Humor

A British-born Divine Word missiologist has told the Asian Mission Congress that the Church in the world’s most populous continent needs to overcome its peripheral local adaptation to become a "mango Church" – yellow inside and outside.

Fr John Mansford Prior, who visited Australia last month, told the Asian Mission Congress in Chiang Mai, Thailand that the Church in Asia must become totally Asian to make Christ’s message meaningful for people in the continent, UCA News says.

British-born Fr Prior has worked in Indonesia since 1973 observes that the Church in Asia remains Western with only peripheral local adaptation.

Asia has either a "banana Church," yellow on the outside and white inside, or a "coconut Church," brown on the outside and white inside, Fr Prior said.

But what the Church in Asia needs instead is a "mango Church" that is yellow outside and inside, Fr Prior added.

Mango church? Well he is almost right, Christianity is based on the mangod.

The Holy Father certainly does love trying on new hats.

Though maybe he keeps trying to find a hat that Monsignor Georg Gänswein won’t swipe from him.

The Pope is always having to keep an eye out whenever Monsignor Georg Gänswein is around.

Who doesn’t seem to be satisfied in just swiping one.

God’s Music Bar? Well I bet they don’t have any Marty Haugen, David Haas, or St. Louis Jesuits playing there then. Surely they must have Seraphim on staff if it is his music bar. I wonder if any customers would complain about the song selection? "Don’t you know any other songs besides ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory?’ You keep singing it continually’"

It would be pretty cool to go out for a drink and and be able to say you are going over to God’s place. Plus God’s Music Bar would never run out of wine just as long as there is water around – ala Cana.

Actually the above picture is sadly of a former Catholic Cathedral in an area that used to be the French concession in early 1900s in Wuhan.

A resident is suing the Chicago suburb of Burbank, alleging that the city’s new vehicle sticker violates her constitutional rights.

The sticker bears the image of asoldier with a rifle, kneeling in front of a gravesite that bears a cross.

City officials say the cross is a generic symbol and wasn’t picked for any religious reasons.

But resident Nichole Schultz disagrees, according to her attorney, and she says the sticker has resulted in the "forced Christianization" of her car.

For the record I am against cars forcibly being converted to the faith. We never seem to ask our cars first before putting on a political bumper sticker or attaching a religious item to it. I bet many cars are embarrassed by the bumper stickers on them. Though I am sure my car is properly Catholic since it reverently approaches cross streets.

Our society though has become a society of victims where offense is looked for and taken repeatedly, so much for multiculturalism or respect for diversity. Instead of the example of a melting pot that was traditionally used we have become more like a centrifuge where every element is separated from each other.

I also think our court system should institute a laugh test. Every lawsuit should be read first before a panel and if anybody laughs when it is read out it is thrown out.

Paul Nichols who does some wonderful art along with caricatures sent me his latest cartoon.

I have wondered if possibly there might be some rivalry between St. Luke and St. John? For example at the time when St. Luke wrote the third Gospel it was really the longest and most detailed and contained information about Mary and especially the Annunciation that the first two Gospel writers did not include. And then St. John one-ups him and writes not only the longest Gospel, but includes details about Mary at Cana, and even mentions that she was given to St. John to take care of by Jesus. Certainly the reason why there are no more Gospels after St. Johns is how can you beat his prologue, Chapter 6, or his theological writing style.

St. Luke though decided to write a sequel to his Gospel, the Act of the Apostles and instead of following the actions of someone like St. John decides to concentrate on St. Paul instead.

Now you really have to wonder what St. Luke thinks of the Book of Revelations written by St. John? Especially when he came across "So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth." Lukewarm? Why Lukewarm. Why not Judaswarm? Or perhaps Ananiaswarm or Sapphirawarm. Surely if St. Luke wasn’t in the beatific vision this would have been seen as another snub by St. John towards him.

You also have to think that St. Luke must have been pretty pleased when Star Wars came out. Finally Luke is not associated with vomiting and Luke is actually the hero. Saint Luke use the force and pray for us.

Kale at un-Muted Mumblings wrote me saying he was inspired by my St. Michael the Archangel E-prayer and came up with some possibilities about the Michael server. His post is definitely inspired and contains some great laugh-out-loud puns.

It also reminded me of one of my previous posts and what Operating System the Michael server must use.

I mentioned some time back about a Tennessee man who created a Rosary out of bowling balls.
Well here is another one in Michigan.

NAPOLEON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — When a man forges a 70-foot, 700-pound rosary out of bowling balls in his front yard, you just know there’s a story behind it.

This one involves Ralph Kluk, 76 — a Poland native, pack rat, polka player and pen pal of the late Pope John Paul II.

Kluk is a character. He also is known to ride about town with one. If you spy a guy tooling around in a black Chevy 1500 pickup with a 3-foot tall Scooby Doo plush toy strapped into the passenger’s seat, chances are you’ve just seen Kluk.

"I do crazy things," the Jackson County grandfather admits, with a twinkle in his eye. "But they’re not really crazy."

Turns out, there’s actually a simple mathematical formula to building a bowling-ball rosary.

Take 59 balls, 20 cans of pastel spray paint, 40 feet of black piping, add a wooden cross and voila! You have a unique interpretation of Roman Catholic catechism that Kluk calls "The Final Strike."

Anchoring the balls in the ground with 9-inch metal stakes was key, he says. They almost rolled off his 30 acres and onto Horton Road.

And another one in Illinois.

NOKOMIS – Hail Mary, full of grace ? and if you sinners out there try to pray this particular rosary, you are going to need a back brace.

Not that fingering the 59 beads is the point here, of course. The rosary that retired quarry worker Bernard "Chub" Clark has created in his rural three acre yard near Nokomis is made of old bowling balls and probably weighs close to 1,000 pounds, give or take.

Behind the rosary is a cautionary sign, stark black letters against a white backdrop: "You know not the hour Jesus will come – please pray." Clark hopes the message rather than the rosary will weigh heavily on the conscience of rubber-necking motorists passing by on Hillside Avenue. Clark believes mankind has strayed further and further into the gutter and our Father, who art displeased in heaven, is getting ready to bowl us over for our wickedness.

Well the one advantage is that if you happen to drop this Rosary when you yell Jesus! it won’t be too out of place.

WARSAW, Poland –Poland’s central bank on Monday issued 2 million collectors’ bank notes bearing the image of the late Pope John Paul II, marking the 28th anniversary of the late pontiff’s election.

John Paul, born Karol Wojtyla in the Polish town of Wadowice, is revered in his homeland, where he helped to inspire the pro-democracy Solidarity movement in the 1980s.

The National Bank of Poland’s special notes have a face value of $16, and sell for $29.

The front of the bills feature an image of John Paul II holding his crucifix-topped staff against a background of the world map.

On the back, John Paul is depicted kissing the hand of a Polish cardinal. The design includes a quote from the late pontiff: "There would not be a Polish pope at the Holy See if not for your faith, not backing down when faced with prison and suffering, your heroic hope."

Vuong Anh Toan, 39, who has lived in Poland since moving from Vietnam 10 years ago, bought three bills for his wife and son.

"I’m not a Catholic, my wife is, but I loved the pope," he said.

I am torn between this being really cool or an opportunist money making gimmick to take advantage of the late Pope’s popularity . And in this case they are literally making money to make money.