JPII – Catholic Superhero, Rockstar and Saint

WHAT. A. MAN.

Batman – take a seat. Watch a real hero in action.

His family were killed. His Gotham was the entire world – corrupted by evil. He studied and trained as a priest in secret whilst working as a miner. He fought hatred with love. He even had a cool butler [insert Catholic-nerdgirl Ganswein swoon here]…

… then in 1978 he went into a secret cave (read: the Sistine Chapel), came out with a cool outfit (yes, he had a cape) and changed the world completely. He even had a Batmobile (the Popemobile counts, OK? – It was bulletproof!).

The youth used to flock — literally by the millions — to see him. They chanted "John Paul II, we love you!" He chanted back "John Paul II, he loves you."

… and we all believed him.

THAT is *rockstar status*. 8 years after his death, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Catholic who doesn’t cite him as one of their biggest influences. Awesome. I don’t think I’ve met a single priest or religious under 40 who hasn’t told me he changed them because he challenged and inspired the world.

But why do we love him so much? JPII showed us what love really is: it’s fun. It’s personal. It’s soft and tender and playful but it is challenging and demanding and takes more than mere words – it asks us to step up and be who we are called to be. JPII taught us that.  He also taught us that above all – love is our vocation.

He was fun *cue YouTube videos of him with babies*, but he was a fighter – suffering until the Lord called him to the place meant for him from all eternity. He was intolerant of sin, but never allowed us to forget the redeeming power of Christ. He was young at heart even in his old age, but possessed a wisdom that only comes with true holiness.

He was a living Saint.

My generation are hungry. We are hungry for knowledge, hungry for honesty and hungry for love in a world that has forgotten that we are all brothers and sisters. It is a mistake to believe that young people want sex, drugs and rock and roll. JPII taught us that the “rules” free us. When seen in the right context, those “rules” take on a whole new meaning and purpose. They make us live life to the full and to pass on that knowledge and love to others to make a better world.

This is a man who refused to allow evil to destroy his belief in the inherent goodness of man. This is a man who taught a broken people that “no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young.”

JPII believed in people. He truly believed that people needed Christ, needed His Church, and he stopped at nothing to make the world see that. He believed in the power of hope so much that he asked us to “stake our lives on it,” because “we are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.”

JPII truly believed that love conquered all – and we need only look at the way he forgave his could-be assassin, in one of his most publicised and famous moments – to see how love manifests itself into actions that change the world.

We loved him because he didn’t merely TELL us how to be, he showed us how he was able to truly "respond to an abyss of evil with an abyss of love."

JPII, we love you… pray for us.

P.S. I kinda sorta forgot to mention that when (if! God willing...),
I enter into eternal glory, I expect him to be standing there with a cup of coffee.
We have a deal - dessert is on me.

Why killing babies is bad…

George Orwell once said that we have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. He may have been right in his own pre Roe v. Wade time, but now I can safely say that Orwell would take that statement further if he were a 21^st century man, by saying that stating the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men and even the mediocre woman. This happens to be very lucky for me, considering I don’t consider myself particularly intelligent and I am definitely not a man.

So, as a mediocre woman, allow me the honour of stating the obvious: killing babies is bad.

This may seem like a silly thing to say (because of course killing an innocent human being is wrong, right???) – but the obvious seems to be an absurdity in an age where people genuinely believe their opinions can be classified as ‘truth,’ no matter how mind-numbingly idiotic their opinions may be to somebody with any sense of logic.

Abortion is the murder of babies: plain and simple. It is the greatest evil of our age – of any age. There is no nice way to put that, and you don’t have to be a ‘Jesus-freak’ to acknowledge it.

Allow me to backtrack a little: as controversial as this issue is, it’s pretty black-and-white. Everyone agrees the right to life is primary, and everyone agrees human rights are universal. That means exactly one thing needs to be established: is the ‘foetus’ human? Any other issue becomes arbitrary once we conclude that, in fact:

YES. YES. YES. The unborn baby is human

But lest I be declared a dictator – don’t take my word for it. Let’s ask those who know more than I.

In 1954, Dr. Seuss came to the conclusion that ‘a person’s a person, no matter how small.’ No doubt inspired by this, IVF pioneer Dr. Landrum Shettles, in a book entitled Rites of Life: the Scientific Evidence of Life Before Birth, wrote in 1983:

“I oppose abortion…because I accept what is biologically manifest—that human life commences at the time of conception—and…because I believe it is wrong to take innocent human life under any circumstances. My position is scientific, pragmatic and humanitarian.”

