Fats Domino is missing

[fpb]

I hope Americans do not misunderstand me when I say that this is one of the most terrible news yet to come from that place of horror. This man has given the whole world so much pleasure, so much joy. He would not deserve, if that were the case (as I pray God is not), to die in a whirl of filthy water. But then, so many others have died similarly

Comments

[super_pan]

This post is actually sort of a response to one of your posts on There goes your gun's LJ, in response to her Repent America rant, but I didn't want to post a lengthy rambling on her space, so I took it here, because it's a question for you. If Catholics believe that natural disasters and earthly misfortunes are not punishment for sin, do they also believe that earthly prosperity is, or is not divine reward? My question is sincere, because that is one of the things that has, frankly, revolted me about most of the religious people that I've known: the unspoken, complacent belief that rich (or comfortable) white people deserve everything they have, because they're Christians and God loves them, and the inverse, that the rest of the world suffers because maybe they should (or because they really don't matter). Now, my exposure to religion has been here in South Carolina, and I don't think SC is the only hypocritical place on earth. But, I haven't been exposed to many people of religions other than Protestant (Baptists, Methodists,

[fpb]

In a word, no. In fact, there is a tradition within the Catholic Church of regarding poverty as a blessing - though this is more a matter of sentiment than dogma - and Catholic priests and other religious (monks, friars, nuns) make vows of poverty as well as of chastity and obedience. I may add that the Orthodox Churches are also of a similar mind. Our reward,if any, is not in this world.