What Is It With Me And...

...papal cardboard cutouts?

I don't know. But they're pretty cool.

Also, I'm two for (the past) three.

So if you know of a St. John Paul II cardboard cutout, please let me know! :-D

-JD

I Shouldn't Assume Things About Pope Francis...

...like assuming that he doesn't speak English. See, when he was chosen in the conclave earlier this year, I heard that he spoke a small handful of languages that didn't include English. I mean, whatever! It doesn't matter to me because I know that there are many, many competent translators out there.

And when I was in Rio De Janeiro over the summer for World Youth Day, he spoke not a single word of English. Every time I heard him speak, it was either Spanish or Italian. Maybe even Portuguese.

But...just the other day...Pope Francis sends a video message in English (supposedly, for the first time during his pontificate) to the Philippines on their first Conference on the New Evangelization! Sure, he's reading from paper, but ...cool!

What a great, simple, heartfelt, and encouraging message he has for the Philippine Church. :-)

To make this short video even cooler...that's my dad's classmate being all cardinal-y at the beginning...and even more impressive is Pope Francis speaking in Tagalog at the end.

"Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Asia! Pagpalain kayo ng Diyos!"
"Long live the Philippines! Long live Asia! May God bless you!"

And like any Filipino, I'm always impressed when non-Filipinos speak Tagalog. :-D

Post by News.va English.

Amen, Papa Francesco. Amen.
- JD

Habemus Diem! The Other March Madness

Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the Church eagerly awaited for the cardinals to get together and decide on a day to start Conclave.

#visualpun

I heard on Catholic radio last week that with the arrival of the last cardinal elector at the end of the week, they finally decided on starting the Conclave on Tuesday March 12th.  Up until the last week, the cardinals have been having meetings among themselves to discuss whatever they discuss as well as to get a feel for who has the potential to become the next pope.  Lots of prayer too.  And tweeting and blogging, depending on the cardinal.

This is kind of a big deal!  Now is a particularly exciting time in the Catholic Church because we're about to have a new leader! 

Back in 2005, I remember when Blessed Pope John Paul II passed away, but I don't remember following Conclave that much.  I guess because I didn't really pay attention to the news, and the social media outlets we enjoy today were still a twinkle in their creators' eyes or still infantile.  For me, Cardinal Ratzinger came in like "whoosh, now I'm Pope!"  And I was all like, "oh cool!"  And that was that.

Haha but not this time! Now, with a more mature understanding of the Catholic faith, I can follow it with a better degree of appreciation.  The one thing I need to watch out for is making sure that I follow Catholic sources regarding Conclave coverage.  When I say Catholic, I don't mean "Catholic."  And I know that secular and "Catholic" media loves putting forth their bias and lack of full understanding in order to impart ideas and desires that aren't in line with what is truly Catholic.

How To Become Pope

Yeah, it's cool to think that I mostly qualify...though I do lack that whole cardinal thing, and I don't think throwing the first pitch at the next home game counts. #pun

But I mean...my dad went to high school with a recently named cardinal...maybe that's my in...

In all reality, I don't know any cardinals personally so ... don't worry--I'm not becoming the Pope.

;-)

*Updated

From Jimmy Akin, senior apologist at Catholic Answers: he points out some incorrect things in the video:

1) It wrongly implies that the pope can simply veto the name of a potential bishop that is presented to him, causing the process to start over.

In reality, the names of all three proposed bishops are presented to the pope, who may choose the recommended one, another one, select another person entirely, or call for the process to start over.

2) It wrongly refers to the "Congress of Bishops" in Rome. Actually, it's the Congregation for Bishops.

3) It wrongly states that have to pick your new name before becoming pope. Actually, this is the first thing a pope does after being elected and accepting his office.

Assuming he's already a bishop (the scenario that the video presupposes), he becomes pope that moment, before they ask him what name he wants to be called by.

4) The video wrongly states that “it’s usually at least two weeks of voting” at a conclave.

Not in recent history. In the 20th century (and 21st) no conclave has gone over 5 days. See this handy infographic:

from the Washington Post

#papabile

- JD

Engineering

My Senior Design Project, the "Phoenix"

I currently work as an engineer for a company that makes commercial airline
seats. Now, even though my diploma says I'm an Aerospace Engineer, in
practice, my job calls for more Mechanical Engineering and Computer-Aided
Design work. Nothing flies. We just make things that go into things that
fly.

In a few weeks, I'll be celebrating having worked at my company for two
years. That's a decent amount of time to get familiar with everything
having to do with making a commercial airline seat. You'd be surprised and
amazed at all the (engineering) work that goes into an airline seat! Psh,
I'm amazed and surprised myself!

Did you know this is an emoji for iOS?!

Whenever you're in engineering/design, you spend a lot of time looking at
parts and learning how those parts are made. There are so many ways to
turn different materials into various shapes possessing the properties
necessary to make a particular design work successfully. As the engineer,
you have to know these processes and materials so that you can design a
part that performs predictably to achieve form, fit, and function while
keeping in mind safety and cost (and weight, because the aerospace industry
is always interested in dieting because more weight = more fuel = more
cost).

When designing a part, usually the engineer designs it with specific
intent. The very shape of the part is not arbitrary usually. The material
a particular part is made of usually imposes certain restrictions of the
size and shape of the part. I mean, this only scratches the surface of all
the considerations that an engineer must...consider...but the main point is
this: parts aren't designed out of the blue--they are purposefully designed
with particular intent!

