Biden (apnews.com)
Iran’s president-elect staked out a hard-line position Monday in his first remarks since his landslide election victory, rejecting the possibility of meeting with President Joe Biden or negotiating Tehran’s ballistic missile program and support of regional militias.
The archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica has made concessions to widen opportunities for priests to celebrate individual daily morning Masses in the basilica, but also has stressed that concelebrated Masses must nevertheless remain the norm there.
In a three-page note issued on Tuesday (see English translation here), Cardinal Mauro Gambetti acknowledged that exceptions need to be made for a priest to celebrate individual Masses “in which the benefit to the faithful does not require, or advise, otherwise.”
UFO report: US intelligence community releases long-awaited report – CNNPolitics
The US intelligence community on Friday released its long-awaited report on what it knows about a series of mysterious flying objects that have been seen moving through restricted military airspace over the last several decades.
In short, the answer, according to Friday’s report, is very little, but the intelligence community’s release of the unclassified document marks one of the first times the US government has publicly acknowledged that these strange aerial sightings by Navy pilots and others are worthy of legitimate scrutiny.
POPE FRANCIS’S FAMOUS LAST WEEK’S WORDS
“Today, in a special way, I would like to pray for those who are in prison, for our brothers and sisters … they suffer, and we must be near to them in prayer, asking that the Lord might help them and console them in this difficult moment.”
Prisoners meet Pope Francis before visiting Vatican Museums (catholicnewsagency.com)
Worth noting: the letter deals almost exclusively with pastoral issues, not dogmatic ones. What the Holy Father is saying about ministry could apply to any of us who work in the vineyard and are trying to draw souls to Christ. It is a call for “closeness, compassion, tenderness.” Whether you work in a parish, a prison, a hospital or among struggling LGBTQ Catholics, these are words to remember as you seek to bring disciples into the fold.-Deacon Greg Kandra
Truly be the salt of your lands, give flavor to social life, desiring to contribute to the building of the common good, according to those principles of the Church’s social doctrine so much in need of being known. Consecration to the Holy Family also summons each one of you to rediscover, as individuals and as a community, your vocation as Christians in the Middle East, not only by demanding due recognition of your rights as native citizens of those beloved lands, but also by living your mission as custodians and witnesses of the first apostolic origins.”
Pope Francis appeals to Holy Land Catholics as bishops consecrate Middle East to Holy Family (catholicnewsagency.com)“Sister, brother — you are here — let Jesus look at and heal your heart. I too must do this: let Jesus look at my heart and heal it. And if you have already felt His tender gaze upon you, imitate Him; do as He does. Look around: you will see that many people who live beside you feel wounded and alone; they need to feel loved: take the step. Jesus asks you for a gaze that does not stop at the outward appearance, but that goes to the heart; a non-judgmental gaze — let’s stop judging others — Jesus is asking us to gaze not judging, but welcoming. Let us open our hearts to welcome others. Because only love heals life.”
Pope Francis at the Angelus: ‘Let Jesus look at and heal your heart’ (catholicnewsagency.com)
BLOG/ARTICLES POSTS OF THE WEEK
Do you worry about today or what the future holds? Opening the newspaper or reading the latest tweet certainly provides enough kindling for worry to become a roaring fire. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about fears Americans and other nationalities confronted in the past. Pondering history is not meant to diminish current events that cause anxiety, especially this past year. However, stepping back to consider other difficulties in America’s history can provide encouragement (we’ve been here before) and hope (we’ve also moved on before).
Pondering Podcasts OF THE WEEK
Podcast — Christian Nerds Unite
Book Em, Dano on your reading list
A Millennial in Paradise: Carlo Acutis by
Questland: Author of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn
The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science by
![Questland: Author of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning Bannerless by [Carrie Vaughn]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Zj-Gc+WxL.jpg)
![The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science by [Sam Kean]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51v6hRfR3oS.jpg)
This Week on
Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World
MYS160: Are Haitian zombies just mentally ill people or is there something more sinister going on? Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli explore reports that Haitian sorcerers are turning people into zombies using a combination of magic and poisons.
WATCH IT!
Felix And The Hidden Treasure Animation Viva Pictures VOD / Digital Jun 25, 2021Fathom (2021) Apple TV+ [movie] Friday, Jun. 25The Ice Road (2021) Netflix [movie] Friday, Jun. 25
Wolfgang (2021) Disney+ [movie] Friday, Jun. 25
The Mysterious Benedict Society: Season 1 (2021) Disney+ Friday, Jun. 25
F9: The Fast Saga (2021)
Warning: Language
Movie News
Literally Their Last Week in Life
Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (February 8, 1960 – June 24, 2021) was a Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. Aquino was a fourth-generation politician as part of the Aquino family, and was the son of politician Benigno Aquino Jr. and President Corazon Aquino. Prior to being elected president, Aquino was also a member of the House of Representatives and Senate from 1998 to 2010. He also served as a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives from 2004 to 2006.
John David McAfee September 18, 1945 – 23 June 23, 2021) was a British-American computer programmer, businessman, and two-time presidential candidate. In 1987 he wrote the first commercial anti-virus software, founding McAfee Associates to sell his creation. McAfee resigned in 1994 and sold his remaining stake in the company.
In October 2020, McAfee was arrested in Spain over U.S. tax evasion charges. U.S. federal prosecutors brought criminal and civil charges alleging McAfee failed to pay income taxes over a four-year period.
On 23 June 2021, McAfee was found dead due to suicide by hanging in a prison cell near Barcelona shortly after his extradition to the U.S. was authorized by Spain
Piffy Quality Quotes
of the Week
We have taken on the obligation as Secular Carmelites to pursue our human formation and that of our community. Part of that is learning how to interrelate and communicate with all people. The desire to surround ourselves with people we perceive to be just like us — to live in an echo chamber — is not conducive to human development, nor is it in any way consistent with the gospel and evangelical living.We need to be able to read, discuss, and respond differently than tribalists.-Marie Hosdil
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