Think he’s an exception? You would be wrong. Look up pioneering fetologist Sir Albert W Liley, geneticist Dr Jerome LeJeune or Keith L Moore. What about T W Saddler and William J Larsen? These people are experts. Still not happy? The Biebs had something to say too:

"I really don't believe in abortion, it's like killing a baby."

- Rolling Stone: Justin Bieber cover article, 2011

I don’t know about you, but tween popstars with amazing hair hold credibility enough for me.

So, let’s summarise:

1. All humans are deserving of equal rights.

2. The right to live is a primary right; it supersedes all others.

3. The unborn baby is human.

Ergo, the unborn baby has a right to life.

To those that tell me ‘times have changed,’ or ‘it’s a matter of opinion,’ I say this: it’s the pro-choice view of the foetus that is outdated, not mine. The pro-choice view takes us back to the mentality that made slavery of blacks and genocide of the Jews not only legal, but ideologically sound.

In this day and age (in our wisdom), it is completely out of the question that slavery could ever be legal again. But, what allowed such a horrible practice to continue – virtually unquestioned – for so many years? Indifference. Beating a slave was like beating a dog – it wasn’t nice, but it wasn’t worth getting upset over. In other words, people were indifferent because they did not believe blacks to be human.

When people finally started to question whether or not slavery was moral, for 60 years the debate centred around whether or not the slaves were human beings. Then there was the issue of realising that accepting slaves as human was ‘bad for business.’

Let’s apply this to today: the abortion debate has been settled. Science concedes the unborn baby is human. NOW, we realise that admitting the child is human has consequences. Powerful commercial and ideological interests will suffer – not to mention the fact that for some, it is too painful to acknowledge they have made a grave mistake in terminating the life of their child. 

Ordinary people changed their minds and ended slavery – and the same is happening in the fight to end this horror. We can not be silent when 1/3 of our generation has been murdered. This is the battle of our age – and no matter what pro-choice advocates think: we are winning, because good ALWAYS triumphs. Want proof? 

The founder of the pro-choice movement in the US – Bernard Nathanson, is now a pro-life advocate. Jane Roe – now known as Norma McCorvey, is also a powerful advocate for the unborn, despite being credited as the reason abortion became legal in the US. Abby Johnson, director of a Planned Parenthood facility in Texas, was similarly inspired just last year.

Society is (slowly but surely!) coming to the realisation that however inconvenient it might be, and whatever it means for your credibility or lifestyle, there is no denying the unborn their right to life. I don’t think Nathanson and McCorvey ENJOYED telling the world they were wrong about everything they used to stand for and Johnson definitely did not receive a goodwill payout from Planned Parenthood, but their conscience won regardless.All in all, it comes to show that when it comes to the issue of abortion there is no grey, it is simply a matter of life or death.

The feet of a 12 week-old foetus... The womb needs to be the safest place on earth again.

Being a girl is not as easy as it looks...

Let’s be honest here: I think even men should admit to themselves how easy they really have it. being a female is *freaking exhausting*, and I’ll tell you why:

Below are my top 4 reasons – bar biological – why women hate life.

1.     Talking:

Girls have to talk about everything all the time. All. The. Time. ALLLLL THE TIME. We talk about everything – what we ate during the day, we talk about our feelings, we talk about what we did at work – why/how we did it/the reasons we loathe working (deep down, I think it’s just that we all know we belong in the kitchen), we talk about our feelings and how we feel about feeling said feelings, we talk about why we hate boys (yes, all of you – even if we like you, we don’t), we talk about our feelings – and when that’s exhausted, there’s always talking about what other people ate/how they feel/what they did at work/why we hate them/how they feel.

Frankly, I feel like it’s all just a little too tiring.

2.     Food:

This may shock you, but women are so pre-occupied with food, it’s infuriating. Once we’ve finished thinking about what we ate, we move on to reminding ourselves why we shouldn’t have eaten it. Before we know it, we’re planning our next meal and pep talking ourselves out of it. This is quite a lengthy process, and before we’ve had the time to rebuild our self-esteem (not to mention our self-control), we have eaten this forbidden ‘next meal’ and are in the foetal position in the once again lengthy process of regretting the effects of it. This contributes to a cycle of insecurity that can only be broken with copious amounts of chocolate.

This, ladies and gentlemen – is the reason all women hate themselves.