With that said, since I've been working for a while in the industry, I'm
getting better at being able to discern the purpose and process of
individual parts that go into our airline seats. For example, there are
only so many ways to form plastic...but I can look at plastic parts and
judging from how it looks, I can tell whether it was created by injection
molding or through vacuum forming. Or maybe it was done via
rapid-prototyping (or "printed out" via 3D printing).

It's cool to look at hardware like screws, nuts, bolts, rivets, clips, etc
and be able to decide, based on the purpose of the hardware, the best way
to utilize the hardware to achieve the result that I want.  Sometimes a rivet makes more sense to install rather than nut and bolt.  For example, the skin and wings of older airplanes are just sheets of metal riveted together.  You don't want to use screws or nuts and bolts because they can loosen over time, but rivets act as more permanent clamps.

Anyway!  I could go on, but I would get too nerdy.

As much as I aspire to be an awesome aerospace/mechanical engineer, I'm always out-engineer'd by God.  I look at the birds in the sky, and they remind me how amazing of an aerospace engineer God is.  It took us humans a long time to figure out flight, and even then...the things we fly often has to be piloted.  Birds, on the other hand, are instinctively built to fly--they know how to fly and live flight.  Considering the anatomy of the bird, it is easy to see the bird's nature of being something-that-can-take-flight.

Which leads me to...the human body.  It is truly a marvel of divine engineering.  Every shape, part and process of the human body is purposeful, down to the last boson (hah, relevant vocab!).  You know, since God made us in His image and likeness (Gen 1:26), surely we can discern God's nature by examining the human body.  There is such a thing as a study of God through the human body.  

One guy talked about a "theology of the body" 129 times back in the 1980's:

Yes, Blessed Pope John Paul II spent a lot of time reflecting on what it means to be man and woman created in the image and likeness of God.  Because a creation should reveal something about its Creator.  And just as an engineer designs with intent...so does the Creator.

Nothing about the human body and the nature it reveals is arbitrary.  Humanity is God's finest engineering feat.

- JD

Executive Decision

Last summer, I went on a small road trip with our youth group to another parish an hour away.  We joined up with another youth group to watch a live feed of the closing Mass at World Youth Day 2012 in Madrid, Spain.

And after staying up all night (literally) watching the Closing Mass, I couldn't help but think, "Man! I really want to go to a World Youth Day!"  And I decided that I would start saving money, knowing that such a trip will cost like at least 3500 small coffees from McDonald's.  Not that I get small coffees at McDonald's that often. Anymore. Ahem...

Anyway, I remember back in high school, our youth group went to like...each one.  But I never had the time or could afford it.  So I missed out on the opportunities to go to WYD in Toronto, Germany, and Australia.

But now that I'm full-time employed with some earned vacation time, I've made an executive decision to go to World Youth Day 2013 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Earlier this week, I attended a meeting to start getting more information about a combined trip between my parish and another parish.  Sounds pretty exciting!  Can't wait!

I hope that a lot of youth get to go too to share this experience!

It's gonna happen.  God-willing. JD-hoping/praying.

(Insert something Portuguese here)
-JD

Seven Years

On this day, seven years ago, Blessed Pope John Paul II went home.

I was a senior in high school back then. Thanks to being involved in my youth group and learning more about Pope John Paul II, I started gaining more and more appreciation for the man and the office of the papacy. But to be honest, while I did know some things and learned a little more about him in high school, I didn't know enough to fully grasp him and his life and ministry. But that didn't matter. I still wept. The idea of being without a fearless leader who I knew to be very awesome was...kind of frightening, and hearing about his passing even though I didn't know a lot about him still made me quite sad.

And I wept because it makes me sad to see other people sad and crying too in addition to my own feelings. And I was in a Catholic school gym at the time with hundreds of other Catholic youth, mostly from the diocese, were also in that saddened state.

Blessed Pope John Paul II passed away while I was on a Youth 2000 retreat. All week prior to the retreat, we heard stories of the Pope's declining health, and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal running the retreat made sure for us to offer up prayers for the Pope. I remember at the beginning of the retreat, we all had that uncertainty.

I remember distinctly when we received word of his passing. It was Saturday afternoon of the retreat. Father I-Forget-His-Name paused the retreat in order to break the news. And I wouldn't say there was wailing and emptying of tissue boxes but the general vibe was definitely a sort of profound sadness.

But I know our sadness was not in vain. How can it, when Jesus was right there exposed in the monstrance?
We took a little while to just pause and pray for the repose of his soul and for the Church. Then we resumed the retreat.

Anyway, looking back and I can't think of a better place or time to receive the news of Blessed Pope John Paul II's passing. Right there with Jesus and my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Beautiful.

Even though he longer walks upon this earth, the fruits of his labor continue today. I feel like there's this renewed sense of enthusiasm and desire of orthodoxy within the Church that wouldn't have been there had he not shepherded his flock in the right direction while he was Pope.

Truly, his work and leadership will continue to benefit the Church for generations to come. And his intercessions in our prayers will be fruitful as well.

Now, I hope to learn more about him and his work as Pope, and it's almost difficult to know where to start. Praise God I learned about his Theology of the Body at the end of college, but that's another blog post...or ten...

Anyway, Blessed Pope John Paul II...PRAY FOR US!

Faith. Hope. Charity. Pope is dope.
- JR