Man Named Gambles Wins Lottery for 2nd Time Using Same Numbers

A suburban Chicago man with the last name Gambles has won the lottery for the second time, using the same numbers.

Larry Gambles, of Matteson, won a $1,050,000 Lucky Day Lotto jackpot prize when his ticket matched all five numbers — 01-06-12-14-25 — in the June 7 drawing.

"Nine years ago, I won $50,000 playing the numbers from the jerseys of my high school basketball team," Gambles told the Illinois Lottery. "I’ve been playing the same numbers ever since. I can’t believe they paid off again."

Reflections on Pride: A meditation for LGBT Catholics

This weekend in New York City the LGBT community celebrates “Pride Weekend.” In the wake of the Orlando massacres, this event takes on great significance. Now, not every LGBT person will march in a parade this weekend or this month. Some people prefer to stand on the sidewalks and cheer. Some don’t much like parades at all. Sadly, some still have a hard time accepting who they are, and also struggle with their relationships with God.

So I’d like to offer some reflections for LGBT Catholics, and for LGBT youth in particular, who may be struggling with their relationships with God and with the church.

First of all, remember that you were created by God. Psalm 139 says about God, “For it was you who formed my inward parts. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works.”

GR NAACP, lawyer question decision to shoot suspect

Source: WOOD TV8

The leader of the Grand Rapids NAACP and a defense attorney and reserve police officer have watched the video that shows police tasing, siccing a dog on and ultimately fatally shooting a homicide suspect.

They said what they saw leaves them with questions.

“We will be making a request, I’ll say that, sometime today, to meet with the mayor of Kentwood, the city commissioners and the chief to talk about some of the things that we have an issue with, because we do have questions,” said Cle Jackson, president of the Grand Rapids NAACP.

Jackson was shown the video before it was released to the public Tuesday morning.

Read more: http://woodtv.com/2016/06/21/gr-naacp-leader-lawyer-have-questions-over-police-shooting-video/

Cardinal’s Friendship with Gay Man “Melted Away” Prejudices

A top cardinal’s words during an HIV/AIDS fundraiser reveals the power of personal encounter to break down barriers and grow in mutual understanding–a good lesson for many bishops when it comes to LGBT people.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna appeared last week at the “Red Ribbon Celebration,” a Viennese charity concert which supports people living with HIV/AIDS. To the surprise of many, he appeared onstage alongside Gary Keszler, a gay man who founded “Life Ball,” Europe’s largest HIV/AIDS charity. Global Pulse reported that cardinal spoke about “our shared humanity”:

“(Schönborn) underlined how important it was to discard prejudices, avoid thinking in categories and dialogue with people as people. . .

” ‘I am not the Catholic Church and Gery Keszler is not the Life Ball. We are first and foremost human beings. . .I said on the stage that I was presumably the only person in the Burgtheater (that evening) who has prejudices. I do have prejudices but they have melted away.’ “

Filipino Bishops Sharply Condemn Anti-LGBT Violence After Orlando Massacre

Bishops in the Philippines responded to the Orlando massacre by sharply condemning anti-LGBT violence.. Their statement joins other Catholic reactions to and reflections about the Orlando attack.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) released a statement, signed by Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen Dagupan, that immediately identified the shooting as a “hate crime.” The Conference continued, according to GMA Network:

“First, this was a hate-crime — the murder of persons because of disgust for their sexual orientation. Bearing in the depth of his or her soul the image of the Creator, no human person should ever be the object of disgust. . .

“No matter that we may disapprove of the actions, decisions and choices of others, there is absolutely no reason to reject the person, no justification for cruelty, no reason for making outcasts of them. This is a project on which we, in the Philippines, must seriously embark for many are still forced to the peripheries because the norms of ‘decent society’ forbid association with them.”

My friend has lost her father after a 20-month battle with cancer.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let Perpetual Light shine upon him.

May his soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

World's oldest bishop, 103, marks 50 years as bishop, 77 as priest

Archbishop Peter Leo Gerety, the world's oldest Catholic prelate, will mark 104 years of life July 19. But first he will celebrate 50 years as a bishop June 1 and 77 years as a priest June 29.

That's a lot of numbers for an old man to remember and the Newark archbishop emeritus is not getting worked up about any of them. "How many are coming?" he asks his assistant, Paula Flynn, who visits him four or five days a week at St. Joseph's Home for the Elderly here.

The nursing home, run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, will be the venue for a Mass, commemorating his half century of episcopal ordination June 1, and a luncheon. Gerety has been at St. Joseph's three years after living many years at the Newark archdiocese's home for retired priests in Rutherford, N.J.

"How many did you say are coming?" Gerety asks again. "About 25 of your closest priest friends," she tells him.

Chicago archdiocese to offer 12 weeks of paid parental leave

The Archdiocese of Chicago has announced that it will begin offering 12 weeks of paid parental leave to its employees, a policy that is almost unheard of in Catholic dioceses and one that reflects an effort to put the church’s money where its mission is.

Betsy Bohlen, chief operating officer for the archdiocese, said Archbishop Blase Cupich pushed for the innovative policy soon after he took over the nation’s third-largest diocese in late 2014 in order to ensure that personnel policies were in line with church teaching.

“Obviously we do want to be a voice for pro-life, family friendly kinds of policies,” Bohlen told the Catholic New World, the archdiocesan newspaper. “The idea was to make sure that we have something that can work for all staff.”

Occupation of Massachusetts Catholic church to end after 12 years

The occupation of a Massachusetts Roman Catholic church to prevent its closure will end now that the Supreme Court has declined to hear the case brought by people who have held their ground for 12 years, the Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini said on Monday.

"We made this deal with the lower courts that we would vacate the premises within 14 days of the Supreme Court decision," said Jon Rogers, a leader of the Friends' group. "From the very beginning we have promised to exhaust every avenue of appeal available to us and we have now done that."

...

Working in shifts since 2004, the group of about 100 people have maintained a constant presence in St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church, which was built in the 1960s.

Initially, it was one of more than a dozen Boston-area Catholic churches occupied by parishioners, but the other groups either lost in the courts or abandoned their efforts.