3.     Money:

Being a girl is expensive. We need things boys don’t know the names of nor would ever willingly pay for even if they did know their names. Besides pants (for those who keep up with modern day social convention) and possibly a pair of sneakers – guys don’t really need anything. Girls on the other hand, spend money on things called:

-        Curling tongs/Crimpers

-        Party Feet

-        Pantihose

-        Toggle Bracelets

-        Totes (not always slang for ‘totally’)

-        Foldable Purse Hangers

-        Tulle (if the phrase ‘A-Line with a Tulle Underlay’ means nothing to you, you live a much less complicated life than I)

-        Falsies

If I were a guy, I’d be rich (you know, if I wanted to die alone and not have a significant female other who would spend all my money on ornate doilies). Nobody ever said life would be easy.

4.     Grooming:

I know what you’re thinking. 1 of 2 things:

a)     Girls worry about this too much – what for?

b)     Guys have to do it too.

RE: a) no, we don’t. Girls HAVE to worry about looking decent – and looking decent takes time. To all the boys who complain about this: I’d like to see you react if your girl rocks up somewhere with something that bears an uncanny resemblance to a nest on her head, her eyebrows unplucked, nails chipped with fortnight-old nail polish, clothes tatty and old (let’s not even get started on how hard it is to find funky, fashionable ladylike clothes) and a complete disregard for her skin – among other things. My guess is you would not be pleased. Give us a break – if we could avoid it, we would.

RE: b) no, you don’t. Getting a haircut and clipping your facial hair every 2 weeks doesn’t count. Just in case – showering doesn’t either.

 
     I know, I haven’t ranted (much!) about guys here. Why? Because we’re *insane* independent of boys – they just add to our woes. Let’s save that discussion for another day.

When all is said and done, though – thank goodness we’re the fairer, smarter sex – or there would be some serious ass whooping. Plus, at least our shoes are more fun. Guys will never know the relief of taking off a pair of seriously gorgeous, seriously high, seriously designed-by-Lucifer-himself heels at the end of the night. That alone is worth all the fleeting drama in the world.

Papal Abdication...

I realise I’m probably not the only Catholic weirdo to start a blog today. Why did I decide to? I’ll tell you why.

I have a lot of thoughts – a lot – and sometimes, these thoughts translate to ‘words’ (in the form of oral speech) that often translates into ‘Kylie-getting-into-trouble.’ So this is my ‘somewhere’ to express my thoughts where hopefully people can ignore me, love me or hate me without my necessarily knowing about it (I would simply use Facebook, but generally more than one status update renders you ‘unfriended…’ – call me insecure, but I like to keep my friends).

Today, however – my thoughts centre around one man. A great man. Papa Benni, Our German Shepherd (I can still call him that for a few hours yet…).

As a JPII groupie, I can’t help but love Pope Benedict XVI for what the Great John Paul II saw him as: intelligent, courageous, humble and – above all – HOLY.

This is why I hope it’s not completely insane that I sat in bed last night, watching his final address with tears of either sadness he was leaving me, excitement for what is to come or simply because as a professional sook, I was overwhelmed with all the baby-kissing, waving goodbye and those amazing red shoes. BUT, before I get distracted with a rant about shoes (goodness knows I can go for a while) – the point is this: B16 (I’m sure he likes to be called B16) is a man who understands the Church he leads and has enough humility to know the needs of the divine institution he loves so much. Further than this, he knows he cannot fulfill these needs and loves the Church enough to allow Her to move on while he retires to a life of prayer.

When he first took office, he referred to himself as ‘the simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.’ How grateful we are to the only man we could ever love after JPII. It is this gratitude, respect and love for the man born Joseph Ratzinger that gives me comfort. He says he made the decision to abdicate “with a deep peace of mind” – sometimes it pays to listen and trust those smarter than you.

So, no more tears. His peace of mind and the Church he and JPII left behind (not to mention the one who Christ promised would prevail over all evil) is enough for me. I look forward to this new chapter in the Church that I love so so much.

He left us with a promise: ‘I do not abandon the cross...’ He then told the massive last crowd he's ‘moved’ by their presence; ‘when I see you, I see the church alive.’ We’re alive, Baba (well and truly!) – and we are deeply moved by your sacrifice in imitation of He who sacrificed all for our redemption and as a result, made all things new…

Pray for us, that our faith and zeal be made anew.

We miss you already, Holy Father – Auf Wiedersen...!